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MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 HUGH LAWSON WHITE, 
 
 JUDGE OP THE SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE, MEMBER OF THE 
 SENATE OP THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ETC. 
 
 WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS 
 
 SPEECHES AO COPtEESPONDEiYCE. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 NANCY N. SCOTT, 
 
 ONE OF HIS DESCENDANTS, 
 
 -*»- 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT, & Co. 
 
 1856. 
 
y 6'^ s 4- 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congresg, in the year 1856, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of tlie United States, for the Eastern District 
 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 AL. 
 
 ^'S()'] 
 
 Si 
 
 /I 
 
 // 
 
 [' : 
 
 
 if 
 
 
 W. H. TINSON, Stekeottpeb. 
 •lA Beckman St., New York. 
 
TO 
 
 MES. MARY M. O^EETO]^, 
 
 THE ONLY SURVIVING SISTER OP HUGH LAWSON WHITE «' THE JUST," 
 
 €^u Mnmhl 
 
 OF HIS PTTRE LIFE AKD WOETHT DEEDS, 
 
 THE lEREPEESSIBLE OUTPOTTRING OP A YEARNING SPIRIT, WRITTEN 
 
 WITH A HOPE THAT IT MAY CONTRIBUTE TO 
 
 A RIGHT ESTIMATE OF THE MAN", 
 
 BUT WITH THE CONVIOTIOTT THAT A jfUCH MORE PERFECT AND LOFTY 
 TRIBTJTE IS JUSTLY HIS DUE, 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY AND LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE AVRITER. 
 
d 
 
 ^^ 
 

 *. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This book lias many imperfections. It is not compiled by 
 an experienced writer, nor has it been prepared with the 
 advantages of position or reputation. It is simply a tribute 
 to the memory of one beloved and departed ; the offering of 
 that almost idolatry which is found only in the breasts of 
 those few who by nature are nearest and dearest to man. 
 Only the merits of earnestness and devotion can therefore 
 be claimed for it. 
 
 Tlie writer has endeavored to retire from view ; to accom- 
 plish the present purpose in the most unobtrusive manner, 
 by a narrative brief and plain, interspersed with such letters, 
 speeches, and other documents, as may best illustrate the 
 relations of Judge White to the great men and measures of 
 the times, and the high and honorable position — ^honorable 
 to himself, his state, and his country — which he held in the 
 hearts and councils of his countrymen. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER r. 
 
 PA.OG 
 
 Ancestry — Gen. James White — ^Mary Lawsoa his Wife, .... 1 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 Childhood — ^Youth — Studies — Expedition against the Indians — Private 
 Secretaryship, 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Lawyer and Judge — Other Public Appointments, 15 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 State Legislator — Controversy with Mr. Grundy — Duelling, . . .19 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Wilderness Journey to Gen. Jackson, .24 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A Financier — ^Presidency of Bank of Tennessee, 28 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 Commissioner under Treaty with Spain — Second Commissionership, . . 33 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 Senate — Panama Mission — ^Federal Judiciary Apportionment, . .36 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Senate — Internal Improvements — United States Bank, , ... 70 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Senate — Indian Tribes — " Force Bill " — Executive Patronage — Expunging 
 Resolutions, 153 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FAOS 
 
 Senate — Abolition — Public Land Distribution — Sub-Treasury Bill — Appear- 
 ance — Business habits — Surname, 197 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 First Political Position — Subsequent Change — Letter from Mr. Polk — 
 Public Confidence in Judge White — His Singular Position, . . . 245 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 Relations to Messrs. Grundy, Polk, Johnson, and Catron — Correspondence 
 with Polk and Johnson — Judge White and the Presidency, . . . 253 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 His relations to Gen. Jackson, 265 
 
 CHAPTER XV, 
 Canvass with Mr. Van Buren — Letter from Mr, Clay, . . . 327 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Retirement from Pubhc Life — Legislative Instructions — Resignation of 
 Senatorship, 369 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 Dinner at Washington — Speeches of Messrs. Preston, White, Corwin, 
 Evans, Habersham, and Biddle, 395 
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 Journey Home — Mattering Reception, 409 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 His Family — Affictions — Letter to Dr. Coffin, 413 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 His Death— Public Meetings — Proceedings of the Bar of Tennessee, . 240 
 
 Conclusion, 437 
 
 Appendix, 449 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 HUGH LA¥SON ¥HITE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCESTRY. 
 
 One mile above Knoxville, on the banks of the Holston River, 
 there stood, until within the last two years, a house worthy of remem- 
 brance as the home of two eminent Tennesseans ; Hugh Lawson 
 "White, the subject of this memoir, and his father. General James 
 White. The daguerreotype of the old building is before me. All 
 over the great West there are thousands like it — the shelters, palaces, 
 and castles of the hardy pioneer ; his first forest home, the scene and 
 centre of freedom, energy, courage, privation, truly and peculiarly 
 American ; the altar of his first triumphs over the subdued wilder- 
 ness ; often the humble birth-place of talent and genius, and of ambi- 
 tion high, noble, swift, and strong, such as rarely or never before 
 sprung into existence. 
 
 A front view of the old edifice displays two square sections, " pens," 
 or separate apartments, of unequal size, each a story and-a-half high, 
 built of logs coarsely hewn, the interstices of which are stuff'ed with 
 clay, and with an outer covering of boards. Between these two 
 rooms stands a heavy stone chimney, furnishing a fire-place in each. 
 A rude piazza extends across the whole front, its roof some distance 
 below the eaves of the house, and supported by six slender sawed 
 posts. The whole stands upon wooden blocks or underpinning; one 
 
 1 1 
 
2 MEMOIR OF HUGH LA.WSON -WHITE. 
 
 small window is visible, while a simple step-ladder in one corner of 
 the piazza is the stairway to the half story above. 
 
 In this house lived the father of Hugh Lawson White, and here he 
 brought up his family, during that trying period when East Tennessee 
 was a wilderness of wild beasts and fiercer savages. General James 
 "White was, in many respects, a remarkable man. He was of Irish 
 descent, and during his earlier years was an inhabitant and citizen of 
 North Carolina, where he married, and where his son Hugh was born. 
 He served his country faithfully in the Revolutionary war ; afterwards 
 removed with his family to Fort Chiswell, in Virginia, and, finally, in 
 1781, emigrated to Knox county, Tennessee, where he erected for 
 himsc?lf the humble home just described, on the banks of the beautiful 
 Holston. For himself— but also for a home and resting-place for 
 every weary wanderer. From his hospitable door none were ever 
 sent empty away ; and the more needy the applicant, the more cer^ 
 tain was he of enjoying a full measure of hospitality. 
 
 Here his characteristic decision, energy, and philanthropy made 
 him a leader among the few but determined spirits with whom his lot 
 was cast. The privations and dangers to which all new settlers are 
 exposed, seemed only to nerve him to greater exertions. The wild 
 and boundless forests, their inhabitants, whether savage beasts of 
 prey, or yet more savage red men, their enmities, their snares, their 
 secret and open attacks, all failed to intimidate him. With his 
 fellow-emigrants Jie determined that the fertile valleys and rugged 
 hills, the blue mountains and sparkling streams of East Tennessee 
 should become the paradise of the white man. 
 
 But enlarged and comprehensive as were his views and plans, and 
 brilliant as were his anticipations, yet when in 1792, he founded the 
 good town of Knoxville, he certainly could not have foreseen that 
 within fifty years there would stand in the place of the gloomy forest, 
 a large and populous city, with its many spires pointing to heaven, 
 much less the triumphs of modern science. Little did he dream of the 
 gallant steamers that were to plough the clear blue waters where then 
 was seen only the Indian's bark canoe, or the rude raft of the trader. 
 Little did he dream of the iron horse, rushing with wind-like speed 
 along his fievy way, through the valleys and over the hills. Nor 
 could he even anticipate that almost within the half century there 
 would be erected, not a hundred yards from the site of his own hum- 
 ble cabin, a manufactory of the very window-glass which he considered 
 Bot only a useless superfluity, but a harmful luxury. 
 
GEN. JAMES WHITE. 3 
 
 During his forty years' residence in Tennessee, Gen. White occupied 
 almost every post of distinction in the gift of the people. lie was a 
 member of the convention chosen in 1785, for ratifying or altering the 
 proposed Constitution of the State of Franklin; and preserved the 
 independence and integrity of his character through the stormy scenes 
 of its sessions. He was elected to the first Territorial Assembly at 
 Knoxville, in 1794 ; and, while serving in that body, introduced a bill 
 creating a literary institution ; which measure Avas the origin of 
 Greenville College. Statesmen, judges, lawyers, clergymen, men 
 eminent in every variety of public station in Tennessee, date the 
 beginning of their career in learning from the day when, often as 
 rude, awkward, penniless boys, they first turned their hesitating steps 
 toward the modest tower and white spire of that institution, which 
 gleamed so long with the light of science and religion over that beau- 
 tiful landscape. Its memory now alone remains, inseparably blended, 
 however, with that of the good men who gave it a name and power in 
 the land. 
 
 General White was also a member of the convention which framed 
 the Constitution of the State of Tennessee — a legislative body whose 
 disinterestedness is without parallel in our national history. By act 
 of Assembly, each member was entitled to two dollars and a half per 
 diem for services, and as much for every thirty miles of travel in going 
 and coming. The convention first reduced this compensation nearly 
 fifty per cent., and then, to show their disregard for mere pecuniary 
 reward, voted imanimously to receive nothing. 
 
 He was also, at a subsequent period, a member and speaker of the 
 State Senate. In 1812, although now an old man, he again proff'ered 
 his services to his country, in order to maintain the independence 
 which in his youth he had assisted to establish. He was chosen 
 Brigadier-General by the militia of Tennessee, and distinguished him- 
 self in the Creek War. 
 
 General White was admirably fitted by physical and mental con- 
 stitution, for the times and circumstances in which he was placed. 
 Strong, hardy and active in person, intrepid, cool and hopeful, he 
 was ever ready to encounter any hardship or to brave any peril. On 
 the 26th of June, 1791, Zeigler's Station, near Bledsoe's Lick, the rude 
 defence for several families, was attacked by a large party of Creek 
 Indians and burnt. Zeigler himself, who was intoxicated, and could 
 not make his escape, was consumed in the flames; his three little 
 daughters, together with Mrs. Wilson, General White's half-sister, were 
 
4 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 taken prisoners, and. were afterwards ransomed by him. But liis 
 niece, Miss Wilson, only nine years old, was hurried away by the 
 savages, although twice redeemed from them. General White deter- 
 mined to make a third effort to liberate her ; and accordingly made 
 the long journey alone on horseback, reached the Indian encampment 
 in safety, a third time paid ransom for his niece, and feeling assured 
 that all was now satisfactorily arranged, set out on his return homo ; 
 his little charge, in the primitive style of those days, seated on his 
 horse behind him. But liis self-sfratulation was short. He was soon 
 overtaken by a friendly Indian, who told him that the treacherous 
 Creeks, already repenting their bargain, had determined to way-lay 
 and kill him ; and offered to guide him by a different route from that 
 first contemplated. General White gratefully accepted his assistance, 
 and was soon beyond the reach of his enemies ; while his savage ally 
 returned to his companions, who, still in ambush, impatiently awaited 
 the approach of their victims. When assured of their escape, tliey 
 gave way to rage and disappointment ; and were only appeased by 
 the adroitness of the fellow, who told them that the General was a 
 good man, and therefore the Great Spirit had caused him and his 
 horse to pass invisible. 
 
 At another time, on his noble grey, rifle in hand, he leaped, uncon- 
 scious of danger, directly over an Indian who was concealed behind a 
 fallen tree with the express design of killing him. Apparently it was 
 only Providential interposition that saved him. 
 
 General White's bravery and military skill were fully tested during 
 the hostilities of ll03, with the Creek and Cherokee Indians; and 
 particularly, while he was colonel of militia in the " Hamilton Dis- 
 trict," composed of Jefferson and Knox counties, by the coolness and 
 tact displayed in the arrangements made by him to oppose an Indian 
 invasion. This attack was contemplated by a force of savages nearly 
 fifteen hundred in number, three-fourths Creeks, who intended to invade 
 the settlements on the Holston, and to destroy Knoxville. The excuse 
 for this attack, on the part of the savages was the cruelty practised 
 by Major Beard on Hanging Maw, a Chei-okee, and the murder of his 
 wife, and of several other Cherokoes, In the absence of Gov. Blount, 
 Beard had been despatched by Secretary Smith, with fifty-six men, in 
 pursuit of a party of Indians who liad murdered a white family within 
 sixteen miles of Knoxville ; with instructions not to cross the Tennessee 
 river, nor to invade the Indian settlements. He, however, violated 
 these orders, and a failure by a court-martial to inflict punishment for 
 
GEN. JAMES WHITE. 5 
 
 this violation, and thereby to satisfy tlie revengeful spirit of the red 
 men, was the ostensible reason for the meditated invasion. The 
 Spaniards having become allies of the hostile Creeks and Cherokees, 
 had furnished them with ammunition for the occasion. As continual 
 ravages by the Indians had long demanded active measures for the 
 defence of the frontier, which the General Government, despite many 
 and increasing complaints, neglected to take, the wliites now at last 
 determined to defend themselves against the constant inroads of the 
 treacherous foe. The dauntless heroism exhibited subsequently, as 
 well as upon the particular occasion now mentioned, is commemorated 
 in an address delivered by Rev. Thos. W. Humes, on the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the settlement of Knoxville. 
 
 "Their entire number," he says, speaking of the Indian forces, 
 " has been variously estimated from nine to fifteen hundred, but was 
 most probably about the latter. Knoxville, the object of plunder and 
 ruin by this formidable band, and which the news of its coming had 
 reached, could at that time muster but fortv fifjhting men : but these 
 fort}' were no cravens, to fiy at the approach of danger, even though 
 it presented itself in the terrible shape in which it then menaced them. 
 Here were their homes, their families, their all ; and with an alacrity 
 and zeal worthy of the crisis, they prepared to defend their firesides. 
 A knowledge of Indian cunning, with other reasons, induced them to 
 conclude that the approach of the savages to the town would not be 
 made by the main western road, but in a more northern and circuitous 
 direction ; and they determined to meet them on the ridge, over which 
 the road to Clinton now passes, about a mile and a half from town, 
 and there, by a skilful arrangement of their little company, attack their 
 line of march, and, if possible, alarm and intimidate them. Leaving 
 the two oldest of their number to mould bullets in the block-house, 
 which stood on the spot now occupied by the Mansion House, and 
 which' contained three hundred guns belonging to the Unite<l States, 
 the other thirty-eight proceeded, under the command of Col. James 
 Wtiite, to station themselves on the north side of the ridge we have 
 mentioned, with an interval of twenty feet between each man. Orders 
 were given to reserve their fire until the Indians were brought within 
 the range of every gun, when at a given signal, they were to pour in 
 upon them a well-directed volley, and, before the savages could re- 
 cover from their surprise, secure their own retreat to the block-house, 
 and there, with their wives, mothers, and children around them, sell 
 their lives at a fearful price, or scatter from the port-holes a shower 
 
5 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 of leaden hail among the besiegers that would drive them from their 
 banquet of blood." Fortunately, neither of these contingencies 
 awaited them. The Indians were so delayed by their own dissensions, 
 that they were unable to reach Knoxville before daylight, and, there- 
 fore, abandoned the attack. This fact, however, detracts nothing from 
 the cool and dauntless courage, and skilful and deliberate arrange- 
 ments with which the citizens prepared for the attack. The Rev. Mr. 
 Foster, whose quaint pen has recorded the event, has declared, that 
 " an incident fraught with so much magnanimity in the early fortunes 
 of Knoxville, should not be blotted from the records of her fame. It 
 is an incident on which the memory of her sons will linger without 
 tiring, when the din of party shall be hushed, and its strife forgotten. 
 Those men of former days were made of sterner stuff than to shrink 
 from danger at the call of duty. And it will be left to a future his- 
 torian to do justice to that little band of thirty-eight citizens, who 
 flinched not from the deliberate exposure of their persons in the open 
 field, within the calculated gun-shot of fifteen hundred of the fleetest 
 running and boldest savages." 
 
 General White endeared himself to all about him by the noble 
 charity which he showered with bounteous hand upon the poor and^ 
 needy ; a charity of which many instances are yet remembered. In 
 that day grist-mills were few and far between. The General owned 
 two ; and when grain was scarce throughout the country, he often 
 refused to sell to purchasers, that he might give to those too poor to 
 buy. More than once he loaned money without expectation of being 
 repaid. When warned by his son, on one such occasion, that he might 
 lose the amount thus advanced, he answered, " That is the very reason 
 that I let him have it. If he were rich, he would need neither money 
 nor friends. It is for the very reason that he is poor that no one will 
 help him." The practical Christianity of this reply, and of su(di con- 
 duct, might well be adopted as a rule of action in our own times. 
 
 While expressing his pleasure at the rising prospects of the village 
 he had founded, now the city of Knoxville, and in general at tho 
 happiness which he had been able to bestow upon others, he was told 
 by his daucfhter that it might be well for him to remember the old 
 ])roverb, that " Charity begins at home ;" and that he would have 
 nothing left to give his children. '' My children," he answered, " are 
 independent. I love to aid those who really need assistance." Such 
 sentiments are frequently enunciated ; but we rarely find them carried 
 out in action so literally as they were by General White. 
 
GEN. JAMES WHITE. 7 
 
 He was by religious profession a Presbyterian; and a true and 
 devout Christian. His family altar was faithfully served. It was one 
 of his peculiarities that all the children were required to sing. On 
 one occasion he noticed that a grandson who was present failed to 
 observe this rule. " Why don't you sing, James ?" said the old gentle- 
 man. " I can't, sir," was the reply. " Well, try ;" insisted his grand- 
 father. James did try, but the result was a succession of sounds so 
 hideous, that he was ever after excused from participating in that 
 portion of the service. 
 
 It would not be proper to close this brief sketch without some 
 notice of Mary Lawson, General White's noble and devoted wife. She 
 was slisrht and delicate in fiorure, but firm and decided in character. 
 Like her husband, she was a devout and consistent Christian, and a 
 steady Presbyterian ; and possessed of more than ordinary intellectual 
 powers. She had courage equal to any endurance, and proved indeed a 
 helpmeet for her husband in the many severe vicissitudes of their ex- 
 perience. Often, when the Indians were prowling in the vicinity, and 
 her husband was absent, she stood sentinel over her own home, rifle in 
 hand. Often she spent whole nights in moulding bullets ; and she 
 was habituated to similar hardships. 
 
 General White was married in 1770. His wife died before him, 
 and he soon followed. They are united in a world far different from 
 this, but for which, the trials of this were a fitting preparation. 
 
MEMOIR OF HUGH LA.WSON WHITE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHILDHOOD — YOUTH — STUDIES. 
 
 Hugh Lawson White, eldest son and second child of Gen. James 
 White and Mary Lawson his wife, was born in Iredell county, North 
 Carolina, October 30th, 1773. At the age of eight, he emigrated 
 with his parents to Tennessee. From a combination of circumstances, 
 these two States were more intimately blended and incorporated than 
 any other two in the Union. At this period, Congress had not 
 accepted the act of the Legislature of North Carolina, ceding to the 
 United States her Western Territory, to assist in liquidating the heavy 
 national debt incurred in the achievement of National Independence; 
 and the interests and feelings of the inhabitants of the two common- 
 wealths consequently yet remained the same. North Carolina, however, 
 failed to make adequate provision for the defence of the frontier and 
 the protection of the Western settlers, and they were accordingly 
 obliged to organize themselves and devise means of securing the safety 
 of themselves and families. 
 
 In the seasons of loneliness and peril incident to a life in the almost 
 unbroken wilderness, while their father was absent on military duty, 
 Hugh and his brothers were the only sentinels to watch, and to warn 
 their noble mother when the savages approached their dwelling for 
 plunder. And well and faithfully was the task performed. The 
 family were often obliged to take refuge in the fort, upon which occa- 
 sions Hugh always acted in the capacity of guide. This sometimes 
 had to be done when the night was so dark that the person of the 
 young leader was wholly invisible. At such times he was accustomed 
 to mount a white horse and go before them, that by distinguishing 
 the color of the animal they might be able to follow to a place of 
 comparative safety. After the treaty of ]791, while the Indians still 
 conlinued their depredations, stealing horses and cattle, and murdering 
 the helpless victims that fell into their power, travellers frequently 
 turned aside from the fatigues and dangers of their journey to enjoy 
 
TOUTH AND STUDIES. 9 
 
 the hospitalities of General White's house. Their liorses, which were 
 belled and turned loose to graze, sometimes wandered to a distance ; 
 ■when their owners often hired young Hugh and his brothers to seek 
 them. In doing this he ran great risks ; and in such youthful enter- 
 prises and exposures he learned and proved, even in early boyhood, 
 the dauntless courage which so strongly characterized hiiu in after 
 life. 
 
 Of the luxuries of civilization the family of General White, as well 
 as their neighbors, were wholly deprived. Added to the other dis- 
 comforts of their situation was the difficulty of obtaining bread ; there 
 being at that time but a single "tub-mill" in the neighborhood. It 
 was Hugh's business to act in the capacity of mill-boy, which he 
 regularly did, despite the constant danger from lurking savages. 
 And after his return home, he often found way-faring guests enough 
 to dispose of all his meal ; whereupon, he and the rest of the family 
 would make their repast of pounded hominy and milk. 
 
 It will easily be seen that the circumstances of a youth passed amid 
 such scenes must have precluded young White from the enjoyment 
 even of such opportunities of study as are now offered to all. In the 
 wild regions where he lived, refined and extensive scholarship was 
 hardly known ; and existed, if at all, in the persons of some few whose 
 acquirements were elsewhere made. He attended such schools as the 
 country afforded, during the winter, laboring industriously upon his 
 father's fjirm through the remainder of the year. In this manner he 
 might acquire a knowledge of those studies which were necessary to 
 qualify him for the competent discharge of the plainest practical duties 
 of life, but nothing more. And if afterwards he rose to distinction, 
 his success in so doing is one more example of the success of noble 
 ambition, and honorable and unfaltering exertions victorious over sur- 
 roundinors the most unfavorable and dishearteninir. Thouo-h hundreds 
 of miles from any college, he applied himself, at the age of fifteen, to 
 the study of the ancient languages, under the tuition of Rev. Samuel 
 Carrick, with some assistance from Mr. (afterwards Judge) Eoane, 
 both gentlemen and scholars of eminence. 
 
 But these literary pursuits were soon and sadly interrupted. In- 
 dian hostilities still continued. The inconveniences and sufferiuars to 
 which the settlements were exposed by savage depredations, were 
 extreme. Almost daily, reports were brought into the stronger settle- 
 ments of the murder and scalping of men and lads, of the brutal abuse 
 of women and children. The burning of Cavat's Station, in ll93, and 
 
10 l^IEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 the cruelties inflicted upon the settlers at that point by Double Head, 
 the Creek chief, and his followers, while on their way to attack Knox- 
 ville (of the failure of which enterprise an account was above given), 
 so eflfectually aroused the apprehensions and indignation of the whites, 
 that a force of seven hundred volunteers was immediately raised for 
 the pursuit and punishment of the marauders. At such a time, it 
 was impossible for Hugh L. White to sit quietly over his books, 
 congenial as literary pursuits were to his tastes and disposition. With 
 native generosity and bravery, he abandoned his studies, and at the 
 age of nineteen volunteered as a private soldier in the Indian campaign. 
 Of the battle of Etowah, at which young White did good service, 
 the following account is extracted from Ramsey's Annals of Ten- 
 nessee : 
 
 " Finding no Indians to attack at Estimaula, Sevier took up his hne of 
 marcli in the direction of Etowah, with the Coosa on the right. Near 
 the confluence of these streams, and immediately below, was the Indian 
 town, Etowah. The river of the same name had to be crossed before the 
 town could be attacked. Eiring was heard in the direction of the town ; 
 and appreliending a general attack, Sevier judiciously ordered a halt, and 
 sent forward a detachment from the main body against the town. By 
 mistake of Carey and Eindlcston, the guides, the party was led to a ferry 
 half a mile below the fording-places, and immediately opposite the town. 
 A few of the foremost plunged into the stream and were soon in swim- 
 ming water, and pushing their way to the opposite bank. The main 
 body, however, discovering the mistake, wheeled to the left, and rode 
 rapidly up the river to the ford, where they crossed with the design of 
 riding down to the town, and attacking it without delay. 
 
 "The Indians, having previously obtained information of Sevier's ap- 
 proach, had made excavations in the bank of the river nearest their town, 
 each of them large enough for one man to lie with his gun poised, and 
 with a leisurely aim to shoot our men as soon as they came in sight. In 
 these, the warriors were safely entrenched; but perceiving the movement 
 of horsemen down the river, and suspecting some other project was de- 
 vised against their town, they quitted precipitately their places of ambush, 
 crossed the river, and hurried down on its other side to defend it. 
 
 " A fortunate mistake of the pilots thus drew this formidable party out 
 of its intrenchnients, exposed it in tlie open field, and left to the invaders 
 a safe passage through that bank of the river so recently lined with armed 
 men. But for this mistake, the horsemen could not have escaped a most 
 deadly fire, and in all i>rol)ability, a summary defeat. But the method of 
 liglitiiig was now entirely oiiangoil. The crossing by the horsemen was 
 too quickly done to allow the Indians to regain their hiding-places ; their 
 
EXPEDITION AGAINST TUE INDIANS. H 
 
 ranks were scattered, and the main body of them hemmed in between 
 the assailants and the river. This done, the men dismounted, betook 
 themselves to trees, and poured in a deadly fire upon the enemy. They 
 resisted bravely, under tlie lead of tlic King Fisher, one of their most 
 distinguished braves. He made a daring sally within a few yards of 
 where one of the party, Hugh L. "White, was standing, and the action was 
 becoming sharp and sj)irited, Avhen "White and a few comrades near him, 
 levelling their rities, this formidable champion fell, and his warriors im- 
 mediately fled.* 
 
 " The town was set on fire late in the evening, and the troops encamped 
 near it. During the night they were attacked by the Indians. McISTutt 
 and Grant were standing as sentinels in an exposed point of the encamp- 
 ment. The Indians approached stealthily upon them, and each of them 
 fired. Grant was shot through the body, but ultimately recovered. 
 
 "After the engagement the Indians made good their escape into the 
 secret passes of the adjoining country. The army, after the town was 
 burned, rescued from the places in which they were obliged to conceal 
 themselves. Col. Kelly and the five horsemen who had swam their horses 
 at the lower crossing. 
 
 " Sevier having accomplished thus much of the object of the expedition, 
 desired to extend his conquests to Indian towns still lower down the 
 country. The guides informed him thei'e was but one accessible path by 
 which the army could reach these distant villages, and that it could be 
 passed only under disadvantageous circumstances. Little hope remained of 
 meeting the enemy in such numbers as to inflict upon the perpetrators of 
 the mischief at Cavat's suitable punishment for their atrocities. They 
 bad been expelled from the frontier, the heart of their country had been 
 penetrated, their warriors defeated and baffled, and their towns and crops 
 burnt up and destroyed. Orders for the return march were given, and 
 the army soon reached their homes in safety. This was Gen. Sevier's last 
 military service." 
 
 "The troops employed in this expedition" — we quote from Rev. Mr. 
 Hume's address, above referred to — " were refused payment, on the 
 ground that it was undertaken without authority from the President, 
 and in violation of instructions from the Department of War to 
 Governor Blount, forbidding offensive operations against the Indians. 
 In 1796, Hugh L. White, who served in the campaign, petitioned 
 Congress for remuneration, with the view of establishing a precedent 
 that might apply to all his fellow-soldiers. In January, 1797, Andrew 
 
 * Judge AVliite shot the King Fisher. Yet such was his instinctive liorror at the idea of 
 destroylnt' Inunan lift-, that he could never endure to liave the deed inentioucd ; and explicitly 
 forbid Dr. Uauisty, the historian, so to state the fact in liis "Annals." 
 
12 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Jackson, from the Committee of the House of Representatives, to 
 which the petition was referred, reported in favor of a provision by- 
 law for the payment of the troops." 
 
 That this was not the only occasion upon which Hugh L. White 
 displayed a lofty and honorable bravery in the defence of his country, 
 we have the following testimony from the narrative of the same events, 
 by one conversant with the history of those times of peril and suffer- 
 ing. 
 
 "It was about the year 1793 that a large body of Indians came into 
 the settlements on Holston, murdered a family, and carried off all the 
 plunder which fell within their reach. A force was immediately- 
 raised to pursue them. Hugh L. White, then a youth under twenty, 
 made one of the party. The battle was fought on the banks of a 
 river whose current was rapid, and its crossing difficult. The 
 Indians took advantage of this position, and attacked the white men as 
 they passed the stream ; one detachment of the latter having rushed 
 forward, rose the steep ascent, and were in the midst of the enemy at 
 once, when an obstinate conflict ensued ; whilst the other party waited 
 under the bank to form, where they continued until the battle was 
 fought and won — until the war-whoops ceased to be heard, and until 
 the report of the rifle died away in the distance ; then they formed a 
 most excellent line, presented an unbroken front, marched boldly up, 
 and deliberately took possession of all the plunder, to the kst beaver- 
 skin. When the fighting-men returned from the pursuit. White, who 
 had been from the start amongst the foremost of them, found that 
 one of these bank-men, in his eagerness for the spoils of victory, had 
 taken possession of his wallet of provisions, which had got lost in the 
 scuflSe. But he demanded that as his own right, and made him give 
 it up." Upon this unimportant occasion, as often afterwards in more 
 critical contingencies, young White, though he scorned to strive for, 
 or to appi'opriate, any share of the spoil, contended obstinately and 
 uncompromisingly for the full extent of the rights involved. 
 
 During this expedition, while the Tennessee troops were encamped at 
 Estimaula, on the Coosa River, a little adventure occurred, which gave 
 quite unexpected evidence of the dexterous strength contained in the 
 slender frame of our young soldier. Colonel Blair, of the Washing- 
 ington District, had given to Colonel Christy, of the Hamilton Dis- 
 trict, a sort of challenge, after the old Scriptural fivshion of Abner's 
 suggestion to Joab. "Let the young men arise and play before 
 us." He said, in other words, that a certain man in his regiment 
 
PRIVATE SECRETARYSHIP. 13 
 
 could "wliip any other man on the ground." With this, of course, 
 a wrestling-niatcli was arranged ; and Colonel Christy appointed to 
 the championship, on his part, Ilugh L. White, who was by far the 
 most delicate-lookinc: man in the reijiment. The cliallenfjer made 
 his appearance ; his gigantic stature and brawny frame inspiring the 
 stoutest with awe ; the combatants laid aside their coats, and entered 
 the ring ; both regiments being quite confident that the victory was 
 safe for the " biggest bones." But, to the astonishment of all, the 
 slender White, after a long and doubtful struggle, overthrew his burly 
 antagonist, and retired with his laurels, amidst the shouts of the 
 whole multitude. 
 
 At the age of twenty, Hugh L. White was appointed Private 
 Secretary to Governor Blount ; for his strong and elastic intellect, his 
 habits of laborious application, and his determined practice of doing 
 well and thoroughly whatever he undertook, had already rendered 
 him conspicuous for talent and ability. Mr. Blount, in addition to the 
 oflSce of Territorial Governor, held the important and responsible post 
 of Superintendent of Indian Affairs; which devolved upon him the 
 management of all negotiations and transactions with, and concern- 
 ing the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw tribes. The duties 
 of these two stations were arduous and complicated in the extreme ; 
 requiring the most wise, jDatient, and skilful management. The 
 Federal authorities restricted the Territorial Government to purely 
 defensive warfare ; and the settlements were but scantilj'^ pro- 
 vided with able-bodied men. The Indian nations, however, were 
 strong in numbers and in physical power. Naturally ferocious and 
 relentless, their savage passions were, moreover, continually nourished 
 and stimulated by the contrivances of Spanish and British traders, 
 interested against the quiet and prosperity of the white settlers. In 
 each tribe there was a minority which faithfully adhered to the 
 United States. This circumstance produced continual dissensions 
 and disputes among themselves, for the adjustment of which resort 
 was had to Governor Blount. In all the intricate and critical duties 
 of this active service, as well as in the accompanying heavy official 
 correspondence with individuals and public functionaries, the young 
 Secretary so faithfully and efficiently aided the Governor, as to secure 
 to himself the life-long confidence and affection of that eminent man, 
 as well as the esteem of his fellow-citizens of the Territory. 
 
 Having thus borne liimself with gallantry and honor during the 
 war, young White, at its close, determined to pursue a course of 
 
14 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 mathematical study at Philadelphia, under the supervision of Pro- 
 fessor Patterson, But here a temporary difficulty arose. General 
 White, his father, although possessed of extensive and valuable 
 landed property, was never, owing to his excessive liberality, a man 
 of wealth, and could not, at the time, command the means necessary 
 to accomplish the laudable desire of his son. It is due to the gene- 
 rosity of General White's son-in-law. Colonel Charles McClung, to 
 say that, in this strait, he kindly came forward and advanced the 
 money necessary to complete the education of his brother-in-law. 
 
 In 1795, Hugh L. White left Philadelphia for Lancaster, Pennsyl- 
 vania, where he engaged with great zeal and energy in the study of 
 the law, under the instructions of James Hopkins, an eminent coun- 
 sel of that place. As a proof of his continued attachment to the 
 people of Pennsylvania, after a lapse of thirty-two years, it may not 
 be inappropriate to quote here an extract from a speech made at a 
 dinner given to him in Knoxville, in 1827 : 
 
 " I ask but one favor more, and that is, that you join me in a senti- 
 ment, in relation to a people, who, next to those of my own and native 
 State, I most esteem ; amongst whom I have spent a small portion of my 
 early life, wliich I reflect upon with much satisfaction, because it was 
 spent inoffensively and pleasantly, if not profitably. I offer you — ' The 
 people of Pennsylmnia. Modest and unpretending ; too enlightened to 
 be misled, and too virtuous to be seduced from Kepublican princi- 
 ples."' 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 LAWYER AND JUDGE. 
 
 Having completed the usual course of preparatory study, Mr. 
 "White returned to Knoxville, and in 1796 assumed a station at the 
 Tennessee bar, with favorable prospects ; and very soon, if his con- 
 temporaries may be credited, rose to a place which he maintained for 
 years, at the head of his profession. 
 
 After he had passed away from the busy scenes of time, one who 
 knew him well, and was himself distinguished for more than ordinary 
 talents, wrote in the following terms of his powers, both as a lawyer 
 and a judge — 
 
 " Judge Hugh L. White," he says, " was a remarkable man — remark- 
 able for his eccentricities, and for the very high order of his moral 
 and mental endowments. He had but little taste and care for polite 
 scholarship and general literature. His great superiority was, not in 
 his moral integrity, which was equal to the very best any where to be 
 found, for many fii-st-rate moralists there are to equal anybody. His 
 gi-eat eminence — the especial gift of God, and inherited directly from 
 his mother, Mary Lawson, consisted in all those peculiar points of in- 
 tellect, which made the lawyer and the judge. In this order of mental 
 endowments he had not five equals in America, and perhaps but two 
 superiors — John Marshall and John Haywood. The superiority of 
 these two men over him, was the result only of circumstances. Like 
 John Marshall, Hugh L. White was a great lawyer and a great judge, 
 even without reading and without books. Naturally enough for him, 
 he despised a 'case lawyer,' and still more, a mere case judged 
 
 During the following five years, he devoted himself assiduously to 
 his studies and his business ; steadily increasing and extending his 
 reputation for honesty, industry, and ability. The whole results of 
 the professional efforts of those five years, eternity only can disclose ; 
 but time has already developed enough to demonstrate that Hugh L. 
 White is entitled to an overflowing measure of the purest and loftiest 
 
 16 
 
16 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 fame wliich the noblest professional exertions of tlie lawyer can give — 
 the fame of powerful benevolence— of earnestly and eiTectively pro- 
 motino- the welfare of his fellow-men. There are none who are con- 
 versant with his own history, and with the history of East Tennessee, 
 who cannot remember many irrefutable testimonies to his praise — 
 tears of gratitude, shed by wives whose husbands his powerful argu- 
 ments have saved from the hangman's rope, and blessings of children 
 whose fathers have been preserved from the brand of blood-guiltiness. 
 There are men even now living, whose powerful frames will heave with 
 mighty emotion when they speak of him, who now rests so quietly from 
 his labors ; not only because as a lawyer he argued their cases, but 
 because as a kind and sympathizing friend he lifted them from depths 
 of degradation and crime, and with words of kindly counsel, as well as 
 by his own pure and lofty example, encouraged them to " go, and sin 
 no more." 
 
 The noble powers of his vigorous and elastic intellect, and the 
 whole exertions of an uncommon faculty of steady and laborious 
 application, were scrupulously devoted to the interests of his clients. 
 His invariable punctuality to every engagement, and his faithfulness 
 in the discharge of every responsibility gave him so strong an addi- 
 tional hold upon the esteem and confidence of the community, that it 
 would have been difficult to empannel a jury not already strongly 
 inclined in his favor. This predisposition was always corroborated by 
 his straightforward contempt for any advantages derivable from legal 
 quibbles, even in advance of the weight of his argumentation, and the 
 influence of the fervent earnestness with which he plead his cause. 
 
 At the end of this short term of practice, Mr. White's legal acquire- 
 ments and abilities had given him such a professional reputation, that, 
 in 1801, at the early age of twenty-eight, he was elected Judge of the 
 Superior Court, then the highest judicial tribunal in the State. Con- 
 centrated and successful assiduity in the study of his profession had 
 already, hoAvcver, prepared him to perform with credit the important 
 functions of this high station. Possessed of an eminently legal mind, 
 he had equal or superior moral endowments. In the practice of law 
 he had ever applied the principles of justice ; and had to an uncom- 
 mon extent escaped the one-sided habits of thought, and incapacity 
 of balancing both sides of a question, which is the common fate of the 
 mere attorney. 
 
 While on tlie bench, his intercourse with tlie members of the bar 
 wa.'i marked by the kindliness and genuine courtesy which character- 
 
PUBLIC APPOrSTTMENTS. 17 
 
 ized him in every relation in life. He assumed no personal nor official 
 superiority, nor exhibited any favoritism or preference, unless such 
 names could be applied to a constant readiness to aid and encourage 
 the younger lawyers, and to afford them every fjxir opportunity of 
 getting into notice and business. 
 
 In 1809, Judge White was appointed District Attorney of the 
 United States, but soon resigned the office ; for the reason, stated in 
 a letter to James Madison, then Secretary of State, that lie found it 
 impossible to attend at once to the duties of the office, and to others 
 which he considered paramount ; and that by the constitution of the 
 State, he should, by acceptance of the Attorneyship, be precluded 
 from taking the seat in the Legislature, to which he had been 
 re-elected. 
 
 In the same year the judiciary of Tennessee was organized anew, 
 and a supreme court established, in which, although not a candidate 
 for the office, he was appointed to preside. He held this station six 
 years ; during which time he was continually associated with the most 
 eminent men in Tennessee, and by the able and impartial discharo-e of 
 his duties, gave universal satisfaction. The perspicuity, accuracy, and 
 uncompromising honesty of his opinions raised him into such hio-h 
 and universal estimation, that his final resignation of his seat was 
 received with great and unmingled regret. 
 
 At the close of his appointment as Spanish Commissioner, in 1824 
 he was again unanimously appointed by the legislature, Judge of the 
 Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of Tennessee, but 
 declined the appointment, alleging in his letter of declinature to 
 Governor Carroll, his feeble health, and the fact that his acceptance 
 would compel a number of clients to seek new counsel ; thus, in his 
 opinion, causing them more injury than would be compensated by his 
 acceptance, with no faii-er prospect of ability for the discharo-e of the 
 duties of the office. This declinature is an honorable instance of self- 
 sacrifice and devotion to the interests of his fellow-men. 
 
 On more than one occasion Judge White was offered a seat on the 
 bench of the Supreme Court of the United States by President 
 Jackson ; but this appointment he steadily refused. This refusal may 
 be considered fortunate, in saving Judge White from comino- under 
 any real or fancied obligations to the dominant political party, and 
 more especially, as being the means of preserving a noble example of 
 purity and high-minded disinterestedness where it certainly was 
 needed — in the field of political action. 
 
 2 
 
18 ITEMOEE OF HUGH LAWSON- WHITE. 
 
 A single short anecdote, relating to this portion of Judge T\niite's 
 public life, will naturally conclude this chapter. A law student, living 
 at a considerable distance, had come to Knoxville for a license. 
 Having heard much of the professional learning and ability of Judge 
 White, he proceeded to his residence, and with great trepidation 
 inquired for him ; thinking possibly that the judge would receive 
 him "with his ermine on," and with an imposing display of official 
 pomp. Being told that the Judge was at his farm, he went in search 
 of him; and discovering an individual very busily engaged in 
 ploughing, inquired for Judge White. " I am the man, sir," Avas the 
 answer. " I wish to obtain a law license," said the young man ; " and 
 have come to be examined." " Well, sir," replied the Judge, " if you 
 will be good enough to come down into the shade, I will attend to 
 the business with great pleasure." So the Judge fastened his horse, 
 selected a shady seat, invited the aspirant to another, subjected him 
 forthwith to a searching examination, found him well qualified, invited 
 him to partake of the hospitalities of his house, made out the required 
 license, and returned to his plough-handle. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A STATE LEGISLATOR. 
 
 In 1807, Judge White was elected a member of the State Senate; 
 and re-elected in 1809. So acceptably did he perform the duties of 
 tliis position, that he was a tliird time, in 1817, requested to resume 
 it, which he consented to do, and was elected by a vote nearly unani- 
 mous. During the session of 1807, he compiled the present state 
 system of Land Laws, and procured their enactment ; a service for 
 which all Tennesseans who remember the destructive frauds and 
 violent and bitter controversies which were frequently attendant upon 
 the old system, must still feel grateful. On this occasion he delivered 
 his first political speech, which was acknowledged to be a production 
 of great power and cogency. In 1817, he took charge of a bill intro- 
 duced by Mr.. Trimble, a member from Davidson county, taxing very 
 heavily any banking institution which should attempt to do business 
 in the State without a charter from it. The object of this bill, which 
 was generally approved, and indeed passed almost unanimously, Avas 
 to prevent the Directors of the United States Bank from establishing 
 a branch bank in the State. We shall here proceed to narrate, though 
 out of their strict order in time, certain subsequent occurrences relat- 
 ing to this bill, for the sake of the connection, and to exemplify the 
 State ^^atriotism and disinterestedness with which Judge White could 
 advocate the undefended cause of the absent, notwithstanding his 
 dissent from their political opinions, and disapproval of their course : 
 and that without sacrificing his own consistency or beliefs. Four 
 months before the passage of this bill in the State Legislature, an 
 application had been made for the establishment in Nashville of a 
 branch of the United States Bank, which was signed by sixty of the 
 most influential citizens of the town and its vicinity. At tlie head of 
 this list stood the name of the Hon, Felix Grundy. In the face of 
 this petition however the bill passed, to the entire satisfaction of a 
 large majority of the people of the State, so far at least as could bo 
 
 * He received every vote but one iu Knox county. 
 
 19 
 
20 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 judged from the cordiality with which their rei^reseiitatives were 
 received by them, and the number of them afterwards re-elected. 
 
 This act of this body was prominently noticed in the Senate Chamber 
 of the United States, as late as April 20th, 1838, when the Adminis- 
 tration, influenced greatly in its general policy by General Jackson, 
 was making powerful efibrts to carry through its favorite scheme, the 
 passage of " A bill to prevent the issuing and circulation of the bills, 
 notes, and securities of corporations, created by Congress, which have 
 expired." During the discussion Mr. Benton read a letter from 
 General Jackson, dated Nov. 29th, 1837, in which, to manifest his, 
 utter aversion to the banking system, he denominated these sixty 
 gentlemen, many of them his own friends and honest supporters, and 
 some of them determined to stand by and defend his administration 
 at all hazards, an " aristocratic few," attempting to carry their owa 
 ends, in defiance of the State authority. When subsequently Mr. 
 Grundy in particular, and perhaps others of these gentlemen, appar- 
 ently forgetful of having ever borne any part in the movement, thus 
 so severely condemned by General Jackson, made war upon the whole 
 banking system — " wai-," in Mr. Grundy's strong and emphatic lan- 
 guage, " to the knife, and the knife to the hilt " — Judge White, though 
 the main instrument in the passage of the law, in opposition to the 
 wishes of the sixty, hearing them thus denounced upon the floor of 
 the Senate, spoke in their defence. Although Mr. Grundy off'ered not 
 a word of apology or explanation for them or for himself, Judge White 
 exculpated them from the serious charge of attempting that which 
 was expressly prohibited by the laws of their State, by showing that 
 their petition was prepared and presented before the enactment of 
 the law for taxing foreign banks doing business in Tennessee. During 
 this debate, Judge White showed that General Jackson, in 1818, 
 while that law was in full force, in anticipation of the establishment 
 of this bank at Nashville, signed recommendations of two gentlemen, 
 one for President, and the other for Cashier; thus lending to the 
 scheme the sanction of his name, and even, in order that it might 
 have its full weight, appending his former oflicial title of "Major 
 General, Southern Division"; to which, as Judge White insisted, he 
 then had no light. During this forcible exposition of the varying and 
 inconstant courses of men in high positions, Judge White also read a 
 document transmitted to the President and Directors of the United 
 States Bank at Philadelphia, dated in 1818, containing the proceed- 
 ings of a town meeting at Nashville, and likewise a letter from the 
 
CONTROVERSY WITH MR. GRUNDY. 21 
 
 Nashville committee of sixty, headed by Mr. Grundy, in which this 
 same legislature is most contcmptuoiLsly spoken of; from each of 
 which documents we make an extract. The town meeting • 
 
 Resolved—" That it is the sense of this meeting, that the State law passed 
 by the legislature of this State, in taxing banks to be established in this 
 State by an authority other than the laws of this State, while the banks 
 established by the authority of the State are not taxed, is impolitic and 
 unconstitutional." 
 
 The committee in their letter say : 
 
 " In making this statement to you, we are influenced by what we 
 believe a duty we owe to the character of Tennessee. For she has not 
 been less uniform in her political principle, and inviolable attachment to 
 the general government, than distinguished for her alacrity and prowess 
 in defending the honor of the Union. And lest persons at a distance 
 should suppose from her legislature having inconsiderably raised the arm 
 of hostility against a great fiscal establishment of the general govern- 
 ment, that her character was not to be confided in, we seize with pleasure 
 every opportunity to show to the world that such conclusion is erroneous." 
 
 There was also a private letter from Judge Grundy to this same 
 bank at Philadelphia (which Judge Grundy admitted to Judge White, 
 while in the presence of Col. Benton and others, to be a true copy); 
 which Judge White read on the floor of the Senate, as follows : 
 
 Nashville, February 14, 1818. 
 
 "Dear Sir: From a knowledge that some acquaintance must have 
 been formed between you and myself at "Washington, many of my nei"-h- 
 bors have frequently solicited me to forward to you a list of the names 
 of fit persons to whom to confide the management of a branch bank of 
 the United States at this place. I have heretofore declined it, nor should 
 I at any time have said anything on the subject, had it not been for the 
 puerile attempt of our last Legislature to prevent an establishment of a 
 branch here altogether. The motives which gave birth to that measure 
 were selfish, the policy contracted, and the views of such men cannot be 
 liberal and impartial. Any number, from seven to thirteen, might be 
 selected from the following, and the choice could not be a bud one. 
 Jenkin Whitesides, Andrew Hays, Randall McGavocke, John P. Erwin, 
 Thomas H. Fletcher, James Stewart, Felix Robertson, Robert Weakly' 
 Elihu S. Hall, Alfred Baich, Willinm Carroll, Thomas Hill, George w'. 
 Gibbs, Robert C. Foster, Samuel Zelford. 
 
 " Those printed in italics are merchants; the others, substantial free- 
 
22 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 holders, and men of intelligence. A board of managers selected from 
 them would, in my opinion, conduct the affairs of the institution with 
 ability and integrity. Although you and the directors have a discretion 
 as to number, between seven and thirteen, I would submit to you the 
 propriety of the largest number. It may have an effect in keeping down 
 that spirit of opposition which has hitherto manifested itself. 
 
 "I have no fears that any attempt will be made to enforce the Ten- 
 nessee law. Should there be, it will be re-visited with effect here, no 
 concern need be felt on that subject. Should there be no impropriety in 
 it, I should like to know when you will put the institution in operati(m 
 here? and it would seem to me that some persons should be authorized 
 beforehand to provide a house, &c. You will excuse me for the freedom 
 of my suggestions. If unnecessary, they are harmless." 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Felix Grundy. 
 
 Wm. Jones, Esq., President U. S. Bank, Philadelphia. 
 
 "P. S. — Although this is addressed to you only, I have no objection 
 to its being seen by any of the directors. 
 
 F. G." 
 
 Judge White tlien added, " This letter was written in 1818. It 
 
 remained a secret in the hands, and for the guidance of, a directory of 
 
 a powerful monied institution, from the time of its receipt, till 1835, 
 
 without any one of those calumniated in it, having any suspicion 
 
 that among their acquaintances there could be found a man, capable 
 
 of thus stabbing their reputation in the dark. It was brought to 
 
 lif^ht by the investigating committee, and from the time I first saw it, 
 
 until now, I have never been able to think favorably of its author. 
 
 The man who could thus treat me might deceive one once, but he never 
 
 will a second time, unless, perchance, he should hereafter do some act, 
 
 which comports with the character of an honorable man." 3Ir. 
 
 Grundy was forced to make a rejoinder, which embraced a confession 
 
 of having done all Judge White had charged him with doing — even 
 
 to speaking, writing, reporting, and memorializing in favor of a U. S. 
 
 Bank and of a branch institution at Nashville. In the following June 
 
 Mr. Grundy replied to Judge White's remarks, which he affected to 
 
 repel with disdain and scorn, and attributed them to the predominance 
 
 of prejudice and passion in the bosom of the latter. Judge White 
 
 replied with much spirit and effect to Mr. Grundy's defence. " lie 
 
 hoped never to see the day when he would be obliged to take six 
 
 weeks to prepare and con over an answer to any speech ; he regretted 
 
 sincerely to know that his colleague had grown so deaf of late, as not 
 
DUELLING. 23 
 
 to have heard the whole of his remarks. But," asked Judge White, 
 " what is the substance of his reply, so long in coming ? Does he 
 controvert a single fact ? Does he attack a single position ? Does 
 he meet a single argument of mine ? Take his reply now and at the 
 time my speech was delivered, and can you find in either, a single 
 fact alleged by me, denied or controverted ? No, sir ! no discipline, 
 no drilling can bring him to deny anything advanced. I will not 
 take back a word (continued Judge W.) ; nothing but the character 
 of this place prevents me from saying more : and my colleague has 
 permission to believe that I have spoken out of the Senate, what I 
 have spoken here." 
 
 To this thorough exposition no reply was possible, and none was 
 made. 
 
 In the session of the Tennessee legislature of 1817, Judge White 
 drafted an act for the prevention of duelling, which effectually pre- 
 served that State from becoming the scene of this horrible and sense- 
 less mode of indulging personal enmity. He held in utter abhorrence 
 this wicked and desperate practice of setting at naught one's own life, 
 the life of an antagonist, and the peace and happiness of the many 
 interested on either side. His whole private and public life may 
 attest his high sense of honor; but he would never admit that duelling 
 is the proper means for its defence when assailed. He maintained 
 that it required far greater courage to refuse to fight, in the face of the 
 so-called "laws of honor" than to fight; and avowed himself deficient 
 in that sort of courage which was requisite either to rush unbidden 
 into the presence of his God before the appointed time, and without 
 having finished the work assigned to him on earth, or to consign his 
 fellow-creatures to a like destiny. His views upon this subject made 
 a lasting impression throughout the length and breadth of the State. 
 In East Tennessee, where he was best known, and exerted the most 
 profound influence, an aversion to duelling is proverbial. Men ever 
 ready to defend their rights, to protect the defenceless from all aggres- 
 sions, or at an hour's warning to go forth armed at their country's 
 call, shun the reputation of the duellist, and the crime of the duel. 
 
 These measures, important and meritorious as they were, are only 
 a few, selected from the many important services rendered by Judijc 
 White to his own State while a member of her legislature : althouiTh 
 it is impossible in this place to do more than barely make allusion to 
 the remainder. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PATRIOTIC EPISODE WILDERNESS JOURNEY TO GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 • "In the spring of 1812, an Indian styling himself "The Prophet," 
 belonging to the Northern tribe of Shawn ees, who, partly instigated 
 by the British, were making preparations for a war against the United 
 States, despatched his brother Tecumseh to the Creek Indians, inhabit- 
 ing the tract of country between the Chattahoochee and Tombigbee 
 rivers, and extending from. the Tennessee river to the Florida line, for 
 the purpose of enlisting the Southern tribes in the same enterprise. 
 After repeated conferences, Tecumseh succeeded in infusing into the 
 minds of several of their most influential leaders a feeling of deadly 
 hostility towards the whites. These chiefs, in turn, by their intrigues 
 and harangues, at length aroused an insatiate desire for warfare in the 
 majority of the nation. They resolved upon instant hostilities; and 
 savage incursions of the usual sudden and devastating nature ensued. 
 Whole families were horribly butchered. All the frontier of Georgia 
 and Southern Tennessee, at once became the scene of frightful out- 
 rages ; and this cruel warfare was waged, not only against the whites, 
 but also against such of the Creeks as were disposed to preserve their 
 friendship with them. Many peaceable Indians were thus driven to 
 take refuge with such settlers as they might have formerly befriended, 
 or with whom they might otherwise have amicable relations. 
 
 The treacherous massacre of Fort Mimms, which took place 
 August 30th, 1812, awoke a universal feeling of horror and violent 
 resentment throughout Tennessee. Her legislature, which convened 
 a few days afterwards, passed an act authorizing the Executive, in 
 conformity with instructions previously received from the Secretary 
 of War, to call into the field three thousand five hundred volunteers, 
 and to commence a vigorous campaign against the enemy. To 
 guard against all contingencies, two hundred thousand dollars were 
 voted for their support. General Jackson, who was supposed to be 
 better qualified than any other man in the State, having been appointed 
 
 M 
 
EXPEDITION TO AID JACKSON. 25 
 
 by the Governor to the command of the Second Division of Tennessee 
 Militia, and having received orders for immediate action, hastened to 
 carr}^ them into eflect. Ue accordingly set out early in October and 
 was soon encamped on the borders of the enemy's country. 
 
 Rumors of General Jackson's near approach to the Creek Nation, and 
 of the strong probability that he would be opposed by a considerable 
 body of Creeks, arrived almost daily at Knoxville. Then it was 
 reported that he was surrounded with serious dilheulties ; that his 
 brave men were contending not only with the sons of the forest, but 
 with famine and want, even to the extremity of sustaining life on 
 " roots and acorns." Hoping to be able to render some relief to his 
 countrymen in their distressed and destitute condition. Judge White 
 left the bench, and with two other companions, the Honorable Luke 
 Lea, and Honorable Thomas L. Williams, started for the wilderness. 
 After several days and nights of perilous adventure, they reached the 
 encampment of the East Tennessee troops, at Fort Armstrong on 
 the Coosa, on the 13th of November. Here they learned from Gene- 
 ral Cocke that owing to some disaffection among his troops, no junc- 
 tion had been formed between the East and West Tennessee divisions, 
 that for want of a messenger no communication had passed between 
 them, and that General Jackson did not even know the reasons which 
 led to General White's return from Turkey-town.* Judge White 
 expressed great anxiety for the fate of the West Tennessee division, 
 and fear that they might be cut oft', or very materially injured, for 
 the want of that support which had been expected from the East 
 Tennessee troops ; and offered to be the bearer of any despatches 
 General Cocke might choose to send. He accordingly left on the 
 
 * It is proper here to advert to the charges or insinuations of insubordination, or other 
 Sinister motives.'which were nxade by General Jaclcson's biographers, at and since this time, 
 against General White, for joining General Cocke, instead of continuing on to join Jackson at 
 Fort Strother, at the time alluded to in the text. The truth of the case was this: General 
 AVTiite, having lieen ordered by Jackson to join him, undertook to put his force in motion from 
 Turkcytown, for that purpose; but discovered that the men would not obey such orders but 
 would return to General Cocke, instead, for the reason, alleged by them, that they and their 
 horses would incur an imminent risk of starvation in the advance. This was not an unreason- 
 able fear; it is well known that General Jackson's forces at that very time were almost entirely 
 disorganized from lack of provisions. Under these circumstances General Cocke decided to 
 recall General White. lie was influenced hereto, also, by the consideration tliat after tliis junc- 
 tion, the superior morale of tlie troops under liis own command would enable him to compel 
 Whi;e's men to march anywhither ; and by the fact that the delay would enable him to pro- 
 cu-" supplies. Instead of being sent, to- Jackson, therefore. General AVhite was detached In 
 anothe-.- direction, against the Ilillabee Towns, where he did good service. Such being the case, 
 the blame, if any, must rest witli the rank and file and subordinate officers of General AVhite'a 
 detachment, for refusing to encounter wljat they supposed would be serious danger of starva- 
 tion; and not with their commander, who could not comiiel the services of unwilling militia. 
 
26 MEilOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 morning of the 14tli November, Avitli botli verbal and ■written 
 despatches, and reached General Jackson's encampment on the 18th, 
 at 12 o'clock. After consultation Avith General Jackson as to the 
 best means of relieving him from his embarrassed situation, he 
 returned to Fort Armstrong with important despatches from General 
 Jackson to General Cocke, and remained until General White's 
 detachment returned from the Creek Nation, and a junction was 
 formed on the 8 th December, between the two divisions at Fort 
 Strother. It was then determined that he should return through the 
 wilderness to Tennessee, and exert his influence in raising volunteers, 
 and procuring provisions for the distressed and famishing army. 
 
 He appealed directly to the patriotism of his brother-in-law, Colonel 
 John Williams, commander of the 39th regiment, who, having raised a 
 force of 600 men, had enlisted in the regular army, and was making 
 preparations for an expedition to New Orleans. He told Colonel 
 AVilliams that he had been commissioned by General Jackson, to 
 represent to him " his condition as very deplorable, that his men had 
 all abandoned him except his life-guard, and unless he came to his 
 aid, the country would be overrun by savages, the inhabitants become 
 victims of every species of cruelty, and the reputation of their State 
 forever blasted." 
 
 But Judge White's exertions did not end here. He remained with 
 Colonel Williams nearly all night, using every means in his power to 
 impress upon his mind the necessity of relieving Jackson's force. 
 His importunities finally prevailed.* Colonel Williams acquiesced m 
 his wishes ; wrote to the War Department, stating his intention to 
 proceed to General Jackson's head-quarters, instead of to the South 
 according to his previous instructions ; and upon learning that his 
 plans were approved by the government, at once marched for 
 the former destination, and arrived with his troops, February 6th, 
 1814. 
 
 On the 14th, they marched in quest of the enemy, and reached 
 the village of Tohopeka on the 2*Ith, where they found a strong force 
 of Indians, a thousand or twelve hundred in number, awaiting their 
 approach ; upon which there ensued the most desperate engagement 
 of the whole war, the bloody Battle of the Horse-Shoe.f 
 
 The intrepidity and firmness of the 39th regiment, the skill 
 
 • Colonel Williams said fliat Judge White's arpfumcnts and persuasions used to him at this 
 llinc, were allo^'elher superior to anything lie ever heard from him at the Bar. 
 
 t General Jackson, iu cxiiressing his gratitude to Col. W., after the engagement, remarked, 
 "Sir, you have placed me on the road to high military fame." 
 
AID TO JACKSON. 27 
 
 of tlieir commandor, Colonel Williams, the aid of tlie friendly Indians 
 under Colonel Gideon Morgan, and of Captain Russell's company 
 of spies, decided the bard-fouglit battle ; which gave a death-blow to 
 the hopes of the enemy, and brought the war to a successful termi- 
 nation. 
 
 While absent on this expedition, Judge White missed several terms 
 of his court. By the laws of Tennessee the Judges were paid only 
 in proportion to duty performed. The legislature, however, in con- 
 sideration of the services he had rendered to General Jackson, 
 passed a resolution that there should be no deduction from his 
 salary. But he declined the gift ; refusing to receive more than that 
 for which he had rendered actual service. He said that " his country 
 was in distress ; that the aid he had rendered was without the hope 
 of reward, and that he would receive none." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A FINANCIER. 
 
 Before resigning his seat on the Supreme Bench in 1815, Judge 
 White was elected President of the Bank of Tennessee. Fortunately 
 for him, his early habits of labor and activity had so strengthened his 
 constitution, which was naturally delicate, as to enable him to endure 
 an immense amount of bodily and mental fatigue. In order fully to 
 discharge his numerous and important duties, he was at this time 
 accustomed to rise early, take breakfast by candle-light, and be in 
 town at his post, by dawn of day, usually riding to and from his 
 duties. He was fond of horseback exercise, and always rode fine 
 horses, and with great ease and grace. His command over them was 
 extraordinary. One morning while acting as supreme judge, he was 
 riding into town from the eastern entrance (all who are acquainted 
 with the location of Knoxville, know something of the hilly ascent). 
 Near what was then denominated the " Spout Spring," he came across 
 a man driving a wagon, very heavily loaded. It was during the 
 winter season ; the roads heavy, the hill very steep, and the driver 
 not very well skilled in the management of his horses, which seemed 
 much more inclined to descend than to ascend the elevation. Many 
 persons were collected on either side of the street, whose object seemed 
 to be rather to observe, than to render aid. Judge White sat for some 
 minutes on his horse, closely scanning the operations. lie finally dis- 
 mounted, and offering his assistance, took the lines, mounted the 
 saddle-horse, and by his skill as a driver, quickly carried the load and 
 horses to the top of the slippery hill. 
 
 His high qualifications as a financier were fully established by the 
 success of the bank ; " such was the wisdom of his management, that 
 its paper was always equal to specie, as it was 'lifted' with silver and 
 gold when presented for payment; indeed, it was the only instance 
 for several years of a bank paying specie in the Western country. 
 
 28 
 
PRESIDENCY OF BANK OF TENNESSEE. 29 
 
 The stock of this bank never depreciated, but was always equal to any 
 bauk stock in the Union." 
 
 In July, 1827, Judge White resigned the office of President as well 
 as Director of the bank ; his reasons for this course are given in a 
 letter to the directors of the bank, June 30th, 1827. "We need not 
 insert them here. It is, however, proper to substitute the following 
 statement of the Directors in reference to this transaction, which is 
 found in the Register of July 18 th, 1827 : 
 
 "The Bank of Tennessee commenced its operations on the 30th day of 
 November, 1812. Hugh L. White has been the President thereof ever 
 since. He has repeatedly and earnestly desired, that he might not be 
 elected either a Director or the President, but the stockholders have 
 uniformly been desirous to retain him and avail themselves of his 
 services. From the 30th day of Nov., 1812, to the 10th day of January, 
 1815, he received no salary or compensation whatever for his services. 
 On the 9th day of January, 1815, the stockholders allowed him an 
 annual salary of one thousand dollars, which continued till the 1st of 
 January, 1820, at which time it was increased to fifteen hundred dollars 
 per annum. 
 
 "On the 31st of March, 1821, he was appointed a Commissioner under 
 the Florida Treaty with Spain, which appointment he continued to hold 
 until the 9th day of June, 1824, a little upwards of three years. When 
 the Commission was not in session, his attention was devoted to the 
 bubiness of the bank ; and although this was the case, he uniformly 
 refused to receive any salary for his services, and never has received one 
 cent for any services he rendered the bank between the 31st of March, 
 1821, and the Ist day of July, 1824. About the last of October, 1825, he 
 was elected Senator of the U. S. ; and since his election, he has uniformly 
 given his attention to the business of the bank Avhen he was not neces- 
 sarily absent, and during the whole of this time, that is from the 31st. 
 Dec, 1825, to this date, has received from the bank for his services, only 
 the sum of three hundred and seventy-five dollars, equal, barely, to one 
 quarter's salary. From the first organization of the bank to this time, it 
 has uniformly relied upon him, for all the legal advice the Directors 
 needed, which he has uniformly given, for which he has never demanded 
 or received one cent in compensation. Any suits to which the bank was 
 a party, when the business could be done at Knox^^lle, ho has attended 
 to as a lawyer, for which he has never asked or received one cent. 
 
 " He is not a borrower of money from the bank to the amount of one 
 dollar, and is an endorser on one note only, and that for barely three 
 hundred dollars, 
 
 "The bank has uniformly had the use of his private funds for nothing. 
 He has, in many instances, taken journeys upon the business of the bunk, 
 
30 MEMOIR OP HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 •when a confidential person was necessary, and in no instance has he 
 received any compensation whatever for any such services. 
 
 " Given under our hands at Knoxville, the 27th day of June, 1827 : 
 
 Luke Lea, Cashier. John Crozier, 
 
 William Park, Ex-Cashier. John IIillsman, 
 
 Andrew McMillan, ] ,- , ^, , James Park, 
 
 H. A. M. "White, I * David Campbell, [ Directors. 
 
 Calvin Morgan, 
 KoBT. King, 
 James Dardis, 
 Joseph C. Strong, Former Director." 
 
 This home testimony, from neighbours and men of standing, well 
 acquainted with the circumstances of the case, and from different political 
 parties, is entirely reliable ; and its statements strikingly illustrate the 
 lofty purity of Judge White, and his unselfish devotion to the interests 
 of his fellow-citizens. We have here the case of a man who performed 
 the onerous and responsible duties of a leading Bank officer three 
 years for nothing; three years more for nothing also, but this time 
 while the salary of fifteen hundred dollars only awaited acceptance ; 
 for a year and a half more, for three months' salary ; who declined to 
 receive such sums, not on the ground that he had not done the work, 
 but for the unprecedented reason that he had been in the receipt of 
 contemporary income for public services rendered during the same 
 period; who, under these circumstances, having also transacted the 
 law business of the bank without fee or reward, obtained accommoda- 
 tion from it not even to the extent of a single cent, raised no money 
 by its help, nor, except as endorser upon one single small note, aided 
 others to do so. Such indifference to pecuniary gains usually esteemed 
 perfectly legitimate, and at the same time such active and untiring 
 efficiency in the discharge of these unpaid duties, is very rare in this 
 or any country. Whether such conduct be considered a lofty 
 exertion of virtue, or, as by Judge White himself, the mere perform- 
 ance of ordinary duty, it is not here ai^sumed to decide. But in 
 either event, its rarity at least is the same : and that alone entitles it 
 to a careful record. 
 
 To show that Judge White's character in this respect was appre- 
 ciated abroad as well as at home, are given a few words from the 
 United States Telegraph, published about the time of his resignation 
 of the Presidency of the Bank; 
 
ANECDOTES OF JUDGE WHITE. 31 
 
 "Few men in any age have possessed more of that incorruptible 
 integrity which places public men above private scandal. We venture to 
 assert that no other man who has been so long associated with any 
 monied institution in the country, can deserve as much as the officers of 
 this bank have said of Judge White. We take pleasure in recording this 
 evidence of his Roman virtues." 
 
 One or two anecdotes, kindly furnished by Dr. Ramsey, the well- 
 known historian of Tennessee, will further illustrate the home reputa- 
 tion and influence of Judge White, as a safe and reliable financier. 
 
 "When in 183G the books for the subscription of stock in our great rail- 
 road enterprise were first opened in Knoxville, we who were appointed 
 commissioners for that purpose, experienced great difficulty in obtaining 
 subscriptions. We found few willing to adventure anything; some 
 objecting to the whole scheme as wild, visionary, and impracticable. 
 On the evening of the last day of subscription Judge White was sent for. 
 We exhibited to him our meagre list of subscribers, and the inadequate 
 amount of stock. He made a few sensible remarks on the subject, and 
 added that elsewhere, when citizens had not the money on hand unem- 
 ployed, they used their credit. He proposed the formation of an associa- 
 tion of twenty, of which he would himself be one, to subscribe to the 
 enterprise. The association was at once formed, nineteen of us joined 
 him, with him subscribing $200,000, and thus securing the charter at 
 the very end of the time to which the commissioners were limited by 
 law. His example and influence thus saved the charter." 
 
 When the Bank of the State of Tennessee was chartered (I believe in 
 1813) some one was needed to go to the East to have the necessary 
 engravings — plates &c., prepared to put the bank in operation. The 
 task was then herculean — there were no stages — much less steamboats 
 and railroad cars. The long journey was to be performed on horseback. 
 Younger men shrunk from the undertaking. His professional duties at 
 home scarcely allowed him to leave the State. But mounting his horse 
 he rode to the Eastern cities— had the engravings made — the bills struck 
 — looked into the forma of financiering which were then all unknown in 
 the West — and with the whole machinery of the first Bank of Tennessee 
 about his person and in his portmanteau, he returned to Knoxville in so 
 short a space of time, that the expedition was considered quite a remark- 
 able adventure. 
 
 I may as well here add one word of his financial ahility. At that 
 time gold and silver were the only circulating money in the State, banking 
 in the West was in its infancy ; and to put a State institution into suc- 
 cessful operation among a people strangers to a paper currency and 
 prejudiced against the credit system, required fiscal talents of the first 
 
32 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 order. But his strong common sense, his f\xr-seeing discernment and 
 his unquestioned probity succeeded in overcoming the seemingly insur- 
 mountable difiBculties which he encountered. The parent bank he man- 
 aged in person at Knoxville, established several branches elsewhere, and 
 a sounder currency no State was blessed with while he managed its 
 finances. 
 
 The following is an instance of the careful punctuality with which 
 Judge White superintended even minute details of Bank manage- 
 ment. 
 
 Believing that "example is better than precept," and being a man 
 of few words, Judge White generally acted instead of talking. While 
 be was president of the Bank of Tennessee, he accompanied his 
 daughters to a ball, given in Knoxville. Luke Lea, who was cashier 
 at the time, and a single gentleman, was also present. When the 
 hour for dispersing came, the Judge went to Mr. Lea (whom be found 
 at the card table, with a number of other gentlemen, engaged in a 
 game of whist), and said, " If you are not going to leave this place, 
 give me the key of the bank, and I will act as guard myself." Mr. Lea 
 answered that he would go immediately to his post, and remain there. 
 The Judge, after seeing his daughters home (two miles in the country), 
 fearing Mr. Lea might become so absorbed as to neglect or become 
 forgetful of his duty, mounted his horse, and returned to town. He 
 went first to the bank, but finding no one there, be repaired to the 
 ball-room, and there found Mr. Lea still at the card table. Without 
 saying one word, he stepped forward and demanded the key. Against 
 this Mr. Lea remonstrated, but the Judge was inexorable. He could 
 not be induced to abandon bis intention of remaining all night, 
 which he actually did. 
 
 Mr. Lea, who became distinguished for business habit's, and for 
 great uprightness and integrity of character, says this was the most 
 effectual rebuke he ever had. It was a lesson be never forgot. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SERVICES UNDER THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, AS COMMISSIONER 
 UNDER THE TREATY WITH SPAIN. 
 
 When Florida was ceded to the United States in 1819, the latter 
 agreed to exonerate the Spanish Government from all future claims 
 on account of depredations committed during the Avar of 1812 by 
 Spanish subjects upon property of her citizens ; and likewise that 
 those citizens should be indemnified to the amount of the purchase 
 money ($5,000,000) for all loss or injury originating from the doings 
 of foreign cruisers, agents, consuls, or tribunals, in the Spanish terri- 
 tory, which might be imputable to the Spanish government. It was 
 to ascertain the amount of valid claims under this treaty, that Judge 
 "White, Hon. Littleton W. Tazewell of Virginia, and Governor King of 
 Maine, were appointed Commissioners by President Monroe, in 1821. 
 
 In 1820, from too close application to business, Judge White's 
 health had begun to decline ; and it was feared that he must inevi- 
 tably become a nctim of the dreadful disease which afterwards proved 
 such a terrible scourge in his family. He therefore changed in some 
 measure his habits of living, partly gave up business and retired to 
 bis farm, where by his remarkable energy of will, in planning and 
 pursuing a course of judicious exercise, he succeeded in regaining suffi- 
 cient strength for undertaking the laborious task assigned him by this 
 commission. During this temporary relief from the pressure of his 
 many cares, he was in the habit of walking or riding over his farm, 
 once every day. During one of these excursions, an incident occurred, 
 trivial in itself, but not without results of some personal importance to 
 him. One morning, while visiting his plantation two miles distant from 
 his residence, he had occasion to walk a log which lay across a creek. 
 The weather was very cold, and the log covered with ice. His foot 
 slipped and he was plunged into the stream, which was of sufficient 
 depth completely to immerse him. His clothes immediately became 
 frozen, and in this condition he rode home, changed his dress, and 
 
 3 33 
 
34 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON "WHITE. 
 
 went to bed without delay. All were apprebensive, that, in his 
 delicate state of health, this accident would prove fatal. But the 
 excitement threw him into a profuse perspiration, and having slept, 
 he arose as well as usual. He was ever of opinion that this circum- 
 stance cured him, for from that time forward his health began to 
 improve. 
 
 Although Judge White held many important trusts in his own 
 State, and was known there as a profound jurist and able statesman, 
 yet he had never held office under the general government until he 
 received this appointment under the treaty with Spain. Some idea 
 may be had of the arduous duties of the position he had now assumed, 
 when it is recollected that the commission only lasted for the short 
 space of three years, and that the whole immense amount of claims 
 had to be received, examined, and decided upon, according to the 
 principles of justice, the laws of nations and the stipulations of the 
 treaty between the high contracting parties,* The Intelligencer 
 says : " The praise of ability, assiduity, and devotion to business will 
 be conceded to this board ; and it is admitted that the President 
 could not have made a more judicious choice of persons to execute 
 this arduous trust." 
 
 In reference to the manner in which that trust was executed, Mr. 
 Tazewell thus expresses himself in a letter to the writer, dated Nov. 
 15th, 1853: 
 
 " The duties of this commission proved to be very burdensome ; much 
 more' so than either of us had anticipated. Many reasons combined to 
 induce us to endeavor to complete it within the three years prescribed 
 by tlie statute as the term for tlie coutinuance of the commission. To 
 enable us to accomplish this work with more facility to ourselves, we took 
 lodgings in the same boarding-house, to the end that our conferences 
 might be more conveniently held; and labored at our task indefatigably 
 until it was finished. It would not become me to say how the duties of 
 the commission were discharged. But it is due to Judge White to state 
 that whatever of good may have been done by it, ought to be ascribed 
 mainly to his patience, industry and excellent judgment." 
 
 During these three years, Judge W. lived on terms of great inti- 
 macy with Mr. Tazewell, and contracted a strong friendship for that 
 thorough lawyer and profound thinker. This friendship was warmly 
 
 • Tlio Hon. D;iuicl W^'bbtcr La eaia to Uavo received $75,000 for prosecuting claims before 
 thin Uo&rd. 
 
SECOND COMMISSIONEESHIP. 35 
 
 reciprocated. Says Mr. Tazewell : " "WTien we parted in Wasliington 
 after the close of the Florida commission, in 1824, it was in the pain- 
 ful belief that we should not probably ever meet again. In this, 
 however, we were mistaken. The death of one of the Senators of 
 Virginia in the Congress of the United States produced a vacancy in 
 that office. To fill that vacancy I was elected by the legislature of 
 this State; and I returned to my old lodgings in Washington, in the 
 latter end of 1824, to enter upon the duties of this new station." 
 
 " Judge W. was not a member of the Senate when I first entered 
 that body. But the next year, 1825, Gen. Jackson, then one (tf the 
 Senators of the State of Tennessee, resigned his seat, and Judge W. 
 was elected as his successor, and his votes while in that body prove 
 that he was a Kepublican of the ' most straitest sect.' And this evi- 
 dence was amply confirmed, by every sentiment I ever heard him 
 utter, whether in private or public." At the close of the session of 
 1831-32 they parted — !Mr. Tazewell having resigned his seat in the 
 Senate ; and although Judge White continued in that body eight 
 years afterwards, they never met again. It was during one of the 
 recesses of Congress that the hand of affliction was laid heavily upon 
 them both. Each lost a grown-up son ; and their meeting at the 
 commencement of the next session is described by one who witnessed 
 it as very aflecting, neither being capable of utterance, but both giving 
 vent to their feelings in floods of tears. 
 
 If any further evidence is needed of the high estimation in which 
 the legal ability and statesmanship of Judge W. were held, it appears 
 in the selection of himself and Judge Burnett of Ohio, on the 19th 
 Nov., 1822, by the Government of Kentucky, as Commissioners to 
 adjust the military land claims of Virginia. The Commissioners 
 appointed on the part of Virginia, were Benj. W. Leigh and Wm. 
 Gaston of North Carolina. His association with such men in the 
 discharge of such highly responsible duties, is a sufficient proof of 
 his great reputation for solid and reliable sagacity and integrity, as 
 well as of professional acquirements. 
 
CHAPTER VITI. 
 
 SENATORIAL CAREER PANAMA MISSION FEDERAL JUDICIARY. 
 
 Thus far, Judge White has been presented to the reader chiefly as 
 a local jurist and politician. He will now appear as an actor in more 
 important and interesting scenes ; in which his life and acts are inter- 
 woven with national interests, and become portions of national history. 
 Nor can his character be adequately estimated without a full view of 
 the manner in which he discharged the duties of his elevated station 
 in the National Legislature. 
 
 When General Jackson resigned his seat in the Senate of the 
 United States, in 1825, Judge White, being then fifty-two years of 
 ao-e, was elected for the remainder of his term, and continued to fill 
 the place until 1840, being thrice elected not only by a unanimous 
 vote, but without having solicited the office. Even at his entrance 
 upon the duties of his position he brought much weight of character 
 into our national councils, acquired by the punctual and faithful dis- 
 charge of all the responsibilities which had before that time been 
 imposed upon him, by unyielding integrity, and by his well-known 
 sound and safe habits of investigation, decision and action. 
 
 Tlie fifteen years of Judge White's senatorship belong to a period 
 of more stormy and thrilling interest than any in American political 
 history, since the adoption of the Constitution ; a period of party 
 reorganization, and reform and re-direction of public policy, eflected 
 and opposed, amidst the most reckless and impassioned political war- 
 fare. During all the mighty conflicts of principles and opinions, 
 interests, parties and men, which made the Senate during Jackson's 
 administration a chosen arena for the combats of intellectual giants; 
 during the memorable conflicts upon the ISIission to Panama, Internal 
 Improvements ; during the great struggle to establish Mr. Clay's 
 " American System," the critical battle with Nullification, the desperate 
 contest with the United States Bank, and also during all the collateral 
 and contemporary minor debates that crowded every session, Judge 
 36 
 
BEX ATE — PANAMA IIISSION. 37 
 
 Wliite was often upon the floor, and in every struggle sustained his 
 part fearlessly, honorably and well. He was a disciple of the old 
 Republican school ; of the school of Jefferson and of Jackson, and in 
 accordance with the views of the statesmen of that school he discussed 
 all the questions of the day ; and whatever external differences 
 he may have had with others of his own political belief, to the 
 declared principles of that belief he adhered firmly and consistently to 
 the last. 
 
 In 1826, during the administration of John Quincy Adams, was 
 introduced the question, now almost forgotten, of the Panama Mission. 
 This was debated in Congress, upon motions to send accredited Min- 
 isters from the Government of the United States to a proposed Con- 
 vention of the Republics of North and South America, to be holden 
 upon the Isthmus of Panama. This Convention, was to discuss and 
 determine, if possible, commercial and international principles and 
 courses of action in a free and liberal manner, such as was betittinor 
 the joint action of free nations. Its objects were noble, and such as 
 temporarily to enlist an overwhelming popular feeling in favor of the 
 mission. The purposes for which it was claimed that the United 
 States should participate in the Congress were represented to be 
 
 1. To establish liberal international commercial reo-ulations. 
 
 2. To determine and agree upon a doctrine of maritime neutrality. 
 
 3. To establish the doctrine that " free ships make free goods." 
 
 4. To establish the " Monroe doctrine," so called ; of preventing 
 European interference with American national action. 
 
 5. To advance religious liberty. 
 
 6. To conciliate the good will of our American co-nations, by 
 accepting their invitation and aiding in their deliberations. 
 
 This was an administration measure, and was opposed by the great 
 mass of the opposition, then already organized as the Democratic 
 party. Judge White, as an opposition sjieaker, delivered against it 
 on the 26th of March, 1826, a speech which discussed the general 
 principles brought up in the course of the debate (which was secret, 
 although afterwards allowed to be published) ; and which was pro- 
 nounced " the ablest exposition of the powers of government made 
 during the whole discussion." 
 
 After showing that the question was whether the Senate should 
 advise this mission, and also that the not advisinfr it ouMit not to 
 give offence to the nations inviting it, Judge White said, speaking 
 
98 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON "WHITE. 
 
 upon the report of the committee of the Senate, adversely to the 
 Mission : 
 
 Mr. Pi-esident : "Were I to be advised by my feelings I should remain 
 silent, but when I reflect upon the relation in which I stand to the report 
 now under consideration, a sense of duty compels me to submit to the 
 Senate some of the views which my mind has taken of this subject. 
 
 The only question L-, the expediency of the Mission to Panama. The 
 President has distinctly asked of us an opinion upon this question. 
 
 Our advice is to be given as freemen, not as slaves. In this course we 
 serve the Executive, maintain the dignity and independence of the Senate, 
 and promote the best interests of the United States. If the mission should 
 not be advised, we give no cause of offence to the Spanish American States. 
 The evidences heretofore given of our friendship for them, in acknow- 
 ledging their independence, and interposing our good offices to effect it, 
 ought to shield us against any suspicion of unfriendly feelings towards 
 them, at present. The President will likewise comply with the only 
 promise made to those who have tendered the invitation, his acceptance 
 of it having been conditional " if the Senate advise," &c. 
 
 The subject is then fairly before us, for the exercise of our best judg- 
 ment, without a fear that any promise of the Executive wiU be violated, 
 should the Senate disagree with him in opinion : but even if this were not 
 so, we could not without a shameful dereliction of duty, offer anything, 
 as our advice, but the result of our best judgment. 
 
 The first reflection upon this subject, is produced by its novelty. Since 
 the acknowledgment of our independence, it has no precedent in our 
 history. This ought to beget caution and circumspection. 
 
 If this mission should be advised, a new era will have commenced 
 in the history of our foreign relations. Peace with, and good-will 
 towards all nations, entangling alliances with none ; has been our car- 
 dinal policy, in tlie time past. It was recommended by the Father of 
 our. Country — repeated, and practised upon, by his republican successors. 
 Wlien given, we were few in number, comparatively poor, and insignifi- 
 cant, in the scale of nations ; now, we are twelve millions; rich in men, in 
 means and in character. Our prosperity has surpassed the most extra- 
 vagant calculations of the most sanguine amongst us. 
 
 In our late contest with tlie most powerful nation in the civilized 
 world, unaided by, and unallied to, any other nation, we furnished con- 
 clusive evidence, both upon the ocean and upon fha land, that we are 
 able and willing to defend the rich inheritance derived from our ancestors. 
 
 Tlie sincerity of our conduct in our intercourse with other nations, and 
 a careful ab.stinence from all interference in their concerns, united to our 
 determined and buccessful resistance to lawless encroachments upon our 
 
SPEECH ON PANAMA MISSION. 39 
 
 rights, have given us a proud name throughout the nations of the earth. 
 Hapi)y at home, and resi)ected abroad, why should wo change the policy 
 by which these blessings have been obtained? 
 
 We ought not to advise it, except to obtain some lasting and important 
 tenefit for the United States, certainly attainable in this mode, pro- 
 bably to be attained in no other ; but never from sympathy for others, 
 from a desire to serve them, or from a desire of gratifying national 
 vanity. 
 
 "We are then naturally led to inquire into the objects expected to be 
 obtained, and the probability of accomplishing them in this mode. 
 
 Here we cannot fail to perceive bow difficult it appears to have been, 
 for those who gave the invitations, to fix upon any subject for discussion, 
 which they believed of sufficient importance to the United States, to 
 induce them to accept those invitations ; hence, both the Minister from 
 Columbia, and from Mexico, introduce the idea of subjects " which the 
 Congress may give rise to," &c. 
 
 How can the Senate advise the President to send Ministers to discuss 
 unknown subjects? to accomplish objects which no person can desig- 
 nate? and in relation to which it is impossible to say whether their 
 attainment would comport with the honor and interest of the United 
 States, or not? Suppose those giving these invitations had specified 
 no subject whatever for discussion, but had asked the attendance of 
 our Ministers, to discuss, and come to an agreement, upon such subjects as 
 the Congress might give rise to ; is there any one member of the Senate, 
 that would advise a mission upon such an invitation ? "Would it not be 
 thought both useless and hazardous ? 
 
 To these questions it would seem to me there can be but one answer. 
 Fond would he be of the creation of officers, and heedless of the honor 
 and interest of his country, who would advise the appointment of Minis- 
 ters to a foreign country, to attend a Congress for the purpose of seeing 
 whether a subject could be produced that might be proper for an agree- 
 ment with the United States. I will not degrade the Senate by supposing 
 there is any such man among us, and will proceed with this investigation, 
 as if no allusion had been made to any unknown subject, which could 
 neither be designated, nor described. 
 
 The first subject mentioned is, the resistance or opposition to be made 
 to the interference of any neutral nation in the war of Independence, &c. 
 
 This appears to be a point of primary importance, in the estimation of 
 all concerned. Let us calmly and dispassionately I'eflect upon it. Six of 
 the former Spanish American Colonies have declared themselves indepen- 
 dent of Spain, and to maintain this independence, have put at hazard 
 their lives and their fortunes. Spain asserts that they are still parts of 
 her dominions, that she luis the right to govern them, and that, cost what 
 it may, she will reduce them to subjection. The decision of this issue is 
 
40 srEMom or hugh lawson white. 
 
 submitted to the God of battles. These six colonies have become six 
 States, and are belligerent on one side, and Spain on the other. Hereto- 
 fore these States have exerted their strength sej^arately without any regu- 
 lar alliance with each other, although they have had a common enemy to 
 contend with. The belief, that it would conduce to their common inter- 
 est, and best secure that independence for which all are contending, has 
 induced five of them to enter into treaties, by which they are bound to 
 make common cause against Spain, and by their united eftbrts, to compel 
 her to acknowledge the independence of each. To produce union in 
 council, and concord in action and design among the new States, they 
 have devised the Congress at Panama. It is to be perpetual. Its primary 
 and leading object is belligerent. Its secondary and inferior objects and 
 duties are peaceful. The first subject, then, which will claim the atten- 
 tion of this Congress, is some plan, by which the independence of each 
 State, will not only be maintained, but secured. 
 
 A fear has been entertained, that some European power, now neutral 
 in this Avar, will be induced to unite with Spain, and lend her assistance 
 to reduce these States to the condition of colonies. Thej' wish to pro- 
 vide against such an event, and in giving these invitations, they state, that 
 they have a pledge from the President, and that there is an accord between 
 them and the Cabinet at "Washington ; that if any neutral power does 
 take part with Spain, the United States will take part with them ; and 
 W'ish the attendance of our Ministers with a view to discuss the subject, 
 and come to an agreement in relation to it, by which it will be stipulated, 
 what contingent each party shall furnish when the casus fcederis shall 
 occur ; and they say, that in the meantime this agreement or convention 
 may be kept secret. 
 
 Mr. President, I object to sending ministers for the purpose of discuss- 
 ing and coming to any agreement or convention upon this subject. It is 
 not true, as far as I am advised, that the United States stand pledged to 
 take part in this war in any event whatever. Nothing can bind us to 
 go to war with any nation, but a declaration made in the proper form, 
 and by the proper department of this Government. The Executive can- 
 not declare war, but I admit he may pursue a course of policy which 
 will justify otlier nations in making war upon us. Congress has taken no 
 step, has done no act, has passed no law, by which we are bound to 
 unite with these new States in their war of independence, upon any con- 
 tingency whatever. The Executive had no power to bind the United 
 States by any pledge he could give. But what has he done ? The ground-^ 
 work of this pretended pledge, it seems, is found in President Monroe's 
 Message of December 1823. It contains no pledge — it is a general decla- 
 ration to his own Congress, of the sentiment which would be felt if any 
 neutnd should interfere on tlie side of Spain. Notwithstanding that dec- 
 laration, the United States were still at liberty, consistently with their 
 
SPEECH ON PANAMA MISSION. 41 
 
 honor, to take part with the new States, or omit to do so, as the wisdom 
 of Congress might judge best, when any neutral power did take part with 
 Spain. This declaration liad a good eftect. Not wishing to give offence 
 to the United States, it may have prevented some of the European States 
 from taking i)art with Spain. The new States have had the full benefit 
 of this declaration. Thus tlie matter appears to have rested, till the close 
 of Mr. Monroe's Administration. Since the new Administration came into 
 power, it seems, that upon the appearance of a French fleet in our seas, 
 some of the new States called upon the Executive to redeem the pled"-e 
 which had been given. Upon this application, in place of correcting the 
 mistake upon the subject, it would appear from the documents with 
 which we are furnished, the Administration admitted that which I do not 
 see was the fact, that a pledge had been given, and directed Mr. Brown, 
 our Minister in France to ask an explanation, &c. Upon this point, how- 
 ever, I think we are still in the dark ; we have no copy of the application 
 from the new States, nor of our answer to them. These documents 
 would have shown how tar our new Administration have gone towards 
 compelling us to take part in this war. It is very singular, that after all 
 the calls for information Avhich the Senate have been compelled to make, 
 upon this important business, there is still a want of documents, that 
 would probably be useful. But if we are at liberty to judge from the 
 correspondence between Mr. Poinsett and the Mexican Minister, and 
 from Mr. Secretary's letter to Mr. Poinsett, it does really seem that the 
 Executive has admitted to Mexico, that we have given a pledge, wliich 
 we may be called on to redeem, whenever the contingency shall occur.* 
 Of this pledge, the people of these States are yet uninformed. I feel per- 
 suaded they have no idea we stand i)ledged upon any contingency t.o 
 embark in the war with these new States, Avhether it may comport with 
 our interest or not. This is an inadvertence which cannot be corrected 
 too soon. If we send Ministers and an agreement is entered into, then 
 indeed, will the United States be ^j/etZyecZ, We now know the object. 
 We see the predicament in which we are placed, and with this know- 
 ledge, if Congress can be induced to give its sanction to this measure, 
 and this pledge of the Executive is refined into an agreement, by which 
 the United States shall be bound to furnish men, money, ships, &c., in akl 
 of the new States, whenever any power, now neutral, Jiiay choose to take 
 part with Spain, then, indeed, shall I think this nation has given a pledge, 
 
 * Mr. Poinsett's letter to Mr. Clay, 2Sth September, 1S25: 
 
 " To these observations I replied, tliat agiiinst the power of Spain they had given sufficient 
 proof that they required no assistance, and the United States had pledged themselves not to 
 permit any other power to interfere with their independence or form of government ; and that 
 as in the event of such an attempt being made by the powers of Europe, we would be com- 
 pelted to Uike the moat active and efficient part and to bear the brunt of the contest, it was 
 not just that we should be placed on a less favorable footing, than the other republics of 
 America, whose existence we were ready to support at such hazards." 
 
42 MEMOJli OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 one that it may cost us too much to redeem, when the casus faderis shall 
 happen. 
 
 But, sir, how is it that we are told our neutral character is not to be 
 compromitted ? that we are not to enter into any alliance ? to engage in 
 nothing importing hostility to any other nation? Are we to be led 
 away from the substance of things by mere names ? Are we to have so 
 mucli faith as to induce us to disregard the plainest evidence that can be 
 furnished? I hope not. What is the substance of this proposition? 
 These new States say, the President has given a pledge to take a part in 
 the war now waged, if any neutral nation shall take part with Spain ; 
 and that the Cabinet at "Washington has done the like : but, as this is 
 only a general pledge^ and they do not know exactly Avhat assistance 
 they are to receive, they wish the United States to send Ministers to 
 Panama, empowered to discuss this subject, and come to a definite 
 agreement upon it, by which it may be distinctly known what contingent 
 the United States are to furnish, when the casus faderis happens, and 
 that all this matter shall be kept secret. 
 
 Suppose we do send Ministers, for such a purpose, to a Congress com- 
 posed entirely of belligerents on one side, is it not a violation of our 
 neutrality? "What is our situfltion ? "We profess friendship for both the 
 parties to this war, and that we are not disposed to aid either. Is it no 
 departure from the professions to send our Ministers? Can any gentle- 
 man doubt upon this point? KecoUect that this Congress is created and 
 assembled avowedly for the purpose of discussing war measures, settling 
 plans, and devising means, by which Spain shaU be compelled to 
 acknowledge their independence, and by which that independence can 
 be best secured. 
 
 "With tliis knowledge, and for the purpose of entering upon the 
 discussion, and making an agreement, by which we will be bound, upon 
 a certain contingency, to aid the party with whom we make the agree- 
 ment we send our Ministers. Can we be called indifferent? Counte- 
 nancing neither, to tlie prejudice of the other? Surely not, "Wiiat is 
 the answer to this argument? The only one as yet attempted is by the 
 gentleman from Rhode Island, that if two nations are at war, it is no 
 breach of neutrality in a tliird Power to send a Minister to both, or 
 either. Tliis is very true, and yet it proves nothing, as it relates to the 
 question now in dispute. For peaceful purposes — for any purpose 
 unconnected with tlie war — tlie third power may send a Minister, may 
 discuss, may treat upon any peaceful subject ; but, does this prove 
 that you may send a Minister to the Com't of one telligercnt to 
 discuss lelUgerent questions, to advise one party what steps he is 
 to take in the war, wlietlicr it is most prudent to strike his adver- 
 sary at a given time, or in a given quarter? Surely not, And yet 
 this is the very point wliicli geutleraen on tlie other side must main- 
 
SPEECH ON TANAMA. MISSION. 43 
 
 tain. This part of the subject has been placed by the gentleman 
 from South Carolina on ground which cannot be shaken. Ilis argument 
 has not been answered. It never will be, while there is a distinction 
 between truth and the reverse. 
 
 Mr. President, I go one step farther, and insist, if you do send Minis- 
 ters, and they discuss this subject, and enter into the proposed agreement, 
 so far as you have power over the matter, your neutrality is not only 
 broken, but you are in a state of war, and that with any and every 
 power that is now neutral, and may hereafter elect to take a part with 
 Spain. This is a dilemma from which we cannot escape, without dis- 
 grace. Send Ministers, make the agreement — and the question of peace, 
 or war, is not with us; and, at any moment afterwards, any European 
 or even an American nation can put yoi^ at war, whether it may suit 
 your interest or not. 
 
 I object to sending Ministers for the discussion of any such subject, or 
 for the accomplishment of any such object. Even if we believed that 
 such a state of things would probably be produced, as to make it proper 
 for us to take a part in this war, I would stiU be opposed to any agree- 
 ment by which we will become bound to do so. It is impossible now to 
 foresee what may best comport with the interest of the United States at 
 any subsequent period ; and they ought to be left free to act, unfettered 
 by any agreement whatever, as their interest or honor inay require, 
 when some other power does actually interfere. 
 
 It is vain to say, we are not to take a part in any belligerent question ; 
 that our neutrality is not to be violated ; tliat we are not to engage in 
 anything importing hostility to any other power,, while this proposition 
 is presented to us. One of the Ministers who gave the invitation classes 
 the subject to be discussed into lelligerent and 2:)eaceful^ and states that 
 the United States are not expected to take any part in Wxa first ; but, in 
 the last, they are, and in this class^ he specifies this very subject. Does 
 this make it peaceful ? Surely not. It is belligei-ent. I admit it is not 
 an absolute stipulation to take part in the war, and, therefore, some may 
 feel justified in saying it does not import hostility; yet, it is undoubtedly 
 an agreement to take part upon the happening of a certain contingency. 
 It will import hostility upon a certain condition, which contingency or 
 condition is not within the control of the United States. 
 
 After remarking upon the failure to transmit to tte Senate certain 
 information in regard to the feelings of the European cabinets in 
 relation to any attempt to wrest Cuba from Spain, Judge AVhita 
 proceeded with observations by no means unimportant or unseasona- 
 ble in their bearing upon subjects at this very day exciting a lively 
 interest in the public mind. He said, on this point : 
 
44 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ■ These colonieg (Cuba and Porto Eico) are convenient to the new 
 (South American) States; Avhich having expelled their enemies from 
 their own territory, will probably stimulate a portion of the inhabitants 
 of those Islands to rebel, to declare themselves independent of Spain, 
 and by uniting their forces with those revolted subjects, endeavor to put 
 down the Spanish authorities in those Islands. What consequences are 
 likely to flow from such a measure? Russia probably, and France 
 almost certainly, would then immediately take part with Spain, in the 
 war. From the documents, we have evidence that they would have 
 strong inducements to interpose immediately. It is their wish that 
 Spain should retain her dominion over those Islands, because then that 
 balance would be kept up in the seas where those Islands are situate 
 which those powers think ought to be preserved.* 
 
 Again : all monarchs, and these in particular, would feel an interest to 
 check this spirit of revolt ; if not put down, none of them would feel 
 safe; and while aiding Spain, they would be rendering more secure their 
 own dominions. To lend assistance would be esteemed by them a prin- 
 ciple of self-defence. Lastly, these new States have told us, even now, 
 they suspect that France is secretly furnishing Spain the means of con- 
 tinuing the war. Spain tells you France is her friend— that "in six 
 troubles she has stood by her, and that, in the seventh, she will not for- 
 sake her;" and from the connection between these powers, at home, 
 it is rendered extremely probable, that the opinions entertained, both by 
 the new States and Spain, as to the policy of France, will turn out to be 
 correct. Suppose, then, you sanction this mission, your Ministers discuss 
 this subject, come to an agreement upon it, stipulate that if any neutral 
 power interferes on the part of Spain, that the United States will take 
 part witli the new States, and Russia and France do thus take part with 
 Spain, the casus foederis will then have liappened, and the United States, 
 in connection with the Spanish American States, will thus become one 
 party in the war, and Spain, Russia, and France the other, and how or 
 when it will terminate, no man can foresee. 
 
 In this state of things what is to become of our own important inter- 
 ests, our commerce for example, to secure which avo seem so anxious? 
 Great Britain is ever attentive to her own interest, watching the course 
 
 * " She Is, however, in the mean while, pleased to hope, that the United States, becoming 
 every day more convinced of the evils and dangers tliat would result to Cuba and Porto Rico 
 from a change of Government, being satisfied, as Mr. Clay has said in his dispatch, with the 
 commercial legislation of these two Islands, and deriving an additional motive of security 
 from the honorable resolution of Spain not to grant to them, any longer, letters of marque, 
 will ase their influence in defeating, as far as may be in their power, every enterprise against 
 these Islands, in securing to the rights of his Catholic Miijesty constant and proper respect in 
 maintaining the only clitte of thingH that can preserve a Just balance of power in the Sea 
 of the Ar.tilles, prevent shocking rxampks, and, as llie Cabinet at Washington has 
 remarked, secure to the general peace salutary guaranties." — Count Nesselrode to Mr. Middle- 
 ton, 20lh Aug. 1625. 
 
SPEECH ON PANAMA iHSSION. 45 
 
 of events, and turning them to the advantage of her own subjects. Even 
 now, some fear she is at this Cougress,not as a party but as ahstener, and 
 will gain some advantage by our delay : how would she probably act ? 
 She would take no part in the war. She would be neutral, the United 
 States belligerent; and wliat then becomes of your commerce? It will be 
 engrossed by your neighbor, who had been attending to her own interest, 
 while you have been seeking distinction by neglecting your own concerns, 
 and attending to those of other nations. 
 
 But, sir, if in this I mistake the conrse of Great Britain, and she 
 should elect to take a part in the war, it would prubabl}- be on tlie side 
 of Spain, and then we should have our difficulties increased to the full 
 extent of her means and resources. 
 
 To this view of the case, I beg the attention of the gentleman from 
 Rhode Island, and respectfully ask an application of the rule of " proba- 
 bilities," and then let him say whether this Congress is so harmless, and 
 whether, in his judgment, we have nothing to apprehend? 
 
 There are other views of this subject which render it inexpedient to 
 sanction this measure. 
 
 This agreement or treaty is to be kept secret. By the frame of 
 our Government, treaties are to be the supreme law ; would it be discreet 
 to have a treaty, by which the United States may be involved, concealed. 
 from the People? It is their Government, it is their interests, that are 
 at stake, and nothing material ought to be secreted from them. 
 
 Again, such an arrangement would be inconsistent with our charac- 
 ter for candor. We owe it to ourselves to do no act, to make no agree- 
 ment, that we ought to be unwilling to avow. 
 
 The very circmustance of a desire to conceal is a proof that the project 
 is inconsistent with our professed neutrality, and would be justly otien- 
 sive to Spain and to other nations. 
 
 After showing tliat it was inconsistent wifli the dignity of the 
 United States to stipulate with other nations, according to that article 
 of the Panama programme, which provided for mutual agreement 
 that no contracting State should suffer European colonies to be 
 planted within its borders, Judge White proceeded to another sub- 
 ject, also absorbingly interesting at this day, as follows : 
 
 Mr. President: I pass to the next subject specified. It is to discuss 
 and agree upon the means to be employed for the entire alolition of the 
 slave trade. Of all subjects that could be thought of, none would bo 
 found more unfortunate than this. It was hoped, that, after rejecting 
 the convention with Columbia upon this subject, the Senate would liave 
 no more of it from foreigners. If slavery is an affliction, all the Southern 
 and Western States have it) and with it, their peculiar modes of thinking 
 
46 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 upon all subjects connected with it. In these new States, some of them 
 have put it down in their fundamental law, " that whoever owns a slave 
 shall cease to be a citizen." Is it then fit that the United States 
 should disturb the quiet of the Southern and Western States, by a dis- 
 cussion and argument with the new States, upon any subject connected 
 with slavery? I think not. Can it be the desire of any prominent 
 politician in the United States, to divide us into pai'ties upon the subject 
 of Slavery ? I hope not. Let us then cease to talk of slavery in this House ; 
 let us cease to negotiate upon any subject connected with it. The United 
 States have by their own laws put an end to the slave trade so far as 
 their citizens, or their vessels, are concerned in it — more than this, they 
 'ought not to attempt. Let other nations discharge their duty as well, 
 and the slave trade, so called, will be abolished. 
 
 One word more upon this point, Mr. President, and I will dismiss it. 
 If there be any gentlemen in the United States, who seriously wish to 
 see an end of slavery, let them cease talking and writing, to induce the 
 Federal Government to take up the subject, because, by the course now 
 pursued by some, they are postponing a measure, whose accomplishment 
 they profess a wish to hasten. Whenever the States in which slavery 
 exists, feel it as an evil too intolerable, move towards its removal 
 at home, and apply through their Legislatures to this Government for 
 aid to abolish it, then, and not sooner, we may discuss it within these 
 walls. 
 
 We are invited to attend and settle " the basis of our I'elations to Hayti," 
 and others^ that may be in like circumstances, &lc. 
 
 Will gentlemen tell us whether a Representative from Hayti is invited 
 to attend this Congress ? It appears to me that it will be very unfair 
 to settle this question, when that Government is unrepresented. It is 
 therefore most probable, her Minister is to be there likewise. Reflect, 
 Mr. President, upon the population of that country, and upon that of 
 a portion of our own, as well as upon the peculiar modes of thinking in 
 Spanish America, and then let honorable gentlemen say whether they 
 think this wiU be a fit subject for discussion. It is a question which the 
 South American statesmen must settle for themselves and by themselves. 
 Our situation, in relation to this subject, is so peculiarly delicate, that I 
 cannot suppose any real IViend to the Union, would propose tliat it should 
 be settled at the Congress of Panama. The suggestion of such a project 
 may be readily excused in a foreigner, but in an American citizen it 
 would be inexcusable. 
 
 Upon the proposition to establish an American system, Judge 
 White remarked, with solid and profound wisdom : 
 
 The Minister from Central America proposes, tliat at this Congress 
 an Aiuorii'iiu Continental System shall be got up, as Europe has one. 
 
SPEECH ON TANAilA MISSION. 47 
 
 Let us bestow a few thouglits npon this subject, and see to wliat it 
 tends. In Europe, tlie object of their system is to make common cause 
 to support monarchs on their thrones. 
 
 The contrary would be, to make common cause to secure in America 
 a Republican form of government to each nation. Our fundamental prin- 
 ciple is, that every nation ought to be permitted to have just such a form 
 of government as the people of that nation may think best suited to their 
 condition, and best calculated to secure their lives, liberty, and property, 
 and that, in settling their forms of government, no other nation has any 
 right to interfere. 
 
 We find fault with the European system, and with the Holy Alliance, 
 because it is their object to fix monarchy upon the people of the respec- 
 tive States, whether the majorities in those States are pleased with such 
 governments or not. Are we tlien to combine with other States, to com- 
 pel each one to preserve a republican form of government, whether they 
 will it or not? We believe, and I flatter myself truly believe, that ours is 
 the best plan of government which has yet been devised ; but, if it is the 
 best for tlie people of these United States, does it thence follow that it 
 would be the best for every other nation? 
 
 Ours is the best for an intelligent and virtuous people ; but it does not 
 thence follow, that it would be best for an ignorant and vicious people. 
 The people of each country ought to understand tlieir own character bet- 
 ter than the people of any other country ; and they ought to be the ex- 
 clusive judges of what plan of government is best suited to their peculiar 
 character aad condition, and any interference by the people of any other 
 country, to force upon them a form of government Avhich they do not 
 themselves choose, is an act of tyranny and oppression. The whole pro- 
 ject, then, is wrong in principle and therefore ought not to meet our 
 sanction. 
 
 Again, we are only in the course of experiment at home. Whether our 
 plan is as i)erfect as it ought to be, is at this moment a subject of discus- 
 sion over the way. We are endeavoring to improve it, and hope to ren- 
 der it so perfect that we shall be pleased with it for ever : yet, even we 
 may change our minds upon that subject, and if we do, we shall claim the 
 right of changing our government likewise. Let us then not be too 
 hasty. Are we sure our politicians are well acquainted with tlie cliarac- 
 ter of our own people upon all points? It would be unreasonable to 
 suppose them intimately acquainted with every peculiarity of character 
 in each of the Spanish American States. Without this knowledge, we 
 are not in a situation to form an opinion on this subject. Their true char- 
 acter is yet to be developed. The war must be finished first. A foreign 
 enemy may have kept them in a state of internal peace. Remove the 
 idea of this foreign enemy, and we cannot foresee how soon discord and 
 bloodshed may ensue among themselves. Even the other day, in one of 
 
48 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 these States, we saw considerable resistance made to some of their laws. 
 Let us then afford time for a thorough development of character, before 
 we identify our fate with theirs to too great an extent, upon this, or any 
 other point. But, again, in Europe, they have a continental system, and 
 therefore we are to get up a countervailing one in America. "We are to 
 have a system opposed to a system ; the friends of each endeavoring to 
 make proselytes; in what will this course terminate? In warm words, 
 if not in blows. It leads to discord and war. We have extensive com- 
 mercial intercourse with the powers of Europe, as well as with those of 
 the new States. Our interest consists in peace and friendship with all; 
 let us not rashly adopt a course calculated to disturb our harmony with 
 either. To preserve our own liberty ; to better the condition of our own 
 citizens ; will furnish sufficient employment for our own most enlightened 
 public servants, and let us not suffer any one, from a vain desire to fill an 
 uncommon number of pages in our own future history, to influence us to 
 such an interference in the concerns of others, as wiU put in jeopardy 
 those of our own people. 
 
 After examining the other proposed objects of the mission, Judge 
 White proceeds to exhibit the danger from such uncontrolled powers 
 of appointment as would seem to exist in the Executive, if the nom- 
 inations were to be confirmed. 
 
 Another point, however, is not to be lost sight of. I have, Mr. Pres- 
 ident, upon this argument, been endeavoring to maintain, that this mis- 
 sion is inexpedient. Upon one of the incidental questions which we have 
 heretofore partially discussed, I had the honor of making to the Senate, 
 some observations upon a question first suggested by a gentleman from 
 Kentucky", and afterwards enlarged upon by the gentleman from Vir- 
 ginia. It is this — ^is there in truth, any vacant office to fill with the 
 persons now nominated ? I have insisted tliere is not, that we have be- 
 gun this business at tlic wrong end. In our government we can have but 
 two sources from which offices can be created. The one is the Consti- 
 tution, the other statutes made by Congress. These offices are not cre- 
 ated by the one, or by the other. By tlie Constitution, the President, by 
 and with the advice and consent of the Senate, can appoint ambassadors, 
 and other public njinisters, &c. 
 
 Under this provision, tlie President has the power, with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate, to ajjpoint an ambassador, or any other public 
 agent, recognized l)y, and known to the laws of civilized nations; but as 
 to all other offices, they must be created by some statute of the United 
 States, before any person is nominated to fill them. The sole question 
 upon this point, then, is, arc such ministers as those now proposed, known 
 to, and recognized by tlio law of nations? I deny that tlioy are, Tho 
 
r SPEECH ON PANAMA MISSION. 49 
 
 Congress is created by treaties, among the Spanish American States. It 
 is contended by gentlemen on the other side, that it has no attribute of 
 sovereignty attached to it — if this be so, tlien you cannot, by the hiw of 
 nations, send any ministers to transact business with such a body. If you 
 do send them, it must be in virtue of some treat}-, or by virtue of some 
 statute of the United States. In this instance, there is neitlier the ono 
 nor the other. Therefore, tliere is no office as yet ci:eated, and until one 
 is created, neither the President alone, nor he, with the advice of the Sen- 
 ate, can, consistently with the Constitution, proceed to fill it. 
 
 The fair Avay to have taken tlie sense of tlie nation upon the expediency 
 of this mission would have been to have consulted Congress, in their 
 legislative capacity, on the propriety of the mission, by asking an appro- 
 priation to defray the expenses of it, and stating the objects expected to be 
 obtained by it. The subject would then have come fairly before the 
 representatives of the nation, who would have discussed and decided 
 upon its expediency with open doors. If affirmatively decided, the offices 
 would have been created by statute, and then the President could have 
 nominated characters, which he deemed suitable to fill them, and upon 
 these nominations, the Senate would have acted in their executive capa- 
 city, and advised the President whether, in their opinion, these men 
 were or were not, suitable persons to fill these offices. But here the 
 oi'der of things is reversed — the Senate has been called upon to discuss 
 and settle the expediency of this mission, upon mere nominations to 
 office, and if the nominations should be confirmed, then we are to pass a 
 law in the shape of an appropriation bill, by which, the offices will, for 
 the first time, be created. The injustice of this course, to the minority 
 on this question, and to the nation, is obvious. Upon the nominations wo 
 have been constrained to act with closed doors, the nation has no knowledge 
 of the facts upon which our opinions rest, nor of the reasons in support 
 of those opinions. Little do they suspect that principles of such vital 
 importance are involved in this decision. 
 
 I have again mentioned this point, not intending to argue it the second 
 time. I mention 5t because, if a majority — thus irregularly, I might 
 say-^in my opinion, unconstitutionally — determine that this mission is 
 expedient, I must and Avill, entertaining the opinion I now do, vote 
 against any man, who has been, or can be nominated, because I will not 
 agree to fill any office which I do not believe has the sanction of either 
 the Constitution or law of the United States for its creation. 
 
 The result of tlie discussion was that the nominees of the President, 
 Messrs. John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, and Richard C. Anderson, of 
 Kentucky, were confirmed, by a vote of 24 to 20. But they were 
 never sent upon their errand, for the Congress was never held. And 
 the effervescence of popular interest in the scheme rapidly dying 
 
 4 
 
50 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 away, the " sober second thouglit" of the people resulted in a general 
 acquiescence in the sound and moderate views of Judge White and 
 his fellow opponents to the mission. 
 
 At the time of Judge White's entrance into the Senate there was, 
 and had for some time existed, throughout the Western States, a very 
 just cause of complaint, in the unfair apportionment of the United 
 States Judiciary Districts. In nine of the Western States, the deci- 
 sions in the United States Courts were rendered, either by a District 
 Judge alone, or with very little and cursory assistance from the 
 Circuit Judge ; a state of things which caused the administration of 
 justice in those States to be both slower and more erroneous than in 
 the remaining fifteen, by reason of the action of a single judge, and 
 of the necessary shortness and infrequency of the terras in each 
 circuit. Upon Judge White's first entrance into Congress, his atten- 
 tion was given to this subject. W^ith great difficulty a bill passed the 
 House of Representatives, creating three additional circuits, and 
 requiring three additional judges of the Supreme Court. It was sent 
 to the Senate, and then to the Judiciary Committee, who amended it 
 in two particulars; making it the duty of the three additional judges 
 to reside in the tiew circuits, and secondly, changing the distribution 
 of the different States from that proposed in the original bill. These 
 amendments passed the Senate by a very large majority. Of the ten 
 Senators from the five States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 
 Missouri, only three were in favor of the distribution made in the bill 
 from the House. That body, however, refused to agree to either of 
 the Senate amendments, the Senate adhered to both, and thus the bill 
 •was lost. Judge Wliite voted ■with the majority. His former 
 position at the bar, and on the bench, enabled him to appreciate the 
 wants of the Western country in this particular, and he did not 
 slumber over them. At the next session, he again brought the 
 subject before Congress in a speech, showing the inequality as to the 
 administration of justice under which the Western States had been 
 laboring, and arguing that the evil ought to be remedied ; and used 
 his endeavors to have it acted on, but for want of time the subject was 
 then postponed. 
 
 Judge White's remarks on this subject, furnish a clear analysis of 
 the wants of the West in the particular under consideration, and 
 intelligent views of the operation of residence or non-residence upon 
 the professional ability and success of a judge; and contain so many 
 suggestions of permanent value upon the practical duties of the judi- 
 
JUDICIARY APPOKTIONMENT. Sl 
 
 cial oflico, as to justify the insertion of portions of Lis speech, 
 delivered April 11, 182G, that is, during that one of the two sessions 
 abov'e referred to, in which the Senate and Ilouse failed to agree upon 
 a bill to meet the wants of the AVest in the required reformation of 
 the courts. 
 Judge White said : 
 
 If it could be shown that the remedy proposed to obviate the incou- 
 venionces complained of in those sections of countr}', would be injurious 
 to the Avliolc Union, he ought not to expect, or to wish, that their special 
 inconveniences should be removed to the injury of the wdiolo community. 
 The subject on which we are about to legislate is, in my mind, one 
 of infinite importance. "We are about to pass an act in relation to a 
 department of the government wliich every man feels and ought ti) 
 understand. It is in vain we enact good laws unless the}' are well admin- 
 istered. It is that department of government which operates directly 
 on the persons and property of individuals who happen to be citizens of 
 the United States, so far as the jurisdiction is local, or so far as it relates 
 to the internal concerns of the citizens of the respective States. So far as 
 it may operate on general principles it is still more important — therefore 
 have I heard with great attention everything that has been urged by gen- 
 tlemen who are opposed to it, and I shall still be glad to hear all further 
 objections that can be urged. 
 
 We cannot judge wdiether the alteration will be beneficial or injurious, 
 wdthout first making ourselves acquainted with the inconveniences which 
 are supposed to exist. Till we are acquainted with the disease we can- 
 not tell what will be a suitable remedy. I think I can, if favored with 
 the attention of the Senate, if not already satisfied on that point, satisty 
 them that the disease lies much deeper than the gentleman from Ehode 
 Island seems to suppose. I paid great attention to the argument, and he 
 seems to think, so far as I can understand it, that the main grievance 
 which we are called on to remedy, is the delay which takes place in the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. He has not even, in his excellent 
 argument, given the most distant glance at the situation of that section 
 of the country which is on the other side of the mountains, to see what 
 the local inconveniences are, and wdiether the remedy he proposes would 
 be a suitable one or not. The grievances which do exist in the country, 
 are, as I think, of two kinds; one, in the manner in which the business 
 is conducted in the respective States; the other, that Avhich exists in 
 the Supreme Court itself; and tins latter does not consist so much in the 
 delay, as in the incorrectness of tlie decisions wdiere the questions depend 
 upon the municipal laws of the respective States. 
 
 These are the grievances which exist, and which it is the object of this 
 
52 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WniTE. 
 
 bill to remedy. First, by extending to nine Stcates tbe circuit system, 
 which is applicable to, and practised beneficially in, the other fifteen 
 States ; and secondly, to increase on the bench of the Supreme Court a 
 knowledge of the local laws ; those are its leading objects. These nine 
 States, when we look to them, we find thus circumstanced : Six of them 
 have never had, either nominally or in fact, the benefit of a circuit judge, 
 three of these States had nominally, and to a very limited extent, the 
 benefit of the attendance of a judge of the Supreme Court from the 
 year 1809 up to this time. I say they have had it nominally, but not so, 
 in point of fact. "When the judge of the seventh circuit was in the 
 vigor of life, and in the enjoyment of perfect health, it was his duty to 
 attend and hold circuit courts in the districts of East and West Ten- 
 nessee, of Kentucky and Ohio, and from the necessity he was under of 
 leaving one court in time to arrive at the next, in his circuit, an oppor- 
 tunity was not aiTorded him of disposing of the causes on either docket. 
 For example, he Avould have suits enough in "West Tennessee to require a 
 session of two months, but at the end of three or four weeks he was 
 compelled to be in Kentucky, distant two hundred miles, and so on ; and 
 thus it happened, either that the district judges must continue the cotirts 
 after his departure, or the causes must remain undecided. In important 
 suits, parties would not be willing to trust the opinion of the district 
 judge alone, and he would willingly yield to applications for delaj^, until 
 he could have the assistance of the judge of the Supreme Court, and 
 thus the business must be either long delayed, or in most instances decided 
 in the circuit courts of those three States, by the district -judge alone. 
 For several of the last years of Judge Todd's life, his want of health put 
 it out of his power to attend his circuit courts, and thus it has happened 
 that the business in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, has accumulated to 
 an unreasonable extent, and those States have, in truth, been no better 
 provided Avith an opportunity of obtaining a due administration of jus- 
 tice in their Federal Courts, than the other six "Western States ; and how 
 is it Avith regard to them ? They have never had the benefit of the cir- 
 cuit system, even nominally. They have each a district judge, who does 
 all the duties which other district judges perform, and who is vested with 
 the jurisdiction which circuit courts possess in the other States. So 
 far as relates to the grievances which exist in the country, we are safe in 
 considering the whole nine States to be practically in the same situation. 
 "When wo come to look at the laws which vest the courts Avith jurisdic- 
 tion, we find that a large portion of the jurisdiction Avhich is to be exer- 
 cised in those nine States, is of that description which falls within the 
 jurisdiction of a circuit court, and not witJiin the jurisdiction of a dis- 
 trict court. A district court, as such, can have no jurisdiction of suits 
 between A and B, wliether citizens of the United States, or of different 
 States. Some attempts have been made to get them to entertain jurisdic- 
 
JUDICIARY APPORTIONMENT. 53 
 
 tion of the suits between citizens of different States, when the matter in 
 dispute is of more value than tAventy, and of less than five hundred 
 dollars, but so far as I know, they have been unsuccessful. 
 
 As it relates to a great portion of the jurisdiction which is to be exer- 
 cised in those nine States, the Senate must see at once, it is of that class 
 of cases which belongs to the circuit courts in the other States. "What 
 is the situation of these other States ? They have, in point of ftict, as 
 well as in point of law, a circuit court, composed of one judge of 
 the Supreme Court, and the district judge. When a suit is brought, and 
 "the matter in dispute exceeds the sum of two thousand dollars, upon the 
 trial, the parties have the benefit of the opinions of two men, which will 
 in most instances be satisfactory : but if not, the unsuccessful party can 
 remove it to the Supreme Court and there have the judgment revised, 
 and if wrong reversed. If the matter in dispute is less than two thous- 
 and dollars, and the judges disagree in opinion upon anj- point, either party 
 can have that point certified to the Supreme Court, then revised, and the 
 judgment of the circuit court rendered in conformity with the opinion 
 of the Supreme Court. In all criminal cases the defendant has the like 
 advantage. How is it in those nine States? In no case, either civil or 
 criminal, can the parties in the circuit court have anj' opinion but 
 that of the district judge, which in every criminal case, and in every 
 civil one where the matter in dispute is of less value than two thousand 
 dollars, is final and conclusive whether right or wrong; and in all other 
 civil causes, although an erroneous judgment may be revised in the 
 Supreme Court, it is at an expense and trouble which would often be 
 avoided if two judges sat in the circuit court. 
 
 The gentleman from IRew ITampshire said yesterday, we of the "West 
 would not compare wealth with those in the East ; all true enough ; and 
 therefore there are many causes wliere the matter in dispute does not 
 amount to two thousand dollars, and still it is very material to the par- 
 ties that they should be correctly decided. It is certainly not just that a 
 man should be punished as a criminal under an erroneous judgment, or 
 that he should lose his all by the like means, while those living under the 
 same government are protected in their persons and property because 
 more wealthy. "We are one people living under a government common 
 to us all, and each State lias a right to expect from the Federal Govern- 
 ment, that a like provision will be made for her citizens, with that made 
 for the citizens of the other States. This has not been done, and as 
 ■we are to be one people, we have a right to expect it will be no longer 
 delayed. 
 
 Fifteen of the States of tliis "Union have more than doul)le the chance 
 for a correct exposition of your laws that the other nine have ; these 
 nine complain of this inequality, and the only wonder is, that their com- 
 plaints have not been more loud and frequent against this crying injustice. 
 
M MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Tennessee was admitted into thisFnion upoH an equal footing with the 
 original States, and so have the other Western States been. These States 
 feel that this promised equality has not been extended to them ; as sove- 
 reign States, they insist that their citizens must be placed in a situation where 
 their persons and property shall be equally as safe in the Federal Courts, 
 as the citizens of any other State are in their persons and property. With 
 nothing less than this wiU they be contented. But it is said the proper 
 time is not come ; we are used as well as others have been used. I should 
 be glad to know when the time will arrive ? 
 
 Tennessee is thirty years old, Kentucky is older. Ohio came into the 
 Union in 1803, Louisiana in 1812, Indiana in 1816, Illinois in 1816, 
 Missouri in 1821, Mississippi in 1817, Alabama several years ago. Will 
 the gentleman tell us when we shall have arrived at such mature age, 
 as to entitle us to the same benefits of the Federal judiciary that are 
 enjoyed by the other States ? Sometimes they are willing to recognize 
 us as at years of discretion, to put tiieir dearest interests in our keeping. 
 Personal services, money, anything we have, we are disposed to render 
 freely our full share of, according to our abilities. We are Avilling to do 
 our duty ; and I call upon the Senate to say whether they do their duty 
 to us, if they do not put the administration of justice on the same foot- 
 ing in the Western States, as it is in the others. Is not the life of a man 
 in any one of those nine States, worth as much to society as it would be, 
 if he were a constituent of the gentleman from New Hampshire or Rhode 
 Island ? Is it not reasonable to atford the same man as good a chance 
 for justice in the States where he now lives as he would have if he lived 
 in any other? Is that opportunity furnished? No, Sir, it is not. 
 
 It was intimated we had not applied in time. Why did we not apply 
 at the time we were admitted into the Union ? We did apply, and you 
 promised us, and we now respectfully afek a compliance with that pro- 
 mise. Had we been of the original States, should we not have had the 
 benefit we now ask you to extend to us? Surely we should ; therefore, 
 do not put us oflT with less now. 
 
 It maybe said there is not much in all this; tlic wrong is on a limited 
 scale, because the State Courts do the mass of the business. When the 
 people are called to account for crimes, they are called Itefore State Courts, 
 to answer for offences against the State, and not for those against the 
 United States, If gentlemen will think a little they will see the case is 
 not so. We have heard a good deal respecting Indians latterly ; there is 
 a portion of the territory within the limits of the Western States, where 
 the Indian title is not extinguished, and Avhen that is tlie case, every 
 offence committed by a white citizen against an Indian on the Indian 
 side of tlic line, is a subject of Federal and not of State jurisdiction, 
 according to our laws; so likewise of crimes connnittcd by Indians on 
 citizens. Trials for crimes under this branch of your laws arc not unfro- 
 
JUDICIARY APPORTIONMENT. 55 
 
 quent, and no matter •whether the accused is a white, or a red man, a 
 fair opportunity for a correct exposition and application of the laws 
 ought to be furnished. Against the Indians, prejudices invariably 
 exist; they are ignorant, not only of our laws and forms of proceedings, 
 but of our language also ; and common humanity requires that at least 
 the same measure of justice should be meted them, as to a white citizen. 
 I have witnessed several of those trials, and have no doubt they were 
 conducted with perfect integrity ; yet the legal correctness of some 
 might well be doubted. The criminal business then which has existed 
 and may exist in the courts in some of these States is not so limited as 
 those at a distance miglit incline to believe. 
 
 But, sir, we are told that the accumulation of business in some of 
 these courts, in the three States, is produced by temporary causes that are 
 passing away, and that there is no necessity for any alteration in the 
 system on that account: that one circuit judge can do all the business 
 in those three States. It is not to pass away so rapidly as the gentle- 
 men suppose. I do not doubt the correctness of the statement of any 
 gentleman living in any one of those States ; he knows what the business is ; 
 therefore I do not choose to doubt the correctness of what was advanced 
 by the gentleman from Kentucky. I have before me a certificate from 11 lo 
 clerk of the district and circuit court of Kentucky, and at the session of No- 
 vember last, the number of causes on the two dockets combined were nine 
 hundred and fifty. As very little business is to be done in this district ' 
 court, much the greater portion must be on the circuit court docket of 
 that State. IIow is it in Tennessee ? You have the statement of the gen- 
 tleman who belongs to the "Western part, and altogether it may be esti- 
 mated at two hundred. But it is not the number of causes which proves 
 the necessity of a circuit judge, and an extension of the system; this 
 necessity is produced, more by the kind of causes that are to be decided, 
 than by their number. These causes are generally in their own nature, 
 especially those brought into the Federal Court of Tennessee, of the most 
 litigated description. Many of them relate to lands; foreigners claim 
 titles to them, and assert them in the Federal Courts. It is neces- 
 sary to go back and examine what was the condition of the country 
 forty years ago, and you get into a set of diflBculties, from which nothing 
 can extricate you, but a patient, laborious and protracted investigation. 
 They necessarily consume a great deal of time, first in ascertaining the 
 facts before a jury who are to decide the cause, and next in investigating 
 the legal principles which are to govern that decision. To investigate and 
 decide one of those causes, has sometimes taken two weeks ; suppose only 
 one hundred causes on the docket, I ask, if it Avould not be more necessary 
 to extend the judicial system through a country like that, than to a place 
 where there was five hundred on the docket, of which tliirty or forty 
 might be disposed of in a day. If we were to be governed by the mere 
 
56 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON" WniTE. 
 
 number of causes "we should make a most important mistake as relates to 
 this matter. Many disputes in Tennessee relate to land, 'the titles to 
 ■wliich are founded on the act of 1777 in North Carolina, or the act of 
 1783, or those acts to ■which these two have given birth, and in investi- 
 gating matters of fact, it is necessary to go back and ascertain what were 
 tlie names of diiforent places at different times, from those periods up to this 
 time; the whole country was a wilderness, and every man who had a 
 claim under these laws had a right to select a piece of land within a cer- 
 tain boundary, of from four to five hundred miles one way, and one 
 hundred miles the other. "We had not only to investigate our titles 
 derived from the State of North Carolina, but in some instances those 
 issued by Virginia and perhaps Kentucky, likewise, as disputes respecting 
 boundary with those States once existed, upon adjusting which provision 
 is made to secure individual rights. 
 
 "We have amongst our own citizens those who claim under Virginia 
 grants, under Kentucky grants, under North Carolina grants, and under 
 those issued by the State of Tennessee. "Wherever there is any. dispute 
 respecting any of these conflicting titles, they may go into the Federal 
 Court, altliough the parties may be citizens of the same State. You are 
 extinguishing the Indian title as fast as those people are willing to sell ; 
 and, wherever you do, the settlements will keep pace with the extinguish- 
 ment of title. In Tennessee there is a very large district of country, 
 granted to individuals under the law of North Carolina in 1783, which, 
 until a very short time ago, the United States had secured to the Indians 
 by treaty ; that country is now settling, and every man has to look for 
 the land for which he obtained his patent. Many of these conflict, and 
 whenever they do, and a foreigner happens to be the owner of one of 
 these titles, the consequence is, that tlie cause goes into the Federal 
 Court. So long as tliis process of extinguishing the Indian title, and 
 settling the country, is going' on, it is in vain for gentlemen to say that 
 those disputes are i)roduced by temporary causes, or that they are pass- 
 ing away; they cannot pass away until your settlements are completed. 
 
 Do we not all know tliat, in 1794, and onward for several years, a 
 great rage for speculation existed, in Philadelphia, New York and the 
 Eastern States ; that immense quantities of "Western lands were bought 
 up by foreigners, or citizens of otlicr States ? Considerable quantities were 
 purchased in Tennessee. Tliese companies have found it convenient to 
 part with their titles to various individuals, and those claimants who 
 have got titles in this manner, living in other States, when they come 
 forward to assert tlieir titles, now that the Indian title is extinguished, 
 assert them in tlie Federal Courts. 
 
 liiit, tlie gentleman says, you have Federal Courts, and the people must 
 have confidence in them, because, if they had not, they would sue in the 
 State Courts. "Will the Senate reflect, for a moment, on the idea sug- 
 
JUDICIARY ATPOUTIONMENT. 67 
 
 gested, and they will easily see some of the difficulties under which we 
 labor. The titles to the land must be settled by the laws of the State in 
 which the land lies. A citizen of anotlicr State, or a foreigner, claims 
 title to a tract in Tennessee ; he finds a man in possession under a con- 
 flicting title. This foreigner can sue either in the Federal or State Courts, 
 at his election. lie submits his title to counsel, wlio advises him that, 
 according to the decisions of the State Courts, tlie man in possession has 
 the better title. The foreigner orders suit in the Federal Court; there is 
 but one judge, and he, living in the State, will likely follow the State 
 decisions, and give judgment in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff 
 takes a writ of error, and carries the cause to the Supreme Court, before 
 a set of judges, who neither know or have they the means of knowing, 
 the local laws, or the true reasons of the decision ; and, for want of this 
 information, judgment is reversed, and thus the plaintiff becomes the 
 owner of a piece of property Avhich he otlierwise would not have ac- 
 quired. Plaintiffs often commence suit in the Federal Courts expressly 
 for the sake of gaining an advantage over their adversaries, which they 
 could not get in any other tribunal Avhatever. And yet, this is the argu- 
 ment relied on to show that Federal justice is well administered to us. 
 
 "What, sir, is the situation of the other States, Louisiania for example? 
 These are British, Spanish, and French grants; so also, in Mississippi and 
 Missouri. All these may go, and mostly do go, into the Federal Courts, 
 principally for the sake of having these cases removed into the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, if such a decision is not given as is satisfac- 
 tory to the plaintiff. So far as Tennessee is concerned, those who act 
 under the belief that our business has accumulated from temporary causes, 
 are in the main mistaken : to a limited extent, no doubt, they are correct. 
 I believe if our circuit had been one of reasonable extent, and we had the 
 benefit of our circuit judge the number of suits on our docket would 
 have been much less. Where a man has a cause which he thinks he 
 ought to gain, if the law is well understood, he will not agree to have 
 that cause tried before any one man, when there is another of a higher 
 legal character. It is a very unpleasant thing to have to settle disputes 
 between man and man, and when it comes to the last stage, there are few 
 men who would not like to be eased of a portion of the responsibility of 
 the decision. If a reasonable excuse can be made to defer it to another 
 time the district judge will fall in with it, because his associate Avill then 
 be with him, and he will have the benefit of his opinion, and be better 
 satisfied, if they agree, that he is right, than if there Avas none with him, 
 and if he should disagree in opinion with him, by certifying that there 
 was a difference of opinion, it could be carried into the Supreme Court, 
 and no mischief would arise. It is to their credit that they have this 
 disposition. I do not make unnecessary complaints against the district 
 judge of the State in which I live. He is entitled to as much character 
 
58 MEMOLR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 as any other judicial oflBcer on the score of integrity; and if he ever does 
 make mistakes, whicli, I think, is but seklom, it is in endeavoring to attain 
 that which he thinks the justice of particular cases. The people of 
 Tennessee have as much right as the people of any other State in the 
 Union, to have the opinions of two men who will concur, as to which is 
 right in their disputes. It is vain to tell me we are placed on an equal 
 footing with the other States, while they have one measure of justice 
 meted to their citizens and the citizens of Tennessee have a diiferent mea- 
 sure meted to them. I would rather you should lop off one of our Sena- 
 tors, or three of our Representatives — reduce us as to the power we have 
 in the Executive and Legislative business of this government, but when 
 you come to the practical operations of this government, that are to take 
 away a man's life, liberty or property, let our citizens have an equal op- 
 portunity for the administration of justice, with any portion of the good 
 people of the United States. 
 
 During the last session this subject was before you and was put off by 
 saying, we have not had time to examine it, and at the next session, we 
 wiU all lay our shoulders to the wheel and accomplish this particular task. 
 And, sir, where are we now ? About the 12th of April they took up this 
 subject in the other house, the committee made a report, the subject 
 was examined and amply discussed, and they passed a bill in substance 
 similar to the one on your table. The same subject was referred to the 
 Judiciary Committee of this body, who concurred in a similar report ; 
 and after the bill from the other house was brought here, it was referred 
 to them, and they reported it, with an amendment, which is not calcu- 
 lated to change very materially the principles of the bill. Every gentle- 
 man has matured his judgment on this subject, and, if he does not Hke 
 the present proposition, let him give us his system in its stead. But now 
 the worthy gentleman from New Hampshire comesforward with a general 
 proposition to refer the bill to the Judiciary Committee, to see whether 
 they cannot contrive, in some way or other, to relieve our local distress 
 and inconvenience, without adding any member to the Supreme Court. 
 I put it to tlie gentleman himself, and to every member of the Senate, 
 whether, if they have solid objections to this bill, if they are able to 
 digest a system which tlicy think better suited to put us on an equality 
 Avith the rest of the Union ; whether they do not owe it to their own 
 justice, to their own character, to their own high standing, to have 
 brought forward a distinct proposition, containing another system that 
 would have placed us in a similar condition with the other States of the 
 Union ? It is very easy to raise olyections ; but you can never test the 
 merits of this bill, compared with any other plan, until you have the 
 other in detail likewise. Suppose sir, that a majority of this Senate 
 should believe that the number of judges ought to be seven, and they 
 send it back to the conimittoe to find out how the United States are to 
 
JUDICIAKY APPOKTIOXMENT. 59 
 
 be divided into seven- circnits; tticy try it everyway. They cannot fix 
 on any plan that is not liable to stronger objections than the present bill 
 — what then? Are wo to have no relief? If the gentleman who made 
 this proposition had given us something like a detailed plan for his seven 
 judges, and compared that plan with this, tlicn there would have been 
 something to test the principle he has so ably advocated on this occasion. 
 It is a principle which seems phiusible within itself; but when you come 
 to detail it, to reduce it to practical operation, it is found to bo one which, 
 ;srhen compared to the situation of the United States, cannot be used. I 
 think we have cause to complain Avhen we find that, after this matter has 
 been postponed for eight or ten years, and the lapse of time which has 
 taken place during the present session, those who are opposed to it say 
 they are disposed to do what is just towards us, but find fault without 
 submitting any 1)lan which might keep up hopes that we are not to be 
 always in the situation in which we are now placed. 
 
 The gentleman from Rhode Island I understand exactly. He wishes to 
 get back to tlie good old system of 1801, because he thinks it is bettef 
 thiEin any other which can be devised. I do not intend for him anything 
 which I say upon the subject of unkindness, they are all intended for the 
 gentleman from New Hampshire, who sends us so many good wishes, of 
 which I wish to see the fruits. 
 
 As to the circuit court part of the system, every one must be satis- 
 fied that we are not on an equal footing with the other States. Increase, 
 then, the number of judges to such an extent as to enable us, with rea- 
 sonable circuits,' to have the services of some one or other of the judges 
 of the Supreme Court. This is the remedy, and then shall we be on an 
 equal footing with the others. Let no gentleman object to this system 
 because we cannot furnish good materials for judges; if they cannot be 
 found in that part of the country, we will receive, thankfully, the addi- 
 tion of talent from any quarter of the Union. That luminary which gives 
 us light rises in the East and passes to the West. I suppose it is the 
 same with genius and talent: let us then go to the morning, and draw 
 from the fountain-head of talent as much as wnll answer the wants of the 
 West, and give us the benefit of it. I wish justice administered. I in- 
 dulge in no prejudices. From the East they have sent us out those who 
 have made us valuable officers, whom I should be sorry to part with. I 
 wish them to remain with us as citizens of our State, and if the j)re3ent 
 system should be adopted, the Pi'esident should see fit to find the ma- 
 terials to fill the offices in the East, let him make the experiment, and if 
 it turns out that they are qualified, I shall never be disposed to be very 
 clamorous on that subject. 
 
 The gentlemen from Rhode Island and InTcw Ilampshiro seem to 
 think, that on this system, if it should pass, no benefit to us can result as 
 to an increase of knowledge of local laws on the bench of the Supremo 
 
60 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Court. In tliis I disagree with the gentlemen. Take a man from Ehode 
 Island, and I think it likely he is as ignorant of the laws of Tennessee as 
 I am of those of Ehode Island ; place him on the Supreme Court bench, 
 and let him be compelled to hold our circuit courts, and reside among 
 us, and I think that in the course of one year he will be better qualified 
 to decide our causes than any judge in the Supreme Court in the present 
 organization will be in forty years. He sets out ignorant of our local 
 laws — but he is acquainted with his own profession ; he is associated at 
 once with tlie district judge, who is intimately acquainted with the local 
 laws ; he meets with that which he never met with in the Supreme 
 Court ; he meets with the most intelligent of the profession in that county 
 where he goes to do business. They have their own materials, their own 
 books; they have had leisure to make preparations for every cause; they 
 have looked into every act of Assembly which relates' to the subject, 
 into every record, into every case found which has any relation to the 
 subject, and this judge, so called on to dispense justice, after he has 
 heard the arguments on both sides, and has conferred with the district 
 judge, will be very likely to decide correctly even in the first instance — 
 for six weeks or two months his court may continue — daily, causes 
 depending on tbe local laws are under discussion ; his leisure moments 
 are spent in conversation relative to those local laws ; at the end 
 of his first term will he not have acquired more knowledge of the 
 local laws than on the bench of the Supreme Court during his life? In 
 the Supreme Court one cause, depending on those local laws, may be 
 argued during a term, without the necessary books, without much pre- 
 paration, by those ill informed of those laws; it is decided: and perhaps 
 for twelve months no other cause, depending on those same laws, comes 
 before the court. The subject is then taken up as a new one ; and thus 
 he maj' go on from year to year, without any improvement in a know- 
 ledge of local law. Take a man of good natural capacity — a scientific, 
 well-bred lawyer, compel him to reside in the circuit; he immediately 
 acquires a knowledge of the local laws of the States in his circuit because 
 he must continue his mind upon a succession Ofi similar causes, until he 
 has disposed of perhaps fifty or one hundred without having it distracted 
 by an attention to any other. He soon acquires a knowledge of the laws 
 as a system, which is not to be forgotten. But upon tlie bench of the 
 Supreme Court, he has no such advantage ; and it would be strange if 
 he did not go off almost as ignorant of local laws as he came on it. 
 
 Now, whetlier it bo seven or ten, or of whatever number it may be, I 
 insist that it is a valuable feature in our system, and one that I would 
 not part with any more than I would with that most valuable political 
 privilege, of trial by jury ; that tlio man who is ultimately to decide the 
 cause must be in a situation to have a reasonable opportunity of becoming 
 acquainted with the laws tliat are to form the ground of that decision. 
 
JUDICIAIiY APPORTIONMENT. 61 
 
 Says the gentleman, by :niiat mystery is it that you are going to commu- 
 nicate the information which that one judge lias obtained, to the other 
 nine ? The moment a cause is brought into the Supreme Court, instead 
 of their having to grope about without knowing how, or where to find the 
 necessary statutes and authorities, they make common stock of all the 
 knowledge tliey have acquired, and the judge who has made himself 
 acquainted with the local laws, applicable to the case in question, brings 
 to their view at once, not only the statutes, but all the authorities he has 
 had_ access to, in relation to the same question, and when these materials 
 are spread before them, then, sir, the}' are prei)ared to come to a correct 
 determination. There is no mystery in this ? Each is not to lock up 
 within his own breast all the information he has acquired upon legal 
 subjects, and let his brethren be groping about in darkness. They talk 
 freely on legal subjects amongst themselves, they make joint-stock of 
 their knowledge, they apply their natural talents, and then, sir, they 
 bring out such a result as they think will be according to the justice and 
 law of the case. The moment you give me one judge on the bench of the 
 Supreme Court that has a knowledge of the laws of the country in which 
 I live, the Supreme Court is placed in a situation that it can dispense 
 justice between man and man in Tennessee; but till that is done, it is as 
 nmeh a matter of accident, as anything else, that justice should be done, 
 I have no complaint to make against the judges of the Supreme Court, 
 nor have I any eulogies to pronounce on them. In some causes that have 
 come from Tennessee to the Supreme Court, I think their decisions erro- 
 neous ; I have the same opinion as it relates to some other States. But iu 
 the situation in which they have been placed, I am surprised they have 
 not been oftener wrong. It is the lot of hunian beings to err when they 
 have the best means of information, and it would be strange if tliey did 
 not err, when you compel them to act without the necessary means of 
 information. There was one case in which their decision was in opposi- 
 tion to all the decisions of the State Courts, in which they applied old 
 principles that were inap|)licable to our local laws, and thereby reversed, 
 the decision of the district judge doing duty as a circuit judge, and sent 
 the cause back to be retried; upon the second trial, a more enlarged, 
 view of the case was given in a bill of exceptions, and the cause again 
 brought to the Supreme Court, and they a second time reversed the 
 judgment of tlie circuit court, and took great pains to explain aAvay 
 what seemed to be the ground of the first decision, thereby using their 
 endeavors to ward off the mischief likely to flow from the first opinion. 
 I mention these things, not as a gi-ound on which to censure any man 
 who is on that bench ; I liave as much confidence in them as any man 
 who has no more acquaintance with them, and who is as little capable of 
 forming opinions relative to their decisions. Still, I aui constrained to 
 believe, that not only in the case alluded to, but iu some others, they 
 
62 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 have not correctly expounded our municipal laws, and tliat miseliiefs 
 have been produced ; and that more must inevitably be produced, if that 
 court is not placed on a difterent footing from that on which it now 
 stands. 
 
 Had we not better pass the bill on the table, than throw everything into 
 a state of confusion by the reference? Ilad we not better refuse the 
 gentleman's proposition ? If you agree to it, when is there to be an end ? 
 The gentleman from New York stated that there were grievances under 
 which we labored, but that he did not deem them to be so great as to 
 justify all the clamor that had been raised in that part of the country. I 
 think he has not yet got to the bottom of our grievances, unless — 
 
 [Mr, Van Buren rose to explain; he had stated on the part of 
 Tennessee, that there had been no complaint — their memorials were 
 such as they ought to have been — they stated their grievances fairly and 
 fully, and left it to the wisdom of Congress to apply the remedy. But he 
 had stated that complaints had been made elsewhere.] 
 
 Mr. "White resumed. I am very glad to receive the explanation. It 
 gave me pain to think our complaints should be censured from so respect- 
 able a quarter, and I am relieved to find I misunderstood the gentleman. 
 By the bill upon your table, we can be reheved ; without some change, 
 the causes of complaint must continue. The gentleman from New Hamp- 
 shire finds fault with the bill, and chalks out no plan. The gentleman 
 from Ehode Island excepts to the bill, and refers to a substitute. What 
 is his remedy ? He wishes the judges of the Supreme Court to form an 
 appellate court, and to be reheved from all circuit duties, and to have a 
 separate set of judges, called circuit judges, to try all causes in the 
 respective circuits. Indeed, sir, I should think (to use his own language) 
 he would give us a remedy worse than the disease, and I believe that no 
 man that has reflected well on this subject, and is a friend to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, Avill ever put its high character in jeopardy 
 by any such system. As an American I am proud of the chai-acter it 
 now sustains. It is not only a blessing upon the whole to the nation, but 
 some of its members are a credit to the age in which we hve. And how 
 did they become so? Not by being shut up in Washington, in- New 
 York, or in lihode Island, but by letting them have a fair opportunity to 
 become acquainted, not only with those things which are to be got out of 
 books, but with those things which arc going on in that society of which 
 tliey are members. Let me not be told that I wish to send the judges 
 out popularity hunting — to drink a dram with this ignorant man, or to 
 take his broakfost witli another; but I say, send the judges of tlie Supreme 
 Court, to administer and dispense justice in tlie respective States in the 
 presence of the citizens of those States, of the counsel that attend the bar 
 and the jury ; let them hear the witnesses that depose as to the facts ofi 
 the case. 
 
JUDICIARY APPORTIONMENT. 63 
 
 "Wliile the jndge in his circuit dispenses justice, ho watches, with all 
 possible care, the conduct of the counsel, the course of the testimony, and 
 sees its practical application to the particular transactions of men ; at the 
 same time that he is dispensing justice, he is keeping up an essential part 
 of his education ; he is keeping up his personal knowledge of human 
 nature, he sees its workings as it is; — and of all the places on cartli where a 
 man can be placed to acipiire a knowledge of human nature, tlie best is a 
 court of justice, wlien the jury is to decide a matter of fact, and viva voce 
 testimony is given, to inform them on it. Put the question down in the 
 most cai-eful state you can, in a bill of exceptions, and an appellate court 
 never can have the same impression made on their minds, that they 
 would have had, if they had seen and heard the same testimony delivered 
 to a jury. Do you believe there would have been the improvement there 
 has been in the doctrine of evidence during the last hundred years, if 
 those who established these rules had possessed no practical knowledge 
 acquired at niuprins or elsewhere? How long is it since the distinction 
 has been drawn between a competent and a credible witness ? But lock 
 these judges up in Westminster Ilall, or in Ehode Island, or in New 
 York, or Washington, and you take them from the source of information, 
 and what becomes of them? If I wished to lessen their standing in 
 society, and to destroy public confidence in them, to put them in such a 
 situation that, instead of doing justice between man and man, they 
 should become a curse to the country, I would adopt the system recom- 
 mended by the gentleman from Rhode Island. 
 
 Again sir: it is a great object in the administration of justice to 
 keep mankind satisfied. If I could spare the property, I would almost 
 as soon lose a portion of mine, by the decision of a man in whom I had 
 entire confidence, as to gain by the judgment of one that I beheved 
 decided in my favor, he thinking that his own decision was wrong; 
 because in such case, I would feel that neither my person or property 
 was safe. Take the judges of the Supreme Court from all circuit duties, 
 and you make them strangers to society- they will have no acquaintance 
 with any portion of the profession, except the very few who may prac- 
 tice at their blar ; let them then decide some favorite statute of some of 
 your large sovereign States to be unconstitutional, and it will be found 
 that they have not enough of character to sustain them. But keep each 
 of them in the discharge of circuit duties, and they are all forced into 
 society; in their respective circuits, they become personally and inti- 
 mately known to most of the respectable men in those circuits; to clerks, 
 marshals, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, bystanders, and if they have 
 integrity and talents to fit them for their higli station, it becomes known, 
 and felt by tlie mass of society; who are witnesses of their usefulness: 
 then let them decide such a statute to be unconstitutional (and so they 
 ought to do, if such be the fact), and then see how well public opinion 
 
64 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAW80N WHITE. 
 
 •will sustain them. The moment the decision is complained of, the 
 inquiry by every man will be, did the judge with whom I am acquainted, 
 concur in that decision? and if answered in the affirmative, he will 
 immediately say, the decision must be right, he is honest and enlight- 
 ened, and would not have concurred unless the judgment was correct. 
 
 Again, you put a man of middle life upon the Bench well qualified 
 for his station; make the court stationary; take from the judge all 
 circuit duties : and, if he live to reasonable age, he will most probably 
 die unqualified for his office. How will the judges fill up the intervals 
 of time between the sessions of the Supreme Court ? . It is answered by 
 reading. I put it to every practical, well-informed lawyer to say, 
 ■whether it would not be more profitably employed in holding circuit 
 courts. Take any one legal subject, and let the judge be in search of 
 information upon it, and, I say he will, in my opinion, acquire more by 
 hearing arguments upon it, for one day in the week, than he will by 
 reading the whole week; and that wMch he has thus acquired, will 
 remain with him for life. 
 
 Again. Take from them circuit duties, and a main stimulus to 
 exertion is destroyed ; the mind is, for a considerable portion of life, 
 improved by use, one exertion prepares it for another, and by repeated 
 eflforts, it acquii-es a vigor and force not to be otherwise acquired. 
 Make the judges stationary, and they will soon content themselves with 
 moderate labors, their reading will be alone ; none to help them to com- 
 pare and examine ideas collected from books, they will have no precise 
 object in view : but keep them to the circuits, and then they Avill have 
 every inducement to exertion ; their conduct will be, in the view of the 
 world; the causes openly argued; the opinions of the judge are formed 
 for present use, must be accompanied by his reasons to support them, 
 delivered in presence of jury, witnesses, parties, counsel, and by- 
 standers; if WTong, he will be called upon to re-examine them on motion 
 for a new trial, when their errors will be openly exposed, and refuted. 
 He will therefore, have every inducement to continued and unremitted 
 exertion; and tliis exertion will daily increase his capacity for use- 
 fulness. 
 
 On the plan proposed by this bill, you make the judges men of 
 vigorous minds, well stored with useful knowledge, capable of forming 
 and continually, not only forming, but actually expressing opinions for 
 themselves. 
 
 On that proposed by the gentleman from Rhode Island, you will soon 
 have your judges, bookworms, if you choose, without any practical 
 knowledge; their minds enervated for want of use, neither habituated to 
 form, nor to express opinions for themselves, acting seldom or never on 
 individual responsibility ; always in the presence only of the compara- 
 tively few, who may be attendant on the Supreme Court. By this plan, 
 
JUDICIARY APPORTIONMENT. 65 
 
 they will soon lose that mauly independence so beneficial to society, and 
 become mere drivellers, drones, ready to lean upon any associate, 
 ambitious of distinction, and aduiinibly fitted for any unwortliy purposes 
 to -which a designing Executive may wish to apply them. 
 
 It is said that another misfortune from the proposed plan will be, 
 that it Avill add to the existing grievance in tlie Supreme Court — delay. 
 At the first view, there certainly appeared something very plausible in 
 this objection; but, upon mature consideration, I think the business 
 will rather be expedited by this additional number of justices, than 
 otlierwise. 
 
 How is the delay to be increased ? Because, say gentlemen, eacli 
 judge must make himself acquainted with the contents of the record 
 and it will take ten men longer to do so than seven. 
 
 Tliis diSiculty is in a good degree removed, if we suppose the judges 
 will make such arrangement as that one shall read the record, and the 
 other nine listen to him while reading it; upon this plan, ten will 
 become acquainted with its contents in as short a time as seven. But 
 suppose some delay to be occasioned from this cause, it is more than 
 counterbalanced by positive advantages by an increase of tlie number of 
 judges. 
 
 Have ten judges of the Supreme Court performing the duties of cir- 
 cuit judges, and you bring to the Bench of the Supreme Court in a short 
 time, an intimate knowledge of the municipal laws of the respective 
 States; when one of those causes depending for its decision upon any 
 of those local laws shall be brought into the Supreme Court, the court 
 will at once be able to refer to all the statutes and decisions which ought 
 to govern their judgment ; when as now they are frequently at a loss to 
 procure either the one. or the other; and it consumes much time and 
 requires great labor to procure those materials, from which, alone, a 
 correct opinion can be formed ; and often it must happen, that decisions 
 are given without the benefit of all the information from these sources 
 which they ought to have. 
 
 Suppose a case to be decided upon the local laws of a State, and the 
 State desirous to have fixed the construction of a doubtful statute ; but 
 no book of reports containing those decisions to exist — how can the 
 Supreme Court acquire the necessary information? Only through the 
 industry and research of the counsel employed. They may and often 
 will report them ditferently, and leave the court in great doubt. But 
 pass this bill, and one at least of the members of the Supreme Court will, 
 on his circuit, liave acquired a knowledge of those decisions, and can 
 give correct information to his brethren. 
 
 But, sir, it has been urged that by increasing the number of judges, 
 you increase the number of causes in the Supreme Coiirt, and of course 
 most delay the decisions there. To this argument I answer, first, it is 
 
 5 
 
66 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 not likely the fact will turn out to be as supposed : in all suits exceeding 
 the value of two thousand dollars writs of error can now be brought ; if 
 a judge of the Supreme Court is associated with the district judge on 
 the trial below, and they concur in opinion, most frequently both parties 
 will be satisfied, and no writ of error will be brought ; whereas now, 
 when the causes are decided below, by one man, and he a district judge, 
 writs of error will be almost invariably brought if there is the least room 
 for a doubt. It is therefore most probable the number of writs of error 
 will be diminished in all those cases to which I have alluded. 
 
 But it is said now, no criminal case can be brought to the Supreme 
 Court, nor can any civil one, when the matter in dispute is of less value 
 than two thousand dollars ; because as the decisions will be by the dis- 
 trict judge alone, there can be no certificate of a division of opinion, by 
 which means only such cases cau be brought to the Supi-eme Court. 
 
 I must regret that such an argument should be used to defeat this bill. 
 It conforms to the rule by which tyrants govern. The substance of it is, 
 that it is better that a man in one of those nine "Western States, should be 
 hanged or lose his property by the erroneous decision of the single judge, 
 than that a suitor from any other of the fifteen States should have his suit 
 delayed in the Supreme Court, by increasing the number of causes upon 
 its docket. 
 
 This argument cannot be tolerated; all are to be equally obedient 
 to the same laws ; all must be protected by them. The main object 
 of government, and one of its first duties is, to protect the innocent at 
 the same time that it punishes the guilty. The citizens of one State 
 are not to be unjustly punished, that those of another may have a 
 speedy revision of their causes in the Supreme Court. The citizens of 
 each are entitled to the same measure of justice, and an equal chance for 
 a correct administration of it must be furnished to all. Will it be allowed 
 tliat a citizen of Tennessee must submit to injustice, for no better reason 
 than to enable a citizen of New York, or Ehode Island, to have his cause 
 speedily decided in the Supreme Court ? It is hoped not. 
 
 Something was said about the weight of population, and that the 
 proposed bill would give to the "West more judges than their relative 
 numbers would entitle tlicm to. 
 
 Mr. President, I have not felt the force of any argument used upon this 
 point. Before the judicial system of the United States is extended, there 
 must be States, those States must have citizens living in them ; and those 
 citizens must have suits, or a reasonable prospect for suits of Federal 
 jurisdiction to be decided, and wlicnever these tilings occur, your sys- 
 tcTM, applicable to the otlier States, ought to be extended to embrace tlicm. 
 Take a State composed of a number of counties, some of them tliickly 
 populated, others with a population more sparse ; what would be thought 
 of a legislature which, in devising a judicial system, would make ouesys- 
 
JUDICIARY APPORTIONMENT. 67 
 
 tern for those counties of dense, another for those of thin population ? 
 "Would they act wisely or justly wlien they directed the courts in counties 
 thinly settled, to be lield by a single justice of tlie peace whose decision 
 should be final ; and tlie courts in the counties tliickly settled, to be 
 holden by a justice of the peace and a judge of the Supreme Court; and 
 that in all cases where they disagreed, no judgment should be entered 
 until a Supreme Court, composed of seven men should be consulted? All 
 would concur in pronouncing such a course unwise and unjust ; yet the 
 very argument now used goes to justify such a system. 
 
 Upon this branch of the subject I hope it will be seen that, if this bill 
 passes, the confidence reposed in the decisions of the circuit courts, will 
 tend to diminish rather than increase appeals ; that the increased know- 
 ledge of local laws on the Supreme Bench will facilitate the decisions 
 there, in place of delaying them ; but that, if some delay should be pro- 
 duced, it is far better that should be submitted to, than that nine States 
 should be compelled to live under a judicial system less favorable to the 
 administration of justice than that which is afforded to the other fifteen. 
 
 There is another point of view in which this matter ought to be con- 
 sidered, when we are considering and comparing the utility of the bill 
 upon your table, with the system of 1801, which the gentleman from 
 Ehode Island desires to re-establish as a substitute for it. 
 
 That which this bill proposes is a mere extension of the judicial system, 
 as it now exists, and has existed in fifteen of the States for many years. 
 Its utility has been tested by experience, and its provisions have been 
 generally approved. If the bill passes, no change even in the nine States, 
 will be aflfected by which society can be disturbed ; the courts will sit 
 at the same time in the respective circuits ; the business will be conducted 
 upon the same plan heretofore adopted ; the only sensible alteration will 
 be that, instead of one man upon the bench when the courts sit, there 
 will be two. We are creatures of habit, and any radical change in a 
 judicial system, by which the settled habits of the people are disturbed, 
 or changed, is not likely to succeed, even if the new would, in the end, 
 be better than the old ; it is not likely that the new will be tolerated long 
 enough to give it a fair experiment, unless the old has been found glar- 
 ingly defective. In this instance this is not the case — the old has been 
 tested and approved, and if now changed, as the gentleman wishes, the 
 people will compel us to change lach to tliat which this bill proposes. 
 
 It has been said that the system of 1801 did not go into operation, it 
 was unpopular on account of those who proposed and adopted it, and there- 
 fore, put down without a fair experiment. Be it so ; and it is a proof of 
 the correctness of my argument. Tlie old system, that which we wish 
 now to extend, had been adopted in 1789; its utility had been proved; 
 without necessity a new experiment was made by the act of 1801, not 
 called for by any existing grievance; the people would not submit to it; 
 
68 irEMOER OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 they iHit it down, and with it, or rather before it, those who had brought 
 it into existence. You now wish to re-instate that system to reheve the 
 West. From that very quarter came the attack upon it. It was com- 
 menced by Breckenridge, of Kentucky, and it was rej^ealed. It is a mis- 
 take to suppose it never went into operation ; we had the circuit system 
 in operation, for a short time, both in Kentucky and Tennessee, the only 
 two "Western States then in existence. No time was lost in putting it in 
 operation anywhere, and but little lost in commencing the struggle by 
 which it was put down, and that of 1789 re-instated. Let us not repeat 
 the experiment. We need not flatter ourselves it will be better received 
 now than it was then. The system then approved, is that which is still 
 approved; pass this bill, and thereby extend its benefits to the nine 
 Western States. By this means you will keep the people happy and con- 
 tented : but, disturb their settled habits, uselessly make the radical 
 change which gentlemen desire, and a struggle is again commenced, 
 which will produce great discontent, and end in the overthrow of the 
 new system and the re-establishmeut of that which is now known and 
 approved. " 
 
 The alteration effected by this bill will be, that the Supreme Court 
 will be composed of ten in place of seven. Gentlemen say they would 
 rather reduce, than increase the number of judges — six, say they ; and 
 then, as circumstances wiU permit, until the number which composes it 
 shall be only four. Seven is the favorite number in religious matters, and 
 four in legal matters, according to the opinion of gentlemen on the other 
 side. And why fix upon the number of four? Because, in Great 
 Britain, four is the number which comprises their highest courts. 
 
 Mr. President, w'e have borrowed many of our most valuable ideas upon 
 legal subjects from Great Britain ; but care must be taken not to copy 
 too far. That country is of small extent, an island ; a judge in any one 
 part of it has it perfectly in his power to acquire a knowledge of the 
 general laws applicable to the whole, and also of the particular customs 
 applicable to any particular part. That is not our situation in the United 
 States — our country is of immense extent; even judges of the Supreme 
 Court ought to bo Avell acquainted with the general laws of nations ; 
 your conventional laws ; with the Constitution and laws of the United 
 States, and with the Constitution and laws of twenty-four distinct and 
 independent States, varying from each other in many important particu- 
 lars. The same system Avhich has been found well adapted to the one 
 country, may bo entirely unsuited to the other. Four judges would be 
 more likely to bring all necessary legal knowledge into the Court of King's 
 Bench, in England, tlian ten will be to bring all the legal knowledge 
 necessary to tlic I)cncb of the Supreme Court. The situation and circum- 
 'stances of our own country must be carefully attended to, otherwise we 
 shall do great mischief by borrowing from others, and adopting systems 
 
JUDICIARY APPORTIONMENT. 69 
 
 not suited to the extent of our territory, to the circumstances, and 
 situation, and habits of our citizens, nor to the various and multiplied 
 peculiarities in our Federal and State laws. From no country upon earth 
 can "we expect a model which will suit us for a judiciary. Our country, 
 and everything in it, is upon a more extended scale ; and our judiciary 
 must be adapted to our own situation and circumstances. The politician, 
 who will be useful in the United States, must permit his mind to com- 
 prehend the various interests of the different sections of country ; the 
 habits, customs, and pursuits of the people in different quarters — even 
 their prejudices, if you choose — and from all these considerations, enact 
 his laws upon such principles as will secure the interests of the whole. 
 He who will not permit his mind so far to expand as to embrace the Avhole 
 extent of his own country, will always bo in danger of inflicting injury, 
 ■while he intends to afford protection. Let us then pass this bill ; make 
 our system co-extensive with the country; adapt it to the wishes and 
 expectations of society; place every State on an equal footing in fact, 
 with every other : we will then have made an effort upon this subject 
 from which we have reason to anticipate much good. Sliould it, con- 
 trary to our expectations and wishes, be productive of mischief, the fifteen 
 States which now have an efficient system, can have no just cause of com- 
 plaint. The situation of all will be equal ; the inconvenience will be com- 
 mon to all. We have a right to expect and therefore do expect, this risk 
 "will be encountered in an attempt to do justice to all. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SENATORIAL CAREER — INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS V. S. BANK. 
 
 During the period from the session of 1825-6 to that of 1831-2, 
 Judge White delivered few speeches of any considerable length. In- 
 deed, during his whole life, he spoke unfrequently ; saying so much 
 as would explain his reasons for voting, where necessary, or briefly 
 presenting his views upon any subject of sufficient importance. 
 
 In the days of President Jackson, the question of Internal Improve- 
 ments was one as yet not fully investigated. There was in many 
 sections of the country, a strong feeling, based upon the evident profits 
 to accrue from such improvements, in favor of the extension of aid to 
 them by the general government ; and the question was, moreover, 
 warmly urged by the opposition, probably not without a view of em- 
 barrassing the administration, by forcing it either to appropriate vast 
 sums for the purpose, and so to incur the odium of extravagance, or 
 to defeat all such appropriations, and so to incur dislike in the sec- 
 tions of country asking them. Judge White never sanctioned the 
 doctrine of Internal Improvements by the federal government. He 
 believed that no power was expressly granted by the Constitution to 
 the federal government to engage in the business of Internal Im- 
 provements as a system. On the contrary, it was his opinion that 
 the extensive power of making roads and canals through States, be- 
 longed exclusively to the States, and should never be surrendered to the 
 central government ; that although in a state of war, or for purposes 
 of war, the United States possessed the power to make a road through 
 any State, as, in a case of necessity they might also, under the power to 
 " establish post roads," construct a road, such powers were only to be 
 exercised in extraordinary cases. And, aside from this decision upon 
 the ground of unconstitutionality, the power in question would, he 
 believed, be dangerous from its capacity of being abused. It would 
 place an immense patronage in the hands of the federal Executive, 
 and might thus be most destructively wielded whenever the Executive 
 
 70 
 
SPEECH AT KNOKVILLE, 1827. 71 
 
 should choose, in purchasing friends at elections or other critical 
 periods. 
 
 As a good summary of his opinion on this and some other subjects, 
 and likewise for the sake of exhibiting by its latter paragraphs the 
 principles avowed by the party which elected General Jackson, which 
 were deserted by them at their convenience, when expediency seemed 
 to call for tergiversation ; and for consistent adherence to which prin- 
 ciples, and for the consequent necessary severance from the remainder 
 of his former friends, they poured out upon hira during the last years 
 of his life, such floods of unfounded reproach, we here insert the 
 larger part of a speech delivered by Judge White to his constituents 
 atlvnoxville, April oth, 1827, at a dinner there given by them to him, 
 in acknowledirment of his services in the Senate. 
 
 "■o 
 
 Gentlemen : — 
 
 I should be worse than insensible, if I did not feel very grateful for the 
 kind sentiments just expressed. Next to being conscious of good in- 
 tention, is the approbation of those who have reposed confidence in me; 
 and, especially, that portion of them, wlio have been witnesses of ray con- 
 duct from youth to manhood, and from middle age to the decline of life. 
 For this testimony in my favor, I tender you mj- most grateful acknow- 
 ledgments. It is due, however, to myself to say, that I feel humbled 
 under the conviction that it has not been in my power to render any 
 service to my country, in my present station, at all equal to those your 
 kind partiality has been pleased to ascribe to me. Had I been fully aware 
 of the difficulties I would have to encounter, and of the afflictions I was 
 doomed to suffer, I believe I should have shrunk from the task assigned 
 me by the Legislature ; but, having voluntarily undertaken it, no domestio 
 afflictions, no public calumny, could make me seriously doubt for one mo- 
 ment the course I ought to pursue. I must remain at my post fearlessly, 
 and without ftdtering discliarge my duty, trusting to the intelligence of 
 my countrymen to refute calumny, and to my neighbors, by acts of per- 
 sonal kindness, to soften private afflictions. 
 
 Happily, associated with those who espouse different sides of all doubt- 
 ful political questions, every way better qualified to discuss them than 
 myself, I have been, in most instances, relieved from taking much part in 
 public debate, and have been content to listen patiently, and vote accord- 
 ing to what I considered the best interests of the country. It would be 
 presumptuous in me to suppose I have not sometimes erred ; but, I can 
 safely say, never intentionally. Too imhnportant to be often singled out by 
 name as an object of abuse, Iliave still come in for a share in the presses 
 in the employ of the administration, under the general appellation of "the 
 unprincipled faction of the Senate." This charge, so far as it applies to 
 
72 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 me, no matter by whom stated, I have no hesitation in pronouncing an 
 unfounded calumny; and as it may relate to others, with whom I have 
 acted, I believe it to be equally destitute of truth. So far as it has related 
 to every measure calculated to cause the affairs of the United States to be 
 conducted upon the principles to which we have been accustomed during 
 the republican administrations, there has been little variety of opinion since 
 I have been in Congress : and, in every instance, as it relates to such 
 measures, the Administration has had the most prompt and efficient aid 
 from those who, in the coalition prints, have been denominated " the un- 
 principled faction." Indeed, when elected to the Senate, I never dreamed 
 that the General Assembly of Tennessee expected me to go dressed in the 
 uniform either of those opposed to the Administration, or of the Adminis- 
 tration itself^ — I was sent in the uniform of my country, and to vote, as in 
 my judgment, would most promote its interest, and this duty, I feel con- 
 scious, I have discharged in the best manner I knew how. So far from 
 expecting that was to happen, which has come to pass during the pen- 
 dency of the last Presidential election (although I always had a decided 
 preference), I believed the government would be administered upon repub- 
 lican principles, let Avhich of the candidates might prevail, and, until after 
 my election to the Senate, had seen no good reason to change that opiiiioa. 
 
 The President's message to Congress, at the commencement of the first 
 session, since I was a member, took me by surprise. I saw in it a claim 
 of powers for the federal government, more extravagant than had ever 
 been made in the days of federalism — a claim which I believed every 
 sound American federalist, as well as every republican, ought to be 
 equally prompt in condemning. This was soon followed by a message to 
 the Senate, on the mission to Panama, in which was claimed for the Ex- 
 ecutive, powers which, if yielded, would leave to the Senate nothing on 
 the subject of foreign missions worth preserving. 
 
 From my entrance into the bustle of life, I had been in the habit of 
 thinking, tliat those who denied to the federal government, all power, 
 except tliat which is granted in exjjress terms, or which is necessary to 
 carry into effect some power expressly granted, expounded the Constitu- 
 tion more correctly than that sect who wish to confer power by implica- 
 tion, will) believe the federal government ought to protect the people 
 "against their worst enemies — themselves;" because they have "not vir- 
 tue and intelligence sufficient for self-government;" I could not, therefore, 
 do otherwise tliau ojipose the Executive in those extravagant pretensions. 
 This celebrated mission to Panama, it appeared to me, was inconsist- 
 ent with our former policy, Avith the wholesome advice given us by the 
 Father of his Country, and uselessly ]nitting at hazard the liberty and hap- 
 piness of the people of the United States. My best wishes, as well as 
 yours, were with those who were struggling for the' right to govern 
 tlicraselves-, but these wislies could not induce me to sanction a policyj 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVMENTS. 73 
 
 Tvhich, according to my best judgment, put at hazard the true interest of 
 our own citizens, for the wild notion of being esteemed the friends and 
 upholders of liberty throughout the civilized Avorld. We niiglit, I thouglit, 
 better employ ourselves in strengthening our own Union — a union, which, 
 if perpetuated, will furnish adequate employ for all our patriots and states- 
 men, without extending the sphere of our duties to embrace other na- 
 tions, to whom we are under no special obligations. 
 
 If doubts were entertained in the first instance, -whether it was not 
 intended to make some agreement with these Spanish American States, 
 by which our fate would, in some respects, be identified with tlieirs, those 
 dcnibts were very much increased when the President openly came out, 
 and endeavored to satisfy the American people, that the advice of Wash- 
 ington against " entangling alliances " had no application to republics on 
 our own continent. But I pass from a topic which has been long since 
 amply discussed, and in relation to which at this day, there cannot well 
 be more than one opinion. 
 
 In comparatively modern days, a subject has been got up, concern- 
 ing which, I will venture a very few remarks. I allude to internal 
 improvements by the federal government. The most I have found it mv 
 duty heretofore to say upon that subject was, that w^here the road or 
 canal was to pass through a State, 1 doubted the power of the federal 
 government, and while I thus doubted, I would not vote in favor of an 
 appropriation for such an object. In relation to roads or canals through 
 a territory, the case was different. 
 
 Whether the federal government possesses the power to engage in the 
 business of internal improvement as a system, is a question of very grave 
 import. This is neither the time nor place to engage in the discussion of 
 such a question. Thus much, however, I frankly state as my opinion ; 
 that I cannot find any such power expressly granted in the Constitution 
 of the United States, nor do I believe it at all necessary to give efiect to 
 any power that is expressly granted by that instrument. Still, it may be 
 true, that in a state of war, and for the purposes of war, the United 
 States may have power to make a road through any State. So, likewise 
 it may be true in a case of necessity under the power " to establish post 
 roads" that they may have power to construct a road: but if they have 
 such power in these extraordinary cases, I think it is not true, that they 
 possess the power to embark in the business of constructing roads and 
 canals through the respective States when and where they choose in 
 defiance of the wiU of the States. I am the decided friend of internal 
 improvements, but I am friendly to them when made by the power which, 
 consistently with the Constitution, can make them. No man, I think, 
 can reasonably doubt but that each of the States has the power to make 
 as many roads and canals as they please, within their own limits, and that 
 they will exercise this power in every instance where the interest of their 
 citizens require it, I cannot doubt. 
 
74 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 I think not only that the United States do not possess this extensive 
 power, but farther, that it ought never to be surrendered to them. 
 
 Ah-eady it is alarming to contemplate the patronage of the federal 
 government when acting within the sphere of Constitutional power: 
 grant it this additional power, and, in my opinion, it will be useless to 
 talk of State rights, or the people's rights; they will exist in name, only, 
 or at most, at the will of the federal government. Of all powers this 
 would be wielded most destructively whenever the federal executive 
 might choose. At present, offices, the hope of offices, or the use of the 
 people's own money, placed at the disposal of the executive, are the com- 
 mon means of corrupting one class of the community, who maybe relied 
 upon, to mislead and deceive another : but with this power, whole sec- 
 tions of country might be operated upon directly. At present, the execu- 
 tive can only purdiase friends by retail ; then, they could engage in the 
 wholesale business. We are not altogether destitute of experience upon 
 this subject. A few years ago, I think in 1824:, Congress passed an act 
 authorizing the President to have such routes surveyed, for roads and 
 canals, as would be considered national in relation to commerce, to post 
 roads, or to military roads, and to enable him to give eftect to this law, 
 has at each session since, appropriated large sums of money, to defray the 
 expense of the engineer corps engaged in the business. And how has 
 this law been practised upon? It has been in many instances abused and 
 perverted from its meaning. If there is any one road that would be con- 
 sidered more national than any other, it would be one from Washington 
 to New Orleans. Accordingly, one was to be surveyed, and three routes 
 were proposed for a road between those points. One to go through the 
 capital of each of the Southern States — another to go along the foot 
 of the mountains on their southern side, and the third to cross the Blue 
 Ridge not far from Washington and come along the valley through this 
 quarter of the country, and so on to New Orleans. Engineers were 
 ordered to view these routes, and ascertain the advantages and disadvan- 
 tages relating to each, that it might be decided which of the three should 
 be preferred. The surveys of the southern and middle routes were made 
 by three engineers ; and when the one, in which we are interested, called 
 the northern, was to be examined, only two of the three could be spared, 
 and they were ordered to hurry on by the nearest practicable course ; 
 and so it is, that they travelled at a gait which enabled them to come with 
 nearly as much speed as travellers on ordinary business, not feeling them- 
 selves at liberty to deviate to the riglit hand or the left from the most 
 direct route, to make any examination Avhatever. It is true, that they 
 were necessarily detained in tliis place a few days, waiting the arrival of 
 a gentleman now present, who had been appointed to accompany them 
 through this State. Here, tliey were requested by myself and others, to 
 view tlio several routes wliicii had been s])okcn of through Tennessee, but 
 the answer was, their orders did not permit them to deviate from the 
 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 75 
 
 most direct route, for the sake of examining any otlicr. Upon a report 
 after such a survey^ the nortiieni route is to come in competition with 
 the other two, and to have its advantages and disadvantages, compared 
 with those of the others ; and after all this haste, no route is yet located. 
 All three are tauglit to expect tlie road, and at the same time that a friend 
 of the Administration hero is trying to satisfy you, tliat, if you will be 
 friendly to those in power, and vote for them and their friends, they will 
 deal kindly with you, and cause the road to be located on your route, 
 exactly the same languixgo may be employed by their advocates on each 
 of tlie other routes, and thus, by kcei>iug those three routes in the market, 
 it is hoped that the mass of the people, from the extreme of the northern 
 route, to the Atlantic may be influenced the whole distance from Wash- 
 ington to New Orleans. The like practices are pursuing elsewhere. In 
 Maine, a State which has more sea coast than, perliaps, any in tlie Union, 
 in the course of the past year, engineers were kept well employed ia 
 surveying routes for roads and canals — their elections were going on, and 
 to get a good senator in Congress, it was necessary to have good members 
 of assembly, and so it is, that Mr. Holmes has been engineered out, and 
 another put in his place, who, it may be hoped, will not be " an unprin- 
 cipled factionist." 
 
 In Virginia, towards Greenbrier, routes were also carefully attended to, 
 and surveyed, and Mr. Randolph is disposed of. In one of the other dis- 
 tricts of Virginia, the people were becoming restless, their representative 
 was likely to be considered a coalitionist, and an opposition candidate 
 was talked of: but application is made for a part of the engineer corps to 
 survey a little eight-mile route for a canal in the neighborhood, where 
 you must bring water twelve miles to feed it, and the executive promj)tly 
 attended to the call ; a detachment of engineers was sent, the route 
 surveyed and the people soothed because all this was effected througli the 
 representative, who is on good terms with the Administration, who are 
 every ready to attend to such ajipli cat ions. I cannot upon this subject 
 do better than to refer such as have not read it, to Mr. Rives's speech at 
 the last session. He shows, practically, what use may be made ; nay more, 
 what is made, of this power, by the federal executive. 
 
 In the midst of all this waste, although repeatedly applied to, they had 
 no spare engineers to survey any route for a road or canal for Tennessee 
 or for Alabama. Have patience my friends, our elections are to come on 
 in August, a detachment will be here in due season. Tennessee needs 
 good members of Congress and members of Assembly, as well as otlier 
 States, and the executive will have its business attended to hero even if 
 something is neglected elsewhere. This is a power so capable of being 
 abused, already so much abused, so destructive of the purity of elections, 
 that I cannot think the federal government either does, or ought to 
 possess it. After what I have said, it is necessar\', to prevent misconcep- 
 
i 
 ''^ MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 tion, tl)at I should add, it is not my intention to throw out a hint against 
 any gentleman in the engineer corps. I have never heard aught to their 
 prejudice ; I presume they are well qualified for the stations they respec- 
 tively fill, and I have in no one instance heard of any of them interfering 
 in the elections, or political concerns of the country. The influence of 
 which I complain is of a different description — the very fact of having 
 routes surveyed for these roads and canals is calculated, and I believe 
 intended, to excite expectations in different quarters of the country, that 
 the present rulers are kindly disposed, and that they Avill, if continued 
 in power, cause roads and canals to be made where it is not intended to 
 make them, and where, if made, they would be of little or no importance. 
 
 Should, however, a majority of Congress determine on making a road 
 from Washington to New Orleans, which, to say the least, I doubt their 
 power to do, I have no question, but the northern route, that which leads 
 through this section of countr^^, ought for many reasons to be preferred, 
 to eitlier of the other two ; and I think we have much cause to complain, 
 that the engineers were not permitted to give to it as thorough an exami- 
 nation, as they did to those others. 
 
 The tariff', as it is called, was much talked of during the last winter, 
 and a bill passed the House of Representatives, the object of which was 
 to increase very considerably, the duty upon woollens, not of the highest 
 price. It was not discussed or acted upon in the Senate for want of time. 
 I have never heard any public discussion of the question relative to taxes 
 imposed on foreign merchandise, with a view to protect and encourage the 
 manufacture of similar fabrics, in the United States. To give protection 
 to a certain extent, I have never doubted the power of the federal govern- 
 ment ; but this, like every other power, ought always to be exercised for 
 the good of the whole ; and under my present impression I never would 
 impose ' a tax upon a foreign article, which as a nation, we could con- 
 veniently do without, where I saw, or had reason to believe, it would 
 increase the price of the article throughout an extensive section of country 
 and none were to be benefited by it but a few capitalists who would be 
 thereby levying a tax upon a considerable portion of the community for 
 their individual benefit. I should like to see domestic manufactures 
 flourish ; but would never wish to see them brought into existence or 
 nourished in one section of country at the expense and positive loss of 
 another. 
 
 In some quarters of the United States, I see the last Congress is com- 
 plained of, because they passed but few laws. For my own part, I 
 believe if the necessary laws are passed to enable the United States to 
 perform promptly their appropriate functions, and to meet punctually their 
 just engagements, it ought never to be cause of regret, that there is 
 little legislation. As to our internal concerns, they are better understood 
 and acted upon in the respective States than they can ever be in Con- 
 
PEESIDENTIAL, ELECTIONS. 77 
 
 gress. Indeed, tliere are but few internal concerns with -wliich Congress can 
 properly intermeddle. It is mainly to regulate our foreign concerns, that 
 the federal government was created, and it ought never to be the policy 
 of those who wish well to the United States to increase the action of the 
 federal government ; because, as you increase its action you increase the 
 expenditure of money, and as tliere are but few of the States in which legi- 
 timate objects of expenditui-e can be found, it will operate most injuriously 
 that large sums should be drawn from all equally and expended among few. 
 Although it is true but few laws were enacted at the late session ; yet, 
 some of great importance were acted upon finally; the bankrupt bill, 
 long and ably debated, was finally negatived, a provision for a naval 
 school was also a good deal discussed and finally negatived ; as well as 
 many others which it were useless to allude to at this time. 
 
 There is one other subject upon which it is natural to expect I should 
 say something, and I do it the more willingly, as this may be the only 
 occasion ofiered at present, where I can see many of my fellow citizens 
 under circumstances in which it Avould be proper to say anything ptib- 
 licly ; and there is no usage of which I am aware to justify printed com- 
 munications to them. I allude to tlie next election for President. It is 
 said by the Administration and their friends that there is nothing of prin- 
 ciple involved in it, that it is a mere question among men, whether A 
 or B shall be preferred. In my conception, there cannot well be a state- 
 ment more incorrect. Tlic present incumbent is placed in the highest 
 office known to our law, agreeably to the forms of the Constitution^ in 
 direct opposition to the Tcnown will of a majority of the people of the 
 United States, and this, through the active agency of the man, who noio 
 Jills the most honorable station in his cabinet. Thus placed by their 
 own management (iiard words are useless) in berths which give them 
 the control of the whole executive patronage of the United States, they 
 believe the judicious use of the patronage, thus placed in their power, 
 is sufficient to procure as many partisans as will secure the re-election 
 of the present incumbent for the next term, and then, according to " safe 
 precedent," a suitable successor, and so on, perpetually. The true ques- 
 tion is, whether the people are sufficiently virtuous and enlightened to 
 govern themselves. If they are, they will at tlie time pointed out in the 
 Constitution, by their votes, displace the present incumbent, and tlius 
 give a lesson not to be misunderstood, one which will teach every 
 aspirant for office, that the will of the people shall not be disobeyed with 
 impunity, that they are not yet so uninformed and corrujit, as to be 
 bouglit up Avith their own money and their own offices, in sufficient num- 
 bers to enslave the majority. 
 
 Every effi)rt of which the opposition Congress was capable, was made 
 to have the Constitution so amended, as to permit the people, in person, 
 in their respective districts, to vote for the man of their choice, and thus 
 
78 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON "WHITE. 
 
 prevent them from being defrauded by the faithlessness of their agents; 
 but this proposition was strenuously resisted and ultimately failed. 
 
 That the people are the sovereigns, is our theory ; tliat their "W'ill, as to 
 ■who sliall fill their offices "when fairly expressed, must be obeyed ; yet 
 some States in the last election were misrepresented and the representa- 
 tives, in defiance of the known will of their constituents, and in opposition 
 to solemn public pledges, gave their votes to the present incumbent ; the 
 only punishment which the people could inflict upon these faithless 
 representatives was to dismiss them from further employ at the next 
 election. This they have done, and yet, with this mark of the people's 
 displeasure imprinted upon them, if I am coiTectly informed, some of 
 them have lately been remunerated by the executive with offices, con- 
 ferred as a reward for their treachery. As this course is piarsued, let 
 the people put forth their own strength, and let the President feel that 
 their will is to be considted, and not that of any set of political jugglers 
 whatever. Let them dismiss him from public employ, who, with their 
 offices and their money, would defraud them of their most invaluable 
 privilege, that of having those to serve them, whom the majority wills 
 should do so. 
 
 If this ill-gotten power is sufficient, if offices actually given, and the 
 hope of offices hereafter expected ; if money already given, and that here- 
 after expected, are sufficient to procure partisans, who have management 
 enough to mislead a majority, there is an end of free government ; it 
 exists in name only. That is the experiment now making, that is the 
 issue made up and to be tried at the next election. Let every man take 
 his side — in such cases there can be but two parties, and all who are not 
 disposed to come forth in vindication of the people's right and capacity 
 to govern themselves, are with the coalition, who would fix upon us, 
 that which is worse than monarchy itself, and yet leave us the name 
 of a republic. 
 
 On the subject of Internal Improvements, Judge White afterwards 
 writes to a political personal friend and correspondent, March 31st, 
 1830: 
 
 Your favor giving an account of the meeting in Knoxville, on the sub- 
 ject of the Buffalo and New Orleans Road came safely to hand, . . . The 
 result* is creditable to the integrity and intelligence of Knox County. 
 The tcmi>tation to transgress the constitutional bounds is very strong . . . 
 I lament that my friend II. should not control his temper. Knives and 
 pistols are silencing^ though seldom convincing arguments. They ought 
 never to be tolerated in a country civilized and free. 
 
 * An expression of opinion against the propriety of building the Road (which would have 
 croHsed Tennessee) by federal aid. 
 
INTEENAL IMPKOVEMENTS. 79 
 
 This last digressive paragraph is in consonance witli tlie writer's 
 well-known and lofty sentiments upon the barbarian custom of single 
 combat. 
 
 He writes again, sarcastically, on the same Road Bill, under date 
 April 2d, 1830: 
 
 A thought upon this road : — If we are really to sell out our prin- 
 ciples for pay, or if it be intended through the medium of Internal 
 Improvements to give us a due share of public disbursements, how is it 
 that we are to have only a dirt road at fifteen hundred dollars a mile ? 
 "Why not give us a Macadamized turnpike or a railroad ? I view it as an 
 indignity to my country and my constituents. Give us as good as is given 
 to others, or give us nothing, say I. I am against the 'power to make tlie 
 road ; but I would infinitely rather vote for a decent one, such as is made 
 for others, than for one made on this dirt-dabbing plan. 
 
 Again, to the same, in relation to the well-known Maysville and 
 Lexington Road, May 21st, 1830 : 
 
 Several bills have been introduced, and some of them passed, requir- 
 ing the United States to subscribe for stock in companies created by 
 State Laws to make Roads or Canals. One of them, to wit, for making 
 a road from Maysville to Lexington, in Kentucky, is now before the 
 President for his signature. Great doubts are entertained as to what he 
 will do with it. Some think he will sign, others tliat he will not. 
 Without Tcnowing anything, I hope for the last. The common impression 
 is, that our opponents have had a settled plan to appropriate so much 
 money as to prevent the President from paying the National Debt ; and 
 it is a matter of regret that some of our political friends have acted with 
 them, under a hope that their own particular counties could in a i>artner- 
 ship scramble obtain some local advantage. 
 
 I hope much from the integrity, firmness and intelligence of the 
 President. If he yields to this corrupting branch of federal patronage, 
 I shall consider the country ruined. 
 
 The Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816. It was 
 made the receptacle of the public moneys of the United States; and 
 by means of this powerful substantial aid in connection with the 
 numerous branches throughout the Union, and by tlie skilful use 
 of certain exclusive privileges, it soon became the centre and foun- 
 tain of a vast and constantly increasing circulation of paper-money. 
 Judge White looked upon this rapid extension as a dangerous 
 stimulus to business, and as hazarding the public good by encoura"'- 
 
80 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ing extravagant, speculation. This was a serious evil ; but another 
 whieli he dreaded more, was the power which the bank or any similar 
 institution might exercise in controlling elections. He opposed the 
 bank from principle ; as he would oppose any measure or establish- 
 ment which would place it in the power of politicians, or capitalists, 
 or combinations of both, to exert any undue influence upon the use 
 of the elective franchise. He had been long and intimately 
 connected with banks, was well versed in their nature, operations and 
 tendencies ; and early and accurately augured the revulsions of 
 1819-20, as well as those which followed up to 1834, as natural 
 results of the operations of the United States Bank. 
 
 It has been shown that while a member of the Tennessee Lesfisla- 
 ture, in 1827, he opposed the establishment of a branch of this insti- 
 tution in that State. At a still earlier period, when the bill containing 
 the original charter of the central bank was before the House of 
 of Representatives at Washington, Wm. G. Blount, then re25resentative 
 from Judge "White's district (who had been his ward, and an inmate 
 of his family), sent him a printed copy of the bill, asking his opinion 
 of it. Judge White wrote to him, giving a decided opinion against 
 it. Mr. Blount alone voted against the bill, of all the Tennessee 
 delegation. 
 
 Judge White went into the Senate in 1825, entertaining the opinion 
 that the charter was both unconstitutional and impolitic ; and upon 
 that opinion he uniformly acted. When the bill for the renewal of 
 the charter was brought before Congress in 1832, he opposed it in a 
 speech of some length, which was characterized by the public prints 
 as the ablest argument on the subject made during the session. What 
 state of feeling prevailed at Washington, between the friends and 
 enemies of the bank, may be inferred from a letter of Judge White's, 
 dated Feb. 22d, 1852; just one day before Mr. Clayton's motion to 
 appoint a committee for investigating the atiairs of the bank. 
 
 Judge White says : 
 
 Everytliing here is 'in a bustle. Nothing out of which mischief can be 
 made is suftered to slumber. Ill blood is "produced by almost every event; 
 and a great disposition is manifested by some to aijpcal to the trial by 
 battle. Newspapers have, as yet, answered to let olf the superabundant 
 steam. As the weather grows warmer, passions will rise higher, and, I 
 think, depletion hy the drawing o/hlood, will, before long, become indis- 
 pensable to restore that courtesy which never ought to be lost siglit of by 
 those entrusted by society with the promotion of its highest interest. No 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 81 
 
 man can tell when or ^vith wliora he is to be involved. 1 •will do all that 
 a prudent man oudit to do to avoid difficulties, hut sltonld it be mj- lot to 
 have them forced upon me, my reliance is, that Providence "will guide me 
 through them in safety. 
 
 Judge White's speech, delivered on the 7th and 8tli of June, 1832, 
 of the same year, on the question of the engrossment and third read- 
 ino; of the bill to renew the charter of the bank, was as follows : 
 
 Mr. President — I am pleased with the manner in which the discussion 
 of this important subject has been commenced and continued thus far ; 
 and, although it is my intention to express my own sentiments with that 
 freedom which belongs to my place, and with the frankness of one who 
 has no opinion to conceal, yet I should be sori*y if, in the remarks I am 
 about to submit, I should unnecessarily say anything calculated to change 
 the tone of the debate. 
 
 "Whether the charter of the existing Bank of the United States ought to 
 be renewed, is a question which should not be blended with another 
 great question, and that is, whether the high duties to be performed by 
 the federal government can be discharged without the aid of a bank of 
 some description.* 
 
 To the existing company the United States should, in good faith, dis- 
 charge every obligation they have contracted ; up to this time they have 
 done so ; and if they sliall not put in operation any other bank until the 
 existing charter expires, and in other respects comply with existing 
 stipulations, in the meantime, no violation of their faith can be charged 
 to them. 
 
 The present stockholders, so far as they are citizens, will have had a 
 complete monopoly for twenty years, and would, in my opinion, have less 
 claim to become subscribers to any other bank to be created by the 
 federal government, than other citizens who have been excluded from all 
 banliing privileges, in time past. Foreigners, who, at present, are stock- 
 holders, have no claims whatever upon us. Tliis charter was always 
 exceptionable, on account of the United States being a stockholder. By 
 owning stock they become the partner of a few private citizens, and give 
 them the benefit of the character, resources, and influence of the whole, 
 thus enabling a favored few to make profits out of the whole, for their 
 own exclusive benefit ; this is wrong in principle. Ours is a government 
 founded on equality, and ouglit never to be so conducted as to give a few 
 
 * I do not wish it to be understood, as my opinion, that a banii, chartered by Congress, may 
 not be necessary to insure the correct management of the Cscal concerns of the federal 
 government. On the contrary, I think It very probable, that, upon the expiration of the 
 present charter, one may be devised, consistent with the Constitution, giving to the United 
 States all tlie benefits which a bank can confer, and guard against the evils feared from the bill 
 now under consideration. — A^ote by Judge White. 
 
 6 
 
82 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 an advantage over the whole. Although it may be said, all had an equal 
 opportunity to subscribe originally, and therefore those who did not, can- 
 not now complain ; yet, when we come to the question we are now 
 considering, that of giving a new charter, this answer loses all its force ; 
 because now we select a few by name, become connected with them, and 
 exclude all others from any participation for an additional fifteen years. 
 If we now renew this charter, because the present stockholders have 
 been the partners of the United States for twenty years, the argument for 
 a second renewal will become stronger at the end of the next fifteen, and 
 thus we shall have created permanently a privileged class of society, who 
 will have the sanction, influence, and resources of the government 
 afforded them to make money at the expense of the rest of society. But 
 of all partnerships, this would be the most exceptionable. The United 
 S<-ates own seven milHons of stock, foreigners, we know, own eight 
 millions ; how much more in the names of citizens we cannot tell, and 
 the residue is owned by others, and these different interests are to be 
 combined in one act of incorporation, and to be partners in banking for 
 fifteen years. This ought not to be done, when our citizens have spare 
 capital, which they ai'e anxious to invest in such stock. 
 
 There might be some apology for this course, if we were destitute of 
 capital and needed foreign aid ; but this we know is not the case — our 
 own surplus capital, seeking safe and profitable investments, is the cause 
 of our present political discontents. During the European wars, which 
 commenced soon after the formation of the present Constitution, by the 
 employment of our own capital, in navigation and commerce, great addi- 
 tions were made to it. The French decrees and British orders in council 
 produced our restrictive measures, and terminated in the declaration of 
 war in 1812. This war caused much of the capital, previously employed 
 in navigation and commerce, to seek employment at home. It was 
 invested in manufactures, and upon the return of peace it asked and 
 obtained from Congress protection from foreign competition. This pro- 
 tection occasioned new investments, and these new applications for 
 additional protection, at different periods, up to the present time. "We 
 have no scarcity of American capital — it is fully equal to all our wants. 
 Why then should we renew this charter, and give exclusive privileges to 
 foreigners, when our citizens are anxious to invest their money in the 
 bank, and are oflToring to Congress terms more favorable, than are secured 
 to us by this bill ? It is said this bank has restored specie payments, 
 collected your revenue, paid it out, paid your pensioners, and equalized 
 exchange. 
 
 Sir, it is the character of the United States, of which this bank has 
 had the exclusive use, it is the funds of the United States, of which the 
 bank has had complete control, it is the influence of our character, and 
 our monej^ that restored specie payments, and enabled the bank to con- 
 tinue them in spite of bad management. 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 83 
 
 The collection of your revenue has not cost the bank one cent. It has 
 only (lone for you, what any bank would fjlailly do for an individual. 
 It has received your money on deposit, when carried to its vaults at your 
 expense. It has received your custom-house, and other bonds for collec- 
 tion. It voluntarily paid, and received the money when due. If not 
 paid, it put the bonds into the hands of your law officer, and ho has made 
 the collections, at your expense, and then deposited the money in the bank. 
 Your drafts upon the bank liave been paid, when and where presented, 
 and well they might, because you had your money deposited, in every 
 place where there was either a principal or a branch bank. This, in place 
 of a disadvantage, must have been a source of profit to the bank, because 
 upon your funds it could draw, and re-draw bills in favor of individuals, 
 and secure premiums to itself. 
 
 By the laws, the bank was not bound to pay, nor did it pay, as is be- 
 lieved, pensioners, except in States where there was either the principal 
 or a branch bank. - The only trouble was to pay the pensioners when they 
 applied at the bank and take receipts. This service any bank would gladly 
 have performed for the benefit of the deposit, till pay-day should arrive. 
 
 As to the uniformity of our currency, every man knows that the notes 
 of this bank are not, in every quarter of the country, as good as the spe- 
 cie. A brancli note payable at Nashville or New Orleans, is necessarily at 
 a discount, in Maine or New York ; and as to the domestic exchange, it 
 is always in favor of the bank, so as to enable it to receive a premium 
 upon a bill, or draft, when it sells one, and obtain a discount when it pur- 
 chases. 
 
 Much credit has been claimed for the able administration of the affairs 
 of the bank. Gentlemen ought to remember that this praise has been 
 claimed on a scale too extensive. For a portion of the time, since this 
 bank has been in operation, it has been managed as badly as any institu- 
 tion ever was, under either Federal or State authority. It was literally 
 bankrupt by bad management. By good fortune, at a lucky moment, the 
 services of Mr. Cheves were procured, at the head of the institution ; his 
 talents, his business habits, his stern integrity, and, above all, his unyield- 
 ing firmness, gave to its concerns a direction, which saved it from open 
 and notorious bankruptcy, and enabled it, gradually, by the whole pecuni- 
 ary assistance the United States could afford, to recover its character, and 
 afterwards sustain its credit. Tliese transactions it has not been thought 
 necessary to preserve, by placing tliem in the same volume with the af- 
 fairs relating to our banks, and with which we have each been furnished; 
 but we ouglit, nevertheless, to recollect them, and ought to remember, 
 also, that tliere is no certainty, but the affairs of this institution may 
 again be under the direction of those equally as incompetent, or faithless, 
 as any that have preceded them. 
 
 The bank now has, and at the end of the charter will have, its transac- 
 
84 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 tions widely spread over an immense territory. It will have many debts 
 to pay, and many to collect. Until it commences winding up, those who 
 have transactions with it will not generally speak out, according to the 
 truth. "While it is discounting, and accommodating, it will he popular ; 
 but when the hour for final payment shall have arrived, then we will hear 
 of the mismanagement, if any exists ; then we will find out the bad debts, 
 and how, and for what contracted. Every thing now looks well upon 
 paper. "We see that the bank has in circulation upwards of twenty mil- 
 lions of dollars, in notes. The sum due for deposits is large ; all these 
 debts are to be paid, and with what? "With the funds in possession, and 
 the proceeds of debts due. No man living can tell, until the time ot col- 
 lection, how many of these debts are due from solvent men. "Whenever 
 that time shall have arrived, the country at large, and Congi'ess, can find 
 out whether this bank has been managed well or iU, with fidelity or not. 
 Nay, more, we can then see, and know, whether such a bank, in its opera- 
 tions, is beneficial or injurious to society. 
 
 Every merchant, long in business, knows, that if he has done a business 
 upon credit, he must, at the end of every ten or fifteen years, change his 
 style, and commence a new concern, for the purpose of being able to wind 
 up his old concern — ^he must collect his debts, and pay those to whom he 
 is indebted. In no other way can he tell, certainly, whether his business 
 has been profitable or otherwise. If this be true, in mercantile concerns, 
 how much more so is it in the case of such a bank as this ? 
 
 By sufiering this charter to expire, a flood of light would be shed upon 
 this subject, which would be of great use to society, and which would 
 enable Congress to know whether a bank ought to be again chartered, and 
 what ought to be the modification and improvement in the charter to be 
 granted. 
 
 Again. If we were disposed to renew the present charter, it is too 
 soon to do so. It has almost four years yet to run, and then two years 
 are allowed for collections. By renewing now, we put the corporation 
 four years, unnecessarily, beyond our control. The main security we 
 have for the good behavior of the bank, is, that at the termination of the 
 charter, a renewal will be refused, unless its concerns shall have been 
 faithfully managed. "Why, then, should wo give up this security, so long 
 in advance ? All our offices of trust are based upon the principle, that 
 the person employed shall come, as frequently as convenience will permit, 
 to the power which gave him employ, that his capacity and fidelity may 
 be judged of; and, if found deficient in either, then a better man may be 
 chosen in his stead. The principle is the same here, and yet this im- 
 mense moneyed institution is to be made an exception, and/owr years in 
 advance, its charter is to be renewed. 
 
 The reason assigned for tliis is entirely unsatisfiictory. It has been 
 said, if the directors liad the charter renewed, they can not only continue, 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 85 
 
 but extend their biisiness. If not renewed now, they must begin to col- 
 lect their debts, &c. A little reflection will satisfy us, that there is not 
 much force in this argument. It has always been urged, in favor of this 
 bank, that the paper, in which it deals, is liisiness paper. If this be true, 
 what does it want with time to wind up ? A owes B five thousand dol- 
 lars, for which he gives his note, payable in ninety, or any other number 
 of days. B wishes to use the money presently ; he carries the note to 
 the bank, endorses it, and has it discounted. When this note falls due, 
 A is notified that it belongs the bank ; he goes and pays it, and there 
 is an end of the transaction. If this be the description of paper, in which 
 the bank deals, it does not need any time for winding up. All that need 
 be done is, to omit discounting when the charter expires, and the debts 
 come in of course. But if a considerable portion of the business of the 
 bank is done upon accommodation paper, no time ought to be granted. 
 It is unsafe to the bank, ruinous to society, and should be discounte- 
 nanced. 
 
 The man who opens a standing accommodation with the bank, and re- 
 lies upon renewing his note, periodically, by paying the discounts, be his 
 business what it may, will generally be taken by surprise, when called on. 
 to pay the principal, wiU be ruined himself, and very often his endorsers 
 with him. 
 
 I fear very many of the debts due to this bank are substantially founded 
 upon accommodation paper. Look at the case from New York, disclosed 
 in the report of the committee of the other house — the debt was contracted 
 with the bank in 1831, payable by installments, the last of which was only 
 due in the fall of 1836, six months after the charter is to expire. Does 
 any one pretend, this was anything but accommodation paper ? I speak 
 not of the purity of this transaction, but suppose it to be, as the fi'iends 
 of this institution represent it, and then saj, I think such transactions 
 with banks can never be considered real business transactions, but must 
 fall within the class called accommodations. 
 
 Examine the documents upon our desks, and see the items of domestic 
 bills. I am strongly impressed with the opinion, if examined, they are 
 substantially accommodation paper of the most ruinous kind. On the 
 1st of April, 1831, they amounted to $14,725,923. On the 1st Decem- 
 ber, of the same year, they amounted to $14,853,530, with but little va- 
 riation, as to amount in the meantime. Tliis would scarcely have hap- 
 pened for so long a period, unless they were in substance accommoda- 
 tions. I will take the liberty of suggesting, how some of these domestic 
 bills are probably brought into existence, and continued — I will take for 
 my illustration, what may be the operations of the branch in my own 
 State. 
 
 A merchant needs an addition to his capital ; ho procures endorsers, 
 and obtains a discount for sixty days. When his note falls duo he dis- 
 
86 MEMOER OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 counts another, and by paying in tlie disconnt, and applying the nett 
 proceeds of the last note, to the discharge of the first, he lifts it. When 
 the second falls due, he is called upon for actual payment — this he can- 
 not make, but offers a bill upon his commission merchant, in New 
 Orleans, payable in four months ; this is received by the bank, taking oif 
 the discount and charging one or two per cent. ; or whatever else is the 
 difference of exchange, between Nashville and New Orleans. To obtain 
 endorsers for these notes, a guarantee for the bill of exchange, and to 
 procure acceptance of the bill, the borrower has to pay to each of the 
 persons concerned, probably two per cent. His reliance for lifting the 
 "bill when due, is the proceeds of a crop, which he hopes to raise, and 
 ship to New Orleans, in time to meet the demand. If he is disappointed 
 in whole, or in part, when the bill falls due, it is lifted by re-drawing 
 upon Nashville, at the same heavy expense, incurred in the first instance, 
 and thus in the shape of domestic bills drawn first one way, and 
 then the other, the accommodation is continued as long as the man's 
 means of paying discounts, rates of exchange, and other charges con- 
 tinue ; and then he fails, and when he does, if a merchant, every farmer, 
 to whom he is indebted, will probably lose his debt, and if the debtor 
 ■was a farmer, he will probably lose his plantation, or his slaves, besides 
 injuring his endorser. I have no knowledge of any transactions such 
 as I have described ; but they may, and I fear do exist, if not at the 
 Nashville branch, at some others. If such there are, they are injurious 
 to the country, and ought to be checked. 
 
 By permitting the question of renewal to remain for the present, we 
 shall obtain information upon the subject, and three years hence can 
 better determine, whether the operations of the bank are friendly to the 
 community or not. 
 
 The stockholders have weakened very much their claims to the 
 renewal of the charter, by some of their transactions in time past. I 
 allude now to the issuing and circulating checks, or drafts, for twenty 
 dollars and under, in place of notes of the same denominations. I con- 
 sider tliis as a plain evasion of the charter, and under very peculiar 
 circumstances. When this charter was granted in 1816, the community 
 suflfered on account of two difficulties, relating to the paper of the State 
 banks. First, if the notes in circulation were genuine, they were not as 
 good as the sum called for, because the banks issuing them did not 
 redeem them by paying specie. Second, the State banks were so nume- 
 rous, that when a note was found in circulation, in many instances, no 
 man could tell whether is was genuine or a counterfeit. The Bank of 
 tlic United States was intended, and expected to remove both these 
 difficulties. It was to pay specie, and thereby put down all State banks, 
 "which did not pay likewise. The fundamental articles require that 
 every note issued, and ]nit in circulation, should be signed by the 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 87 
 
 president and cashier of the principal bank. By liaving the signatures 
 of only these two oflicers it Avas supposed that tlieir liand-writing would 
 soon become familiar to every man of business, who would thus readily 
 distinguish the genjiine from the counterfeit. In the course of a few 
 years, the directors applied to Congress for permission to designate two 
 other persons to sign small notes, as it was physically impossible for the 
 president and cashier to sign the number required. Congress refused to 
 grant this request — a second, third, and if I mistake not, fourth applica- 
 tion of the like kind was made, and refused ; at all events not grunted. 
 After this, in the year 1826 or '27, the directors searched in the charter, 
 for what is called a new comlination of their powers, and these drafts 
 were devised, to be used as substitutes for small notes. These drafts are, 
 in form, bill* of exchange, bearing the signatures of the presidents of the 
 respective branches, addi-essed to the cashier of the principal bank, and 
 requiring him to pay upon demand, the amount specified. The circula- 
 tion of them as a substitute for notes, is a plain violation of the charter. 
 It takes from society, without the consent of Congress, that security 
 against counterfeits^ which was given by the charter. "We must not, in 
 examining this point, confound two things which are separate and dis- 
 tinct. Whether the bank is bound to pay these drafts, when presented 
 at the principal bank, is one question which I answer in the affirmative. 
 But whether these drafts furnish the uniformity of paper currency, the 
 same security against counterfeits, which the notes would do, is a very 
 different question, which I answer in the negative. There are now how 
 many branches ? Seventeen is it? I have not counted. No, says Mr. 
 Benton, twenty-five. "Well then ; the holder of one of those drafts runs 
 twenty -five times as many risks of having counterfeit paper put on him, 
 as Congress intended he should run. Tins, I say ought not to have 
 been, and still I have all respect for the learned counsel, who were 
 consulted, and who I doubt not are entitled to all the respect and 
 character which society has awarded to them. It cannot escape notice, 
 that the sti-ess of the opinion, is placed upon a point, upon which I think 
 there can be no doubt, the liability of tlie bank to pay, and the other 
 point, the want of uniformity in signatures to the paper currency is 
 almost entirely overlooked. My respect for those counsel I know, and 
 for the character of the one I am unacquainted with, constrains mo to 
 think, if the true question bad been directly put to them, they would 
 have given such opinions as I now insist conform to the true construc- 
 tion of the charter. 
 
 For a moment let us examine the excuse set up for this evasion — 
 " That the president and cashier were not able to sign a sufficient num- 
 ber of notes." Bo it so; and what ought they to have done? Surely 
 not to have issued these checks, they ought to have signed as many 
 notes as they could, and to have used specie, when they had not a suffi- 
 
88 MEilOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITEo 
 
 ciency of notes. This would liave conformed to the charter, been very 
 acceptable to the public, and have been in furtherance of the great 
 object in establishing the bank, that of restoring to society a specie cur- 
 rency. Besides, it would have been actually testing the utility of the 
 excellent experiment spoken of by the Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. 
 "Webster, that of ceasing to circulate any notes as low as twenty dollars, 
 and using in their place, a specie circulation. 
 
 It appears to me that the use made of these checks, is highly injurious 
 on another ground. The effect of such a circulation in the South and 
 "West, is to remove from those sections of country the whole of the 
 specie, which can be collected there, and leave us nothing but a paper 
 currency composed of those checks. 
 
 I assume it as a fact, that every one of those drafts or checks, is upon 
 its face, made payable by the cashier of the principal bank. They are, 
 therefore, payable in Philadelphia, and pa}inent cannot be legally 
 demanded in the first instance, at any other place. What then is to be 
 the inevitable result ? The specie must be Avithdra\vn from the branches, 
 which circulate these checks, and taken to Philadelphia, and be there in 
 readiness to lift them, when they arrive. So far as common people are 
 concerned, this will never happen. No man will ever travel from 
 Louisiana, Tennessee, or Kentucky, to Philadelphia with a note of five, 
 ten, or tAventy dollars, to demand the specie for it. He would save 
 money by putting it in the fire, in preference. As matter of accomzno- 
 dation, as long as the specie would hold out, the branches would no 
 doubt give specie for them, but that must soon fail, and then the holders 
 will be told, we have sent the money to Philadelphia, to lift them, 
 whither you must go. We have at present hardly any small notes in 
 circulation ; nothing but these checks. I do not believe I have seen a 
 single note for five or ten dollars in Tennessee for the last two years. 
 No inconvenience has as yet been experienced, because you can get the 
 specie for one of them, in any merchant's shop you step into : but this 
 must soon cease : the specie will by the circulation of such paper be all 
 withdrawn, and you will have a paper medium, and no specie within 
 any reasonable distance. The very process of which I am now speaking, 
 is, and has been going on ; the documents upon our table prove it. In 
 a letter under date of 24:th December, 1831, from the cashier of the prin- 
 cipal bank, to the cashier of the New Orleans branch, found at page 516 
 of the report of the minority of the committee, we find this language : 
 "On every account we should, from present ai)pearance, desire to be 
 reinforced by all the means which you can throw into our hands, and 
 would therefore recommend, that your local discounts should be pru- 
 dently and gradually reduced — a course, which circumstances with 
 you evidently favor ; and that you should extend your operations in a 
 corresponding degree in exchange, and aff'ord us large supplies of specie 
 
TTNITED STATES BANK. 
 
 89 
 
 to meet your circulation, as it comes in at the North." Can any one 
 doubt what this means? It is the sanae thing as if he had said, your 
 circulation, these checks, are payable at the North, here; send us on 
 large supplies of specie with -which to pay them. 
 
 At page 205, of the report of the majority of the committee, we see 
 the actuaj operation, as it is going on. In 1831, the amount of specie sent 
 from the branches to the principal bank was $3,628,853 70. In 1830, 
 it was $3,653,202 13. In 1829, it was $2,673,115 97. In 1828, it was 
 $2,055,756 78, and in 1827, it was $1,787,049 18. This is the year m 
 which the checks first began to be used, instead of notes, as a circulating 
 medium. To me it is obvious, that by continuing their use, and with- 
 drawing the specie, we shaU have nothing but paper, near the branches 
 of the West and South. 
 
 It may be asked what benefit the bank can derive from this process ? 
 The answer is obvious. They can extend their discounts, and make 
 more money. In 1827, when they began to issue them, their notes in 
 circulation were upwards of $18,000,000. Since then, they have 
 extended to from twenty to twenty-four millions of dollars. The bank 
 can safely put in circulation, far from the flace of payment, a much 
 larger amount of these drafts than they could of notes made payable 
 where they were issued. I cannot but consider what has been done in 
 this respect, an evasion of the charter, highly injurious to society, and 
 done under circumstances calculated to take from the bank aU claim to 
 a renewal of the charter. The honorable chairman of the committee, 
 which reported this bill, has told us, that the committee did not feel 
 called upon to investigate how the bank had been conducted. Because, 
 says he, if a public ofiicer abuses his trust, that is no reason why you 
 should abolish the office, etc. ; and added, he had no doubt, if they had 
 inquired, it would have been found, that the bank had been faithfully 
 and ably conducted. 
 
 While I admit, that if a public officer abuses his trust, that is no 
 reason why you should abolish the office, then the remedy would be to 
 turn out the faithless officer, and put a better man into the office neces- 
 eary for the public interest, I deny entirely the analogy of this case. 
 Here I say, if the directors have abused their trust, and the stockholders, 
 after knowing the fact, continue them in office, the charter ought 
 to be rescinded ; at aU events, it ought not to be renewed, when it 
 
 expires. 
 
 I urge these considerations against renewing this charter at any time, 
 and especially at the present time, in addition to other conclusive reasons, 
 urged a few days ago, by the Senator from Missouri (Col. Benton), and 
 which I shall not repeat. 
 
 The great questions still remain to bo considered : 
 
 1st. Is it proper, at any time for Congress to incorporate a banking 
 company, vesting it with the powers Avhich this bill confers? 
 
90 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 I am free to declare, that in preference to vesting siich powers in any 
 company whatever, powers which may be nsed to such pernicious pur- 
 poses, even if I believed I had the power to do so, I would trust the well- 
 doing of this government, and the people, to a specie currency alone, and 
 to such facilities as banks incorporated by the respective States may be 
 able to afford. 
 
 It will operate as a conductor, to carry off all the circulating medium 
 from those sections of country, principally agricultural, where few or no 
 stockholders reside ; and place it down to be used in those sections of 
 country where stockholders may be found. Take, for example, the opera- 
 tion of the branch bank at Nashville. It is now doing a business of 
 from four to five millions of dollars — suppose it to be four and a half 
 millions. The common interest upon that sum would equal two hundred 
 and seventy thousand dollars per annum. AH these profits are made 
 from those living convenient enough to the bank to be its customers. At 
 the end of each six months, they are taken and distributed among th^ 
 stockholders. In Tennessee we have only three or four stockholders, own- 
 ing some tico or three hundred shares. Nearly the whole of this sum 
 must therefore be tsk&nfrom tliat State, and paid over to persons residing 
 in other States, and in Great Britain. This operation is to be continued 
 from year to year, so long as the charter lasts ; and ere long, will, as I 
 think, withdraw from our use the whole circulating medixma we possess. 
 The same effect must be produced in every other State, similarly circum- 
 stanced. What benefit does the bank confer equivalent to this loss ? In 
 most cases I think none. Banks are generally of no use in countries 
 highly agricultural. They are of use to those engaged in commerce, 
 whose business is increased by anticipating their funds, who handle 
 money freely, and can be punctual. The farmer whose profits are small, 
 and long coming into possession, is generally injured by the bank, from 
 which he obtains an accommodation. The longer he borroAVS the worse 
 he gets, and after paying interest for several years, it too frequently 
 happens he is compelled to sell his home, to liquidate the debt thus con- 
 tracted. 
 
 Suppose it to be a merchant Avho borrows with a view to aid his 
 capital. Where he has so many to compete with, who have capital suffi- 
 cient of their own on wliich to do business, it will seldom happen that a 
 bank acconnnodation will enable him to succeed ; most usually it gives 
 him a false credit, which he will use in purchasing produce upon credit, 
 by promising something more than the cash price: eventually he fails, 
 the bank may collect its debt, cither from the drawer, or his endorser, 
 but the farmer loses the debt due ft)r his produce. The bank may give 
 the appearance of prosperity to the country, it may enable people to pur- 
 chase or improve lots in a town, or to build houses on farms in the 
 country ; but this appearance will, in the end, be found deceptive. These 
 houses and lots, and these plantations, thus improved, will generally 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 91 
 
 change o-miers, and all the benefit the borrower will receive will be the 
 honor of having had an account with the Bank of the United States which 
 has stripped him of his possessions, and thus prepared him to seek a new 
 home. 
 
 Believing, therefore, that a charter such as this, authorizing two 
 branches if the directors choose, to be established in each State, without 
 the consent of the legislature, may, and will, prove a means of impover- 
 ishing the citizens of many States for the benefit of others, I cannot, and 
 will not vote for this bill. 
 
 It is idle to insist that we must have this bank to enable the farmers to 
 sell their surplus produce. Take away the bank to-morrow, and every 
 man who has produce for sale will find, if it is in demand, that those 
 who wish to purchase will send their agents, with funds, into the market, 
 who will purchase and make prompt j^ayment, as was the case before the 
 bank was established. "When there is no demand for the produce, no one 
 will purchase, whether there is or is not a bank. "With the immense 
 capital furnished this bank, all concentrated in, and controlled by the 
 same persons, backed by the deposits, the name and influence of the 
 United States, this bank Avill have the power at any time it chooses to 
 exert it, to take to itself all the active capital of the State danls, in all 
 places not very highly commercial ; therefore it may, and probably will, 
 be the place, at which all men of business and influence, in the Union, 
 will do their business, and obtain their accommodations. 
 
 Is it to have power to establish as many as two branches in each State, 
 "without the consent of the State, and to withdraw them at pleasure? 
 
 The directors of the principal bank appoint whom they please as direc- 
 tors of the respective branches, and can change them at pleasure. Seven 
 directors at the principal bank constitute a board, and four of them will 
 form a majority. 
 
 Already it has its operations throughout the whole country, presently 
 they will be extended into every corner of society. 
 
 Suppose tlie directors to wish their charter changed, so as to suspend 
 specie payments, or any other alteration made ; or suppose them to wish 
 a tariff changed, the price of the public lands made higher or lower, or 
 any other public measure carried, can they not control the Congressional 
 and State elections whenever they choose? Yes, less than one half-dozeu 
 men, seated in the principal bank in Philadelphia, will have the power, 
 if they choose to exercise it, to have the same story in praise, or dispraise, 
 of any man, or set of men, put in circulation in every neighborhood, in 
 every State in the Union, at any hour of any day in the year, they please; 
 and what makes this power the more terrific is, that no one injured will 
 be able to find out the source from which the injury originates. Thus 
 any man may be put in or out of oflBce at the will of this bank, and of 
 course any measure carried or defeated, as these directors may think will 
 best answer their purposes. 
 
92 MEMOIE OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Again, suppose a man elected President of the United States, not dis- 
 posed to promote the public good, but to pursue his individual interest, 
 and that of his friends, at the public expense, and to have an under- 
 standing with the directors of the bank, that so long as he or his friends 
 should continue in office, the interest of the bank should be promoted. 
 Could he ever be displaced ? I fear not. "When you array all the patronage 
 of the federal executive, and all the influence of this moneyed institution 
 on one side, and have nothing to oppose to it but the ill-arranged and un- 
 organized action of the common people, the country may well tremble for 
 the result. "We have now exhibited a curious spectacle to the American 
 people ; the President a candidate for re-election, and daring to speak his 
 opinions in opposition to this institution : it is what I never expected to 
 witness ; and let the approaching election terminate as it may, the youngest 
 amongst us will not live long enough, in my opinion, to witness the like 
 again. In all time to come, the President and directors of the bank, will, 
 as I fear, think alike and act in concert, on all subjects interesting to 
 either, and doing so on the days of election, will be an over-match for 
 any influence which can be brought to bear against them. 
 
 I have heard some intelligent men say, we would gain but little by put- 
 ting down this bank, because, then the public deposits must be made in the 
 State banks ; and through that medium, there would be as much danger 
 of influence as from this bank. Sure I am, those gentlemen had not suffi- 
 ciently reflected on this subject or they would have perceived the immense 
 difference in the cases. Glance at them, for a moment. If you place the 
 deposits in State banks, your whole funds will be divided among so many 
 as to afford but little temptation to any one. Suppose one or two to be 
 tempted, by these deposits, to interfere improperly in politics, the rest 
 would remain sound, and little or no mischief could ensue. The number 
 to be misled is so great, and so divided, that, having no common connec- 
 tion with each other there is little or nothing to apprehend. But in the 
 case of the Bank of the United States, it must withstand the temptation 
 oi yonr whole fimds^ because the same institution is to have your icTioIe 
 deiiosits. Again — procuring the cooperation of a majority of the directors 
 of one single hoard accomplishes everything ; they would manage their 
 respective branches, and the branches their customers, throughout the 
 whole community. The number to be approached and misled by the 
 executive is so limited, that there is infinitely more to apprehend in the 
 latter than in the former case. 
 
 Should it ever again be our misfortune to be involved in a war with 
 any foreign power, will not this bank compel you to make peace, when- 
 ever it cliooses, upon any terms it may dictate. 
 
 It will have command of the whole active capital employed in any 
 "banks. Without money, wo cannot successfully prosecute any war. How 
 could tliese funds be procured? Tliore is no provision in this bill, or the 
 original act, by which the bank is bound to loan the government one 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 93 
 
 dollar. It is prohibited from loaning more than five hundred thousand 
 dollars, Avithout an act of Congress to aiitliorizc it. But if an act should 
 be passed, requiring a loan, there is no obligation on the bank, to advance 
 a cent, even of your own seven millions^ vested in stock. Suppose this 
 bank to have existed during the late war -with Great Britain, and the 
 stock to have been owned by British subjects, and by our own citizens, 
 who thought it so unjust, that they esteemed it immoral to thank tlie 
 Author of all good for our victories — does any man believe we could 
 have procured a loan from this bank ? No, sir. You could not have 
 procured enough money to have loaded a musket, or to purchase a ration. 
 
 This bank now has, and will continue to have, under this charter, a 
 complete control over the whole circulating medium, in the United States. 
 At its will, money will be plenty, or scarce. The value, therefore, of 
 every man's property, is in its power ; it may be enhanced or depressed 
 at pleasure. Should the directors, or their friends, have property to sell, 
 they can make money abundant, and secure an extravagant price. Should 
 they wish to purchase, they need only limit the discount, press debtors for 
 payment, make money scarce, and purchase at their own prices. 
 
 They will have a monopoly, in bills of exchange, both foreign and 
 domestic, and can regulate exchanges, to suit the interest of the bank. 
 They can make premiums high, or low, to suit them, or they can in any 
 week change the rates, in most cases, so as to purchase at discounts, when 
 they had, a few days before, been selling for an advance. 
 
 !Mr. President, is it sound policy ? Is it.consistent with the freedom of 
 election ? Is it just to the rest of the community, to create or continue, any 
 corporation, vested with such powers ? Surely not. By the abuse of them, 
 liberty may be endangered, if not destroyed, and our property sacrificed. 
 
 It is not a sufficient answer to these arguments to say, none of these 
 mischiefs have happened ; the directors are men of integrit}^ and high 
 character ; therefore, all is safe. I say no. There is no certainty how 
 long the management of this bank may be in the hands of the present direc- 
 tors. To-morrow we may have dishonest directors ; those Avho will pursue 
 their own interest, and that of -the stockholders, regardless of the public 
 welfare; and we are safe only when no powers are given which can be 
 used to the prejudice of society. 
 
 Mr. President, there is one other question on this bill, which is surely 
 worth consideration : I mean, the power of Congress to incorporate this 
 bank. The Honorable Chairman of the Committee has told us, this 
 question '4s gone by," " is settled." It may be so, with some ; with me, 
 it is otherwise. I have been taught, that "a frequent recurrence to 
 fundamental principles is essential to liberty." Why sliall we recur to 
 them, if we are to give up our own opinions, and make the opinions of 
 other men the rule of our conduct. Acts of the legislature, containing 
 general rules, must be expounded, and applied to individual cases, by the 
 
94 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 decisions of courts of justice. After a settled train of judicial decision, 
 on any contested point, those decisions expounding the statute, in courts, 
 are as much esteemed the rule for future decision, as the statute itself. 
 But this is not so, in any legislative hody. I admit, everywhere, if a 
 man is called upon to act, and after exercising his best judgment he 
 is in doubt how he ought to act, when he can find what other en- 
 lightened men, acting under the same obligations with himself, have done, 
 in the like cases, he ought, as a reasonable man, to conclude, he will most 
 probably he correct, if he follows in their footsteps. But if, after exam- 
 ining the subject fully, he is convinced that they were mistaken, I deny 
 that he is justified in following others in error. How, then, can it be 
 said this question of power is gone by, is settled, not to be thought upon, 
 nor talked about. Sir, it is not settled. It is a vexed question. This 
 poAver has always been contested, from the formation of the Constitution 
 to this moment. In Congress, in courts, in society, it now is, and ever 
 has been, disputed. In 1791, when the old Bank of the United States was 
 chartered, the power was denied, by those who aided in framing the 
 Constitution. The argument Mr. Madison then made, has never, as I 
 think, been satisfactorily answered. But a majority of Congress affinned 
 the existence of the power, and acted upon it. General "Washington 
 consulted his cabinet, and they were equally divided, two and two. The 
 judicial decisions affirmed the power, and when that charter was about 
 to expire, an application was made to renew it. "What did Congress then 
 do ? Did it conceive the question was gone by, settled, and that nothing 
 was to be done but to follow on? No, sir. The power was given, con- 
 tested, and negatived. Here, then, is precedent the other way. Thus 
 the matter rested, till during the war ; there was then an attempt to get 
 up a bank, and it failed. After the war, at the session of 1815-16, this 
 bank was chartered. But the power was contested ; and those about to 
 use it were emphatically told, that in 1811, they had themselves deter- 
 mined, they did not possess the power. 
 
 The judicial decisions have affirmed the power, confirmed by this 
 charter, as they did that confirmed by the act of 1791 ; but the opponents 
 of this bank cannot now be told, that this question is settled, with any 
 more propriety, than those were so told in 1811, when then the question 
 of re-charter occurred. Indeed I have always thought the granting the 
 charter in 181 G, ought to weigh very little. The time was unfriendly to 
 correct constitutional opinions, as to federal powers. The war was just 
 ended; those who had struggled through it, had their minds toned for an 
 exercise of federal powers, at which they would have hesitated in time 
 of peace. Only the year before, 1814 and 1815, they had a project for a 
 great paper bank, which was on the eve of passing. Would they have 
 dreamed of such a power, in time of peace? I think not. The giving 
 this charter, then, in 1816, ought not to weigh much on the question of 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 95 
 
 power. It was an act of necessity^ in the opinion of a majority, and they 
 were spurred up to the exercise of this power, by the contest through 
 which the country had just passed. 
 
 Under all these circumstances, I think, I treat with no disrespect, the 
 opinions of enlightened men, Avho have affirmed this power to be in 
 Congress, when I say my mind has arrived at a different conclusion, and 
 that I feel bound to act upon the best judgment I have been enabled to 
 form myself. 
 
 If then, we are yet at liberty to examine the Constitution, and to form 
 an opinion, whether we have the power to create such a bank as this, 
 may not those opposed to it ask, respectfully, of its advocates, to point 
 to that clause which confers this power ? 
 
 We all know what the answer to such request must be, that no such 
 power is given in express terms, but it is necessary that Congress should 
 exert this power, otherwise effect cannot be given to other important 
 powers, which we are obliged to exercise for the public good. 
 
 We ask what they are, and one gentleman says — Congress is authorized 
 to levy and collect taxes, and provide for the common defence and general 
 welfare. 
 
 Another, that Congress has the power " to coin money and fix its value 
 and the value of foreign coin, and to regulate the standard of weights and 
 measures," and this gives a complete power over the whole monetary 
 system of the United States. 
 
 A third, that the power to coin money, emit bills of credit, and to 
 make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts is ex- 
 pressly taken from the States ; and, that therefore. Congress must have 
 the power now claimed, &c. These positions have each been separately 
 examined, and, as I think proved, in argument, to be untenable. 
 
 In 1791, Mr. Madison's argument in the House of Eepresentatives, and 
 Mr. Jefferson's opinion in the Cabinet, placed this in a stronger light than 
 anything I could say would do, and on their arguments I very much rely. 
 In 1811, the arguments of other statesmen enforced their doctrine, in a 
 manner I can never hope to imitate ; and I do not propose to fatigue 
 the Senate, by repeating the arguments which they have used, and which, 
 in my opinion, have never been satisfactorily answered. 
 
 But, sir, I may be permitted to ask, if we infer the power to create a 
 bank such as this is, what power may not be inferred ? The United States 
 have a power to declare war — to have an army and navy. We cannot 
 make a successful war, unless preparations are made in time of peace. 
 Arms and ammunition are essentially necessary — why not incorporate 
 a company to make arms, to smelt lead, and to make gunpowder? 
 Clothing and blankets are necessary for your troops — why not incorpo- 
 rate companies to manufacture them ? Provisions are essentially neces- 
 sary to feed the troops — why not incorporate companies to procure lands, 
 
96 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 to raise grain, and to rear stock ? The power to incorporate companies for 
 these purposes could be presumed with better reason than the power to 
 incorporate a bank. 
 
 "We are to presume that we have a power to incorporate stockholders 
 for a bank ; because a bank is a necessary and proper means to collect, to 
 keep safe, and pay out the revenue. Is it not fair to say, if you create a 
 bank for such pui-poses, we ought to confine its operations to these duties ? 
 But Avhen once created by implication, instead of confining it to these duties, 
 we confer upon it other important primary powers, and the performance 
 of these governmental duties are the least part of its liisiness; mere 
 incidental matters, hardly worth notice. "We presume the power to make 
 the bank, and having made it, presume we have the power to keep its 
 paper pure, and therefore presume we can pass laws to hang or imprison 
 those who counterfeit its notes, and the human mind can hardly fix any 
 limits to the presumed powers, which may be created from the first 
 construction. 
 
 In my opinion a very erroneous impression has got abroad, founded 
 upon the supposition, that ianh notes are currency. The Constitution of 
 the United States never contemplated any currency as legal but a metallic 
 currency. No other is constitutional^ nor can any other be made legal. 
 
 The United States have a power to coin money, and to fix the value 
 thereof, and to fix the value oi foreign coin, and to regulate the standard 
 of weights and measures. 
 
 No State shall have power to coin money, emit bills of credit, or make 
 anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts. 
 
 From these sections some have argued, the Constitution intended to 
 give Congress the power over the whole currency. 
 
 I agree to this position, and think such was the intention of those 
 who framed the Constitution ; but the question recurs, of what was that 
 currency to consist ? I say not of paper of any description. It was to 
 consist of metah^ and those metals were to be coined in the United States, 
 and their values fixed ly la^c, or they must be coined in some other 
 country, and their value fixed here by our laws, and by the same power 
 made current. 1 admit the currency we actually have is mostly notes, 
 either of the Bank of the United States or of some of the State banks ; but 
 I deny that this paper is any more a legal currency within the meaning of 
 the Constitution, than a negotiable promissory note or a bill of exchange 
 would be. Bank notes are used by society, instead of gold and silver, 
 for convenience, by common consent — ^having no constitutional or legal 
 foundation whatever as a standard of value, nor can any such effect be 
 given to them by either federal or State government ; all must agree that the 
 States have no power to make a man take bank notes in payment of a debt. 
 I put this question, Can the federal government do so ? I say no. Con- 
 gress have no such power. Taking such power from the States, does not 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 97 
 
 necessarily confer it upon the federal government, because the United 
 States have an exj^ress power to make vietah currency, and nothing is 
 said about a paper currency. 
 
 I admit Congress has the power to compel their own officers to receive 
 bank notes or anything else they choose, in discharge of debts, due to the 
 United States, but deny that they have any power to compel A to receive 
 from B any description of paper whatever, in discharge of a debt due to 
 him. What then becomes of this power to create a bunk, because we 
 have the power to regulate the currency^ when that currency is to be, 
 according to the Constitution, nothing but specie? It vanishes. 
 
 Under the articles of confederation, an express power had been given 
 to Congress to emit bills of credit. This power had been liberally used ; 
 too much so, as was believed, for the benefit of society. In framing the 
 present Constitution, the convention determined to guard against the 
 exercise of any such power in future, either by the State or federal 
 government. Therefore, by express words, they took from the States the 
 power to emit bills of credit ; and amended the draft of the Constitution 
 submitted to them, which confined the power to emit bills of credit, by 
 striking those words out. (Journal of Convention, pp. 75 and 256.) Thus 
 by taking from the States this power, and refusing to give it to Congress, 
 they believed society was secured in a metallic currency^ and guarded 
 against everything else. 
 
 "We have the express testimony of Mr. Madison, a member of the con- 
 vention, of Mr. Martin, another member of the same body, and of Mr. 
 Jefierson, a member of President Washington's cabinet, that in the con- 
 vention there was an attempt to give Congress the power to incorporate 
 a ianl; and it was refused. 
 
 The journal containing the proceedings of that body is now jjublished; 
 and we find that, on three several occasions, an attempt was actually made 
 to give to Congress the power to pass acts of incorporation., and it was 
 uniformly refused. 
 
 It seems, therefore, clear to me that the convention did not intend to 
 give the power, now claimed, to Congress ; and that we have no right to 
 vest ourselves with such a power by construction. 
 
 In my mind, there are many provisions in this charter violative of the 
 Constitution. The United States themselves cannot purchase and hold 
 lands in any State, without the consent of such State; yet this charter 
 authorizes this corporation composed in part of aliens and of the United 
 States to do so. The fi-iends of this bill have solemnly refused to insert a 
 provision, by which the States can impose any tax upon the capital 
 employed within their limits, although such States will be bound to 
 protect the persons in the employ of, and the property belonging to, this 
 institution. 
 
 The bill gives a monopoly to this company for fifteen years, which is 
 not only odious, but against the genius of the Constitution. 
 
 7 
 
98 MEMom OF neon lawson white. 
 
 It confers upon this corporation the power of regulating the currency 
 of the country, which is an attribute of sovereignty that Congress has no 
 power to transfer to our citizens, much less to foreigners. 
 
 The whole emoluments of this bank will go to these stockholders ; they 
 have had, and are stiU to have, all your public money, on which to do 
 business ; and by a vote of this body they are to pay no interest whatever 
 for the use»of these funds, "We thus take the money of aU for the benefit 
 of &few. 
 
 But it is said, we are benefited by a sound currency in peace and in 
 ■war, and by having an institution to which we can have access for loans, 
 in cases of emergency. 
 
 How is this matter ? When we had the quasi war with France, in 
 1798-9, we had a bank, and yet had to borrow from individuals at an 
 interest of eight per centum. In case of another war, we cannot obtain 
 loans from this bank, unless specie payments are suspended. Look at its 
 condition, after it has been in operation fifteen or sixteen years in time of 
 peace. It now has notes out for upwards of twenty millions of dollars, 
 owes large deposits, and has from seven to eight millions of dollars only 
 in specie. In case of war, suppose you wish to borrow ten, twenty, or 
 fifty millions of dollars, could it loan you, and continue to pay specie? It 
 could not; you must again have paper money or no money. Your bank 
 could not hold out six months and pay specie. 
 
 During the last war, when every resource was likely to fail, a bank was 
 thought of, and what kind of a one was it to be? A paper banlc. So 
 wiU this be — if we have a war, and are obliged to borrow a hundi'ed mil- 
 lions of doUars. 
 
 "Who abused the rags of State during the war ? The enemies of the 
 United States, not this government. 
 
 The government sanctioned the suspension of specie payments. It 
 •was then patriotic to aid the government; without a suspension of specie 
 payments, these loans could not be made. "Without these rags, we could 
 not feed, clothe, or pay a single soldier. Paper money carried us 
 through the "War of Independence ; paper money got us through the last 
 war; and if we have another war of much duration, we will have paper 
 money the third time. But as soon as peace returns, we will do as we 
 have done in time past, work ourselves into hard money, into a sound 
 currency. 
 
 Sir, if we are to have this bank with these extraordinary, and, as I 
 think, unwarranted powers, it may bear down all before it ; like other 
 institutions, it will use its powers for the benefit of the stockholders. It 
 has been said. Corporations have no souls. If this one does not injure 
 society it will be an exception ; it must have more soul and better feelings 
 than belongs to mortals. "We need not fret about tlie Tariff", or the price 
 of public lands; let it unite its influence with other capitahsts, and all 
 can bo managed as they choose. Look at the inducements it lias to do 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 99 
 
 SO. It is to have all your public money on deposit, without interest. 
 The higher our taxes, the larger the deposits ; the more the deposits, the 
 greater will he the profits of the bank. For the last several years, the 
 United States deposits have averaged from six to eight millions of dollars. 
 The bank will have an interest in not having them less. If the directors 
 act correctly under such strong temptations, they will be justly entitled 
 to higher eulogiums than any their warmest friends have yet pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 That Judge White's private sentiments were similar to these 
 spoken opinions, if such proof were needful, would appear from the 
 following letter to an intimate friend in Tennessee, written about this 
 time : 
 
 The Bank bill is before the House of Representatives. It will without 
 doubt be passed there, and there is much speculation as to what the 
 President will do. I do not profess to know more than others of his 
 opinion on the subject, but am as certain that he will put his veto upon 
 it, should it be presented to him in the shape it left the Senate, as I can 
 be of any future act that depends upon the will of one man. 
 
 "We will then see whether the bank will or Avill not endeavor to con- 
 trol the election of the next President. If it does, I hope it will open the 
 eyes of the public, and enable every man to see the danger of such a 
 moneyed corporation, with such immense powers, and lai'ge funds in a 
 free country. 
 
 From the newspapers it appears that Mr. Baring, one of our foreign 
 stockholders, is spoken of as a probable member of the new ministry in 
 Great* Britain. It is a curious spectacle that an American Congress 
 should be incorporating a company, in which foreigners own eight 
 millions of stock, the United States themselves seven millions, and 
 private citizens twenty millions, and that at the very same time, in 
 Great Britain, a whig ministry should be turned out, and in the forma- 
 tion of a new tory viinistry^ one of the foreign stockholders in this 
 American company should be likely to be selected as a member. 
 
 Much as I like money and good company, I should blush to see my 
 name on the list of American stockholders, but that is only because I do 
 not feel that my God did me injustice in not causing me to be born a 
 nobleman. 
 
 The bill passed ; and as was anticipated, the President vetoed it. 
 This measure Judge White did not fail to foresee. lie writes to a 
 friend, dated June 18tb, 1832 : 
 
 The Bank bill is in the House. I have no doubt it will pass. 
 
100 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 The President will be as certain to put his veto upon it as that it is pre- 
 sented to him at the present session in its present shape. I, of course,- 
 speak my own opinion, without pretending to know more than is known 
 to every one who has read the public documents; but I calculate upon 
 his course with as much certainty as I can upon that of any man whom 
 I have neither inclination nor power to control. 
 
 My calculation is, that he will veto the bill ; and that the bank will 
 endeavor to defeat his election ; and that that attempt will open the eyes of 
 the people as to their danger, and that they wiU put down the bank 
 entirely. If they (the bank) should take the veto and still support the 
 President, it will be their strongest recommendation to favorable notice 
 at a subsequent day ; but this I am sure they will not do. 
 
 My arguments against it are written and with the printer to be pub- 
 lished in pamphlet. A job printer is publishing them. I will not 
 degrade myself by any intercourse on the subject with the editors of 
 the principal papers here, considering the manner in which they have 
 conducted. 
 
 P. S. You may wash up the types,* it will be a more angry and 
 
 bitter political contest than you have either witnessed or heard of. 
 
 Again, dated July 2d, 1832. lie says, of the reported plans of the 
 friends of the bank : 
 
 The chit-chat is, that if the President vetoes the bill, enough of mem- 
 bers opposed to the bank will for one cause or another be absent, to let 
 the bank have two thirds in each House to pass the bill, the veto not- 
 withstanding. I hope these insinuations are without any foundation in 
 truth. It seems to me that such a course would, and ought to excite 
 public feeling to a higher pitch than usual. 
 
 July 10th. lie writes from the Senate Chamber, to tlie same cor- 
 respondent : 
 
 The Senate have this moment received a message from the President, 
 returning the bill to continue for fifteen years the charter of the Bank 
 of the United States, with his objections to its passage. .It is a lengthy 
 and plain document. To-morrow at 11 o'clock tlie Senate will proceed 
 to reconsider tlie subject. If the Senate is full, and the members retain 
 their former opinions, this bank falls for the present. 
 
 Upon the receipt of the veto message in the Senate, Mr. Webster 
 
 • His correspondent was editor of a newspaper la Tennessee. 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 101 
 
 opened the debate, commenting upon the President's objections, and 
 arguing again in iiivor of the bill. Judge "White replied, fully sus- 
 taining the course of the President upon this impoitant occasion. 
 
 Judge White's remarks, delivered July 11th, 1832, were as 
 follows : 
 
 Mk, President: — Pressed as "we are for time, I must crave the indulg- 
 ence of the Senate, while I attempt some answer to the matters urged by 
 the senator from Massachusetts to the message accompanying the bill, now 
 to be re-considered. 
 
 I rejoice that for once we have a document from the present Cbief 
 Magistrate, acknowledged by the opposition to be frank, plain, and sus- 
 ceptible of only one interpretation. Heretofore, the common complaint 
 from that quarter has been that his important communications were so 
 worded, as to be interpreted one way in one section of the country, and 
 a dilTerent way in another. Here it is admitted we have a document so 
 worded, as to be understood every where alike. The honorable senator 
 thinks this frankness on the part of the Chief Magistrate ought to be met 
 in a corresponding spirit, by those wbo differ from him in opinion. Ap- 
 proving of this course, I shall endeavor to be equally as explicit, in what I 
 propose to say in answer to his argument. 
 
 The senator thinks if the charter of this bank is not renewed, ruin to 
 the country is to be the consequence, because the bank must wind up all 
 its concerns. This is nothing but the old argument used in 1811, when 
 the then existing bank applied for a renewal of its charter. Distress to 
 the community, and ruin to the country were predicted by the advocates 
 of the bank. The predictions Avere not verified. The capital employed 
 in the bank was not annihilated. It still existed, and in loans to indivi- 
 duals, or in some other shape, it was applied to the uses of the community. 
 Debtors sought, and obtained accommodations elsewhere ; as the notes of 
 that bank were withdrawn from circulation, their places "were supplied 
 by specie, or the paper of local institutions, and little or no inconvenience 
 Was experienced ; and such will be the case again, should the charter of 
 this bank be allowed to expire in 183G. Debtors, worthy of credit, will 
 obtain accommodations from either individuals or other banks, and dis- 
 charge their dues to this, and as the notes of this bank disappear, their 
 places will be supplied by specie, or the paper of other banks, and tlio 
 mass of the community will, in a short time, hardly be sensible that the 
 operation of winding up has been performed. We have been told, that 
 in the Valley of Mississippi alone, there is duo to this bank, thirty mil- 
 lions of dollars. Twenty millions for loans- made, and ten millions for 
 domestic bills of exchange. That the press occasioned by the collection 
 of this debt, will be too severe to be borne. The charter has almost four 
 
102 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 years yet to run, and then two years are allowed for collections, making 
 nearly six years. How often have we been told, during this session, of 
 the general prosperity of the country, and especially that part of it in the 
 Valley of the Mississippi. If these statements have any resemblance to the 
 truth, it ought to be entirely within the power of these debtors, in five or 
 six years, to adjust and pay whatever they may owe. I must repeat what 
 I said on a former occasion: If these debts are real transactions, the ad- 
 justment of them will be a simple operation. The paper evidencing 
 these debts will be paid at maturity^ and let the bank be careful not to 
 discount when the charter is near expiring, and the whole object will be 
 accomplished. If the transactions are not real, but fictitious, and the 
 paper discounted has assumed the appearance of business paper for the 
 purpose of obtaining permanent loans, in other words, standing accom- 
 modations, the sooner the truth is known the better to all concerned. 
 The community has a deep interest in this matter ; false credit, given to 
 individuals by false appearances, is an injury to society, and of no actual 
 benefit to individuals, and the sooner such transactions are brought to a 
 close, all the better,— the fewer will be the number of sufierers. 
 
 If I am not very much mistaken, this opinion was, some years ago, ad- 
 vanced, in a report from a Secretary of the Treasury, whose opinions 
 upon such a subject are entitled to the highest respect. But, sir, if when 
 this bank has been in operation only fifteen or sixteen years, the debta 
 have become so numerous, and so large, that we must, on these accounts, 
 renew the charter, I must be allowed to ask, what will be the state of 
 things at the end of thirty-five years? Will they not be much worse? 
 Most certainly they will. "What, then, do gentlemen mean ? Do they 
 intend that this charter shall become perpetual? — that this company, 
 foreigners and all, shall have this monopoly for ever? If this be not their 
 intention, I must ask the senator from Massachusetts to tell us, at what 
 time the institution can be wound up, with less inconvenience than at 
 the expiration of the present charter. When will the debtors of the Val- 
 ley of the Mississippi be better able to pay, than when this charter ex- 
 pires? If the argument of the senator proves anything, it proves that 
 this corporation ought to exist /or ever. Is any gentleman willing to avow 
 this? I am decidedly opposed to it. Pay-day for these debtors must ar- 
 rive some time; and it appears to me that the affairs of this bank, prob- 
 ably, would be closed with less inconvenience to the community at the 
 expiration of this charter, than they can be fifteen years afterwards. 
 
 The senator says, the President alleges that the application to renew 
 the charter is premature, and thinks we ought not to be chidod by him 
 for acting on the subject, as he had directed the attention of the nation, 
 and of Congress, to this subject, in his message of 1829, and in two suc- 
 ceeding messages. 
 
 Mr. President, to me it is obvious, that the notice taken of the bank 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 103 
 
 in those messages, was not to recommend to Congress to act upon the 
 subject, at either of the sessions when those messages -were delivered, but 
 as the subject was esteemed of vital interest to the conmmnity, to turn 
 the attention of all to it, at an early period ; so that opinions might be 
 well matured upon it, when the charter was about to expire, and when it 
 would become necessary to act upon it. 
 
 But if Congress ought now to act upon it, because the subject is brought 
 before us by those messages, why was it not acted on at the sessions when 
 these messages were delivered? Why not at the session in 1829? The 
 senator has answered the question with frankness. He has told us it is 
 material it should be known before the Presideutial election, whether the 
 l'resident4 would sign the act renewing the charter or not, because if he 
 would not, he ought to be turned out, and another put in his place, who 
 will, and as the election is to take jjlace the succeeding fall, application 
 for the renewal could not bo longer delayed. 
 
 I thank the senator for the candid avowal, that unless the President 
 will sign such a charter as Avill suit the directors, they intend to inter- 
 fere in the election, and endeavor to displace him. With the same 
 candor I state, that after this declaration, this charter shall never be 
 renewed with my consent. 
 
 Let us look at this matter as it is. Immediately before the election, the 
 directors apply for a charter which they think the President at any 
 other time will not sign, for the express purpose of compelling Mm to 
 sign contrary to his judgment, or to encounter all their hostility, in 
 the canvass and at the polls. Suppose this attempt to have succeeded, 
 and the President, through fear of his election, had signed this charter, 
 although he conscientiously beheves it will be destructive of the liberty 
 of the ])eople, who have elected him to preside over them, and preserve 
 their liberties, so far as in his power. What next? Why, whenever the 
 charter is likely to expire hereafter, they will come as they do now, 
 on the eve of the election, and compel the Chief Magistrate to sign such 
 a charter as they may dictate on pain of being turned out and disgraced. 
 Would it not be far better to gratify this moneyed aristocracy, to the 
 •whole extent at once, and renew their charter for ever? The tempta- 
 tion to a periodical interference in our elections would then be taken 
 away. 
 
 Sir, if under these circumstances the charter is renewed, the elective 
 franchise is destroyed, and the liberties and prosperity of the people are 
 delivered over to this moneyed institution, to be disposed of at their 
 discretion. Against this I enter my solemn protest. 
 
 The honorable senator next adverts to what the President says on 
 the constitutionality of this act, and animadverts on what is stated in 
 relation to there being two precedents in Congress, where this power is 
 asserted, and two in which it is denied, and then asserts that since 
 
104 • MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 the year 1791, when the first bank was chartered, Congress has never 
 denied this power. 
 
 Mr. President, it appears to me that whether the President can show 
 any recorded vote denying this power, or not, the senator ought not to 
 be too severe upon the executive for this mistake, if it be one. When a 
 renewal of the charter was applied for in 1811, its constitutionality was 
 argued, and ably argued, by those opposed to it, and the application was 
 rejected. The bank then applied for time to wind up its business, the 
 petition was refei'red to a committee, who reported against the applica- 
 tion, alleging that it was unconstitutional, and this report was concurred 
 ;n. Afterwards, in 1815, when a bank charter was under consideration 
 in the House of Representatives, a member from Massachusetts, in his 
 place, then acting under the same high obligations which the President 
 acts under, arguing against the charter, stated expressly, that the 
 renewal of the charter had been refused because it was unconstitutional. 
 The President, without doubt, has read this argument, and seen this 
 resolution, and if he reposed confidence in these statements, and was 
 thereby misled, which I suppose he was not, I submit to the honorable 
 senator whether, under such circumstances he would not have been 
 entitled to milder treatment, from him, than he has received. 
 
 The attention of the Senate has been next called to that part of the 
 message, found in page 6, in which the decisions of the Supreme Court 
 are spoken of. 
 
 The honorable senator argues that the Constitution has constituted 
 the Supreme Court a tribunal to decide great constitutional questions, 
 such as this, and that when they have done so, the question is put at 
 rest, and every other department of the government must acquiesce. 
 This doctrine I deny. The Constitution vests "the judicial power in a 
 Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to 
 time ordain and establish." "Whenever a suit is commenced and prose- 
 cuted in the Courts of the United States of which they have jurisdic- 
 tion, and snch suit is decided by the Supreme Court, as that is the court 
 of the last resort, its decision is final and conclusive beticeen the parties. 
 But as an authority, it does not bind either the Congress, or the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. If either of these co-ordinate departments is 
 afterwards called upon to perform an oflicial act, and conscientiously 
 believes the performance of that act will be a violation of the Constitu- 
 tion, they are not bound to perform it, but on the contrary are as much 
 at liberty to decline acting, as if no such decision had been made. In 
 examining the extent of their constitutional power, the o])inion of so 
 enlightened a tribunal as our Supreme Court has been, and I hope ever 
 will be, will always bo entitled to great weight, and without doubt, 
 cither Congress or tlie President would always be disposed, in a doubt- 
 ful case, to think its decisions correct ; — but I hope neither Avill ever view 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 105 
 
 them as antliority binding upon them. They ought to examine the 
 extent of their constitutional powers for themselves ; and Avhen they 
 have had access to all the sources of information within their reach, and 
 given to everything its due weight ; if they are satisfied the Constitution 
 has not given a power to do the act required, I insist they ouglit to 
 refrain froiu doing it. 
 
 Suppose the House of Representatives to have passed an act on a given 
 subject for a number of successive sessions, and from want of time the 
 Senate had not acted on it, and the constitutionality of such an act to 
 come before the Senate, would any member think those opinions of the 
 House, authorities by which he was bound? Certainly not. They 
 would have due weight, and be respectfully considered, but disregarded 
 in the decision made by the Senate, if shown to be incorrect. In princi- 
 ple there can be no difference between such cases and the judicial deci- 
 sions. Suppose the President to recommend ever so often the passage 
 of an act, which he may think constitutional, would the Senate, the 
 House of Representatives, or the Courts, feel themselves bound by his 
 opinions? I think not. Each co-ordinate department, wnthin its appro- 
 priate sphere of action, must judge of its own powers, when called upon 
 to do its official duties, and if either blindly follows the others, without 
 forming an opinion for itself, an essential check against the exercise of 
 unconstitutional power is destroyed. A mistake by Congress in passing 
 an act inconsistent with the Constitution, followed by a like mistake by 
 the Supreme Court, in deciding such act to be constitutional, might bo 
 attended with the most fatal consequences. Let each department judge 
 for itself, and we are safe. If different interpretations are put upon tlio 
 Constitution, by the different departments, the people arc the tribunal to 
 settle the dispute. Each of the departments is the agent of the people, 
 doing their business according to the powers conferred, and when there 
 is a disagreement, as to the extent of these powers, the people them- 
 selves, through the ballot-boxes, must settle it. The senator, if I heard liim 
 correctly, has said that the President has asserted that the Supreme Court 
 has no power to decide upon the constitutionality of an act of Congress. 
 The gentleman has not attended to the message with his usual accuracy. 
 No such opinion is advanced, but the contrary one ; that each department 
 within its appropriate sphere of action, has the right to judge for itself, 
 and is not bound by the opinion of both, or either of the others; and 
 this I incline to think is the correct constitutional view of the subject. 
 The honorable senator thinks the President entirely mistaken when ho 
 supposes Congress cannot deprive itself of some of its legislative powers. 
 Let us for a few minutes attend to the view of this part of the subject 
 presented by the message and then examine its correctness. 
 
 The Congress is vested witli exclusive legislative powers over the 
 District of Columbia. It therefore has an undoubted ])()wer to establish, 
 within the district, as many banks with as much capital to each as it 
 
106 MEMOIRv OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 chooses. By this charter it is stipulated that Congress shall not establish 
 any hank within the district, nor shall it increase the capital of existing 
 banks. This, the President thinks, is unconstitutional. By this agree- 
 ment the present Congress, and its successors, are deprived of the powers 
 of establishing any bank, no matter how pressingly the public interest 
 may require one. Congress by this agreement will have stripped itself 
 of all power to legislate upon a subject during the existence of the char- 
 ter, when the Constitution had vested the most ample power. Is this 
 constitutional ? Ought we to be bound by such an agreement for fifteen 
 or twenty years, and permit the best interests of society to, be sacrificed 
 for the want of a power which the Constitution has conferred, but which 
 we have bartered away ? The message supposes we are not at liberty 
 to dispose of our legislative powers in this manner, and therefore, this act 
 is uneonstitntional. This is certainly a very important point. If we make 
 such an agreement we ought to be bound by it, and yet, I think, cases 
 might occur, in which we ought not to be, nor would we, be bound by 
 any such agreement. The public safety, the public interest might long 
 before the expiration of the charter imperiously demand the establish- 
 ment of one or more banks within the district, and I do not believe we 
 can constitutionally deprive ourselves or our successors of the power to 
 do so.* • 
 
 The senator insists, that in many cases, we derive our powers not from 
 
 * The doctrine in 6th Wheaton, 593, 1 think fully sustains the message upon this point. It 
 is as follows : 
 
 " In the year 1797, the Legislature of Maryland, among ether powers given the Corporation 
 of Georgetown, enacted, that they shall have full power and authority to make such bylawH 
 and ordinances, for the graduation and levelling of the streets, lanes, and alleys -within 
 the jurisdiction of the same toicn, as they may judge necessary for the benefit thereof." 
 
 In pursuance of this authority, the Corporation, in May, 1799, passed an Ord inance for the 
 graduation of certain streets. The first section appoints Commissioners, and authorizes 
 them to make the graduation and level of the streets. 
 
 The second section is in these words: "And be it ordained, that the said level and gradua- 
 tion, when signed by the Commissioners, or a majority of them, and returned to the clerk of 
 this Corporation, shall be for ever thereafter considered as the true graduation of tlie streets 
 so graduated, and be hinding upon this Corporatioyi, and all other persons whatever, and 
 be for ever tliereaflur regarded in making improvements upon said streets." 
 
 A man named Goslcr, owned lots upon one of the streets, and made improvements thereon, 
 according to the graduation made and returned to the clerk of the Corporation. In Septem- 
 ber 1816, the Corporation passed another Ordinance, directing the level and graduation of 
 the street to be altered. And the Commissioners appointed being about to cut down the 
 street, by Gosler's llouse, he filed a bill to enjoin them from doing so. 
 
 In the Supreme Court, one question made, was, whether the Corporation had, by the Ordi- 
 nance of 1799, put it out of their power to legislate on the levelling and graduation of the 
 streets; and the Court says, "When a Government enters into a contract, there is no doubt 
 of its power to bind itself to any extent not pnihibMedhy its Constitution. A corporation 
 can make such contracts only, as are allowed by the acts of incorporation. The power 
 of this body to make a contract, which should so operate as to bind its legislative capa- 
 cities for ever thereafter, and disable it from enacting a by-law, which the Legislature enables 
 It to enact, may well be questioned. We rather think, that the Corporation cannot abridge 
 ita own legislative power." 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 107 
 
 express ^anta, but by construction, and asks how Tve acquire power to 
 pass laws to hang those who rob the mail. lie says it might be argued 
 that fine and imprisonment would be sufficiently severe. 
 
 To this I answer, that when an express power is granted to Congress 
 to accomplish a given object, and no means for its accomplishment are 
 pointed out, then we must, by construction, have the necessary and 
 appropriate means. In case of the mail-robber, we have the power to 
 hang, because we have an undoubted power to carry the mail and deliver 
 its contents safely, and unless those who violate it can be punished 
 criminally, this granted power cannot be carried into effect ; and as 
 putting to death the man who will break open the mail and steal its con- 
 tents is a necessary and appropriate means for preventing such acts. Con- 
 gress has the power to thus punish. But this will not furnish a precedent 
 for exercising the power to confer upon a bank created, ostensibly, for 
 public and financial purposes, a set of powers and privileges not in the 
 least necessary or proper for enabling it to perform any of the duties to 
 be required of it by the government. 
 
 The honorable senator has wearied himself a good deal with a criti- 
 cism upon the word " monopoly." He says it is used, at least, twenty 
 times in this message, and never correctly. That the act only confers 
 exclusive privileges, and the word monopoly means the sole power of 
 trading 
 
 Mr. President, I do think upon this great subject the minds of states- 
 men may be more profitably employed, than in close criticisms upon the 
 definition of particular words ; but I am content to take the senator's 
 definition and insist it is api)ropriately used. The charter does grant the 
 sole power of banking for fifteen years to this company. They, therefore, 
 have the sole power of trading in the manner pointed out in that charter 
 for the period of its duration. To make it a monopoly, the company need 
 not have the exclusive right of trading in everything ; the sole right to carry 
 on a particular branch of business, is sufficient, and as this company is to 
 have sole, or exclusive right, it appears to me the word is properly used. 
 The honorable senator fears much mischief may follow from the objec- 
 tions urged against foreigners owning stock in the bank, unless some- 
 thing shall be done to remove these erroneous impressions. He says wo 
 are interested in encouraging them to make loans for public purposes to 
 the general and State governments, and that heretofore it has been our 
 policy to encourage them to hold property among us. 
 
 Mr. President, this never has been our policy as to lands ; the respective 
 States have, and ought ever to have, the exclusive right to determine wlio 
 shall hold lands within their limits. It has generally been, and probably 
 ever will be, their policy to prevent aliens from acquiring freeholds within 
 their limits. This policy of theirs, we have no constitutional right to 
 interfere with. As to our public stocks, I think with the senator, 
 
108 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 foreigners may well make loans to the government, or purchase stock 
 owned by our citizens. Much benefit may result from this, and we have 
 no injury to fear. As to our public stocks, foreigners owning them, can 
 have no agency whatever in creating them or managing them. At the 
 end of each quarter, the government pays the stipulated interest, and at 
 the time agreed on, discharges the principal. The holder of the stock, 
 by no act of his can make his profits more or less. But the case is not 
 so as to bank stock. Although the foreigner can neither vote nor be 
 a director, yet he can in many instances have an indirect influence on the 
 operations of the bank, and by regulating exchanges favorably for the 
 bank and injuriously for our citizens, can increase the profits of the esta- 
 blishment, and thus benefit himself Will any gentleman say he is of 
 opinion that the Barings, who own a million of stock, can have no infiu- 
 ence on the profits to be made by this institution ? I think not. 
 
 Some of the views then in this message, of the manner in which this 
 stock may, and probably will, be managed by our citizens and foreigners, 
 are very forcible as they strike my mind. 
 
 Under the old charter the hemic could not be taxed by the State govern- 
 ments according to the decision of the Supreme Court, but citizen stock- 
 holders might be taxed by the States in which they reside, for the stock 
 which they hold. The assessors in Connecticut applied to the bank in 
 that State for the names of the stockholders residing there. The names were 
 not furnished, and the like application was made to the president of the 
 principal bank, who, by the advice of counsel, returned a very polite 
 answer, declining to give the names, as the bank could not lend their aid, 
 to enforce penalties against their stockholders. To remedy this mischief 
 under the renewed charter, provision is made that the names of the citizen 
 stockholders shall be furnished. The President thinks that under this 
 renewed charter, the construction will be that the bank cannot be taxed, 
 therefore, you cannot tax foreigners: but that citizens may be taxed for 
 the stock tliey own, therefore this stock will be worth one per cent, per 
 annum more, to the foreigner, than to the citizen. That, with this induce- 
 ment, foreigners will purchase out all the stock except enough to be left 
 in the hands of a few citizens who will thus have a power every year to 
 elect themselves directors. That this company thus formed of a few 
 citizens, and foreign stockholders Avill manage tlie institution for their 
 own particular benefit in time of peace, and that in time of war it will 
 possess a power dangerous to the government itself. The honorable 
 senator s,^-s the message frequently repeats, that the institution may be 
 " dangerous " to our liberty, dangerous to our prosperity, &c., but that he 
 can see nothing dangerous in it. 
 
 Mr. President, wo must remember that in case of war, this bank, if in 
 existence, must be our main dependence for raising money, and yet there 
 is no provision by which it is bound to loan us one cent. Now suppose 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 109 
 
 it to have existed during the last war, and tlie stock to have been owned 
 bj British subjects and a tow of our own citizens, and those citizens to 
 have belonged to that sect in politics Avho were seeking to change our 
 federal rulers — who thought it wicked to thank God for our victories upon 
 either land or water — who had sent an embassy to this city to request the 
 then President to resign. Does any man believe the Administration could 
 have procured the loan of one cent? Those politicians, I am willing to 
 suppose, were acting honestly — that they believed the war impolitic, 
 unjust, and wicked; so much so that they would not aid it with their good 
 wishes. Does any one suppose that they would not have held it treason 
 against good morals, to have loaned pecuniary aid ? Surely they would. 
 We must then have been without money, and without the means of 
 obtaining any. Peace must have been made, and upon any terms, dic- 
 tated by the bank or by the enemy. 
 
 I put then the questions to the Senate, to the senator from Massachu- 
 setts, to answer me, if they can see no danger in this state of things ? 
 
 The honorable senator next recurs to that part of the message which 
 speaks of the bonus. The President supposes that this is proof upon the 
 face of the act, that more power and greater privileges are conferred than 
 were necessai-y for the performance of the public business to be done by 
 the bank. The senator thinks this small affair is within a nut-shell, and 
 that shell not worth cracking. That any one capable of taking the view 
 of a statesman would have seen that the other powers were necessary to 
 make a bank of any use for public or private purposes. 
 
 Mr. President, I have endeavored to expand my mind so as to take this 
 enlarged view of the subject, and what I find is, that the advocates of 
 this bank, upon the plea that the bank is necessary for the fiscal concerns 
 of the government, wish, by construction, to acquire the power to create 
 a bank, and having thus possessed themselves of the power, wish to use 
 it, so as to confer powers not in any degree necessary for a bank to pos- 
 sess, to enable it to do all which the government may wish to have done: 
 but through which the stockholders may enricli themselves and their 
 friends, and acquire an influence greater than the government itself, and 
 control all. our political concerns, in such manner, as to gratify their 
 ambition and promote their interests to any extent they may wisli. In 
 short, it appears to me, that in creating the bank, the pretence is, tlirough 
 it to do the public business, and as soon as created, the public business is 
 a mere insignificant incident, and private emolument without limit, is the 
 main object. 
 
 But it is said, we have the President's project for a bank. It is to be 
 one without money, without credit, and to do no business. 
 
 Others, before the honorable senator, have supposed the President to 
 mean any sort of bank, that could be most easily turned into ridicule. I 
 do not know when the honorable member has seen the project of which 
 
110 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 he speaks. I have never seen or lieard of any such thing from the Pres- 
 ident. 
 
 The senator seems to suppose the President's fears upon the subject of 
 the States not being allowed to impose a tax entirely too great. 
 
 IIow stands this matter? The Supreme Court has decided that the 
 States cannot tax the bank. This charter imposes no condition upon tlie 
 bank that it shall pay any tax to any State, and provides a mode by which 
 resident stockholders may be taxed for their stock. What then will be the 
 construction under this renewed charter? No man can doubt it. As no 
 provision- is made, no tax can be collected. I hold that in every State 
 where a branch is situated — as the State laws must protect the persons 
 who manage the affairs of this corporation, and must protect the property 
 wnthin their limits, it is strictly j.ust that a reasonable tax should be paid 
 for this protection. 
 
 All this might have been easily provided for. Although Congress can- 
 not confer upon a State the power of taxation, it certainly can impose a 
 condition upon this corporation, that it shall pay a tax or the charter be 
 forfeited. As no such condition is imposed, the States must lose the tax, 
 under the decision of the Supreme Court. I take the liberty of saying 
 further, that the reasoning in that case, if correct and carried out, will 
 produce a class of persons exempt from taxation that would be highly in- 
 convenient. The principle established is, that the bank is necessary for the 
 federal government. That the State government is an adversary power, 
 and if allowed the power to tax, could tax so heavily as to exclude the 
 bank and branches from the States. Carry out the same principle, and 
 you must exempt from State taxation the houses and the property, of 
 every other federal officer of every grade. If the bank is necessary 
 to the United States in an individual State, and that State cannot tax it, 
 because it may, by taxing, exclude it, I ask, are not federal judges neces- 
 sary — marshals, clerks, collectors, and a host of officers ? Why shall the 
 States tax them or their property ? They may be taxed out of the States 
 by this adversary power, and, therefore, they must be freed from taxa- 
 tion. I am not prepared to yield my assent to a doctrine leading to such 
 a result. The President must be riglit in wishing to preserve for the 
 States all the powers of taxation, which they have not in express terms 
 surrendered in the Constitution ; these are few. lie says, imports and 
 exports. The objects of taxation are only limited by their discretion — 
 persons, and property of every description, real and personal, corporeal 
 and incorporeal, with the exccjition mentioned, are, and of right ought 
 to be, liable to State taxation ; yet, under the charter, they will be de- 
 prived of it for want of some such provision as it was attempted to in- 
 troduce here, and was rejected. 
 
 The honorable member has alluded to that part of the message Avhich 
 speaks of the investigation of the bank being unwillingly yielded, and at 
 
, UNITED STATES BANK. Ill 
 
 the same time, he say?, as it does not alhide to this branch of the legis- 
 lature, we cannot notice it. 
 
 Sir, is not the statement true? Was not the creation of a committeo 
 opposed? Tlie bani: had its agents here no doubt. Gentlemen of the 
 House, confiding in the statements of the agents, thought the investiga- 
 tion useless, tlicrcfore they opposed it, It ^cas mnvillingly yielded. 
 Who is blamed for this in the message ? Not the House — not the mem- 
 bers of the Hpuse — let any candid mind examine the whole paragraph, 
 and he must see, it is those who applied for a renewal of the charter, and 
 persisted in the application after this limited and unsatisiiictory examin- 
 ation. The honorable senator thinks the message is unfortunate, in as- 
 cribing to the patriots of the Revolution the spirit of compromise, which 
 ought not to be imitated. Mr. President, if the message did read as the 
 senator has read it, it would have been substantially correct. The lead- 
 ing patriots of the Revolution, were the leading men in framing and 
 adopting the Constitution; and, it is the spirit of compromise, which 
 these men manifested in adopting the Constitution, which we are called 
 upon to imitate — not that displayed during tlie Revolution in fighting the 
 enemy — but the paragraph was misread by the senator, no doubt unin- 
 tentionally, and furnishes no color, when correctly read, for the criticism 
 •we have heard upon it. 
 
 It has been argued, that it is strange the message should intimate that 
 the executive ought to have been called upon for a draft of the project 
 of a bank. I submit, Mr. President, that it is not at all strange. In every 
 instance, heretofore, the bank projects have proceeded from the treasury, 
 and so they ought. Although the bank established in General Washing- 
 ton's day may have been the best that could be devised, as things then 
 were; yet, the increase of population — numerous changes in almost every 
 thing — might make it a very unsuitable plan at this time. The Secretary 
 of the Treasury, whose duty it is to watch the finances of the country, 
 and the operations of the bank, could better judge of the details ])roper 
 for a bill, than any other officer ; and now, as in time past, ought to have 
 been consulted. 
 
 Mr. President : — In submitting this message, one of the highest duties 
 of the Cliiof Magistrate has been performed. Under peculiar and trying 
 circumstances, he has given his sentiments, plainly, and frankly, as he 
 believed liis duty required. 
 
 When the excitement of the time in which we act, shall have passed 
 away, and the historian and biographer shall be employed in giving his 
 account of the acts of our most distinguished public men, and comes to 
 the name of Andrew Jackson, when he shall have recounted all the great 
 and good deeds done by this man, in the course of a long and eventful life, 
 and tlie circumstances under whicli this message was communicated, shall 
 have been stated, the conclusion will be, that, in doing this, he has shown 
 
112 MEMOEK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 a willingness to risk more to promote the happiness of his fellow-men, 
 and to secure their liberties, than by the doing of any other act whatever. 
 
 That the arguments above set forth were conclusive, may be infer- 
 red from the circumstance that Webster, having made the first speech, 
 after being responded to by Judge White, refused to close the debate. 
 Judge White writes next day. 
 
 The veto message on the subject of re-chartering the bank was taken 
 up for consideration in the Senate yesterday. Mr. Webster opened the 
 debate. He openly avowed that this time was selected for applying for a 
 renewal of the charter, that the opinion of the executive be known, to 
 the end that if adverse to the bank, he might be displaced at the ap- 
 proaching election. This declaration was followed up and affirmed by 
 Ewing, Holmes, and Clayton, who all spoke on the same side yesterday. 
 
 It is no longer a question of doubt, whether the bank is disposed to in- 
 terfere in the approaching election. We have it openly avowed in the 
 Senate by the advocates of the charter. Those who are opposed to the 
 renewal of the charter, ha^e sustained, and will continue to sustain, as 
 well as they can, the opinion of the President upon the subject. 
 
 No one has spoken in support of the message except your humble cor- 
 respondent. What he said is so inaccurately reported in the Intelligencer 
 of the morning, that he will be compelled to write out before he leaves 
 Washington, what he actually did say. 
 
 In 1833, when by order of President Jactson, the public deposits 
 were removed from the United States Bank, and placed in certain 
 State Banks, in consequence of which measure the country was 
 plunged from a condition of unprecedented prosperity into sudden and 
 wide-spread adversity, ^Mr. Webster, as a means of relief to the com- 
 mercial community, moved in the Senate, in the latter half of the 
 session of 1834, for leave to bring in a bill to extend the charter of 
 the bank for six years, from and after March 3d, 183G. He accom- 
 panied the application by a speecli of great ability, and was followed 
 by Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Wright, and Mr. Benton, each presenting liis 
 own views on the subject. Judge White considered the opportunity a 
 suitable one for the statement of some of his own opinions relating to 
 the bank, its management, the conduct of the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury in removing the deposits, and that of the President in removing 
 Mr. Duane. 
 
 Mr. White's speech, delivered March 24, 1834, was as follows : 
 
■UNITED STATES BANK. 113 
 
 Mr. President : "When a subject of so much importance is under consi- 
 deration ; wlien topics are discussed which produce a diversity of opinion, 
 not only as to the powers conferred upon the federal government, but 
 also, as to the manner in which the powers certainly conferred, are dis- 
 tributed among the several departments; and when our decision may 
 vitally alfect, as well the fiscal concerns of the government, as the pe- 
 cuniary interests of all classes of the community, I am unwilling to record 
 my vote until I shall have given some of the reasons, at least, which 
 lead to them. 
 
 I am pleased that the honorable senator from Massachusetts has asked 
 leave to introduce this bill ; not because I approve of it, but because it 
 offers something practical, which we can discuss, consider, and decide. 
 
 If the bill proposed contained any principle, which, under any modifi- 
 cation, I believed we had a power to enact into a law, I would most 
 willingly extend the usual courtesy of granting leave to introduce it. 
 although I might disapprove all its details ; but, in my judgment, its 
 object is to do that which, by the Constitution, we have no power to do. 
 
 The sole object is, to extend the charter of the present Bank of the 
 United States, under certain modifications, for the term of six years after 
 the 3d of March, 1836, when the existing charter will expire. 
 
 It is said the country is distressed in consequence of the derangement 
 of our currency, and the object of this bill is to relieve that distress, by 
 extending the charter. If leave is granted to introduce the bill, the hope 
 will be indulged, that in due season the bill will be passed into a law, and 
 the relief desired be thus afforded. "We ought not, in my opinion, even 
 by our silence, to encourage any expectation, or hope, which we do not 
 intend to make good. 
 
 Entertaining the opinions which I do, in relation to this bank, I cannot 
 silently acquiesce in the introduction of this bill, without creating expec- 
 tations which, so far as is in my power, I should certainly disappoint; 
 therefore, I hope, when I deny the leave asked, my conduct may not be 
 attributed to a willingness to act otherwise than courteously, toward the 
 Iionorable senator who has submitted the motion. 
 
 I hold that, by the Constitution of the United States, Congress has no 
 power to create a bank, and having no power to create it, we have no 
 power to continue it beyond the period limited for its termination. 
 
 I wish the Senate not to be alarmed, from a belief that I am about to 
 weary their patience, or exhaust my own strength, by an elaborate argu- 
 ment to prove the truth of this position. 
 
 I am well aware that this question has been repeatedly and ably dis- 
 cussed, in Congress, and before our highest judicial tribunals, and that 
 many of the most enlightened and pure men we have ever had in i)ublic 
 employ, have affirmed the existence of this power ; yet, I consider the 
 question unsettled. The power has always been questioned and disputed ; 
 
 8 
 
114 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 It never has been yielded. The decisions are not binding as authorities, 
 when Congress is called ni^on to exercise the power. If we are certain 
 we do not possess it, or it is doubtful whether we do, it ought not to be 
 exercised. 
 
 Those who affirm the existence of this power, do not pretend that in 
 the Constitution it is expressly granted, but rely upon that clause of 
 the 8th section, 1st article, which provides that " Congress shall have 
 power to pass all laws necessary and j^foper to carry into effect the powers 
 expressly granted." They next say that, by the 5th paragraph of the 
 same section. Congress has an express grant of power " to coin money, 
 and to fix the value thereof, and the value of foreign coin, and to regulate 
 the standard of weights and measures." Hence, they argue that it was 
 the intention to vest in Congress the whole power over the monetary 
 system of the United States, and that this cannot be done without giving 
 a power to incorporate a bank. I admit it was intended to vest the 
 whole power in Congress, over our money ^ our currency^ but deny that 
 there is any necessity for a bank" to give effect to this power. 
 
 By the 10th section, 1st article, it is said, "no State shall coin money, 
 emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in pay- 
 ment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impair- 
 ing the obligation of contracts." Before the formation of this Constitution, 
 much injury was supposed to have resulted from the power which the 
 individual States possessed and exercised, of emitting bills of credit; 
 therefore, this power is taken from the States, by express words. The 
 federal government has no power but that which is expressly given, as 
 .is said in the tenth amendment to the Constitution. There is no power 
 given, in any part of that instrument, to emit bills of credit. Since the 
 adoption of this Constitution, the power to emit bills of credit is extinct 
 in the United States. The State governments cannot exercise it, because 
 it is expressly taken away ; the federal government cannot exercise it, 
 becatise it is not given to it; therefore this evil of a paper currency is 
 effectually cured. Before the adoption of this Constitution the States had 
 a power to make articles of produce, or merchandise, a tender in payment 
 of debts. This power, in some of the States, had been exercised. It is 
 also extinguished under the present Constitution. 
 
 Formerly, there was a want of uniformity in the value of the same 
 piece of money, in the different States: in some, a dollar was four shil- 
 lings and eiglitpence ; in anotlier, six shillings ; in others, seven and six- 
 pence; and in some others, eight shillings. This was an evil cured by 
 this Constitution. Congress has the power to " coin money and fix its 
 value, and the value of foreign coin;" and the power to coin money, in 
 future, is denied to tlie States. Thus, uniformity in value is produced : 
 a dollar in one State, is a dollar, and no more, in every other. Weights 
 and measures were, and might be varied in different States. The power 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 115 
 
 to regulate the standard of weights and measures is given to Congress : 
 when exercised, uniformity in each State is produced ; a bushel of 
 wheat must bo of the same quantity, and an hundred pounds of hemp or 
 tobacco, must be of the same weight, in each State. 
 
 By these different provisions, the whole people of the United States 
 were intended to be secured, in a uniform currency^ a uniform standard 
 of weights and measures, and the same provisions contain a prohibition 
 against making anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts, 
 and a denial of any power to pass a law to impair the obligation of 
 contracts. 
 
 What species of currency then, I ask, was intended? Metallic and 
 nothing else. Money coined^ and the value fixed^ under the authority of 
 Congress, or foreign coin^ the value of which is fixed by the same power. 
 "Will any gentleman state, that in his opinion, either Congress, or a State 
 legislature, has a power, under our Constitution, to make one individual 
 receive from another anything but a metallic currency^ in discharge of a 
 debt due ? 
 
 The opinion that Congress has no power to create a tank, is, as I 
 think, very much strengthened, when we reflect where the convention 
 sat, when it sat, and what was going on in relation to banks. 
 
 The Bank of North America commenced business in January, 1782, in 
 Philadelphia. It had a double authority, as was supposed, for so doing 
 — from Congress, and from the legislature of Pennsylvania. In 1785, it 
 had become so odious, that several counties petitioned the legislature to 
 repeal the charter. These petitions were referred to a committee, who 
 made a report, upon which, an act did pass, repealing the charter, with- 
 out giving the corporators any form of trial whatever. This gave rise to 
 a most violent controversy, in the course of which there were many 
 publications. The bank still continued its business, under the power it 
 had derived from Congress. In 1786, an attempt was made in the legis- 
 lature, to repeal the repealing act, but this attempt was successfully 
 resisted by the democrats of that day, headed by Finley and Smilie, and 
 tlie confusion continued till the next year, when a limited charter for 
 fourteen years was granted. Thus we find at the very time the conven- 
 tion sat, and in the very place it sat, the practical operations of the bank 
 of that day, were considered decidedly hostile to the liberty and inde- 
 pendence of the country. Is it then probable that it was intended to 
 vest a power in Congress to create any institution capable of so much 
 mischief? 
 
 I have looked into the petitions presented to the legislature, and the 
 report of the committee, to ascertain tlic objections upon whicli the 
 repealing act was founded, and have been so forcibly struck witli the 
 similarity of the reasons then urged, with those since relied upon, that I 
 must ask the indulgence of tlie Senate, wliile I read the report, a copy of 
 
116 I^rEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ■wliicli is before ine, in these words : "Tkat it is the opinion of this com- 
 mittee, that the said bank, as at present established, is in every view 
 incompatible with the public safety ; that in the present state of onr 
 trade, the said bank has a direct tendency to banish a great part of the 
 specie from the country, so as to produce a scarcity of money, and to 
 collect into the hands of the stockholders of the said bank, almost the 
 whole of the money which remains amongst us. That the accumulation 
 of enormous wealth, in the hands of a society who claim perpetual dura- 
 tion, will necessarily produce a degree of influence and power, which 
 cannot be intrusted in the hands of any set of men whatsoever, without 
 endangering the public safety. That the said bank, in its corporate 
 capacity, is empowered to hold estates, to the amount of ten millions of 
 dollars, and by the tenor of the present charter, is to exist for ever, with- 
 out being obliged to yield any emolument to the government, or to be at 
 all dependent upon it. That the great profits of the bank, which will 
 daily increase, as money grows scarcer, and which already far exceed the 
 profits of European banks, have tempted foreigners to vest their money in 
 this bank, and thus to draw from us large sums of interest. 
 
 "That foreigners will, doubtless, be more and more induced to become 
 stockholders, until the time may arrive, when this enormous engine of 
 power may become subject to foreign influence; this country may be 
 agitated with the politics of European courts, and the good people of 
 America reduced, once more, to a state of subordination and dependence 
 upon some one or other of the European powers. That at last, even if it 
 were confined to the hands of Americans, it would be totally destructive 
 of that equality, which ought to prevail in a republic. TVe have nothing 
 in our free and equal government, capable of balancing the influence the 
 bank must create ; and we see nothing, which, in the course of a few 
 years, can prevent the directors of the bank from governing Pennsyl- 
 vania. Already we have felt its influence, directly interfering in the 
 measures of the legislature. Already the House of Assembly, the 
 representatives of the people, have been threatened, that the credit of 
 our paper currency will be blasted by the bank ; and if this gi-owing 
 evil continues, we fear the time is not very distant when the bank 
 will be able to dictate to the legislature, what laws to pass, and what to 
 forbear." 
 
 Much has been said of the President's opinions upon the subject of 
 banks, and his ideas respecting the dangers to be apprehended from the 
 operations of this bank. He appears to be maintaining the same 
 doctrines maintained by the republican people of Pennsylvania in 1785, 
 178G, and 1787; and, as I verily believe, the same doctrines intended to 
 be incorporated into tlio Constitution, and made perpetual by it. 
 
 It seems to be thought by the honorable senator from South Carolina 
 [Mr. Calhoun], that although we cannot establish a bank to make money, 
 
UXITED STATES BANK. 117 
 
 we may, to have a currency, which will control the currency of State 
 banks. I find no warrant in the Constitution for any such distinction. 
 [Here Mr. Calhoun interrupted Mr. "White, and said he had taken a 
 distinction between doing and undoing.] Mr. W. continued, and said, I 
 hope the honorable senator will believe me when I say nothing is farther 
 from my wish than to misrepresent his arguments. I can have no motive 
 to do so. The distinction between doing and undoing can have no influ- 
 ence on my argument. This bill attempts to do somcthin/j, not to undo. 
 Its object is to continue this charter six years longer. This is an exer- 
 tion of the same Mnd of power which was exerted in passing the charter 
 for twenty years, in 1816. This power is not given by the Constitution. 
 The honorable senator thinks the wise course is, to look at the circum- 
 stances in which we are placed, and adapt our measures to ojur situation. 
 This is all true when we possess the power to act ; but here the first 
 consideration is. Have we the power? if we have not, it is vain to 
 consider how that ought to be used which we do not possess. The 
 present charter has yet two years to run : if the object of this bill were 
 now to repeal it, then the doctrine of the honorable senator would be 
 applicable. "With him I would look to the circumstances in which we 
 are placed, and although I might beheve the act of 1810, incorporating 
 the bank, to be unconstitutional, yet as the stockholders and society had 
 acquired interests under the act, I would not offend the moral sense of 
 the community by voting for the repeal; besides, I would reflect that 
 these rights were subjects of judicial cognizance, and if a mistake were 
 made here, as to our powers, the courts would protect the rights of indi- 
 viduals ; but the object of this bill is not to repeal, it is to extend. It la 
 not to take anything from the bank, but to continue its powers six years 
 longer, as the bill now is ; twelve years, as the senator from South 
 Carolina thinks it ought to be. I deny the power to do this. The case 
 of Louisiana, referred to by the honorable senator from Virginia [Mr. 
 Leigh], and which the senator from South Carolina thinks so happy an 
 illustration of his doctrine, with great deference, I must say, does not 
 appear to me to have any application. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, it is said, entertained an opinion that Louisiana could 
 not, consistently with the Constitution, be purchased and added to the 
 Union. It was purchased, has been formed into a State, and admitted oa 
 an equal footing with the otiier States; and gentlemen ask, will you now 
 exclude her because it was unconstitutional to admit her? I answer, no. 
 I would look to the existing state of things, and take no step — let them 
 remain as I found them. But suppose it had been possible to have 
 admitted her upon trial for six j^ears, to see how she would behave in the 
 Union, and wlien those six years had elapsed, there was an application to 
 admit her permanently, then we would have an analogous case, and, I say, 
 the constitutional question would be as much open as it was when she 
 
118 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 was admitted for the six years. [Here Mr. Leigli interrupted Mr. "Wliite, 
 and said, he desired to know what would be done when Arkansas applied 
 for admission, and he would, with as much pleasure receive the informa- 
 tion from the senator of Tennessee as from any other gentleman.] 
 Mr. "W. continued: In answer to the interrogatory put by the honor- 
 able senator from Virginia, I can only say, that when Arkansas does 
 apply to be admitted as a member State, if any gentleman shall think 
 it unconstitutional to admit her, we will then examine and decide the 
 question. 
 
 Mr. President : I can find no warrant in the Constitution, for a distinc- 
 tion between money and currency. That circulating mediiim which is to 
 be the standard by which the seller and buyer of property are to ascertain 
 its value, is metallic^ to be coined^ and its value fixed by Congress ; or 
 foreign coin, the value of which is fixed by the same power. Nothing 
 else is money, nothing else is currency, by the Constitution. 
 
 By the first clause of the 8th section of the 1st article of the Constitu- 
 tion, a power is vested in Congress, " to lay and collect taxes, imposts, 
 duties, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence 
 and general welfare of the United States." It is argued by those who 
 maintain the power to incorporate a bank, that it is necessary and proper 
 to have one, as an agent to collect the taxes, to keep them safely, and to 
 pay the debts due by the government, in the different sections of the 
 country. I think a Bank of the United States would be convenient for 
 these purposes, but deny that one is necessary. 
 
 Mr. President, if there were no bank, either State or federal, in the 
 Union, our taxes could be collected, the money safely kept and paid out, 
 according to the provisions of law, by the appointment of natural per- 
 sons. Now we may employ them in preference to banks, if we choose. 
 There cannot, therefore, be a necessity to create a bank for such purpose ; 
 and if we infer the power to make the bank, because it would be a 
 matter of convenience, where can any limit be fixed to implied powers ? 
 I cannot fix any. But suppose a bank to be necessary and proper as a 
 fiscal agent, there are State banks— why not employ them ? It is said 
 that, as these banks are not created by Congress, we cannot have any 
 control over them. This I deny ; we will have all the control over them 
 which we ought to have. The custom of the United States, as depositors., 
 will always be sufficient to ensure fidelity in collection, safe-keeping, and 
 disbursements of your money ; and these arc the only uses we have for 
 such agents. Wlienever it is believed one is about to act in bad faith, 
 dismiss it. This we will always have a power to do ; and a fear that this 
 power Avill be exercised, will procure fidelity. Your poAver will always 
 be sufficient for every salutary purpose: seldom, if ever, suflicieut to be 
 productive of mischief. Suppose a bank employed in each State, over 
 which we have no control except what our deposits would give : there 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 119 
 
 would then be twent3'-foiir banks, governed by directors, created under 
 the autliority of the respectivo States; accountable to them; and each 
 Independent of every other. How could the United States procure a 
 concert of action among them, for any unworthy purpose ? Corrupting 
 one would be no advantage in attaining the object. All must be cor- 
 rupted, the moment tiie attempt Avas made — and one honest man found 
 in any one board, the whole plan would be exposed, and its authors held 
 up to public contempt and scoi-n. A bank, created by the United States, 
 accountable to them, having the use of all your money^ and managed by 
 a majority of a board, composed of seven men, is in a very different situ- 
 ation. The pecuniary iniiuence you would have, would be much greater 
 — the number of men necessary to corrupt, would bo so small, that the 
 danger of improper influence is increased to an alarming extent. 
 
 But it is said the very admission that Congress may cmi)Ioy State banks, 
 as fiscal agents, is an admission of the power to create a bank, for tlie same 
 purpose. This, I think, is not so. You may wish an artificial person to 
 perform a particular service for you — you may find artificial persons already 
 made, that can perform these services — there cannot therefore be any 
 necessity that you should create one, simply that you may employ him in 
 preference. 
 
 What is the real difficulty and struggle here ? It is not that we create 
 a baiik to have a fiscal agent. No. Tlie real struggle is to keep in 
 existence a commercial bank, for commercial purposes. It is dismissed 
 by the excutive from its fiscal agency, and yet it continues, endowed with 
 powers sufficient to embarrass all commercial transactions. 
 
 The truth is, that upon a supposed necessity for a bank as a fiscal agent, 
 one was created in 181G, endowed with powers for the most extensive 
 commercial uses, and instead of the duties of a fiscal agent being its main, 
 or principal business, its leading, its general, its profitable, and almost 
 constant employ is unconnected with this agency, and its business is 
 devoted, almost exclusively, to other purposes. The business of a fiscal 
 agent dwindles into a mere by-business, entirely incidental ; so much so, 
 that when these duties are taken from it, we find it possessed of powers and 
 capacities, almost without limit, for good or for evil, so far as the moneyed 
 affairs of the country are concerned. This I conceive is a practice under 
 the Constitution, unsupported by a fair construction of it, I think with 
 the honorable senator from South Carolina, that these powers are trust 
 powers, and ought to be so exerted, as to attain the object in vesting the 
 trust. Now if it be true, that we have a constitutional power to create 
 a bank, for the purpose of collecting the public monej', keeping it safe^ 
 and paying it out^ at the points desired, it gives no power to create a 
 bank, for the purposes of issuing hanh notes, and granting accommoda- 
 tions to those concerned in trade and commerce, to any extent the wants 
 or wishes of society may require. 
 
1^ MEMOIR OF HUGH LA.WSON WHITE. 
 
 Again. If it is necessary and 'proper to incorporate a bank, as a fiscal 
 agent^ which I do not admit, there can be no power to establish such a 
 bank as this. We can neither wish, nor expect a bank of issues, and of 
 calculation ; all we can possibly need will be a bank of discount and 
 deposit, and that of small capital. Such a bank would be perfectly able 
 to make our collections, preserve, and pay out the public moneys ; and in 
 addition to the discharge of these duties, such a bank could, and would 
 most effectually cliecTc excessive issues of paper by the State lanJcs ; it could 
 also grant discounts to a reasonable extent to commercial men, or others ; 
 and likewise by drafts, on the different branches, in different sections of 
 country, could furnish the means of remittance, to any extent that would 
 be reasonably required. 
 
 Indeed, one on a scale still more limited, would answer every fiscal 
 purpose. A bank of deposit and transfer is all that the government 
 could have occasion for. How then it is possible we can fairly deduce a 
 power to establish a bank, and vest in the corporation the immense 
 powers which this charter confers, I am unable to discover; therefore, I 
 will not consent to use a power which I do not think we possess, to pro- 
 long the existence of such an institution, for a day, a year, or for any 
 other term whatever. Holding these opinions, I am not among the 
 number of those who can ever be embarrassed by the question, whether 
 the United States Bank oiight to be placed in Chesnut street or in Wall 
 street. 
 
 Mr. President, if we had the power to create a bank, I insist it is bad 
 policy to exercise it as is now proposed. 
 
 The objections to extending this charter are, in my opinion, stronger 
 than they were to incorporating the bank originally. The theory of our 
 government is perfect equality. Make all safe in every thing to whicli they 
 have a just right, and give no one an advantage, ly law, over any other. 
 This we ought, as far as we can, to carry out in practice. When the act 
 of incorporation was passed, there was an apparent equality, at least, 
 because every citizen had an equal opportunity of subscribing for stock, but 
 if we extend the charter the value of the stock is immediately increased, 
 and the present stockholders have, by law, a privilege extended to them, 
 in exclusion of every other person. 
 
 But, sir, if I am mistaken in everything I have said, I still contend 
 the charter ought not to be prolonged. The immediate benefit to be 
 derived from the passage of this bill is a relief to a distressed community. 
 To form a proper estimate of tlie remedy, wo ought to have some opinion 
 of the extent of the disease, and of the causes which have produced it. 
 
 I am not among the number of those, who deny that there is any 
 pecuniary distress. That there is, in many parts of the country, a want 
 of money, and considerable sacrifices because it cannot be obtained, I 
 Verily believe. These sufferings have not yet reached the particular 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 121 
 
 country which I in part represent: but as all otliers, as well as my 
 immediate constituents, are to be aflfected by my votes, I consider it as 
 much my duty to relieve the distresses of others, if in my power, as it 
 would be to relieve the distresses of those I immediately represent. 
 I will add, that there does not live in the United States, the human 
 being, whose condition I would not gladly make better. What has led 
 to these pecuniary wants, is a question, on which there haa been some 
 variet}' of opinion. I think it ver}^ obvious, that the operations of the 
 Bank of the United States have been the principal cause. She has not 
 only refrained from granting the usual accommodations to men in busi- 
 ness, but she has been operating the wrong way ; she has been curtail- 
 ing her discounts; this has compelled State banks to do so likewise. 
 Money then is made much scarcer than formerly. The demand for it is 
 increased. Under the tariff laws, cash is now to be paid in some 
 instances where credit had formerly been given. In other cases whero 
 long credits had been given, short credits are now allowed. The long 
 credits and the short credits have been fiilling due at the same time. 
 The bank has caused bills to be purchased payable in the large cities, to 
 a greater amount than formerly. These different causes have created an 
 increased demand for money, and the common means of obtaining it are 
 withdrawn. To these ought to be added the doubt and uncertainty, as 
 to the result of our legislation, which prevents men of business from 
 adapting their proceedings to any settled course. 
 
 The result of the whole is, the business part of the community need 
 more money than formerly, and can obtain less. I believe there is suf- 
 fering and distress, and if this bank is to wind up, this suffering must, 
 at some period, be increased. If we admit, which I think we ought not, 
 that the withdrawal of the deposits made some curtailment of her busi- 
 ness necessary, on the part of the bank, I do not believe we ought to 
 doubt but tliey have been carried farther than was necessary. One 
 thing, I think, has been clearly shown, by the honorable senator from 
 Missouri : that is, that no additional curtailments to make the bank safe, 
 can be necessary. 
 
 This bank then is the main cause of this suffering and this distress, 
 and to relieve them we are asked to extend its powers for six years 
 longer. Heretofore it has pursued its own interest; will it not do so 
 again ? If its interest prompts to liberal accommodations, they will be 
 granted, and circulating medium will be plenty. If its objects can be 
 better accomplished by witiidrawing accounuodations, and lessening tlio 
 circulating medium, that course will be pursued, and our pecuniary 
 Bufferings and distresses will again return. I have no confidence in such 
 a remedy ; it will probably be worse than the present disease. 
 
 How would the bank emjjloy its vast means, during the prolonged 
 time? I think just in such manner as would most i)roiuote its own 
 interest, without any special regard to the interest of the conmmnity. 
 
122 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSOiT WHITE. 
 
 All persons, natural or artificial, dread dissolution. The natural person 
 will cling to existence as long as possible; he will lay hold of anything 
 within his reach, by which he can preserve himself for an hour, a day, 
 or a week; just so with this corporation; it will use its whole power to 
 procure a renewal of the charter, after the lapse of the six years. It 
 will use its means to increase the number of its friends, and to put its 
 opponents in a situation not to thwart its views. It will extend its 
 business whenever, and wherever, such a course will aid its prospects ; 
 it will contract its issues, and curtail its discounts, whenever and 
 wherever opposition to its plans can be put down, by oppression. I 
 have no idea that the directors now, or at any other time, have engaged 
 in. any scheme of oppression, because they delight in inflicting an injury 
 upon any one. Corporations, it is said, have no souls, but they are 
 managed by those who have, and by those who will be attentive to their 
 own interests, and will use their powers to promote them. Prolong this 
 charter, and your control is gone ; the bank will act as it may think 
 best ; it will, and must, mingle in your politics ; its permanency will 
 depend on displacing enemies from power, and supplying their places 
 by the promotion of friends. No means will be left untried, to accom- 
 plish this object. That it should interfere in politics, is inherent in the 
 charter itself. It is a partnei-ship between the government and indi- 
 viduals. It is a mixture of political power with money, and in every 
 controversy in which the corporation can have an interest the bank will 
 interfere in elections, on the one side or the other. The principles con- 
 tained in the charter lead necessarily to this result, and we need expect 
 nothing else. The very object of extending for six years is, to relieve 
 the community presently, and in the meantime, to see whether this 
 bank shall be continued afterwards, or some other substituted. How 
 then can we doubt its course, during this period ? It will extend its 
 business first, and contract it afterwards, if success is likely to be 
 attained by such a course. 
 
 If its business is ever to cease, why not at the end of the present 
 charter ? It is admitted the resources of the country never were greater 
 than now. There is no reason to believe debtors will ever be more able 
 to pay. AVe have had distress and suflfering for five or six months ; if 
 the charter is prolonged, tliis must bo gone over again six years hence, 
 and there is no reason to think we shall be better able to meet the 
 demands of the bank then, tluui now. The remedy for present distress, 
 is only a palliative ; the cause of the disease will remain in the system ; 
 it will be acquiring strength for six years, and then break out with 
 increased violence, and the injury and ruin will be on a more extensive 
 scale. 
 
 "VVe can only form an opinion of what the bank will do in future, by 
 reflecting on what it has done in time i)ast. 
 
 In December, 1829, the Chief Magistrate made his first communica- 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 123 
 
 tion to Congress, shov^ing that he was disinclined to a renewal of the 
 charter ; this was followed up iu his messages of 1830 and 1831. These 
 communications he was bound in duty to make, if he believed tlio 
 public good would be promoted by an expression of bis opinions, to 
 the national legislature. The bank, ever attentive to its own interest, 
 in 1831 began a rapid extension of its business, and early in 1832, had 
 inoreased its accommodations to the amount of twenty-eight millions of 
 dollars, as its opponents say, and as is admitted by itself, to upwards 
 of seventeen millions. The Presidential elections took place in the full, 
 1832. To me it appears plain that this extension was intended to make 
 as many friends, as acts of kindness could make. The accommodations 
 are now reduced from seventy millions to about fifty-four millions. 
 Why this decrease? The expansion, or contraction, must have been 
 too great. The pretence is, that the state of the country required 
 the increase, when there was an extension, and that accommoda- 
 tions were curtailed, when the state of business justified the reduction. 
 We all know that there is an error in this statement. There was 
 no such change in the business of the country, as to justify this 
 change in the policy of the bank. Friends were to be made by extend- 
 ing Avide the wings of the net, with a full knoAvledge that when the 
 birds were coaxed in, and those wings contracted, the fluttering would 
 commence, and an escape from the toils would be sought by almost 
 
 any means. 
 
 The increase and decrease, were made with a view to the interest of the 
 stockliolders, without regard to the effect upon the customer, or upon 
 
 society. 
 
 The bank went into operation the first day of January, 1817; one of 
 
 the leading objects in granting its charter was, through its operations, to 
 
 reduce the extravagant dealings with State banks ; to restore and preserve 
 
 a sound currency to the country. The directors well knew this, yet they 
 
 acted with a single eye to what they conceived the interest of the bank, 
 
 and its friends ; in place of checking it stimulated overtrading. Instead 
 
 of restoring and preserving a sound currency, it adopted measures which 
 
 in 1818 and 1819, placed it in the power of the State banks, in Pliila- 
 
 delphia, to take from it every single dollar and leave it still in debt to 
 
 them upwards of one hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars. Mr. 
 
 Cheves took charge of the bank, and as President, pursued a policy, 
 
 which in seventy days placed the bank in a state of security, but the 
 
 curtailments were so rapid, and the withdrawal of the circulating 
 
 medium so great, as to ruin society, compel other banks to suspend 
 
 specie payment, and again afflict the community with a depreciated 
 
 currency. 
 
 Liberal accommodations, and extensive issues, had given an appear- 
 ance of wealth, to those worth little, or nothing. Property commanded 
 
J 24 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 enoi-mons prices, as this bank had made money plenty ; but the counter 
 current commenced, and in 1819, a scene of wide-spread ruin was pre- 
 sented. The bank made money scarce ; the price of property feU to 
 ahnost nothing; those who had been apparently wealthy, were found 
 to be bankrupts, and hardly any man had Avherewithal to pay his 
 debts. ^ ^ 
 
 An individual had, when money was plenty, purchased a house and 
 lot, for ten thousand dollars; he paid six thousand, was sued for the 
 balance; the house and lot sold at ^/i{ee?i /iwnd'retZ dollars; and thus, he 
 sunk in the single bargain, eight thousand five hundred doUars. 
 
 In the principal cities and towns, thousands of individuals were thrown 
 out of employ, the whole business of the country was deranged, scenes 
 of misery and distress were produced, to which the present distiss and 
 pressure bear but little resemblance. This state of things was produced 
 because the directors managed the bank with a view to iliQiv oxen interesl 
 and that of their friends, disregarding the interest of that community 
 from which they had acquired their power. May they not do so again? 
 Have we not reason to fear they will, if the charter is prolonged ? 
 
 [Here Mr. White gave way for a motion to adjourn.] 
 
 Mr. White resumed as follows, next day : — 
 
 Me. President : Before I resume the discussion in which I was yester- 
 day engaged, when the Senate adjourned, I must beg permission to call 
 the attention of this body, for the first time since I have been honored 
 with a seat here, to a newspaper paragraph, in wliich my name has been 
 introduced. I know that my standing here is too humble, and my 
 opmions of too little value, to make it necessary for me, on common 
 occasions, to contradict any statement coupled with my name; but con- 
 sidering the excitement which now prevails in some sections of the 
 country, and the desire repeatedly expressed, for the adoption of some 
 measure, by Congress, to relieve the community from the distresses which 
 it is said they experienced, I think it improper to permit any statement 
 to remain uncontradicted, which is calculated to excite expectations, 
 which, so far as in my power, will not be fully realized. 
 
 Tlie publication to which I allude, purports to be a correspondence 
 with the New York Journal of Commerce, and is in the following 
 words : 
 
 " WASiirifGTON, Maech 19, 1834. 
 "At length, we may discern one faint glimmer of light in our political 
 prospect. Mr. Calhoun has devised a plan for a new national bank on 
 principles which wholly avoid the constitutional scruples of tlie Southern 
 representatives, and which will be generally acceptable. The plan has 
 been submitted to a number of senators of different parties, and has been 
 
rXITED STATES BANK. 
 
 135 
 
 decidedly approved, particularly by those senators vfho are opposed on 
 constitutional grounds to the re-charter of the present bank, and who 
 are at the same time averse to General Jackson's experiment upon the 
 currency. It is also unequivocally approved, it is said, by Messrs. 
 Grundy and White, who are friendly to the President." 
 
 Mr. President, what I have now to say, in relation to the matter men- 
 tioned in this letter, is, that I have no knowledge o^ any plan for a lanTc, 
 to be submitted by the honorable senator from South Carolina; that I 
 know nothing of that gentleman's opinion on the subject of a United 
 States Bank, except what I have collected from the pubUc speeches 
 delivered here. The last of those speeches was not delivered until after 
 the date of this letter. Out of this place in this chamber, I have not 
 heard from him one word during this session, on the subject of any bank 
 whatever. Therefore, the whole statement in this letter, so far as my 
 name is connected with it, is erroneous, and has not the shadow of truth- 
 for its foundation. I have shown this letter to my colleague, whose 
 name is also mentioned; he has read it, and I am not only authorized, 
 but requested by him to say, that the same statement which I make as 
 to myself, is equally true as it relates to him. 
 
 When the Senate adjourned on yesterday, I was considering the effects 
 on society, in the year 1819, of the proceedings of the Bank of the 
 United States, from the time it went into operation. 
 
 The distresses then experienced, and those now felt, are the fruits of 
 the charter granted in 1816. The patriots of that day, found the country 
 flooded with a depreciated paper medium, put in circulation by State 
 banks, and unfortunately, as I think, sought to remedy the evil by the 
 establishment of a bank. As the United States were to have the entire 
 moneyed power, by the Constitution, and as the States had established 
 banks it was believed the United States might establish one also, to regu- 
 late the currency. Instead of this, if the coUection of the revenue, and 
 all debts due to the government, had been enforced in money, the moral 
 sense of the community, the fertility of our soil, and the industry of the 
 people, would soon have given us a sound circulating medium. State 
 banks, which had the means, would soon have been compelled to resume, 
 and continue, specie payments, and those which were unable to do so, 
 must have stopped business. The duties -upon foreign importations 
 alone, were from forty to fifty millions of dollars. With the power of 
 government exerted in the proper direction, a sound currency must have 
 been procured, within a very short period. But bank notes, though not 
 money, were considered currency, and with a view to check and control 
 a depreciated State currency, it was supposed the United States had a 
 power to establish a bank, which should give a sound currency itself, and 
 compel State banks to do likewise. This word ''currency " I cannot find 
 
1:36 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAW80N WHITE. 
 
 in the Constitution. Constitutionally speaking, nothing hut money is 
 currency, and nothing can be money which .is not metallic. Bank notes 
 issued under the authority of the federal or State governments, are not 
 currency; they are not money, nor can they he made so. They are 
 ■ nothing but credits used by common consent, to pass as substitutes for 
 money. Promissory notes, negotiable and negotiated, or bills of exchange, 
 are as much entitled to the appellation, of currency, as bank notes are. 
 If bank notes are currency, what will be said of the notes of the bank of 
 the late Stephen Girard ? What of the notes of the bank of my country- 
 men, Yeatman, "Woods, and Co. ? These bank notes are as current as 
 the notes of the Bank of the United States. A man may set out at New 
 Orleans, and travel on to Philadelphia, and he will find these notes 
 current the whole route ; yet no charter for a bank was ever granted, by 
 any government, to either of those gentlemen. These notes are nothing 
 but credits ; they pass in place of money, by common consent, and so do 
 the other bank notes. The only thing that gives them currency is the 
 confidence^ that whenever the holder wishes money for them, and will 
 apply for it, at the place specified for payment, the makers will be found 
 able and willing to pay the specie^ and lift them. Nothing can prevent 
 them from depreciation but this confidence. 
 
 Mr. President, I know of whom I speak, and I know among them are 
 men, who have the highest claims to our confidence, which purity of 
 motive and strength of intellect can give ; yet I must be permitted to say, 
 I think the distinction then taken, and acted upon, by granting this 
 charter, between money and currency^ has no warrant in the Constitution. 
 I think the bank then created in consequence of that distinction, an ex- 
 crescence, which has grown out of an erroneous construction. This bank 
 is a political cancer, the roots and fibres of which have ramified them- 
 selves through all society, and we might as well hope to tear from the 
 human body, the cancer there formed, as to expect to remove from the 
 body politic, this bank, without causing pain and suffering. 
 
 It is due, I think, to this subject, that we should permit our minds to 
 recur to the situation in which we were placed, as to our currency, when 
 this act of incorporation was passed, and the causes Avhich led to the 
 state of things Avhich then existed. War had been declared in 1812, 
 without any pecuniary preparation, to meet the extraordinary calls which 
 the prosecuting of the war could not fail to produce. So far from this, 
 the conduct of some of the European powers had driven our government 
 into a series of restrictive measures, which so mucli embarrassed our com- 
 mercial operations, as to produce distresses and complaints, which were 
 laid before Congress in the strongest^erms. Out of Congress, these mea- 
 sures were reprobated in terms of great bitterness. The measures of the 
 then Administration, Avere represented as ruinous to the commerce of tlio 
 country ; it was said we were truckling to a foreign power ; that there 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 127 
 
 was no mode of maintaining the honor of the country, but by a declara- 
 tion of Avar, and tliat the Administration was so pusillanimous, it could 
 not be kicked into a war. 
 
 Congress believed there was just cause, and therefore did declare war 
 against Great Britian. Money was necessary ; the treasury had it not; 
 it must be procured by loans; the opponents of the Administration 
 employed themselves assiduously, no doubt many of them from very 
 proper motives, to produce an indisposition in all who had money, to 
 grant those loans. The politicians, the presses, even the pulpits, endea- 
 vored to impress the public with the opinion that it was immoral, and 
 wicked, to furnish funds to prosecute a war so unjust, and whicli had 
 been doolared, as they insisted, from motives most unworthy. This course 
 of the opposition, stimulated the advocates of the Administration to exert 
 every nerve, to procure the necessary funds. Individuals and banks made 
 loans to the full extent of all their means. The banks were soon led to 
 believe that it was a test of patriotism to be liberal in their advances. 
 They were urged, nay almost begged, by the Administration, to take up 
 loans. The consequence was, that the banks extended their loans to 
 government^ and to Individuals, beyond the limits which their specie 
 would justify. Let it never be forgotten, that without the paper. of these 
 banks, a barrel of flour, a load of ammunition, or even a flint, could not 
 be purchased for your army or navy. Peace was restored in 1815; it 
 found some of the banks already not paying specie ; many others soon 
 afterwards suspended such payments also. This, so far from being dis- 
 countenanced by the government, was most certainly winked at, if not 
 expressly approved. 
 
 A depreciation in the value of the notes of these banks was the neces- 
 sary consequence of suspending specie payments, and the same political 
 party, which declared the war, still constituted the majority, and endea- 
 vored to devise some plan to restore a sound currency to the country. 
 The plan devised was the instrumentality of this bank. The object was 
 not gain to the stockholders, but the high purpose of regulating the cur- 
 rency^ through the power of this agent. The government had five direc- 
 tors, and the stockholders twenty, and at the head of the directory, was 
 placed a man of high respectability — one of so much character, that if I 
 mistake not, at one period during the war, he acted as the head of three 
 of the executive departments at the same time. 
 
 The bank commenced its operations, and instead of aiming, by a pru- 
 dent, steady, and wise policy, to attain the object for which it was created, 
 it united with the State banks, in extending accommodations to indivi- 
 duals, and in increasing the issues of bank paper to a most unreasonable 
 extent. Specie payments were resumed, it is true. Branches of this 
 bank were established in several of the States : those established in the 
 "West, with which I had the only acquaintance, were not furnished with 
 
128 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 one dollar of actual capital. The cashier -was sent to estahlish a branch, 
 furnished with drafts for the public moneys deposited in the State banks, 
 and with a power to collect the floating capital in the country, by draw- 
 ing upon the banks in the Eastern cities. In place, then, of aiding State 
 banks to continue specie payments, when resumed, this very bank with- 
 drew the means of enabling them to do so. In place of inducing them to 
 curtail, by prudent means, their issues, already too great, they were 
 encouraged to increase their circulation still more. The immense amount 
 of money in circulation gave an artificial value to everything. Over- 
 trading was carried to such an extent, that all idea of the true standing 
 and credit of men, in society, was lost sight of. Cities were improved, 
 and villages sprung up, as if by enchantment ; each little town was fur- 
 nished with more merchants than were suflBcient to have done the 
 business of the whole country in which it was situated. This artificial 
 state of things could not last. As soon as there was a demand for specie, 
 the counter-current commenced. The United States Bank began a rapid 
 curtailment, to save itself from open bankruptcy ; it broke up State banks 
 and individual customers. The State banks broke up their customers ; 
 many of them were forced to suspend again specie payments, and a 
 depreciated currency was Imposed upon the community. Some of the 
 State banks never afterwards resumed specie payments; and a sound 
 currency was not again restored to the country until from 1824 to 1826. 
 "Where, in 1817 and 1818 there appeared nothing but wealth, prosperity, 
 and comfort, in 1819, 1820, and for some time after, there was one scene 
 of pressure, distress, bankruptcy, and ruin. And all this grew out of the 
 incorporation of this bank, and transferring to it the power of regulating 
 the currency. The country was flooded with a paper currency when it 
 suited the bank to make property high ; and the whole circulating medium 
 was withdrawn, when it was the interest of the bank to reduce property 
 in value. "What assurance can we have that the operations of this bank 
 will not, again, be directed to individual gain, should the charter be 
 prolonged ? 
 
 This bank was vested with its extensive powers for high governmental 
 purposes. It is admitted that the State banks, generallj', are completely 
 in its power, and under its control. All these immense powers have 
 been, in some instances, used for the purposes of individual gain, at the 
 expense of the community. Society at large is unsafe while it is in the 
 power of a board of directors of this bank to fix what value they please 
 upon property, by making the common standard of value, the circulating 
 medium, plenty or scarce. 
 
 Mr. President, the conduct of this bank well justified the Secretary 
 of the Treasury in using the power given him by the IGth section of 
 the act of incorporation, if he thought it sound 2>olicy to withdraw the 
 public deposit. 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 129 
 
 I will n£)t weary the Senate by travelling over the whole of the reasons 
 he has assigned for the removal, but will only advert briefly to some 
 which, to my mind, would be satisfactory. 
 
 The bank, as the fiscal agent, violated the trust reposed in it, by not. 
 paying the three per cent, stock as directed. 
 
 A summary of the leading facts shows this to have been the case : The 
 administration determined to i)ay a jiortion of this stock, at a given time; 
 the bank was furnished witli the necessary funds, and instructed to make 
 the payment. Instead of complying with these instructions, it negotiated 
 with the owners of the stock, to induce them not to a[iply for payment at 
 the time specified, but to delay the application for some eight or twelve 
 months, and promised that it, the bank, would pay the accruing interest. 
 I contend this was a violation of duty, for which the agent should have 
 been dismissed. An individual owes another a sum of money, bearing 
 interest 5 he determines to pay the debt, and lift- the bond : he fui-uishes 
 his agent with the necessary funds, and instructs him to make the pay- 
 ment at a given period. The agent disobeys his instructions, and 
 promises the creditor that if he will hold the bond twelve months longer, 
 he will pay the interest. "What ought the princi})al to do in such case? 
 I say, dismiss the agent. And it should have been done in this case, 
 with the less hesitation, because here the agent sought its own iuterest,„ 
 at the time the instructions were violated. The uses, to Avhich the bank 
 applied the money, yielded a profit of six per cent. And the stock 
 bore an interest of only three ; so that the bank would pocket the 
 diiTorence. 
 
 Again. As I have already stated, this bank was established for the 
 liigli purposes of restoring a sound currency to the community, and Iceep- 
 ing it sound. The Secretary tells us in his report, that it commenced 
 rapid curtailments in the month of August, and continued them up to the 
 first of October ; that these curtailments compelled the State banks to 
 curtail likewise ; that the deposits of public monej's enabled it to accu- 
 mulate large balances against the State banks, and for those balances it 
 was drawing the specie ; that a continuance of this system a short time 
 longer, would have compelled the State banks to have suspended specie 
 payments, and visited the trading jiart of the community with bank- 
 ruptcy and ruin. This state of facts, the truth of which I see no 
 reason to doubt, furnished two satisfactory causes for changing the 
 deposits. 
 
 Again. One object of vesting this corporation Avith these extravagant 
 powers, in trusty was about to be violated. These powers were exerted 
 in such a manner, as to compel a suspension of specie payments, which 
 would inevitably have led to a depreciated currency. This was a breach 
 of the trust, and tJie Secretary had a right to ward off the mischief, by 
 withdrawing the public funds, which were the instruments emjiloyed by 
 
 9 
 
130 ^ MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 the bank, for the accornphshment of its purpose. Upon principle, it 
 seems to me the Secretary had aright to exercise his power to maintain 
 a sound currency, and it has been abundantly shown that Mr. Crawford, 
 when Secretary, often exerted the like power to accomplish the same 
 object. But it has been argued that Mr. Crawford did not claim this 
 power by virtue of this 16th section, but by virtue of the joint resolution, 
 adopted during the same session. To this argument by our opponents, I 
 submit two answers. 1st. It is a mistake to suppose that Mr. Crawford 
 did not claim this power in virtue of the 16th section. Some of his let- 
 ters referred to by other gentlemen, show expressly, as I think, that this 
 power was claimed and exercised in virtue of this very section. 2d. If I 
 am mistaken in this, and the power was exercised in virtue of the reso- 
 lution, the game power is still continued to the present Secretary. The. 
 resolution is not temporary, but permanent. It is unlimited as to time. 
 It authorizes the Secretary to adopt such measures as he may judge 
 necessary, to procure a sound currency. Of what use would it be to 
 ejiahle . banks to resume specie payments, and afford a sound currency, 
 unless such payments are continued. The same means, therefore, which 
 could lawfully be employed to proc^ire a sound currency, may lawfully 
 be used to continue such a currency. If, then, Mr. Crawford could 
 rightfully transfer the public moneys to State banks, to enable them to 
 estailish a sound currency, so could Mr. Taney to enable them to main- 
 tain it. 
 
 Again. If I am mistaken in this, from the same facts another reason 
 is furnished, which justifies the removal. It is admitted, by those who 
 put the most limited construction upon the powers of the Secretary, that 
 he may and ought to remove the public moneys whenever they are 
 unsafe. They say the power of removal is a trtist, and to be so used as 
 to preserve the fund. Suppose this principle correct, for the sake of the 
 argument. The Secretary informs us, that the bank was. pursuing a 
 course in the commercial cities, which, if not checked, would have com- 
 pelled the State banks to suspend specie payments, and have placed in a 
 state of bankruptcy, the commercial community in those cities. These 
 same merchants were the debtors of the government upon bond, for 
 duties constantly falling due; these bonds when taken are always depo- 
 sited witli the bank for collection ; the government has the same interest 
 in its debtor continuing aMe to pay a bond thus deposited, tliat it has in 
 preserving the money from loss, after it has been paid. Upon the prin- 
 ciples assumed then, by honorable gentlemen who have argued on the 
 other side, it seems to me the Secretary might well remove tlie dojiosits, 
 if by doing so, it would protect tlie deltors of the government from that 
 oppression practised by the bank, which would have ended in their bank- 
 ruptcy, and have defeated the payment of the bonds already in possession 
 of the bank for cttllection. 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 131 
 
 I contend, also, that the bank violated the spirit of the 9th funda- 
 mental rule, contained in the 11th section of its charter, whicli is in these 
 words: "The said corporation shall ni*t, directly or indirectly, deal or 
 trade in anything except bills of exchange, gold or silver bullion, or in tho 
 sale of goods, really and truly pledged, for money lent, and not redeemed 
 in due time," &c. 
 
 The bank is charged. with having interfered in elections, and with 
 havino- used its corporate funds^ for the sake of defraying the expenses 
 of publications intended to influence public opinion. The bank admits it 
 has expended various sums to protect itself against unfounded accusa- 
 tions and to enlighten public opinion as to the nature and operations of 
 the bank. By looking into the bank statements it will be found, that 
 before the present Chief Magistrate came into office, the expense account 
 for printing, was only a few hundred dollars per annum. In the two 
 years, 1831 and 1832, the expense account for "speeches in Congress, 
 and other miscellaneous publications," was upwards of forty-one thousand 
 dollars. In the last of those years was the presidential election. There 
 can be no mistake as to facts ; in this case they are shown, and openly 
 admitted by the bank. The justification it sets up is, that it was attacked 
 by the President, and that it had a right to defend itself. The resolu- 
 tions of the board show, that the directors authorized the president of the 
 bank to expend money without limitation, for such purpose. Now I am 
 willing to admit that a corporation may defend itself, by publishing a 
 contradiction, or giving an explanation of any charge made against it by 
 any person whatever ; but there I say it must stop. It has no right, by 
 any expenditure of its corporate funds, to enlighten, or regulate public 
 opinion on the science of banking. 
 
 IIow does the bank say the President attacked it? In his different 
 messages to Congress. These communications it was his duty to make if 
 they contained his sentiments, and he believed it for the public interest 
 that these opinions should be made known to the national legislature ; 
 and against such communications, the corporation had no riglit to make 
 publications, or cause them to be made by others. If the bank is usefid 
 to the public, if its operations are beneficial to the community, that com- 
 munity and its public agents will advocate its utility. The individuals' 
 composing the corporation, have the rights, and are allowed the same 
 ])owers, through the press, or by other means, to defend their interests, 
 that other individuals have, but they have not the additional right, to 
 use their corporate funds for the same purposes. This would give the 
 corporation such an advantage over individuals, as to bear them down, by 
 the mere force of money. The corporation has no right to use a dollar 
 for any purpose not specified in the charter, or necessary to give effect 
 to" some purpose specified. Tlie matters, in which the corporation may 
 trade, or deal, arc specified. All others arc forbidden. It has no right 
 
132 MEMOIR OF nuGir lawson white. 
 
 to deal in "speeches," in "addresses" to State Legislatures, or in-" mis- 
 cellaneous publications." If it has a right to expend, money in purchas- 
 ing them, it has a right to make money by selling them. "Why not set up 
 a bookstore? The principle is the same. Nay, worse. The real object 
 is, to trade in puMic opinion. Not to buy "golden opinions," but to 
 procure opinions by the use of gold. 
 
 Honorable senators who argue on the other stde, say the bank can have 
 no influence in elections, that there is a prejudice against moneyed insti- 
 tutions, and that, in a canvass, they would rather have the bank against, 
 than for them. I think very differently. A bank can, and often has a 
 controlling influence, and the more dangerous, because it is often unseen ; 
 and if ever I should be engaged in a contest for popular favor, I would feel 
 much more safe with the friendship, than with the enmity of the bank. 
 
 The honorable senator from Georgia who has so ably and so eloquently 
 sustained the course of the Administration, thinks tlie bank can never in- 
 fluence public opinion, and adduces the result of the last presidential 
 election, as a proof of the correctness of this opinion. Mr. President, I 
 admit the bank did interfere in the last election for President ; that it 
 spared no pains or expense, to influence the public opinion against the 
 present Chief Magistrate, and I admit he was elected by an overwhelm- 
 ing majority ; but I deny that this was any proof that the bank has no in- 
 fluence, on ordinary occasions, where men of common standing, and or- 
 dinary services, are competitors. The popularity of the successful candi- 
 date, is not of the ordinary kind — it does not rest on the common found- 
 ation. His public services commenced when he was yet a boy. At the 
 close of the Revolution, he was an orphan, without relatives, but not un- 
 known, or without friends. His services and his conduct had already 
 attracted the attention of some. "With liis manhood commenced a serie? 
 of public services and employments, which have been continued through- 
 out a long life, and one for usefulness, having hardly any parallel. From 
 these services, the roots of his popularity struck deep, and extended far 
 among the people of the United States. They were watered by the sweat 
 of many toils, they were strengthened by numerous and imminent perils, 
 until finally, on the plains of New Orleans, he was presented in an aspect, 
 and his character proclaimed to the world in peals of thunder, accompanied 
 by blazes of liglitning, that at the same time astonislied, and drew tears 
 of joy from the eyes of patriots witliin tliese walls. Those services em- 
 bedded him in the hearts of his countrymen, and enthroned him in their 
 affections. Tliey fixed the conviction in public opinion, that he possessed 
 a strength of jnind, wliich the elocinonce of Demostlionos cannot mislead; 
 an integrity, whicli the wealth of Cra>sus cannot corrupt, and a firuiness, 
 which the daring boldness of Catiline cannot intimidate. Tell me not, 
 then, that the result of this election is a proof that the bank can have no 
 iuflucuco. In this instance, all ages <ind sexes knew and appreciated the 
 
UNrrED STATES BANK. 133 
 
 services of the snccessfnl candidate. You can hardly find a hoj twelve 
 years of age, who cannot tell you something of them. But let a canvass 
 commence, in which the bank feels an interest; let the competitors be 
 men whose character and Avorth are only known to few public men with 
 whom they may have been associated, and we may witness a very differ- 
 ent result. 
 
 Honorable senators cannot perceive how the bank, through the use of 
 money can influence public measures. Mr. President, " Money is the root 
 of all evil," Men desire it, because it stands in place of everything else. 
 "With it, we can decorate our own persons, and gratify the wishes of our 
 families. With it, we can, as we think, procure almost every temporal com- 
 fort. While we are men, it is vain to talk of us as though we were angels. 
 I can imagine many cases, in which the use of money might have a de-* 
 cided influence on the conduct of men esteemed virtuous and enlightened. 
 I have no fear of the influence of this bank, because it will go, or send 
 others to buy votes, among the mass of the people, by giving five dollars 
 to one, ten dollars to another, or twenty to a third. No sir. -My appre- 
 hensions from its influence are of a different description. Two years ago, 
 this bank applied for a renewal of its charter; you [Mr. King, of Alabama, 
 in the chair], and I, both opposed it. We voted against it, and used our 
 best exertions to defeat it. It now seeks a restoration of the deposits, 
 and an extension of its charter. We came here determined to vote 
 against it, upon all points, and such we believe to be the sentiments, 
 and wishes of those we represent. Shortly after our arrival, you are in- 
 formed that your crop of cotton has fallen far short of what you expected, 
 and that its price is much lower than you anticipated. You had con- 
 tracted a debt, say for ten thousand dollars, which you had directed your 
 manager to pay from the proceeds of this crop. He informs you the crop 
 has failed; that your creditor needs, and must have his money. (I beg 
 your pardon for using your name for my illustration, take my own.) 
 Here I am, without any more means than will bear current expenses, and 
 here I must stay until the business of the public is finished. What is to 
 be done? I must borrow if I can, but from whom? Local banks have ex- 
 tended as far as they dare go, I need not apply to them. The United 
 States Bank has means, and could accommodate, but I think it will not ; 
 it knows I have done, and will continue to do, all I can to disappoint its 
 wishes. I make my case known to my friends — they advise me to a{)ply 
 to this bank; that it does not proceed upon the selfish and illiberal prin- 
 ciples attributed to it. I prepare my note, my friends endorse it, and I 
 make my application. The officers tell me they can spare the money 
 very conveniently ; that they know the debt would be good, but if tiio 
 loan was made, it might not in the end be an accommodation; that the 
 bank is struggling for its existence, against all the influence the executive 
 can bring to bear — already have the public deposits been removed ; there 
 
134 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAW80N WHITE. 
 
 is no certainty tbey will be restored, and if they are, Unless the charter 
 is prolonged, they must be arranging their concerns for its determination; 
 therefore, if they make the loan, they can give no assurance how long 
 they can continue the accommodation ; that they know I have been op- 
 posed to the bank, iqion principle^ and expect me to continue so, but 
 that circumstance can make no difference ; that it would give them as 
 much pleasure to accommodate me, as if I were a friend to the institu- 
 tion, provided they could do so. My credit is in jeopardy — I need, and 
 must have the money ; I determine to take it, and run the risk of being 
 in some way enabled to repay it, when called upon. With the money, I 
 return with a light heart to my lodging, and enclose it to my correspon- 
 dent at home, with instructions to lift my bond. My mind dwells upon 
 the transaction, and I begin to conclude after all, this bank is not so bad 
 as it has been represented : its conduct has at all events been more liberal 
 to me than I had any reason to expect. I come to the Senate the next day, 
 and listen attentively to the arguments adduced to prove, that the Pres- 
 ident, in removing these deposits, has violated the public faith ; that he 
 has violated the chartered rights of this corporation; that he has usurped 
 a power not vested in him by the Constitution or laws, and that if such 
 conduct receives no rebuke, the government will be changed, and all 
 power concentrated in the hands of one man^ who will be a tyrant or a 
 despot. These arguments make a deep impression ; I reflect upon them: 
 they acquire additional force, and I am sure they would have been satis- 
 factory to my constituents, if they could have heard them; more espe- 
 cially as the question of "Bank or no Bank," is not involved. The ques- 
 tion is, ^'■Constitution or no Constitution^''' "Liberty or Slavery." My 
 mind settles down. in favor of restoring the deposits; I so vote, and the 
 deposits are restored. "What next? The State banks have extended their 
 loans, on the strength of these deposits, which are now to be withdrawn. 
 These accommodations must be rapidly curtailed ; these curtailments 
 produce bankruptcies, and unmeasured distress in society: the funds ne- 
 cessary to protect these banks, against the Bank of the United States, are 
 taken from them, and placed in the hands of an enraged rival ; through 
 these funds large balances are immediately accumulated against them; 
 the specie is all withdrawn from some one, and it is compelled to suspend 
 specie payments: this creates a "panic," which produces a run upon all, 
 and ends in a general suspension of specie payments. Here is a new state 
 of things ; a depreciated local currency. If we have bank notes at all, 
 they ought to be of that description, that five dollars Tiere^ will be five 
 dollars everywhere in the Union; neither I nor my constituents, will be 
 content to handle as money, rags and trash, with a pocket full of whicli a 
 man could not ])ay for his breakfast. Up comes the great question for 
 renewing or elongating the' charter of this bank; "Bank or no Bank," 
 aad what am I now to do ? This is precisely similar to the state of things 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 135 
 
 wbicli existed in 1810. As a statesman, I must adapt my legislation to 
 the circumstances in ■which I find my country. In the like circumstances, 
 men of the strongest intellect, most cultivated minds, purest patriot- 
 ism, and unsuHied characters, gave up their constitutional scruples, and 
 for the sake of purifying the "currency," established this bank ; for the 
 like reasons I will lay down my old opinions, and vote to continue it. 
 The session closes, and before I go home, I call at the bank to make some 
 arrangcm<?nt relative to my loan, until I can return at the next session, and 
 pay the debt. The officers tell me things have taken a direction, which 
 they did not anticipate ; fortunately public agents have seen the public 
 interest, in its true light; the bank has had its charter enlarged; its busi- 
 ness will be continued, and must of necessity require the services of some 
 professional man, as its legal adviser and attorney, that it will be considered 
 a favor if I will accept my note as a retaining fee. Thus the matter ends. 
 Now, who will venture in -the case supposed, to charge me with corrup- 
 tion, and yet does not every one feel^ and see that money was the cause 
 of all these operations through which the mind passed? We must take 
 man as he is; if properly constituted, acts of kindness will have their in- 
 fluence upon him, and none can certainly say, to what extent they may 
 carry him. Who can be unmoved, while his "enemy is heaping coals of 
 fire upon his head," by doing him acts of kindness, which add to his com- 
 forts ? Few, if any, who are composed of the common materials. 
 
 Mr. President : It appears to me that the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 for the reasons which I have stated, as well as for those which have 
 been stated by others, and which I have no inclination to repeat, had 
 the power to remove the i)ublic moneys from the Bank of the United 
 States, and place them in other banks for safe-keeping ; and that the 
 conduct of the bank justifies the exercise of that power. But, when he 
 came to form an opinion whether it was good 'policy to exercise it, or not, 
 a question was presented, upon which the warmest friends of the 
 Administration, and the sternest opposers of the bank, might well and 
 honestly entertain various opinions. The immense powers of this bank 
 • — its great capacity to do good, or infiict evils upon this community, 
 and the unyielding determination it had manifested to procure a renewal 
 of its charter, if possible, might well make the prudent, the timid, if you 
 choose, decline its exercise. But the deposits have been removed, and 
 ■with me the question now is, is it good policy to restore them. I say 
 no. I am opposed to prolonging the charter of this bank ; I wish its 
 concerns closed when the charter expires. It is said the country is 
 distressed. I believe it. The deposits have been removed into State 
 banks, and accommodations have been extended on the strength of these 
 deposits. If the deposits are restored these accommodations must be 
 withdrawn. This will make the confusion greater, and add to the 
 distresses. The United States Bank is under no necessity, as has been 
 
1.36 ' MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 clearly demonstrated by the senator from Missouri, to curtail its accom- 
 modations any farther at present. If the deposits are restored, the bank 
 ■will be under' no obligations to grant any increased accommodations on 
 account of them : if it does, they must be limited in amount, and for 
 short periods. If the bank is to be wound up it must collect its debts, 
 and pay what it owes. By restoring the deposits, you put the State 
 banks in the power of this bank to destroy them, and to compel them 
 to suspend specie payments at will. This power, I fear, would be 
 exerted, if it were beheved that that was the most certain mode in 
 which to procure a renewed charter. 
 
 The honorable senator from Massachusetts thinks the deposits ought 
 to be restored, and the bank rechartered, and that this is an effectual 
 plan to relieve a distressed community. With the opinions he enter- 
 tains, his policy is sound. He is correct throughout, and consistent. 
 If I believed as he does, that we had power to charter a bank, and that 
 this bank was an essential agent for the government, and its operations 
 a blessing to the, community, I would go with him and say, the deposits 
 ought not to have been removed; they ought to be restored; the bank 
 rechartered, and society put at rest. But, believing we have no such 
 power (and if we had, that it ought not to be exercised), to restore these 
 deposits, would, J think, aggravate existing distresses, and make " con- 
 fusion worse confounded." 
 
 Mr. President, it has been urged, that if there has been any impro- 
 priety in the conduct of the bank, such conduct will find a justification 
 in the conduct of the Chi^f Magistrate ; that he has been guilty of an 
 usurpation of power ; that his course has been tyrannical ; tliat he has 
 violated chartered rights, the Constitution of his country, and tlie public 
 faith. These are high charges, made with great freedom, and maintained 
 by distinguished ability. I am not among the number of those who find 
 fault with this course, on the part of those opposed to the Administra- 
 tion. Our liberty dei)ends on the freedom with which we examine the 
 conduct of those in high offices. If the charges are not well founded, 
 making them cannot do harm to those against whom they are made ; 
 and if well founded, society is benefitted by having their misdeeds pub- 
 licly exposed. The wliole of these charges rest upon the supposition 
 that the President has assumed and exercised powers, with which he was 
 not vested by the Constitution or laws of the United States. 
 
 "We are here naturally led to inquire, what has he done, and what is 
 the nature or character of tlio power he has exercised. 
 
 lie has removed one Secretary of the Treasury and appointed another. 
 He called upon the directors of the Bank of the United States, which, 
 with the advice and consent of the Senate, he had appointed, to report 
 to him the manner in wliich the business of that institution had been 
 conducted and was being conducted. After he received their report, lie 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 137 
 
 determined that the public moneys to be colTected after the 1st October 
 last, sliould not be deposited in tliat bank, but placed in other banks for 
 safe-l-eeping, until called for to satisfy appropriations made by Congress. 
 The wholo power then, which the President has undertaken to exercise, 
 is neither more nor less than this, that he, as the Chief Magistrate, has 
 the power to construe the Constitution and laws of the United States, to 
 endeavor to ascertain tlieir true meaning, and then carry that meaning into 
 effect, so far as depends upon his own action, or the action of those infe- 
 rior officers appointed to aid him in the discharge of his executive duties. 
 It appears evident to me that he possesses this power, and that his wholo 
 duties consist in exercising such powers. He, therefore, has not assumed 
 or taken upon himself to exercise any power, which, in its nature, he 
 did nut possess. In its exercise he may be mistaken ; he may think the 
 framers of the Constitution or law meant one thing, when the)^ intended 
 another; but this would only be an error in judgment, if nninteiitioual, 
 or an abuse of power, if designed : in neither case would it be an 
 assumption of unauthorized power. In what manner then did he exert 
 this power? He sought the necessary information to enable him and 
 the Secretary of the Treasury to form a correct opinion, whether the 
 power given to the Secretary, in the 16th section of the act incorpo- 
 rating the bank, to remove the public deposits, ought to be exei'ted 
 or not. "When this information was obtained, he came to the conclusion 
 that the public interest required that tliey should be removed. The 
 then Secretary of the Treasury came to the conclusion that the deposits 
 ought 7io< to be removed, and that as he was, the officer appointed by 
 the act to give the order, he was constituted the solejudge^ and that the 
 President had no power to control him. He, therefore, refused to give 
 the order, and refused to resign: the President dismissed him, and 
 appointed another, who agreed with him in opinion, and ordered the 
 deposits to be removed. Had the President a constitutional power to do 
 this ? I have no doubt he possessed the power. By the first section of 
 the second article of tlie Constitution, the executive power is vested in 
 the President of the United States. In every government there are two 
 general classes of power; one to malce the law, the other to exeeute'M. 
 
 By our Constitution this latter class is subdivided into judicial and 
 executive. We, therefore, have three great departments : 
 
 1. Congress, to make laws, with the aid of the President, upon all sub- 
 jects confided, by the Constitution, to the general government. 
 
 2. The judiciary, to expoimd and enforce, or execute the laws confided 
 to that department. 
 
 3. And the executive power, which is vested in the President, and 
 comprehends the whole executive power given by the Constitution, and 
 Dot expressely conferred somewhere else. 
 
 The Avhole judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court, and such infe- 
 
138 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON. WHITE. 
 
 rior courts as Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. 
 The Treasury department belongs to the executive department, by tho 
 Constitution. It has no connection with the power of making laws, 
 therefore, belongs not to the legislative department. It belongs not to 
 the Supreme, or to any inferior court, therefore, is no part of the judi- 
 ciary. The only remaining department is the executive, to which it 
 must belong. ■ 
 
 It appears evident to me, that the framers of the Constitution intended 
 that the executive power should be vested in one head, who would be 
 bound not only to discharge, faithfully, all his own personal duties^ but 
 likewise should be clothed with the necessary powers to compel the infe- 
 rior officers in the executive department, to perform theirs likewise. 
 The President is bound to see that the laws are faithfully executed. This 
 gives him no power over the judiciary. The courts have their appro- 
 priate duties confided to them by the laws and the Constitution, and 
 diBcharge them independently of the executive. But aU executive 
 officers falling within the executive department, he has, and must have, 
 a power to control. The heads of departments are appointed by him; 
 they can only be displaced by him, or by impeachment and conviction. 
 If the Secretary of the Treasury should put an improper construction 
 upon a revenue law, and would neither give up his construction, nor 
 retire, he might defeat the collection of the whole revenue before Con- 
 gress would be in session, unless the President had the power of remov- 
 ing him. In this very case, suppose the President had believed the whole 
 of the money in the bank would be wasted before the session of Congress, 
 and had called upon the Secretary to remove them, and he had refused, 
 saying, he conscientiously believed there was no danger, and the Presi- 
 dent had yielded, from a belief that he had no power to remove him in 
 such a case, and the money had been all wasted. Would any gentleman 
 justify the President. I think not? When they conscientiously dis- 
 agree, one must yield, or retire, and that should be the subordinate* 
 otherwise we have no executive government, of any practical utility. 
 There is one thing in which I think Mr. Duane was right, and that is in 
 not giving the order for removal, unless he had been convinced his 
 oi)ini()n against the removal was wrong; but his error, as I think, con- 
 sisted in not withdrawing from the department. While he believed a 
 proper case was not made for the removal, and that a public injury 
 would bo done by the removal, no consideration ought to have induced 
 him to sign an order for such a purpose. But if the President believed 
 they ouglit to be removed, and that a great public injury would result 
 from permitting them to remain, and his Secretary would neither give 
 the order nor retire, I think he had the power to remove him. 
 
 But, Mr. President, although I think the Chief Magistrate does possess 
 this power, yet I believe it is one to be exercised with great caution, and 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 139 
 
 only in cases where be is clearly convinced the public interests demand 
 its exercise. This point has been so fully examined, and ably main- 
 tained by gentlemen "\vbo have preceded me, that I will no longer dwell 
 upon it. 
 
 Had the President a right to call upon the government directors, and 
 to receive reports from them, of the manner in which the business of the 
 bank had been conducted ? Some honorable members have denied that 
 he had. On a former occasion, I stated my doubts as to their construc- 
 tion of the charter. Since then, I have examined it with more attention, 
 and am satisfied their limited construction is inaccurate. I will, as 
 briefly as I can, state the reasons which have led to the opinion I 
 entertain. 
 
 In our examination of the act incorporating this bank, we ought never 
 to forget, that the very objects of its creation were high national ones. To 
 restore and preserve a sound circulating medium to the community, and to 
 act as fiscal agent, in receiving and paying out the public moneys. To 
 accomplish these important objects, there are to be twenty-five directors 
 to manage the institution ; five of these were to be appointed by the 
 President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. These 
 directors are to hold their appointjuents for one year, and until others 
 are appointed ; and aji express power is given to the President to remove 
 the five government directors, within the year, if he believes the public 
 interest requires it. By the 1st section, the United States are to subscribo 
 for seventy thousand shares^ equal to seven millions of dollars, which is 
 one fifth of the whole capital. By the 7th section of the act, the stock- 
 holders are vested with a power to make such by-laws, rules, and regu- 
 lations, for the government of the corporation, and for the management 
 of its afi'airs, as to them may seem proper, not inconsistent with tho 
 Constitution or laws. In the making of these by-laws, ordinances, rules, 
 and regulations, the United States were to. Yi&vQ no voiceyTio xote. By 
 the 5th rule in the 11th section, it is provided that a number of stock- 
 holders, not less than sixty, who together shall be proprietors of one 
 thousand shares, or upwards, shall have the power at any time, to call a 
 general meeting of the stockholders, for purposes relative to the insti- 
 tution, giving at least, ten weeks' notice, in two public newspapers of tho 
 place where the bank is seated, and specifying in each notice, the object 
 or objects of such meeting. By this provision, sixty stockholders owning 
 one thousand shares, can call a general meeting whenever they have 
 reason to fear their business is mismanaged. They can call their directors 
 to account and examine into their ichole proceedimp^ and make any alter- 
 ations or regulations they think their interests may require. At this 
 general meeting, the United States asQ unrepresented ; they have no voice ; 
 they have no vote^ they have no person to attend^ either to receive, or to 
 give any information, although they own seventy thousand shares^ worth 
 
140 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 seven millions. -Is it possible for us to suppose the executive branch of 
 the government was intended to be excluded from all Tcnoidedge of 
 the manner in which the institution was conducted ; that the United 
 States, owning one-fifth of the whole stock, should "have no voice in 
 making laws for the government of the directors, and no means of know- 
 ing whether they conformed their conduct to the laws or not ; more 
 especially that they should have no means of knowing whether the 
 policy prescribed and pursued, was likely to carry into effect the high 
 governmental purpose of preserving a sound currency? I cannot think 
 it possible. Such a construction I must be permitted to say, with great 
 deference, would, in my judgment, be a setere reflection upon the enlight- 
 ened men who passed this act. 
 
 But if we admit, which I think we ought, that they intended the five 
 government directors should have an equal agency with any other equal 
 number of directors, in the management of the affixirs of the bank, and 
 that they should be hound at any time, when called upon by the execu- 
 tive, representing the United States, their constituents^ to report to him 
 exactly the same information, which the private stockholders at a general 
 meeting miglit demand of their directors^ then every thing is consistent 
 and reasonable. 
 
 My construction is, I think, very much strengthened, by the provisions 
 in the 23d section, which enacts "that it shall at all times be lawful for a 
 committee of either house of Congress, appointed for that purpose, to 
 inspect the books, and examine into the proceedings of the corporation 
 hereby enacted, and to report whether the provisions of this charter have 
 been by the same violated or not ; and whenever any committee, as afore- 
 said, shall find and report, or the President of the United States shall hate 
 reason to lelieve, that the charter has been violated, it may be lawful for 
 Congress to direct, or the President to order, a scire facias to be sued 
 out," &c. It must, I think, strike every one reading this section, with 
 great force, that complete power is given to Congress to acquire the most 
 precise information, to enable it to judge whether the charter has been so 
 far violated, as to make the issuing a scire facias necessary. In the same 
 section a power is given to the President, to direct a scire facias, if he 
 has reason to believe the charter is violated, From what source is he to 
 acquire a knowledge of facts upon which to found. his opinion? Not the 
 report of the committee. Congress is to act upon it, if any person. It 
 would be absurd to suppose that it was intended Congress should procure 
 the information, and not to order any scire facias, and that the Presid,ent 
 should upon the same report, direct one to be issued. Congress was to act 
 upon the report of its own committee; the President to give Ids direction 
 upon information derived from some other source, and that source is the 
 report of the directors whom he bad appointed, and had a power to 
 remove, for faithless or unwise conduct. This construction is farther con- 
 
TOUTED STATES BANK. 141 
 
 firmed ■when we see in the same section, tliat in the seii'e facias the facts 
 which it is supposed have constituted a violation of the charter, must he sot 
 down so iireclschj^ that an issue can he talcen upon tliem, and tried hy a 
 jury. Wliat has been alleged in favor of the opposite construction? 
 Nothing, except that it is said, the five government directors shall, with 
 the other twenty, manage and direct the bank. To single out a single 
 expression or paragraph, and fix the meaning from that alone, is not the 
 sound rule of interpretation ; we must take the whole act, compare ono 
 part with another, and fix the meaning from the context. Or what is 
 still more correct ; we must ascertain the spirit and meaning of the act, 
 and give it such interpretation as will give clfect to the will of the law- 
 giver. If my construction needs farther aid, its correctness is proved 
 beyond question, by the debates when the act was under consideration. 
 Those who opposed that provision in the charter which allows directors 
 to be appointed, insisted the provision shoidd be stricken out, because 
 these directors would be "«jp/es," and informers. The friends to the pro- 
 vision say it ought to be retained, because we want these directors as 
 " sentinels on the watch tower," to give information. By what rule then 
 is it that we are to say the executive has violated the charter, in calling 
 for these reports, or the directors for having made them ? By none herc- 
 tofoi'e recognized-as'a sound one. The true rule is, to ascertain what the 
 legislature intended when they were enacting the law, and then say, that 
 is its construction now. My view of this subject is rendered still more 
 certain by the opinion of a distinguished gentleman from N'ew York, who 
 was at the head of a most respectable committee of the House of Represen- 
 tatives, in November, 1818. They had given this charter, and the pro- 
 ceedings of the directors under it, a laborious examination, and had 
 maturely considered the whole subject. One paragraph, in their report, 
 connected with a proposition of Mr. Spencer, the chairman, shortly 
 afterwards, shows conclusively, his opinion upon this point. Tlie report 
 is in these words : " Two by-laws of the bank, seem to your committee 
 to deserve notice ; one of them that no discounts shall be made without 
 the consent of three-fourths of the directors present," and another, "that 
 uo director shall, without especial authority, be permitted to inspect the 
 cash account of any person with the bank. These by-laws appear to 
 render nugatory the provisions of the charter authorizing tlie appoint- 
 ment by the government of one-fifth of the whole number of directors, 
 and are different from the provisions, in that respect, by the former Bank 
 of the United States, although most of the local banks in Philadelphia 
 have similar regulations. Should a state of things exist, in which the 
 stockholders should deem their interest hostile to that of the nation, such 
 provisions as these stated would render the government directors mere 
 spectators of the proceedings of the board." 
 
 The pt-oposition afterwards submitted by Mr. Spencer, contained various 
 
142 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSQN WHITE. 
 
 matters, intended as amendments of the charter ; the 5th is in these words : 
 "That no by-law of the said corporation, shall exclude tlii directors 
 appointed by the government, from a full hnowledge of all the concerns 
 of the bank, and of the accounts of every person dealing with it ; and that 
 the assent of at least one public director," shall be necessary to allow any 
 discount, and to render valid every act of the board of directors." 
 
 By the report, it is obvious the draughtsman and a majority of the 
 committee, at least, were of opinion that the government directors were 
 iound to report whatever information they could acquire. Mr. Spencer 
 believed that the by-laws restricted them too much, and that they ought 
 to have access to every account in the bank, as well as the private accounts 
 of individuals, as the general accounts. Why enlarge the field in wliich 
 these directors were to collect information, unless they were at liberty to 
 communicate all they could collect when required? Thus then, it seems 
 to me, the context, the spirit and meaning of the charter, compel us to 
 conclude. Congress intended the government directors should make 
 reports. The friends and enemies of the charter agreed that that was the 
 intention, at the time the act was on its passage, and such has been con- 
 sidered its construction ever since, until this controversy. If the con- 
 trary is now settled to be its meaning, and the directors are not at liberty 
 to communicate any information ; if the whole proceedings of the board, 
 and all the operations of this great moneyed institution, in which the 
 government has so much at hazard, and which can so materially affect 
 every interest in the community, are to be kept profound secrets^ then I 
 must be permitted to believe it is too odious, and too dangerous, to be 
 tolerated one moment longer than we are now compelled to allow it to 
 exist. 
 
 Mr. President, I have now discharged a duty, far from pleasing to myself. 
 It was due to those who sent me, as well as to others, that from my place 
 in this body, I should state the reasons upon which I expect to rest my 
 votes. Having done so, I will only add my acknowledgments to the 
 Senate, for their patient attention, after the subject had been so long, and 
 60 ably discussed, as to have left no hope that anything I could say, 
 would be matter of interest either here or elsewhere. 
 
 The following letter, dated the day before tlio delivery of tlie 
 speech, is of some importance as showing Judge White's sentiments 
 as to the obligation resting upon him in regard to it. The expression 
 of his sentiments was a delicate task, but one which his constituents 
 expected him to perform ; and he acquitted himself satisfactorily to 
 those with whom he acted, and in such a manner as to give no just 
 cause of offence to tliose who diflbred from him in opinion. lie com- 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 143 
 
 mences with some very sound reflections suggested by a dissension 
 among some of his friends in Tennessee : 
 
 The majority of men are selfish; and whenever their plans for wealth 
 or honor arc not seconded hy others, their hostility is sure to manifest 
 itself; but by bearing with them, such hostility will only last until they 
 see that the object of their wrath has again the power of giving them 
 assistance. Then, simulated friendship again returns, and all is well. 
 Tlie life of a useful public man is necessarily one of sacrifices of interest 
 and feelings. By tliese sacrifices alone can he live down the diuly slanders 
 with which he is loaded. 
 
 On to-morrow, if I live and am favored with tolerable health, I intend 
 to express some of the opinions I entertain, on the topics* so long and so 
 ably discussed. In the extensive field, hardly a head is left for the 
 gleaner ; but if I say nothing, the motives of my silence may be misrepre- 
 sented ; therefore something must be said. 
 
 I have felt embarrassed, and still do, by the following circnmstance. 
 Last summer the President asked my opinion as to the removal of the 
 deposits. I thought, with the information I then had, it was bad policy, 
 and ^so told him. Although this correspondence was confidential, my 
 letter was shown to his cabinet, and to others. Thus you see the unplea- 
 sant situation in which I am placed, by acting with that frankness towards, 
 and friendship which I hope ever to feel for, the Chief Magistrate. Thus 
 situated, t thought silence best became me. Now, we have arrived at a 
 point where, in my opinion, silence would be censurable. I must there- 
 fore present my opinions as they are honestly entertained, regardless of 
 all consequences. 
 
 He adds, with terse sincerity, in reply to a suggestion that his name 
 should be used for the presidential candidacy in the election of 1836 : 
 
 There are in my mind two reasons why my friends ought not to think 
 of using my name as you suggest. 1st. The public do not wish it. 
 2(1. I do not. 
 
 Condy Raguet, the well-known financial writer, addressed to Judge 
 White, March 28, 1834, the following dexterous letter, whi(;h refers 
 to the subject of the bank, and likewise, though very indistinctly, in 
 tlie final paragraph, to the same plan of making Judge White a 
 presidential candidate in the election of 1836 : 
 
 Dear Sir: The high opinion I entertain of your public character and 
 private integrity induces me to address you this letter. Being one of the 
 
 ♦ Topics connected with the Bank. 
 
144 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 very few individuals nortli of the Potomac who entertain a conscientious 
 conviction of the unconstitutionality of a federal bank, I feel a deep con- 
 cern lest the course which public opinion seems to be taking, may bring 
 about a state of things far more disastrous than has yet been anticipated. 
 I allude to the mania for the incorporation of State banks with immense 
 capitals, founded solely upon the expectation of having the control of the 
 public money. These banks, if they should be chartered in various States, 
 might by combinations be rendered as dangerous to the peace bf the 
 country as any single federal bank ; and it seems to me that all who are 
 opposed upon principle to the extension of paper machinery, should use 
 their influence in preventing it. 
 
 Taking it for granted that there is not the most remote probability of 
 the renewal of the charter of the present bank for any length of time, 
 long or short, or of the incorporation of a;- new one, during the term of 
 service of the present executive, and believing that the future hajjpiness 
 of the country demands that the government should be wholly separated 
 from the banking system in all its forms, I have turned the subject over 
 in my mind, and have placed on paper the result of my reflections, written 
 as I would have worded an editorial article. This sketch I enclose for 
 your perusal. If you think that it contains any suggestions which can be 
 made useful, it is at your service. If not, be pleased to return it to me, 
 and allow me to say that as I have no right to intrude my opinions upon 
 you in such a way as to appear to invite yours, it will give me no umbrage 
 if you do so without a word of comment. The question at issue is one 
 upon which honest men widely diflfer, and as I do not know your senti- 
 ments in relation to it, I cannot be charged with rudeness in making 
 known to you mine. I consider the country to be in a fearful state, an-d 
 would be glad to see some friend of the Administration upon whose 
 virtue and principles I could rely, bring forward some measure for relief. 
 I am, dear sir, 
 
 With sentiments of much respect, 
 
 Your ob't serv't, 
 
 CONDY EaGITET. 
 
 p. s. — After writing the above, and before the letter was sealed, a 
 respectable gentleman whom I happened to see, made the following re- 
 mark. " There are two parties here, one of which would do anything to 
 put down General Jackson, and the other anything to sustain him. But 
 there is a third party, and a very large one, who care not a straw about 
 who is President, but who anxiously desire to see some measure of relief 
 for the country, let it operate against, or in favor of, whom it may." 
 This is no doubt true ; and the man who should i)ropose in Congress and 
 carry through a measure calculated to conciliate all parties, by yielding 
 something to each, would merit, and would receive, the applause of the 
 wliole people." 
 
LETTER TO CONDY KAGUET. 145 
 
 Tliis letter Judge White answered, April 6, 1834, with a noble and 
 complete statement of absolute political independence, and a manly 
 avowal of consciousness of the comparatively unijifluential station 
 which such independence must always necessitate ; and with a clear 
 and vigorous summary of his opinions on the points of the bank 
 question, as follows : 
 
 Dear Sir : Your letter dated 29th ult., and the project which accom- 
 panied it, reached me in due course of the mail. Otlier duties have pre- 
 vented my answer at an earlier day. I feel gratified that my course has 
 been such as to be approved by one whom I think so well qualified to 
 form correct opinions in everything which relates to the fundamental 
 principles of our government. 
 
 ' Notliing could give me more pleasure than to be the instrument of 
 doing something which would be of lasting benefit to the people whose 
 interests are liable to be affected by my public conduct. But I feel too 
 little confidence in my own abilities, and am sure that my hold upon pub- 
 lic opinion is too slender, to permit the hope that this can ever be effected 
 by venturing to become a leader. I do not carry on political or friendly 
 correspondence with any man living : I have a cordial dislike for every- 
 thing like contrivance, by which to put or keep any man or set of men 
 in power. Thus you will see my course is too individual for me to be 
 useful on a large scale. My whole aim and ambition is to fix in my own 
 mind the political principles which in my own opinion best accord with 
 the Constitution, and then to give them such practical effect as will be 
 productive of the most good. 
 
 Upon the great questions which now so agitate the public mind, I have 
 employed myself industriously, with an anxious desire to come to correct 
 conclusions, and I give you the results with that candor which I hope 
 belongs to my character. 
 
 I do not believe the Constitution of the United States vests in Con- 
 gress any power to charter a bank, nor do I tliink the precedents which 
 have been furnished are binding as authorities upon this or any future 
 Congress. 
 
 I do not believe the present Congress has any more power to prolong 
 this charter for even a year, than that of 1816 had to grant it for twenty 
 years. 
 
 If Congress had the power to incorporate a bank, I do not think it 
 ought to be exercised. Money in large masses ought to be dreaded, and 
 the fewer hands it is placed in the more it is to be dreaded. If continued, 
 the executive and tlie bank, in time, must and and will unite tlioir influ- 
 ence ; and when they do, tliey will endanger our liberties. 
 
 I think the President had the power to remove the Secretary of the 
 
 10 
 
146 MEilOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Treasury, if lie conscientiously believed a serious injury would be the 
 consequence of his not using the power given him to change the place of 
 depositing the public moneys. 
 
 I believe the conduct of the bank had been such as to justify the Secre- 
 tary in the exercise of the power given in the bank charter. 
 
 I hold that although the Secretary had the power, and the conduct of 
 the bank well justified its exercise, yet there was another great question 
 remaining to be decided, and that was, the effect the change of the depo- 
 sits would have upon society; and if the Secretary conscientiously 
 believed it would be injurious, he did right to refuse to give an order for 
 the removal ; and the willingness of the President to take the responsi- 
 bility would not have excused him for doing what he believed to be wrong. 
 But if the President had formed a different opinion, the Secretary ought 
 to have resigned. 
 
 Although I think the President possesses the power of removal on 
 account of a difference of opinion with an executive officer, yet I think it 
 ought not to be exercised except in a case where the executive officer is 
 clearly wrong. 
 
 The deposits having been removed, even if it is admitted to have been 
 impolitic to have done so, I hold it would be bad policy now to restore 
 them, unless the bank is to be rechartered. 
 
 Against those concerned in the direction of the Bank of the United 
 States, I certainly have no cause of personal dislike, but the contrary. 
 Still, I fear any extension of time to close their concerns would be assidur 
 ously employed to procure a recharter. We cannot bind such a corpora- 
 tion by any regulations upon paper, any more than Samson could have 
 been bound by a thread of sewing-silk. An attentive examination of its 
 proceedings has satisfied me that such construction will be put upon any 
 recharter, as will best promote the interests of the stockholders. 
 
 Your plan is, in my judgment, greatly preferable to any which I have 
 heard suggested, and I do not discern any objection to it, but my strong 
 conviction that the time allowed for winding up would be employed for 
 the purpose of procuring a new charter, as exceptionable as that which 
 they now have. 
 
 I am, however, so much struck with the power of what you advance, 
 that I am unwilling to return the project unless you say I must do so. 
 
 Although I have no wish to conceal any of my opinions, yet I have 
 such an instinctive dread of appearing in the public prints, that I beg 
 you to consider this letter for yourself. 
 
 In order to the completeness of this view of Judge "White's argu- 
 ments upon the question of the bank, are here inserted, somewhat in 
 advance of their proper succession in time, his remarks delivered in 
 
UNrrED STAtES BANK. 147 
 
 the Senate, April 20tb, 1838. The charter of the bank had expired 
 in 183G. It was allowed two years after that time, in which to wind 
 up its concern. In 1838, a bill was reported by the judiciary com- 
 mittee, to prevent the re-issuing of its notes. Judge White, with 
 consistent a<,lherence to his repuWican sentiments, opposed the bill, 
 as asking an extravagant and unnecessary exertion of power, in a case 
 where there already existed an adequate remedy. He said : 
 
 Mr. President: I do not wish that the reasons for the vote whicli I 
 intend to give on this bill should be misunderstood, and therefore I noAV 
 address you. 
 
 The evil to be remedied by its passage is the reissuing the notes of the 
 late Bank of the United States, chartered by Congi-ess in 1816. The pen- 
 alty to be inflicted is that of fine and imi>risonnient. I deny that Con- 
 gress has the power to pass such a bill. 
 
 Let us examine, for a moment, tlie principles contended for by its friends. 
 
 1st. My honorable colleague has deduced the power from the second 
 section of the third article of the Constitution, ■v\-hich says, that the 
 courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction in all cases arising 
 nnder the Constitution or laws of the United States, &c. 
 
 Tliis clause was never intended to designate the cases in which Congress 
 should legislate^ but the cases which iha judiciary might decide. 
 
 All cases in which we legislate, whether we have the Constitutional 
 power or not, the judiciary may have cognizance of. If, because the judi- 
 ciary have this jurisdiction in all cases, Congress may also legislate 
 in all cases, there is an end of all limitation to the powers of the federal 
 government. 
 
 This is a more extravagant claim of power than I have ever known to 
 be set up by any class of politicians. 
 
 2d. His next recourse is to that clause in the Constitution which gives 
 to Congress the power "to coin money and to regulate the value of it,"&c. 
 
 From this clause he has argued that Congress has the whole power 
 over the coin, and, if these notes are permitted to circulate, they Avill put 
 out of circulation an equal amount of coin, therefore. Congress has the 
 power to legislate them out of circulation. I deny the soundness of this 
 argument. 
 
 • It is true Congress has the sole power over the-cozV, but it is not true 
 that they have, on that account, absolute power over all credits^ wliich the 
 States or the people may choose to circulate as substitutes for coin. They 
 cannot pa.ss any law which will make it unlaAvful for one man to circulate 
 the promissory negotiable note of another, as a substitute for coin. Nor 
 can thoy proliil)it the circulation of notes issued by the banks chartered 
 by any of the States. 
 
 The circulation of checks or notes on Stat« banks displaces the specie to 
 
148 MEMOIli OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 the same amount, aud if this argument of my colleague were sound, this 
 whole circulation could, at any time, be prohibited by Congress. ' 
 
 This claim of power is, in itself, so extravagant, that few have hereto- 
 fore ventured to assert it. In my opinion, it comes with a bad grace from 
 those claiming to be States right men, or Eepublicans of the Jeffersouiaa 
 school. 
 
 3d. His last resource, to establish this power, is a recurrence to that 
 clause in the Constitution which gives Congress the power to pass all laws, 
 necessary and proper, to carry into eflect any of the powers before vested 
 in them. 
 
 This argument of my colleague carries us back, and places us upon the 
 broad old federal doctrine, " that Congress may do any thing which they 
 believe is for the general welfare." 
 
 The repubhcan doctrine is, that this clause in the Constitution, instead 
 of vesting in Congress any po.wer on any new suhject, was intended as a 
 limitation upon powers already granted. Without this clause. Congress 
 would have been compelled, in many cases, to take power by implication, 
 or by construction, otherwise they could not attain many of the objects over 
 which express powers to legislate had been granted to them. To cut otf 
 all pretence for assuming powers by implication, this clause was inserted, 
 and express power conferred to pass all laws necessary and proj^ier to give 
 effect to the attainment of those objects, in relation to which express 
 powers had been granted. 
 
 I cannot but think, that he who now insists on the reverse, and still 
 calls himself a Republican of the Jeffersonian school, mistakes the class 
 of politicians to which he belongs. Certain I am, he and I do not belong 
 to the same class, because I will not take from this clause the power to 
 act on any new or independent subject Avhatever. I can only take power 
 from it to use the vicans necessary and ajfpropriate to effectuate some ob- 
 ject, in relation to which an express power to legislate is given. 
 
 The honorable senator from New Jersey, who addressed us yesterday, 
 has had recourse to judicial determinations, to prove that Congress pos- 
 sesses the power to pass this bill. 
 
 It appeared to me that those authorities only Avent to establish, that 
 where Congress has the power to create an institution, they have the 
 power to regulate it or destroy it. 
 
 If this doctrine is sound, the argument leaves me exactly where it foimd 
 me, because I am one of that unfortunate class of i)oliticians who do not 
 lelieve Congress had i\\ii imoer to create this corporation. 
 ■ The honorable senator from Alabama, farthest from me (Mr. Clay), 
 supposes we have the power to pass this bill, because the notes thus im- 
 properly i)ut in circulation, the United States are morally bound to pay. 
 
 I deny that the United States ever were, or ever can be, either legally 
 or morally bound to pay a single note issued by that bank. 
 
TKriED STATES BANK. 149 
 
 The bank was called by our name, we were stockholders to the amount 
 of seven millions of dollars, and we were no farther bound to the payment 
 of the debts of that bank than any individual owning the same amount 
 of stock, and the very moment we sold the stock we were not interested 
 in the bank to the amount of one cent. 
 
 The cases put by the senator to illustrate his argument, prove that the 
 name of this bank has misled him. 
 
 lie says, if a man forges a note or obligation upon the Treasurer of the 
 United States, he could be punished for forgery, «&c. 
 
 Suppose I yield that he could, Avhy would he be thus punishable by an 
 act of Congress ? It would be because the Treasurer is an officer of the 
 United States, and because, if the forged note or obligation were genuine, 
 the United States must pay the money out of the Treasury. 
 
 The persons this bill intends to punish, are not our officers, our agents, 
 or our trustees ; nor are the United States, either legally or morally, bound 
 to pay one dollar to redeem these notes. 
 
 The notes, if re-issued, are thus dealt with, by the officers, the agents, 
 or trustees of the bank, in wliich we have^no interest whatever, tho 
 United States having sold the whole amount of their stock to the bank 
 chartered by Pennsylvania. 
 
 I think if the honorable senator will re-consider the opinions he has ad- 
 vanced, and give them an application to the facts as they really exist, he 
 will be satisfied he is maintaining a doctrine too extravagant to be seri- 
 ously insisted on by any one. 
 
 The argument of the honorable senator from Connecticut (Mr. Niles), is 
 by far more plausible than anything I have heard. 
 
 It is this in substance, that we cannot now inquire whether Congress 
 had the power to charter this bank or not. It was chartered, these notes 
 Avere made in virtue of a power conferred by tlie charter, and it is our 
 duty to see that society is not defrauded by means of our creation. 
 
 If there were no other means of checking the mischief but by our legis- 
 lation, the necessity of the case would make a man strain hard to find 
 some source from which he could have power to compel those Avho are 
 trustees to cancel those notes as fast as they are lifted by them. 
 
 But there is no sort of necessity for our legislation to check this mis- 
 chief. 
 
 How are the facts ? 
 
 By the chai'ter of 1816, the bank had twenty years, within which to do 
 business; they expired on the 3d March, 1836. The bank was to have 
 two additional years within which to wind up its concerns ; they expired 
 the 3d March, 1838. 
 
 Before the expiration of the twenty years, the State of Pennsylvania 
 gave to the stockholders, witli the excei)tion of the United Stivtes, a new 
 charter, and the old stockholders transferred to this new bank all their 
 
150 SIEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 funds in trust to wind up their concerns ; in other words, in tru^t to col- 
 lect all the debts due to the old bank, and to pay all the debts it owed. 
 
 Now I am very clear in the opinion that whenever the trustee, with 
 the funds of the old bank, lifted any of its notes, it Avas a duty to cancel 
 thera, and if, instead of doing so, the trustee re-issued them, it was a 
 breach of trust, and upon an application to a court of chancery, by any 
 one having an interest, I have no doubt a decree would be made to re- 
 strain the re-issue, and to compel the trustee to cancel the notes as fast as 
 lifted with the trust funds. 
 
 Where then is the necessity for Congress to exert the power to check a 
 mischief for which there is a clear, unembarrassed, and adequate remedy ? 
 There can be none as I think. There certainly is none to protect any in- 
 terest of the United States. They never had any interest in this new bank, 
 and they have none in the old, because under an act of Congress our seven 
 millions of stock were sold toihe new bank, receipted for, and as fast as 
 the installments have fallen due, according to the contract, they have been 
 punctually paid. 
 
 There, therefore, as it seems to me, can be no necessity or propriety 
 in deriving the power claimed from the necessity of the case, and there is 
 the more danger in deriving any power fi-om such source, because every 
 honest mind is easily misled by it, as the exercise of the power is to at- 
 tain an object honest and praiseworthy. • ' ' 
 
 But, Mr. President, are not all those who assume this ground, and think 
 ■vve have no power to charter a bank, assuming a most dangerous and de- 
 cej^tive ground ? 
 
 I cannot but think so, and with great deference I say, it has appeared to 
 me, we are likely to commit en-or by not separating in our minds things 
 which ought to be kept distinct. 
 
 Tlie new bank and the old bear the same name. The stockholders, 
 witli tlie exception of the United States, are the same in both banks. 
 The principal officers in the old are the prominent officers in the new. 
 Hence I have thought we are inclined to view the officers in this State 
 bank as our officers, exercising an authority derived from the United 
 States, when in truth and in fact they derive tlieir power and authority 
 •under a State law, and are neither our officers, our trustees, nor our 
 agents. Theiv whole power and authority over the affairs of the old bank 
 are derived from tlie contract between the old and the new banks, by 
 which the latter became the trustee of the former. 
 
 Ib it possible that Congress can derive any power to legislate on tliis 
 point on the gi-ound of this contract? 
 
 Sui)pose Pennsylvania liad never granted tliis new charter, and the 
 stockliolders of the old hank had made just such a contract with the bank 
 of Virginia in virtue of which this latter bank became the trustee, and 
 there was an allegation that this tmstee was re-issuing some of the Ootea 
 
UNITED STATES BANK. 151 
 
 instead of cancelling them. Is any gentleman prepared to maintain that 
 Congrojis could pass a law to send the trustee to jail, or to have him 
 mulcted in a fine ? 
 
 Upon principle there is no distinction between the cases. 
 
 The claim of power rests upon the ground that as we inferred the power 
 to create the bank, when in truth we had no such power, we may assume 
 any other power we choose to check our own mischief. 
 
 I deny this .doctrine entirely, and insist that by our own legulation we 
 can never enlarge our own powers. 
 
 Here we have created a bank. TTill any gentleman affirm that an 
 exi)ress power to charter a bank is given in the Constitution? No gentle- 
 man can so allege. Even those who claim "such a power for Congress 
 have never pretended there is any express grant of power. All agree it 
 is a power that must be inferred for the sake of carrying out some other 
 express grant of power. 
 
 Some have said we have express power to lay and collect taxes, and a 
 bank is necessary as a fiscal agent. 
 
 Others that we have a power to coin money, and, therefore Congress 
 has power over the whole currency, and to keep that sound, a bank is 
 essential. - ' 
 
 "While those who deny any such power have denominated it '■'■ avagrant^ 
 crawling over the Constitution in search of a soft place on which to make 
 a comfortable settlement." 
 
 K we pass this bill, in my judgment, we first assume, by implication, 
 that Congress had the power to charter the bank, and then, we infer that 
 Congress can impose whatever pains and penalties it pleases, even unto 
 death, to compel the cancelling of the notes. 
 
 These powei-s, I think, we do not possess, and, therefore, I will 
 not exercise them. I will adhere to what I think the old republican 
 doctrine: 
 
 1st. Show an express grant of power to do the principal matter, and 
 then 
 
 2d. That the means you wish to employ are the necessary and proper 
 means to be used, and I am ready to act ; if I doubt, reasonably, I ought 
 not to act. 
 
 Is there any gentleman who hears me who can say there is no reasonable 
 doubt in this case? 
 
 • After all, if Ave pass this bill, how is any one to find out what 
 notes were re-issued ? There will be no mark put upon them. 
 
 "We can only believe some have been re-issued, because wo see, at 
 an after day, more are in circulation than there were on a former 
 one : but what identical notes they were, society can have no means of 
 knowing. 
 
 I now have one or two in my pocket, but I have no knowledge when 
 
152 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 or how they were put in circulation, nor had I any means of ascertaining. 
 All I know is that they came to my hands fairly. 
 
 Other gentlemen, who condemn my rule of construing the Constitu- 
 tion, may find a satisfactory source from which to derive their power to 
 pass this hill ; if so, let them pass it. All I wish, is, that the principles 
 on which I act may be understood. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SENATORIAL CAREER INDIAN TRIBES — EXECUTIVE PATKONAQE- 
 
 EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 The condition of the Indian tribes was the principal su^bject which 
 attracted Judofe White's attention, and commanded liis most earnest 
 eftbrts. The history of this race has been one of curious and stirring 
 interest to every reflecting mind, and must awaken sympathy in every 
 feeling heart. Comparatively few years have passed, since they were 
 sole masters of this glorious land, erecting their wigwams at pleasure, 
 and ranging free and untrammelled throughout their vast hunting- 
 grounds. By a rapid and singular, but sure process, those tribes 
 which had occupied our extreme Northern territory were nearly 
 wasted away, or quite exterminated, by the white man, in his lust for 
 gain. Nor was the work to stop here. The same influences were 
 beginning to be felt by our Southern and Western tribes. The heart 
 of every philanthropist recoiled from the view of the future prospects 
 of this miserable race; and a desire to preserve and elevate them 
 gave rise at an early day to the benevolent design of colonizing 
 them in the vast territory west of the Mississippi. The scheme was 
 originated by that profound and organizing statesman, Thomas 
 Jefierson, and had been pursued or attempted without much success 
 by subsequent administrations. It was anew submitted to Congress 
 in the session of 1829-'30, and after a most laborious examination 
 and discussion was sanctioned by that body. Judge Wliite was at 
 that time chairman of the committee on Indian Affairs, Although ho 
 had in early life been engaged in warfare against them, and although 
 he had looked with horror upon the scenes of their savage barbarity, 
 he could not calmly witness their extinction. 
 
 His feelinofs were all enlisted in the measures for ameliorating their 
 condition. His plans contemplated not merely tlioir preservation 
 from the utter annihilation which so evidently menaced them, but their 
 
154 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSQN WHITE. 
 
 instruction in the arts of civilization, and the communication to them 
 of the saving influences of Christianity. When the bill providing 
 for their colonization was brought before the Senate, though over- 
 borne by heavy domestic affliction, with his characteristic devotion to 
 the interests of others, he rose superior to his private griefs, aroused 
 all his energies, and poured forth his soul in a fervid plea for the 
 appropriation to them of a permanent home. The measure was car- 
 ried by that powerful effort, and probably no act of his life ever gave 
 him more pleasure. His interest in the Indian was deep and abiding. 
 Its fervor was undiminished to the last hour of his life. " Almost in 
 my last interview with him," says the Rev. Dr. Foot, " he spoke with 
 inimitable tenderness of their having been rescued from gradual 
 extinction — of their prospect in the colony — of his expectation that 
 civilization and Christianity would now prevail amongst them, and as 
 he described the elevation to which he believed them destined to 
 arrive, the tears fell from his eyes, and his whole countenance told 
 his delight in anticipating their prosperity." 
 
 Feb. 22, 1830, Judge White, as chairman of the Committee on 
 Indian Affairs, made a report upon the business in their charge, 
 which we insert, as follows : 
 
 Everything which relates to those Indian tribes or nations with which 
 we have political relations, created or regulated by treaties, is becoming, 
 every year, more and more interesting ; especially those relating to such 
 as reside within any of the States of the Union, or of the territories 
 belonging to it. The matters communicated by the President, in his 
 message, relative to the' Cherokees, are of the most delicate and interest- 
 ing character, whether considered in relation to the United States, to the 
 States of Georgia and Alabama, or to the Cherokee nation. The com- 
 mittee have employed themselves assiduously in their investigation, with 
 an anxious wish to avail themselves of all the information within their 
 reach, and desirous to recommend something to the Senate, which, if 
 productive of no positive good, will at least have the merit of not farther 
 embarrassing questions already sufficiently complicated. 
 
 With tliis nation, the United States have formed a number of treatie3, 
 commencing as early as the year 1785, and ending in the year 1819. At 
 the formation of the first, the Indians occupied portions of territory 
 within tliG chartered limits of the States of North Carolina, Soulli Caro- 
 lina, and Georgia. Since that period. North Carolina ceded a part of 
 her territory, on which a portion of these Indians resided, to the United 
 States ; and that territory, according to the terms of the deed of cemoii^ 
 has been since formed into the State of Tennessee. South Carolina and 
 
liEPOKT ON INDIAN AFFAIRS. 155 
 
 Georgia amicably settled the boundary between them ; arid by an agree- 
 ment between the United States and Georgia, dated in tlie year 1802, the 
 United States acquired the title to a portion of territory, out of which 
 the State of Alabama, and the greater part of the State of Mississippi, 
 have been since formed. And now, it so happens, that a part of the 
 Cherokees still reside within the States of North Carolina and Georgia, 
 according to their present boundaries, as well as within the limits of Ten- 
 nessee and of Alabama. Latterly, Georgia, in the exercise, as she sup- 
 poses, of her sovereign powers, has extended her laws over the whole 
 of the State, and subjected the Indians to her jurisdiction. Meantime 
 the Cherokees have formed a civil government of their own, entirely 
 independent of any State, claiming to have a right to do so in virtue of 
 their original title to the lands on which they reside, and relying, like- 
 wise, upon the guarantee of their country, in several of their treaties 
 formed with the United States. They have called upon the executive to 
 make good this guarantee, by preventing the operation of the laws of 
 either Georgia or Alabama, within those limits secured to them by the 
 said treaties. To this application, the President has replied, that he has • 
 no power to check the operation of the laws of those States, within their 
 respective limits; that the Constitution of the United States forbids the 
 formation of any, new State within the limits of an old one, without its 
 consent; therefore, the Cherokees cannot be recognized as a separate 
 State, within those limits where they now reside ; and that, if they 
 choose to remain there^ tliey shall be protected in doing so, but that they 
 must submit to the laws of the respective States, at the same time they 
 are protected by them, and earnestly recommends to them to consent to 
 exchange the territory where they now reside, for one west of the Missis- 
 sippi, owned by the United States, and not yet included within the 
 bounds of any State or territory, where they can be again united with 
 that portion of their nation which has already emigrated, and where the 
 United States can, and will, make them forever secure from any interrup- ' 
 tion from the whites, or from any other nation or people whatever. 
 
 To this proposition the Indians have given an absolute refusal, still 
 insisting on a fulfillment of their treaty stipulations. 
 
 The laws of Georgia will commence their operation in the month of 
 June next. It is easy to foresee the painful consequences which will pro- 
 bably follow, from laws operating over the same territory, at one and 
 the same time, and flowing from jurisdictions or sovereigns, independent 
 of each other. • ". •\ 
 
 The evil will not stop here ; already wo are advised that Mississippi 
 has i)assed a law, incorporating her Indian population with her citizens; 
 that Alabama has extended her laws over the Creek Indians within her 
 limits ; and, before long, we may anticipate that the like policy will bo 
 pursued by several other States. 
 
156 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 From the information before the committee, no hope need be enter- 
 tained that either of these States will change their policy, and rt^peal 
 those laws ; a period has arrived when the United States have a duty to 
 perform, which must be discharged, in good faith^ to the States con- 
 cerned, to the Indians, and with a sacred regard to their own high 
 character. 
 
 In the view which the committee have of this subject, they believe it 
 would be unnecessary, if not improper, for them to offer any opinion 
 upon the points in dispute between the contending parties, because there 
 can be no reason to suppose any additional enactments by Congress are 
 necessary to put it in the power of the executive to make good the 
 guaranties contained in the treaties, if, in his judgment, they ought to 
 have the construction for which the Cherokees insist, and his duty, 
 according to the constitution, wbuld authorize him to oppose the opera- 
 tion of the State laws. 
 
 In 1802, Congress passed an act to regulate trade and intercourse with 
 the Indians, the provisions of which, connected with the treaties, are 
 sufficiently broad to authorize the executive to give effect to every stipu- 
 lation, which it is the duty of the United States to perform. 
 
 The failure to comply with the wishes of the Cherokees, as it appears 
 to the committee, proceeded not from a defect In the law, but because in 
 the opinion of the executive, constitutional objections exist, which it is 
 not in the power of Congress to remove, by any law which they could 
 enact. 
 
 The difficulties which have actually occurred, were foreseen some years 
 since, and successive Administrations seem to have been anxiously endea- 
 voring to avoid them ; and the only remedy suggested by any, appears 
 to have been, to provide a country west of the Mississippi, beyond the 
 limits of any State or organized territory; to have it laid off and divided 
 into as many districts as would accommodate all the Indians residing 
 within any of the States or territories; to have those districts so 
 described, by natural or artificial marks, that each could be known from 
 every other; and then, by fair and peaceable means, to induce the 
 Indians to exchange the lands where they lire, for some of those thus 
 described, and to emigrate. Suitable country, as is believed, lias been 
 procured, but, owing to some cause or other, the districts have not, as 
 yet, been laid off, and i)roperly described. Exchanges, however, to a con- 
 siderable extent, have been made, and, consequent emigrations from vari- 
 ous tribes have taken place. A portion of the Cherokees, equal, as is 
 believed, to from one third to one lialf of tlie whole, has actually removed 
 to, and settled in, a country well suited to tlieir wants and wishes, west 
 of tlie Mississippi, Tliere is good reason to believe that many more 
 would have removed before this time, except for various causes, which, 
 as yet, the United States have not been able to overcome. Tiic principal 
 
EEPORT ON INDIAN AFFAIRS. 147 
 
 one is, the idea of a separate and indei)endent State of their own, wliero 
 they now live. This is tlie work, prinoijiall}-, of comparatively a few, 
 who are either white men connected with the nations hy marriage, or of 
 those of mixed blood, born in the nation, who are well educated and 
 intelligent, who have acquired considerable property, and, through the 
 annuities paid by the United States, and by other means, are yearly add- 
 ing to it. This class of people, it is believed, do not altogether eipial one 
 hundred in number. A very small portion of full-blooded Indians can be 
 named, who are in the like circumstances, or who have much agency ia 
 their public atfairs. 
 
 Those who are in pylilic employ have an influence almost unbounded 
 over th6 nation. They fill all the offices created by their laws, and have 
 the entire management of the funds derived from every source. The rest 
 of the nation may be divided into two classes. The one, owning some 
 small property, and having settlements of their own, upon whicli they 
 make a sufficiency to support themselves and their families, and but little 
 surplus. Those of the other, comprehending, as is believed', the mass of 
 the population, are as poor and degraded as can well be imagined. They 
 may be said to live without hope of better circumstances; they have 
 almost no property, and seem destitute of the means or prospect of acquir- 
 ing any. There is very little, game in tlieir country. They are without 
 industry, without information, unlettered, and subsisting chiefly upon what 
 they can beg, and upon the birds and fish they can procure. A stranger 
 who travels along a leading road through the nation, or makes but a short 
 stay in it, will form a very erroneous opinion of the condition of the great 
 mass of the population. He has intercourse only with those of the first 
 or second class before mentioned, and forms his opinions of all, from the 
 condition of those with whom he associates. It may then be asked, why 
 do these people refuse to .emigrate? The answer is, those w-ho have 
 influence over theni use every jneans in their power to prevent them. 
 They misrei)resent the country offered, west of the Mississippi. They 
 use persuasion while it answers the purpose, and threats, when per- 
 suasion is likely to fail. The- committee are well satisfied, tliat every 
 humane and benevolent individual, who is anxious for the welfare of the 
 great body of the Cherokees, and is correctly informed of their true con- 
 dition^ must feel desirous for their removal, provided it can be effected 
 with their consent. 
 
 Other strong inducements for this desire, must be found in the condi- 
 tion to which they are now brought, by the collision between them and 
 the laws of the States in which they reside. 
 
 Although the committee, for the reasons before given, consider it 
 unnecessary, if not improper, in them, to offer any opinion upon tlie vali-i 
 dity of the conflicting claims of the parties; yet, it may not be without 
 its use to call the attention of the Senate to some of the leading facts, and 
 
158 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 main points, upon which the controversy has depended, and must here- 
 after depend. 
 
 The title of the Cherokees must rest upon their original right of occu- 
 pancy, and upon the treaties formed with the United States. 
 
 As to the first, " their title by occupancy," the answer would be, when 
 the country was discovered, they were savages ; and that this discovery, 
 of itself, gave a right to form settlements, and to exclude all other civil- 
 ized ijations. That is conferred upon the nation of the discoverer and 
 settler, the right to acquire the usufructuary interest which the natives 
 had. It would be added, that, at a very early period, the Cherokees 
 formed a treaty with Great Britain, by which they gave up their inde- 
 pendence, and put themselves under the protection of his Britannic 
 Majesty. That they took a part with the British Crown in the war of 
 the Revolution. That the American arms were employed against them, 
 and they conquered, when Independence was acknowledged, and the 
 treaty of peace made with Great Britain. That this conquest conferred 
 upon the respective States^ within whose limits they were, all the rights, 
 and gave them all the powers which the Crown had, prior to the Revo- 
 hition. That this right still continued in the States, and never was 
 yielded to the United States. That, in securing these rights, they seve- 
 rally exercised these powers, from the year 1776 up to the year 1785, in 
 such maimer, as, in their sovereign will, they believed to be wise and 
 just, without any control from the United States, 
 
 That, although, in the Articles of Confederation, there is a power given 
 to the United States'to make treaties with Indians residing out of their 
 limits, yet there is, in the ninth article, an -express saving to each Stata^ 
 of all its legislative rights, loithin its chartered limits. 
 
 As to the second point, the political condition of the Indians, as estab- 
 lished by treaties between them and the United States. The first and 
 only treaty with the Cherokees, during the Articles of Confederation, 
 was concluded in November, 1785. 
 
 By that treaty, a boundary is established, which allots to the Indians 
 a great extent of country, within the acknowledged limits of both North 
 .-.Carolina and Georgia, and over which those States had actually legis- 
 lated ; had previously authorized by law the sales of land therein ; a con- 
 siderable quantity had in fact been sold to individuals, and the consider- 
 ation money paid to the State. 
 
 Against this treaty both Georgia and North Carolina entered their 
 solemn protests., it being, as they alleged, in violation of their legislative 
 rights. 
 
 Not very long after this treaty, the Cherokees waged a war against the 
 citizens of those States, which continued until some short time prior to 
 the treaty of llolston, concluded in the year 1791. « »• - 
 
 This was the first treaty made with those Indians under the authority 
 
KEI'OKT ON INDIAN AFFAIKS. 159 
 
 of tlie present Constitution of the United States, and by it a new bonn- 
 dary is agreed upon, by which the limits before allotted to the Indians 
 are reduced to a smaller compass. 
 
 By the seventh article, " the United States solemnly guarantee to the 
 OJierokee nation all their lands not hereby ceded.'''' 
 
 On the seventh day of February, 1792, an additional article to this 
 last-mentioned treaty is agreed upon, by which an addition of five hun- 
 dred dollars is made to the annuity stipulated in the former treaty. 
 
 In June, 1794, another trcatj- is made between the parties, by wJiich 
 the provisions of the treaty of 1791 are revived, an addition made to 
 their annuity, and provision for running and marking the boundary line. 
 
 In October, 1798, an additional treaty is concluded, by which former 
 treaties are revived^ the boundary of Indian lands curtailed by another 
 cession to the United States, for an additional compensation. 
 
 In October, 1804, another treaty is concluded, by which more land is 
 ceded by the Indians, for a consideration agreed upon and specified in 
 the treaty. 
 
 In October, 1805, two treaties are made, by which the Indians cede an 
 additional quantity of land. 
 
 On the seventh day of January, 180G, another treaty is concluded, in 
 which more land is ceded to the United States ; and in September, 1807, 
 an explanation is agreed upon of the boundary line intended in the treaty 
 last mentioned. 
 
 On the twenty-second day of March, 1816, another tr,eaty is;concluded, 
 by which the Indians rehnquish their title to lands in South Carolina, 
 for which the United States engage South Carolina will make payment; 
 and on the same day another treaty is made, in which the Indians relin- 
 quish to the United States their claim to more lands, and agree to allow 
 the use of the water courses in their pemaining country, and also to per- 
 mit roads to be made through the same. 
 
 On the fourteenth of September, 1816, another treaty is made, by' 
 which an additional quantity of land is ceded to the United States. 
 
 On the eighth day of July, 1817, another treaty is concluded, by 
 which an exchange of lands is agreed on, and a plan for dividing the 
 Cherokees settled : one part to remain east of the Mississippi ; another 
 to emigrate west of the Mississippi, to a country designated in the 
 treaty; and those who might happen to fall within the territory ceded, 
 to have an election to lecome citizens of the United States, and each head 
 of an Indian family to have a reservation of six hundred and forty acres 
 of land, to include his improvements. 
 
 And on the twenty-seventy of February, 1819, another treaty is con- 
 cluded, intended to be in execution of the stipulations contained in that 
 of 1817, in several jiarticulars, and in which an additional tract of coun- 
 try is ceded to the United States. 
 
IGO MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON" WHITE. 
 
 These, as the ooramittee believe, are all the' treaties between the 
 United States and the Cherokee nation on the east side of the Missis- 
 sippi, and within the limits of any of the United States. 
 
 In several of them there are stipulations for roads, the navigation of 
 rivers, and the establishment of ferries, within the hounds reserved iy the 
 CheroTcees to themselves, and guaranteed to them by the United States. 
 
 In virtue of these treaties, the Cherokees contend they have a valid 
 and complete title to the lands of which they are in possession ; and 
 that they have a right to establish such government, as, in their own 
 opinion, is best suited to their condition ; and that such government is 
 independent of any of the States within the limits of which any portions 
 of their territoi'y may happen to be ; and that the United States stand 
 solemnly pledged to 'protect them in the peaceaNe enjoyment of it, against 
 all the world. 
 
 On the other side, the States may admit, that, if the political condition 
 of the Cherokees was to be considered, as it related to the rights and 
 powers of the United States only, then it is true they are, and ought to 
 be, a community sovereign, in all respects — those only excepted in which 
 they had by the treaties expressly surrendered their independence ; and 
 still contend that Georgia was a sovereign and independent State, from 
 the fourth day of July, 177G, a period anterior to the Union of the States, 
 under either the Articles of Confederation, or of the present Constitu- 
 tion. That, as a sovereign State, she had a right to govern every human 
 being within her limits, according to her own will, and to dispose of all 
 the vacant lands, when, to whom, and j'or what consideration, ' she 
 pleased. That she is still in the possession of all those rights and 
 powers, excepting only such as she has expressly surrendered. That she 
 never has surrendered to the United States, either by a treaty, or by any 
 other means, the power to dispose of her vacant territory, or to author- 
 ize the establishment of a government within her limits, without her 
 consent. So far from it, that the ninth article of the Confederation for- 
 bids any violation of her legislative rights, and expressly provides tliat 
 no State shall be deprived of territory for tlie benefit of the United 
 States ; and tliat the third se'ction of the fourth article of the Constitu- 
 tion expressly says : Ho neio State shall be formed within the limits of 
 one or more of the old, without their consent. And the tenth amend- 
 ment of the Constitution declares, that even "private property shall not 
 be taken for public use, without making just compensation." That, if 
 private property cannot be taken without compensation, the conclusion is 
 very strong, that it was not intended to give a power to take the 
 property which belonged to a sovereign State, under any circumstances 
 whatever. That she never did give her consent to this disposition of 
 either her jurisdiction or of her territory; so far from it, she entered her 
 solemn proteH against the first treaty formed in the year 1785, as vidla- 
 
EEPOKT OK INDIAN AFFAIRS. 101 
 
 tive of her riglits, and that no inference can be drawn, to her disadvan- 
 tage, from her silence, or from anything slic may have said in rehitiou 
 to any subsequent treaty; because in eacli of th^-m a change was made, 
 by which a portion of her territory and jurisdiction was restored to her, 
 and thus her condition rendered better than it was under the treaty of 
 1785, against which slie had protested. 
 
 She may further insist, that the second section of the second article ot 
 the Constitution, which gives to the President, with the advice and con- 
 sent of two-tliirds of the Senate, power to make treaties, has no apphca- 
 tiou to Indians witliin the chartered limits of any of the States ; nor the 
 eighth section of the first article, which gives Congress power to regulate 
 commerce with the Indian tribes. That if Indians can be treated with, 
 it must be those only who reside out of this limits of the States, and 
 those with Avhom commerce may be regulated must bo similarly situ- 
 ated ; otherwise, that part of the second section of the first article, which 
 forbids the enumeration of Indians residing within the States, and "not 
 taxed," wiU be without any appropriate meaning. That -although the 
 United States may have contracted olligations with the Cherokee nation, 
 yet they had 2)Tei'ioiisIi/ contracted those equally as solemn with each of 
 the States. That in the fourth section of the fourth article of the Con- 
 stitution, the following pledge is given : " The United States shall 
 solemnly guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of 
 Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and, on 
 application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature 
 cannot be convened), against domestic violence.'''' 
 
 She may ask, how can Georgia have a " republican form of govern- 
 ment," co-extensive with her limits, unless a majority of her citizens are 
 permitted to prescribe rules, to which all must conform ? IIoav will the 
 United States have made good the "guarantee against domestic violence" 
 if they permit a portion of the population within Tier limits to establish 
 a government, contrary to her will, with authority to prescribe rules 
 inconsistent with those prescribed by herself? She may add, that it was 
 in the confidence that this " solemn guarantee " would be sacredly kept, 
 that she consented to give up any portion of her sovereignty, and become 
 a member of the Union. 
 
 In addition, she may urge, that in 1802, upwards of twenty-seven 
 years ago, she made a contract with the United States, by wliich they 
 became bound to purchase any elahn which the Cherokee nation, or any 
 other, might set up to lauds within her limits, as soon as such purchase 
 could be made upon reasonable terms. That, for this stipulation, she 
 {•aid at the time a valuable consideration, in lands which slic conveyed. 
 That, after waiting thus long, and seeing for several years past, the pros- 
 pect of a compliance ouytho part of the United States decreasing, she Iiad 
 determined to exert her own sovereign powers, over her whole territ"rv, 
 
 11 
 
162 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 in such mannei- as she helieves wilj be just to her whole population. 
 That the object of this agreement was to obtain a benefit for herself, 
 within her reserved limits, and that, if she should fail to receive the 
 benefit she expected, she will take care ml to suffer her condition to be 
 made worse. 
 
 That she is yet sovereign, within her own limits, to every extent she 
 was when she became a member of the Union, except so far as she 
 expressly surrendered her sovereignty by the terms of the Constitution. 
 That, although she is determined to use her power within her limits, yet 
 she owes it to her own character so to exert it as most to promote the 
 happiness of every rational being who may remain subject to her control, 
 no matter what may be his color, or in what language he may make 
 known his wants. 
 
 Alabama and Mississippi may say they were a part of the State of 
 Georgia, up to the time of the compact and cession, in 1802, and that 
 they have been erected upon parts of the territory then ceded to the 
 United States ; and that, with the exception of the difference, produced 
 by not owning the soil within their limits, they are entitled to the 
 benefit of every argument which Georgia could urge in this controversy. 
 
 Should these arguments, or any others, in favor of the States, have the 
 effect of proving that the United States have not the power to comply 
 with the stipulations contained in their treaties with the Cherokees, on 
 account of prior and siqjerior obligations which they had contx*acted, it 
 could not, in the opinion of the committee, take anything from that cha- 
 racter for integrity and good faith, to which they are so justly entitled. 
 None could suspect that i;he obligation was contracted with a design to 
 mislead or to deceive; and while the United States are both able and 
 willing to make a full and adequate compensation for all that may be lost 
 for want of a sjjecific performance of their agreement, their faith is pre- 
 served as inviolate as it would be if all their stipulations were specifically 
 complied with. Should the Indians continue determined to reside where 
 they now are, and become subject to the laws of the respective States in 
 whieli they reside, no difiiculty can occur, as your committee see no 
 reason to apprehend that either of the States have it in contemplation to 
 force them to abandon the country in which they dwell; but, if they 
 determine to remain, and continue to insist on a separate and indepen- 
 dent government, and refuse obedience to the laws of the States, the 
 consequences which must inevitably ensue, are such as the humane and 
 benevolent cannot reflect ui)on without feelings of the deepest sorrow 
 and distref:s. 
 
 If, on the contrary, they should consent to exchange their present 
 places of residence for a country west of the Mississippi, it is in the 
 power of the United States to furnish one suited, as the committee 
 believe, to their wants and condition, where they can be secured against 
 
BEPORT ON INDL\N AFFAIRS. 103 
 
 the intrusion of any other pe(,)i)le ; where, under the protection of the 
 United States, and with their aid, tliey can pursue tlieir plan of civiliza- 
 tion, and, ere long, be in the peaceable enjoyment of a civil government 
 of their own choice, and whore Christian and philanthropist can have 
 ample scope for their labors of love and benevoleace. 
 
 Your committee are of opinion, that ample means sliould be placed, by 
 Congress, in the power of the President of the United States, to autliorizo 
 and enable him to have the country west of the Mississippi, out of the 
 limits of all the States, laid off into as many districts as may be deemed 
 necessary for the residence of the Indians, now within the I'espective 
 States, with which the United States have treaties; to have those 
 districts accurately described; and also, to make exchanges and pur- 
 chases with such tribes, or parts of therti^ as may choose to remove ; to 
 give aid in the removal, and to contribute, for a season, to their support, 
 at their new places of residence. For which purposes, the committee ask 
 leave to report a bill. 
 
 A BILL 
 
 To provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of 
 the States or Territories, and for their removal west of the river Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 Be it enacted ly the Senate and House of Eeinesentatives of the United 
 States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful 
 for the President of the United States, to cause to nmch of any territory 
 belonging to the United States, west of the river Mississippi, not included 
 in any State, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished, as he 
 may jadge necessary, to be divided into a suitable nnmber of districts fu^ 
 the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to 
 exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there, and to 
 cause each of said districts to be so described by natural or artificial 
 marks, as to be easily distinguished from every other. 
 
 Sec. 2. A7id he it farther enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for 
 the Presrtlent to exchange any or all of such districts, so to be laid off 
 and described, with any tribe or nation of Indians now residing within 
 the limits of any of the States or territories, and witli which llie United 
 States have existing treaties, for the whole, or any part or portion of the 
 territory claimed and occupied by such tribe or nation, within the 
 bounds of any" one, or more, of the States or territories. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, Tliat, in the making of any such 
 exchange, or exchanges, it shall and may be lawful for the President 
 solemnly to assure the tribe or nation with which the excliange is made, 
 that the United States will forever secure and guarantee to them, and 
 their heirs or successors, tLe country so exchanged with them, and that, 
 
164 SrEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 if they prefer it, the United States will cause a patent or grant to be 
 made and executed to tliem for the same : Provided alicays^ That such 
 lands shall revert to the United States, if the Indians become extinct, or 
 abandon the same. '^ 
 
 Seo. 4. And le it further enacted^ That if, upon any of the lands noTv 
 occupied by the Indians, and to be exchanged for, there should be such 
 improvements as add value to the land claimed by any individual or indi- 
 viduals of such tribes or nations, it shall and may be lawful for the Pre- 
 sident to cause such value to be ascertained, by appraisement or otherwise, 
 and to cause such ascertained value to be paid to the person or persons 
 claiming such improvements. 
 
 Sec. 5. Ami he it further enacted, That, upon the making of any sucli 
 exchange as is contemplated by this acti it shall and may be lawful for 
 the President to cause such aid and assistance to be furnished to the emi- 
 grants, as may be necessary and proper to enable them to remove to, and 
 settle in, the country for which they may have exchanged ; and also, to 
 give them such aid and assistance as may be necessary for their support 
 and subsistence for tlie first year after their removal. 
 
 Sec. 6. And le it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for 
 the President to cause such tribe or nation to be protected, at their new 
 residence, .against all interruption or disturbance from any other tribe or 
 nation of Indians, or from any other person or persons whatever. 
 
 Seo. 7. And le it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for 
 the President to have the same superintendence and care over any tribe 
 or nation in the country to which they may remove, as contemplated by 
 this act, that he is now authorized to have over them at their present 
 places of residence. 
 
 Sec. 8. And he it further enacted, Thiit for the purpose of giving 
 effect to the provisions of this act, the sum of dollars is hereby 
 
 ' appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury, not otherwise 
 appropriated. 
 
 Still continuing to take his accustomed interest in the concerns of 
 the Indians, Judge White, in relation to the so-called " Cherokee 
 Memorial," presented by Mr. Clay, spoke as follows, Feb. 4th, 1835 ; 
 
 In presenting the memorial and resolutions, the ITon. Senator has 
 gone into a discussion of the powers of the States, and the manner in 
 which those powers have been exerted over the Indians. 
 
 I do not believe any benefit is likely to result to the people of the 
 United States, or to the Indians, from such discussions ; but as the sub- 
 ject has been introduced, it is due to the States, that, at least, some of 
 the grounds upon which they have acted, should be brought to the notice 
 of the Senate. 
 
SPEECH ON CHEROKEE MEMORIAL. 165 
 
 "What was the condition of the Indians, within (lie limits of the States 
 at the close of the revohitionary war ? 
 
 The people of the United States declared their independence, and the 
 revolutionary war in maintenance of that declaration, terminated in a 
 treaty of peace in 1783. The limits and bounds of the States arc described 
 in that treaty. Each of the States, within its territorial limits, believed it 
 was free, sovereign, and independent, and that a majority had a right to 
 prescribe whatever rules they pleased for the government of every persdn, 
 of evei'y age, sex, and color, within their acknowledged boundaries. 
 
 Each of these States believe they still possess all these powers, except 
 so far us they have expressJij granted to the Federal Government, fur the 
 good of the whole. 
 
 The articles of confederation gave to the Federal government power to 
 regulate trade and intercourse with the Indians, but contain an express 
 proviso that Congress shall not interfere with the territorial rights of the 
 States. 
 
 The first treaty with the Cherokees was made in 1785, and although 
 the articles referred to were then in force, the lands allotted to the 
 Indians included a large portion of the territory of North Carolina. 
 
 That State was not inattentive to her rights. She had an agent present 
 when the treaty was negotiated, and he there entered the solemn protest 
 of his State, more than once, against this exercise of federal pow^r. 
 These protests are still on record, and can yet be produced at any time 
 the Senate may desii'e. 
 
 The next treaty with the Cherokees was after the present constitution 
 was adopted. 
 
 In the mean time. North Carolina had been urged to cede her western 
 lands to the United States, and one motive for this was, that the United 
 States would be the better enabled to regulate her affairs with the 
 Cherokees, it being then believed, they all, or nearly all, lived on 
 these lands. 
 
 In 1789, North Carolina, yielding to these solicitations, made the cession. 
 
 The vacant lands, after satisfying all existing claims against North 
 Carolina, were the property of the United States, who also had the sole 
 power of legislation. The United States thus oicning the vacant soil, and 
 having the entire sovereignty and jurisdiction, and still believing the 
 Cherokees resident upon this territory, made the treaty of Ilolston in 1791. 
 
 After arguing upon the boundary between the Whites and the Indians, 
 there is one express guarantee to the Indians of their lands. This, if my 
 memory serves me, is the first guarantee to these Indians. This guaran- 
 tee was inserted not by the mere motion of our Commissioner, but by the 
 express instructions of President Washington. The reason of this is 
 obvious to me. Cicneral Washington believed, at that day, the country 
 guaranteed to the Indians was a tract over which the United States alono 
 had the sovereignty and jurisdiction, and that thoy were the owners of 
 the soil; that neither the sovereign nor territorial rights of any State 
 
16G MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 were invaded by such a stipulation, and that it would be the means of 
 preventing future encroachments upon the Indians. 
 
 We now know by our own executive journal, kept secret until a few 
 years past, that when the first agreements with the Indians were made, 
 after the adoption of the constitution, the President himself doubted 
 whether they ought to go through the forms prescribed for treaties ; he 
 sent a message to the Senate ; it doubted, but eventually seemed to have 
 acted upon the opinion, that the formal sanction of two-thirds of the 
 Senators present, required to ratify treaties, would be a safe rule, as to 
 these compacts or agreements, which course has been pursued ever since. 
 
 A further illustration of General Washington's views as to the rights 
 of States, may he given by his conduct in relation to lands within the 
 limits of New York, which were attempted to be secured to Indians by 
 treaty. He condemned this course on the part of the agent, and made it 
 the subject of a special letter on record. 
 
 The tract of country, ceded by North Carolina to the United States, in 
 1789, and which was a -territory in 1791, when the Holston treaty was 
 made, continued to be a territory till February, 1796, when the residents 
 framed the constitution, and afterwards were admitted into the Union. 
 
 In the treaties with Cherokees, subsequent to that period (and there 
 ■were many of them, as has been correctly said by the honorable senator 
 from Kentucky) the United States seemed te have lost sight of the dis- 
 tinction between their powers over a country, of which they had both 
 ! the right of soil and jurisdiction, and one where the States had the right 
 of soil and jurisdiction, and to have continued the guarantee as inserted 
 in the treaty of 1791. 
 
 The States, however, do not acquiesce in this exercise of federal 
 power. The same opinion entertained by North Carolina, in 1785, is 
 adhered to now. They maintain that they are sovereign and independent 
 communities, within the whole of their chartered limits, upon all points, 
 where they have not transferred their powers to the federal government. 
 
 They maintain that these agreements with a portion of their own 
 population are not treaties, within the meaning of the Constitution ; and 
 they deny that they have ever vested in the federal government the power 
 by treaty, or otherwise, with any portion of the people within their limits, 
 no matter whether French, German, or Indians, to take from the State 
 one .acre of its territory, and transfer it to any other people whatever. 
 
 They maintain that each State has the right, independently of the 
 federal and all other governments, to enact such laws for the government 
 of their whole population, as, in the wisdom of their own legislatures, 
 may seem best suited to the interest of all ; and that in the exercise of 
 this power, none, out of their limits, has thfe right to interfere. 
 
 If the States are right in the operation of these powers, it must clearly 
 follow that they alone have the power to judge whether their laws are 
 adapted to the condition and wants of the people. 
 
 Whether the States are correct in the assertion and maintenance of 
 
SPEECH ON CHEROKEE MEMORIAL. 167 
 
 these rights and powers or not, they think they are, and many others 
 think ^vith them. They have acted upon them, and ^vill continue to do 
 80 as I firmly believe. Georgia has extended her laws over the whole 
 limits. Tennessee has, to «ome purposes, done the same thing, and So 
 have North Carolina and Alabama. , ,, „ 
 
 How then, are these States to be induced to rescind or repeal those 
 Hws? 'suppose the United States apply to them for the repeal; they 
 will answer, their laws are approved by their people, they had the power 
 to enact them, and they will not repeal them. What then ? Are the 
 United States to apply force to compel the repeal? If they do, and such 
 force is met by an opposing force from the States, we then have pre- 
 sented to our view the most horrid of all , spectacles. Armed strife 
 between brothers, and in the midst of it, what becomes of the Ked men 
 for whose rights this war is waged? They are swept from this state of 
 existence. When the war terminates, there will be no Indians to be pro- 
 tected by the United States, or by those States individually. _ 
 
 The time has arrived when we must all speak out plainly as we think 
 These people, if they remain where they are, must submit to the laws of 
 the respective States. They cannot exist in the States as a separate and 
 distinct community, governed by their own customs and laws. Some o 
 them are civilized and enlightened; they will make useful and respect- 
 able members of the community. They may still remain where they are 
 if they choose. But this is not the condition of the mass of the Indian 
 population. They are poor, ignorant, and uninformed. ^ 
 
 Kesidin- where they now do, certain misery and ruin await them. 
 If they will remove beyond the Mississippi, out of our States and organ- 
 ised territories, they m;i!y be preserved. Then they may progress in that 
 civilization which has commenced; they can, as freemen, have a govern- 
 ment of their own choice; their interests can be promoted, and their 
 ri-hts protected, by the United States, without collision with any State. 
 Who now doubts that it is their interest to do so ? Few men can doubt it, 
 ,\-ho will take pains to acquire correct information, and then duly consider 
 the subject. I believe the time has nearly arrived, and will certainly 
 Boon have arrived, when there will be but one opinion upon this subject 
 
 throughout the country. ..... . 
 
 The policy of inducing our Indians to remove west of the Mississippi, 
 did not originate with this administration. As early, at all events, as 
 180-1. it was the policy of Mr. Jefferson. It has been the policy of every 
 succeeding administration; and during the last administration, it had, 
 ia the then Secretary of War, one of its ablest advocates. The great dis- 
 tinction between this and prior administrations consists in the present 
 having succeeded to a much greater extent in carrying into effect, what 
 all from the time of Mr. .Jefferson, desired to accomplish. 
 
 The honorable Senator from Kentucky thinks, as the State of Georgia 
 has shut her courts against those people, we ought to open those of the 
 United States to them. And if we can, let mo ask, Mr. President, of 
 
168 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 •what practical benefit ■will such a provision be ? Useless. Encourage 
 a poor Indian, living surrounded by Whites, unfriendly to him, to com- 
 mence suit in the federal circuit court, and then follow it here to the 
 Supreme court, to assert his title to IGO or to 640 acres of land, and by 
 the time the cause is decided, he and his family will starve to death. 
 
 Instead of this, let us encourage them by all the means in our power, 
 to remove. Every day they remain, the means of the United States to 
 furnish them comfortable homes west of the Mississippi, are lessening. 
 Other tribes are going and getting their choice of the country. Let 
 these be encouraged to remove speedily ; provide funds for their removal, 
 for their comfortable support for a season. Furnish them a permanent 
 home ; guarantee it by all the solemnities which can be deemed neces- 
 sary, and then faithfully observe this guarantee. Upon these points, if 
 additional legislation is found to be proper, I am willing to go to any 
 extent which may be deemed necessary, and which is not inconsistent 
 with what is due to the interests of the great body of our community. 
 
 In a letter to J. A. ^Yhiteside, Esq., dated Sept. 17, 1835, Judge 
 White furnishes a valuable statement of his views on the Indian ques- 
 tion. In a portion of that letter he says : 
 
 I most heartily approve the policy of the present Administration in 
 removing the Indians settled within the States and territories, to the 
 western side of the Mississippi ; and then settling them beyond the limits 
 of any State or organized territory, and have given such aid as was in 
 my power to effect that object. 
 
 During the session of 1829-30, the plan was submitted to Congress, 
 and after a most laborious examination and discussion, was sanctioned 
 by that body. In that examination and discussion, it was my lot to take 
 no inconsiderable part, and at that day, thoseiwith whom I was associ- 
 ated were pleased to think my exertions were of no inconsiderable value. 
 Public opinion was much divided ; it has now settled down in an appro- 
 val of the plan then adopted. Many treaties have been formed with the 
 yarious tribes of Indians, and numbers of them have been actually 
 removed. Those residing east of the Mississippi, to wit : the Chickasaws, 
 Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminole Indians, were the hardest 
 to convince that their interest would be promoted by a removal. All of 
 these, except the Cherokees, have at length become convinced, ceded their 
 country, and have cither actually removed, or agreed to do so. The 
 Cherokees yet remain, and parts of their country are in Tennessee, N. 
 Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. To each of these States, it is a matter 
 of peculiar interest that their claim should be extinguished, and they 
 removed. In repeated instances, the United States have made treaties 
 with the Cherokees from the year 1785 up to the year 1819, and solemnly 
 bound themselves to guarantee to them the country where they now 
 reside. As early as the year 1S02, the United States made a compact 
 with the State of Georgia, in which they bound themselves for a valuable 
 
LETTER ON INDIAN AFFAIRS. 169 
 
 consideration to extinoiuish the Indian tribe within her limits, 80 soon as 
 it could be done on reasonable terms. On the one hand, Georgia has 
 been pressing for a compliance with this stipulation ; on the other, the 
 Cherokees have been urging a compliance with the guarantee contained 
 in the treaties. These inconsistent obligations have occasioned much em- 
 barrassment. I have mentioned the doctrine, that if no other govern- 
 ment were concerned but the United States, they were bound to make 
 good their treaty stipulations, by securing to the Indians the enjoyment 
 of the country guarantied ; but that Georgia was completely sovereign and 
 independent within her own acknowledged limits, except so far as she had 
 t'.yj>-c'5i7y surrendered her sovereignty to the United States ; that she never 
 had granted the power to the Federal government, by treaty or other- 
 wise, to dispose of any portion of her territory ; and therefore these guaran- 
 tees to the Indians could not be complied with specifically, but must be 
 compensated by paying to the Indians tlic full value of their country 
 whenever the state chose to assert her rights within her own limits. 
 
 This subject I had occasion to discuss at length, in the early part of the 
 year 1S30, and have maintained this doctrine, at all times, and in all 
 places, when it was spoken of in my presence, from that day to this. 
 
 On all occasions I have used every /ajV;neans in my power to produce 
 a disposition on the part of the Indians, to sell out their claim to the 
 United States, and remove, and he who asserts to the contrary does him- 
 self great injustice, because he asserts that which is untrue. 
 
 By those who have latterly been disposed to find fault, it has been 
 alleged, that winter before last, the United States negotiated a treaty 
 with the Cherokees, which, if ratified by the Senate, would have put this 
 questio-n at rest, and that I was opposed to its ratification. 
 
 It is true, at the time mentioned, Andrew Ross, James Starr, and some 
 others, came on to Washington, and there made what was called a treaty ; 
 and it is also true, that instrument was submitted to the Senate for rati- 
 fication, and that the whole committee, of which I was one member, 
 reported against its ratification, on the ground that it was not a treaty. 
 
 A treaty is a contract or agreement between two or more nations or 
 countries. To give it any validity, it must have the assent of both 
 parties. This instrument, if ratified, was intended to bind the United 
 States on one part, and the Cherokee Indians on the other. 
 
 Andrew Ross and his party were not chiefs of the nation ; they did not 
 pretend to represent the nation ; they were not authorized by the nation 
 to make the treaty, nor did iherj prcfend they had an;/ such authorit;/ : 
 and there was a protest signed, or pretended to be signed, by almost the 
 whole nation, against aiiy attempt of theirs to make a treat y. 
 
 Under tiiese circumstances, I could find no principle or precedent 
 which would justify me in calling that a treaty, which not only had not 
 *he assent of the Indians, but was made against their express wishes ; 
 therefore I held myself bound not to recommend its ratification. I 
 sought information from the Secretary of War and others, and could find 
 no one man who could furnish me with cither principle or precedent fur 
 a course different from that which I pursued. It will bo. recollected, 
 that during a prior administration, by some inadvertence, a treaty had 
 
170 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAAVSON WHITE. 
 
 been made and ratified with the Creek Indians, ■which, upon examina- 
 tion, was found to be witjiout authority from the Indians, and what 
 were the consequences? A civil war; the principal Indian negotiators 
 put to death, and the treaty annulled by the President and Senate. 
 
 With a full knowledge of all this, I could not recommend the ratifica- 
 tion of this instrument as a ireafif, when, in my best judgment, it wanted 
 the essential requisites to make it binding upon the parties. 
 
 It has also been objected to me, that during the same winter, I intro- 
 duced and urged the Senate to adopt a resolution, requesting the Presi- 
 dent to negotiate with the State of Georgia, for o. portion of her territory 
 for the Chcrolcees. It is true, such a resolution was recommended by the 
 unanimous consent of the Committee on Indian Alfairs, of which I was 
 chairman, and the Senate did not adopt it. I was induced to give my 
 support to that resolution for the following reasons: — Georgia had 
 extended her laws over the Indians. She had parcelled out among her 
 citizens the Indian territory, reserving to the Indians the tracts of land 
 upon which they actually yrsided. Pioss and the other chiefs petitioned 
 Congress to make good the guaranties contained in the treaties. Georgia 
 was pressing to have the Indian title extinguished according to the com- 
 pact, and one of the senators had introduced a bill, the first section of 
 which provided that the United States should purchase out from the 
 Indians those settlements which had been reserved by the Georgian laws, 
 if they were willing to sell ; and the second section provided, if the 
 Indians would not sell, that then the United States should purchase out 
 from the individual citizens their ^ws simplex in those reservations, and 
 vest the same in the Indian occupants. 
 
 These various matters were all before the committee at the same time, 
 and in addition to this, Ross and his party communicated to the commit- 
 tee a wish, if nothing more could be done, that the Federal Government 
 should endeavour to procure from Georgia a small portion of her territory, 
 upon which the Indians might reside a few years, until they could be 
 better qualified for the civil government of the State of Georgia, and 
 alleged that some influential men in Georgia had assured them that the 
 State would be willing to make such an arrangement, and if she would 
 not when applied to by the Federal Government, that then the Indians 
 would sell out their whole country and remove. 
 
 In this state of things, and under these circumstances, I gave my sanc- 
 tion to the resolutions, without much expectation that Georgia would 
 yield to the wishes of the Indians ; but with a settled conviction that if 
 Georgia refused, that then the Indians coidd have no pretext for longer 
 delaying a treaty ; and I yet believe, if the Senate had adopted the reso- 
 lution, and Georgia had refused, that before this time we should have 
 had a treaty with the Cherokees. In this I may be mistaken, therefore 
 find no fault with that part of the Senate who thought differently. 
 
 During the last session of Congress, there were two parties of Chero- 
 kees in Washington, the one headed by John Ross, and suppobod to 
 represent the whole of the Cherokees, the other by Ridge, and said to 
 represent a small portion only. Memorials from both these parties had 
 been presented to the Senate, the first, praying Congress to make good 
 
LETTER ON INDIAN AFFAIRS. ]71 
 
 their treaty stipulations, and the last, praying provision to be made for 
 their removal west of the Mississippi. These memorials were referred to 
 the committee, of wliich I was chairman. Near the close of the session, 
 I was informed by the Secretary of War that the executive had been 
 negotiating with Ross and his party for the extinguishment of their title 
 to the whole country now occupied by them, and tliat they had disagreed 
 as to the price to be given, and that Ross had proposed to accept any 
 Bum which the Senate would say was reasonable, and therefore it was 
 wished the Senate should give its advice as to the price. 
 
 Tlie difficulty at once presented itself, what mode could be adopted to 
 bring the subject before the Senate, so as to enable that body to express 
 its opinion. I took the liberty of suggesting that the President ought to 
 send a confidential message, asking the advice of the Senate, and then, 
 •without doubt, it would be given, as this had been the course pursued by 
 President Washington and the Senate, prior to the treaty of 1701, with 
 this same nation of Indians. The Secretary afterwards informed me he 
 had conferred with the President, who declined sending any message 
 asking advice from the Senate, and thus it appeared the negotiation must 
 fall through, as at that time no other regular mode of bringing the subject 
 before that body occurred to me, or was suggested by any other person. 
 Much solicitude was felt by several members with whom I conversed, as 
 •well as by myself, that the opportunity of settling amicably a controversy 
 which had occasioned much trouble often, and serious apprehensions, 
 should be lost, and in reflecting upon the subject, a mode of bringing 
 the matter before the Senate presented itself to my mind, which was 
 satisfactory. I stated it to the committee ; they concurred in it ; wo 
 brought the case before the Senate, and it aided in the adoption of a reso- 
 lution which you have seen published. 
 
 Any statement or suggestion which has been made, that either pub- 
 licly or privately I have said or done anything since being a member of 
 the Senate, with a view, in any respect, to delay or defeat a treaty with 
 the Cherokees, is entirely erroneous ; my best exertions have, at all 
 times, been used to effect that object, and when the resolution, just 
 alluded to, was adopted, I felt that my task was finished, and that a 
 treaty would be the immediate consequence. If it fails, the fault ought 
 not to be placed to my account. 
 
 In 1S26, soon after his entrance into political life, Judge White, in 
 common with the whole party of which Gen. Jackson became the 
 head, and in conformity to the declarations of that loader, was an 
 avowed enemy to the existing system of executive patronage, and the 
 class of measures naturally resulting from it. In 1833, upon the 
 receipt of Mr. Calhoun's report (from the select committee appointed 
 
i72 MEMOm OF HUpH -LAWSON 'WinXE. 
 
 at liis instance) to inquire into the extent and operation of tlie con- 
 stantly increasing j^atronage of the executive of the United States, 
 Judge White spoke in support of this bill, although by so doing he 
 incurred much displeasure from his friends of the party in power. 
 He avowed the same principles that he had avowed before, in 1826, 
 and afterwards in 1830. He was consistent in action and in speech; 
 but his friends of the Democratic host, who were now usino^ for their 
 own purposes the machinery whose use had afforded them so fine a 
 subject for invective when in the hands of their opponents, could not 
 patiently listen to a speech which, while it was strictly and e^ntirely 
 a repeated statement and a support of Judge "White's own views, 
 was indirectly though clearly a thorough exhibition of their own 
 inconsistency. Judge White's remarks on this subject are of lasting 
 interest ; and that not the least at the present day. We subjoin the 
 essential portions of this forcible and valuable speech. February 16th, 
 1835, Mr. White said : 
 
 Mr. President : It was my fortune to he placed on the committee of 
 nine, in the year 1826, whose proceedings have been spoken of in this 
 debate. I am one of the committee who concurred in reporting the bill 
 said to be similar to the one under consideration. I am now as ready 
 to carry out the opinions then entertained as I was at that time, unless 
 it can be shown that Congress has no jiower to make the enactments, or 
 that they would be injurious to society. 
 
 The number of officers employed in handling public money was neces- 
 sarily very much increased during the war -which terminated in 1814-15. 
 Although the President had the power to remove all the officers men- 
 tioned in this bill, yet it was believed, in the year 1820, it had not been 
 exercised as frequently as the public interest required ; officers who had 
 collected money which they ought to have paid into the treasury, and 
 officers who drew money out of the treasury, which it was their duty 
 to disburse according to the requirement of acts of Congress, had in 
 many instances failed in the pei-formance of their duty ; losses had been 
 sustained, and more were feared, unless additional provisions were 
 made ; these circumstances gave rise to the act of 1820. 
 
 By this statute, at the end of every four years each of these officers is to 
 be out of office as a matter of course, without the exercise of any execu- 
 tive power whatever ; and during four years, the President, if he 
 chooses to do so, has the power of removing all or any of them from 
 office. In carrying into eflect the provisions of this act, it was expected 
 tliat when the t^rni of an officer expired, the President would inform 
 himself through the pro])er department, wliether the ofl5cer had dis- 
 charged his duty witli fidelity ; and if he was informed he had, that he 
 
OFFICE AND PATKONAGE. 173 
 
 •wonkl then renominate him for the same office for another terra. I 
 believe that tlio benefits expected from tliis kw have been reaUzed by 
 tlie practice under it. Ever since I liavo had the honor of a seat on this 
 floor, I affirm that, both under the past and the present Adftiinistratioo, 
 I have witnessed the strictest scrutiny into the conduct of these officers, 
 whenever renominated ; and I do not remember a single case in which 
 thei'e was a disposition manifested to continue any one of them who had 
 been faithless in his trust. But in 1826, the committee believed, that 
 although much good had resulted from this law, yet, in the struggles for 
 place and for power between parties, very great evils which had not 
 been foreseen, would in all probability be experienced. The whole of 
 these officers, amounting to a vast number, all going out at the end of 
 each four years, and being entirely dependent upon the will of the'Pi;esi- 
 dent, for the renewal of their commissions, many of them would bo 
 induced to look more to their own situation and interest than to the 
 welfare of the country ; and, with a view to secure themselves, they 
 would be most likely to (Conform their opinions to the wishes of the 
 President, whoever he might happen to be. If he was a candidate for 
 re-election himself, they would most likely vote for Iiim ; -or if one of his 
 friends was a candidate, they would vote for him, although they might 
 not conscientiously believe the best interests of the country would bo 
 promoted by the interests of his opponent. It is no answer to this 
 argument to say it casts reproach upon these officers to suppose they 
 would surrender their opinions to those in power. Mr. President, is it 
 a reproach to say they are men? Is it a stigma upon their character to 
 say that while they live in this world, that while they have families to 
 provide for, they must have tlie means of living? We all know tliat we 
 are too apt to conclude that our neighbors will be pretty well provided 
 for when we are very well provided for ourselves. Experience con- 
 vinces us that when a man who is dependent on his own exertions for a 
 living, obtains one of these offices, he and his family manage well if they 
 keep their expenditures witliin their salary. They become dependent 
 upon the quarter's salary for food and clothing. If deprived of the office, 
 the man kno^vs not' what to turn his hand to,, to earn a dcjllar to subsist 
 upon. To be deprived of tlie office is to be deprived of the only means 
 of obtaining a livelihood by honest means. Under such circumstances, it 
 is most hkely the officer will not give his judgment fair play; he will 
 conform his opinions to the opinion of the man who has his all in his 
 power; or if he has manliness enough to form an impartial opinion of" 
 the merits of the respective candidates, he will too seldom have tho 
 fortitude to express it, either in conversation or by his vote. The pro- 
 babiUty is that lie will soon lose all that manly independence so essential 
 to the preservation of a free government. 
 
 But, Mr. President, this evil docs not stop with the liead of the 
 
174 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON" WHITE. 
 
 family; the same tone of servile feeling is communicated to his whole 
 family. It stops not with his wife and his children ; it is communicated 
 to his family connections. They know the situation of the oflficer; he 
 and they talk it over in their family circle ; they sympathize with him 
 and all know the feelings of the executive will be the more kind towards 
 him in proportion to his influence among his friends ; and the result will 
 be that in most cases they will all settle down in the conviction that it is' 
 most wise to think and vote as the President wishes. Very little 
 reflection, I think, must satisfy us of the alarming extent of this influence 
 in our elections. All district attorneys, all custom-house officers, all 
 paymasters, all receivers of public moneys at your land offices, and all 
 surveyors of your public lands, with their clerks, and all their family 
 connections, placed in a situation to do as the President of the United 
 States may wish ; add to this the further consideration that these men, 
 from their official stations, each has 'vastly more influence among his 
 acquaintances than he would have if he were a private man. Society, 
 from the very situation of the officer, will suppose him a better judge of 
 the fitness of a man for the presidential chair than he would be if he 
 were a private man : besides that, many will know that the officer will 
 have it in his power to do them good turns in his office if they can 
 secure his good opinion. 
 
 Now, let us suppose a President in office, possessed of the mass of influ- 
 ence thus collected, wishing to be elected for a second term, when it was 
 the interest of society to leave him out and put some other person in : or 
 let us suppose a President in for the last time, and wishing to designate 
 some individual as his successor, who would not be the choice of a majority, 
 if left free to act according to their unbiased judgment. "What then 
 would most probably happen ? We might some time find that the Presi- 
 dent would not, in such a case, be contented with all these people simply 
 thinking with him and voting with him; they must do more on pain of 
 not being renominated ; they must each man do his best to influence as 
 many to think, to speak, and to act witii them, as they can procure. 
 Where could you find a man able to make a stand in opposition to this 
 demand? Nowhere; and you would seldom find one willing to make the 
 experiment. Everj' one must believe he would have no chance of success 
 against such fearful odds.' These officers and their friends vould act in 
 concert from one end of the Union to the other. They will have it in their 
 power to pour out at once through the whole body politic, a flood that 
 would sweep from the i)urest man that lives, every particle of reputation 
 he had acquired by a long life of virtue and usefulness. In 1826, as one 
 member of the committee, I came to the conclusion that it ,was danger- 
 ous to leave such a power in the hands of the executive, and through our 
 chairman expressed that opinion to the world. I entertain tlic same 
 opinion now, and am prepared to re-affirm, and to act upon it. Then I 
 
OFFICE ANI> PATRONAGE. 175 
 
 was in opposition to tlic Administration ; noTV, I am a friend to the Admin- 
 istration. This can make no cliange in my course. When we have a 
 pure and virtuous man for our Chief Magistrate he will tliaiik Congress to 
 take from him every discretionary power whicli it can take with pro- 
 priety. It will ease him of a labor and responsiliility most unpleasant to 
 a good man, and he will still liave as many discretionary powers as he 
 will know how to exercise for the public good. If ever it should be our 
 misfortune to have one of an opposite character, disposed to use all his 
 powers for the benefit of himself and his friends, and for the purpose of 
 per[)etuating power in his and their hands, then society at large ought to 
 thank us for stripping the executive of this influence. 
 
 My opinions upon this subject are not founded upon the petty considera- 
 tion of who is in power, whether he is a poHtical friend or a political oppo- 
 nent; they rest upon the eternal principles of what I think is right and 
 wrong between those who are in and those who are out of power. They 
 are founded upon principle deep as the foundations of government itself; 
 upon principles the disregard of Avhich will poison the very fountain 
 from which all the blessings of our free and happy government tlow. The 
 elective franchise — corrupt that ; place our citizens in such a situation 
 that they will not freely form opinions for themselves and fearlessly act 
 upon them ; and we shall have little left worth preserving. 
 
 "When called on to act my part, it is matter not to be considered by me 
 whether my friends are in or out. In 1826, when called on for an oi)iuion, 
 my friends and myself were at the bottom of the political wheel. I then 
 entertained and expressed an opinion. Now it has turned; my friends 
 and myself are at the top; our opjjonents are at the bottom ; where wo 
 may be Avith the next whirl, no man can tell. As Avise men, what ought 
 Ave to do? We ought to act justly to all men, honestly carry out our owa 
 old opinions, and secure the people, as far as we can, in the free, unin- 
 fluenced exercise of their OAvn opinions at elections. My principles are 
 to limit poAver, if we can, so as to make every man secure in voting for 
 whom he pleases, as he is in matters of religion ; in worshipping his 
 Maker according to the dictates of his own' conscience. When power is 
 BO limited that no man can so use it as to injure his opponents, then, and 
 then only, do I consider myself safe. 
 
 The question .recurs, hoAV can Congress secure the citizen in ofllice against 
 an arbitrary exercise of this power, in cases where the public good does 
 not require it? The committee have attempted to giA-e this securitA' by 
 providing that AA-henevcr a nomination is made to the Senate to fill a 
 vacancy occasioned by a removal, the President shall state tlie reasons 
 for such removal. This it has been contended Congress has no poAver to 
 do, because all executive j)ower is vested in the President by the Consti- 
 tution, and removal from office is an exercise of executive poAver. 
 
 The arj^uments upon tliis point are far from being satisfactory to my 
 
176 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 mind, and I must crave the indulgence of the Senate while I present as 
 briefly as possible my own views upon it. 
 
 Is any gentleman prepared to state it as his opinion that under our 
 form of government, executive power is unlimited and undefined ? I 
 hold no such doctrine ; and it would appear to me a most wild and mis- 
 chievous opinion. 
 
 The executive power, in our government, in the President, is that vested 
 in him by express grants in the Constitution, or by acts of Congress 
 passed in pursuance of the Constitution, and no more. By the Constitu- 
 tion, " all legislative power herein granted is vested in Congress." By the. 
 same instrument the Executive power is vested in a President. In this 
 •latter clause, the words " herein granted," used in the foi-mer are dropped. 
 The reason for dropping them is to my mind very obvious. If they had 
 been used as to the President, he would have but a small portion of the 
 powers necessary to be Vested in him to enable him to carry on the aifairs 
 of the government. The framers of that instrument foresaw that he 
 must have many more powers than they could specify in the Constitution, 
 and therefore they say the executive power shall be vested in a President, 
 intending that he should have and exercise aU the power they themselves 
 afterwards might vest in him, and also all others which Congress might 
 from time to time vest in him by laws passed in pursuance of the Consti- 
 tution. And afterwards they sum up his duties by saying that he shall 
 see that the laws are faithfully executed. 
 
 Under these several clauses the executive powers are easily ascertained. 
 We first look into the Constitution, and there see what powei's are 
 expressly given to him. Fext we look at the acts of Congress, and 
 there find what powers Congress has invested him with ; and thus we 
 ascertain his whole powers, and then we see that his duties are to see that 
 all these powers are faithfully executed. "Whatever powers are vested by 
 the Constitution, Congress has no power to change : whatever powers 
 they vest by statute, they may change and modify at pleasure. Any 
 other notion of executive powers vested in the President, it seems to 
 me, cannot be maintained under our frame of government. By the 
 Constitution two classes of oflicers are evidently intended. One of 
 these, Congress is bound to create; ahd when created, the tenure of 
 their office is fixed by the Constitution, and can never be changed by 
 act of Congress. As relates to the other class. Congress may create the 
 office or not, as they please. In creating it, they may fix the tehure as 
 they please ; for lifo, for years,, or at will ; tlioy prescribe what duties they 
 please, and fix the compensation to suit their own pleasure ; and they 
 may point out the mode in whicli the officer is to be removed dr 
 displaced. 
 
 Ours is emphatically a government of laws. We are a free people 
 because it is so. Whenever the will of tlie people is expressed, either in 
 
OFFICE AND PATRONAGE, v 177 
 
 the Oon:^titntion or in a law pa'^sotl in pursuance thereof, it must be com- 
 plied Avitli, because, according to tlie theory of our government, the 
 people are sovereign. No person doubts, or can doubt, the power of the 
 President to remove in such cases; but the manner in which he acijuiros 
 tliis power is a difterent question. Gentlomen who argue against this 
 section say, he has it from the Constitution, because it is an executive 
 power. I deny this, and saj' it is an executive power because it is made 
 so by statute, and he pertbrras. a constitutional duty Avhen he removes, 
 because ho is as much bound to perform executive duties pointed out bv 
 statute as he is to perform those specified by the Constitution. It is an 
 executive power, because it was the will of the peojjle, through Con- 
 gress, as their agent, to make it so ; and the same power, through the 
 &aiue agent, could have made it a judicial duty, if it had been deemed 
 wise so to provide. 
 
 Mr. President, these ave the principles upon which I was prepared to 
 act ill 1826. They are those upon which I wished to bring into power 
 the present Chief Magistrate. I speak only for myself; but I believed 
 they were the principles of the party with which I acted, and that we 
 were to give effect to those principles, so far as we might have the 
 power. For one, I have seen no sufficient reason to change them, and 
 am prepared to act them out. It is in vain to tell rae that this is a 
 I)arty question. It is a question of fundamental princii)les, and I am on 
 that side of it in which I have been educated, on which I have hereto- 
 fore acted, as well as my humble abilities have enabled me; it is one I 
 cannot abandoa for any earthly consideration, because in its maintenance 
 I believe the i)rosperity, happiness and security of the present and suc- 
 ceeding generations have a deep and abiding interest. It is asked bv 
 the opponents of this bill, what benefit its friends expect from a state- 
 ment of the reasons, of the removal when the nomination of a successor 
 is presented to the Senate? I answer for myself, I Avish to cut up by 
 the roots the demoralizing tendencies of office-hunting. I wish to 
 make such provisions by law as will shield the Chief Magistrate from 
 impositions practised upon him to induce him to remove men from 
 office. I wish to shield him from being imposed upon as to the charac- 
 ter of tho.=e who apply for office. As the law now stands, whenever a 
 man may take a fancy to an office filled by his neighbor, all he has to do 
 is to poison the jnind of the executive against the incumbent, and to 
 make a favorable impression as to the fitness of him who desires to 
 be the successor. These objects can be accomjdished by making charac- 
 ters in secret upon paper. Before the officer is aware of it, liis rei)uta- 
 tipn is blasted by secret and confidential comnmnications made by some 
 of those he had esteemed his friends; they are lodged with the execu- 
 tive, where it is expected they will remain secret ; and upon the strengtii 
 of these representations the officer is removed. When this is accom- 
 
 12 
 
 p.. 
 
178 MEMOIR OF UUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 pHshed, the scnffle commences for a successor, and paper characters arc 
 procured for perhaps half a dozen apphcants ; and very frequently, the 
 individual having, in point of fact, the vrorst character of any in the 
 group is so dressed up and supported by certificates as to convince the 
 executive that the public interest will be promoted by selecting him as 
 the successor, and he is nominated to the Senate. The business does 
 not end here. All the disappointed applicants then go to work with 
 senators to defeat a confirmation of the nomination, each hoping that if 
 that is done, he stands next best with the executive, and will secure 
 the otfice. 
 
 Under the present state of things, society will become demoralized; 
 men will be constantly coveting that possessed by their neighbors ; and 
 for the sake of procuring what they covet, they will themselves bear, and 
 will procure others to bear false witness. Under the laws, as they now 
 stand, the business of ofiice-hunting will become a science. Men will be 
 selected and furnished with funds to defray the expense of coming to 
 "Washington, for the purpose of having one set turned out and another 
 set put in, by means of artful tales, secretly gotten up and reduced to 
 writing, which, it is supposed, will never see the light. This oflScer and 
 representative of office-hxmters will come on with one pocket full of bad 
 characters witii Avhich to turn out incumbents, and the other full of good 
 characters with which to provide for his constituents. 
 
 Pass tliis bill, and a wholesome check will be given to this whole 
 system. Require the reasons for removal to be stated, and no man will 
 dare to make a statement which he does not believe to be true, because 
 exposure and disgrace will certainly be the consequence. You will take 
 out of the hand of the cowardly assassin, the poisoned dagger heretofore 
 used in the dark. You will shield the executive from mistakes founded 
 on false representations. No executive can be personally acquainted with 
 the characters of all men in oflice, nor with the characters of all those 
 who desire office; he must act upon information derived fi-om others; he 
 ought, and I feel persuaded the present Chief Magistrate will, thank Con- 
 gress for any plan by which he may be the better enabled to discharge 
 his official duties to the enhancement of the welfare of society. 
 
 Another advantage to be derived from this bill is, that it will check 
 the thirst for office, and restore harmony to society. When a man is 
 removed for want of capacity, for want of integi-ity, for intemperance, or 
 for lack of business habits, why not put down the reason? Who is 
 harmed by it? Nobody. Now a nian's reputation is stabbed in the 
 dark; by whom, or in what manner, he is unable to find out. Pass this 
 bill, and if a man is injured, he will know by whom, and in what man- 
 ner ; and can wipe out the stain, not by a controversy with the Presi- 
 dent, but by a controversy with the man whose falsehoods mislead the 
 President. 
 
OFFICE AXD PATRONAGE. IT 9 
 
 Again; Tve shall in all time to come secure honest officers in the enjoy- 
 ment of honest political opinions. Xo President ■will ever remove an 
 officer, simply because he Avill nut think and act with him in politics, 
 "when he knows this reason is to he of record, and to remain through all 
 time. For myself, now above all others is the time when I wish to see 
 this security furnished to honest men in office. I wisli the credit of it 
 for this Administration, for this executive. His anxious wish has been 
 to secure to the States and to individuals what, in his judgment, they had 
 been improperly deprived of by federal power; and I wish to see in his 
 day a surrender of all means which an unprincipled Chief Magistrate 
 might use to influence the political opinions of men. I know him too 
 well not to believe it would meet his hearty approbation ; and in time to 
 come, when the historian shall record the beneficial acts of our illustri- 
 ous men, I feel persuaded that this act will not escape his attention. 
 
 The sentiments expressed in this speech are alluded to in a letter to 
 J. A. Whiteside, Esq., Sept. 17, 1835. Judge White says to that 
 gentleman : 
 
 When this subject was before the Senate, I took occasion to state the 
 reasons for my course so fully, as to render it unnecessary now to say 
 much on that subject. It was a subject which had excited much interest, 
 while Mr. Adams was President of the United States ; I formed the same 
 opinions then which I expressed last winter. Tiie subject was again before 
 the Senate in 1830, and at that time my opinions were the same they had 
 been in 1826, and yet are. I firmly believed they were the same opin- 
 ions entertained by Mr. Jefferson, and by the political party to which I 
 belonged. I not only beheved they were the principles of the present 
 Chief Magistrate, but thought one great object of the struggle to bring 
 him into power, was to maintain, and to carry out by legislative enact- 
 ments, and by his practice, these very principles. 
 
 I would have held myself dishonored as a man, and felt as if bringing 
 disgrace upon the Republican party, and more especially upon the Chief 
 Magistrate, if I had maintained one set of principles to acquire plo-ce and 
 poorer, and then, for the purpose of retaining them, attempted to practise 
 upon another. 
 
 No matter who is President of the United States, I firmly believe exec- 
 utive power ought to be limited within the narrowett limits compatible 
 with an administration of the government ; otherwise all erficu'nt agency 
 of the people^ in their own affairs, will soon be lost. If the executive 
 power and patronage be left as they now are, and we should ever have a 
 popular Chief Magistrate willing, from any motive, to lend Jiis influence, 
 and to use his patronage fur the pur[)Obe of designating and eloctiiig his 
 successor, then will tliis tremendous power be felt, and if it does not end 
 
180 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 iu the destruction of those rights secured to the people, and substituting 
 in their place the will of one man, then shall I think the people of the 
 United States a peculiar race, and more highly favored of heaven than 
 any who have preceded them. 
 
 I was born under a king, but raised and educated in a Eepublic. To 
 secure to our posterity the same freedom for which our fathers toiled, it 
 is essential that executive favor and patronage should be limited by law ; 
 otherwise the day may not be remote when we will have in fact a 
 monarchy, and it the more odious because a deceptive form of a republic 
 may be continued. 
 
 Mr, Benton, of Missouri, whose rugged instinctive honesty was in 
 full sympathy with Judge White on this point, alone of all the 
 administration phalanx in the Senate, voted with him for the passage 
 of the bill. 
 
 In March of the year 1835, Judge White had occasion to state his 
 views upon the much contested question of the Expunging Resolu- 
 tions, so widely known and so exciting in their day ; and which were 
 introduced by Hon. Thomas H. Benton of Missouri. It may not .be 
 entirely superfluous to mention that these resolutions contemplated 
 the actual expunging — the wiping out, or erasure — from the journals 
 of the Senate, of a certain vote of censure upon General Jackson, for 
 his conduct in removing the deposits from the United States Bank, 
 which vote was there recorded March 28th, 1834. Judge White 
 contended that the Senate had no right thus to destroy the records 
 of their doings. Upon offering an amendment which would call for 
 the " rescinding, repealing, reversing and declaring null and void " 
 of the resolution censuring General Jackson, instead of the expuno-- 
 
 mg 
 
 it, he said 
 
 Mr. President : The object of my amendment is, to enable each sena- 
 tor to express the opinion he really entertains of the resolution formerly 
 passed by this body. 
 
 To vote for the resolution of the senator from Missouri in its present 
 shape, I cannot. lie proposes to " expunge " fi-om our journals one of 
 our resolutions, which was adopted when our votes were taken and 
 recorded by yeas and nays. Tlie Constitution requires that "each House 
 shall keep a journal of its 2>i'occedings^ and Oiatat the decision of one-jftfth 
 of its memhera^ the yeas and nays shall he taken on any question.''^ This 
 Constitution each member has solemnly sworn to support. When wo 
 speak of the journal of our proceedings, we speak of a book kept here, 
 
EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. 181 
 
 under our oicn inspection^ in "which is faithfully recorded, under its appro- 
 priate date, every transaction of the body. This book is the original 
 and all others are only copies of it. JTow, wliat is proposed by tho 
 resolution ? It is to expunge one of the resolutions which we all admit 
 we actually adopted, npon yeas and nays, on the 28th of March, 1834. 
 Now if we adopt this resolution, we solemnly order that our former 
 resolution shall bo erased, rnbbed out, blotted, obliterated, or so corrected 
 that it cannot be read. Suppose this order carried into effect, and any 
 man to read our record, our journal, under date of the 28th March, and 
 he would have no knowledge that such a resolution as that complained 
 of had ever existed. 
 
 The answer given to this argument by the honorable senator is not 
 satisfactory. He says in his resolution now under consideration, " It is 
 preserved, because it is set out word for word." But it is not under its 
 true date ; and upon that principle, if we wish to ascertain wliat was 
 done 28th March, 1834:, wo must look not to the journal of that year, but 
 to the journal of 1835. This would not be a diary or journal of our 
 proceedings according with the facts. 
 
 Again, what would become of our yeas and nays ? Are we to deprive 
 ourselves, those of our own day, and posterity, of all means of knowing 
 how wo voted ? The gentleman does not propose preserving our yeas 
 and nays. I do not wish to lose mine, nor do I suppose any other mem- 
 ber wishes to give up this record evidence of his opinion. 
 
 It appears to me plain that we cannot vote for expunging the journal, 
 because it is contrary to the positive injunction of the Constitution, 
 which we are bound to observe. Adopt my amendment, and then pass 
 the resolution, and we accomplish everything desirable. "We " rescind " 
 and declare " null and void " the original resolution. This is all that can 
 be wished by any person ; we reverse our decision because we now think it 
 was wrong ; and we declare it ?i?//Z and iw(7, because it was always wroug, 
 and ought never to have been adopted. 
 
 This is the effect of my amendment as first proposed by me ; and now 
 at the instance of tho honorable senator, from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
 McKean), I have modified, so as to incorporate into it the additional words 
 " repealed and reversed.'' It now reads that the resolution of 28th March 
 is "rescinded, repealed, reversed and declared to be null and void." 
 Tbis, it appears to me, is as strong an opinion as we can give, that tho 
 original resolution shall not stand as the judgment of the Senate, and 
 that it ought never to have found a place upon our journals. 
 
 Thus far I am willing to go, because it conforms to the opinion I now 
 entertain, and to the opinion I entertained when the original resolution 
 was adopted. 
 
 If time permitted, I would gladly say moro on this subject ; but it does 
 not, and I must content myself with expressing a liope that my amend- 
 
182 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ment may be adopted, so that I can vote for the resolution without a 
 violation of one of my most solemn obligations. 
 
 The question was quieted for that session by means of a motion to 
 lay it on the table. Next year however, under the indomitable lead of 
 Benton, it was started again ; and Judge White defined his position 
 upon it more at length, in a speech delivered June 28th, 1 836, as follows: 
 
 The following preamble and resolution offered by Mr. White being 
 under consideration : 
 
 Whereas, on the 2Sth day of March, 1834, the Senate of the United States adopted a resolu- 
 tion in the words following, to wit : 
 
 " Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public 
 revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and powers not conferred by the Constitution 
 and laws, but in derogation of both :" 
 
 And whereas, upon the question whether said resolution should be adopted, it was decided by 
 one-fifth of the senators present that the same should be taken by yeas and nays ; and the 
 votes of the several members now stand recorded on the journal of the Senate: 
 
 And whereas the said resolution still remains on the journal of the Senate in full force, not 
 rescinded, reversed, repealed, or annulled; and cannot now be expunged, cancelled, or in any 
 way obliterated or defaced without violating that clause of the Constitution of the United 
 States which is in the following words, to wit: "Each house shall keep a journal of its proceed- 
 ings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such part as may in their judgment 
 i-equire secrecy; and the yeas and nays of either house on any question shall, at the desire of 
 one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal :" 
 
 And whereas each senator, before taking his seat, was bound to take, and did take, an oath 
 to support said Constitution: 
 
 And whereas the President of the United States, in the late executive proceedings in relation 
 to the public revenue, alluded to in said resolution, did not, in the opinion of the Senate 
 assume upon himself authority and powers not conferred upon him by the Constitution and 
 laws : Therefore, it is 
 
 Resolved, That the said resolution, and the opinion therein expressed, be, and the same 
 hereby are, rescinded, reversed, and annulled ; and it is hereby declared that the said resolu- 
 tion ought not to be considered as having had, or as now or hereafter having any force or 
 effect whatever. 
 
 Mr. White addressed the Senate as follows : 
 
 Mr. President : By means not within my control, I have become so far 
 connected with this snliject as to consider it a duty to submit the reso- 
 lution now under consideration, and to urge its adoption by such reasons 
 as are satisfactory to my own mind. During our last session, the honor- 
 able senator from Missouri offered a resolution, proposing that we should 
 order the resolution of the 28th March, 1834, to be expunged from the 
 journal. Wlicu it was taken up for consideration, entertaining the 
 opinion that tlie Senate had not the power to make such an order, I 
 moved to amend the resolution, by striking out the order to expunge, 
 and all which followed it, and inserting that the resolution should bo 
 
EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. 183 
 
 rescinded, reversed, repealed, and declared to bo null and void. The 
 senator from Alabama moved that the question bo first taken on striking 
 out the word " expunge," and, after a very short debate, it was stricken 
 out, by almost a unanimous vote ; and then, upon the motion of one of 
 the senators from Massachusetts, the subject was laid on the table. At 
 this session wo have a proposition, wliieh is now on tho table, for a 
 qualified or limited expunging. Still believing my first impressions ou 
 the subject were correct, I have ventured to submit my resolution, and 
 upon it will desire the decision of the Senate. 
 
 The first position assumed in the preamble to my resolution liable to 
 doubt is, that we have not the power to expunge from our journal the 
 resolution of the 28th March, 1834. 
 
 Our government is republican, and, by the Constitution, it was intended 
 that all agents in the difterent departments of it should be responsible for 
 their public conduct. With a view to secure this accountability, so far as 
 the two Houses of Congress are concerned, and also for the purpose of 
 perpetuating a knowledge of what should be done by them, it is provided 
 by the Constitution of the United States, 5th section of the 1st article, 
 that "each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to 
 time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, 
 require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, 
 on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be 
 entered on the journal." Generally, that interpretation of the Constitu- 
 tion, or of a statute, is the true one, Avhich would be put upon it by a 
 common man. 
 
 It appears to me very clear that were a cor 'J^ion man asked what did 
 the framers of the Constitution mean should be done, when they used the 
 language just quoted, he would answer, that each house should have 
 faitlifuUy recorded the proceedings of each day, and carefully preserve the 
 looh in which they were recorded. To determine the meaning of this 
 word " /Lwj:>," we are not to look into a glossary to see how many different 
 definitions we can find, but to the context sm^ to the ohject the framers of 
 the Constitution wished to attain. Each house is directed to keep a jour- 
 nal of its proceedings, and from time to time to publish the sanae. The 
 object evidently is, that the body itself may at all times know what it 
 and its predecessors have done, and that the constituent may also know 
 what has been done, and by whom. — [Bayard''8 Exposition of the Consti- 
 tution^ p. 58.] 
 
 If, as soon as wo have recorded our daily proceedings, we have per- 
 formed the whole duty required by this clause, and may then burn, tear 
 up, obliterate, or expunge tlie journal, the whole object will be defeated. 
 The convention were aware that neither house would be always in ses- 
 sion, and that when in session the members themselves could not, in 
 person^ keep the journal ; provision is therefore made in article 1, sections 
 
184 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 2 and 3, that each house shall have power to appoint the necessary 
 officers. Through officers thus appointed the journal is kept and pre- 
 served, as the records of courts are kept and preserved by their clerks. 
 
 "We are not only to keep the journal, but from time to time to pullish 
 the same. The journal which is kept is the one which is to be published ; 
 not once only^ but from time to time. If we admit that after our pro- 
 ceedings have been once published^ then we may expunge, how shall we 
 comply with the injunction to publish from time to time? Those to 
 whom the printed copies have been delivered are under no constitutional 
 obligation to 2)reserce their copies. They may be destroyed at pleasure. 
 Upon their care we must depend to enable us to publish a second or third 
 edition ; yet we have been directed to heep and, from time to time, pub- 
 lish. Again, if we do publish a second or third edition from our own 
 journal, having expunged some of our proceedings immediately after the 
 first publication, then the first edition and the subsequent ones will not 
 agree, because the expunged proceedings will not appear in the last pub- 
 lications, no matter whether the expunging is considered literal or figur- 
 ative. And what will make the matter worse is, there will be no record 
 in charge of our own officer, by which to prove which edition is a true 
 
 copy. 
 
 The provisions in the 7th section of the same article strongly support 
 . the construction for which I contend : 
 
 "Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, 
 before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve, he 
 shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have 
 originated, who shall 'enter the objections at large on their journal,' and proceed to reconsi- 
 der it. If, after such reconsideration, two-tkirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it 
 shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be 
 reconsidered ; and, if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all 
 such cases, the ' votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of 
 the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house, 
 respectively.' If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays 
 excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as 
 if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return ; in which 
 case, it shall not be a law." 
 
 The like ceremonies are to be gone through in relation to order, reso- 
 lutions, or votes, in which the concurrence of both Houses is necessary. 
 
 Now, sir, is any gentleman prepared to say, that in any case arising 
 under this section, we have the power to expunge the journal? If we 
 cannot, how can we in any other case? Tlie language requiring us to Arep 
 a jotmialof cur proceedings is as strong and imperative as the language 
 in this section, requiring the President's objections to be entered on the 
 journal, and the names of the voters to bo recorded. The same solemn 
 guards are thrown around both : and if we now have the power to 
 expunge the journal of March, 1834, we also have the power to go back 
 
EXPI7KGING RESOLUTION. 185 
 
 and expunjjc from the journal the proceedings in relation to -any veto sent 
 to us by any President. 
 
 To keep a journal of our proceedings must mean that we shall have 
 them faitlifully recorded, and then the record carefully jyreserved ; other- 
 wise, the whole context is disregarded, and the great object of responsi- 
 bility of legislative agents defeated. Let us, for a moment, consider some 
 of the familiar cases put by the other side. 
 
 "We employ a man " to Tceep the door.'''' After he has opened it, and 
 let some person in or out of the house, surely he is not at hberty to 
 break the door. 
 
 A man employs a person to keep his house. After the house is pnt in 
 good order, the howiQ-Tceeper is not at liberty to break or burn the furni- 
 ture, or to expunge it, by making black marks around it. 
 
 A merchant employs a person to Iceej) his store and hooTcs. After the 
 day's or week's work is over, the clerk is not at liberty to tear out or 
 expunge any of the entries, showing the goods sold, or the cash received ; 
 yet all these things might lawfully be done by these diflferent persons, if 
 the arguments in favor of expunging our journal are correct. 
 
 It has been sometimes urged that each house has a discretion as to the 
 matter that sliall be put on its journal. This, to some extent, is true, but 
 cannot affect my argument. Each house is for ever bound to put enough 
 matter on the journal to show on what subjects it acted, and the decision 
 of the body on each suJ/ject. 
 
 To prove this discretionary power, it is said we may select for publica- 
 tion such parts of the journal as we please, and keep the rest secret. 
 
 It is true, by the clause under consideration, each house is bound to 
 keep a journal of all its proceedings, but may refrain from having 
 published such parts as the public interest requires should be kept 
 secret. 
 
 This power to refrain from publishing is expressly given, and therefore 
 may be legally exercised. It is, with me, conclusive to show that we are 
 bound always to ^;/'c«erfe the journal. Parts of it we need not pullish. 
 Now, if we are not bound to preserve the record of our proceedings, 
 there would be no evidence in existence of what had been done upon those 
 subjects in relation to which the journal had not been published. 
 
 Again : we have the express power given not to 2^uhlish some parts of 
 our proceedings ; if, in addition to this, wo assume the power which is 
 not given to expunge what we please, we may, and probably will, some 
 time choose not to publish some proceeding which would not bo accept- 
 able to our constituents; and then, after it had pcrfurnied what wo 
 intended, we could expunge it, and thus evade all that responsibility 
 intended to be secured. 
 
 It is said the journal is nothing but inducement to some other matter 
 more imi)ortant. This opinion I do not think is well founded. Tne 
 
186 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 journals, so far from being considered as merely introductory, or induce- 
 ment to something more important, and therefore in our power to dispose 
 of as we please, ought to viewed as sacred^ because they contain the only 
 evidence of the judgment of the representatives of the people upon the 
 different subjects acted on ; they are the very essence, or, as the lawyers 
 term it, the gist of the whole matter. 
 
 In our free and happy country our laws are binding, because they con- 
 tain the will of the 2^eople themselves, expressed by their representatives, 
 in the mode pointed out in the Constitution. The journal is the only 
 evidence of this will. An act is not binding because it is sighed by the 
 presiding officers of the two houses, but because it is the expressed AviU 
 of a majority in each house; and the journal is the highest evidence of 
 this will. At the last session, by some mistake, a bill, wlxich our journal 
 shows was indejinitely postponed, was signed by the presiding officers 
 and by the President, It was no law, although it had the form of one. 
 It wanted the esseiice, the will of a majority of one of the houses, and 
 ih.Q journal of that house is the highest and only evidence of the defect. 
 I, therefore, deny that we have any power to expunge, on the ground that 
 the journal is mere inducement to something more important. But, 
 again : even if it were only inducement, I deny, on that account, we have 
 any power to disobey a command of the Constitution, It says we shall 
 keep a journal of our proceedings, We call Heaven to witness we will 
 obey this command. In consequence of this solemn promise, we are 
 intrusted with matters of the highest interest, "We have faithfully 
 recorded one of our proceedings, but afterwards tear or blot it out, or 
 expunge it — that is, prick it out — and are called upon for the reason, and 
 answer, it was of no consequence, because it was mere inducement to 
 something else. The excuse ought never to be admitted ; if it is in one 
 case, it may be in every case. We may obliterate, expunge, or burn the 
 whole. 
 
 It is further urged, if the whole record is destroyed, after the journal 
 has been published, it makes no difference, because each printed copy 
 is the journal. 
 
 This I think an entire mistake; the printed journal is only a copy of the 
 original, and, although it may be admitted as evidence in court, it is only 
 because it is supposed to be a true copy of the original, as it has been 
 printed by public authority; and because you cannot procure the original, 
 it being the duty of the secretary to keep it in his oicn possession. 
 
 The original is the best evidence ; and the party is only excused from 
 producing it because he cannot procure it. Suppose the copy offered not 
 a true one, the error is always corrected by having recourse to the 
 original. 
 
 Again: if all these printed copies arc originals, and we order the 
 journal to be expunged, we must make our secretary apply the process 
 
EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS. 187 
 
 to tach copy ; if he does to one, and not to all, they -vvill vary from each 
 other; aud if we apply the process to the origiual, and not to the printed 
 copies, every copy will vary from the origiual. 
 
 The journal of 1834 has been pubhshed — many copies of it — the 
 obnoxious resolution with the rest. Suppose Ave now expunge it, actually 
 or figuratively, aud then publish another edition, the resolution woidd 
 not appear in the last edition, and thus it would vary from that now in 
 existence. 
 
 If we decide that the printed copies are to be considered as the origi- 
 nals, and not copies merely^ it appears to me we endanger the purity of 
 our whole proceedings. It will be very easy for those who are ingenious 
 in villany to print with our mark and impose on the world spurious 
 copies,- and insert as our proceedings matters which never occurred. 
 
 It is thought we- err in giving the same sanctity to our journal which 
 is properly given to the records of courts of justice, whicli, it is admitted, 
 cannot be expunged, or altered after the term. 
 
 In my opinion, our journal ought to be considered the most sacred of 
 the two. The records of the courts only affect the private rights of indi- 
 viduals; our records affect all society. Records of courts are only 
 required to be kept by legislative enactments; the records of each house 
 of Congress were not left to statutory enactments, but are required to be 
 Tcept by the Constitution itself. 
 
 Those who insist that we have the power to expunge seek support from 
 precedents ; and it has been said that in the sixtli year of the reign of 
 Henry VIII. it was enacted that a record should be kept of the leaves 
 of alsence granted to different memlers of the Parhament. And from 
 this it is argued that Parliament was bound by laic after that time to keep 
 a journal ; and if they expunged any of their proceedings, so may we. 
 To this I answer, that the expunging of any entry made on .the journal 
 after that time, on any other suhject than that of giving leave of absence 
 to a member, is of no more weight than if such a statute had never 
 been enacted ; and gentlemen have not produced, and I do not beheve 
 they can produce, a case in which either Uouse expunged any such 
 entry. 
 
 The statute did not require a record to be made of anything except leave 
 of absence^ and if any other i)roceeding was recorded in tlie same book, 
 it was by some order of the house ; and the 8a7ne power could, at any 
 time, order it to be expunged, just as well as if it had been recorded in 
 any other book. 
 
 Our constitution requires that we shall keep a journal of all our pro- 
 ceedings ; and we ouglit to i)roserve the whole with as much care as the 
 Parliament did their leaves of absence. 
 
 By the articles of confederation. Congress was required to publish 
 every month the journal of their proceedings ; and from this it is inferred 
 
188 arEMOIR OF fiUGH EAWSON WHITE. 
 
 they were bound to keep a journal of all their proceedings. In the first 
 place, I think this inference very far from imposing the same obligation 
 upon the old Congress that is imposed on us by the present consideration, 
 in language too plain to be misunderstood. In the next place, if it did, 
 what cases have gentlemen shown of any matter being expunged from 
 their journals ? None. 
 
 It were a useless consumption of time in me to notice in detail the dif- 
 ferent cases cited, to show that the journals liave been expunged by both 
 Houses in Great Britain, under the Colonial Government in Virginia, and in 
 the State of Massachusetts, because the same general answer may be given 
 to all. The legislature was not required by either a constitution or a law 
 to keep a journal. The joui-nal was only kept by virtue of the order or 
 usage of each house, and could be changed at any time, to any extent 
 either house might think right. 
 
 But a precedent has been referred to in my own State, and there the 
 Constitution does require that each house shall Iceei) a journal. 
 
 Gentlemen who rely upon this precedent have been misinformed. Thoy 
 have not named the case, but I can be at no loss as to what the reference 
 is made. It must be the case of Judge Williams, who was impeached, and 
 tried; and to convict, the Constitution required tioo-thirds of the mem- 
 bers. When opinions were expressed, there were two-thirds for convic- 
 tion, if (ibsent members were not counted; if they were, there were not 
 two-thirds. Upon this point there was a great variety of opinion, and 
 ultimately the presiding member discharged tlie judge as acquitted. On 
 the next morning, when the journal was read, a member moved to cor- 
 rect it, because the court had authorized no such order. This motion, it 
 will be perceived, was in a court, therefore, no precedent for us. 
 
 Next, it was not to expunge anything which the Senate had done, but 
 to strike from the journal that which had been put there by mistake, and 
 which the body never had ordered. 
 
 Now, sir, if a man were set to search a case unlike the one before us, he 
 could not do better than take the Tennessee case. 
 
 Two precedents have been referred to in the proceedings of Congress, 
 iipon wliich I will make one or two remarks. 
 
 On the last day of the session of 1806, two petitions were presented by 
 a member of the Senate, complaining of the conduct of one of our courts ; 
 they were received by the body and disposed of. During the same day a 
 member moved to return the petitions, and to expunge the order for their 
 reception from the journal, which was done accordingly. 
 
 The first observation I make is, that we are to keep a journal of our 
 proceedings. In other words, at the end of each day our record ought to 
 show the result of our judgment upon each subject before us. 
 
 The journal of that day does show this precisely. After the entry was 
 expunged, the subject of those memorials was placed precisely where, in 
 
EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS. 189 
 
 tlie jiulffinent of that body, it ought to rest, and that was, that CoDgress 
 should have nothing to do with it. 
 
 I -will ilhistrate my meaning by a familiar case. A merchant, in the 
 forenoon, sells a bale of cloth to a customer, who pays him one hundred dol- 
 lars for it. He enters the transaction on his journal. In the afternoon, 
 of the same day, the customer returns, and asks tlio merchant to take 
 back the cloth and return him his money; with which request he com- 
 plies, and, instead of incumbering his journal with another useless entry, 
 he scratches out, or, in otlier words, exjnmges the entry lie made when he 
 sold the cloth. After this expunging, his journal will show the exact 
 truth relative to this bale of cloth ; that is, it will give no account what- 
 ever of the transaction, because the cloth was his in the morning, and it 
 is still his the next morning. 
 
 If we expunge the resolution of 28th March, 1834, by an order now 
 made, our journal of that day will be so altered as not to show the result 
 of the Senate's judgment on that day upon that subject ; therefore, there 
 is no likeness in the two cases. 
 
 Again, if they were similar, the precedent ought to have no weight 
 whatever. There Avas no time for either discussion or deliberation. Be- 
 sides, this was done in high party times — related to an exciting topic — 
 Burr's conspiracy, and the expunging was ordered by a strictly party 
 vote. 
 
 The second case is that which occurred in theUouse of Representatives 
 in 1822. 
 
 Mr. Randolph announced the death of Mr. Pinkney, who was not dead, 
 and for that reason moved an adjournment. The adjournment took place, 
 and the next day he moved that the reason assigned for the adjournment 
 should be expunged, because it was not true, and it was accordingly ex- 
 punged. In this case, what the House did was not expunged. It had in 
 fact adjourned, and. so the journal still shows ; but the reason why they 
 came to a decision to adjourn, being founded in mistake, was expunged, 
 
 Now, sir, the joiu'ual at this moment shows, as well as it did when the 
 entry was made, the proceedings of the House on that day ; and all the 
 alteration produced is, that tli,e reason for one of their acts cannot be 
 known, as it is expunged. 
 
 But in the case under consideration, to expunge would be to destroy all 
 evidence of a decision itself, for which I insist we have no precedent in 
 the case relied on. 
 
 The truth must be, the members of the convention were well aware of 
 all the precedents in Great Britain, and in our own country, Avliich existed 
 when they framed the Constitution, and mtended to leave nothing to the 
 discretion of either house. They intended cifectually to secure a just ac- 
 countability from the rei)rescntati ve to the constituent ; therefore they used 
 
 the Constitution itself the imperative language, "each house shall keep 
 
190 ^EEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 a jonrnal," &c. Let us not, then, be misled by precedents -which we fancy 
 may bear ns out. At best they are nothing, but "crutches on which 
 •weak minds sustain themselves" ; aud if we are sustained by these prece- 
 dents in expunging the resolution of 183-i, the precedent which we will 
 now make may sustain those who come after us in expunging important 
 principles from the Constitution itself. 
 
 It is urged that the mere act of expunging the journal is not a matter 
 of any importance; it is the effect or moral of the resolution which it is 
 desired to remove. 
 
 Why not adopt my resolution, then ? No man can doubt our power to 
 rescind, repeal, and reverse the resolution. 
 
 The bad moral taught by the resolution will be removed by the subse- 
 quent decision pronouncing the former one to be erroneous. But it is 
 thought best to use the word " expunge," as, by the use of that word in 
 parliamentary proceedings, the principles of civil liberty have been main- 
 tained in other countries. 
 
 If it has been always used for wise and good purposes elsewhere, let us 
 be cautious that loe do not so use it as eventually to produce mischief in 
 this, the most free and favored country in the world. 
 
 It appears to me, however, that this word, like everything else over 
 which we have control, has been sometimes used when correct principles 
 were asserted, and, in other instances, when the reverse was the case. 
 
 When King James entered one of the houses of the British Parliament, 
 and with his own hand expunged the journal ; when the House of Lords 
 expunged the recognizance entered into before the Lord Mayor of London, 
 and when the journals of the Virginia Legislature were expunged, or at- 
 tempted to be expunged, during the Colonial government, it was not the 
 watchword of the friends of liberty. I am not aware that it ever has 
 been used, and I fear it never will be used, in aid of civil liberty, or the 
 rights of man, when the process is resorted to to gratify the feelings of 
 tliose in power, who are generally too prone to believe liberty is attacked 
 whenever any portion of their conduct is disapproved, or there is any 
 attempt to impose restraints on their liberty to do as they imagine is 
 most for the public good. 
 
 Mr. President, I propose in the next place to examine the soundness of 
 the reason assigned why we may, and ought, to expunge. 
 
 It is briefly this : that, as the Senate is the tribunal established by the 
 Constitution to try the President when impeached, it is unconstitutional 
 to pass a resolution which charges him with a crime for which he might 
 be impeached, and that this resolution not only charges, but convicts him 
 of a crime. I do not concur in this opinion, and beg leave to assign my 
 reasons for dissenting from it. 
 
 Under the Constitution, the powers of the Senate are judicial, executive, 
 or legislative; judicial, when trying impeachments; executive, when 
 
EXPUNGING EESOLUTIONS. * Wl 
 
 advising the President in relation to treaties, or as to the persons to be 
 appointed to office ; legislative, in making laws, and in everything con- 
 nected with making, amending, or repealing them. (Constitution U. S. 
 art. 1, sect. 1.) 
 
 The power of the Senate in all legislative matters is eqnal to that of 
 the Ilouse of Kepresentatives in all respects, Avith the single exception 
 that bills to raise revenue must originate in the House. In the discharge 
 of any legislative or -executive duty, any individual member may say in 
 his place that the President, or any other civil officer, has assumed powers 
 not conferred upon him by the Constitution or laws. 
 
 What any one may lawfully say, every other may say with equal pro- 
 priety. What any one or all may say, individually, all, or a majority, 
 may with propriety express by way of resolution, which is nothing but 
 an expression of the opinion of a majority on a given subject. 
 
 The objection to this resolution is, that it charges the President with, 
 and convicts him of, a crime, for which he may be impeached by the 
 House ; and in that case it would be the duty of the Senate to try him ; 
 therefore, it was unconstitutional to adopt the resolution. 
 
 To this I answer, first, if it were an unconstitutional act to pass the 
 resolution, it furnishes no reason why it should be expunged. If it did, 
 we might go back and expunge from the journal everything which had 
 been done by political opponents, from the adoption of the Constitution, 
 which we chose to say was unconstitutional — all entries, relative to the 
 alien and sedition laws, chartering the banks, &c. These entries, which 
 we deem violations of the Constitution, of all others, are the ones we 
 ought to desire should stand. By them, the disgrace of political oppon- 
 ents would be perpetuated. Were I one of a majority who voted for such 
 unconstitutional proceedings, I would feel very grateful to opponents who 
 would wipe out, or expunge^ the evidence of my disgrace so soon as they 
 obtained the power. 
 
 But again : we find in the Constitution, 1st art. 3d sect, these words : 
 
 " Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, 
 and to disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit, under the United 
 States; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, 
 judgment, and punishment, according to law." 
 
 And, in art. 2, sect. 4, the language following : 
 
 " The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed 
 from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and 
 misdemeanors." 
 
 To my mind it is very clear that neither the President, nor any other 
 civil officer, can be impeached, unless he is charged with some crime. 
 The question then is, does the resolution of the 28th of March, 1834, 
 
192 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAW30N WHITE. 
 
 charge tlie President with the commission of a crime ? It is in these 
 words : 
 
 «' Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public 
 revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and powers not conferred by the Constitution and 
 laws, but in derogation of both." 
 
 It is with this resolution, and this only^ we have to deal. As to what 
 the bank or its agents had said or done, or as to the arguments or speeches 
 of gentlemen, the Senate has given no opinion ; and upon the question 
 now pending, we have nothing to do with them, 
 
 I afHrra that this resolution does not impute to the President any crime 
 or misdemeanor whatever. There can be no such thing as a crime, with- 
 out a had motive. The resolution is entirely silent as to the motives by 
 which the Chief Magistrate was governed. It therefore charges nothing 
 but mere error of judgment. It alleges he assumed powers not conferred 
 by the Constitution or laws ; but whether the motives Avhich induced 
 him to assume these powers were virtuous, or the reverse, is not stated. 
 If they were to promote the public good, and he honestly believed the 
 powers he assumed had been conferred, although he might be mistaken, 
 yet he ought to be applauded as a patriot, instead of being censured as a 
 criminal. 
 
 Intention to do wrong — had motives — are the essence of crime ; and 
 without them there can be no such thing. In this very case, if, in every 
 act the President did, he mistook his powers, but still acted from high 
 and pure motives, no honest tribunal upon earth could convict him of 
 
 crime. 
 
 This new doctrine of crime without evil intent has no sanction in 
 morals, in reason, or in any adjudged case. The only cases referred to 
 for its support are the impeachments against Judges Chase and Pickering. 
 In the first of these, it is true, some of the articles of impeachment did 
 not charge bad motives, but upon those he was acquitted without a dis- 
 senting -voice. 
 
 In Pickering's case, the question was whether he was sane or not. He 
 had been a highly respectable man, but acted badly on the bench, and it 
 was alleged he was deranged. It was answered, if he was deranged, it 
 was from intemperance^ and therefore an aggravation of the offence ; and 
 on that ground he was convicted. 
 
 God forbid that a doctrine so unreasonable, so inconsistent with our 
 imperfect condition, as that of crime without evil design, should ever be 
 sanctioned anywhere, especially here. You and I are obliged to act in 
 this very question; it is our public duty to form opinions, and act upon 
 them; we disagree; must one of us be guilty of a crime? Look at the 
 situation of courts. A cause is tried before two judges in an inferior 
 court, and they disagree ; must one be a criminal ? A writ of error is 
 
EXPITNGING RESOLUTIONS. 193 
 
 tiiken from an inferior to a higlier tribunal, and tlie judgment reversed; 
 are the judges of tlie court to bo viewed and treated as criiniiuils ? If tliey 
 are, suppose there to be a still higlier tribunal, to. which the same cause 
 is carried, and the last decision reversed, and the first established; what 
 are you to do then — punish the second set of judges? 
 
 In the federal circuit courts, a judge of the t>upreme Court and the 
 district judge decide a cause; a writ of error is taken to the Supreme 
 Court, Avhere the same judge forms one of the court, and he concurs with 
 his brethren in reversing his own decision. What is to be done with 
 him? According to this strauge doctrine, he is obliged to be guilty of a 
 crime, because he has decided against himself. . Away with such doctrine, 
 it is absurd. Error and crime are as distinct as the motives by which 
 angels and devils are governed. 
 
 The great error in the argument on the other side is occasioned by not 
 attending to the distinction between the acts of private citizens and of 
 public officers. A private individual does an unlawful act; the law 
 presumes he diH it from bad motives; because, so far from being com- 
 pelled to act, it was his duty not to act. In the case of a public officer, 
 he is compelled to act ; he is sworn to do so ; and whenever he does an 
 ofiicial act, the presumj^tion is, that his motives were good^ although the 
 act may have been contrary to law. If the law were not so, no honest 
 man, conscious of his defects, would ever fill an oftice. He is bound to 
 act — sicorn to do so ; and when he uses all the means within his reach to 
 inform himself, and exercises his best judgment, he is innocent., whether 
 his acts are lawful or the reverse. This distinction between the acts of 
 individuals and of public officers runs through all the cases which can be 
 found in our books. The acts spoken of in the resolution as assumptions 
 of power in derogation of the Constitution and law, were acts done by 
 the President in his official capacity ; therefore, the resolution imputes to 
 him no criminality whatever. 
 
 The Senate unanimously adopted a resolution against tlie late Post- 
 master-General, condemning some of his acts as unlawful ; but it charges 
 him with no crime. If error is hereafter to constitute crime in our public 
 oflScers, I should like to know who is to be judge. "Who feels that he has 
 the infallible standard ? If any one will say " I have it," my Avord for it, 
 if you will cultivate his acquaintance, you will soon find he wants the 
 common requisites, integrity and talents., essential to constitute a tolerable 
 judge. 
 
 If we expunge the journal, then wc will have established the doctrine 
 that, in every case, a President, or any other civil officer, may assume 
 authority and powers not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in 
 derogation of both, and we dare not say that is our opinion. Against 
 such a doctrine I enter my protest. "We not only have the power, but it 
 is our duty to exercise it whenever such a case occurs. Suppose the 
 
 13 
 
194 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 President to nominate for some office a man wlio already liolds the office 
 of governor or judge, I surely would have a right to say I will not vote 
 for him, because I think he has, in the office he now holds, assumed 
 powers he did not possess, and therefore I will not trust him farther. 
 
 After having said so, if he is impeached, I cannot be challenged and 
 excluded from sitting as one of his triers. I have charged him with 
 no crime ; and, having given an opinion that his conduct was unlawful, 
 does not disqualify me. If this were so, we must reverse the whole 
 order of things ; and whenever a judge is called ou to decide a cause 
 similar to one he had before decided, we must exclude him, and appoint 
 some other ; whereas the common impression has ever been, that the 
 judge is the better qualified for having examined and previously decided 
 the same or a similar question. 
 
 In England a peer cannot be challenged because he has previously given 
 an opinion ; nor can a Senator here. They are judges, having a right to 
 decide the law as well as the facts of the case. 
 
 But the Senate heretofore attempted to exercise this very power in the 
 case of the Panama nominations. Mr. Adams (I beg pardon, the late 
 President), in his message, told us he had the power to have sent ministers 
 without consulting the Senate ; but, as they were soon to be in session, he 
 thought it best to delay the appointments, and consult them. A resolu- 
 tion was submitted denying this claimed power, and a long discussion 
 ensued. If we contested this claimed but unexerted power, can any one 
 doubt but, if it had been exercised, we would have denied it by a resolu- 
 tion if we could ? For one, I never doubted but the President honestly 
 entertained the opinion expressed. 
 
 The subject of removing the deposits had been regularly brought before 
 the Senate by the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. It was one on 
 which we had a right to legislate. We had a right to know why it was 
 done, and how it was done, to either approve or disapprove ; to legislate 
 upon it: to direct the money to be returned, or to be kept anywhere else; 
 in short, to approve or disapprove what had been done. 
 
 "We could have thanked the executive for his prompt attention to the. 
 public interest; for his efficiency in displacing one Secretarj', who would 
 not remove the money, and appointing another who would. Why, then, 
 had the Senate no power to say that, in doing these things, he trans- 
 cended his power ? To me it appears they had constitutionally the power 
 to pass the resolution. But it then Avas, and yet is, my opinion tliat, in 
 exercising this power, the Senate tliemsclves erred when they resolved 
 that he had assumed powers not conferred. I believed he had the power 
 to remove the Secretary, and to do every other act then attributed to 
 him, if he believed a proper case was made out for its exercise. Am I 
 to be told by Senators who voted for the resolution that I committed a 
 crime when I voted against them? I hope not. Nor am I at liberty to 
 
EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS. 195 
 
 say they comTnittcd a crime -vvlieu tliey disagreed in opinion with me. 
 This is evcrytliing the resolution charges the President with, lie thought 
 he had the power wliich he exercised; a majority of the Senate tliought 
 he had not., and so expressed themselves in the resolution, not question- 
 ing the purity of tlie motives from Avhich lie acted. ]Jy doing so they 
 did not a-;sunie any power not conferred on them by the Constitution. 
 
 In Great Britain the House of Lords acts as a court. A writ of errors 
 lies there to remove a cause from the Court of King's Bench. Suppose a 
 cause thus removed, and the judgment reversed, because the judges had 
 assigned powers they did 7iot possess; if they were afterwards impeached 
 for so deciding, because they were bribed, could not tlie peers try the im- 
 peachment ? Undoubtedly they cojuld. I cannot vote to expunge or deface 
 our journal, because I think the Constitution forbids it. I cannot assign 
 as a reason for either expunging or rescinding the resolution that the 
 Senate had no power to adopt it, because I do not think so ; and because 
 I think it of the last importance we should retain with the Senate those 
 powers vested in it for high and important purposes, and which are, or 
 may be, essential to preserve tlie liberty of the people ; but most willingly 
 can I vote to rescind, reverse, and repeal the resolution ; because I think 
 that the Senate erred in adopting it. To say the least, there are doubts 
 of our power to expunge : and no one, I think, ought to be certain the 
 Senate had no power to adopt the resolution. "Why, then, shall we cling 
 to the word " expunge,'' and to this reason^ when there is a plain course 
 to pursue, in which w^hat is due to the Chief Magistrate and to ourselves 
 can be accomplished. To nie, the reason is obvious. To expunge has 
 become an executive measure. It is now the watchword of a party ; and, 
 by its use, those are to be hitnted down who will not conform to the 
 will of the party. In March, 1834, when the resolution was adopted, a 
 majority of the Senate was opposed to the Chief Magistrate, llis long 
 and valuable services have endeared him to the American people. They 
 are sensitive as to everything which can affect his reputation as a man or 
 as an officer. 
 
 My opinion had been expressed, and was well known; I believe it con- 
 forms to the opinion of my State and its legislature ; and I hold myself 
 especially bound to endeavor to have it effected by the adoption of the 
 resolution which I have submitted. Those who believe that either I or 
 the people of my State are opponents of the Administration, mistake our 
 character. Oar politics are as they have been ; we now stand on the 
 same ground^ advocate the same principles we did in 1828, when sustain- 
 ing General Jackson to bring him into power. But we are the slave of no 
 man ; and when it is attempted to ingraft on our priacii)les a system 
 which does not belong to them, T will not yield my assent, be the conse- 
 quences what they may. My wish is to rescind, reverse, and repeal the 
 resolution of 183i, because, in my judgment, it is erroneous^ and because 
 
196 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 I believe such is the judgment of my State. To vote to expunge it, I 
 cannot ; because, in my opinion, the Constitution forbids it ; and, anxi^- 
 ous as my constituents are to vindicate the character of the Chief Magis- 
 trate, they will never require me to do so at the expense of that sacred 
 instrument, which we are all under the most high and most solemn obli- 
 gations to maintain inviolate. 
 
 The objections thus made were ultimately evaded by so wording 
 the resolution as to make it define the mode of performing the pro- 
 posed operation ; and after a desperate resistance by the opposition, 
 which at last, in the words of Mr. Webster, as recorded by Mr. Ben- 
 ton in his " Thirty Years' View," had " degenerated into a question of 
 nerves and muscles," the expunging resolution was passed, March 1 6th 
 183Y. Upon that day the secretary, in the presence of the Senate, 
 produced the original journal, and (in the words of the resolution) 
 " having drawn a square of broad, black lines around the ' obnoxious 
 censuring resolution,' wrote across its face in strong letters these 
 words: ' Expunged by order of the Senate, this 16th day of March, 
 1837.'" 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BEKATORIAL CAREER ABOLITION PUBLIC LAND DISTRIBUTION — SUB- 
 TREASURY — TARIFF — DEMEANOR BUSINESS HABITS SURNAME. 
 
 Upon the disturbing question of slavery, which has since grown 
 so portentously in importance, Judge AVhite's sentiments were loyal 
 to those of his native State, and were characterized by the solidity 
 and prudence which were such important elements in his character. 
 These sentiments he expressed March 2d, 1836, upon occasion of the 
 presentation of one of the petitions then so frequently presented by 
 some northern members for the abolition of slavery within the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. Upon that occasion he spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. President: I address you under the solemn conviction that if 
 this government is to continue to accomplish the great purposes for 
 which it was established, it can only be, by admiuistering it in the same 
 spirit in wliicb it was created. 
 
 "When the Constitution was framed, the great and leading interests of 
 the whole country were considered, and in the spirit of liberality and 
 compromise were adjusted and settled. 
 
 They were settled upon principles that ought to remain undisturbed 
 BO long as the Constitution lasts, which I hope will be for ever ; for 
 although liberty may be preferable to the Union, yet I think tlie Union 
 is indispensable to the security of liberty. At the formation of the 
 Constitution, slavery existed in many of the States ; it was one of the 
 prominent interests that was then settled. It, in all its domestic bear- 
 ings, was left, exclusively to the respective States, to do with, as they 
 might tliink best, without any interference on the part of the federal 
 government. This, it is admitted, by every gentleman who has 
 addressed you, is now the case, in every slaveholding State ; therefore, 
 it is only urged that Congress has the power to abolish slavery in the 
 District of Coliunhia. It should never be forgotten tliat when tlio Con- 
 stitution was formed and adopted, what is now the District of Coluiiibiii, 
 was then comprehended within two of the slaveholding States, Mary- 
 land and Virginia. 
 
 19T 
 
198 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Suppose when all the details of the Constitution had been adjusted, it 
 had been foi-eseen, that the District of Columbia would be formed out of 
 a tract of country ceded by those States, and situated in the centre 
 between them, it had been asked of the members of the convention, 
 what do you intend as to the district ? You have placed the question of 
 slavery in the States, entirely under their control within their respective 
 limits, do you intend that Congress shall have the power to abolish 
 slavery in the district ? "Would not every man have answered in the 
 negative ? 
 
 It has been said that when petitions to abolish slavery are presented 
 to eitlier House of Congress, those who demand the question Avhether 
 they shall be received, and thus produce discussion, are agitators, and 
 produce excitement on this delicate subject. To me it seems this is 
 unfair. Let us for a moment consider the circumstances of the country, 
 and the situation in which we are all placed. 
 
 There are twenty-four States, several Territories, and this District. 
 Thirteen of these States have no slaves, the other eleven have slaves ; 
 in fact, their slaves constitute a large item of all the property they own. 
 During the past year, it has so happened, that many newspapers, 
 pamphlets, and pictorial representations made their appearance, and 
 through the mail, and by other means, extensively circulated in the 
 slaveholding States. By these means, a spirit of discontent was created, 
 which occasioned much excitement and disorder in various places, and 
 rendered it necessary, in a summary manner, to put to death several 
 white persons, and a number of slaves. In various quarters of the 
 Union there were assemblages of people, who expressed their opinions 
 with great freedom. In the course of the fall and winter, many of the 
 State Legislatures have been in session — they have been addressed on 
 this subject by their respective governors. They have expressed pub- 
 licly their opinions — the President, in his message, has invited the 
 attention of Congress to it — the Senate has referred that part of the 
 message to a special committee, which has made a lengthy report, 
 accompanied by a bill, which is now upon our docket, and must, in due 
 course, be discussed, and either passed or rejected. Are all these to be 
 called agitators, and charged with unnecessarily producing excitement ? 
 If not, how is it that members of Congress are to be thus charged when 
 petitions are presented that we must in some mode dispose of? Each 
 of us must suggest such mode as we think most correct, and none can 
 justly bo liable to any such charge. If tliere is any wrong, it is found in 
 those, who, in such a state of public feeling, will press their petitions 
 upon us. Tlio petitions are forwarded to members who feel it tlieir 
 duty to present them ; when presented, others tliink it their duty to 
 demand the question whether tliey shall be received. Is it true that on 
 this delicate subject, every officer of the federal or State goverumeut, 
 
. , ABOLITION rETITIONS. 1 99 
 
 can express his opinion, as to wliat it is best to do, and that a senator 
 dare not express liis opinion withont being liable to censure? I hope not. 
 
 This is a delicate subject : would to God it had apt been pressed upoa 
 us ; but as it is placed here by the petitioners, we must dispose of it. 
 To enable us to do so, we must think upon it, and we may tell each 
 other what we think, and our reasons for so thinking. 
 
 It is not by speaking upon it we will be likely to do mischief. Every- 
 thing depends upon tlie temper with which we express our opinions, and 
 the sentiments we advance. My wish and aim is, if I can do no good, to 
 do no harm, and if I believed in what I propose to say, I would utter a 
 sentiment froni which mischief would be produced, I would close my 
 lips, take my seat, and content myself Avith yea or nay, to every question 
 proposed by others, leaving every person at liberty to conjecture tho 
 reasons for my votes ; but entertaining no fear of that kind, I nmst ask 
 permission to state, as briefly as I can, some of the reasons for the course 
 I shall pursue. 
 
 In doing this, I shall not address myself to senators coming from 
 either the East, or the West, the Nortli, or the South, in particular, but 
 to the Senate, the whole Senate, because if it is desired, as I believe it is, 
 that we should remain together as one people^ secure, prosperous, happy 
 and contented, the whole country, every section of it has a deep interest 
 in this matter, this agitation and excitement must cease. 
 
 What then ought we to do, as most likely to put an end to those 
 angry feelings which now prevail. 
 
 In my opinion, we should refuse to receive these petitions. It 13 a 
 mere question of expedienc}' what disposition we shall make of thena. 
 All who have yet spoken admit that Congress has no poicer whatever 
 over slavery in the respective States. It is settled. Whether slavery is 
 right or wrong, we have now no poicer to consider or discuss. Suppose, 
 then, a petition were presented, to abolish slavery in the States, would 
 we receive it ? Assuredly we ought not, because it Avould be asking us 
 to act upon a subject over which we have no power. 
 
 But these are petitions asking Congress to abolish slavery in this dis- 
 trict. Have we the power? I thinh not. I consider the argument of 
 the honorable senator from Virginia (ifr. Leigh), upon that i)uint, con- 
 clusive. It has not beeen answered, and I do not believe it can bo. 
 Slaves are property in this district — Congress cannot take private 
 property, even ior jniUic me^ without making just coinpensation to tho 
 owner. No fund is provided by tho Constitution to pay for slaves 
 which may be liberated, and the Constitution never gives Congress tlie 
 power to act upon any subject, without, at the same time, furnishing 
 the means for its accomplishment. To liberate slaves is not taking them 
 for pul)lic use. It is declaring that neither individuals nor the publio 
 shall use tliem. I wi)l not weaken tho honorable member's argument by 
 going over it. 
 
200 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 This district was intended as the place where the great business of 
 the nation should be transacted for the good of the whole. Congress, 
 under the Constitution, is placed here to legislate upon those subjects 
 enumerated and specified in the Constitution, that we miglit be able to 
 protect ourselves, and the officers residing here, and be out of tlie reach 
 of the laws of any State. It was never intended tliat we should have 
 any local legislation, except such as would meet the wants and the 
 wishes of the people residing Avithin the ten miles square. "We should 
 never permit this place to be converted into a political workshop, where 
 plans would be devised, or carried into operation, that will have the 
 effect of destroying the interest of any of the States. 
 
 Members of Congress, executive, and judicial officers, were to come from 
 any, and every section of the Union. From the slaveholding, and the 
 non-slaveholding States ; and their property was to be as secure here, in 
 this ten miles square, as it was in the States from which they respectively- 
 came. They would bring their habits and their domestic servants with 
 them. Those from the non-slaveholding States their hired servants, and 
 those from the slaveholding States their slaves ; and who can believe it 
 was intended to vest the power in Congress to liberate them if brought 
 within the district. 
 
 Again, the right of property in slaves in the States is sacred, and be- 
 yond the power of Congress to interfere with, in any respect ; yet, if it be 
 conceded that we have the power to liberate them in the district, we can 
 as effectually ruin the owners as if we had the power to liberate slaves in 
 the States. By abolishing slavery here, we not only make a place of re- 
 fuge for runaways, but we produce a spirit of discontent and rebellion in 
 the minds of slaves in the neighboring States, which will soon spread 
 over all, and which cannot fail to compel owners to destroy their own 
 slaves, to preserve their own lives, and those of their wives and children. 
 I beseech gentlemen to look at this matter as it is. Take for illustration 
 the case of a small planter in Mississippi, living on liis own land, with 
 thirty slaves to cultivate it. Suddenly it is discovered that one half of 
 them is concerned in a plot to destroy the lives of their master, his fjxm- 
 ily, and neighbors, with a view to produce their freedom, and immedi- 
 ately with or without law they are tucked up and hanged. The man is 
 thus deprived of his property without any chance for an indemnit}-, besides 
 the disquiet and anxiety of mind occasioned by a loss of confidence in his 
 remaining slaves. It cannot have been intended tliat Congress by acting 
 on this subject, should liave a power thus to occasion a destruction of 
 slave property. 
 
 To me it seems that we ought to treat these petitions precisely as we 
 would do, if they prayed us to abolish slavery in one of the States. We 
 have no more power to abolish it here than we have there. 
 
 I think in either case we ought to refuse to receive them. I hold that 
 if the petitioners ask us to do that which we have no power to do, or to 
 
ABOLITION PETITIONS. 201 
 
 do that •whicliwill be productive of a great and lasting mischief, we not 
 only have tlie righi^ but that it is our duty to refuse to receive them. 
 
 By the Constitution no man can be lield to answer for a criminal charge 
 but by presentment, or indictment. Suppose a petition presented here, al- 
 leging that some citizen in the district had been guilty of a crime, and that 
 he was so influential tliat he could not be reached by the ordinary forms 
 of law in court, and therefore we are asked to pass a bill of attafnder. 
 Ought we to receive the petition ? Suppose a petition to ask us to pass a 
 law to prohibit any member of this body from making a speech against 
 the prayer of the petitioners, woidd we receive it? Suppose a petition 
 to be offered asking us to establish a particular religion in tliis district, or 
 to prohibit any publication in a newspaper on the subject of abolisliing 
 slavery, unless it was previously approved of by a committee ; would 
 we, ought we, to receive any such petition ? I think, most certainly, wo 
 ought not. But suppose Ave have the power, is there any senator who 
 believes we ought exercise it. I trust not. Those Avho urge the recep- 
 tion of this petition,., which is from the Society of Friends, have spoken 
 most highly of the petitioners and the class of citizens to which they 
 belong. In all this I cheerfully concur. These particular persons are 
 strangers to me. I doubt not the purity of their motives ; the sect to 
 which they belong is worthy of all the encomiums passed npon it. I 
 respect and esteem them most highly, and do not feel that in iny compo- 
 sition there is a particle of unkindness towards them; but I think they 
 would have us do that which we have no power to do, and if wo had the 
 power, by exercising it, we should do infinite mischief. This, these peti- 
 tioners do not desire. They have discharged what they think is their 
 duty by having their petitions presented; I only discharge mine when I 
 say, consi.stently with what I feel to be my duty, I cannot receive them. 
 
 But it is further insisted, that the right of petition is a sacred one, that 
 belongs to the nature of free government, and existed before the forma- 
 tion of our Constitution, and that instrument did not give the right to 
 petition, but intended oidy to secure it. This is sound doctrine, and has 
 my hearty assent. 
 
 The people are sovereign ; members are their agents, or servants ; they 
 have a right to make known their grievances, real or imaginary. "Wo 
 can pass no lato^ we can make no rule to abridge or destroy tliat right. 
 
 But wliat do gentlemen mean when they speak of the right of peti- 
 tion ? Do they mean that when the petition is presented we must receive 
 it, and do that which is prayed for? No. Not one member contended 
 for this ; so far from it, they say, that if the language of the petitioner is 
 disrespectful to the bodi/, or miy me7nher of it^ we may, and ought to 
 refuse to receive it. 
 
 How is this ? I beg that we may reflect seriously upon this mattef. 
 We are about to establish a doctrine to which I can never yield my assent. 
 
202 ]MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Are we to be exalted above our employers ? Is our dignity to be of higher 
 consideration than the property and lives of those who send us here ? If 
 a petition contains matter charging disgraceful conduct on the Senate, or 
 any of its members, we may not receive it; but if it contains matter which 
 is to destroy the slave property in this district^ and in eleven States of this 
 Union, and also to endanger the Ikes^ and dwellings of every citizen within 
 their limits, we are bound to receive it? 
 
 This is the doctrine contained in the arguments, I deny that there is 
 any such distinction to be found in a single feature of our political insti- 
 tutions. The truth is, we have the power in loth instances to refuse to 
 receive the petitions, but in exercising it when we ourselves only are as- 
 sailed, we ought always to act most Uherally in receiving, but where the 
 safety, the lives and the property of our masters are concerned, we have 
 no right to exercise the same liberality. 
 
 With great deference for the opinions Of others, I think the force of 
 their whole argument rests on a plain mistake. 
 
 They argue as if we never became acquainted with the contents of a 
 petition, or could consider and decide upon its merits until after it is 
 received. 
 
 This is most clearly not correct. What we have been doing for the 
 last few weeks is full proof of it. These petitions have been publicly 
 read, their merits and tendency, and our powers to abolish slavery have 
 been long under discussion — has any man denied our right to do so ? Not 
 one. The only doubt suggested is, whether it was prudent to adopt this 
 course. 
 
 By our 24th rule, when a petition is presented the member must biiefly 
 state its contents, and what the petitioners wish should be done. He 
 then ashs that the petition may he received, and specifies what he wishes 
 to be done with it after it is received. If no member objects, for the pur- 
 pose of saving time, it is received and disposed of without foiuially pro- 
 pounding the question of reception ; but if any member objects, he may 
 call for the reading, and then urge his reasons why it should not be 
 received. 
 
 This rule establishes no new doctrine, it is founded in good sense, is 
 perfectly consistent with the right of petition, and is laid down as the 
 correct practice by Mr. Jefferson in his Manual at page 140. 
 
 What is the right of the petitioner? It consists in his having free per- 
 mission to make known to Congress what he esteems a grievance, and to 
 ask them to provide a remedy. When his petition is presented, the duty 
 of Congress commences. That consists in the members making them- 
 selves acquainted with the contents of the petition, and granting its prayer 
 if it be just and consistent witli the public interest, or in refusing to 
 receive tlie petition, or making some other disposition of it, which in 
 their judgment will more conduce to the good of the community. 
 
ABOLITION PETITIONS. 203 
 
 "When we refuse to receive a petition, we no more destroy or impair 
 the riglit of petition, than we do when we receive the petition and lay it 
 npon the table, or reject the prayer of it, or refer it to a committee who 
 report that it is unreasonable, and ought not to be granted. 
 
 In each of these cases, the complaint of the petitioner has been heard^ 
 C07isidered and decided on. In neitlier instance has he obtained a redress 
 for what lie supposed a grievance, but eacJi leaves liim equally at liberty 
 to renew his petition at any subsequent period. 
 
 Four modes have been suggested by which to dispose of this and all 
 others on the same subject. 
 
 The first we have been considering, and is to refuse to receive it. 
 
 The second is to receive them, lay them on the table, and there let 
 them lie. 
 
 The third is to receive them, and then instantly reject the prayer of 
 the petitioners. 
 
 The fourth is to receive them, refer them to a committee, and let that 
 committee make a report upon them. 
 
 I prefer the first, because, when we refuse to receive the petitions, they 
 are returned to those who sent them, and it will most strongly discoun- 
 tenance all hope that Congress ever can, or ever ought, to pass any law 
 upon the subject to which they refer. 
 
 In each of the other three, we retain the petitions, place them on our 
 files in the custody of our oflicer, and at any subsequent session they aro 
 here, and it will be competent for any memltor to move their roforenco 
 to a committee; whereas, if returned to the petitioner, if they ever 
 again make their appearance, it must be by their being re-sent and 
 re-presented. 
 
 I think that plan is the most advisable, and will be most likely to calm 
 the disturbance in the slave States, which will most strongly manifest to 
 all, in every quarter, tliat Congress will not interfere with slavery as it 
 exists in the States and in this district. 
 
 If these petitions are received, I tlien think the disposition of them 
 proposed by the senator from Pennsylvania the next best — that is, 
 immediately to reject their prayer. This would be far preferable to lay- 
 ing them silently on the table without expresssing any opinion whatever. 
 
 There is another aspect in which this question may bo viewed that has 
 had great influence on my own mind. 
 
 Congress sits here as the legislature of the whole Union, and also as t!ie 
 only legislature for the local concerns of the District of Columbia. 
 These petitions do not ask us to make agencral law, operating throughout 
 the irhole Union, but a law, the operations of Avhich are to be spent entirely 
 upon property within the ten miles square. Now if we were in form, 
 as well as in substance, a local legislature Avhen acting on this question, 
 which gentlemen say is to affect slavery in the district, and no 
 
204 MEMOIll OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 where else, -would we be bound to receive these petitions ? No more 
 than we are bound to receive petitions from France or Germany. "Would 
 gentlemen, if sitting as members of the legislature of Alabama, feel 
 bound to receive petitions from citizens of Maine or Pennsylvania to 
 emancipate slaves within their own State ? Assuredly not. If that be 
 so, is it not most reasonable, when we are called upon to pass an act con- 
 fined exclusively to this district, that we should conduct towards the 
 people here, as if in this matter they were our constituents ? 
 
 Will it not be time enough to receive petitions on this subject when 
 they are presented on behalf of those upon wTioae property alone^ it is 
 said the law would operate? 
 
 Honorable senators have told us there are two classes of aboli- 
 tionists, and that public opinion will soon put down the mischievous 
 class, which is small in number. Gentlemen, I doubt not, think as they 
 say. All we know is, that our peace has been very much disturbed by 
 them, whether few or many. 
 
 Their neAvspapers, their pamphlets and pictorial representations have 
 been plentiful. They have come to us through the mail, and by other 
 means, in great abundance, and if we are to live together as one people, 
 they must stop. It is vain to reason with people about the hberty of 
 speech, and of the press, when their lives are put at hazard. When the 
 domestic circle is invaded, when a man is afraid to eat his provisions, lest 
 his cook has been prevailed on to mix poison with his food, or dare not 
 go to sleep, lest the servants will cut the throats of himself, his wife and 
 children before he awakes, he will not endure it ; and, when he can lay 
 hands upon those who prompt to such deeds of mischief, he will not wait 
 for the ordinary form of law to redress hira. He takes the laws into his 
 own hands, and everything which accustoms us to violate the law, is a 
 serious evil in a country as free as ours, where the laws should govern. 
 
 The honorable senator from Mississippi has shown us something of the 
 feelings of his State, which has suffered much. In mine, when we first 
 heard of punishing persons in Mississippi, without legal trial, we thought 
 it all wrong, and some of our leading newspapers courteously found fault 
 with it. Their columns were not long dry until one of these distributers 
 of abolition pamphlets was found in our most populous and respectable 
 city, and an assemblage of our most orderly and discreet citizens immedi- 
 ately resorted for address to the same summary process which had been 
 used in our sister State. 
 
 Public opinion may have done something on this subject. I know of only 
 one attempt to establish a press for such publications in any slaveholding 
 State. The neighbors of the gentleman informed him that his press 
 would bo productive of mischief, and he must not establisli it in their 
 town— lie answered that he held it a high duty which he could not dis- 
 pense with, to proceed, and he would do so. They replied if he did they 
 
rUBLIC LANDS FOR ACTUAL SE'lTLERS. 205 
 
 would consider it their duty to demolish his building, and sow his t^-pcs 
 broad-cast in tho streets. This manifestation of p.ublic opinion he 
 respected. He knew that those with whom he had to deal would keep 
 their word. He desisted, retired to a neighboring State, where, as I have 
 understood, lie is now publishing his paper. 
 
 I beg gentlemen to consider that it is of no consequence to us whether 
 the abolitionists, in their States, are many or few; their publications are 
 numerous ; they have already produced much mischief, and if persisted in, 
 must end in consequences to be for ever regretted by us all. 
 
 For myself, on tho subject of the disposition wo may make of these 
 petitions, I can have no other wish than that it may be such, as will most 
 tend to allay excitement, and restore that harmony, which is so essential 
 to the common interest of our whole country. 
 
 ^Vhen Mr. Clay's bill for the distribution of the proceeds of the 
 Public Lands was first presented, Judge White voted against it, for 
 the plain reason that the treasury was comparatively empty, and the 
 nation in debt. When it was subsequently presented, the treasury 
 was full to overflowing, and he voted for it ; sustaining it in a speech 
 worthy of his reputation, in which he maintained that the surplus in 
 the treasury had been gathered by taxation from the people, and that 
 it was but just that it should now be distributed for their benefit. 
 He also forcibly exhibited the vices of the various other j)laiis for the 
 use of the same funds ; and took occasion to urge tho adoption of 
 measures substantially identical with those at present urged for facili- 
 tating the purchase of land by actual settlers upon it. This well- 
 considered and valuable speech, delivered April 26, 1836, is as follows : 
 
 Mr. President : Tile subject under consideration is not new, but the 
 circumstances connected with it are both novel and important. 
 
 Formerly we were in debt, and had no money in tho treasury, which 
 we could not conveniently use. Now we owe nothing, and have an 
 overflowing treasury. The common wants for an economical adminis- 
 tration of the government, will require but a small portion of our vast 
 and accumulating treasure; and the question is, what disposition shall 
 we make of the surplus. 
 
 Several projects have been presented. An increase of the Army, of the 
 Navy, additional fortifications, and munitions of War, is one plan. An- 
 other is to put the funds in the power of tlie Commissioners of tlie Sinking 
 Fund, and let them vest them in stocks, which will add to our wealth. 
 A third is, to form contracts with incorporated railroad companies, for 
 transporting the mail, your warlike stores, and your armies. And tho 
 
206 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSOX WDITE. 
 
 fourth is that presented hy this bill, which is to distribute the proceeds 
 of the public lands among the several States. 
 
 In forming an opinion upon this subject I find myself compelled to 
 form some opinion on each of the others also, that I may be able to de- 
 cide which ought be preferred. 
 
 But the first question to be settled is one oi power. 
 
 If we have no power to dispose of this money, as this bill proposes, it 
 is only a waste of time to pursue the subject any farther. 
 
 Some of our enlightened public men, years past, foresaw difiiculties, 
 which would, in time, originate from surpluses accumulating in the trea- 
 sury, and suggested this very plan for disposing of them. Some doubted 
 the power under the Constitution, and suggested an amendment to remove 
 the doubt ; others felt no doubts, therefore did not deem any amendment 
 necessary. All, however, seem to have concm-red in the fairness and 
 justice of this disposition of such funds, as might not be needed, for the 
 uses of the federal government. 
 
 If I mistake not, Mr. Jefterson, while President, made a suggestion to 
 Congi-ess on this subject. 
 
 Ten years ago an^honorable senator, from New Jersey, now Secretary 
 of the Navy, and I do him the justice to add, then, as well as now, a 
 zealous friend of the present Chief Magistrate, moved in this body on 
 this subject, had a conuuittee created, made an able, detailed report, 
 accompanied by a bill, which was not finally acted on during the session. 
 
 To do that gentleman justice I must recur to this report, and read such 
 parts of it as are material, that we may have the benefit of his opinion as 
 enforced by himself. It is found in the 4th vol. of the Senate Documents 
 at the session 1825 and 1826 : doc. 95, page 1 ; and is in these words : 
 
 The Committee, from as careful an examination of the subject, as a due attention to their 
 other duties would permit tliem to make, have come to the conclusion that great advantages 
 would result to tlie United States from an annual distribution among them, by some equitable 
 ratio, of a portion of our national revenue, for the purposes of education and internal improve- 
 ment, or for such other purposes as the State governments may respectively deem most to their 
 advanfdge. Whether the United States shall divide the whole of their revenues, beyond what 
 are required for the usual expenditures of the government, domestic and foreign, civil, military, 
 and naval, to the reduction of our public debt, until the whole of it shall be extinguished ; or 
 whether they shall apply a portion of those revenues, as proposed for the most important pur- 
 poses, and thereby cause a more gradual reduction of the public debt, resolves itself into a 
 question of expediency. 
 
 It remains for Congress to determine which of these courses will most effectually promote 
 the present, as well as the future, prosperity of the country. There can be no doubt, that money 
 distributed among the States as proposed, would be invested in a way to give much greater 
 profit, than the Interest on such money would yield at three, four and a half, or even five per 
 cent, which are the rates of interest now paid on the greater part of our public debt. 
 
 As a large portion of this debt is payable to persons in Europe, to discharge it as fast as our 
 means would permit, would be to send from the country sooner than necessary, funds that are 
 wanted at home; the inconvenience of which would be sensibly felt in the present embarrassed 
 state of our money market, and most probably, for several years to come. 
 
 Money distributed as proposed, would give new acth-ity to industry and enterprise in all 
 the States; and \.hai equally and simuUaneoiuly. 
 
PUBLIC LANDS FOR ACTUAL SETTLERS. 207 
 
 It would create a Tigilance on the p.irt of the State governments, over the expenditures of 
 the general government, and thereby prevent the waste of money, and the adoption of extra- 
 vagant measures, that might diminish the amount of the annual dividends. 
 
 It would secure impartial juii(ic« to uU the States in the distribution of the expenditures of 
 our revenue, a failure In which at present is a subject of loud and just coni|>liiint. 
 
 It would relieve the general government of the serious inconvenience of an overflowing 
 treasury, which, if not provided for In the manner proposed, or by a reduction of our revenue, 
 will impair the most important prinoiples of our Constitution. 
 
 It would relieve the two Houses of Congress of a large portion of legislation, now devoted to 
 the disposal of our surplus funds — legislation of the worst kind, calculated to produce combi- 
 nations, sectional feelings, injustice and waste of tlie public treasure. 
 
 It would transfer to the States, the regulation of expenditures for internal improvements by 
 roads and canals, which if retained and exercised by the general government, contrary, as is 
 believed by many, to the letter and spirit of our Constitution, will, in time, so far decrease the 
 powers of the State governments, and increase those of the United States government, as to 
 destroy the federative principle of our Union, and convert our system of confederated republics 
 into a consolidated government. 
 
 It would remove the cause of the great and increasing difficulties arising from an objection, 
 on constitutional grounds, to the exercise of the right claimed on the part of the United States, 
 of making roads and canals through the different States of the Union. It would enable the 
 general government to keep in operation an efficient system of finance and revenue with ad- 
 vantage to the States. And should the exigencies of the country require the application of all 
 our means to some object connected with our national peace and prosperity, those means could 
 soon be brought into operation, by suspending, for a time, the dividends to the States. By this 
 our treasury would be filled without a sudden resort to new taxes, whicli might be oppressive 
 to agriculture, and which might create much inconvenience by interrupting the pursuits and 
 industry of our citizens. 
 
 Money collected from the sources which now give us our revenues and distributed among 
 tHe States as proposed, would produce a rapid and profitable circulation of our funds, from the 
 centre to the extremities of the Union, and thus add to the force of the moneyed capital of the 
 country. 
 
 It will here bo remarked, no doubt was felt or expressed, as to power 
 to distribute every portion of the revenue, vt'hich could be spared, and a 
 plan was recommended for adoption immediately, although we then owed 
 a large debt, bearing various rates of interest from three up to six per 
 centum. 
 
 Next in the order of time, is the message of the present Chief Magis- 
 trate at the commencement of the session of Congress in 1829, found in 
 the Senate Journal, pages 13 and 14. That part of it which is material, 
 is in these words : 
 
 After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any adjustment of the tariff, upon 
 principles satisfactory to the people of the Union, will, until a remote period, if ever, leave the 
 government without a considerable surplus in the treasury, beyond what may be necessary 
 forits current service. As then the period approaches when the application of the revenue 
 to the payment of debt will cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a subject for tlie 
 serious deliberation of Congress, and it may be fortunate for the country that it is yet to bo 
 decided. Considered in connection with the difficulties which have heretofore attended appropria- 
 tions for purposes of internal improvement, and with those which this experience tells us will 
 certainly arise, whenever power over such subjects may be exercised by the general govern- 
 ment, it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some plan, which will reconcile the diver- 
 sified interests of the States, and strengthen the bonds which unite them. Kvery nvember of 
 the Union, in peace and in war, will he benefited by the improvement of inland navigation, 
 and the construction of highwdya In the several States. Let us then endeavor to attain this 
 
208 MEMOIR OF HUGH-LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 benefit in a mode which v'H be satisfactoi-y to all. That liilherto adopted has, by many of our 
 feiloT-citizens, been deprecated as an infi-action of the Constitution; wliile, by otliers, it has 
 been avonred inexpedient. AU feel that it has been employed at the expense of harmony in 
 the legislative councils. 
 
 To avoid these evils, it appears to me that the most safe, just and federal disposition, which 
 could be made of the surplus revenue, would be its apportionment among the several States ac- 
 cording to their ratio of repi'esentation — and should this measure not be found warranted by 
 the Constitution, that it would be expedient to propose to the States an amendment authorizing 
 It. I regard an appeal to the source of power, in cases of real doubt, and when its exercise is 
 deemed indispensable to the general welfare, as among the most sacred of all our obligations. 
 Upon this country, more than any other, has, in the providence of God, been cast the special 
 guardianship of the great principle of adherence to written Constitutions. If it fail hare, all 
 hope in regard to it will be extinguished. Tiiat this was intended to be a government of 
 limited and specific, and not general, powers, nmst be admitted by all ; and it is our duty to 
 preserve for it the character intended by its framers. If experience points out the necessity 
 tpT an enlargement of these powers, let us apply for it to those for whose benefit it is to be 
 exercised; and not undermine the whole system by a resort to overstrained constructions. 
 
 It will be perceived that in these two short paragraphs, the justice and 
 utility of distributing these surplus funds, are presented to the mind, in 
 language as clear, distinct, and forcible, as can well be employed. 
 
 It was not necessary to his purpose, and therefore he did not examine 
 the question Avhether the powers of Congress over the moneys arising 
 from the piiblic lands, were as limited as those possessed over moneys 
 derived from taxes, and he contents himself with the expression of a 
 general doubt on the question of power, and recommends an amendment 
 of the Constitution to remove it. 
 
 At the session of 1831 and 1832, this subject is introduced into the 
 report of Mr. McLane, then Secretary of the Treasury, and afterwards 
 Secretary of State. "What he says will be found in the Senate Documents, 
 vol. 1, doc. 8, page 12 — and is in these words: 
 
 The sources from which the revenue has hitherto been derived, are the imports, public lands, 
 and bank dividends. With the sales of the bank stock tlie latter will cease; and as the 
 Imports, according to any scale of duties which it will be expedient and practicable to adopt, 
 will be "amply sufficient" to meet all the expenditures, that portion of the revenue heretofore 
 drawn from the sale of the public lands may be dispensed with, should Congress see fit to do so. 
 
 On this point, the undersigned deems it proper to observe, that tlie creation of numerous 
 Stales tliroughout the Western country, now forming a most important part of the Union, and 
 the relative powers claimed and exercised by Congress and the respective States over the public 
 lauds, have been gradually accumulating causes of inquietude and difficulty, if not of com- 
 plaint. It may well deserve consideration, therefore, whether, at a period demanding an ami- 
 cable and permanent adjustment of the various subjects which now agitate the public mind, 
 these may not be advantageously disposed of, in common with the others, and upon principles 
 just and satisfactory to all parts of the Union. 
 
 It must be admitted that the public lands were ceded by the States, or subsequently acquired 
 by the United Slates, for the common benefit, and that "each State has an interest in their 
 proceeds, of which It cannot justly be deprived." Over this part of the public property, the 
 powers of the general government have been uniformly supposed to have a peculiarly extensive 
 scope, and have been construed to authorize their application to purposes of education and 
 Improvement, to which other branches of ruvenue were not deemed applicable. It is not prac- 
 tlcubk- to keep the public lands out of the market, and the present mode of disposing of them is 
 not Uic most pruQ tabic, .eilUcr to the general government, or to the States, and must be 
 
PUBLIC LANDS FOE ACTUAL SETTLERS. 209 
 
 expected, when the proceeds shall be no longer required for the public debt, to give rise to new 
 and more serious objections. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it is submitted to the wisdom of Congress, to decide upon the 
 propriety of all the public lands in the aggregate, to those States within whose territorial limits 
 they lie, at a fair price, to be settled in such manner as might be satisfactory to all. The aggre- 
 gate price of the whole " may then be apportioned among the several States of the Union," 
 according to such equitable ratio as may be consistent with the objects of the original session, 
 and the proportion of each paid. 
 
 The vigorous and discriminating mind of this highly gifted and useful 
 man, at once recognizes as sound, a distinction in the powers of Congress 
 over moneys derived from a disposition of the public lands, and those 
 powers which that body may be supposed to possess over money's derived 
 from other sources, and he strongly urges the necessity and propriety of 
 a distribution among the States. 
 
 It is fortunate that we are not yet placed in circumstances which make 
 it essential to decide whether we have a power to divide all surplus reve- 
 nue, no matter from what source derived. 
 
 I profess to be what is called a strict constructionist of the Constitu- 
 tion, and tliat our power to appropriate money is necessarily confined to 
 appropriations, to effect some object upon which Congress is expressly 
 empoicered to legislate^ or some necessary and appropriate means to effect 
 such enumerated objects. Still I never have been satisfied we do not pos- 
 sess the power to distribute surplus revenue, if it is believed wise to do so. 
 
 No just government will take, either by direct or indirect taxes, more 
 money than is necessary to defray all the reasonuMe expenses of the 
 government. When taxes are imposed either directly, or by an assess- 
 ment of duties, it cannot be foretold precisely how much will be wanted, 
 or how much will be received, in the treasury. "We must necessarily act 
 upon estimates. To some extent, we shall be mistaken. Foreseeing this, 
 and for the sake of collecting what tvill be certainly sufficient, we shall 
 almost invariably collect more than is necessary. In a series of years, 
 these accumulating balances will amount to a sum too large to remain 
 locked up and entirely useless. "What then is to be done ? "We surely 
 are not at liberty to devise some wasteful and mischievous project, merely 
 to use the money. 
 
 It came into the treasury by mistake — mistakes which, in the nature 
 of things, could not be avoided. Have we no power to correct them 
 when discovered? Is not the power to refund the money ^necessary 
 result from the power to assess and collect it ? 
 
 Is not this a power which Congress has always exercised, and must 
 exercise, as to individuals ? 
 
 By mistake, our officers collect and place in the treasury, money which 
 ought not to have been collected ; the mistake is discovered, and the indi- 
 vidual calls on Congress for redress. "We pass a law to refund the money. 
 "Where do we get power to do this? There is no express grant of 
 
 14 
 
210 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 any such power; but it results from the very nature of the relation 
 which exists between the payer and receiver. The latter must always 
 have power to act justly.^ to act ho?icstly, and whenever he finds he has 
 money through mistalce^ he would seem to have power to return it. But 
 I do not intend to express any opinion on this point, or to prolong a dis- 
 cussion, by introducing important topics,, not necessary to our action on 
 this bill. All I intended, was to state, for myself, that should it ever 
 become necessary to discuss the general subject of our power to distribute 
 the ichole surplus, no matter from tcJiat source derived, for one, I think 
 it well worth a careful and deliberate consideration, before it is either 
 affirynecl or denied ; and I most heartily concur in the sound doctrine of 
 the President, that we ought not to act, when there is a reasonable doubt 
 of our power. 
 
 The question which we must now decide is, whether we have power to 
 do that, which all admit, it is perfectly j?<s« we should do, if we have the 
 power — distribute the proceeds of the sales of the public lands. 
 
 The following considerations have satisfied my own mind, and they are 
 respectfully submitted for the reflection of others. Our public lands 
 were acquired by the United States, by deeds of cessions from several 
 individual States, and by the purchase of Louisiana and Tlorida, which 
 ■rvere paid for by moneys derived from the kcnds icTiich Tiad been ceded hy 
 individual States. 
 
 The most important cession was made by the State of Virginia, in the 
 year 1784, and that part of the cession material to our present purpose, is 
 in the following words : 
 
 That all the lands within the territory so ceded to the United States, and not reserved for, 
 or appropriated to any of the before-mentioned purposes, or disposed of in bounties to the 
 officers and soldiers of the American army, shall be considered as a " common fund" for the 
 use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or " shall" become, members of 
 the confederation, or federal alliance of tlie said States, " Virginia inclusive, according to 
 their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure," and shall be " faith- 
 fully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever." 
 — Laws US. vol. J., p. 474. 
 
 This language creates an express trust between the United States and 
 each individual State. 
 
 By it the United States stand pledged to hold these lands in trust, that 
 they sliall he faithfully managed, and their avails applied for the joint 
 lenffit of all. 
 
 So far as it has been applied to the payment of debts due by all, the 
 trust has been conii)lied with ; but now the debts are paid, and there is a 
 Burpl&s, liave we the power to give this surplus to those for whose use 
 tlio trust was created ? 
 
 I might (L^k who can doubt it ? 
 
 Suppose tlie States still bound together only by the articles of confede- 
 
PUBLIC la:^ds foe actual settlers. 211 
 
 ration, out of money raised in its own way, and out of its own means, 
 each State Lad paid, when called on, its regular quota for the expenses of 
 the federal goyernment, and for the payment of the national debt, and 
 there was a surplus of twenty or thirty millions of dollurs, for which the 
 federal government had no use, would we not be bound to distribute it ? 
 I say we would not only have the power to do so, but if we did not exert 
 it, a court of chancery would compel us, if we could be sued. 
 
 The very terms of the cession look to distribution. If this were not 
 so, why say in the deed, that when used for the benefit of all, " Virginia'^ 
 shall 1)6 included? "\YIiy fix the "raiw"in which payments shall be 
 made to each ? If we only have power to pay debts, and bear common 
 expenses of government, with these moneys, and can do nothing else with 
 them, both these regulations would have been useless. 
 
 I take it, therefore, as too clear for a doubt, that if now connected by 
 the articles of confederation only, we would have the power to distribute. 
 
 The next question is, did the adoption of the present Constitution alter 
 the rights of the parties, or talcefrom Congress the power to comply with 
 their engagement ? I answer, unhesitatingly, no. 
 
 In the 6th article of the Constitution, the first paragraph nins thus : 
 
 All debts contracted, "and engagements entered into," before the adoption of this Constitu- 
 tion, shall be as Talid against the United States under this Coastitution " as under the confed- 
 eration." 
 
 In the third section of the fourth article of the same instrument, this 
 language is found : 
 
 The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations, 
 respecting the territory or oilier property of the United States, and nothing in this Constitu- 
 tion shall be construed to pr^udice any claims of the United States, or of any "particular 
 gtate." 
 
 Thus we find all debts contracted, and engn/jements entered into, before, 
 were to remain unchanged, and the respective rights of the United States 
 and of each individual State, were to remain precisely as if the form of 
 government had not been altered, and express power is conferred to 
 dispose of the public londs, and to make all needful rules and regulations 
 respecting the territory or other property of the United States. 
 
 "With these different provisions before him, who can doubt the power 
 of the United States, to do that which, by accepting this trust, they 
 expressly agree to do ? 
 
 Cessions from the other States are made substantially on the same 
 conditions, and liable to the same dispositions by Congress. Louisiana 
 and Florida were purchased with the avails of those ceded lands, the 
 trustee is the same, and that trustee holds these lands loaded toith exactly 
 the same burden, and is bound, if those for whose use they are holdcu 
 desire it, to dispose of them and their ju-oceeds in the same manner. 
 
212 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 I hold, therefore, that, be the general question of power to distribute 
 the whole revenue settled as it may, there ought to be no question as to 
 the power to divide moneys arising from the sales of lands. 
 
 But it has been argued that if we have the power there is no money to 
 divide. That when the amount is settled, the net gain will not exceed 
 
 $400,000. 
 
 To this I can never agi-ee. The United States took this trust fund, 
 and with it purchased Louisiana and Florida, and now we are told 
 tliey have had the use of the money for nothing, and will only account for 
 the principal. 
 
 This is not the rule. If the trustee takes the trust fund and trades upon 
 it, he must account to the cestuy que me, for all the profits made. 
 
 The question in chancery would be, not what these coimtries cost, but 
 wliat they are worth. 
 
 You cannot fix a price. Louisiana and Florida ! The sovereignty and 
 jurisdiction over them alone, is worth more to this Union, than all the 
 national debt we ever owed. 
 
 How much duties have we collected from their ports? How much 
 have we avoided paying, by making them our own, instead of letting them 
 remain foreign ports ? How many wars have we avoided by their pur- 
 chase ? In short, what would yon take for them ? No sum ! They are 
 beyond price to the rest of the Union. 
 
 On this part of the subject, the question with me is, not what sum we 
 now have in the treasury, which was received for the sale of lands, but 
 whetlier we have a sum in the treasury equal to that proposed to be dis- 
 tributed, over and above all that is necessary to be appropriated to take 
 care of the great interests of the country, and without debiting the 
 States with the sums paid for Louisiana and Florida, because I am sure, 
 upon a fair settlement, the sum due from the Union is at least equal to 
 the sum which it is proposed now to distribute. 
 
 What sum have we, and what shall we probably receive, in the course 
 of the year? 
 
 I will take round sums, disregarding fractions. 
 
 We now have in the treasury $32,000,000 
 
 Of this sum, the quarter ending 31st March, produced 
 $11,000,000. Suppose, the remaining three quarters to aver- 
 ago tlie like sum, and we will have on the 31st December, 
 more by 33,000,000 
 
 Add the value of our bank stock Y,500,000 
 
 Estimated amount ... . . $72,500,000 
 Deduct for falling oil' and deficiencies .... 5,500,000 
 
 $67,000,000 
 
PUBLIC LANDS FOE ACTUAL SETTLERS. 213 
 
 After this liberal deduction we shall have sixtv-seven millions at the end 
 of the year. 
 
 Now for expenditures : 
 
 Tlie ordinary wants of the government ought not to exceed $15,000,000. 
 Mr. McLane, in the report of 1831, to which I have adverted, fixes upon 
 that as a sum amply sufficient^ and it appears to me in all conscience it 
 must be enough, unless our prosperity is to drive us into most mad 
 excesses. 
 
 Let us then take this as the sum necessary for our ordi- 
 nary expenses in the course of the year .... $15,000,000 
 
 Add to this, to be distributed among the States . . 27,000,000 
 
 These two sums amount to $42,000,000 
 
 Take forty-two millions from sixty-seven, and we still have in the 
 treasury twenty-five millions of dollars, to apply to any extraordinary 
 expenditures for the army, the navy, for fortifications, or for any other 
 purpose whatever. 
 
 The army ought to be increased so much as to render secure our fron- 
 tiers. The increase of our navy may be hastened to some extent ; we 
 ought ultimately to have a naval force, more than able to chastise and 
 drive o^ anj foreign fleet sent to Mocl-ade, or seriously to infest our coast. 
 Larger than that we do not need, and ought not to have, if it were given 
 to us. 
 
 Fortifications are only wanted for important points, at which an enemy 
 might do much mischief to public or to private property, by a sudden 
 incursion. The whole coast we never can, and should never attempt to 
 defend by fortifications. 
 
 If we do, we must have a large standing army to defend them ; other- 
 wise they will be applied to the protection of our enemies. 
 
 We are told by the Secretary of War, in a document before me, that 
 Old Point Comfort covers sixty-three acres of ground, and to protect it 
 by an adequate force, would require several thousand men. 
 
 We never can, we never ought to attempt to defend our whole coast, 
 by so many fortifications, as will require any considerable increase of our 
 army. 
 
 If we do, in time of peace, these troops will come on days of election, 
 and as they are hired to do our fighting they will do our votitig likewise, 
 and in a short time leave us nothing worth fortifying. 
 
 Such defences are contrary to the spirit and genius of our government, 
 and ought never to be countenanced^ or tolerated to the unreasonable 
 extent, which some appear now to desire. In the same document at 
 pages 21, 22, from the War Department, the Secretary says, no new for- 
 tification ought to be commenced until all the proposed sites are re- 
 surveyed and plans devised upon a suitable scale, and recommends a board 
 
214 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 for that purpose, which will require a small appropriation of thirty 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 He also recommends experiments to be made in relation to steam, or 
 movable batteries, which will require an appropriation of one hundred 
 thousand dollai'S. 
 
 "Well then, if we concur with the Secretary, we want at present no 
 appropriation for new fortifications, but these two sums equal to one 
 hundred and thirty thousand dollars to defray the expenses of a board, 
 and the experiments of which I have spoken. 
 
 As to the fortifications, now in progress^ let such increase be made in 
 the appropriations, as can reasonably be used in the course of the year. 
 
 As to the suggestion made that we ought, at once, to appropriate a sum 
 large enough to complete the tco7% although it may be five or ten years 
 before it can be completed, I do not think it ought to be sanctioned. It 
 is unnecessarily, and for a long time, putting at hazard in the hands of 
 agents, who may prove faithless, large sums of money. From year to 
 year let the appropriations be made, and thus avoid all unnecessary risk. 
 
 According to this same document, the expense necessary for ordnance 
 must be comparatively trifling. "We can be much more readily supplied 
 than I had imagined. 
 
 Upon the whole I think all the reasonable demands for the army, for 
 the navy, for fortifications, ordnance, and other munitions of war, can be 
 supplied without making any serious impression upon that large fund 
 left in the treasury, after providing for the distribution, as proposed in this 
 bill. 
 
 Allusion has been made to matters pending before us, when not acting 
 as a legislature, which, if perfected, may occasion a considerable increase 
 of expenditure. 
 
 That may be so; yet we must remember that not much of this expen- 
 diture will, or can be this year, or the next, and that these very measures 
 will increase our resources, if not entirely equal to our increased expendi- 
 tures, very nearly so. These matters, therefore, may be laid aside. 
 
 Another project for ridding the treasury of its surplus, is that of 
 placing it in the hands of Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, and autho- 
 rizing tliem to vest it in some secure stock, yielding a reasonable profit. 
 This might do, and is probably intended as an expedient to save the 
 money from loss ; but as to a mode of lessening the fund, it would be 
 making bad worse, it would be devising a plan to increase our store, 
 because we should expect a return of the principal and the interest pro- 
 duced by it. 
 
 But for myself, I have no idea of sending our money among stock- 
 jobbers, into the market, to bo higgling for bargains, which in one way 
 may bo very good, and in some otiior, very bad. Far rather would I 
 prefer thoy should remain Avhere thoy now are. 
 
PUBLIC la:^ds for actual settlers. 215 
 
 The last scheme for adoption is, that from the Post Office Committee 
 with the aid of steam. With the aid of this machinery, I have very little 
 doubt the whole can be accomplished in a very short t^me. 
 
 The -whole of this, -which, without intending disrespect to the Com- 
 mittee, I must call artful contrivance, is neither more nor less, than the 
 old system of internal improvement^ with federal means, and hy federal 
 power, revived, and the more odious, because of the attempt at conceal- 
 ment. The old system has the merit of manliness. Its friends think tlio 
 federal government has the power, and openly avow that they will 
 exercise it, because, in doing so, they promote the public interest. This 
 seeks to violate the Constitution by stealth, and the contrivers of it must 
 think the device is so artfully concealed, that the public can never find 
 out the design. 
 
 . Now, sir, I think it perfectly proper, that where a railroad can be had, 
 the Postmaster General ought to have the power to contract with the com- 
 pany, to carry his mail, and I understand he has this power already; 
 therefore, as to existing roads, the bill will be of no use. lie can make 
 just as good a contract without, as with, this bill. 
 
 It can only operate on roads commenced and unfinished, or ones being 
 commenced. How then will it operate? Say the road is to be one 
 hundred miles long, and ten or twenty miles only finished, and the com- 
 pany to need funds, they make a contract to carry the mail, and receive 
 at once out of the treasury, a sum of money, the interest on which, 
 yearly, will be equal to the sum paid yearly in time past, for carrying the 
 mail ; with this money the comiiany are to progress, and make another 
 part of tlie road, then the contract will be enlarged on the same princi- 
 ples, an additional sum paid, and thus the road completed. Can this bo 
 anything but an enlarged, masTced system of internal improvement ? and 
 if the charter of the company is for fifty or an hundred years, or for ever, 
 your contracts are to be in the same way. To carry out this system, 
 what sum would it probably cost? iSTo man dares to offer a conjecture. 
 
 To enable us to have a glimpse of it, let us suppose one case. Upon a 
 given route the sum paid for carrying the mail was twenty thousand 
 dollars per annum. "We arc now to give to the company presently, and 
 to be retained as long as the charter lasts, a sum which, at an interest of 
 Bis per cent., will produce twenty thousand dollars yearly. 
 
 What sum would that be? No less than three hundred and thirty-three 
 thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars and one-third. 
 
 This Avould be but one route, and I presuine of the middling class, and 
 pray what sum would it not require, to spread this system over the United 
 States? 
 
 Suppose one of those companies, directly after receiving your mone5, 
 to fail, and decline business, what then ? We nnistlose the money, or take 
 the road. AVc take the road and employ managers, and hands enough, to 
 
216 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 carry on business, on our ovm account. We should then have a little army 
 of our own, moving to and" fro by steam. Under such a system, we 
 would be steamed out of all our money, all our character, and everything 
 but a handsome addition to federal patronage. 
 
 Adopt this plan, and my word for it, we will never have another argu- 
 ment on the subject of disposing of our surplus revenue: it will be 
 scattered to the four winds. 
 
 As this project is brought forward by a friend of the Administration, 
 it is supposed to be an Administration measure; by this I mean, a 
 measure approved by the President. How this fact may be, I do not 
 profess to know, but I have seen enough in my day here, to satisfy me, 
 that it is very unfair, that every measure brought forward, and advocated 
 by members professing to be friends of the Administration, should be 
 considered as having the sanction of the President. I know not what his 
 opinions on such subjects are now ; I know what they Time leen, and 
 until informed in some authentic mode, they have been changed, I esteem 
 it fair to suppose they remain unchanged. 
 
 Let us hear him speak for himself, in two of his communications. In 
 bis annual message, 1830, the President says: 
 
 In speaking of direct appropriations, I mean to include a practice, which has obtained to 
 some extent, and to which I have in one instance, in a different capacity, given my assent-— 
 that of subscribing to the stocli of private associations. Positive experience, and a more 
 thorough consideration of the subject, have convinced me of the impropriety, as well as in-ex- 
 pediency, of such investments. All improvements effected by the funds of the nation, for 
 general use, should be open to the enjoyment of all our fellow-citizens, except from the pay- 
 ment of tolls, or any imposition of that character. 
 
 Same message, ho says farther : ■ 
 
 That such Improvements, on account of particular circumstanqes, may be more advantage- 
 ously and beneficially made in some States than in others, is doubtless true ; but that they are 
 of a character which should prevent an equitable distribution of the pubUc funds amongst the 
 several Stales, is not to be concluded. 
 
 We have it constantly before our eyes, that professions of superior zeal in the cause of inter- 
 nal improvement, and a disposition to lavish the public funds upon objects of that character, 
 arc dally and earnestly put fortli by aspirants to power, as constituting the highest claims to 
 tlie confidence of the people. Would it be strange, under such circumstances, and in times of 
 great excitement, that grants of this description should find their motives in objects which may 
 not accord with the public good. Those who have not had occasion to see, and regret, the 
 Indicull'in of a sinister Influence, In these matters, in time past, have been more fortunate than 
 myself, In their observation of the cause of human affairs. 
 
 In his message of 1832, he says : 
 
 I recommend that provision be made to dispose of all stocks, now held by it (the govern- 
 ment), 111 corporatlDns, whether created by the general or State governments, and placing the 
 proceeds in the treasury. As a source of profit, these stock are of little, or no, value; as a 
 means of Influence among Uic States, they are adverse to the purity of our histitutions. 
 Tlie whole principle on which they are baaed, is deemed by many unconstitutional, and to 
 persist la the policy which they Indicate, is considered wholly inexpedient." 
 
PUBLIC LANDS FOR ACTUAL SETTLERS. 217 
 
 Are we to iafer, after this, tl)at he would approve of this plan? I 
 tiuok not. To me, it appears much more probable, were we to pass 
 such a bill as this, that it would be vetoed by him, than that he should 
 negative the distribution bill, when he would reflect upon the altered 
 state of things, since that subject was acted on by him. 
 
 Such a system as this would be one of internal improvement, with the 
 moneys, and under the patronage of the federal government. It would 
 be fur the benefit of companies, some of whose charters may be for long 
 periods, as without limit as to time, they would still continue to receive 
 toU from the people. 
 
 It would operate partiall}'^ and unjust to the different sections of the 
 country. Some would receive plenty ; others none. 
 
 Instead of trying to rid the government of all coiinection with stocTc 
 companies^ we would be forming more extensive and dangerous connec- 
 tions than have ever been thought of in time past. I therefore conclude, 
 such a scheme, however plausible at first view, can never ultimately find 
 favor from any majority in Congress. 
 
 I Avill now advert to some of the strongest objections which I have 
 heard, to the policy of distribution. 
 
 It is thought a system of distribution will make the States feel depend- 
 ent on the federal government^ and induce them to engage in enterprises 
 not necessary, and beyond their fair means. 
 
 Ought we not to remember that it is the same people, who are repre- 
 sented, both in the State and federal legislatures ? That they are 
 competent to understand their own rights, and have the power to com- 
 pel obedience to their will, by their representatives at home as well as 
 here? 
 
 Will they not know that the money distributed is their own money, 
 not a boon from Congress ? How then will they feel dependent upon 
 those who have done them nofavor^ but the simple act of justice, of2^ay- 
 ing them their own money, in place of keeping it locked up, or having it 
 wasted by others. 
 
 If the people are capable of self-government, they must be capable of 
 understanding their oicn rights^ and pursuing their oicn interests. They 
 will not view this as a hoon, but as a delivery to them of that which is 
 their own. They will never look to distribution as a regtdar and certain 
 resource for State purposes, but as an incidental addition to their other 
 means, which will enable them to carry on with more vigor, any plan, 
 which in their wisdom may be devised, for improving their country, or 
 increasing the means of education. 
 
 Again. It is said the new States may justly fear that distribution will 
 induce the old States to keep the price of lands high, and thereby check 
 settlements in them. 
 
 It appears to me there can be no real foundation for any alarm on this 
 
218 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 account. Tlie new States now form a very respectable minority. That 
 minority will soon be increased to the number of ten or eleven. If we 
 are fit to live together under one general government, there never can, 
 there never will, come a time, when so large a minority cannot prevail 
 upon enough to make up a majority, to do that which is not only just, 
 but liberal to them. 
 
 N'othing can be so likely to prevent this, as a contracted and illiberal 
 policy on their part. If they prevent distribution, and thus prevent 
 others from attaining any participation in a common fuu4, and this with 
 a view to benefit themselves, may they not destroy all disposition to 
 meliorate their condition? Will it not be more wise in them, to let 
 that, whieli can well be spared from the proceeds of the public lands, be 
 distributed, and with their fair proportion of it, in common with other 
 States, go on and make such internal improvements as the interest of 
 their people demands, and rely upon the justice of Congress, from time 
 to time, to make such reductions in the price of the public lands, in 
 favor of actual settlers, as the interests of the new States may require ? 
 
 For one, having been raised, and having lived in a new State, and 
 knowing the difficulties they have to encounter, my feelings have been 
 with them, and, since honored with a place here, I have ever been 
 disposed by my votes to favor their wishes and interests, so far as it 
 could consistently be done. I hope still to do so, let them pursue what 
 course they may. . 
 
 Either now, or at any subsequent time, I am readj' to vote a reduction 
 of the price of the public lauds, in favor of the actual settler, the culti- 
 vator of tlie soil ; but not to favor the speculator — he who would buy 
 largely at a small price, to sell to the settler in small quantities at a 
 high price. 
 
 Of all the evils which can befall a new State, none is greater, than to 
 reduce the price so low as to encourage individuals or companies to 
 purchase large quantities of the public domain. They will be held up 
 for increased prices, and effectually check the growth, the prosperity, 
 and wealth of any State, where such policy is pursued. 
 
 But the actual settler may well be favored by procuring a home of his 
 own, at a low price, where he can cultivate his own soil, and independ- 
 ently of all others, maintain his family. 
 
 I voted yesterday against the amendment of the senator from Missis- 
 sippi, because it did not provide for actual settlers, only for those who 
 represented that they wished to lecome settlers. Let lands be entered 
 upon such statements, and those who entered them would, in many 
 cases, soon change tlicir minds, and some speculator would be found to 
 bo the true owner, at the reduced price. 
 
 Whenever the lauds have been so long in market, at a reasonable 
 price, as to bIiow that they are not of value to the general government, 
 
PUBLIC LANDS FOR ACTUAL SETTLERS. 219 
 
 lot them be transferred upon some fair tenns to tbe States in wbicli 
 they respectively lie. 
 
 In the State which I have the honor in part to represent, the United 
 States now own some lands, which never have been, and never can be, 
 brought into market by them, so as to produce any benefit whatever ; 
 to the State they would be worth something ; there is now a bill pend- 
 ing in tlie other house, which has for its object their transfer to the 
 State, and if it reaches the Senate, which I hope it soon will, it is 
 believed we shall be able to show the propriety of passing it. 
 
 Let us now reflect a little ou some of the advantages Avhich will flow 
 from the passage of this bill. 
 
 In the first place we shall do that which is an act of justice to the 
 individual States. Several of them, my own among the rest, have never 
 received a dollar from the federal government, while others have 
 received large* donations in lands, or in money. 
 
 In some States, opposed to internal improvements by the federal 
 government, no contributions have been made for either roads or 
 canals, while in others large sums have been expended. This inequality 
 has produced heart-burnings and discontents. Give to each its own 
 proportion of this fund, to use as it pleases, and this cause of discontent 
 will be removed. 
 
 Each State is the proper judge what ought to be done with its ovra 
 money. I am, therefore, opposed to giving any direction as to the 
 objects to which it shall be applied : but I have no doubt, in most 
 instances, it will be expended either in internal improvements, or in the 
 business of education. 
 
 I have been one of those, who do not believe the federal government 
 has the power to carry on a system of internal improvements within the 
 States ; and I shall now think it peculiarly hard, when we find a large 
 sum of money, which we have the power to "distribute, if it should be 
 taken, and wasted upon remote and distant objects, and my State receive 
 nothing. I should consider myself criminally negligent, if I did not 
 urge the necessity of giving that, which I thiidc is justly our due. 
 
 By making this distribution we shall withdraw from the deposit banks 
 a large sum of money, now locked uj) from the common and beneficial 
 pursuits of life, and put it in circulation, not in one State or place in par- 
 ticular, but in every State in the Union, so that its beneficial efiects will 
 be felt by all. 
 
 Now, if this money is loaned by the banks, it is evident to my mind, 
 the loans are not made to conmiercial men, accustomed to bank accom- 
 modations, but to companies, engaged in speculations in our most valua- 
 ble public lands ; by means of these loans, the honest settler is driven 
 off from your public sales, or is forced to join some company, for the' 
 sake of enabling himself to procure, at a fair price, the small piece of 
 land on which ho has settled. 
 
220 MEMOm OF HrGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Formerly, we sold the public lands upon credit ; while that was tho 
 case companies were fortoed, and speculations carried to a great extent. 
 I attended one of those sales, and saw enough to satisfy me, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, that if you and I could unite our capacity for business, we would 
 not then be able to purchase, at its value, a section of land. The specu- 
 lators would force us to join them, or drive us out of the market. They 
 would tell us the land we desired to purchase was worth ten dollars per 
 acre, and if we would give them the difference between the sum we had 
 to give at sale, and ten dollars, then we might buy, otherwise they 
 would run it up to twenty dollars per acre ; and they would keep their 
 word, if we did not come to terms ; if we did, then we could bid off the 
 land at a dollar and a quarter, which we would pay to the government^ 
 and in addition we would pay the company eight and three quarter dol- 
 lars per acre. 
 
 The Congress determined to break up these speculations, by requiring 
 cash payments. It worked very well till lately. "Within the last year, 
 the land speculations are revived to a fearful extent. Now what is 
 probably the cause ? These large sums, so long on deposits, enable the 
 banks to make to these companies large loans on long credits^ and with 
 the money thus borrowed^ your best lands are sacrificed. This is nothing 
 but the credit system revived in a neic shape. Tormerly, the government 
 .itself, openly gave credit — now the banks give the credit, but the govern- 
 ment furnishes the funds which enalle them to do so. This is a gi'owing 
 evil. It is like rolling a snow-ball ; every turn makes it larger, and if 
 not checked, we shall soon have this matter carried to an extent, which 
 will make the mischief incurable. Divide this money., and we take from 
 the banks the power of making these loans, and your lands will be pur- 
 chased in fact, as well as inform, for money. 
 
 Beside these considerations, we shall prevent our deposit banks from 
 overtrading to an unreasonable extent. If these speculations are to be 
 persisted in, a day of reckoning will come. If a run is made on your 
 banks, which they cannot stand, we not only lose our money on deposit, 
 but what is infinitely worse, we bring upon the country the evils of a 
 depreciated currency, which always fall most heavily upon those least 
 able to bear the loss. 
 
 Pass this bill, and we not only avoid these evils, but we furnish each 
 State ■with tho strongest inducements to aid your banks, in maintaining 
 a sound and wholesome currency; with their proper proportions of which, 
 when received, I have no doubt, all will make judicious internal improve- 
 fnents, and take care to have the business of education suitably encour- 
 aged. 
 
 Wlien the leading measure of Mr. Van Buren's administration, the 
 Sub-Tr»'asniT bill, was before the Senate in 1838, and was discussed 
 by some of lh« ablest men in that body, he again avowed himself an 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 221 
 
 enemy to, ^^ federal incorporated banks,'^ and '■'■ federal bills of credit^ 
 He opposed this measure principally upon the ground that it was 
 putting the control of the whole moneyed capital of the country into 
 the hands of the executive ; and that, especially in view of the un- 
 willingness of the executive to have the powers and patronao-e of the 
 government curtailed, such a control was liazardous to the prosperity 
 of our free institutions. On this subject he spoke as follows, INIarch 
 24th, 1838: 
 
 Mr. President : I address you under circumstances of peculiar disad- 
 vantage. The subject is one of the greatest importance. It has been long 
 discussed, ably discussed, 'by those of most distinguished talents. Their 
 highest efforts have been made on both sides to present its advantages 
 and disadvantages in every view the human mind can take of it. 
 
 The crowded audience has become wearied, and even many senators 
 themselves can hardly give respectful attention to our most interesting 
 debates. 
 
 , Up to the termination of the last address of the distinguished senator 
 from Massachusetts who sits nearest to me (Mr. "Webster), I was not 
 satisfied Avhether it would be my duty to do more than listen respectfully 
 to others, and then say yea or nay to tlie difierent questions presented to 
 the Senate. 
 
 At the close of his animated, able, and interesting speech, he recuri*ed 
 to a sc7-ap of the history of my ow7i State, fifty years ago. Instantly my 
 mind settled down in the conviction that my constituents had a right to 
 expect more of a sou of one of the actors in that scene than a bare vote. 
 
 I promise those who may favor me with their attention, that if what I 
 say should not be interesting, it shall not be tedious. 
 
 The advocates of this bill expect to accomplish two objects by its 
 passage : 
 
 1st. To designate the only species of funds which shall be received in 
 payiuent of any dues to the government. 
 
 2d. To designate the persons by whom, and the places where, those 
 moneys shall be kept, between the time of their collection and disburse- 
 ment. 
 
 The provisions, as to the first, are, that after the lapse of six years 
 nothing shall be received but gold and silver, and such paper as shall bo 
 issued by or under the autliority of the federal government ; and, in the 
 mean time, that certain proportions may be received in the notes of 
 specie-paying banks. 
 
 1st. My first objection to this plan is, that it sets out with a distinction 
 in favor of those who are in the employment of the federal government, 
 or have any money to receive from it, and those who are in the employ 
 
222 
 
 MEilOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 of the State governments, as weU as the mass of the people. The dis- 
 tinction is odious, and ought not to be sanctioned. 
 
 Senators who support this biU say these are mere catch- words (one 
 kind of money for the government, and another for the people), of which 
 all have become ashamed, and that latterly they have been diiven out of 
 
 the Senate. 
 
 To this, I reply, the gentlemen are mistaken ; this distinction is made 
 on the very face of the bill, in terms too plain to be misunderstood. 
 
 If all the money mentioned is of equal value, why mention gold and 
 silver, treasury notes, notes -of specie-paying banks, &c. ? The whole 
 argument in favop of the bill rests on the supposition that gold and silver 
 are the best, and that, as far as it goes, is to be used for federal officers 
 and those who have federal contracts, leaving to others to get what they 
 can and how they can. 
 
 2d. Tlie bill itself contemplates a paper medium emanating from the 
 federal- government. To this I object, because we have no power to 
 issue it. As a currency, they are bills of credit, unconstitutional ; more 
 clearly so than to incorporate a bank ; and because, if we can issue such a 
 medium, we ought never to do it. It wiU lead to the most wasteful and 
 extravagant expenditures. It will be used moderately at first, until the 
 peopk- become reconciled to it, and then gradually extended in place of 
 borrowing money, so as to meet all the calls of an extravagant adminis- 
 tration, and must end in a large national debt, or depreciate like your 
 continental money. 
 
 Many, with great reason, have believed that no government can long 
 be economical upon even a system of indirect taxation. That under such 
 a system the people generally are not conscious of the burden they bear. 
 They pay their taxes when they buy their clothes, or other articles, on 
 which duties are imposed, without reflecting that any part of the money 
 tlicy thus expend comes into the treasury ; they therefore cease to be 
 watcliful over the manner in which the public moneys are expended; 
 and, whenever they cease to keep strict watch, their agents commence 
 useless, and wasteful expenditures. But when the taxes are direct, every 
 man" knows how nuicli lie pays, and when he pays, and wnll carefully 
 wulch liow the moneys are exjiended ; and if the expenditures are wasteful 
 or extravagant, a suitable corrective wiU be immediately applied. Our 
 ■whole system of federal taxation is in the general indirect ; and, if we 
 once conuuonco a system of supplying deficiencies in the treasury by an 
 Lisue of paper to be used as currencij^ tlie country may be ruined. 
 
 At the special sesbiou we were obliged to add ten millions of dollars to 
 our moans. This wo did not do by a direct loan, which every man could 
 untlerstund, but by authorizing an is»ue of treasury notes. "Wlien that 
 bill wiLs before the Senate, the senator from Missouri, and, if I mistake 
 uot, tho scaulor frcia i'eunsylvauia, both frieuds of the Administraliou, 
 
8UB-TKEASUKY BILL. 223 
 
 placed these notes on the ground of making a loan; that they, as they 
 "were to bear an interest not exceeding five per cent, would be disposed 
 of for money, and with the money thus procured, our creditors could be 
 paid; and in this view I voted for the bill. In the House the amount of 
 the notes was reduced one-half, and I soon perceived that the Administra- 
 tion intended to use them, not to procure a loan, but as a currency ; and 
 when the bill was returned to us, I took the earliest opportunity to record 
 my vote against it, Tlio notes issued under that bill have in fact been 
 %isetl as a currency^ and at various rates of interest, some as low as one 
 miU per year. 
 
 This year our revenue is again to be deficient; we will need, in addi- 
 tion to our means in the treasury, ten, fifteen, or twenty millions of dol- 
 lars ; and this addition will be made by new issues. This paper currency 
 seems to cost nothing ; and, as our wants increase, the issues Avill bo 
 increased, until the paper depreciates ; and then, for the first time, the 
 people will seriously look into the manner in which not only their ?noney, 
 but their credit has been s(iuandered. 
 
 The provisons of this bill for treasury notes, bills, or other securities, 
 issued by the federal government, or under its authority, if sanctioned by 
 Congress, will settle a principle which, if carried into practice, must seal 
 the fate of this nation. Office-holders and office-hunters can all be 
 accommodated by the executive at the public expense, and the people wiU 
 not be aware of it until too late. In short, it will take off almost the 
 only restraint which yet i-emains to our extravagant expenditures. 
 
 This view of the subject has alarmed me. Do we not all see and know 
 that those in office are pressing to have their salaries increased? That 
 those who are not, desire the number of offices increased that they may 
 get in? We are teased to increase the number of land districts ; and if 
 we do, offices are multiplied. TVhen all the offices among the whites 
 are filled, then we have among our red brethren exploring parties, visit- 
 ing parties, commissioners and agents, by construction, at executive dis- 
 scretion, and compensated as he pleases. 
 
 With the facilities of paper money to be created for the trouble of mak- 
 ing, importunities for offices, jobs, contracts and increase of salary, Avill 
 be multiplied, and the President will not have the heart to resist them 
 when artfully pressed by noisy and worthless partisans. I have been 
 forcibly struck with some of the remarks made upon the subject of this 
 government paper currency. The honorable senator from South Caro- 
 lina (Mr. Calhoun) thinks it will not depreciate, and if it does, it will not 
 make any difference, as the government must always receive it at par, 
 and therefore sustain the whole loss. 
 
 Mr. President, if the honorable senator Avill take a moment to tliink 
 upon this subject, I am convinced he will perceive the error. No jiajier 
 currenc}', not convertible into specie at the will of the holder, ever did or 
 ever will long retain its nominal value. 
 
224 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 If a man has a note of any kind, and has confidence that he can get 
 the amount of it in specie at any time he pleases, most generally he would 
 rather have the note than specie, because more convenient; but the 
 iuoraent he doubts, then he wants the specie presently. In the issue of 
 treasury notes, that moment the amount issued much exceeds the revenue 
 to be paid into the treasury, and the purchase of public lands, they must 
 and will depreciate, unless provision is made that they shall be paid when 
 presented at the treasury. When they do depreciate, the whole loss will 
 not fall on the treasury, but will fall likewise on those through whose 
 hands they have passed. The very case put by the senator proves it. 
 A treasury note issues for fifteen dollars. It depreciates until it can be 
 purcliased in market for ten. Some person who owes the treasury fifteen 
 dollars, goes and purchases it at ten, and pays his debt of fifteen dollars. 
 Now does not every one perceive that the profit of five dollars, made by 
 the man who paid the note to the treasury, must have been a loss of the 
 same amount to the man from whom he purchased, or to some other per- 
 son through whose hands it has passed? In all such cases, profit and loss 
 are correllative terms, and that wliicb is one nian's gain must have been 
 a loss to some other. 
 
 As you increase expenditures you increase executive power, already 
 too great. The President or those acting under his orders, must neces- 
 sarily select the recipients, who, it will always be understood, can only 
 be those who conform to his wishes in elections. These objections are 
 independent of the consideration whether this bill will establish a bank 
 or not. It will certainly sanction the issuing a paper medium of circula- 
 tion. Those who advocate this provision certainly think as I do, that 
 the country must and always will have bank credits, or paper of some 
 kind, to use as a substitute for the precious metals. The business of the 
 country can never be done without it. A support of the State banks is 
 the only shield which can be presented against federal bills of credit, and 
 ti federal incorporated banh. 
 
 I hold both these last unconstitutional, and the first of them infinitely 
 tlio most dangerous to the liberties of the people. In 1834, I heard of 
 this plan of separating government from all 7}a7i^s as depositories, and 
 thonglit well of it. Indeed, I would then have gone for it, if political 
 friends liad agreed upon it. Then there was no idea of issuing paper 
 inotutj by government. Tlien State da7ils were paying specie, and tlieir 
 notes would have continued a circulating medium. Then I had confidence 
 in tlio Administration, and believed that none would ever dare to interfere 
 witli the elective franchise, or to refuse to have the executive patronage 
 liiiiitfd and curtailed by law. Now all these things are changed. The 
 Adininistrution want jiaper money issued by government, substituted for 
 l6anB. The State Imnks are not paying specie, and this bill forbids the 
 receipt of tlieir notes. 
 
 Tbo executive is disposed to hunt down any and every man who wishes 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 225 
 
 to limit his power. lie openly interferes in elections, both State and 
 federal, and uses all his poVers to have them carried according to his 
 will. Under these drcumstarices, in my judgment, I would be a traitor 
 to civil liberty were I to sanction the idea tliat Ave will make federal 
 paper the circulating medium. 
 
 What has become of our bills, five or six in number, to limit executive 
 patronage, reported in the days of the younger Adams? They sleep the 
 sleep of death. The honorable cliairinan of tlie committee, who originallv 
 reported them, felt it iiis duty to endeavor to revive them under the ad- 
 ministration of the late President, and received so little counteuauce from 
 old friends that he ceased his struggle with them. 
 
 The honorable senator from South Carolina, who never thinks any load 
 too heavy, took up one of them, and made one of his most powerful 
 eiforts, and it passed this body. But how many old friends voted for it? 
 Sir, all had been whistled or ordered off, except the senator from Missouri, 
 and one or two others. 
 
 I have been honored with a seat here for the thirteen or fourteen last 
 sessions, and believe I have never once recurred to the journals to see 
 how any gentleman had voted ; but there are some things I find it im- 
 possible to forget. 
 
 When that bill was before the Senate, believing that I could give the 
 senator from South Carolina something more than my vote, I made a 
 speech in its favor ; and that speech sealed my fate with the great demo- 
 cratic party. I respectfully ask the senator from Missouri, whether any 
 of the former friends of that measure, the Jackson democrats, voted for 
 it, except he and myself? 
 
 It went to the other house, and as they were more fresh from the people 
 than we, better understood what is meant by modern democracy, thoy 
 j)ut this aristocratic bantling to sleep ; and we have never heard a cry or 
 even a whimper from it since. Since then, executive power and patron- 
 age have put forth their branches in every direction, and no man dare 
 raise his voice against them on pain of political death. 
 
 Shall we then put this rich bed of manure to the root of this dangerous 
 power, that the crops of executive influence may be increased in our 
 elections? Nay; God forbid! 
 
 I havebeen zealous for putting down the Bank of the United States, 
 and for maintaining a sound metallic currency, and, to do this, believed 
 we ought to sustain, as far as we could. State ])anks; prevailing on them, 
 by all incidental means in our power, to cease tlie use of small notes, and 
 had hoped we could have succeeded : but specie payments have been 
 suspended, and the advocates of this bill say we must try some other 
 experiment. 
 
 Divorce, divorce, a vinculo matrimonii is the watcliword whenever 
 you find a modern democrat. 
 
 15 
 
226 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Tl>.t there is a divorce a mensa et thoro existing, I admit, but am of 
 opinion that it has been produced by violent temper and want of due care 
 on the part of the federal head, and too yielding and comp y,ng a disposi- 
 tion on the part of the banks, and that the whole might yet be reconciled, 
 at all events to the advantage of the family. ., ,, y^ ^ 
 
 I Juave lieard of cases where a dashing libertine married a wife, attached 
 to and every way worthy of him; that he, upon looking farther mto 
 th'e world, concluded that if he were freed from his first love, he 
 could be better suited on a second experiment; and, with a view to 
 obtain a divorce, threw temptations in his wife's way which she had not 
 st^rn virtue enongli to resist; she sinned, and then he apphed for a 
 divorce And what have courts of conscience said in such cases? De- 
 part hence! you have contributed to your wife's transgression, and shaU 
 not profit by your own iniquity. _ 
 
 Apply these principles to this case. When the executive wooed and 
 won the State banks, they were pure and unsullied. Their utmost exer- 
 tions were necessary to aid in prostrating the Bank of the Umted States; 
 they were coaxed, almost commanded, to extend their loans. They did 
 80 to imprudent lengths. The executive saw and knew this. Were 
 they admonished to diminish their discounts ? Never ! So far as I know, 
 on the contrary, they were eulogized up to July, 1836; then came the 
 executive denu'nciations, and they have never since ceased. 
 
 The executive is to blame, so are the banks; but on account of their 
 quarrel, the great American family ought not to be sacrificed. 
 
 If uone were to be injured but themselves, I certainly should feel no 
 inclination to interfere; but I do think it nothing but just that both par- 
 ties should bear their due proportion of blame, and that a separation 
 ought not to be permitted under circumstances by which an unoffending 
 community must l)e the sutferers. 
 
 But again; I think if it is even proper to establish this system, and to 
 have this divorce, now is not the proper time. 
 
 The banks are State institutions ; society have a deep interest in their 
 maintaining a sound currency; this can only be done by resuming specie 
 payments; this they never can do until their credit is reestablished; 
 while tlie whole weight of a popular Administration is against them, they 
 never can resume with a hope of continuing specie payments. You 
 separate now, and why? Because, say the whole Administration and its 
 f,.i^.„ds— and if \vc pass tliis bill we join in the cry— they are unworthy of 
 credit ! Every man who believes this statement, and has a claim against 
 them, would apply for his money, and they would be compelled iminedi- 
 Bt<5ly to Htop agiiin. 
 
 Take the weiglit of the federal government oflT them. It is now pressing 
 them into the dust, and wliilo it is upon them, you might as well order a 
 iiiiiii), wlioselegs had been cut oif, to jump to his feet and walk, as to 
 
; SUB-TREASURY BILL. 227 
 
 require tliem to resmue, with a hope that tliey can do so. Let their 
 credit he again restored, and if we must separate, they could better then, 
 than now, sustain the shock. 
 
 The federal government obtained the use of them when their credit 
 was good; it should be restored, and then, if ever, they ought to be 
 returned, in equally good credit, to the exclusive use of the States. 
 
 Suppose we pass this bill, and then tlie banks resume, five-sixths of 
 the revenue must be taken in their notes ; in a very short time, enough 
 would be received to enable your depositories to withdraw so much of 
 their specie as to compel them to suspend. And if they do not resume, 
 their paper depreciates, ajad specie becomes an article of merchandise, 
 and thus the federal servant will receive better money than the State 
 officers, or the masters of both — the mass of the people. 
 
 The State banks never caaresume with a hope of doing a profitable 
 business. ..• - ^ >■ .■ 
 
 Suppose the system in comjilete operation. Then all the revenue is 
 received in specie, your average surplus in the treasury will be at least 
 seven or eight millions of dollars. This, if left in the banks, would fur- 
 nish a specie basis upon wliich safely to issue three for one. Hence, by 
 this process, you abstract and lock up twenty or twenty-five millions of 
 dollars of the circulating medium, which is of no more use to the govern- 
 ment or individuals than if sunk in the ocean. 
 
 Banks go to excess occasionally, and there is temporary suffering : so 
 of every thing else — we have notliing good but what produces evil when 
 carried to excess. Banks issue too much paper, but that is no reason 
 they sliould all be destroyed. Over-issues produce individual sutfering. 
 but even this i& productive of some benefit. It makes roads and canals, 
 and improves plantations. Although all these change owners when a 
 curtailment tiikes place, yet the improvements remain for the benefit of 
 the people at large. 
 
 What do gentlemen mean ? Do they mean to put us back to the year 
 eleven hundred, when they say banks commenced ; Are we to quit our 
 ordinary business, and commence wading branches in search of golden 
 pebbles, to add to the stock of precious metals ? Are we to give up the 
 earnings of our families, our porringers, and our spoons to this Aaron 
 of democracy, that he may melt them, and, with his graving tools, make 
 us our own metallic god to worship ? The more free a country is, tho 
 more prone are its people to run into excess^ and none so much as our 
 own. What was Great Britain before the establishment of her 
 baijJi ? Like otlier nations, who are destitute of everything but a 
 specie circulation, poor, unthrifty, anti-commercial. And what is she 
 now ? 
 
 We need a larger circulation than any country upon earth of the same 
 population, because we are freer than any other. The circulation ought 
 
jj28 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 always to bear a due proportion to all salable or excbangeable commo- 
 dities In «ome of the States everything is of that description. Entails 
 are destroyed, all property, real and personal, is unfettered, and for sale 
 whenever a man thinks he can better himself by selling in an old, and 
 purchasing in a new State. In many States so much is land unfettered 
 that it can be sold in fee simple upon a writ of fieri facias. 
 
 In our country a man's capital, in many instances, is his character for 
 intcrity, his capacity for business and his business habits. These give 
 hini^'crodit with banks. With the aid of bank accommodations, in many 
 instances he makes himself wealthy in a few years, and every man who 
 adds to his own stock of wealth enriches the whole country. 
 
 Give me wealtTiy people and a poor treasury, and then the country is 
 rich, and its liberty safe. 
 
 Destroy banks, and you throw every man again into the hands of 
 capitalists, Jews, money-lenders, where few can borrow who cannot 
 mortgage land to secure payment. Whereas banks always feel it a favor 
 conferred on them when they can get a good customer. 
 
 Although I speak thus freely of the utility of banks, they never have 
 been favorites of mine, but we must have them. The country cannot, 
 and will not do without them. 
 
 We must have a treasury lank, a lank incorporated ly Congress, or 
 State hanis. And I prefer the last. They are the least dangerous, and 
 the States have clearly the power to incorporate them. The States, in 
 granting charters, can, if they choose, guard generally against excesses. 
 If they were to direct all profits over six or eight per cent, per annum 
 to go into the treasury, as a school fund, the temptation to shave and to 
 • make excessive loans would be taken away. And if they would prohibit 
 standing accommodations, few bad debts would be contracted. 
 
 2d. The other object of the bill is to compel our collectors and receivers 
 to ceaso depositing money in banks, and to compel them to deposit all 
 moneys in the hands of officers appointed hy the President, and remomlle 
 at his pleasure, there to be kept till needed for disbursement. I think 
 tiiis arrangement much worse than to deposit in the banks. 
 
 First, because the directors and officers of the banks will bo more likely 
 to be faithful than officers appointed by us. The stockholders will always 
 intend to select those who will be most likely not to waste their moneys. 
 Our officers for some time have been, and I consider the system is to be 
 continued, selected more with a view to influence in elections than to 
 any ([uiililications for the jjarticular offices they are to fill. Let me not 
 bo misunderstood. I do not mean to say that every office-holder is a 
 more party tool. I think there are many who ai'e not. But I do mean 
 to Btato it as my opinion, that now, and for some time past, the principal 
 quulilicfttion looked for is political influence; and such men, appointed 
 tVuin buch motives, 1 think will generally be unsafe depositories. Suppos- 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 229 
 
 ing these officers equally faitlifnl, tliey will not generally have places as 
 safe as those provided by banks. 
 
 Again: this plan will occasion a great increase of expense. New 
 officers, clerks, visitors, houses, safes, vaults, &c. There will be no effec- 
 tual checks, either upon those officers or upon disbursing officers. It is 
 said there have been, in modern times, but few losses by defalcation of 
 disbursing officers. 
 
 One principal, if not the sole reason of this is, the check upon them, by 
 ordering thera, whenever their position will enable them to do so, to 
 keep tlieir moneys in banks, and every week or month an account is fur- 
 nished the Secretary of the Treasury' by the deposit bank showing tho 
 sums deposited, and by whom. This furnishes strong reasons against 
 using or loaning money ; immediate detection Avould be the consequence. 
 
 Under the proposed system this check is entirely removed, and tho 
 public money will, in many cases, be misused. 
 
 I now have in my drawer a document showing what has been done in 
 one case by an officer in whose integrity I once had unlimited confidence. 
 He collected a large claim from one debtor to the government, and imme- 
 diately loaned the amount received to some political friends^ not only 
 without authority, but contrary to his instructions, and, at this moment, 
 two suits are pending against these neio debtors, who have refused to pay 
 their notes as they fall due. If I mistake not, one of tho parties to this 
 very transaction has been appointed to, and now holds an office which 
 will make him a sub-treasurer if this bill should pass. 
 
 A bank in my own State has been alluded to, in a letter read by the 
 senator from Missouri, which he has received from the late Chief Magis- 
 trate. 
 
 A brief review of the history of that bank, and matters connected with 
 it, may be of use to us on the subject under consideration. 
 
 The act establishing that hank was passed at a called session, in the year 
 1820. The charter of the United States Bank was passed in 1816, and 
 the bank went into actual operation the 1st of January, 1817. 
 
 It was no administration measure, and when the bill was before Con- 
 gress, the representative from my district sent me a copy of it, with a 
 request that I would give him my opinion of its provisions, which I did, 
 in a pretty lengthy letter. That opinion was very decidedly against the 
 bill, and the opinion I then formed and expressed I have ever since enter- 
 tained, and still entertain. He, alone, from Tennessee, as. I believe, voted 
 against tho bill. For this vote he was attacked at homo, and I felt 
 in duty bound to maintain him as well as I could. This brought me 
 in direct conflict with the friends of the United States Bank as early 
 as 1816. 
 
 Soon after the bank went into operation, it established branches in 
 Kentucky, and, before the fall of 1817, many of the loans first made had 
 fallen due, and payment was exacted. To this the people had* not beca 
 
4- 
 
 230 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 accustomed; and, as is filways the case, althoiigh the bank liad been 
 popular when maUng loans, it soon became very unpopidar when trying 
 to eoUect its debts. 
 
 Stories of the ruinous operations of the bank in Kentucky soon reached 
 us in Tennessee, and in the autumn of 1817, with a view to save Ten- 
 nessee from the like oppression, her legislature passed an act, as I believe, 
 unanimously, imposing a very heavy tax, say fifty thousand dollars, upon 
 any persons" attempting to bank in Tennessee without authority from the 
 
 State. 
 
 A few years since, while the controversy was going on with the Bank 
 of the United States, the Senate created a committee, of which Mr. Tyler, 
 of Virginia, was a member, to examine into its proceedings, and when 
 they made their report, for the first time, I found a letter dated in 1818, 
 now bound up in our documents, soliciting the president of the bank to 
 establish a branch in Nashville, notwithstanding the act of assembly, 
 informing him that the act was passed by contracted, illiberal men, and, 
 after furnishing a hst of names for directors, assuring him that if a branch 
 was established, and directors appointed from the list, he would see that 
 a good account should be given of those who would attempt to enforce 
 the State law. 
 
 Mr. Jones, the then president, answered this letter, and, very properly, 
 refused to send a branch into the State contrary to the expressed will of 
 the legislature. 
 
 Thus the matter rested until 1826, when this same gentleman was a 
 leading member of the Tennessee legislature; and, not having been able 
 to get a branch bank of the United States, he and others determined they 
 would have a j)c^P^^ hanh, founded on State funds and the faith of the 
 State. They passed an act creating a bank. There was then in the State 
 a bank in which the State had twenty thousand dollars of the stock. It 
 was called tlie Bank of the State of Tennessee, and had been so con- 
 ducted as to give society confidence in it; and, in baptising this new bank 
 its autliors gave it exactly the same name, and thus we had, at the same 
 time, two banks, having the same name, in the same State. The friends 
 of t)io i)ld would not have hesitated in charging the leaders who estab- 
 lishe<l the new witli pilfering their name, that they might derive benefit 
 I'roni their credit, had they been other than members of the assembly. 
 
 The plan of this new bank was not to pay specie, and to please the 
 people, it was said it was a bank to relieve the people from pecuniary 
 diHtress. 
 
 At the same session, and to force iiito circulation paper money not 
 redeemable ir. specie, laws were passed to prevent levies of execution, 
 unlusH jilaintilVs would agree to receive irredeemable bank paper. 
 
 Those proceedings met with very decided opposition from the sup- 
 porters of a soimd currency. 
 They dehouuctnl u depreciated paper currency as a curse to the country, 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 231 
 
 and tlie old State bank would not touch the paper of the new; and, after 
 a long controversy between the directors, under the aduihiistratiou of au 
 enlightened and worthy directory of the new State bank, it was so con- 
 ducted as to be converted into a specie paying bank, and I believe it has 
 faithfully redeemed whatever notes it put in circulation. 
 
 But, then, what became of the capital and profits ? Much of them 
 ■were wasted. There was a branch or agency in, each county. 
 
 The cashier of the principal bank, a highly worthy, intelligent, and 
 generous man, could not resist the temptation ; he permitted importunate 
 and needy friends to di-aw checks, which he paid when they had no funds 
 in bank. This practice was detected and exposed, and he ruined. 
 
 Some of the agents, men of as much integrity as those to be found now, 
 either used, or permitted others to use, the moneys entrusted to their care. 
 Those moneys were in some instances lost, the agents ruined, and the 
 State has been for several years endeavoring to save something from" the 
 wreck. 
 
 With these examples before me, I cannot, I will not, I dare not, give 
 my sanction to a scheme so demoralizing, and fraught with so many mis- 
 chiefs. 
 
 But, sir, our history stops not here. I think, about the year 1826, a 
 , Nashville bank failed, and occasioned much excitement. The legislature, 
 then in session, repealed our act of 1817, imposing the tax of which I 
 have spoken ; a branch of the United States Bank was applied for, and 
 established. It went down with the principal and the other branches, 
 and from that-time, until July, 1836, we were State bank men, generally: 
 these banks having a safe specie basis, and always paying specie. During 
 the Avhole of these arduous conflict, others have had an advantage over me. 
 
 They first wanted a United States Bank, that Ave might have a good 
 currency everywhere. Next they wanted paper money, and creditors 
 forced to receive it, or to get nothing; then United States Bank notes 
 again ; and now, when the monster is slain, and we can all venture to 
 measure the length and breadth of its supposed deformities, nothing will 
 do them but the pure unadulterated hard money. 
 
 Mr, President, these politicians ever have the advantage of me. I never 
 can give up an old opinion, until I am sure I have found better reasons 
 for a new one. They have the full benefit of what is called the march of 
 mind. They march and countermarch so that I cannot keep pace with 
 them. I turn slowly, awkwardly, and these politicians give me the dodge, 
 and are sometimes out of sight before I know they intend to change. 
 But this is of no consequence to me. Such wills- with-the-wisp or jacks- 
 with-the-lantern I would not follow, if I could see them. Tliey would 
 only pilot mQ into some quagmire or swamp, and then leave me, although 
 their dexterity could easily extricate themselves. 
 
 For myself, I now am, and ever have been a hard money man, to every 
 
233 MEMOIR OF HUOH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 reasonaijlc and Constitutional extent. Nothing is with me money, within 
 th& uieaniDg of the Constitution, but the preeiom metals, and they either 
 coined, and their value fixed by acts of Congress, or foreign coin, whose 
 value is declared in the same way. Ko government, either State or fed- 
 eral, can make anything else a tender in payment of debts. This kind of 
 money, and this only, is the end of the law, where pecuniary compensa- 
 tiiin is to be made. I^ is not only the standard by which the value of 
 property is to be fixed, but it is in itself property^ which can be applied 
 to other useful purposes. The federal government has no power to in- 
 corporate individuals, and bestow upon them banking powers and privi- 
 leges, to be exercised within the States. 
 
 The federal government cannot issue, or authorize to be issued, paper 
 to be used as currency. 
 
 Tlie Constitution takes from the States the power to issue bills of 
 credit. 
 
 It does not confer upon Congress any such power, and it can exercise 
 no power except that which is expressly granted. The framers of the 
 Constitution having taken from the States the power to issue bills of 
 credit, and having refused or omitted to confer such a power on Congress, 
 believed they had secured the country against the issue of a paper cur- 
 rency by either government, which individuals could have no means by 
 suit to compel the payment of, and which, if tolerated, would be sure 
 to depreciate. 
 
 Before the Constitution of the United States was framed, the State 
 had the power to incorporate individuals, and give them banking powers 
 and privileges; this power was never taken froui them, and, therefore, 
 they still possess it, 
 
 I have believed, and now do, that in a country so extensive as ours, 
 so highly commercial, and so free, our business cannot be transacted with- 
 out paper of some kind, wliich is not moncy^ but credit, the representa- 
 tive uf money. These credits will be highly injurious, unless regulated 
 by law. I tlierefure have maintained State banks, at the same time 
 ■\vihhing to put down, by all means in ray power, small notes ; to have 
 none less than five, ten, twenty, and even higher than that, if a majority 
 wished, »o as to furuisli a bruad specie basis the better to maintain and 
 support the organized credits, evinced by lanic notes or cliecJcs. 
 
 It is nil idle to tell me that the only mode to have hard money is to put 
 down State banks. Put them down to-morroAV, and then we will find it 
 indi.-pcnsablc to have a United States Bank owned by individuals, or a 
 treasury bank owned by the United States, and governed at the will of 
 the e-xeeutite. 
 
 being ojiposed to both these, and thinking the country must have 
 credits in some nhape, I HUi»port State banks as the only means of 
 preventing the ei.l:ibli.shiueui of some one of the others. I think them 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 233 
 
 both unconstitutional, and tlic treasury bank infinitely tho most dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 We might as well at once put the whole moneys of the government at 
 the disposition of the executive as to pass this bill ; because, although 
 some of the officers Avho arc to have charge of it must have the sanction 
 of the Senate in their appointment, yet the President can remove, or have 
 removed at his pleasure, every man of them. 
 
 This bill, in truth and in fact, creates a ianh with vast powers and 
 extensive capacity. 
 
 Suppose Congress to incorporate a number of individuals, and confer 
 upon them powers to do exactly the same thing which the officers named 
 in this bill are empowered and required to do, what would gentlemen 
 call their institution? It must and would be a bank; they would have 
 all the usual powers of a bank, except to loan money by discounting 
 notes. 
 
 The only use of an act of incorporation is to empower a number of 
 individuals, or some one man, to transact certain business under particu- 
 lar restrictions. Now if we give to our own officers exactly the same 
 powers which, if given to one or more individuals, would denominate tho 
 establishment a bank, it is equally so in both cases. * 
 
 This bill provides places where our whole treasure, hard money, notes 
 of specie-paying banks, treasury notes, or other paper issued under tho 
 authority of the government, are to be kept. 
 
 It authorizes the transfers and re-transfers of those moneys from point 
 to point, at the discretion of the Secretary. There is now a bill before 
 the other house authorizing an issue of ten millions of treasury notes ; it 
 will certainly pass for that or a larger sum. 
 
 Now let us consider how these powers will be made to operate. 
 
 1st. The capital is the whole treasure of the nation, say any sum wo 
 please not less than twenty-five, nor more than fifty millions of dollars. 
 
 This sum can be concentrated at one place, or dispersed to dilterent 
 places, as the Secretary chooses. A merchant of New York owes fifty 
 thousand dollars for duties, and this sum he is to pay to the collector there, 
 who is to deposit it in his vault. He borrows the amount from a specie- 
 paying bank in the notes of the State bank, and pays the debt. Instantly 
 the collector goes to the bank, draws the specie, an^ returns its notes, 
 and locks the specie up in the vault, where he is to keep it til! needed for 
 disbursement; and by pursuing this plan the whole specie may be witli- 
 drawn from the banks, or so much of it as to compel the banks to 
 wind up. 
 
 Again : a merchant in Nashville owes fifty thousand dollars for goods 
 purchased in New York ; he gets that amount in notes of the Nashville 
 banks by borrowing or otherwise, but they will not answer to jiay his 
 debt in New York ; he therefore goes to the sub-treasurer, who has his 
 
234 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 proportion of these treasury notes, and gives him his fifty thousand dol- 
 lars and receives a treasury note, or notes, and perhaps allows one per cent, 
 as the difference of exchange, and the sub-treasurer immediately goes to 
 the State bank, returns its notes, takes the specie and locks it up in the 
 vaults. When a creditor of the government applies for payment of his 
 salary, or other dues, he may be paid in treasury notes, and thus we find 
 this is a bank of issues. ■ ■■ •,■.,. 
 
 It is useless to pursue this subject farther. Evei-y practical man must 
 see tliis is in substance a treasury bank, with immense funds as a capital, 
 with unlimited power to draw and redraw, and that it is a bank to issue 
 not hard money alone, hut paper money, issued ly or under the authority 
 of the United States. That it confers powers and capacities which will 
 enable it to prostrate the State ianJcs, any and everywhere at its pleasure. 
 
 It will not only control the State banks, and make them subservient to 
 its will, but will also influence all men engaged in commerce, which 
 requires the use of funds at distant places. 
 
 Pass this bill, and we put it in the poicer of the President, through his 
 Secretary of the Treasury, to control the whole pecuniary active capital 
 of the country. "We are to add this tremendous power to a patronage 
 already dangerous in the extreme, a^nd this at a time when we have a 
 Chief Magistrate who is not only utiioilling to have his power and 2Mtron- 
 age curtailed and limited, but is desirous to add to them, even to the 
 extent of encouraging armed voluntary associations to stand ready to 
 carry out his views by force of arms. 
 
 In the early and pure days of the Republic, in 1789, the republican 
 doctrine was, that no President would ever dare to remove an officer who 
 held office at the will of the President, simply on account of his politics ; 
 and, if he did, Mr. Madison said it would be a crime for which he should 
 bo impeached. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, upon assuming the reins of government, prohibited all 
 inferior officers from interfering in elections, further than to vote, on pain 
 of dismissal. 
 
 In the canvass, which brought the late President into office, we all 
 thought the same way, and that this was the sound democratic or repub- 
 can doctrine. 
 
 Do wo not all remember" the outcry against Mr. Adams, because we 
 thought, through a Mr. Slade, a clerk in some of the departments, he had 
 Kignified to the Yeriiiont legislature that he preferred the old senator, 
 Mr. Seymour, to Mr. ^'an Ness? The newspapers rung with this charge, 
 and if Mr. Adams or his cabinet had avowed that they had a right to en- 
 deavor to influence people in elections, it is doubtfid how he would have 
 got through oven the four years to which he had been elected. 
 
 Now tlie wliolo course of thinking and acting is changed. 
 
 During the last Administration it was not only maintained that the 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 235 
 
 President and all under liini had a right to interfere, but, for the sake of 
 securing a democratic Administration, it wa.s a duty to aid in electing his 
 successor, members to both houses of Congress, Governors of States, &o. 
 
 The present incumbent improves upon this, and countenances what 
 may be called legions of honor, to maintain him by force in carrying out 
 modern democracy. 
 
 I have been surprised that in none of our discussions has any gentle- 
 man alluded to a correspondence between an association in Philadelphia 
 and the Chief Magistrate during the past year. 
 
 They informed him that they had voluntarily associated together, had 
 armed and e(iuipped themselves, and made a tender of their services to 
 carry out the laws. 
 
 In a country as free as ours, where the laws themselves are nothing 
 but the will of a majority of the people, constitutionally expressed, every 
 thing which tends to wealven or diminish our respect for the laws is 
 highly reprehensible. Now what would we reasonably expect as an 
 answer from our Chief Magistrate to such a tender of services? 
 
 I looked for grateful acknowledgments for their good feelings towards 
 him, and a request that, as they regarded him and his fame,, they would 
 immediately lay aside their warlike implements and dissolve the associa- 
 tion ; because, if the country was to remain free, such voluntary associa- 
 tions could never be necessary. Public opinion, and forces, when indis- 
 pensable, called oiit under the authority of law, would always be sufficient 
 in the hands of the executive to give effect to the will of the people, 
 expressed through their acts of Congress. 
 
 But I was sorry to find no such sentiments ; on the contrary, sincei-e 
 thanks, and a manifest willingness to countenance the use of such forces 
 if emergency should require their services. 
 
 The good sense of society must check this course of thinking, or there 
 is reason to fear that, at no distant day, we may have, through the agency 
 of such means, anarchy first, and then despotism. 
 
 The senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), at the close of his reply 
 to the senator from South Carolina, "for his special benefit," in very good 
 temper, and in a most happy manner, referred to the early history of that 
 portion of my State, now called East Tennessee, once known as the State 
 of Franklin. lie read us a part of one of her acts of assembly, which 
 fixed the salaries of some of her officers, and directed the species of cur- 
 rency in which they were to be paid. ' •' ••• 
 
 I always feel gratified when I know, or hear, that my State has done 
 anytliing which benefits any portion of my fellow-men. 
 
 " Blessed are the peace-makers," is the language of Holy "Writ. On 
 this occasion the two honorable and distinguished senators had assumed 
 an attitude so belligerent, that I really feared it might end in sometliing 
 worse than words. But no sooner were the labors of my State fifty years 
 
236 
 
 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSOX WHITE. 
 
 ago brought to the noticfe of this grave body, than we all forgot that any 
 of us ha/ever been out of temper, and so soon as we could recover com- 
 posnre enough to adjourn, we separated like a band of brothers— no two 
 leaving the chamber in better temper with each other than the two hon- 
 orable senators. 
 
 r>ut, sir, the senator knew nothing of the practice under the State law, 
 therefore we have not the full benefit which we ought to derive from his 
 reminiscence. He could have related the whole incidents so much better 
 than I can, that I regret he did not mention this subject to me before he 
 addressed tlie Senate ; if he had I would have given him the additional 
 facts, that the whole might have been detailed in the Senate in his good 
 temi)ered and fehcitous manner. 
 
 It will be remembered that the governor, chief justices, and some other 
 officers, were to be paid in deer-skins, other inferior officers were to be 
 paid in raccoon-skins. Now, at that day, we were all good whigs, 
 although we had some of the notions of the democrats of the present day. 
 
 "We thought these taxes might safely remain in the hands of the collec- 
 tors as sub-treasuries until wanted for disbursement. The taxes were, 
 therefore, fairly collected in the skins and peltry pointed out in the law. 
 But the collectors, as. report says, knew that although raccoon-skins were 
 plenty, opossum-skins were more so, and that they could be procured for 
 little or nothing. They, therefore, procured the requisite numbers of 
 opossum-skins, cut the tails off the raccoon-skins, sewed them to the opos- 
 8um-skins, paid them into the general or principal treasury, and sold the 
 raccoon-skins to the hatters. 
 
 The treasurer had been an unlucky appointment, although a worthy 
 man; he was a foreigner, knew nothing of skins or peltry, and was, 
 therefore, easily deceived by his sub-treasurers. "When this imposition 
 was discovered, the whole system went down, and we never have had a 
 great fiuicy for leaving the taxes in the hands of the sub-treasurers or col- 
 lectors from that day to this. 
 
 But, siir, these old proceedings more clearly developed the true charac- 
 ter of my State than almost anything of the present day. 
 
 Tlie territory or tract of country called Franklin, was composed of four 
 counties of North Carolina, and separated from the body of the State by 
 the great ledge of mountains, called at different places by different names, 
 and from what is now "West Tennessee by the Cumberland Mountains, 
 and a wildorness of two liundred miles. 
 
 The Revolutionary War liad terminated with Great Britain in 1783, but 
 it continued with the powerful tribes of Indians who had been in alliance 
 with hor. The depredations of these Indians were so serious that aid to 
 arri'st their ravages was desired from North Carolina; that State was not 
 in a Hitualioii to furnish protection, and instead thereof, from good mo- 
 tivcB, uo doubt, but without due consideration, passed an act ceding us to 
 
SUB-TREASURY BILL. 237 
 
 the United States. When the news was received the leadhig men, who 
 were King'' a mountmn men — Sevier, the companion of the gallant Camp- 
 bell and Shelby, at their head, took fire ; the discontent ended in a decla- 
 ration of independence, and the formation of the State called, to perpe- 
 tuate our whig principle;*, " Franklin.^^ 
 
 ^North Carolina discovered her error, and, before Congress could act 'on 
 the subject, repealed her act of cession. But it was too late. We had 
 been disposed of without our concent. Though but a handful, witli a 
 powerful savage enemy infesting our whole frontier, and witliout a dollar 
 to. begin with, we set up for ourselves. "We would not brook the indig- 
 nity ; we had begun the fight for liberty, and liberty or death we Avould 
 have. Wo continued the controversy till 1780, when an accommodation 
 Avith our parent State took place ; and with our own consent, and upon 
 terms thought just, we, with other portions of territory, were ceded, iu 
 1789, to the United States. 
 
 In 1796, we became the State of Tennessee, and how we have since 
 conducted, I wiUingly leave to the judgment of our sister States. 
 
 I confess, instead of feeling humbled by, I am proud of, this ancient 
 reminiscence. I feel proud thqt my ancestor was one of that unyielding 
 b'and; that I now find myself associated here with a Sevier and a Tipton; 
 and although I sometimes think two generations back those of their name 
 would not have worked so tamely in party gear, yet every once in a while 
 the blood sTioics itself, and you can see, that if their home concerns are not 
 attended to here, according to what is just, they break party bandages, 
 and walk abroad in that freedom for wliich their fathers perilled every 
 thing. 
 
 It is true we are neither whigs, tories, nor democrats by inheritance, 
 but there is much in blood, much in education. Early lessons from 
 mothers are apt to have an influence upon us through life. What the 
 father says when he first sends his boy to school is hardly ever forgotten. 
 
 When that law was passed, and for years afterward, the first morning 
 the son was to start for school, he was sure to receive the father's advice, 
 in emphatic terras, calculated to make a lasting impression, in language 
 like the following : My son, you are now going to school, you must 
 render a willing obedience to your master ; he is in my place, obey him, 
 if you love me. Be kind to all your school-fellows, do nothing offensive 
 or unjust to them. Be careful in all you say, and do not give any of 
 them cause of ofience, and, if they will quarrel with and abuse you, take 
 care you never come home wMpped by any one of them, if you have the 
 power to prevent it. 
 
 Children were taught from infancy the doctrine of equality, that no 
 distinction ought to exist except that which was produced by vice or 
 virtue. 
 
 And as to a circulating medium, this old act contains a volume of 
 
238 . MEMOIR OF irUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 instruction for me. At that day, the medium of our exchanges was 
 skins and peltr}-, or furs. They were tlie the currency in which the 
 people were oLhged to transact their business, and my father, when 
 voting for that law, thought it just that our officers, from .the governor 
 to the constable, should be paid in the same kind of currency which the 
 people were compelled to use in their dealings with each other, and so 
 think I now as to our federal officers. Such, I think, have been the 
 opinions of a majority of my constituents from my youth to this day. 
 
 My wish is to carry into effect their will. If I had fortitude enough 
 to venture into an unknown world, I would rather do so now^ and upon 
 this »//o^ tliaii knowingly to give a vote upon a subject so important, 
 which would disappoint the wishes of the companions of my youth, the 
 associates of my maturer years, and those who have ever sustained me 
 against all attacks, at every stage of life. 
 
 What I believe to be their will, corresponds with my own judgment 
 on this subject; and, however much I may and do regret a difference of 
 oiiinion with enlightened men from other States, yet I acknowledge no 
 responsibility to any human power except to the citizens of my own 
 State who have so long honored me with their confidence. 
 
 Judwe White's opposition to the tariff was always firm but judi- 
 cious. He never doubted the power of the federal government to 
 give protection, to a certain extent, to home manufactures by imposing 
 taxes on foreign merchandise ; but that., he thought, like every other 
 power, ought to be exercised for the good of the whole, and under 
 that impression he never would vote to impose a tax upon a foreign 
 article, which as a nation we could conveniently dispense with, when 
 he saw, or had reason to believe, it would increase the price of the 
 article throughout any large portion of the country, and none were to 
 be benefited by it but a few capitalists, who would be thereby levy- 
 ing a tax upon a considerable portion of the community for their 
 individual benefit, lie liked to see domestic manufactures flourish, 
 but never wished to see them brought into existence, or nourished, 
 in one section of the country, at the expense and to the positive detri- 
 niftit of another. lie therefore uniformly opposed a protective tarift' 
 both by his votes and speeches. 
 
 In 18!}'), there approached one of the most momentous periods of 
 our national history, namely, that session of Congress during which 
 was originated and conducted with such talent and fiery zeal on either 
 Bide, that discussion of the Tariff question, which had well-nigh rent 
 the I'liiou, and filled the land with civil war and bloodshed. Just 
 
MR. wise's EULOGIUM. 239 
 
 before this memorable session, Mr. Calhoun resigned the Vice Presi- 
 dency — which resignation called Judge White to occupy a position 
 still more responsible and conspicuous than any he had hitherto 
 filled. How fully he met the expectations of the body that promoted 
 him, and of the nation at large, in this season of impending danger, 
 is now a matter of history. The firmness, impartiality, decision, and 
 dignity with which he presided over these stormy debates, were com- 
 mended by the Hon. Henry A. Wise, during the debate in Congress 
 on the Treasury note bill. 
 
 I should have remembered (says Mr. Wise) another model of wisdom, 
 and virtue, and patriotism whom I have seen, and seen in all situations 
 of life — long and intimately did I know him — well did I love him, and 
 sacredly do I cherish his memory. lie is no more. I wish I could imi- 
 tate his virtuous and hallowed example in life. I mean the lamented 
 Hugh Lawson AVhite, a servant of Tennessee, a son of North Carolina, 
 without whose aid the compromise act never could have become a law — 
 without whose patriotism and firmness there would have been a civil 
 war upon a sovereign State, and upon the Union. South Carolina ought 
 to be told of this, who, in 1836, threw her vote from him, her best 
 defender against a tyrant. When this act was before the Senate, he was 
 president pro tem. of that honorable body. He was in the chair, and had 
 the appointment of the committee which had to consider the report 
 upon the plan of adjusting the tariff difficulties. In this high place, with 
 this power, he was warned — I will not say by whom* — not to jmi a cer- 
 tain gentleman (John M. Clayton, of Delaware) on the committee. 
 The reason was, that there were rival plans, one proposed by the Sena- 
 tor from Kentucky, of whom, and whose measures that gentleman was 
 the friend ; and the other plan was that of the Administration then in 
 power. That Administration was governed by one of two motives, 
 perhaps by both, in wishing to defeat this act. They wished, certainly, 
 to give preference to their own plan, and to deprive the authors of this 
 of the honor of the compromise ; and, perhaps, the head and chief 
 wished nothing so much as the opportunity to apply " the second 
 section" to the leaders of resistance whom he charged more with treason 
 to Jiiin personally than to the country. The president pro tem. of the 
 Senate knew well the danger of defeating this act, but when orders were 
 issued to him not to appoint its friend and advocate on the committee, 
 what was his reply? The reply of that sage, and patriot, and hero — 
 hero he was, for he had, like his chief, been in the wars — his reply was a 
 
 • By Gen. Jackeon, or by a message from him. 
 
240 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 plea to the jurisdiction of any power to dictate the manner of discharging 
 his duty. He told the man who assumed this authority : " You are too 
 late. Mr. Clayton is appointed ; and, if he was not, he should be. I 
 voted for the Force bill as a decision vierehj that, the Government had 
 the power to execute its laws. I never intended it should operate or 
 actually be put in force against any of my countrymen who happened to 
 differ from mc in opinion, and who are as honest and conscientious in 
 their opinions as I am in mine. And, having voted for it, I will afford 
 every opportunity to legislation in my power, to prevent its effect." 
 And this, sir, produced the first cause of difference between him and 
 Gen. Jackson. He muzzled the blood-hounds, disappointed his chief 
 of his prey, aided the compromise, and gave peace to a distracted 
 people. 
 
 Judge White's punctuality and devotion to business, as we have 
 remarked, were most exemplary.* " His deportment in the Senate," 
 says a senatorial contemporary, *^was quiet and dignified. He spoke 
 but little, but when he did it was to the purpose. He was very 
 attentive to what was going on; and I have often seen him in his 
 scat, almost the only listener to a dull speech. I once remarked to 
 him that I thought him the best listener to speakers of all the 
 Senate. His reply was to this effect : ' Well, it is my duty to be 
 here ; and when a member is speaking, nothing else can be done, so 
 I keep my seat and listen to him. I find that I can learn something 
 from even the poorest speech that is made here.' " The writer adds, 
 with great truth, " This was a just remark ; for however incompetent 
 a speaker may be to discuss the question which is the subject of his 
 speech, and however deficient in general intelligence, he will usually 
 , suggest some facts, and make some remarks worthy the attention of 
 those better informed and more able." 
 
 Judge White's regularity in attendance was extreme and remark- 
 able. He was always in his place. ''I know of no man," said a dis- 
 tinguished member of Congress, " except Judge Marshall, who rides 
 about the city so little in carriages." It was his habit to repair to the 
 capitol every morning immediately after breakfast, and to spend the 
 time in the committee-room until the regular hour of convening 
 Congress. So universally was this the case that he became prover- 
 bial for being the first man in the Senate, and the last to leave it. 
 Col. E. H. Foster, his colleague during his last terra, one day re- 
 marked to his companions that he was determined to have it said that 
 
 * Hull. Jiiliii M. Nile's, liitely deceased. 
 
HTS PUNCTUALITY. 241 
 
 he had beaten Judge White at the capitol at least once. Accord- 
 ingly, he departed one morning in great haste, and upon reaching 
 the Senate chamber found it vacant. Quite delighted at having 
 accomplished what he considered so great a feat, he exclaimed : " I 
 am satisfied, I have beaten the 'skeleton' once in my life." But 
 upon entering the coniiuittce-roora he there found the Judge, stand- 
 ing in the middle of the floor, and holding a bundle of papers. He 
 had a hearty laugh at the disappointment of Col. Foster, who, seating 
 hini.self, remarked, "It is useless to try any further, Judge; you are 
 entitled to the palm." 
 
 Judge White was not less strict in the observance of all arrange- 
 ments necessary for his seasonable arrival at Washington, than in 
 the performance of his official duties when there. No ordinary 
 circumstances prevented him from setting out upon his journey at 
 the appointed time. The valley of Virginia being the nearest and 
 most frequently travelled route, his colleagues, journeying on horse- 
 back, would frequently stop and rest a few days with him. In 
 the fall of 1832, Hon. Felix Grundy, with another member, paid 
 the Judge a visit of this kind. He had fixed upon the next Monday, 
 morning to commence his journey. Sunday night a deep snow fell. 
 The visitors did not relish the idea of turning out in such weather. 
 Perceiving this, their host said, " Gentlemen, here are my house and 
 servants at your service. Order what you want, and make your- 
 selves perfectly at home. The time has come for me to leave ; and 
 I must go." The others made some pleasant remark in reply about 
 his "old fashioned habits," but on the whole, thought it not best to 
 separate themselves from such good company ; and the three legisla- 
 tors accordingly, upon the Monday morning, set out together. 
 
 On another occasion, he had allowed himself time to make a visit 
 to friends in Philadelphia. The family invited certain of their 
 acquaintances to meet at their home and pass the evening with him. 
 Judge White, however, without knowing this circumstance, had fixed 
 upon that day to leave the city, and no importunities could induce 
 him to remain. He had allowed himself just time enough to reach 
 Washington in season for the meeting of Congress; and would not 
 permit himself to be tardy even for a day. On but one occasion was 
 he ever absent from his seat when Congress convened ; and this was 
 in ISoS, when he was suffering under severe bodily infirmity. And 
 on that occasion, so conscientious was he, that he intended to refcigu 
 
 16 
 
243' ME-MOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 in time for the Governor to make a pro tempore appointment; and 
 actually sent in tlie resignation, which, however, the Governor 
 refused to accept. 
 
 While in the pay of the country, he was accustomed to consider 
 his time, strength, and talents the property of his constituents. He 
 puffered neither his private interests, his personal gratification, nor 
 (as in the case of his speech on the Indian question) even the keenest 
 and deepest afflictions, to interfere with their claims. He not only 
 performed the public duties of his station, but was accustomed 
 to adjust private claims for individuals, without compensation. 
 Purino' his early residence in Washington, an old Revolutionary 
 soldier, living in Claiborne County, East Tennessee, applied to him 
 for the purpose of having his name placed on the pension list. His 
 claims proved valid ; and the Judge presented to the worn veteraa 
 his pension certificate, together with all his back pay, which amounted 
 to a sum more considerable than the old man had ever had at one 
 time. Paid he, with deep gratitude, " Judge White, how much do I 
 owe you ?" " Not one cent, sir," replied the Judge ; " when I was 
 a whistling ploughboy, you were fighting for the liberty of our coun- 
 try. I then knew, or, indeed, cared but little about it ; but, my old 
 friend, I have since learned to estimate the value of those efibrts; 
 and to all who fought our battles in those ' times that tried men's 
 souls' I owe a debt of gratitude I can never repay." 
 
 As an instance of the like scrupulousness in fulfilling prescribed 
 duty we may present an extract from a letter written to a friend in 
 Knoxville, in 1833, in relation to his becoming a candidate for the 
 convention which was to meet in the next May, at Nashville, for the 
 purpose of amending the Constitution of Tennessee. He says : 
 
 I have reason to think that Congress will be in session on the third 
 Monday in May, when the Convention is to sit in Nashville, 750 miles 
 di>it:int. To reach that point in season, I must leave this the first of 
 May, the most important business of the session probably still unfinished. 
 The .General Assembly elected me to the Senate. The same body, 
 though not the name men, fixed the time for the meeting of the Conven- 
 tion ; when it must have been expected that the Senate would then be 
 in session. Under these circumstances, were I to abandon my post here, 
 for tho one proposed, I feel that I could not assign any reason for so 
 doing, which ought t6 be satisfactory. 
 
THE NASHVILLE CONVENTION. 243 
 
 I hope, my friends, upon reflection, will see the propriety of my de- 
 clining to consent that my name be used as a member of Convention. I 
 would rather serve my friends and neighbors than any equal number of 
 people ; but it ought to be remembered the whole people of the State 
 sent me here, and that a small number of the same people cannot give 
 me leave of absence. 
 
 Although Lis other public duties prevented his co-operating with 
 his friends in this important movement, yet he felt the greatest boli- 
 cituJe on this subject, and Lis anxiety that the power should rest 
 where it belonged, tcith the peojile, will be seen from au extract of 
 another letter to tLis same friend : 
 
 I have great fears that the alterations which may be made in the Con- 
 stitution will not really be amendmenis. The idea oi^ght to be constantly 
 impressed upon the public mind, that no alteration will be part of the 
 Constitution, until approved by a vote of the people. In the proposed 
 amendments the Convention should insert a provision, that the Consti- 
 tution shall remain as it now is, unless the people, by their vote, shall 
 sanction the proposed amendments. 
 
 When Judge White entered the Senate, he was fifty-two years of 
 age, five feet eleven inches in height, of erect form, very slender but 
 graceful proportions, and with a firm and elastic step. His brow was 
 broad and full, Lis eyes blue, and deeply set; and Lis firmly com- 
 pressed lips bore testimony to Lis unwavering tenacity of purpose. 
 His abundant gray hair was thrown back from his foreLead, and 
 curled at considerable length upon his shoulders ; its silvery waves 
 adding to Lis venerable and remarkable appearance. TLe usual 
 expression of Lis face in repose was sad. WLen tLought deepened, 
 this sadness gave way to a look of sternness. But both these were 
 dissipated under the influence of Lis social feelings; and at such 
 times Lis wLole countenance became illuminated with a bright ex- 
 pression of kindness. 
 
 By the talents and virtues, the strength and integrity of character 
 displayed in this eminent station, by zeal for tLe promotion of tLe 
 public good, by uniform moderation and love of justice, by jealous 
 watcLfulness over tLe public wealtL, by tbat iudifierence to public 
 
244 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 honors which prevented him from ever canvassing for any office, or 
 from any other demonstration than the mere expression of his wil- 
 lint^ness to fill such places as might render him useful, Judge White 
 acquired his high rank among the first men of the nation, and his 
 extended and firmly based influence among its masses; and like- 
 wise the expressive and appropriate surname of " The Gate of the 
 Republic." 
 
 
CHxVPTER XII. 
 
 HIS FIRST POLITICAL POSITION' — ITS SUBSEQUENT CHANGE. 
 
 When Judge White entered the Senate in 1825, Mr. Adams was 
 the occupant of the Presidential chair. Supposing that the General 
 Assembly expected him not to array himself in the party ranks either 
 of the Administration, or of its opponents, but to act simply as the 
 servant of his country, and to vote as in his judgment would best 
 promote its interests ; he was ready to give to the measures of the 
 Administration his prompt and efficient aid, so far as those measures 
 coincided with republican principles. 
 
 He believed that those who denied to the federal government all 
 power except that which is granted in express terms, or which 
 is necessary to carry into effect some power expressly granted, ex- 
 pounded the Constitution more correctly than those who contended 
 for the exercise of implied powers. Being here associated with men, 
 who espoused diflerent sides of all the doubtful political questions then 
 ao-itating the country, and who were in every way well qualified to dis- 
 cuss them, his mind settled down, before the election of -Gen. Jackson 
 to the Presidency, in favor of all those great political principles, which 
 were adopted by that President, in the outset of an administration, 
 undoubtedly one of the most marked and eventful in the political 
 history of the country. W^e have every evidence, that Judge White 
 was something more than a mere supporter of this party, which a 
 friend of General Jackson says was " more perfect in its organization, 
 and more lasting in its duration, than any before established, giving 
 its own line of statesmen and its own course of policy to the country ; 
 a party which was to exert a stronger influence upon the world, and 
 to cause a greater increase of the wealth, territory, and population of 
 the republic, than any had yet caused or exerted. 
 
 As an evidence of General Jackson's regard for Judge White, and 
 of his appreciation of the aid rendered him by the latter in founding 
 his political system, we shall here give a few extracts from unpublished 
 
 215 
 
246 ]^n-MOIR OF HTGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 lettei-s, showing that he may in fact be considered the author of many 
 of the leading measures of General Jackson's Administration. The 
 first two are°from General Jackson, and were written immediately 
 after his elevation to the Presidency. The first is dated Hermitage, 
 Oct. 17, 1828: 
 
 I thank yon kindly for the suggestions you have made, and will always 
 thank you for your friendly counsel. We have grown up together, have 
 passed to the top and over the hill of life together, and permit me to 
 assure you there is no one in whom I have greater confidence, in their 
 honor, integrity, and judgment thaij in yours. 
 
 The second letter bears date Judge Overton's, Dec. 31, 1828. 
 
 It will give me pleasure at all times to receive your views upon all and 
 every subject ; you have my confidence and friendship, and to you and 
 Major Eaton I look as my confidential friends. 
 
 After General Jackson went to Washington— Mr. Tazewell, who 
 was a warm friend of Judge White's, and a firm supporter of General 
 Jackson's Administration says : ' 
 
 Judge "White was one and I believe the most confidential of all his 
 advisers, as well before as after "his inauguration, while tlie Senate con- 
 tinued in session. I have good reason to justify the opinion, that many 
 of the most important measures, adopted by the President during that 
 period were the result of the sound advice given to him by Judge White, 
 in whom the President then reposed the most unlimited confidence — a 
 confidence zealously reciprocated by the Judge, whose personal attach- 
 ment to General Jackson was most ardent and devoted. 
 
 When the Senate adjourned. in 1829, Judge White went home and did 
 not return until the commencement of the nest session. I was prevented 
 from talking my jjlace in that body until Feb. 1830. Very soon after I 
 took mys^-at,, I saw very plaiidy that new relations had sprung up between 
 the President and some of his former friends. Judge White did not seem 
 to havt! observed this ; and his feelings toward General Jackson remained 
 uncluingcd, although it was evident to all others, that he no longer occupied 
 tlic same place in the estimation of the President which he had done. I 
 never know the cause of this apparent estrangement, but thought it 
 might bo easily conjectured. 
 
 Tlic r.iuRO which led to a dissolution of General Jackson's cabinet 
 iu lb31, wa.s General Jackson's determination to liave Mr. Vaai Bureu 
 
 I 
 
LETTER FROM MR. POLK. 247 
 
 elected his successor, and to attain this end it was determined to dis- 
 miss such cabinet officers as were unfavorable to this purpose, and to 
 appoint others, who could be moulded to it ; those who sanctioned it 
 having voluntarily resigned. And notwithstanding this apparent 
 estranf'ement which was so obvious to all, General Jackson a^ain 
 tendered the war department to Judge White, and the pertinacity 
 with which it ^v«s urged upon him will be seen from the followiug 
 letters. One of these selected from among a- large number, because 
 it was written at the instance of the President ; and the others, show 
 the opinion which their authors (of whom the next chapter treats) 
 entertained of Judge White at that day : 
 
 Columbia, May 5<A, 1831. 
 
 My Dear Sir : The last mail brouglit us the letters of resignation of 
 Mr. Van Bureu and Major Eaton, and also a rumor, which I doubt not is 
 true, of the resignation of the other members of the cabinet. This event 
 I cannot say surprised me much. "We had reason to apprehend an explo- 
 sion of some sort, but could not anticipate the manner or the time at 
 which it would occur. I am anxious to see the letters of resignation of 
 the other members of the cabinet, whicli have not yet reached us. 
 Should all have retired in such a manner as to impress upon the public 
 mind the idea that a part did so voluntarily, and a j)art by coercion, I 
 cannot see that the party or the country is to be afiected by it. That the 
 new cabinet, profiting by a knowledge of the difficulties which their 
 predecessor^ had to encounter, will act in harmony with each other, and 
 with the President I have no doubt. Avoiding the causes which have 
 led to the present state of things, I doubt not that their labors will prove 
 entinently beneficial to the country, by sustaining the great principles 
 which have marked the course of the Administration. 
 
 I need not assure you that I am highly gratified to find your name, 
 among those whom it is said the President intends to invite into his 
 cabinet. Upon this point but one sentiment has been expressed among 
 our intelligent and common friends here. In the- course of his Adminis- 
 tration the President has had many difficulties to contend with, not 
 among the least of whicli, has been the want of harmony, and concert of 
 action, among his confidential and constitutional advisers. As against 
 an organized and vindictive, and I may add, in some respects, unprinci- 
 pled opposition, he never had nor has he now anything to fear. I know 
 he has unlimited confidence in you, and in this his hour of need will 1 
 have every reason to believe be anxious to have your assistance iu the 
 Administration.. Should he invite you to a place in his cabinet I trust 
 you may reconcile it to your sense of duty and propriety to accq)t, and 
 that no considerations m:fy induce you to decline. Your friends in tiie 
 
248 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON AVHITE. 
 
 State may regret to lose your services in tlie Senate, but no one of thera 
 Bincerely attached to our cause can, I think, or would for one monient 
 hesitate not only to assent to your acceptance of the new station, should 
 it be offered to you, but to advise it. We would hazard nothing I think 
 in supplying your place in the Senate with a man of the right, politics, 
 thou"-h none can be found in whom the people of the .State would have 
 so much confidence as in yourself.' I trust therefore that you will duly 
 appreciate my motives, when I insist that you will not decline if invited 
 by the President (of which I have no doubt), to accept a place in his 
 
 councils. 
 
 Very sincerely and trulj'. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 James K. Polk. 
 
 Kashtille, May 11th, ISSl. 
 
 Dear Sib : I hope before this time, you have accepted the oiBce of 
 Sect-etary of "War. If not, I now write for the purpose of uniting my 
 solicitations and that of my neighbors in favor of your acceptance. 
 
 There is entire confidence here in the proposed new cabinet — for myself 
 I can say, it affords the first clear sunshiny political weather I have seen 
 for some time, "Whatever your diffidence may suggest, rely on one thing, 
 there is no other man who under all the circumstances will miite so much 
 public confidence — all past notions of noii-aceeptance of office «Scc., should 
 bo surrendered at this time for the public good. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Felix Gkuudt. 
 
 Nashville, May 1st, 1831. 
 My Deae Sir : "When the news reached n^ (1st May), of the resigna- 
 tion of the cabinet, the same account brought the suggestions of the suc- 
 cessors. From that time until yesterday I have been to Kentucky on a 
 visit to my parents. That the war department has been tendered 
 to you, I am told is true. I have been out amongst the people since 
 the report went forth, in the south of Kentucky, and in Tennessee. 
 For a range of 150 miles I am sure of public opinion. It is not only in 
 favor of your accepting, but that no man could be found so likely to fill 
 the station satisfactorily to the West and South — and all things considered 
 it was the very host selection that could have been made — ^the Clay men 
 pcnorally said to me — " witli 1 Ingh White, we are perfectly satisfied."" So 
 I find opinion liere. Tlie desire that you should accept, is most anxious 
 ■with the Jnckson men, and your declining would dishearten very many, 
 Milder the impression of dIfticuKies attending the administration of the 
 gdvernmeut, that deterred the most prudent, and efficient men from 
 
PTJBLIC CONTroENCE IX JUDGE WHTfE. 249 
 
 taking office under it. A thing the farthest imaginable from being true, 
 under the present aspect of aflfairs. 
 
 I think it due to the country, and the party of our opinion politically, 
 that you should accept the office. 
 
 I -would not have written you, but our friend General Coffee, on being 
 informed of the 'facts above, suggested the propriety of my writing — say- 
 ing he had done so — and if it did no good — no harm could come of it. 
 
 As a Western man, I should feel disagreeable with all strangers in the 
 cabinet — one old acquaintance of General J., ought to be there — and a 
 man not wanting too much hereafter — one that feels as if, " in the fork of 
 the poplar, safe from the pack." Out of Tennessee he cannot be found, 
 if you refuse, we will feel restive, unsafe, and anxious. 
 
 The Kentucky people in the south of the State are generally for office 
 on the Clay side — the aspirants are waiting until they are wearing out 
 with age — are becoming doubtful that a union of N. Light Federalists 
 with Kentucky republicans, if possible, cannot last — are dropping off, and 
 if the government is successfully administered, will not long seriously 
 oppose it. S»ch are the s^-mptoms at present. 
 
 For your health and happiness accept my best wishes. 
 
 J. N. Catkon. 
 
 WASHiNQTiJN City, Ist May, 1831. 
 
 Dear Judge : I have just parted from the President. lie informs me, 
 confidentially, that you have declined the office of Secretary of "War. 
 The old man said he wrote you yesterday, urging you still to accept. 
 
 I know your friendship for the President, and I know, too. Judge, the 
 sacrifices y«u have ever been willing to make for the love of your country. 
 I write this at the request of the old General, because he says I have 
 been present here, and can describe plainly to you the situation of things 
 as they are. The old man says, that all his plans will be defeated unless 
 you agree to come ; should it be but for a period short of the continuance 
 of Itis Administration. The public have settled down on you. Judge, as 
 the man. The wishes and confidence of every one seem to require your 
 acceptance. Nothing that you can offer will satisfy your friends ; 
 because, as the old man says — this is a crisis in which ho wishes his best 
 friends to be with him — and you well know that you are the nearest ; so 
 he declares, Judge — now for my own views. The good of the country^--- 
 the honor of your best friend — the character of the State — and, lastly, it 
 must not be said, that aid is refused the old chief from Tennessee, and 
 that, too, by Judge "V^hite. 
 
 Judge, pardon me for attempting to influence you. I wi-ite because I 
 know you will do one thing, and that is, believe what I say. Could you 
 
250 MEMOIE OF HUGH LAWSON TVHll^. 
 
 but witness the anxiety of the General, and the distress that follows, 
 under the supposition that you will not join him, I know you would 
 yield. Yours truly, 
 
 F. W, Armsteoxg. 
 
 The importunities of these mutual friends did not succeed in eflfect- 
 ing their object, and it was determined to make another attempt to 
 operate upon Judge White from another quarter. For tbis purpose 
 General Jackson, accompanied by Judge White's brother-in-law, 
 Judo-e Overton, v-isited Virginia, and conferred with Mr. Tazewell ; as 
 it was weir known that the relations existing between Mr. Tazewell 
 and Judge White were of the most intimate and friendly character. 
 Mr. Tazewell, in speaking of the alienation of General Jackson from 
 Judge White, says : 
 
 Under this impression, I was somewhat astonished at an incident 
 which I will now^ relate. During the summer or fall of 1831, General 
 Jackson, accompanied by Judge Overton, of Tennessee, paid a visit to 
 Old Point Comfort, a watering place not very far from here. So soon as 
 I was able, after I was informed of their arrival there, I called to see 
 them. Upon this occasion, I was told by Judge Overton, that the office 
 of Secretary of War, then vacant, either had been or would be offered to 
 our friend Judge White; and Iwas asked my opinion as to his quahfica- 
 tions to fill it, and as to the probability of his accepting it. To these 
 inquiries I replied promptly, that the war department, during several 
 years past, had been getting into much confusion, as I thought, and that 
 none of my acquaintance was so well calculated to restore it to order as 
 Judge White, of whose unwearied Industry and sound judgment I had 
 • had the best opportunity to form a correct opinion. But that from my 
 knowledge of him, I did not believe that he would accept such an 
 appointment. Judge Overton concurred in the opinions I had expressed ; 
 and as I believe communicated them to the President. For in a very short 
 time, similar inquiries Were addressed to me by the President himself, to 
 whicli I returned the same answers. He too expressed his apprehensions 
 tliat Judge Wiiite might not accept; and requested that I would write to 
 him, advising him to do so. AVitli this request I declined to comply, 
 stating to Geo. Jackson as my reason for doing so, that I thought it would 
 be iiuk-licate on my part to give such advice to any one situated as 
 Judge White then was. I had just heard of the sad domestic bereave- 
 ment with which ho liad been afflicted. 
 
 When we met in AVashington, at the commencement of the next session 
 of the Si'iiate, I coniiiiuiiicated to Judge White the substance of what 
 hud occurrcil. lie then iiilornicd me, that the war department had been 
 
SINGULAR POSrnOX OF JTDGE -WinTE. 251 
 
 offered to him, -which he had promptly declined | and thanked me, with 
 much feeling, for the part I had taken in the subject, of which Judge 
 Overton had informed him. 
 
 t 
 
 His utter refusal to accept this position under Gen. Jackson, and 
 tliereby to aid in the elevation of Mr. Van Buren, to the Presidency ; 
 liis firmness and impartiality in favoring Mr. Clay's compromise in 
 1832 ; his endeavors to check the constantly increasing patronage of 
 the executive, by voting against large appropriations, to be expended 
 as the President might choose ; and above all, his permission to his 
 friends to use his name as a candidate for the Presidency, in opposi- 
 tion to Mr. Van Buren, gradually alienated Gen. Jackson from him, 
 and at last widened the breach between them, until they became 
 totally separated in their feelings and principles. 
 
 Judge "White's position in the Senate now became singular. If 
 there was any one of his own political sect whose judgment coincided 
 with his, the moral courage was wanting to stand by the side of one 
 looked upon as a victim marked for destruction. But this isolation had 
 no terrors for Judge White. Although his course was necessarily 
 solitary, yet it was marked with a fixed determination at any hazard 
 " to maintain what he believed sound principles and sound practices, 
 under the supposition that his constituents, when they re-elected him 
 to office in 1835, intended he sliould resist every attempt of the 
 executive through his patronage to influence public opinion;^'' and but 
 few public men ever received such decided marks of approbation, or 
 were so fully sustained in their course, as he by the people of his ovm 
 State. 
 
 When the subject of the Presidency was agitated in 1838, and Mr. 
 Clay and Mr. Van Buren seemed likely to be the favorite candidates 
 of the two parties. Judge White, who had opposed the ruinous policy 
 pursued by the latter, in his administration of the government, did 
 not stand aloof because he could not find a candidate to suit his own 
 views in every particular. Had it been his province to nominate one, 
 he would not have selected either of these gentlemen, as he differed 
 from them both upon important questions ; but as this was not his 
 prerogative, and he felt no disposition to occupy a neutral position, he 
 deemed it expedient to support the one whose policy would best pro- 
 mote the interests of the country. With these views his choice was 
 fixed upon Mr. Clay, and he avowed his determination as a private 
 citizen to sustain him for the Presidcncv — but at the same time 
 
252* srEirOIE-OFHUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 declared his purpose to resist in tlie Senate, any measure wliich in his 
 jud<nuent miglit be adverse to the prosperity of the nation. Instead 
 of Mr. Clay, Gen. Harrison was the nominee of the Harrisburg Con- 
 vention, and although Judge White would have preferred the former, 
 he announced his determination to support the new candidate. This 
 he would doubtless have done in good faith had his life been spared. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 RELATIONS TO MESSRS. GRUNDY, POLK, JOHNSON AND CATRON. 
 
 The peculiar relations which these gentlemen sustained to Judge 
 White, and the prominent position they occupied as politicians, ren- 
 der it necessary to take special notice of their course. Judge 
 Grundy was for a number of years Judge White's colleague in the 
 Senate. They all belonged to the same political party. Although 
 not on terms of particular intimacy, they labored together harmo- 
 niously up to 1834, on "most points of importance. Judge White 
 bad the kindest feelings towards his colleague, and never doubted the 
 sincerity of his professions, until certain developments connected with 
 a meeting at Washington, which was designed to test Judge White's 
 strength in the Tennessee delegation, proved that his friendship was 
 not to be relied upon. About this juncture, affairs connected with 
 Judge Grundy's course in regard to the U. S. Bank, proved that 
 the suspicions awakened as to his fidelity were not without founda- 
 tion. 
 
 To Mr. Polk, Judge White was very much attached. During the 
 session of 1833-34, when he and Col. Bell were both run for 
 speaker of the House of Representatives, Judge W^hite wrote to the 
 editor of the Knoxville Register — " Polk and Bell were both run for 
 speaker ; the latter is elected. I fear a want of kind feelings between 
 them may grow out of the canvass, and be the means of dividing, at 
 home, those who now pass for friends. Both are to me like children ; 
 therefore I took no part in the contest. 
 
 " Justice to these gentlemen, as well as sound policy, requires that 
 nothing should be said, or done, which can have the effect of wound- 
 ing the feelings of either." 
 
 Some months after this, during the summer of 1834, Judge 
 White's name was freely used in connection with the Presidency. 
 Upon hearing of some threats from Gen. Jackson of what he would 
 
 '253 
 
254 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 do in such an event— Judge White addressed a letter to liis friend 
 Mr. Tolk, and received the following- answer : — 
 
 Columbia, Sept. 'id, 1834. 
 My Deak Sir : I received your letter of the 26th ult. on yesterday. 
 I am surprised and astonished at the information which haa been 
 communicated to you — that one of your oldest and most valued friends* 
 now high in office., has said that " Ae will denounce you as soon as it is 
 ascertained that you are willing to le a candidate,'''' &c. There must he 
 some mistake about it. It certainly cannot be so; and unless yoilr 
 information comes in a most unquestionable shape I should be slow' to 
 believe it, but should much sooner suspect that the communication came 
 from an interested source, or from one having some object to effect, by 
 separating in feeling at least, old and long tried personal and pohtical 
 friends. It has not been a great while since the person to whom I pre- 
 sume you must allude, gave public evidence of the estimate in which he 
 held your private and public character ; as well as of your capacity for 
 high office, by his willingness to have you associated with him in highly 
 confidential and responsible public relations. This opinion of you was, 
 / Tcnow., long since that time unchanged, and I have never had any reason 
 to believe, for one moment, that his former confidence in you was in the 
 slightest degree impaired. I would much sooner suspect the accuracy of 
 my information therefore, than yield for an instant to the impression 
 which the information itself is calculated to make xipon your mind. 
 Nothing could pain nuitual firiends more, than the idea, that anything 
 could occur, to break up, or in the least disturb the intimate relation of 
 private friendships which have existed for more than forty ye'ars, or to 
 separate those now in the evening of life, who for so many years have 
 acted together upon public affairs, and who have ahvays agreed — with 
 perhaps unimportant exceptions — upon all measures of public policy, and 
 especially those which have engaged the public attention, during the 
 present and pending Administration, 
 
 I am very sincerely, 
 
 Your friend and obt. servt., 
 
 James K. Polk. 
 
 It would appear from the contents of the above letter that Mr. 
 I'olk was at that tune not well informed as to the sentiments of Gen. 
 Jackson in rejjard to his successor ; but so soon as he became fullj 
 satisfied cm this subject, a certificate which we will insert presently, 
 will show, that Lis determination was taken, to shape his course 
 according to the President's wishes, although motives of personal 
 
 • Gen. Jackson. 
 
THE PRESIDENCT. 255 
 
 policy, and the watchful eye he ever kept in the direction of his own 
 2wlitical aggrandizement, decided him not to define his position until 
 after his re-election the ensuinsf August. 
 
 It was already understood that the party would support the nomi- 
 nee of the Baltimore Convention. Judge White's friends determined 
 that at the meeting which was organized to test his stren<rth his 
 claims should be presented without respect to this convention. No 
 one better knew than Messrs. Grundy, Polk, and Johnson, what 
 would be the result of the Baltimore Convention, and none better 
 understood, the object of this meeting, and yet in the face of all this 
 they made slight 6xcuses for absenting themselves from the meetino- 
 — but at the same time, avowed that they were in favor of Judf^o 
 White, and privately pledged themselves to his support, as the certi- 
 ficate above referred to, shows. 
 
 The followir.g letter written a few weeks after this meetino- by 
 Judge White to E. Alexander, Esq., shows the course these gentle- 
 men were pursuing towards him. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 12, 1S35. 
 
 My Dear Sir: I have avoided, during tlie present session, Avriting to 
 any person when I have not been compelled to answer letters, for rea- 
 sons obvious to you. 
 
 "While society is employed in scrutinizing my character with a view to 
 know whether they will wish to employ me in a public station different 
 from that which I now occupy, I hold that I ought so to conduct myself, 
 as to give no reason. to suspect that I am saying or doing anything with 
 a view to influence the public judgment. 
 
 Three of my colleagues, Grundy, Polk, and Johnson, think the use of 
 my name as a candidate for the highest office known to our government, 
 may be the means of breaking up the democratic party, that it will bo 
 disapproved by my own State, and that by not stopping the use of it, I 
 am placing myself in a situation that must destroy me at home, as well 
 as abroad. In this view of things they are zealously and cordially sup- 
 ported by Judge Catron, who has been here some time. Mr. Laughlin 
 from iSTashville, arrived here on the 8th inst., and it is said comes hero 
 to aid tliese gentlemen by his services as a letter writer. 
 
 All the other representatives from Tennessee think differently, and 
 urge, in conversation, my pretensions, and represent the wishes of my 
 State, as being difierent from what is urged by Mr. Grundy and those 
 who act with him. "Which of them is right, I do not profess to know. 
 All I have said, and all I will say is that Iliave had no agency in caualng 
 my name to he used and I will not prohibit the use of it. ^fy political 
 friends at home and abroad I hope and believe have not used it, and will 
 
256 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 not nse it for any purpose other than the interest of the country ; and 
 whenever they are satisfied the country will be injured, not benefited, 
 bv its use, they will give me sincere pleasure by withdrawing it. 
 
 ' Neither Mr.Grundy, Colonel Polk, Colonel Johnson, nor Judge Catron 
 has ever alluded to the subject in conversation with me, and I cannot but 
 feel it personally unkind, that any of them should be injuring me in the 
 judgment of strangers without knowing /w??^ myseZ/ whether I deserve 
 their condemnation or not. 
 
 The honorable judge is, I think, treating me with great unkindness to 
 give every body else the benefit of the information he has acquired in 
 his extensive travels, and withhold it all from me. 
 
 He is viewed by some of my friends as a political commissary, sent out 
 to receive just such news as he has brought, and in consideration of his 
 endeavors to detract from my standing here, and destroy me at home, he 
 hopes to fill the first vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, which can with propriety be given to him. In all this 
 matter I feel no personal interest ; a greater personal favor could not 
 well be bestowed on me, thaa by leaving me at home after the 4th ef 
 March next. 
 
 These people are preparing for a great eifort in Tennessee -next sum- 
 mer. They think they can send to the legislature such materials as will 
 supersede me in the Senate. Thus dropped, my pretensions to anything 
 else are at an end. 
 
 I i)ut up no pretensions to anything, and therefore can never be disap- 
 pointed. 
 
 Subsequent events showed Judge White's surmises to be correct. 
 A correspondence in February, 1835, may demonstrate that Polk and 
 Johnson, at least, had determined to pick a quarrel with Judge "White 
 if possible. He had made certain inquiries of them as to a nomina- 
 tion for the district attorneyship of West Tennessee. The note con- 
 taining the inquiries was answered by the following sour epistle, in 
 Mr. Polk's handwriting : 
 
 Washingtos Citt, Feb. 25, 1835. 
 
 Dear Sik : TVc have received your letter of yesterday, in relation to 
 the nomination, of Mr. Brown, of Nashville, to be District Attorney of 
 "SVe^t Tennessee, which you inform us is now pending before the Senate. 
 Yuu express your surprise at this nomination, as you "had not heard of 
 Mr. Collingsworth's resignation, and knew that Mr. Brown had come to 
 this place ns an applicant for the oifice of Judge in Arkansas." You state 
 that wo " aro the only raerabera of the Tennessee delegation who have 
 reoDinmended Mr. Brown," and you " therefore presume" that we " are 
 the only ones here aoqunintod witli the circumstances," and you "therc- 
 furc ahk" us " to inform" jou " whether the profession in Nashville and 
 
CORRESPOXDENCE W'lTn POLK ^IXB JOnXSOX. 257 
 
 the other part^ of West Tenrtessee were apprised of Mr. Collingsworth's 
 resignation, so that recommendations for others might have been fur- 
 nished before the nomination of Mr. Brown.'" In answer to tliis inquiry 
 we have to state, that it is known to you, that wo left to\\Ti early ia 
 November. • At that time we had not heard> the resignation of Mr. Col- 
 lingsworth spoken of, and whether- and to what extent his intention tb 
 resign had subsequently to that time attained publicity, you as well as 
 other members of the delegation have the same means of knowing that 
 we have. * * * "We have to regret the opinion which you seem to 
 have formed that "the case as it stands is calculated to make the impres- 
 sion that there has been a secret contrivance to have Mr. Brown 
 appointed, before his brother lawyer could be apprised that the office was 
 vacant." We are not aware of any such "secret contrivance." We do 
 not believe that any such exists ; but if there be the slightest grounds for 
 such an opinion, we are wholly ignorant of it. If it is intended by you 
 to convey the idea that we could be capable of lending ourselves to any 
 such "secret contrivance," we feel ourselves called upon to repel an in- 
 sinuation which, your o-\\ti sense of justice must satisfy you, nothing in 
 our conduct, public or private, has ever justified. You must know that 
 the President of the United States, who made the nomination, is equally 
 incapable of lending himself to any such " secret contrivances," for the 
 advancement of any such purposes as those indicated in your letter. 
 You must know further, that the President of the United States was inti- 
 mately acquainted with the members of the bar at Na.shville, as much so 
 as any representative of the State could be, and from his knowledge of 
 their qualifications and character was in possession of information to 
 enable him to make the nomination without any recommendation what- 
 ever. Although this was the case, and was known to us, still we did not 
 hesitate, at the request of Mr. Brown, to address the letter in his behalf 
 to the President, which we infer from your letter, has been communicated 
 to the Senate, and read by you. In recommending Mr. Brown, we have 
 done nothing more than we have often done for other citizens of the 
 State, who have desired letters to be addressed to the executive for ap- 
 pointments within his gift. We think it probable that you and others 
 of the delegation have often addressed such letters to the President. * * 
 It is proper that we should add that we have understood that a recom- 
 mendation had been signed by some members of the bar at Nashville, 
 (though we have never seen it), in favor of the appointment of another 
 person. The President, with a personal knowledge of both gentlemen, 
 as well as of the other members of the bar at that place, possessed infor- 
 mation altogether sufficient to enable him to select a person qualified for 
 the office. lie has chosen to nominate Mr. Brown. 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 James K. Poi.k, 
 
 C. JoUNSON. 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 MEMOIR OF UUGir LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 To this prickly effusion Judge White answered immediately and 
 temperately, but with all needed plainness, as follows: 
 
 Gentlemen: Your favor of this date, in answer to mine of yesterday, 
 Tfas handed me a few minutes since. 
 
 During the last session of Congress an idea was somehow taken up m 
 IVest Tennessee, that Mr. Collingsworth would not be re-appomted ; iind 
 several members of the bar were applicants for the office in case it should 
 be vacant Mr. Collingsworth was, however, appointed and contmued 
 in office until 25th of January, when he resigned. His resignation was 
 received at the State department on the 2d February, and on the 4th Mr 
 Brown was nominated, and until some days after the nomination I had 
 no knowledge that Mr. Collingsworth had resigned. I had been informed 
 that Mr. Brown's business here was to procure the office of judge m 
 
 Arkansas. ^, ,, t /> v 
 
 Under these circumstances I really did think, as I had heard of no appli- 
 cation on behalf of any other gentleman, and as there did not appear 
 amopg the papers any reconmiendation this winter from the profession, 
 that it was my duty to the profession to make some inquiry to know 
 whether they had been fairly treated. I found no recommendation from 
 any of my colleagues except you, and very naturally.cbncluded you con d 
 give me the information I desired ; and I was the more inclined to apply 
 for it, having always had a good opinion of Mr. ColUngsworth, with whom 
 I was acquainted, and having received a very high character of Mr. 
 Brown from friends in whom I had confidence. 
 
 I re-ret to see the spirit in which this inquiry is met in your letter ; 
 and that you feel yourselves called upon to "repel" what you are pleased 
 to fancy an imputation upon yourselves, and upon the President of the 
 United States. Neither of you believes for one moment that I intended 
 to insinuate anything to his disadvantage, nor can you believe from the 
 style of my letter that I intended any imputation upon Mr. Brown. I 
 sincerely wish that if ever the President should be attacked, when he has 
 fciD friends, bo may find as many zealous advocates as he now has when 
 bo has more friends than he can provide for. 
 
 I have too long known the President to insinuate aught to his disad- 
 vantage, or that he is capable of sanctioning a secret contrivance to do aiiy- 
 tl.ing'incorrect if he knew it; but, I tell you in candor, that I have not 
 tho same exalted opinions of all other. Many of those who beset him 
 with professions of friendship, I think every way capable of making every 
 cent out of liim they can, either by telling what they know to be untrue, 
 or by supi)ressing wluit they know to be true. 
 
 It will bo time enough for you to repel insinuations against yourselves 
 when you liavc reason to think tlu y are made. When/make them, they 
 BhuU be in hmguuge not to be misunderstood, and supported by tacts 
 
 4 
 
JUDGE WIllTE AND THE PRESroEXCT. 1259 
 
 which will remain, any efforts to repel theiri to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. , 
 
 I ara, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 Hu. L. WniTK, 
 
 9 
 
 Despite thgse bold assertions by Messrs. Polk and Johnson, there 
 can be no doubt of the"duplicity of their conduct regarding Jud'o-e 
 White; and of Mr. Grundy's participation in the same, the following 
 correspoadence respecting him and Mr. Polk appears to furnish suffi- 
 cient evidence. 
 
 >-> 
 
 ToUj_sir, must remember, that as soon as the subject of the meeting was 
 taken up', it was mentioned, as a matter of regret, that all tte members 
 of the delegation friendly; to the Administration were not present, as "it 
 was very desirable that the views of all should be known, and, that what- 
 ever course should be tes^lved upon, should be done by the unanimous 
 voice of the delegation. Ta this it was replied by one of the undersigned 
 that although a part of the delegation were not present, the absent gentle- 
 men had been consulted upou the subject of the meeting, and that their 
 views had been expressed, and wefe'known to one or more present. 
 Whereupon one of the undersigned (Luke Lea) stated that he had requested 
 Col. Polk to attend the meeting, and that he said he did not think he could 
 do so, owing to the personal relations in which he stood to some of the 
 delegation, and asked the relator's advice upon the subject, but although 
 he declined- attending, he stated he was for Judge White in preference to 
 any other man for the Presidency— that the people of his district were 
 for him, and that he would go as far as any of the delegation, in support 
 of his election under any circumstances that he. Judge White, would per- 
 mit his name to be used. Another-one of' the undersigned (James Stan- 
 difer) stated that he had conversed with Mr. Grundy upon the subject of 
 Jud^e White's being a candidate, and had requested him to attend this 
 meeting ; that Mr. Grundy said that he did not know that it would be 
 altogether proper for him to attend the meeting, but if Judge White was ' 
 brought out, he would show by his actions that he was as much his friend 
 as any other man, and would support him in any way in which he would 
 permit his name to be run. The same member stated, that he had seen Mr. 
 Blair, who was out of the city that evening, and that Mr. Blair had told 
 him, that Judge White was his choice; that he would be found as earnest 
 in his support as any other man; and that he would co-operate with the 
 delegation in whatever course they should adopt, to bring Judge White 
 out. 
 
 This was the substance, and as near the language as we can recQllect, 
 of the report made in your heai-ing, of the vieWs of those gentlemen who 
 were absent, and whose co-operation was sought. Wlieu thov had 
 
260 MKMOiR OF neon LAWSON AVniTE. 
 
 finished, you remarked tliat, as to Mr. Grundy and Col. Polk, you could 
 state that they stated to you last summer, at Nashville, that they should 
 support Judge "Wliite, if he was a candidate. One of the undersigned 
 inquired whether Mr. Grundy and Col. Polk mentioned in that conversa- 
 tion whether they expected Judge White' to be nominated by a national 
 convention before they would give him their support. You replied, that 
 nothing was said about a convention, and that you understood them to 
 mean they would support Judge White, if he was run as a candidate, in 
 any way he would sufter his name to be used. The undersigned clearly 
 understand from what you said, not only that those gentlemen were 
 anxious to' run Judge White, but that you, as their friend, were putting 
 in their claim to be considered original White men. They further con- 
 sidered this disclosure as an evidence of the zeal and sincerity with which 
 you espoused the cause of Judge White. 
 
 [Signed] jAjres Standifek, 
 
 Balie Peyton, 
 William M. Inge, 
 1 John Bell, 
 
 , John B. Fokrester, 
 
 . , Luke Lea, 
 
 David W. Dickinson. 
 To the Eon. Cave Johnson. 
 
 January 1, 1S35. 
 
 P. S. In making a report to the meeting of what my colleague Mr. Blair 
 said when applied to to attend the meeting, I omitted to state that Mr. Blair 
 objected to any formal nomination of Judge White for the Presidency by 
 the delegation, I did not understand that any member of the delegation 
 proposed to nominate Judge White under their names. 
 
 James Standifer, 
 
 I do not recollect the particulars of the conversation which Mr. Johnson 
 saidtook place between him and Mr. Grundy and Col. Polk, at Nashville, 
 last summer, but the impression I have is, that they expressed themselves 
 favorable to the pretensions of Judge White for the Presidency. 
 
 Wm. M. Inge. 
 
 The meeting of a part of the Tennessee delegation in Congress, in De- 
 cember last, for the purpose of consulting together as to the propriety of 
 running Judge Wliite as the successor of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency, 
 was a project of my own Avithout being prompted by any one. My 
 reasons for asking my colleagues to meet was, that when talking to the 
 
JUDGED "WHITE AI^D THE PRESIDENCT. 2G1 
 
 Relegation they all, witlvwhom I spoke on the subject, said they were in 
 favor of Judge "White, but I was occasipnally told that Judge Grundy and 
 Col. Polk were opposed to him, which I did not l)elieve. Being on the 
 strictest terms of friendship with Grundy and Polk, I mentioned to them 
 the reports I had heard, informing Cc^. Polk I had heard that when h6 
 passed through Pennsylvania a short time before the meeting of Congress, 
 he had been speaking in opposition to Judge White; he denied tlie truth 
 pf the report, and appeared angry ; and to convince me of his attachment to 
 White he spoke in the highest terms of him — saying he boarded with him, 
 and complained that he should be so badly belied. ' Col. Polk inquired of 
 me if Col. Bell was for White ; I told him I did not know, I understood he 
 was ; he said he had understood thatlicU had written letters, which could 
 be produced, to some of Mr. Van Buren's friends, inducing tliem to think he 
 was for Van Buren. I informed Judge Grundy that I had heard he was 
 opposed to White, and was throwing difficulties in the way of his election, 
 which ho denied, and said no man could say so and tell the truth. IIo 
 then inquired how Col. Bell was going, I told him I did not know, not. 
 being in the habit of conversing with him on those subjects,- but had 
 understood he would support White. Judge Grundy observed that Bell 
 was playing a double game, to which I replied, if he was playing a double 
 game I was too old a politician not to catch him. I then determined to 
 ask a meeting of my colleagues for the purpose of consulting as to the' 
 propriety of running Judge White ; but another object with me, whieh I 
 did not disclose, was to ascertain who was playing the double game. 
 
 The first or second person I spoke to in relation to the meeting, was 
 Col. Bell, on the morning of the day before the meeting, on Pennsylvania 
 Avenue, on our way. to the Capitol. When I mentioned the object of the 
 meeting, and requested his attendance, he hesitated, and spoke with can- 
 tion, and seemed to measure his words. He was well apprised tliat I had 
 voted for Col. Polk against him for Speaker, which I sufiposed was the 
 reason of his hesitation when I mentioned the subject of the meeting to 
 him. I insisted we ought to meet and consult together, and ascertain 
 whether we were all for supporting Judge White, or what other course 
 we had better pursue. He at l9,st said, if the members of his own State 
 met to consult together, he did not know that he could refuse. About 
 the time of the House's meeting that morning, I mentioned the intended 
 meeting to such of my colleagues as I saw. I saw Col. Polk in his com- 
 mittee-room, and mentioned to him the contemplated meeting, and r&i 
 quested him to attend. He inquired if Col. Bell would attend ; I told him 
 what Bell had said to me, and that I supposed he would. Col. Polk then 
 declined, remarking that he and Bell were not on speaking terms, and that 
 his constituents would not approve of his constilting with a man he would 
 not speak to. I tlien told Col. Polk I would ask Mr. Lea to call and see 
 him on the subject; ho replied he would b© glad to see Mr. Lea at any 
 
269 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON -WHITE. 
 
 time. When Judge G-nindy was requested to attend, lie tnade use of the 
 expressions reported to the meeting. 
 
 [Signed.] James Standieee 
 
 JSlount Airy, August 15, 1853.' 
 
 Polk, Grundy, Johnson, and Catron, all became fierce opponents of 
 J.udge White, and denounced him as' a deserter from the Republican . 
 ranks. Whether Judge Catron was working for pay or rrot, must 
 perhaps remain uncertain. But it is not uncertain that he filled the 
 first vacancy that occurred afterwards on the Supreme Bench. 
 
 As had been predicted, every means was used by these gentlemen 
 to induce the legislature of 1835 not to re-elect Judge White tQ the. 
 Senate ; but the people of Tennessee too well Understood, their course 
 to be influenced by them. Mr. Polk, however, was stead}'- to his 
 purpose. From this time forward, everything that could be done was 
 done by him, both publicly and privately, to injure Judge White. 
 He misrepresented his course, by giving, in his "Address to the 
 people," garbled extracts from his speeches ; took the stump ag^iinst 
 him ; and undoubtedly furnished his organ at Nashville with mate- 
 rials which he had every reason to know were untrue. During tbe 
 session of 1839, when the Instructing Resolutions were before the 
 legislature, it was currently reported and believed, that Governor 
 Polk attended, the caucus meetings, and was unceasing in his eflbrts 
 to have them parsed. 
 
 The sequel of these resolutions is before the world. They drove 
 Judge White from the Senate. When this was accomplished, Col. 
 Polk,, with liis usual diplomacy, after the death of Judge White, which 
 sopn" followed, attempted to make capital of their having so long 
 acted in concert : — and his organ avowed that Judge White ha^ 
 always been a " strict constructionist of the Constitution" — thereb) 
 paying him the highest compliment according to its views that couk 
 be passed upon a politician. 
 
 There had never been any special intimacy between Judge White 
 and Col. Johnson. They were colleagues jn Congress, and boarded 
 at the same house. An inspection of MS. letters and papers, reveals'a 
 coiticidence, which is noticed here more with a view to show the 
 nature of the charges that were made against Jiidge White, as well 
 as the character of the men who made them, than as of any great 
 importance in itself. In Mr. Johnson's stump speeches in 1835 lie 
 says, " When General Jackscju w^s surrounded with difficulties, and 
 
JTDGE WHITE A^T) COL. JOHNSON. 2G3 
 
 ■when it was necessary for him to have by his side some of his old 
 and vvellr-tried friends — he called upon Judge White and offered him 
 the appointment of Secretary of State. Judge White declined to 
 accept the oifer. He then offered ii to Mr. Van Buren. He stepped 
 forward, and accepted. Since then he has been the main pillar of the 
 Administration." 
 
 It would ^eem that the leading Jackson men must liave known, 
 that Mr. Van Buren received his appointment upon General Jackson's 
 going into power, and not, as Col. Johnson supposes, when he was 
 surrounded with difficulties. Instead of Mr. Van Buren's extricating 
 General Jackson from these difficulties, he was their very cause. But 
 it is a little strange that this charge should be in substance the very 
 same that was made againsf; Mr. Johnson himself in 1833 ; and that 
 he should, as the following correspondence proves, have called on 
 Judge White for, and actually procured, his certificate to prove that 
 to the best of his knowledge he had on a former occasion, sustained 
 General Jackson's Administration. 
 
 Clarksville, April 20th, 1883. 
 Deae Sie : I find upon my arrival in my district such a variety of 
 stories in circulation as to the course pursued by me, as a member from 
 Tennessee, that I feel myself somewhat under the necessity of calling on 
 my friends for the expression of an opinion as to the course pursued hy 
 me at Washington, as tlic most ready means of putting an end to fhe 
 various stories circulated here. It is said here, that I have been, and am, 
 unfriendly to the President and his Administration. Such general and 
 undefined charges are scarcely worth notice ; but as I have two of the 
 strongest men in the district to contend with, it is a matter of some 
 importance to me, to suppress if possible all such accusations. I know 
 they have had their origin from Major Eaton, and "W. B. L. in conse- 
 quence of the course pursued by me in relation to the Chickasaw treaty, 
 but tliat is never urged as an evidence against me. If therefore you feel 
 no delicacy in the expression of an opinion upon my course, you would 
 greatly oblige me by stating whether I have not uniformly sustained the 
 Administration, and whether I have not been always so esteemed among 
 members. I am not aware of having separated from my political friends 
 upon any important question, except the Force Bill, which I thought 
 unnecessary after the passage of the Tariff Bill. I shall be a good deal 
 pressed by my opponents but do not fear the result. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 0. Johnson. 
 
964 MEMOIR OF nUGn LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Knoxville, May 16^^, 1833. 
 
 Dear Sib : Your letter under date, of the 20l!h ult. was received a few 
 days ago. You state that in your district a story is circulated that you 
 are unft-iendly to the present Administration and wish upon that subject 
 a statement from me. 
 
 In answer to this point I can only say, that so far as has come to my 
 knowledge you have always in "Washington and elsewhere avowed your- 
 self friendly to President Jackson and his Administration, and I have 
 never doubted the sincerity of your declarations. Entertaining no doubt 
 that you were a sincere supporter of the Administration, I state in candor 
 that I was surprised when I heard of your vote against the biU to enforce 
 the collection of the revenue. 
 
 My recollection of the passage of that bill, and the one to modify the 
 tariff, is different from yours. You think the bill to modify the tariff 
 y^&'S: first passed, and thereby the other rendered unnecessary. 
 
 My impression is that the bill to enforce the collection of the revenue 
 was first passed in the Senate and sent to the House of Eepresentatives. 
 Then Mr. Clay's bill to modify the tariff was passed by the Senate and 
 also sent to the House. The House then took up the Tariff Bilh reported 
 by the Committee of "Ways and Means, and amended it by striking the 
 whole of it out and inserting the bill which had been sent by the Senate, and 
 thus amended the House passed the Tariff Bill and sent it to the Senate, 
 not having finally acted on the bill to enforce the collection of the rev,enue 
 which had been first sent. The Senate took up the Tarift' Bill wliich had 
 been sent from the House and passed it twice and let it lie for a third read- 
 ing until it was informed the House had finally passed the bill to enforce 
 the collection of the revenue. Upon receiving this information the Senate 
 took up and finally passed the Tariff Bill. So that according to my recol- 
 lection the Force Bill, as it is called, finally passed the House before, and 
 not after, as you suppose, the bill to modify the tariff. 
 
 But as to myself, I repeat I never doubted the sincerity of your attach- 
 ment to the Administration, nor do I nojv, although I differ with you in 
 opinion as to the propriety and necessity of passing a bill to enforce the 
 collection of duties. 
 
 "With sincere esteem, 
 
 Your obedt, servt., 
 
 Hu. L. "White. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HIS RELATIONS TO GEN. JACKSON. 
 
 The first recorded account of the association of Gen. Jackson and 
 Judge White, is at the bar of Tennessee. They xvere both of Scotch- 
 Irish descent. Both were Carolinians by birth. Both were Tcn- 
 nesseans by adoption. ' Gen. Jackson being six years the senior, was 
 on the supreme bench of the Slate, while Judge White was a practis- 
 ing lawyer. Here a personal friendship sprang up between them, 
 which lasted many years. ' The latter, who wa6 never a man of words, 
 but of deeds, exhibited the warm attachment he felt for his friend, on 
 many trying occasions. The first manifestation we have of it, is in 
 the severe trials he encountered in his trip to the Creek nation, and 
 the important services he th^re rendered him. 
 
 Next, when Gen. Jackson was on a trial before the Senate of the 
 United States, and his destruction was sought by his enemies, in the 
 hio-hest tribunal in the nation ; when the committee reported unfavor- 
 ably, concerning the manner in which the Seminole war was con- 
 ducted, Judge White boldly espoused his cause, and avowed the 
 opinion that Gen. Jackson deserved praise rather than censure ; 
 incurring by so doing the displeasure of some of the most prominent 
 members of the government. 
 
 In 182-1, when Gen. Jackson was first a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency, a mljoritv of the legislature of his State wished to send him 
 to the Senate. Judge White was in Murfreesboro' (then the seat of 
 government), and remonstrated against such a movement as impolitic, 
 for the reason that his election to the Senate must necessarily dimmish 
 his chances for the Presidency. A majority however differed with, 
 him, and chose to run Gen. Jackson for the Senate. Judge White 
 found no fault with them for so doing, but uniformly urged the pro- 
 priety of acquiescence by the voters of East Tennessee in the decision. 
 He steadfastly believed in Gen. Jackson's honesty ; considering that 
 he possessed qualities which would make him highly useful to the 
 
266 MEMOIRS OF HUGH LAWSOX ^WHITE. 
 
 country, when associated -witli honest, honorable, and well-informed 
 men ; and on all occasions and at all places, unfalteringly supported 
 the General's claims to the Presidency, both in 1824 and in 1828. 
 Of the estimation in which Gen. Jackson held Judge White, before, 
 at, and even after the time of the elevation of the former to the Pre- 
 sidency, abundant evidence is extant in the General's own handwriting, 
 and in that of his well-known confidential friends. In truth, as a 
 well-informed friend of both parties has said, "the entire policy of the 
 Jackson administration was directed by Judge White, so far as cur- 
 rency s.nd Indian emigration West were concerned — which embraced 
 two-thirds of the Jackson policy now memorable." 
 
 Major J. H. Eaton writes him as follows, February. 23d, 1829, while 
 arrangements were being made for the organization of the cabinet 
 and for the determination of the course of the Administration : 
 
 Dear Sir : A letter received some time ago from Gen. Jackson, stated 
 he desired you., or me, to be near him. In a recent conversation with 
 him, he remarked that he had had a full and free conversation with you \ 
 and at the close remarked that he desired to have me with him. I pre- 
 sumed, without inquiring, that he had probably talked with you on the 
 subject, and that you had declined accepting any situation, as you before 
 had told me would be your feelings. Nothing definite has taken place 
 on this matter between General Jackson and myself, and I hope you 
 know me well enough, and my i-egard and friendship for you, to know 
 this, that I should never permit myself to stand in competition with any 
 desire you may entertain. If you have any desire, say so to me i?i con- 
 Jidence, and it shall so he received. If you have none, then in reference 
 to every and all considerations I should consent to any such aj^pointment. 
 Think of this, and give me your opinion frankly. 
 
 Your friend 
 
 J. n. Eaton. 
 
 Gen. Jackson's wish to have him in his cabinet, upon his first 
 accession to power, and the anxiety manifested by both him, and 
 his friends, in 1-831, that Judge White should take charge of the 
 War ■ Department (though, from Mr. Tazewell's account, he seems 
 not to have been in full communion with the party at that time), 
 prove the President's unlimited confidence in his integrity and his 
 capacity for business. These honors were not tendered to Judge 
 White in compensation for any favors he had shown the Adminis- 
 tration, or its members. Both General Jackson and his friends 
 expressly stated that it was for the benefit of the Administra- 
 
ins RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 267 
 
 tion and of the country that they urged him to accept ; knowing full 
 we^i, that such motives only would govern him. Judge White, how- 
 ever, declined to accept in the first instance, for reasons best known to 
 himself. The cause which led to the. dissolution of the cabinet in 
 1831, and which he relates in his "Address to the Freemen of Ten- 
 nessee," was a scheme, which he would not have sanctioned for a 
 moment, under any circumstances, and was doubtless one- cause of his 
 refusing to go into the cabinet at that time. 
 
 He earnestly desired to retire from the Senate in 1829-30 and 31 ; 
 but, to please Gen. Jackson, and his ftiends, who assured him they 
 could not dispense with his services in that body, he remained ; and 
 while there gave Gren. Jackson his hearty support on all measures, 
 which were not at variance with his professed principles. 
 
 The following quaint letter from General Jackson will exemplify 
 the terms in which the continuance of Judge White's services in the 
 Senate, or his acceptance of higher office, was sought, or acknowledged 
 by the President : 
 
 Washington, OeVr \Wi, 1829. 
 My Deae Sir : — 
 
 I have rec'd your letter from Nashville, 26th ult., and 
 am pleased to learn from it your determination to remain in the Senate 
 a little longer. Your services there, for the present, is* all^important to 
 your country, and your continuance in the Senate very gratifying to me. 
 The severe affliction by the loss of so many of your children, I was 
 aw^are, made public life a burden to you ; still, I knew tlie high estima- 
 tion in wliich your public services were held by your country, and that 
 you would find it diflicult to obtain the consent of your constituents to 
 retire ; am truly happy that you have consented to continue, for I had a 
 hope that I would have your aid in the Senate so long as I remained in 
 the executive. Both of us, I do suppose, would be more contented 
 and happy in private life; but the lordt hath willed it, and we must 
 submit. 
 
 How grateful I feel to you for your kind and friendly visit to the Her- 
 mitage, wliere lies all that made life desirable to me, and whose loss I 
 can neyer cease to mourn, and over whose tomb I would like to spend 
 the remnant pf my days in solitude, preparing to meet her in a happier 
 and a better world. 
 
 Be pleased to present mo kindly to every branch of your fixniily, and 
 believe me your friend, 
 
 Andrew Jackson. 
 
 * So written in the original. t So written in the original. 
 
268 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Judge Overton, a confidential friend of the President, writes in a 
 similar strain : — 
 
 • Nashville, Oct. 5th, 1830. 
 
 * * * * I pj-ay God that you jnay he able to get along amidst 
 your accumulated misfortunes, without resigning your seat in the Senate. 
 The Gen'l* and myself are sensible of your value to the country at aU 
 times and under any circumstances ; but now, my friend, your presence 
 in the Senate, is all-important * * * The times, especially as respects 
 the Senate are peculiarly delicate and hazardous. 
 
 One staunch, undeviating and inteUigent friend there now, is a jewel 
 of the first water, and without its compeer.. I have always, and so does 
 the Gen'l, viewed you as such. But if there be any other, I do not 
 know him. * * * 
 
 •Your friend as usual, 
 
 I J. OVEKTON. 
 
 The following letter, of later date, refers to the Secretaryship 
 offered to Judge White when General Jackson was reorganizing his 
 cabinet, with reference to the support of Mr Van Buren as his suc- 
 cessor in the Presidency. 
 
 Nashville, 3d May, 1881. 
 
 Deae Sir : We have just received in handbills the account of a gene- 
 ral dissolution of the cabinet at Washington, by jesignatiou of all the 
 principal secretaries. I suppose you have seen the same, and probably 
 more, as rumor says the new cabinet has been designated, and that you 
 are one of them. The friends of the President here are highly pleased 
 W'ith the arrangement, and more particularly that you Avill be with him. 
 My dear sir, I know, that you are not desirous to be placed in such a 
 situation. We all know that you have ever refused to accept of appoint- 
 ments to leave home. But at this particular crisis, when all seems to be 
 at stake, and nothing but a firm steady course, to be well marked out, and 
 steadily pursued, by the Administration, will or can support us, and pre- 
 vent division in the republican ranks, I hope you will make the sacrifice of 
 feelings, and accept of appointment if called on by the President ; and I 
 feel assured that in his present situation, his attention would first and 
 very naturally turn toward you, in whom he can confide. You and ho 
 have grown up together, and have passed from youth to mature and some- 
 what advanced age; your friendship has been uninterrupted: you 
 understand eacli other, and I beheve your political views are the same ; 
 
 • Jackson ; with whom Judge Overton was very intimate. 
 
HIS ■ RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 209 
 
 and from these circumstances and facts, there is no one so well fitted to 
 be Avith him as one of his' counsellors and advisers, as you are ; and there- 
 fore it is the earnest wish of your friends here that you will yield to the 
 call. * * * 
 
 I beg you, my dear sir, to accept my best wishes for your health and 
 
 happiness. 
 
 Jno. Coffee. 
 
 In- such terms was the support and co-oporat!oD of Judge White 
 acknowledged,. and the continuance or special use of the same solicited 
 by General Jackson and his confidential friends during his first 
 Presidential term. 
 
 There is little doubt that the uncompromising and inaccessible in- 
 dependence displayed by Judge White was profoundly displeasing 
 and disappointing to the President and his especial co-laborers in 
 political schemes for the future. That this was the case, and that 
 Judge \Miite saw it and coolly and unfalteringly recognized it, and as 
 coolly and unhesitatingly disregarded both the anger and its conse- 
 quences, when principles and consistency required it, the following 
 extract from a letter to a confidential friend* is sufl&cient evidence. 
 
 Senate Chamiser, May 18, 1832. 
 
 * * * The true reason why nothing I have said is noticed in the 
 Globe, I have no doubt is, because I have never assured any man that as 
 soon as Gen. Jackson's terms of service are at an end, I will use all my 
 endeavors to elect the favorite of those loho direct the operations of thai 
 paper. I am for Gen. Jackson ; but am not either a Calhoun Jackson 
 man, or a Van Buren Jackson man, and therefore it is pleasing to the 
 Globe and Telegraph not to notice favorably anything I can say or do ; 
 and as I am opposed to Mr. Clay, his papers will of course speak disre- 
 spectfully of me. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, I will go on 
 exactly as I have done, making myself as useful as I can ; determined to 
 leave myself at liberty, when Gen. Jackson is off the stage, to exercise 
 my own judgment on the question of a successor. 
 
 I cannot attend the Baltimore Convention, from which I expect 
 nothing of benefit. My duties in the Senate preclude the possibility of 
 my being absent. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 IIu. L. White. 
 
 * F. S. Hciskell, Esq., editor of the Knoxyille Rcplstcr ; a true and able friend of Judg« 
 White, and to whom were written many of tho letters used in this volume. 
 
270 MEMOIR OP HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Even at an earlier date, there is reason to believe that advisers of 
 the Administration, if not the President himself, had begun to har- 
 bor secret dislikings against Judge White. The cause, in all proba- 
 bility, was apprehended opposition, or at least feilure of hearty sup- 
 port from him, in their scheme of a re-election of General Jacksqn : 
 a plan which flew directly in the face of their previous noisy advo- 
 cacy of the one term principle, and which was justified only on the 
 ground of its being necessary to keep " the party " together; although 
 its secret motives were the doubts of Calhoun and Van Buren 
 respectively whether an election as Jackson's successor was at so 
 early a day in their power. There seems no other interpretation for 
 the allusion in this extract from a letter, of date April 28, 1830. 
 
 * * * The Bill to provide for a removal of the Indians west of the 
 Mississippi has finally passed the Senate by a vote of 28 to 19. This has 
 taken off my mind a burthen which has been oppressive from the com- 
 mencement of the session. 1 hope it may pass the other house, j. 
 
 Cold as the notice taken of our exertions in the Telegraph* is, no 
 Georgian nor Tennessean will ever be mortified by hearing the debate 
 spoken of, if truth be told. . We had, I think, in the estimation of all 
 intelligent men, at least as much ascendency in the argument as we had 
 in the vote. As good fortune would have it, Judge Overton, Collings- 
 worth, district attorney of West Tennessee, Major Armstrong, and many 
 others from different quarters, were present, and know that our side was 
 sustained in a style which gratified our friends, and mortified our 
 opponents. 
 
 I have not, nor will I, commit myself to support any particular pre- 
 tender after Jackson is off the stage. Of course I shall never have my 
 exertions appl&.uded in the Telegraph, nor in any other paper published 
 here, while things remain as at present. 
 
 1 have as much of the kind feelings of all as I can expect, unless I 
 become the partisan of some one, which 1 do not intend to do prema- 
 turely. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Hu. L. White. 
 
 We here insert a correspondence between Judge White and 
 Francis P. Blair, editor of the Globe. This also may be interpreted 
 by the supposition of positive or negative unfairness in that print; 
 which must be supposed to originate from an apprehension similar to 
 
 . * Conducted by Duff Green, and in the interest of Callioun. 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 271 
 
 that alluded to in Judge "White's letter of May 18th. It presents 
 evidence of the high valuation set upon his services, that such elabo- 
 rate efforts were made to keep on good terms with him j and his 
 terse replies indicate consciousness that his offences against the 
 friends of the Globe, being such adhcrcnccs to principle as would 
 necessarily exhibit by contrast their dereliction from it, could not in 
 fact be atoned for except by some means which he would not stoop 
 to use. The first overture is from Mr. Blair, dated June 2d, 1832, as 
 follows : 
 
 Dear Sir: Doctor Jones and Major Lewis have both informed me 
 within a day or two past, that some person (whose name they did not 
 give me) is using to my disadvantage, a disj^leasure which it is said you 
 have conceived at my course in relation to yourself. 
 
 r am confident there must be some mistake in this matter. Enter- 
 taining as I do the highest consideration for your character, and having 
 as I trust, manifested the respect I bear you, as far as opportunities have 
 permitted me, I feel the most perfect consciousness that I can have done 
 nothing to' offend you ; certainly not intentionally. I am equally cer- 
 tain that your elevated sense of propriety would not conceive an offence 
 unless you had some reason to believe one was intended. 
 
 Do' me the favor to inform me frankly whether anything has occurred 
 which could authorize the assertion made by others that I have given you 
 cause of dissatisfaction. I assure you that it will give me gratification to 
 explain any accidental omission or inadvertence on my part, which may 
 have excited a feeling to authorize the report to which I have alluded. 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 F. P. Bi^iR. 
 
 To this Judge "White replies, on the next day but one : 
 
 Dear Sir : Your favor under date of the 2d was handed me yesterday 
 afternoon. In answer to its contents permit me to say, that as I am 
 ignorant of what Dr. Jones or Major Lewis may have reported to you, 
 as proceeding from me, I am, of course, unable to make any state- 
 ment. 
 
 I have been a pretty attentive observer of the course of the Globe, and 
 on some occasions expressed the opinion I entertain, not only of it, but 
 of the motives of those who influence it. 
 
 For myself, I have no inducement to trouble the editor to explain any 
 part of his conduct. It is sufiicicntly explicit to enable me to form 
 
272 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 opinious upon every point, in relation to Jiiin, and t?i€ patrons of his 
 paper, where' it may become my duty as a public man, to act. Most 
 respectfully, I am 
 
 . Your obt. servt, 
 V. ' Hu. L. "White. 
 
 June 8th, Mr. Blair makes a still more elaborate effort, thus : , 
 
 Dear Sir: On the first perusal of your note of the 4th instant, it 
 seemed to preclude, any further correspondence between us. Upon a 
 further consideration of it, I am led to believe it may not have been so 
 intended. 
 
 It is proper that I should inform you that Major Lewis and Dr. Jones 
 reported nothing to me as proceeding from you. They merely stated 
 generally that they had understood that I had in some way occasioned a 
 dissatisfaction in your mind, and that this feeling on your part was used 
 to my injury. From respect to you, and a wish to prevent any mischief 
 to me, from what originated in misunderstanding on your part, as they 
 supposed, or misrepresentation on that of others, they were desirous 
 that I should communicate with you on the subject. Their motives 
 were Jionorahlc and charitable. 
 
 Supposing that the cause of dissatisfaction (of which I am still entirely 
 ignorant), related personally to yourself, I was desirous to ascertain the 
 fault imputed, that I might dissipate it by an explanation. I felt confi- 
 dent that I should have no difficulty in this, because my own heart as- 
 sured me that if I had a conscience void of oS'ence towards any human 
 being, it was so in relation to you. 
 
 From your note I am left to infer that the course of the Globe has not 
 met your approbation. I am sensible of the difficulties and of the 
 responsibilities I encounter as the editor of this print, and of my inade- 
 quacy to meet them ; and you cert.ainly have a right to animadvert on 
 the manner in which I conduct it, because of the deep interest you have 
 in the Administration, with which it is in some sort connected. But 
 does not this circumstance give me some claim to ask of you in what 
 particular, according to your judgment, I have offended? As the disin- 
 terested, long-tried, and most trusted friend of the President, I should 
 take advice from you as a kindness, and receive even censure with re- 
 spect. If I have erred from want of judgment, information, or experi- 
 ence ; if, as you hint, I am operated on by any sinister influence, may I 
 not hope, seeing, as you do, the mischiefs I may draw down upon my- 
 self, if not upon the cause with which I am connected, that you will ap- 
 prise me of the danger in which I stand? 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 273 
 
 " Plain and round dealing is the honor of every man's nature," and 
 if there be any man living from vchose character I could expect this, it 
 is from yours. I ask it from you on the present occasion. I should be 
 glad to have a private and, if you please,, a confidential interview, that 
 the mystery (with me) which has led to the present correspondence may 
 Be solved. 
 
 With high respect, I am, sir, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 F. P. Blair. 
 
 To this Judge White answers, next day, still more decidedly : 
 
 Dear Sir : Your note of yesterday has been this moment handed to 
 me. You are certainly right in coming to the conclusion that my an- 
 swer to your former communication was not intended to change our 
 relations towards each other in any respect. 
 
 Should you believe an interview necessary, I assure you it would at 
 all times give me pleasure to converse with you ;, but for the purpose of 
 any explanation, no such thing is necessary. I have no desire to be on 
 unfriendly terms with any man living, and cannot possibly have any 
 motive for a controversy with you. 
 
 If I have had any causes of complaint, they have been upon points in 
 relation to which I can never ask or -expect redress. The time for either 
 explanation or remedy has gone by. They must remain as they are ; 
 but, rest assured, I know too well what is due to myself as well as the 
 public, to permit myself to take any course by way of redress, which is 
 calculated to injure the political party to which I belong. 
 Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 Hu. L. White. 
 
 Here Mr. Blair gave it up. 
 
 Secret dissatisfaction at the evident impracticability of harnessing 
 Judge "White into the traces in which certain politicians were draw- 
 ing, or indeed into any man's harness, began thus and henceforth to 
 sap the friendship of the President for him. The first circumstance, 
 however, which gave opportunity for open objection on the part of 
 Gen. Jackson and his friends, was Judge White's vote in the 
 Senate upon the Three IMillions Appropriation, so called; which 
 was appended to the Fortification Bill on short notice, at the 
 close of the night session, March, 1835. Early in the succeeding 
 session, Col. Benton in the Senate, and Mr. Adams in the House, 
 
 18 
 
274 MEMOIR OP HUGH LAWSON WHITE, 
 
 ctarged the senators who voted against this appropriation, with having 
 caused the loss of all the appropriations contained in the Fortification 
 Bill. These accusations were met by firm and fearless denials. 
 During the discussion, which was conducted with great acrimony, 
 Judge White (the only Administration member who voted against 
 this bill) made a personal defence in his speech on the Surplus Re- 
 venue, which could not fail to carry the conviction to every impartial 
 mind, that instead of being governed by unkind personal feelings, he 
 was just to the President, and true to his country. He showed that 
 the bill was lost in the House instead of the Senate. 
 
 That portion of this speech which refers to Judge White's vote is 
 as follows : 
 
 *' I am one of those who voted against that appropriation, and against 
 whom the charge is made. Against the accusation I might well plead a 
 former acquittal, by the only tribunal competent to try me. This accu- 
 sation was made in my own State, those to whom only I am accountable 
 for my conduct here, have passed upon it, and their unanimous verdict 
 of acquittal I presented the other day, and it now remains on the files 
 of the Senate. But I scorn to rely on that plea ; I have a right to a 
 separate trial, to plead not guilty, and give the special matter in 
 evidence. 
 
 " I do not feel that I, or any of those with whom I voted, are answer- 
 able for the loss of that bill. The vote I then gave was the result of my 
 best judgment. I then approved of it, have done so ever since, and pro- 
 bably ever shall, so long as I am capable of reflecting on the afi"airs of 
 this world. 
 
 " It will be no part of my plan, to attach censure to any one for his vote ; 
 all may have been governed by motives as worthy as I feel my own were. 
 The time will soon come when we must all appear before that tribunal, 
 where there can be no mistake either in the evidence or the judgment 
 which ought to be pronounced. To that tribunal, then, where my mo- 
 tives and conduct must be submitted, I cheerfully leave the decision of 
 the motives of all others ; but it is due to the country and to myself, that 
 I shake from my own skirts that blame which others seek to attach 
 to me. 
 
 " A few very plain views of this matter will, I think, satisfy every 
 honest mind that the Senate are in no fault whatever. 
 
 " The bill was originated in the House of Representatives, passed that 
 body in the month of January, and was sent to the Senate. It then con- 
 tained the whole sum esteemed by the Executive and the House neces- 
 sary for fortifications and ordnance. This sum amounted to about four 
 
niS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 2T5 
 
 hundred and thirty-nine thousand doUars. The Senate might have given 
 its consent to the bill without any alteration. If it had done so, there 
 ■would have been a grant of the sum just mentioned, and no more, to 
 these objects. 
 
 " The Senate, from the best information it possessed, believed the 
 defence of the country required much larger appropriations, and, as it 
 had a right to do, increased some of the items of appropriation, and 
 added .others to the amount of about four hundred and thirty thousand 
 dollars, thus increasing the grant from $439,000 to $809,000, and on the 
 24th day of February, returned the bill to the House, for the purpose of 
 ascertaining whether the Representatives would agree to the increased 
 grant made by the Senate. If the House had simply agreed to these 
 amendments, the bill would have become a law, and there would havg 
 been an appropriation for fortifications, &c., equal to $869,000. The 
 House did not do this, but retained the bill from the 24:th of February, 
 till 8 o'clock in the night of the 3d of jMarch, and then returned it to the 
 Senate with a new section as an amendment to the amendment of the 
 Senate. , ■ 
 
 "This new section has been read' so often, that every member, I pre- 
 sume, has it by memory. It is in these words : ' That the sum of three 
 millions of dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated out of any 
 money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be expended in 
 whole or in part, under the direction of the President of the United 
 States, for the military and naval service, including fortifications and 
 ordnance, and increase of the Navy : Provided such expenditures shall 
 be rendered necessary for the defence of the country prior to the next 
 meeting of Congress.' 
 
 " For one, I declare, when this new section was read, I was as much 
 surprised as I could have been if it had been dropped through the sky- 
 light above our heads into the bill. The chairman of the Committee of 
 Finance moved that the Senate disagree to the amendment, and after 
 some discussion, in which I took no part, the vote was taken, and stood 
 29 to 19, mine among those in the affirmative. 
 
 " At that time I knew not who had proposed this amendment in the 
 House. The President had no-t asked, as far as I knew, for any such 
 appropriation ; there was no estimate sent from any department on which 
 to found it. My belief was the President did not wish it. I supposed it 
 had been oJSFered by some member opposed to the administration, who 
 wished a free disbursement of money about our seaport towns, not caring 
 what embarrassment was occasioned by such a loose appropriation, and 
 that in the hurry and confusion of a night session, it had been permitted 
 to pass without any particular examination, and fancied that, so soon as 
 their attention was particularly called to it, the House would recede 
 from it, and the bill be passed as originally sent from the Senate. , 
 
 'I 
 
276 MEMOIR OF HUGH- LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 "In these conjectures I soon found I had been mistaken, for presently 
 the bill -was returned to the Senate with a message stating that the 
 House insisted on the amendment. A motion was made that the Senate 
 adhere to its disagreement. Before voting on that question I took the 
 liberty of stating very briefly the reasons upon which my first vote Y;as 
 given and upon which the second would be founded. ♦ 
 
 " The President had sent no message asking such an appropriation, 
 no estimates had been sent on which to found it. I believed it would 
 have been the duty of the Executive to have sent such a message and 
 estimates, and I farther believed he would faithfully discharge his duty, 
 and therefore concluded that he did not think the interest of the country 
 required this additional grant. Beside this, the question was then pend- 
 ing and undecided before the French Chamber relative to the appropri- 
 ation to comply with their treaty. I believed the strong probability was 
 that it would pass, either then, or at the next session, and that with a 
 little patience and good Sense we should receive the money without any 
 warlike preparation. This was not only my own opinion, but the de- 
 clared opinion of all with whom I had conversed. 
 
 " I was what I professed to be, and ever had been, a friend to the ad- 
 ministration ; I had received no information that the President desired 
 the appropriation, and I saw the section was so worded as to throw upon 
 him a responsibility which he ought not to bear. The proviso left it. 
 discretionary with him whether the money sliould he used or not. I 
 thought all the interest of the army, the navy, the large cities, and those 
 who had ordnance to dispose of, would be brought to bear on him, to in- 
 duce him to use the money: if he did order it to be used, and there should 
 be no war, as I hoped and believed would be the case, he would be cen- 
 sured for wasting this large sum. If he resisted all importunities and 
 did not use the money, and war did come, he would be censured for not 
 providing for the defences of the country. 
 
 " Again, suppose the money to be drawn, what waste be done with it? 
 How much to the army, to the navy, to fortifications, and to ordnance? 
 The section does not say ; all is indefinite, vague, loose, and left to Exe- 
 cutive discretion. 
 
 " These reasons were satisfactory to my own mind — I voted upon them. 
 From the time the three millions was first mentioned in the Senate until 
 wo adjourned, I did not converse, as I believe, with a single member of 
 the House upon this or any other subject — nor did I converse with any 
 member of the Senate except my colleague, who joined me in the lobby 
 behind the colonnade, after our last vote. He was kind enough to speak 
 favorably of my humble efi'ort, and to express his regret that I had not 
 made my argument before the first vote; byt neither he nor any other 
 member of either House ever intimated that the President wished such 
 an ajipropriation. 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 277 
 
 "I sincerely 1)elieveJ lie did not; but in that it seems I was mistaken, 
 and the first notice I had of my mistake was in his answer to u company 
 of gentlemen in New York, who, after the rise of Congress, made him a 
 tender of their service to defend the country. 'Whother I would have 
 voted for the amendment in this loose shape, if I had known it comported 
 with the views of the President, I do not pretend to say. I think I ought 
 not, but am willing to state, because soch is the truth, that if, upon re- 
 viewing my whole votc^ since honored with a seat in this Chamber, any 
 votes could be found which I would wish had not been given, the error 
 is more attributable to my unbounded confidence in the Executive, and 
 anxious desire to sustain him as far as I conscientiously could, than to 
 any other cause whatever. 
 
 "But it has been urged by the honorable Senator from New Hamp- 
 shire, Mr. Hubbard, that on the 28th February the Chairman of the 
 Committee of Foreign Relations of the House had given notice that when 
 this bill should be taken up he would move an amendment appropriating 
 one million of dollars for fortijications, and two millions for the navy, 
 and that this accorded with the views of the Executive, and the gentle- 
 man adds, the members of the House no doubt made this the subject of 
 conversation, and that Senators would probably secure the information; 
 and also that in the Globe newspaper of 2d March, this notice is pub- 
 lished and has passed into the history of the country. 
 
 *' To all this I answer, I did not hear of this notice. If any members 
 with whom I associated heard this notice, they never mentioned it in my 
 presence. So far from it, one of my colleagues of the other House, pro- 
 bably as attentive as any member there, assures me he did not hear any 
 such notice; and when the amendment was under consideration he had a 
 curiosity to know whether the President desired the appropriation or 
 not, that he conversed with a colleague sitting near him, and neither of 
 them knowing, he asked another of his colleagues, then Chairman of tho 
 Committee of Ways and Means, who told him the President did wish it, 
 and added that he must say nothing about it. He did say nothing about 
 it till since this discussion commenced during the present session. "With 
 the motives for this request to conceal I am not acquainted, therefore can 
 say nothing. 
 
 " The other source of information, The Globe, I did not apply to, I 
 never read it till since I heard the gentleman's argument. If I had 
 wished to read the newspaper for information I had no leisure, my place 
 was here, my duty here, and I had quite as much as I could attend to 
 without reading the Globe. If I had wished information to guide my 
 judgment, and felt bound to look into newspapers for facts, the Globe 
 is the last place upon earth I should look into for the truth. 
 
 •' A<'';un, if I had seen this notice, I am yet to learn that the President 
 has any member of this House to act as his substitute, and to give that 
 
278 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 information to the Senate which we have a right, by the Constitution, to 
 receive from the Chief Magistrate himself. 
 
 " Lastly, if I had seen that notice, I would not have supposed this sec- 
 tion was what was intended by it. The notice was specific— one million 
 for Forfijications, and two millions for the Navy. The amendment is for 
 every thing relating to either sea or land, in a general mass, for the Exe- 
 cutive to divide out, as well as he could, according to his discretion. 
 • " If the amendment had pursued the notice, it would have been well 
 expressed; but in the shape presented in the bill, I doubt whether the 
 combined talents of the members of both Houses can frame a section on 
 Buch subjects more loose, more general, and more indefinite than it is. 
 
 "It has been insisted by the Senator from New Hampshire, that this 
 section did make a specific appropriation of this three millions of dollars, 
 and was justified by precedents in the days of General Washington, Pre- 
 sident Jefferson, and of President Madison. 
 
 " By the term specific appropriation, I understand that we mean iTie 
 direction of the law to apply a given sum of money to the accomplishment 
 of a imrticrdar object, in exclusion of all others. 
 
 " If this idea be correct, this section has no claims whatever to the 
 appellation of specific. The object of it was to place every thing at the 
 discretion of the Executive. 1st, Whether the money should be used at 
 all. 2d, If used, to apply it to any object he pleased, connected with the 
 land or naval service, or defence. 
 
 " The precedents referred to, do not bear out the arguments. The 
 first is an appropriation of $116,000 to pay the civil list. Here the sum 
 must all be applied to the discharge of the civil list, and nothing else. 
 
 " The next is $70,500 for fortifications. Although it is not said what 
 sum should be applied to this or that fortification, yet the whole must 
 be applied to fortifications, and to no other object. The third and last 
 precedent rests on the same principles. 
 
 " In the case, now under consideration, every thing is vague, indefinite, 
 and left to Executive discretion, and without any communication from 
 the President, or any estimate whatever. I venture another remark, 
 founded on what I heard said by a gentleman of much experience, not 
 now among us, that during the period of a popular Administration, was 
 the very time we must expect had precedents to he set. 
 
 "These precedents, incautiously set, when we have unbounded confi- 
 dence in the Executive, are sure to be relied on, in after times, by those 
 who may wish to use power without regard to the public welfare. 
 
 "This section, if adopted, would in after times have furnished a pre- 
 cedent, by which any grant of the public money might be made, to be 
 used at Executive discretion. 
 
 " I now put it to gentlemen with Avliom, on former occasions I had 
 generally acted, to say, whether if such a grant had been proposed 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKS^ON. 279 
 
 during tlie late Administration, a single raan of them would have voted 
 for it? No. It would have been said this money would he drawn and 
 used, not for the public interest, but in jobs to control and regulate 
 public opinion. 
 
 " Upon this matter, for one, I am perfe9tly satisfied that I, and those 
 •who voted with me, were right in not agreeing to this amendment ; but 
 the matter did not end with the vote of the Senate, the bill did not neces- 
 sarily fall thereby. Let us pursue the subject, and see when, how, and 
 ■where the bill was finally lost. 
 
 " The Senate returned the bill to the House, accompanied by a mes- 
 sage, informing them that the Senate adhered to their disagreement to 
 the amendment as to these three millions. Upon receiving this message, 
 it was competent to the House to have receded from their amendment, 
 and then the bill would have passed, appropriating the $809,000 pro- 
 posed by the Senate ; but instead of that they took a vote, and deter- 
 mined they would not recede. House Journal, page 518. After this, 
 page 519, a motion was made that the House do ask a conference on the 
 disagreeing votes. This motion was agreed to, and a committee of three 
 appointed, and a message sent to the Senate, asking it to appoint a com- 
 mittee to confer on the subject. This message is found in the Senate 
 Journal, page 23G. As soon as it was received, the Senate agreed to the 
 conference, and appointed a committee on their part, page 237. In the 
 course of a short time, the committee on the part of the Senate returned, 
 and reported that the conferees had agreed to recommend to their re- 
 spective Houses as a substitute for the $3,000,000, an appropriation of 
 three hundred thousand dollars for arming the fortifications, and an addi- 
 tional appropriation of Jive hundred thousand dollars for the repair and 
 equipment of ships of war. Senate Journal, page 237. 
 
 " If each House had agreed to this report, then there would have been 
 the appropriation of $869,000 contained in the bill as sent from the 
 Senate, and an addition of $800,000, making in all, instead of $439,000 
 which the Executive had asked, $1,609,000. Here the question recurs, 
 whose fault is it that this was not done ? Unquestionably not that of 
 the Senate. Its conferees had acted promptly, and promptly made their 
 report. The Senate could go no further ; it could take no vote, as the hill 
 and other 2)apers had been carried to the Jfouse by the conferees on the 
 part of the House. This was entirely wrong. When the conference 
 ended, it was the duty of the conferees on part of the House to have 
 delivered the bill and papers to the conferees on the part of the Senate, 
 who would have presented them when they made their report ; the Senate 
 could then have sanctioned the report by a vote, which I have no doubt 
 would have been unanimous, immediately sent the bill to the House, which ' 
 could have given its sanction, and the bill become a law. Instead of 
 
280 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 this, the House conferees kept the bill and papers, and by so doing 
 defeated the whole bill. 
 
 " The rule upon this subject is so perfectly plain it cannot be mis- 
 taken. It is this : in all cases where a conference is asked before a vote 
 of disagreement, the conferees of the House asking the conference, when 
 it is over, must take the papers back .with them, because their House is 
 entitled to the next vote ; but in every case where a conference is asked 
 after a vote of disagreement, then when the conference is over, the con- 
 ferees of the House asking the conference must deliver over the bill 
 and papers to the conferees of the other House, because that other 
 House is entitled to the next vote. 
 
 " In this case the Senate had voted to adhere to their disagreement to 
 the amendment. The House had after tJds, voted that they would not 
 recede, and then proposed the conference, therefore, as the House had 
 given the last vote, the Senate was entitled to the next, and to enable 
 them to give it, it was the duty of the conferees of the House to have 
 given the papers to the conferees of the Senate, and if they would not 
 receive them, they might have been left in the committee'room. 
 
 "This doctrine, •so reasonable in itself, is laid down in Jefferson's 
 Manual, at 187, title Conference, in language too plain to be misunder- 
 stood, and it has been practised on by Congress in the cases with which 
 I am acquainted, see the case of the bill for the relief of Mr. Monroe, in 
 Senate Journal, page 374, of the session 1825 and 1820, and House 
 Journal of the same session, pages 616 and 628. 
 
 " Let it not be supposed that the conferees of the two Houses were 
 equally to blame for permitting the papers to remain with the conferees 
 not entitled to them, after the conference ended; because the conferees 
 of the Senate did not know, and had no means of knowing that the House 
 had voted not to recede after the Senate had voted to adhere. Strange as 
 the fact may seem, the truth is, that the House, in its message to the 
 Senate proposing the conference, omitted to state the fact that a vote, not 
 to recede, had been taken after the House last received the bill. See the 
 message. Senate Journal, page 236. 
 
 " The conferees on the part of the House knew the fact, because their 
 Journal shows they were present, and voted, see the House Journal, 
 page 518, 519. 
 
 " The conferees of the House having improperly taken the bill and 
 papers, and thereby put it out of the power of the Senate to take any 
 step whatever, are answerable for all the consequences, 
 
 " I do not state this omission in the message by way of censure on 
 the Clerk for any intentional wrong. All these matters relative to this 
 bill took place in the night, in the confusion which occurred at the end 
 of the session, and it is very seldom that the most temperate and pru- 
 dent are as well qualified to do business or have their wits as well about 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 281 
 
 them after a comfortable dinner as they have in the early part of the 
 day. 
 
 " Mr. President, let us now see what the conferees of the House did 
 with these papers after taking thorn from the conference room. They 
 returned to the House and the chairman made no report whatever, the 
 Senate waited from one to two hours, and being able to hear nothing, 
 sent a respectful message calling the attention of the House to this sub- 
 ject, see House Journal, page 530. Then the chairman stated that the 
 committee had returned at the time a vote was taken on a resolution 
 providing for the payment of Mr. Letcher, by which it -was ascertained 
 there was not a quorum, and that the constitutional term had expired, 
 and that for these reasons he had declined making a report. Mr. Lewis, 
 another member of the committee, then took the papers and made the 
 report, which was never acted on, and thus the matter ended. 
 
 " The first reason assigned for not having made the report was the 
 want of a quorum, this it is said was ascertained by the vote on the reso- 
 lution just mentioned. 
 
 " The chairman ought to have put the House in possession of the 
 report as he found the House in session. Had he done so, no doubt it 
 would have been acted on. The Journal shows that much business 
 was done afterwards, and a resolution reported by Mr. 'Win. Cost 
 Johnson was adopted by the House, see House Journal, from page 524 
 to 530. 
 
 "Now, if there was a quorum to do other business, to adopt other 
 resolutions, how is it that there was not a quorum to receive and act on 
 this report ? 
 
 "The remaining reason assigned is, that the constitutional term for 
 which the members were elected had expired. In other words, it was 
 after 12 o'clock on the night of the third of March. 
 
 "How can this be? There must have been some mistake on this 
 point. If it was not too late to do the other business I have mentioned, 
 how did it happen to be too late to make this report. 
 
 " Again,- the most certain information we have as to time is derived 
 from the statement of the honorable Senator from Virginia. He tolls us 
 he looked at his watch when the conferees left the Senate chamber, and 
 it then wanted fifteen minutes of eleven. "When they returned and made 
 their report, he was not in, but returned shortly afterwards, and it was 
 then twenty minutes after eleven. We may, therefore, suppose the con- 
 ferees had returned about one quarter of an hour after eleven, leaving 
 three-quarters of an hour to have disposed of this bill before the hour of 
 twelve o'clock arrived. 
 
 " There was, therefore, ample time, if the report had boon made, to 
 have disposed of this before our constitutional term expired according to 
 the strictest construction. ' 
 
282 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 " Mr. President, this is the eleventh session I have heen here, and 
 until last session never knew of an important measure having failed 
 because 12 o'clock had arrived. 
 
 "So far as I know, the universal course has been, if the business ne- 
 cessary to be done could not be finished before twelve o'clock, to go on 
 and accomplish it if it took till daylight. 
 
 " I well remember on one occasion, at a short session, we sat all night, 
 and before I got to my lodging place, it was broad daylight. 
 
 " There always have been some members who had conscientious scru- 
 ples about sitting after 12 o'clock. I always have, and always shall^ 
 respect men who act on such scruples, although I may differ with them 
 in opinion. ^ 
 
 " For myself, I have never felt any hesitation about voting after 12 
 o'clock, when the business required it. 
 
 " By the Constitution, members of the House are elected for two years. 
 The President and Vice President for four, and the Senators for sis. 
 The only difficulty is to ascertain when the term commences. The Con- 
 stitution does not fix it, but authorized the old Congress to do so. That 
 Congress fixed the first Wednesday in March, 1789. That happened to 
 be the 4th day of the month. Now, if we believe the first Congress met 
 in the night at 12 o'clock, the 3d of March, 1789, then our constitutional 
 term will expire in the night at 12 o'clock of the 3d of March, every 
 second year, and the terius of the President and Vice Presidetit at the 
 same hour every fourth year. But if we suppose Congress did not 
 assemble earlier than 12 o'clock on the 4th of ^larch, 1789, then, in 
 truth, our constitutional two years, &c., do not expire till the same hour 
 of the 4th of March, and we have our constitutional day, as it was, when 
 light and darkness were first separated, and it was said the evening and 
 the morning should be the first day. 
 
 " I submit to gentlemen who have these scruples, whether it is not 
 •worth while to reflect maturely on this subject. If the term of Congress 
 expires the night of the 3d of March, so must that of the President and 
 Vice President. This will always leave an interval of several hours, 
 'when we will have no President or Vice President. It appears to me 
 those who framed the Constitution did not so intend. It is easy to think 
 of cases which would be very hard upon such a construction. Suppose 
 shortly before the expiration of a Presidential term, a man to be sen- 
 tenced to be hanged in a federal court. Afterwards it should be ascer- 
 tained to a certainty that the person was innocent, and a messenger is 
 sent for a pardon, but cannot reach the President till after 12 o'clock on 
 the night of the 3d of March, is the man to be hanged because there is 
 no President until his successor is sworn in ? This ought not to be the 
 construction. 
 
 "I apprehend the whole dilEculty originates from our perplexing our 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 283 
 
 minds with a legal fiction that there can be no fraction of a flay. This, 
 like every other fiction, must yield to fact when justice requires it. 
 
 " A man sells a tract of land for a full consideration in the morning 
 of the 4th of March, and conveys it. In the afternoon ho sells and con- 
 veys the same land to another person ; both vendees cannot hold, and 
 yet, according to the idea produced by this fiction, both deeds were exe- 
 cuted the first minute of the day, and are of equal date; but every man 
 knows that this fiction would yield to fact, and that the first vendee 
 would hold the land. 
 
 " Whether these reflections be altogether accurate or not, they have 
 always satisfied me that I didnot act unconscientiously, or assume powers 
 I did not possess, when I voted in the night of the 3d of March after 
 12 o'clock. 
 
 " The honorable member from New Hampshire will perceive that the 
 resolution he has read, which was adopted in the year 1790, does not 
 remove the difficulty. That resolution only says the term expires on the 
 3d of March ; but still the question recui^, when does the 3d of March 
 end according to the meaning of the Constitution. 
 
 *' To Senators on all sides, I submit, whether this crimination and 
 recrimination for past acts, or omissions, is likely to produce disposi- 
 tions now to act together harmoniously, and to endeavor to devise and 
 perfect such measures as will most promote the interest and welfare of 
 the country. 
 
 "Mr. President: In every view I have been enabled to take of this 
 ■whole subject, it has appeared to me that this bill was lost in the House, 
 not in the Senate ; that the Senate were right in the votes which a 
 majority gave as to this sum of three millions. I was satisfied with my 
 votes when I gave them, and am yet satisfied, more, I am prond of them. 
 I feel that the Author of my existence will approve of them, and to use 
 the language of a distinguished man, now no more, ' I wish they were 
 recorded in the centre of Heaven, in characters as bright as the sun, 
 that the whole world might read them.' " 
 
 The statements in this speech were corroborated by IMr. Webster 
 and others. Mr. Peyton says: ''It was party spirit in the HouSe 
 which defeated the measure, many of the Van Buren members 
 refusing to answer to their names when called, although pre- 
 sent; thus depriving the House of a quorum, and defeating the 
 
 bill." 
 
 Mr. Wise said, in his speech on the causes of the loss of the For- 
 tification Bill, " Neither the House nor the Senate were chargeable 
 with the act." But he affirmed that " it was certain Van Buren 
 
284 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 members, C C Cambreleug, and those witli whom he acted, who 
 defeated the measure, for the purpose of affecting Judge White's 
 interest." He charged it against Speaker Polk, (and proved the 
 charge by a written statement given to him by the Hon. Luke Lea, 
 and corroborated by the Hon. Samuel Bunch, and admitted by 
 Mr. Polk himself, who was, at the time, chairman of the Com- 
 mittee of Ways and Means,) that " he knew the fact that the Presi- 
 dent wished the appropriation, but did not communicate it to his 
 committee or the House ; but only to a few individual members in 
 their seats, requesting them to say nothing about it." , No esti- 
 mate had been sent to the House by the President. Judge White 
 did not know that he wished the appropriation, and therefore voted 
 
 against it. 
 
 So great was his devotion to the Administration, and so effectively 
 did he sustain it, as to call forth such testimony as that borne by the 
 Hon. Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, who, in his speech on Mr. Benton's 
 fortification resolutions, used the following descriptive language to 
 prove the motive of the ill-timed and unprovoked assault upon the 
 Senate. The thoughts expressed in the extract occurred to him 
 while Judge White addressed that body in vindication of his vote 
 against the Three Millions Appropriation, and he was led by them to 
 form his conclusions as to the real object entertained by the Adminis- 
 tration upon that vote. Judge White plead his acquittal by the 
 leo-islature of Tennessee, which had unanimously re-elected him, 
 after he ga^e that vote. Mr. Clayton said : 
 
 It may bQ considered necessary to make the most of this, the only 
 offence he has committed against the Administration. The difference in 
 the votes of the honorable senators from Tennessee (Mr. White and Mr. 
 Grundy), on the amendment to the Fortification Bill, has called up some 
 reminiscences of bygone events, exhibiting some other differences be- 
 tween them. When I first came into Congress, they were both consid- 
 ered so true to the Administration, and so effective in its aid, that, out 
 of sheer compliment among their friends here, they were called " Jack- 
 son's Tennessee Kiiles." They both proved true for a time, and told, 
 with unerring certainty, in every conflict with those who opposed the 
 executive. But although both were good rilles, there was an allowed 
 difference between them. One missed the mark altogether, during that 
 famous contest which was carried on here about the time of Mr. Foote's 
 resolutions. It was believed to have been near bursting, in consequence 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 285 
 
 of being overcharged with nullification powder. There was also another 
 failure. Tliis same rifle was assigned to the defence of the post-office, 
 and was charged to the muzzle for keeping and maintaining that posi- 
 tion ; hut the post was carried by its assailants, and the defence was cen- 
 sured by those who directed it, because the enemy entered in despite of 
 the garrison, and exposed most piratical depredations which had been 
 committed on the people. For my OM'n part, I have always inclined to 
 attri])uto this failure to the indefensible condition of the post. But, said 
 Mr. Clayton, pointing to the seat of Mr. Wiiite, the old Tennessee rifle 
 which has stood against that desk ever since I knew it, was a rare piece, 
 and always has attracted my especial admiration. Although fighting on 
 the other side, I never like to see it come into action. For six years, 
 although it was almost every day engaged, it never snapped, missed, or 
 hung fire ; nor was it ever said to have failed to hit tjie mark, until 
 about midnight of the 3d of March last. The people of Tennessee, who 
 are said to be excellent judges of a good shot or a gallant blow, have 
 since decided that this was a most " palpable hit," and that, however 
 others, who are ignorant of the qualities of a first-rate weapon, may have 
 foolishly desired to break the old rifle of the West, tliey still hold it en- 
 titled to the first rank when engaged for their defence ; and will never 
 consent that it shall either be- injured by abuse, or left out of service. 
 Even those who have condemned it, because, a§ they think, it has once 
 missed the mark, may relent, when they reflect that it has been clearly 
 shown in this debate that, on the occasion alluded to, the President him- 
 eelf did neither charge nor pull the trigger. 
 
 Wheji Mr. Clay's resolution, censuring General Jackson's removal 
 of the deposits, ''upon the ground that lie had assumed to himself 
 authority and powers not conferred by the Constitution and laws, 
 but in derogation of both," was before the Senate, Judge White not 
 only voted against it, but argued that the President had the Consti- 
 tutional rifjht to remove the public moneys whenever he had reason to 
 believe them unsafe. But the resolutions were adopted and entered 
 upon the journals. The President protested against the stigma that 
 had been attached to his name by the proceeding. Mr. ]3cuton, in 
 bis devotion to General Jackson, afterwards brought forward his 
 Expunging Resolutions, the object of which was to remove this 
 reproach. Judge White voted against theui. He had done aill he 
 could to pre\'^nt this unpleasant procedure : but the work had been 
 done, and he maintained that it was unconstitutional and a dangerous 
 expedient to obliterate the journals. In lieu, however, of these rcso- 
 
286 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 lutions, he offered one, oidering Mr. Clay's to be "rescinded, reversed, 
 repealed, and declared nult and void." He wished to do justice to 
 the Chief 'Magistrate, but at the same time, to do justice to the pub- 
 lic and to the Senate. And in this opinion he was joined by most of 
 the Administration members, only six or seven of whom voted to 
 retain the word "expunge." 
 
 That General Jackson had received favors from Judge White, 
 without any. obligation on the part of Judge White to confer them, 
 except that induced by friendship, both he and his friends admit. 
 How were they returned ? 
 
 t The time came when General Jackson could have shown his grati- 
 tude by simply remaining silent; instead of which, because Judge 
 White did not choose to acquiesce in all his views with regard to the 
 succession, he entered personally and warmly into the presidential 
 contest of 1836, denouncing all the friends of the latter who differed 
 with him in opinion as "Federalists," " Nullifiers," and "New-bora 
 Whigs." Not only was this done, but he permitted and oven encour- 
 aged office-holders to use their time and talents in the same cause. 
 An instance is noticed in the remarks of Judge White, on a resolution 
 submitted by him to the Senate, on the subject of Benjamin F. Curry's 
 employment — and in his correspondence with the Secretary of War, 
 in reference to a letter written by Mr. Curry, and published in the 
 "Nashville Union." It is due to Judge White, to publish here his 
 remarks and the correspondence. January 12, 1836, Judge White 
 addressed the Senate as follows : 
 
 Mr. President : I rise to offer the resolution which I hold in my hand ; 
 but to enable the Senate to understand why it is offered, and the object 
 I wish to accomplish, it is a duty incumbent on me, to accompany it 
 with some explanation ; I will therefore read and then pass it to your 
 table : » 
 
 Besolved, That the Secretary of War be, and he hereby is, requested to inform the Senate 
 ■what office Benjamin F. Curry holds in the Cherokee nation, under what law he was appointRd 
 and at what time ; what salary he receives, and whether he has at any time received any 
 allowance, in addition to his salary, and how much; stating particularly the whole amount he 
 has received each year. 
 
 This Mr. Curry went into the nation some time after the election of 
 the present Chief Magistrate, and I believe uatil about twelve months 
 ago, he had been employed as an inferior agent to superintend the enroll- 
 
niS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON". 287 
 
 ment of Cherokees for emigration, to have their improvements valued, 
 &c. 
 
 During the last winter he was here, and when I returned home last spring, 
 I understood he Avas making some figure as a politician ; tliat out of his 
 own head, or by the instigation of some person more wicked than him- 
 self, he had, while here, written some letters for publication to a small 
 newspaper in my own State, which had engaged in the business of tra- 
 ducing me. In the course of the summer, wo had, in some of our Con- 
 gressional districts, animated contests between candidates for Congress. 
 This gentleman, I understood, took an. active part. He sometimes 
 travelled out of the nation, and even out of his Congressional district, was 
 zealous in propagating his opinions, and as I am informed and believe, 
 either wrote himself, or furnished the materials for. one of more pieces 
 for the same vehicle of slander, to which he had written while in Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 In the district including the Cherokee agency he was ^ealou3 in oppos- 
 ing the election of the former membei-, and with the view to enable him 
 to act efficiently, was in -the habit of reading and showing confidentially, 
 a letter said to be written by the President himself, finding fault with the 
 former member by name, and using general expressions which Mr. Curry 
 said were intended for me. I have likewise been informed, that still 
 farther to succeed in his plans of defamation, he confidentially used a 
 letter, said to be written to him by my honorable colleague, in which my 
 name was used, not much to my advantage; and I now take this occa- 
 sion, in the Senate, in presence of our brother senators, in the presence 
 of this audience, in the fiice of the world, to ask my colleague to say, 
 whether at any time, he wrote any letter to Mi*. Curry, in which my 
 name was used. 
 
 [Mr. Grundy answered — " That he was taken by surprise with tho 
 question ; but he did not remember he had ev§r written a letter on any 
 subject to Mr. Curry,, and he felt certain if he had, he had never used his 
 colleague's name in other terms than those of respect."] 
 
 Mr. Wliite proceeded — I am then satisfied with the answer given for 
 tlie present, and this artifice must have been used by Mr. Curry, the more 
 effectually to mislead and deceive those to whom he made such statements. 
 
 All this conduct I disregarded, and did not think it worthy to be made 
 matter of conversation. Our elections terminated, the former member 
 was reelected ; and when the legislature met, I was again honored with 
 a seat here by a unanimous vote. 
 
 Some time ago, a friend brought me a Georgia newspaper, and pointed 
 out to me a letter »;h7c;' the signature of Mr. Curry., dated 1st December, 
 1835, and addressed to the editor of a newspaper called the Federal Union. 
 In tliat paper it iuul Ijeen published, and from it copied into various other 
 papers, and finally into one in my own State called the Nashville Union, 
 
288 MEMOIR OF HFGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 gotten up by funds furnisliGd here, expressly for the pm-pose of distribut- 
 ing, in my own State and elsewhere, all the dirty tilth and slanders 
 •which could ,be collected, with a view to detract from my humble 
 standing. 
 
 The time at which this letter was published, as well as the place where 
 and the matter of it, struck me with some force. The legislatures of 
 Georgia, of Alabama, of Tennessee, of North Carolina, Virginia, and 
 several other States were then in session, if I mistake not, and if I do I 
 hope gentlemen will correct me, and that of Mississippi was soon to meet. 
 Tour of these States had a deep stake in the Indian question, because the 
 Indians were residing, and yet reside, in portions of them. 
 
 I saw that the most gross and base falsehoods were contained in it as 
 to myself. This I did not so much regard, but I saw further, that Avith a 
 view to reach me, a statement was made respecting Mr. M-Connell, one 
 of my constituents, a humble and inoffensive citizen, which would, in all 
 probability, cost him his life. I felt hurt by this, as I had been the medium 
 through which the Secretary of War had induced him to undertake this 
 delicate, confidential and hazardous agency. 
 
 The falsehoods were so glaring, and 'the mischievous tendency of the 
 letter so obvious, that I at first hoped, as soon as it met the eye of the 
 Administration, the matter would be set right without any application 
 from any quarter. After waiting some time without any step having 
 been taken, and having good reason to believe the letter had been seen 
 by at least one member of the Administration, I addressed a letter to the 
 Secretary of War under date of the 2d inst. a copy of which I will now 
 read. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 2, 1836. 
 
 Dear Sir : I must take the liberty of inviting your attention to a 
 letter under the signature of Benjamin F. Curry, published in a news- 
 paper called the Federal Union, and bearing date, " Cherokee Agency, 
 Dec. 1, 1835." 
 
 In it jrou will see in speaking of Samuel McConnell, Mr. Curry uses 
 this language — "He has for some years past, under the procurement of 
 Judge White of Tennessee, been receiving pay from the United States 
 Government, a»a secret and confidential agent, while all his visible efforts 
 have been to defeat' the measures of the ostensible agents in bringing about 
 a treaty." 
 
 I feel assured your own sense of justice will at once pronounce that 
 this statement, so far as I am concerned, is entirely unfounded. 
 
 'The name of Mr. McConnell was not brought to your notice by me ; I 
 never asked or procured the department to appoint him. Any agency I 
 had in the matter was at the instance of the department, and to carry 
 into effect its wishes, as is fully disclosed in the letter from the acting 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 289 
 
 Secretary of War to me, aud my answer, with its enclosure to bim, to 
 which I beg leave to refer you. 
 
 In that, as in everything else, I was willing to do all in my power to 
 aid in carrying into effect the ■\yishes of the department in relation to the 
 Indians, and must think I am treated with great injustice, if your agents, 
 attached to your department, are thus to misrepresent and calumniate 
 me. From all the information I possess, I must tliink that in the charges 
 against McConnell there is a great disregard of truth. I had once believed, 
 and yet do, that he acted with great fidelity, aud that from his services 
 much benefit resulted. 
 
 But, sir, if Mr. McConnell was a secret agent, appointed by your 
 department, does he merit that his life should be endangered by this 
 statement of your agent ? If he was not a secret agent, is it right that he 
 should be endangered by the statement of such a falsehood ? 
 
 In another part of Mr. Curry's letter he states that shortly before the 
 council, Lewis Ross came to Knoxville, and after his return, rumors were 
 put afloat connected with my name. 
 
 The inference which Mr. Curry wishes should be drawn from this state- 
 ment no doubt was, that Lewis Ross came to Knoxville to consult me. 
 I assure you, if Mr. Ross was at Knoxville, from the time I left Washing- 
 ton in Marcli till my return this fall, I never heard of it until I read Mr, 
 Curry's letter, aud have had no comnrauication whatever with him. 
 
 The whole tenor of this letter, so far as I am concerned, is a tissue of 
 misrepresentations, intended to place my conduct in a false view before 
 the world. 
 
 I am well aware that those who know Mr. Curry would not excuse me 
 for taking any notice of his slanders generally, but from the particular 
 nature of his charge, and the circumstance of his being connected with 
 your department, his statement may be thought entitled to some credit, 
 should it p^ss without rebuke. 
 
 He is your officer, you are the witness who knows the gross injustice 
 done me, and to you I confidently appeal for such steps as will do that 
 which is just to the country, to Mr. Curry and to myself. 
 
 I beg to be informed what course you will pursue in this matter. 
 
 I have the honor to be, most respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Hit. L. White. 
 Hon, Lewis Cass. 
 
 On the night of the loth I received his answer dated the 14th, inclos- 
 ing a copy of one written to Mr. Curry on the 9th. 
 
 Department of War, Jan. lith, 1936. 
 Dear Sir : I must ask your indulgence for not having answered your 
 letter of the 2'Jth iust., which was received here on the 15th. The delav 
 
 19 
 
290 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 has been owing to the great press of business, and to the propriety of 
 laying the matter before the President. , 
 
 I have now the honor to send the copy of a letter addressed to Major 
 Curry, and in which the President's disapprobation is conveyed to him. 
 The statement that Mr. McOonnell was employed at your suggestion is 
 altogether erroneous, and I have put the matter right by giving the true 
 facts of the case. I consider the department under obligations to you, 
 for the trouble you took on the subject of the employment and proceed- 
 ings of Mr. McOonnell, and I have endeavored to do justice to his 
 services, so far as these are known to me. If Major Curry intended to 
 intimate, as you suppose, that there was a communication between your- 
 self and Mr. Ross, such an intimation was highly improper. Indepen- 
 dent of the entire want of proof of such a course, your word is quite 
 sufficient to satisfy me that there^was no just ground for the suggestion. 
 T am-, dear sir, very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Lewis. Cass. 
 
 Hon. Hugh L. White. 
 
 War Department Jan. Qt?i, 1836. 
 Sm: The attention of this department has been drawn to a letter 
 from you to the editor of tlie Federal Union, and which was published 
 in the Augusta Centinel of the 22d ult. 
 
 I am instructed by the President, if that letter was written by you, 
 
 to convey to you his disapprobation of a part of it. There certainly can 
 
 be no impropriety in an officer's communicating to the public proper 
 
 information, when circumstances require it, and the general proceedings 
 
 relating to the prospects and progress of the Cherokee emigration, are 
 
 of this nature. But it is with regret the President observes, in this 
 
 communication, allusions to persons and parties, which do not seem to be 
 
 necessary, and are calculated to produce an injurious effect. There is 
 
 one error of fact, which it becomes the special duty of this department 
 
 to correct, as the requisite information is upon its files. You state that 
 
 Mr. McConnell " has for some years past, under the procurement of 
 
 Judge White of Tennessee, been receiving pay from the United States' 
 
 Government, as a secret and confidential agent," &c. You have been 
 
 led into a mistake on tliis subject. Mr. McConnell was not employed 
 
 under the procurement of Judge White. The suggestion tliat Mr. 
 
 McConncU's cervices might be useful, as well to the United States as to the 
 
 Cherokee Indians, was made to this department from another and very 
 
 respectable quarter. As all tlie necessary circumstances were not fully 
 
 known at the dopartmout, proper instructions were given to Mi- McCon- 
 
His EELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 291 
 
 nell and enclosed to Judge "White, to be delivered, if he thought the 
 arrangement would be useful. Judge White had no agency whatever in 
 the matter, until he was requested, by the express dii-ection of the Pre- 
 sident, to serve as a medium of communication between Mr. McConnell 
 and ihis department. 
 
 Mr. McConnell transmitted various reports, containing information 
 respecting the state of things in the Cherokee country. But there is 
 nothing in these, going in the slightest degree to show that he did not 
 act with due fidelity, as well to the United States as to the Cherokee 
 Indians. 
 
 It is also a matter of regret, that yon should have alluded at all to 
 the employment of Mr. McConnell. From the relation in which he 
 stands to the Cherokees, and the suspicious disposition of Indians, the 
 disclosure maj^ even put his life at hazard. . It is therefore the more 
 imperative upon me, to state explicitly, as I have done, that there was 
 nothing in the report of Mr. McConnell which could give just offence to 
 the Indians. 
 
 The President has directed me to say, that he has read and approves 
 this letter, and that while he appreciates the zeal you have displayed in 
 the execution of your duties, he deems it incumbent upon him to recom- 
 mend to you great discretion, and particularly to convey to you his dis- 
 approbation of the allusion you have made to the employment of Mr. 
 McConnell. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 [Signed] Lewis Cass. 
 
 Major B. F. Curry, New Echota^ Georgia. 
 
 To this, on the 16th, I wrote a very short reply : — 
 
 Washinqtok, Jan. \(>ih 1836. 
 
 Dbab Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge that I received last 
 night, your favor undea- date of the 14th, with its enclosure, in answer 
 to mine of the 2d inst. 
 
 . The result is so different from what, I think, I had a right to antici- 
 pate, that I refrain from any remarks on the contents of the letter written 
 to Mr. Curry, by direction of the President. 
 
 I have the honor to be, most respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 IIu. L. White. 
 
 I had applied in the only friendly mode T could devise,- for the inter- 
 position of the executive power. I remembered well the great principle 
 
292 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 fur wliicli the party had struggled to elevate the President to his present 
 station. I remembered his recognition of it in his inaugural address, 
 ■which thousands of the citizens of the United States, as well as most of 
 those now in the reach of my voice, heard him dehver, as containing the 
 principles upon which he would administer the government. The para- 
 graph is in the following words : — 
 
 " The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribed on the list of 
 executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of 
 reform; which will require particularly the correction of those aluses 
 that have brought the 2)atronage of tJie federal gover7i7nent into conflict 
 with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those causes 
 which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment, and have 
 placed, or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands." 
 
 This short paragraph shows the main ground on which the contest 
 rested, when ended in the election of the present Chief Magistrate. It 
 contains the sentiments avowed by him iji presence of nearly twenty 
 thousand freemen. It contains the sentiments which, as one of his advo- 
 cates, I honestly entertained. It contains the sentiments on the main- 
 tenance of which I believe our fi-eedom and liberty especially depend. 
 I felt hurt and mortified upon reading the Secretary's letter ; I could not 
 reply without using expressions not fit to address to a member of the 
 President's Cabinet. In place of Mr. Curry's receiving such a rebuke as 
 would deter him from committing a similar otfence in future, it appeared 
 to me that he was comphmented. Although his conduct was not 
 approved as to Mr. McConnell, as to me it was very well, that instead of 
 an inferior agent he was to be viewed as an electioneering political diplo- 
 matist, and that hereafter, if the Gardiner spoke of by the senator from 
 Massachusetts, the other day, is to wear his diplomatic button, Mr. 
 Curry ought to figure in his political electioneering star and garter. 
 
 But, sir, what was I to do next ? The falsehood has gone forth to 
 answer the meditated mischief. In some of the States it is probable it 
 has accomplished its object ; how is it to be contradicted ? I have been 
 furnished with a document proving the falsehood, in it suppose^ that I 
 would sneak to a printing office to beg a publication of its contradiction? 
 No, 1 cannot descend to such an act of meanness. If I could, I dar« 
 not. The proud, high-minded honorable men who sent me here would, 
 for such an a,ct of degradation, recall me from a station among hoijorable 
 men, and thus gratify some high in office who seek to displace me. 
 
 My course is here ; my place is here : from my stand on this floor I 
 contradict the falsehood and expose tlie injustice. If my opponent will 
 deny my statement, or justify tliis outrage, I meet liim here openly, face 
 to face, eye to eye, and maintain and assert what is due to my constitu- 
 ents and myself, by all lionorable means in my power. 
 
 But the Nashville Union — tliis voliicle of slanders and falsehoods, 
 gotten up in. this city, as I have understood for just such purposes. The 
 
HIS KELATI0N3 TO GKXERAL JACKSON. 293 
 
 editor carae here last winter, upon his own mere notion, or by the solici- 
 tation of some other person, with, as I have understood and believe, not 
 more money than would bear his expenses ; he lived in the house with my 
 honorable colleague, and while here, was furnislied witli some five or six 
 thousand dollars, to establish his press in Nashville, and, witiiout relying 
 upon subscribers, to be enabled to throw his paper into the hands of every 
 man who would condescend to read it. Even this very number, con- 
 taining this letter, I have no doubt, has been innocently sent under 
 the frank of senators from this floor, to many of the States in the 
 Union. 
 
 If there is any person within my hearing who can contradict my state- 
 ment as to the manner in which this paper was established, I wish to 
 hear him do so. 
 
 [Mr. Grundy rose and stated: — "That the editor had come here last 
 •winter, not at his instance ; that how the money was raised, or by whom, 
 he had no knowledge ; that the paper had taken its side, and was main- 
 taining it as well as it could; that he had not noticed this letter in it, 
 and that he knew there was great scuffling to get subscribers for it at 
 home. Mr. McConnell he knew, and thought him a clever man, of good 
 sense, and he believed he had recommended him for this office."] 
 
 To which Mr. White replied — Yes, Mr. President, there \cas a great 
 scuffling to get subscribers for it. So great, that our old acquaintance, 
 Samuel Gwin, the land officer, from Mi;5sissippi, was called into service, 
 and when procuring subscribers at Gallatin, in April last, wrote to Mr. 
 Eitchie, of the " Enquirer," the celebrated letter as to Tennessee politics, 
 intended unjustly to infiuence the Virginia elections, and wliich no doubt 
 had the desired eflfect. Mr. President, I have made these disclosures 
 with great pain and the most deep mortification ; but I deemed it my 
 duty to do so. The answer to my resolution. will show whether it will 
 be in my power, and whether it will be my duty to attempt anything 
 further on the unpleasant subject. 
 
 The following is an extract from Mr. Curry's letter, alluded to in 
 the above remarks ; . 
 
 At the October council, there attended a certain Mr. Payne, and one 
 Samuel McConnell, of Tennessee ; Payne hails from ]*ew York, but came 
 through Georgia. He is of the whig party, and rimior makes him an 
 abolitionist. He, it is said, formed an alliance with Mr. Longstreet, of 
 Augusta, and other editors, by which he was to furnish matter, and they 
 were to print it for political effect. McConnell is the same who insti- 
 gated the arrest of the Georgia surveyor, and had him carried to Athens, 
 Tennessee, for a violation of the intercourse laws some three years ago 
 for making lines witliin the limits of yonr State. He has large claims for 
 reservations made to Indians under the treaties of 1817-19 ; and has for 
 
294 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 some years past, under the procurement of Judge "White, of Tennessee, 
 been receiving pay from the United States government, as a secret and 
 confidential agent, while all hi^ visible etlbrts have been to defeat the 
 measures of the ostensible agents in bi'inging about a treaty. 
 
 Lewis Eoss, one of John Eoss's executive counsellors, visited Knoxville 
 about the commencement of this council, and, while absent, much con- 
 cern' was manifested by Jolm, to know where his brother Lewis could be. 
 Lewis at length arrived. 
 
 Eumor was put ailoat that Judge White, if made President, would do 
 much for this people. 
 
 So constant and glaring did infringements on the rights of the 
 people, similar to those exhibited above, become, that they were a 
 constant theme of remark on the floor of Congress. Many members 
 of the opposition made assertions which were never answered from 
 the other side. In 1836, a special committee was appointed by the 
 House of Representatives, of which Mr. Wise was chairman, to inquire 
 into the condition of the public fbnds. At the instance of General 
 Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, Judge White was summoned to appear 
 before this committee, which he did in January, 1837, and .gave evi- 
 dence upon oath, of many instances in which officers of the govern- 
 ment and those in their employment, had attempted to influence 
 public opinion in elections ; and made a statement of the part the 
 President himself had taken in the late presidential canvass, as well 
 as his attempt to influence him in his public duties, both while he 
 was President of the Senate and subsequently. General Jackson 
 answered these charges in a publication some months afterwards, in 
 which he complained of Judge White's deposition, and flatly contra- 
 dicted his statements. This drew forth Judge White's " Address to 
 the Freemen of Tennessee." This was the last intercourse, either of a 
 public or private nature, that ever took place between them. 
 
 Judge Wliite's testimony before the committee, and also his 
 answer to General Jackson's circular, are here subjoined, that all who 
 desire may read and decide for themselves. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE nOX. HUGH L. WHITE 
 
 . Before the committee appointed to inquire into the executive 
 
 departments, &e. 
 
 Monday, Jan. 80, 1SS7. 
 Hon, Hugh L. White,* a senator of the United States, summoned as a 
 witness, appeared before the committee, and read a paper of the following 
 import: 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 295 
 
 Declaration of the Eon. Hugh L. White. 
 
 Sir : On Saturday evening last, I was summoned to attend before the 
 committee of which you are chairman, and give evidence touching the 
 matters "submitted to your investigation. I now appear before your com- 
 mittee, at the time specified in the subpceua, hut not in obedience to its 
 mandate. 
 
 I am a member of the Senate of the United States, now in session, 
 and in the daily discharge of my duties as a senator, and, while I am thus 
 engaged, do deny that any committee of the House of llepresentativcs hi^s 
 the power, by its mandate, to compel me to absent myself from the body 
 of which I am a member. I do, therefore, protest against the power 
 assumed by your committee, in the issuance and service of said sub- 
 poena. 
 
 But, at the same time that I feel it ray duty thus to protest against 
 the exercise of a power which I believe is not vested in your committee, 
 I assure them that I will at all times, when my duties as a senator do not 
 compel me to be elsewhere, voluntarily attend and give them upon oath, 
 all the information I possess in relation to any of the matters which may 
 come within the range of their investigation. 
 
 I respectfully ask that this protest may be entered on the journal of 
 your proceedings, lest hereafter, it may be thought I have sanctioned the 
 exercise of a power whicli, it is easy to foresee, may be so used as to 
 destroy that body of which I am an humble member. 
 
 I have the honor tg be, most respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 IIu. L. "WniTE. 
 
 To the Hon. Hexrt A. Wise, Chairman of the 
 
 Special Committee of the House of Representatives. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. White then read to the committee another paper of the 
 following import : ' 
 
 Reasons of the Hon. Hugh L. White for consenting to testify. 
 
 " Mr. Chairman : Before being sworn, it is due to the committee, as 
 welf as myself, that I should make a very short statement, to show the 
 situation in which I am about to be placed, without any agency of 
 mine. 
 
 •' For many years I have been on the most intimate and confidential 
 terms with the Chief Magistrate. We have conversed with, and written 
 to each other, perhaps with as much freedom as if we had been brothers; 
 much that has passed was, of course, highly confidential. 
 
296 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 " I should hold myself disgraced by desiguedly bringing any matters of 
 this kind before the pubUc. 
 
 " If sworn I must tell what I know or believe to be true ; and I con- 
 sider myself called upon to testify, at the instance of the present Chief 
 Magistrate, and of the distinguished citizen Avho has been chosen to suc- 
 ceed him ; and that, if any disclosure I may make would seem to be 
 of matters which, as a man of honor, I ought not to make public, I do 
 so in consequence of the necessity they have imposed on me ; and that 
 the injunction of secrecy has been removed by them, and not by me. 
 
 " With this statement, I am now ready to be sworn, if the committee 
 desire it." . • 
 
 Testimony of the Hon. Hugh L. White. 
 
 Monday, Feb. 13, 1887. 
 
 A communication in writing, in answer to the inten'ogatory put to the 
 Hon. Hugh L. White, was received through the chairman, and read to 
 the committee, as follows : 
 
 The oath administered to me was, " to tell the truth ; the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth," &c. 
 
 After being thus sworn, the interrogatory put to me is in the words 
 following : 
 
 Question. "Do. you, of your own knowledge, know of any act by 
 either of the heads of the executive departments, which is either corrupt, 
 or a violation of their official duties ?" 
 
 "From the manner in which this question is worded, it is somewhat 
 difficult for me to determine to what extent I ought to proceed in my 
 answer. I presume it could not be the meaning of the committee to con- 
 stitute me the judge of what shall be considered corruption, or a violation 
 of official duty, by any of the heads of the executive departments. If 
 so, I might believe facts within my knowledge did not amount to either 
 corruption, or a violation of official duty, and on that account omit any 
 statement whatever ; or, on the other hand, state facts which I believe 
 prove one or the other, when the whole committee might disagree with 
 me in opinion, and consider the disclosures entirely useless, as not tend- 
 ing to prove any impropriety whatever. Tn tliis situation, I presume I 
 shall best discharge my duty by telling what I may know falling within 
 the range of either of the executive departments, and such circumstances 
 as may tend to show the motive with which the act was done or omitted, 
 leaving it to the committee to determine whetlier any statements I may 
 iiuiko will bo of use or not in their ii^vestigation. 
 
 Of my own knowledge I do not know of any frauds actually practised 
 eitl^er as to the sale of public lands, or in the purchase of Indian reser- 
 vations; yet, from information I have received, in which I confide, I do 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 297 
 
 believe great frauds have been practised, and are yet going on, as to both ; 
 and that in some of these, our own officers or agents have been, and 
 now are, concerned or interested ; and that if tlie committee will call 
 upon persons who were and yet are in tlie vicinity of the places where 
 tliosc transactions have taken place, to disclose what they know, these 
 frauds, and those concerned in them, can be ascertained. "Whether the 
 heads of either of the departments are liable to be censured for any of 
 these acts, the committee ^\•^ll of course decide for themselves, when they 
 shall have ascertained all the fixcts. 
 
 In the year 1830 the system now going on for removing the Indians, 
 with their consent, out of the limits of the States and territories, and 
 settling them west of the Mississippi, was sanctioned by Congress. It 
 has been progressing as rapidly as possible ever since. The duties 
 rfliitiiig to this branch of business pertained to the War Department. 
 
 At the session of Congress for the years 1831 and 1832, and near the 
 time Avhen a short session would have terminated, the Secretary of War 
 came to me, as chairman of the Committee on Indian AlTairs, and stated 
 that his duties were becoming so onerous that he could not discharge 
 them without an alteration in the Indian Department ; that the gentle- 
 man who was then at the head of the Indian bureau, and who was then 
 receiving a salary of fourteen or sixteen hundred dollars, althougli a 
 very amiable man, was entirely incapable of discluirging his duties in 
 such a manner as to give that aid which the public interest required ; 
 that he had drafted a bill to create the office of Commissioner of Indian 
 Affairs, with a salary of three thousand dollars per annum, which he 
 ■wished me to introduce, and endeavor to have passed into a laAV. I 
 informed liim that the session had then so far advanced, and the opposi- 
 tion to the Indian system was so strong, that I doubted it would be out 
 of ray power ; besides, that some of the appointments which had been 
 made, wore, in my opinion, injudicious, and that if this office were 
 created and tilled by a person as incomi>utent as he represented the per- 
 son then at the head of the Indian bureau to be,.tiie public business 
 would be no better done, and there would be necessarily a considerable 
 increase of expense, and that I was unwilling to move on the subject, 
 unless I could be assured, if the office were created, it should be icell 
 ■filled. This he assured me should be done. I then requested him to 
 speak with the chairman of the Committee of Indian Affairs of the House, 
 and if his co-operation could be procured, I would on my part, do all in 
 my power to give effect to liis wishes. 
 
 The bill was introduced, and, owing to the strong representation made 
 of the necessity for its passage, the opposition in the Senate was -with- 
 drawn and the law was passed. Congress adjourned, and no appoint- 
 ment of commissioner was made until the next session ; and then the 
 same gentleman whose supposed incompetency at the head of the Indian 
 
298 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 bureau, with a small salary, had given rise to this law, was nominated to 
 fill the office of commissioner, to which was attached the salary of three 
 thousand dollars per annum. The^nomination was referred to the Com- 
 mittee on Indian AlRiirs, and they reported recommending that the nomi- 
 nation should be confirmed. At that session I happened to be in the 
 chair ; and when I heard the report, withdrew from the chair, and 
 spoke to the gentleman who made the report ; told him what had passetl 
 between the secretary and myself, and that I felt it due to the Senate 
 and to tlie country that the facts should be disclosed, so tliat the nomina- 
 tion might be acted on with a full understanding of the facts. He told 
 me he would have the nomination laid on the table, until he could see the 
 secretary, and have his explanation on the subject. He did so, and after- 
 wards informed me that he had seen and conversed with the secretary, 
 and communicated to him my statement ; and that the secretary admitted 
 my Statement to be true, as to what passed between us, but that after 
 the passage of the law Mr. Herring had devoted himself to acquiring 
 a knowledge of the duties pertaining to the office, and was then well 
 qualified to discharge them. Under tliis statement I said notliing further, 
 and the nomination was confirmed ; and it so did happen that, although 
 I nevei- heard Mr. Herring's integrity called in question, yet his want of 
 capacity was admitted by all with whom I conversed before he quit the 
 office. 
 
 During the last session he was appointed pay-master, and Mr. C. Harris 
 appointed commissioner, who, so far as I can judge, is a most faithful, 
 competent and efficient officer. 
 
 I think the public interest suffered much from the incompetency of Mr. 
 Herring while he was in office; and that it will take some time still to 
 come before his successor, with all his zeal, watchfulness and industry, 
 will be enabled to make those reforms which the public interest requires. 
 
 I feel tliat I should do the late secretary injustice, were I to stop here. 
 I do not believe he intended to deceive me, or to injure the public, when 
 he promised me that if the office was created it should be well filled ; but 
 that after it was created, as it connected itself with all the ramifications 
 of the Indian Department^ and the officer might have a tery extensive influ- 
 ence^ it was esteemed a matter of importance to have it fiUed with a 
 decided friend to the gentleman who was tlien looked to by the President 
 and many others as the person who ought to succeed the. present Chief 
 Magistrate ; and that the secretary was constrained to yield to an influ- 
 ence wliich he believed he had not the power successfully to resist. I 
 am tlie more inclined to adopt this opinion, because, from a very exten- 
 sive intercourse with tlie secretary refetive to the Indian aflfairs, I was 
 impressed with /the belief that in all cases where he was left free to pur- 
 sue his own judgment, lie Avas disposed to act witli the utmost fairness, 
 and with a strict regard to pubUc interest; and because I know, in a 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 299 
 
 manner most satisfactory to myself, that, as early as 1831 (if not sooner), 
 when the first cabinet was dissolved, and a new one to be created, the 
 President had fixed his mind upon the present President elect as the most 
 suitable person to succeed him ; and lliat, with a view to procure har- 
 mony among the members of his political family, it Avas considered 
 important to remove from the old cabinet three gentlemen who it was 
 believed, did not coincide in opinion with him upon that subject, and 
 form a new cabinet which would be a unit ; that is, each member of it 
 concurring with tlie President as to the person most proper to succeed 
 him when his eight years of service should terminate. 
 
 When the old cabinet was broken up, it was not wished to have the 
 services of Major Eaton ; the intention and wish was, to put me in his 
 place, and with my aid in Tennessee, to have him elected to succeed me 
 in the Senate. ' 
 
 This opinion as to the motive for th^ appointment of Mr. Herring is 
 still further fortified and coufirined in my mind, from the belief that a very 
 large portion of all the officers appointed frona that time to this have been 
 selected upon the same principles, and with a view to the same olject. 
 
 Connected with this subject, ai^d tending to show that I am most prob- 
 ably correct in the View which I take of it, there are many circumstances 
 which I have become acquainted with, which show that the President 
 watched with care, and unifonuly endeavored to prevent, everything 
 which woitld have the efiect of enabling any other citizen to compete 
 successfully, with the gentleman who was his favorite. During the same 
 session of 1832 or 1833, when Mr. Ilerring was appointed, it will be 
 remembered, the United States seemed to be on tlie eve of a civil war 
 with South Carolina, on account of the tariff; and that a bill was sent to 
 the House of Representatives from the Treasury Department, proposiu"- a 
 modification and a reduction of it; that the provisions of that bill were 
 so changed in the House, that it became very unacceptable to a large 
 minority, and had no prospect of finally passing; that, in this state of 
 thi'ngs, and after what was called the Force Bill had been considerably dis- 
 cussed in the Senate, Mr. Clay introduced what is commonly called the 
 Compromise Bill, and, upon its second reading, it had been referred to a 
 select committee, composed of seven members. Tliis committee it was 
 my duty, as presiding officer, to appoint. . Before the members of it were 
 named, I received a note from the President, requesting me to go to his 
 house, as he wished to see mo. I returned for answer, that while the 
 Senate waB in session it was out of my power to go, but tliat as soon as it 
 adjourned I would call on him. I felt the high responsibility which 
 rested on me in appointing the committee; the fate of the bill, in a good 
 degree, depended on it; and if the bill failed, we would probably be 
 involved in a most painful conflict. I endeavored to make the best selec- 
 tion I coidd, by taking some tariff men, some anti-tariff, one nullitier and 
 
300 MEMOIR OF HUOH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Mr. Clay himself— hoping that if a majority of a committee, in which all 
 interests and views were represented, could agree on anything, it was 
 likely it would pass. Taking tkese principles for my guide, I wrote down 
 the names of seven members, Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, being one; and 
 immediately before we adjourned, handed the names to the secretary, 
 with directions to put them on the journal, and in the course of the even- 
 ing waited on the President. Soon after we met, he mentioned that he 
 had wished to see me on the subject of appointing a committee on Mr, 
 Clay's bill, to ask that Mr. Clayton might not be put on it ; as he was hos- 
 tile to the Administration, and unfriendly to Mr. McLane, he feared he 
 would use his endeavor to have a preference given to Mr. Clay's bill over 
 that of the Secretary of the Treasury, or words to that effect. I observed, 
 in answer, that it would always give me great pleasure to conform to the 
 wishes of my political friends, whenever I conld do so with propriety ; 
 but that the treasury bill had been so altered and mangled, and that, as I 
 understood, in a good degree by the votes of his own party, that it had 
 but few friends ; that we seemed to be on the eve of a civil war, and that 
 for the sake of averting such a calamity, I would further all in my power 
 any measure, come from whom it miglit, which would give peace to the 
 country, and that any bill, having that for its object, was esteemed by 
 me a measure above party, and any man who was the author of it was 
 welcome to all the credit he could gain by it. But, at all events, it was 
 too late to talk on the subject, as I had handed the names of the commit- 
 tee to the secretary before we adjourned ; and that as I had a very high 
 opinion of Mr. Clayton's talents and liberal feelings, I had put him on the 
 committee, without knowing he was personally unkind to the Secretary 
 of the Treasury. He then asked me if I could not see the secretary of the 
 Senate that evening, and substitute some other name for Mr. Clayton, 
 before the journal was made up ; I told him I could not— in my judgment 
 it would be wrong; and then the interview terminated. 
 
 An incident occurred relative to an appointment, falling in with the 
 business of the State Department, which I^feel it my duty to state, but do 
 not know that the Secretary of State had any participation in it. 
 
 At the session of 1883 and 1834, if my memory serves me, Mr. Steven- 
 son, of Virginia, was nominated as Minister to Great Britain, and his 
 nomination rejected. At the session of 1834 and 1835, on the Sunday 
 immediately preceding the close of the session, a gentleman called at my 
 lodgings to see me, and informed me that he had called, at the instance 
 of the President, to consult me on the subject of again nominating Mr. 
 Stevenson as Minister to Great Britain; and to say, that if I believed a 
 majority in the Senate could be procured to confirm the nomination, the 
 name of Mr. Stevenson would be sent in ; if not, no nomination would be 
 made during the session. I observed to the gentleman, I could not give 
 any answer, ax I had hoard nothing on the subject, and had not reflected 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 301 
 
 on it ; and further said, from what I ctmld heai-, I was at a loss to know 
 whether I myself was viewed as friendly, or tlie reverse. The gentleman 
 replied, there was a mistake on that subject; that it was commonly 
 thought Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Ritchie, of tlie Entjuirer, were friendly to 
 Mr. Van Buren, but that was not so; they were soured with him, 
 believing it was his wish to make Mr. Rives the great man of Virginia. 
 After some further conversation, I told him I would think of it until next 
 morning, and would then tell him what I thought. lie did call the next 
 morning, when I requested him to say to the President, that I had no 
 means of knowing how other senators would vote, and that the only 
 advice I could give was, for the President to do what he believed to bo 
 his duty, leaving the senators to discharge theirs. 
 
 The nomination was not sent in till tlio next session ; and, in the mean 
 time, Mr. Stevenson had been presiding oflicer at the Bultimoro conven- 
 tion, and an active partisan in aiding to carry out the views and wishes 
 of the President as to his successor. 
 
 As the time of the election of his successor approached nearer and 
 nearer, tlie Chief Magistrate became more and more open and undisguised 
 in his intcrfei'ence to influence and control public opinion. I am well 
 acquainted with his signature, and have seen many newspapers and other 
 publications sent under his frank to individuals, and to members of assem- 
 bly, calculated and intended to injure, in public estimation, those who 
 were unwilling to act in accordance with his wishes as to his successor ; 
 have seen a toast given by him at a public dinner ; have seen letters pub- 
 lished from him in newspapers, and have heard of many others and now 
 have copies of some never published ; and all tliis after he had endeavored 
 to induce me, and the State in which I reside, to accede to his wishes, 
 under the promise of his influence to have my name used in the first 
 instance as Vice-President, and afterwards for the Presidency, as I liave 
 been informed, and verily believe. And to satisfy the committee that I 
 do not speak unguardedly, and from unkind feelings upon tliis subject, I 
 subjoin to this answer the extract of a letter dated 23d August, 1836, from 
 Mr. Orville Bradley, of Hawkins county, Tennessee. lie is a num of high 
 character for intelligence and veracity, and I have not the shade of a 
 doubt that everything he there states on the subject of his conversation 
 with the President is strictly true. 
 
 In the course of last summer, the President made a visit to Iiis Iiome 
 in Tennessee ; and, as I have been informed, and verily believe, almost 
 as soon as ho entered the State, denounced me and several of my col- 
 leagues, who are my political friends, publicly, and in strong terms ; 
 charging some of them, and especially Col. Peyton, with liaving given a 
 vote relative to an appropriation on the Clierokee treaty, directly con- 
 trary to what the journal, tlie newspapers, and members who liad been 
 present, at tiie passage of the bill, showed, aud stated to be the fact; and, 
 
302 MEMOIR OF nUGII.LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 as to another of them, Mr. Hiintsinan, in answer to a question from him, 
 he alleged he was on the fence,, and it was doubtful which side he would 
 fall; and afterwards, when written to by Mr. Huntsman, would appear 
 to have forgotten that he ever used such expressions: all which will 
 appear by a copy of Mr. Huntsman's letter to him ; and a copy of his 
 answer, and my reply, hereto attached ; and the committee will readily 
 perceive, by an extract of a letter from Col. O'Brien, and a certificate of 
 Mr. Carriger, both highly respectable men, that his memory is so much 
 impaired, as not to be relied on, even for a few months, for what he has 
 said relative to the character and conduct of a representative in Congress. 
 
 Under all these circumstances, although I feel I, and the Senate through 
 me, were misled, in the creation of the office of Commissioner of Indian 
 Affairs, and in the appointment of Mr. Herring to fill said office ; and 
 believe that, upon investigation, it will be found that frauds, in this branch 
 of the administration of the War Department, have been committed ; and 
 that some of the officers or agents of the government have participated 
 in, and derived ];fecuniary benefits from them; yet I do not believe the 
 Secretary of War intended to do wrong, but was constrained to act in 
 accordance with the wishes of others. 
 
 Amidst the variety of daily duties claiming attention, and without 
 anything but a general question pointing to a particular transaction, it is 
 very probable that some facts and circumstances, within my knowledge, 
 are omitted, which more direct and specific questions would bring to my 
 recollection. It has been my wish to make my answer as full as I rea- 
 sonably could, that I might save the committee the trouble of a protracted 
 examination. 
 
 Extract from Mr. Bradlefs Letter. 
 
 Hawkins County, East Tennessee, Auff. 23, 1S86. 
 In the fall of 1834, on his return from the West, General Jackson called 
 at ray father's ; I was with him then, and travelled some distance with 
 him along the road in this county (Hawkins). In the course of the time 
 we were together, the subject of succession was freely discussed. Your 
 claims were mentioned, and the feeling of the State to have opposition to 
 Van Buren. I spoke of the attempt which had been made in the assem- 
 bly of 1833, of which I was a member, to nominate Judge White, which 
 I told him I thought I had been mainly instrumental in defeating, by 
 virtue of an authority you had given me before you left Nashville, to say 
 you desired it should not be done. I told General Jackson that I thought, 
 after having had considerable opportunities of forming a correct estimate, 
 that I felt satisfied that two-thirds of the members of that assembly were 
 indisposed to support Van Buren, and would not do it, if they could get 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 303 
 
 any other respectable man of their own principles to vote for ; that the 
 assembly was only restrained from nominating Judge "White, by his own 
 disinclination to such nomination, and by an apprehension that in the 
 condition of the public feeling in the United States (it was just after the 
 removal of the deposits), that his nomination might throw such a fire- 
 brand into the ranks of the Administration as might break down Judge 
 "White, and prostrate the whole party, and throw the power of the 
 government into the hands of the bank party, and by the further consi- 
 deration, that as Tennessee had the incumbent of the Presidency, that it 
 might be considered arrogant in them to be the first to nominate another 
 of her citizens for that high office. I also stated to General Jackson my 
 opinion, that if Judge "White should receive a respectable nomination any- 
 where out of the State, that it would be immediately and generally followed 
 up in Tennessee. I told the President that inmiediately after the rise of 
 the assembly, and before I left Nashville, I had written to Judge "White a 
 full account of the state of things at Nashville, all that had occurred, the 
 part that I had taken, and the reasons that had influenced me, and that 
 Judge "Whit^ had immediately answered me, approving of my course, and 
 stating that if he had been nominated, that under the state of things that 
 then existed at "Washington, he should have felt bound to put down the 
 movement under his own hand and signature. 
 
 I further told General Jackson, that I thought there was a decided 
 indisposition in Tennessee to support Van Buren, and intimated to him, 
 that although, under the circumstances that then existed, I had felt it my 
 duty to oppose, among the members, any attempt by the assemblj'^ to 
 bring out Judge Wliite, that I did not like to support "Van Buren, if I 
 could please myself any better. General Jackson entered warmly into a 
 vindication of "Van Buren ; spoke of hira in the highest terras, said that 
 he was the man to whom the party, generally, out of Teilnessee, Avas look- 
 ing to be his successor ; that "White could liardly get a vote out of Ten- 
 nessee, and that Tennessee must not separate from the rest of his friends; 
 that he found there was a strong disposition in this State to press the 
 claims of Judge "White, but that it Avould not receive any countenance or 
 sui)port elsewhere. But further, said he, this matter must be compro- 
 mised. Judge "White and tlie State of Tennessee ouglit to be satisfied to 
 have the name of Judge "White on the ticket with Mr. Van Buren as Vice 
 President. Judge Wliite is yet young enough to come in after Mr. Van 
 Buren, and such an arrangement will make all right now, and secure the 
 certain elevation of Judge Wliite, after Mr. Van Buren. I do not know, 
 said he, Avith a smile, what we shall do with Richard M. Johnson, but I 
 suppose we can arrange the matter with him some other way. General 
 Jackson requested me to come on to "Washington at the connncncement 
 of the session of Congress; and when I told him I could not, lie requested 
 me to write to him during tlie winter what was going on in Tennessee. 
 
304 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSOX WHITE. 
 
 I told General Jackson, Avlien he proposed that Judge White should be 
 put on the ticket as Vice President, that if Judge White Should be run on 
 the same ticket with Van Buren, that I would support it, and I thought 
 a majority of those who were desirous of bringing out Judge "White in 
 Tennessee would do the same, but that it would not satisfy all. 
 
 I told the substance of this conversation to Judge Powell, and John 
 Kennedy, Esq., shortly after it occurred ; I think, also, to John Young, of 
 this county, and S. D. Mitchell, and, perhajis, to some others. 
 
 When you came on afterwards, the same fall, on your way to Washing- 
 ton, I told it to you at Rogersnlle. Your reply, after listening till I got 
 through, was, that the office of Vice President of the United States was a 
 place not unworthy of the ambition of any man, when properly obtained ; 
 that it was, perhaps, greatly superior to your merits, but that you would 
 not accept that or any other office, when your name Avas to be used as a 
 lure to draw men into the support of a ticket they would not otherwise 
 vote for. We had other and further conversation on the matter of the 
 same tenor, which it is not necessary now to recapitulate. Immediately 
 after my leaving your room, I was accosted by several of those to whom 
 I had told General Jackson's proposition of your being put on the ticket 
 as Vice President, and asked if you would accede to that proposition. I 
 gave them your reply, as above set forth. They then said you would 
 [not] run ; for in the conversations they had heard upon the subject of 
 your nomination, it had been maintained by many — perhaps, a majority 
 — that you would not allow your name to be run at all. General Jackson 
 had expressed that opinion in the conversation we had. He had also 
 stated, he had no objection to a nomination of Judge White, if he was 
 only recommended to the American people, and to the favorable conside- 
 ration of a general convention of the party; but that any attempt to pro- 
 cure an absolute nomination must be put down by his friends. 
 
 The foregoing is the substance of my conversation with General Jack- 
 son, in relation to your nomination and being run for tlie Presidency to 
 the best of my recollection. At this late period, I have, for the first time, 
 attempted to reduce it to writing, and, of course, cannot pretend to be 
 absolutely and certainly right in every particular. But I think I have 
 committed no essential errors. 
 
 You are at liberty to use this letter as you please. I do not wish it 
 to go into the newspapers without some strong necessity. But if such 
 should exist, I will not shrink from the responsibility. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Orville Bradley. • 
 The Hon. Hugh L. White. 
 
HIS KBLATIOXS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 305 
 
 WAsniNGTOs CiTT, Jan. 1, 1636, (T.) 
 Deae Sm : In a speech -which was made by Judge "White at Jonesboro, 
 Tennessee, and wliicli has been published in the papers of tliat State and 
 elsewhere, he stated in substance (I have not the speech before ine), that 
 you were asked how I stood in relation to. the Administration, and the com- 
 ing election for President; and that your reply was, I do not kxow now 
 
 HE STANDS ; I BELIEVE HE IS TJl'OX THE FENCE, AND IT IS UNCERTAIN WHICH 
 
 SIDE HE WILL DBOP. The first time I saw Judge White after the publi- 
 cation of his speech, I requested to know who Avas his author in regard 
 to the expression you were said to have made. He gave the name of Mr. 
 O'Brien, of Washington county, Tennessee (if I remember right), as the 
 person who heard you make the expression. It seems that one of my 
 colleagues, and an honorable member from Virginia, have thought proper 
 to reiterate this charge upon the floor of Congress, in the discussion of a 
 question now pending and undeterminated in the House of Eepresenta- 
 tives. 
 
 Not having any acquaintance with Mr. O'Brien, and having some doubts 
 in regard to the accuracy of his statements, I hope you. will not deem it 
 disrespectful in me to ask from you a refutation or a confirmation of it. 
 
 I know, sir, that the weighty affairs of government, which draw so 
 largely upon your time and attention, leave you but little time to attend 
 to small matters like this; yet it has become one of considerable import- 
 ance to me, or it is made so through the agency of others. 
 
 As I do not consider that I occupied the doubtful position assigned me, 
 and having no reason to believe that you would knowingly do me the 
 least injustice, I ask with the mpre confidence your answer as early as 
 my be convenient. 
 
 With sentiments of respect, I have the honor to be, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 Adam Huntsman. 
 The President of the United States. 
 
 Washington, January 2, 1836, (T.) 
 Sir : Your letter of the 1st instant is before me. I have not the slightest 
 recollection of having made the remarks in reference to you, which, it 
 .seems from your note of yesterday's date, was imputed by Judge White 
 to me, in a speech at Jonesboro, Tennessee. I do not know, nor have I 
 any recollection of the witness to Avhom Judge White refers you. I have 
 no acquaintance with the O'Brien family. And it is scarcely possible 
 that I should have entered into the familiar discourse described by Judge 
 White Avith a perfect stranger, without retaining some trace on my 
 memory of the man, or of the extraordinary questioning to wiiich it 
 
 20 
 
306 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 would seem he subjected me. If I bad been interrogated about you, by 
 one whom I thought entitled to take such liberty, I should have said to 
 him that I esteemed you, from your votes and course in Congress, as a 
 friend to the Administra,tion ; that in regard to the then pending election 
 for President, you were the avowed friend of Judge White for President, 
 but willing to give effect to the wishes of your constituents, if they pre- 
 ferred Mr. Van Buren, in case the election came into the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, 
 
 It is, however, superfluous labor to contradict the fabrications put forth 
 by Judge White and his speech-makers, who, it seems from your note, 
 are repeating the stoi'ies made up for their electioneering harangues in 
 the House of Eepresentatives. The public know how to estimate their 
 assertions. If it were worth the trouble, there is not one of their nar- 
 ratives with which they have connected my name, so far as I have 
 heard, that could not be proven as mere fiction by all the persons Avhom 
 they represent as bearing a part in what they pretend to describe. 
 
 But I do not blame these subalterns. Judge White himself, in his 
 Knoxville speech, did not hesitate to lead the wa,y in this sort of traduc- 
 tion. To distinguish his own purity, and claim credit for disinterested 
 moderation in declining the Vice Presidency (and at the same moment 
 when he was seeking the Presidency itself, and electioneering for it by 
 boasting of his incomparable modesty), he gave the people of Tennessee 
 to understand that I had attempted to purchase his support of Mr. Van 
 Buren by an offer of the Vice Presidency as the first consideration, with 
 the Presidency itself in reversion. There never was a grosser libel than 
 this. There is about as much truth in it, as there was sincerity in that 
 lame apology in the Judge's letter to Mr. Prior Lea, wherein Judge White 
 pretends he Avas desirous to prevent my election to the Senate of the 
 United States, and send my bitterest enemy to that body, giving him a 
 high station whence to scatter calumnies against me, merely for my good 
 — namely to advance my pretensions to the Chief Magistracy, by saving 
 me from the suspicions of accepting the senatorial office as a means of 
 electioneering for myself! An office which he lately accepted precisely 
 under the circumstances which subjected him to the identical imputa- 
 tion from which he was so anxious to screen me! This, j^nd many 
 recent developments of character, show that Judge White, under strong 
 temptation, has a lax code of morals for himself; and his remarkable 
 readiness to invent pretexts to cover the naked and palpable selfish- 
 ness of his late tergiversations and multiplied inconsistencies, shows 
 that ho need not tax the invention of his subordinate instruments for 
 falsehoods to suit his exigencies. Whether, then, he has fabricated hini- 
 ficlf the improbable story to Avhich you refer', in addition to the other 
 nhamcful imputations with which he has associated my name, or is in- 
 debted for tlicm to some of the numerous family of the O'Briens, is matter 
 
HIS KELATIONS TO GE'N'ER.VL JACKSON. 307 
 
 of but little moment to me. They all yow stand in equal credit with the 
 country. 
 
 I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 Andrew Jackson. 
 The Hon. Adam EfntsmaIj, in Congress. 
 
 P. S. As Judge Whit<i has been the subject of your letter and this 
 reply to it, you will please show him this my answer, 
 
 A.J. 
 
 Copy of a letter to the Ron. Ada'm Huntstnan, from the Hon. Ilitgh 
 
 L. White. 
 
 Washington Jan. Uh, 1837. 
 
 Dear Sik: Herewith I return the correspondence between you and the 
 President, dated the 1st and 2d instant, which you handed me this after- 
 noon. As you requested, I have not shown it to any person, nor have I 
 mentioned to any one that I have seen it. 
 
 I feel called on, when returning it, to say something in relation to its 
 contents. 
 
 In tlie President's answer, he says he has no recollection of Mr. O'Brien, 
 and thinks it not likely he would have been catechised by an entire 
 stranger, &c. 
 
 I never said that Mr. O'Brien had conversed with, or asked him a 
 question, but that he heard him make tlie statement in answer to ques- 
 tions put by others in Jonesboro. All I know is, that Mr. O'Brien gave 
 me the information. He is a respectable man. I believe what he told 
 me to be true ; and the circumstance that the President does not recollect 
 anything on the subject ig only additional proof that the best of us cannot 
 always recollect what we have said. Our colleague. General Carter, was 
 present, and heard my conversation with Mr. O'Brien, and to him I refer 
 yoi; for the accuracy of my statement. 
 
 As to the other parts of the President's letter, I regret to find the 
 temper in whicli it is written. It indulges m statements and suspicions 
 not only erroneous, but unfounded and unjust. 
 
 Everything in the speech stated as of my own knowledge was truo, 
 and everything derived from the information of others I then believed, 
 and yet believe, 16 be true. 
 
 I hoi)e you will not deem me unreasonable, when I ask a copy of this 
 correspondence. 
 
 I do not oomi)lain of the injunction imposed, tiot to show it to any 
 person; but if you have allowed others to see it, and make its contents 
 the foundation of accusations against me, T would tliiuk T was unfairly 
 treated, and that you ought to remove tliat injunction. 
 
 Most sincerly and truly yours, 
 
 IIu. L. WinxK. 
 
308 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WmTE. 
 
 Copy of a letter from John 0^£rien, Esq. to the Eon. W. B. Carter. 
 
 PtTRLiEu Irok Works, Jan. l^th, 1837. 
 
 Dear Sir : Yours of the 5th instant was received on yesterday even- 
 ing, requesting me to state the particulars respecting an expression I 
 beard General Jackson make while in Jonesboro. On the evening of the 
 day of General Jackson's arrival in Jonesboro, I accidentally happened 
 at the place, and after night, was invited by the Hon. John Blair, to walk 
 with him to ISTathan Gammon's, Esq., to see the President, I accom- 
 panied him, and was introduced by him to the President. Immediately 
 after my introduction, I took a seat but a short distance from the Presi- 
 dent, near Mr. Donelson and G. Gammon, Esq. I was so near the 
 President, that I could distinctly hear every word he said. He was 
 asked by some gentleman in the room (for there were several present), 
 what he thought of several of the Tennessee delegation in Congress ; to 
 all of which questions he replied. Amongst the rest he Avas asked what 
 he thought of Mr. Huntsman. He replied : " He is on the fence, sir, and 
 I do not know on which side he may fall." I remained in the room a 
 short time after the General had made the foregoing expression, and 1^^ 
 the room with the Hon. John Blair. . • • ' 
 
 Enclosed is a certificate from under the hand of Christian E. Carriger, 
 Esq., who accompanied the Hon. John Blair and myself ftom Mr. Blair's 
 to Mr. Gammon's. I will go to Jonesboro this evening, and endeavor tc 
 obtain the statements of some gentlemen there. Who were present at the 
 time, which I will enclose to you so soon as I obtain them. 
 With high consideration, I remain your friend, 
 
 John O'Bkien^. 
 Gen. W. B. Carter. 
 
 Certificate of Christian E. Carriger^ Esq. 
 
 January 19, 1837. 
 
 I do hereby certify, that on General Jackson's last visit to Jonesboro, 
 on his way to the Hermitage, at the request of the Hon. John Blair, I 
 went in company with him and John O'Brien, Esq., to see the General, 
 at Nathan Gaunnon's, Esq. That at Mr. Gammon's, in presence of Mr. 
 O'Brien and several other gentlemen, I heard some gentleman ask the 
 General several questions respecting the Tennessee delegation; among 
 other questions, wliat he thought of the Hon. Adam Huntsman? "He is 
 on the fence, sir, and I do not know on which side he will full ;" was the 
 General's reply, (as near as I can remember) verbatim. 
 
 Given under my hand, 
 
 Christian E. Cakrigee. 
 
HIS KELATIOITS TO GEXEKAL JACKSON". 309 
 
 Reply of Judge White to General Jachson* 
 
 TO THE FREEMEN OF TENNESSEE: 
 
 FELLOW CITIZENS : A recent production, over the name of the late Chief 
 Magistrate of the United States, now going the rounds in our newspapers, 
 imposes on me the duty of addressing you. We Uve in strange times. 
 At peace witli all the world, a handful of savages excepted ; a few months 
 ago, apparently prosperous to an extent almost unexampled, with funds 
 in the treasury so far beyond the economical wants of the federal govern- 
 ment, that statesmen were perplexed to know how to dispose of them. 
 Now, our commerce destroyed, our merchants in every direction ruined 
 and breaking ; the crops of our planters without a market, and they in 
 debt, without any means with which to make payment ; specie payments 
 suspended by our banks, and their notes depreciated, and tlie government 
 itself i)laced in such a situation, as to its moneyed concerns, that it can- 
 not move ; hardly a dollar can be collected or paid without a violation 
 of our acts of Congress. What has caused, these misfortunes, i^ a ques- 
 tion of grave and solemn import. It is one, in relation to whicli, every 
 man is called on to form an opinion, and a free expression of opinions 
 sincerely entertained, may, it is to be hoped, lead to some suitable remedy. 
 
 For myself, I cannot doubt but.the specie circular, as it is called, which 
 issued in July last, and the mode adopted to transfer to tlie respective 
 States their proportions of our surplus treasure, were the immediate causes. 
 
 I have ever believed tliat circular less justifiable tlian any act of our 
 federal executive. It undertakes to legislate for the people of the United 
 States by the sole power of the President. It makes distinctions between 
 different classes of our citizens, which I doubt whctlier Congress, with 
 the aid of the President would have the power to make ; and I feel con- 
 fident, if they had the power they dare not exercise it. 
 
 Independently of the President having no power to cause such an order 
 to be issued, its provisions were unwise, unjust, and calculated to pro- 
 duce the very state of things which now exists. From the time I first 
 read it, I have ever most firmly believed the true reasons which gave rise 
 to it were not avowed by its authors. It bears date in July, a few days 
 after the rise of a Congress at which an act liad passed directing a portion 
 of the surplus revenue to be deposited with the States. This act was 
 .very offensive to the President, altliough he gave it his signature. One 
 object then, of this circular ^vas, to lessen the sales of the public lands, 
 so that there miglit be little or nothing to divide on the first day of Jan- 
 uary and afterwards. . 
 
 A Presidential election was then pending and the incumbent Avas using 
 his influence in favor of one of the candidates, and it was believed the 
 
 ♦From the KnoxvUle Register of July 12, 183T. 
 
310 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 permission to the people of the new States to pay for their lands in lanh 
 notes till after the Presidential election, would influence their votes in 
 favor of his candidate, and a still more important object was, to produce 
 such a run upon all banks as would compel them to suspend specie pay- 
 ment. Every holder of a bank note is told in substance, that it is doubt- 
 ful whether his note is good, that the banks had overtraded themselves 
 and would probably be unable to pay their debts. This idea is advanced 
 by the President of the United States, in whom the people had unbounded 
 confidence, and who from his official station had a right to Tcnow the funds 
 and condition of each of the deposit banks. Nothing could have been 
 better calculated to produce a run upon the banks than such a statement 
 from such a source. In addition to this destruction of their credit^ all 
 those who held notes and did not reside in the State where they might 
 wish to purchase lauds must necessarily call for specie from the banks, 
 as nothing else would be received at the land offices. 
 
 This attack on the credit of the banks and the rung either made or 
 expected, compelled them not only to withhold the usual accommoda- 
 tions from merchants, but to exact payment for debts already contracted. 
 Thus merchants must probably fail Jirst and then the banks must surely 
 follow, shortly afterwards. 
 
 But if the circular itself was not sufficient to destroy the credit of the 
 banks, the mode proposed for transferring the funds to the respective 
 States was well calculated to give it the final blow. The specie was to be 
 drawn from the deposit banks, to be placed in the State treasury. Could 
 any plan have been devised better calculated to alarm the banks and . 
 society ? Beside, no conceivable benefit could result to the States from 
 such an operation. If each State had been furnished with drafts upon 
 banks in pi-oper sections of the Union, upon these drafts they could have 
 received their moneys at home, and the trade and commerce of the 
 country been essentially benefited, without incommoding in any degree 
 any of the banks. 
 
 I have no doubt the banlvs had extended their discounts too far in many 
 instances^ and it may likewise be true that merchants had overtraded ; 
 but I have no doubt the great error in some of the banks consisted in 
 making extravagant loans, to companies of lajid 2)urchasers^ at our public 
 sales, and of Indian reservations. This prevented in many instances the 
 usual accommodations to merchants, and enabled the friends and favorites 
 of the Administration to mbnopolize immense bodies of our most valuable 
 lands, at the minimum price. No attempt that we know of was made to 
 cJicck the deposit banks in this course, until the desired purcliases were 
 completed, and the political views of the party were accomplished. Tliey 
 were lauded^ and society was taught to believe the wise measures of the 
 executive would presently give us all wealth to our hearts' content. Tluis 
 then the banks were first encouraged in their imprudence, and when the 
 
HIS EELATIOXS TO GE^'EKAL JACKSON. 311 
 
 proper time arrived, those who had used them for pecuniary and election- 
 eering purposes, caiiscd the treasur}- order to be issued, and followed up 
 by tlie worse than useless mode of transferring the public moneys, and by 
 these means have caused the disasters to the merchants, and the suspen- 
 sion of specie payments, to the great discredit of the banks and loss of 
 every portion of the community. 
 
 • It will he asked why I believe the Administration wished to compel the 
 banks to suspend specie payments. 
 
 I will answer the question in all sincerity; because I believe General 
 Jackson now icishes a tanh of the United States founded upon the moneys 
 of the United States, and attached to tlie treasury department. 
 
 We all know tliat in more than one of his messages he recommended 
 such a bank, and I know that in 1829 he wished Mr. Grundy elected to 
 the Senate, in preference to Judge W. E. Anderson, because he believed 
 Mr. Grundy could better aid in making up a party in Congress to esta- 
 blish such a bank. 
 
 His object when he came into the Presidency was to have such a bank ; 
 nothing was said by him recommending it after Mr. McDuffie's report. 
 In common with others, I believed lie had despaired of it after that report, 
 until I read the treasury circular, and from that time I have believed it 
 was an object that he had never lost sight of, and that he and his advisers 
 have put into operation a series of measures, disastrous to the country 
 at large, and ruinous to many individuals, in order to prepare the public 
 mind for such a bank. 
 
 The President has repeatedly said, that unless the successor designated 
 by himsQlf was elected, the great measures of his Administration would 
 not be carried out, and if they were not carried out, the great value of all 
 he had done would be lost. 
 
 "What great measure is yet to be carried out? I answer the mah- 
 ing a treasury lanh. How was the public mind to be prepared for 
 such an institution? By the very means he has employed. The United 
 States Bank must first be put down, because while it lasted there could 
 be no use for a treasury bank, and in the second place, it must be proved 
 by actual experiment, that the State banks cannot do the fiscal business 
 of the government, and give society a sound currency. Now, whenever 
 the banks refuse to pay in specie the government deposits, and decline 
 paying specie generally, what is the argument? It is, that wo have tried 
 a bank of the United States by incorporating individuals, and find that 
 it will not answer,* because it wiU soon have so pauch power that it will 
 control the government itself.- We have made an experiment with the 
 State banks, and find they cannot do our fiscal business, nor can they 
 give us a sound currency; therefore, there is no alternative, but to create 
 a hanh of our own, upon our funds, and which will always be subject to 
 our control. 
 
312 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Every circumstance which is now transpiring, connected with this 
 subject, confirms me in the opinion which I have expressed. 
 
 1. The tenacity with which any deposit witli the States is resisted. 
 
 2. The manner in whicli the illegal treasury circular is adhered to, 
 although the decisive opinion of Congress and of society is known to be 
 opposed to it. 
 
 3. Mr. Cambreleng's letter in New York, in which he is opposed to 
 giving the banks any indulgence. 
 
 4. The loyalists in this State and others, candidates for Congress, are 
 said to be advocating it. 
 
 5. The Globe has ventured to broach the subject likewise. 
 
 6. A pamphlet, purporting to be written in Great Britain, which is 
 now in circulation, recommending such a bank. 
 
 While the people at large are lamenting the serious misfortimes which 
 have befallen the country, the President is, as I believe, felicitating him- 
 self that the time is rapidly approaching, when one of his great, unfinished 
 measures, is to be accomplished under the management of his successor. 
 
 In all this he may be very honest ; he may conscientiously beheve, that 
 our highest interests will be promoted by it — that we can be secured in 
 a sound currency — ^have our fiscal concerns well managad — and above all, 
 that the great democratic party will thus be enabled always to retain the 
 political power it now possesses. Those engaged in speculations in pubhc 
 lands, who are debtors of the banks, must be delighted with the present 
 atate of things. Specie payments are suspended ; this will enable the 
 banks to' give them longer indulgence; the notes have depreciated, and 
 will continue to depreciate, and they will presently be able to purchase^ 
 at a great discount, notes enough to discharge their debts, and thus reahze 
 the speculations which they anticipated. 
 
 But General Jackson says, in substance, that I advised the removal of 
 the deposits from the Bank of the United States, and that my only com- 
 plaint against his conduct was, that the removal was not made soon 
 enough, &c. He has expressed himself too loosely upon this subject, to 
 give to the public a correct idea of the part I took in this matter. 
 
 He never had a personal conversation with me on the subject of remov- 
 ing the deposits from the Bank of the United States. He never consulted 
 me by letter, or otheriowe, but once, and that was by letter bearing date 
 the 24th of March, 1833. In answer to which I gave him my opinion in 
 the following words, under date of April 11th, 1833 : 
 
 "To this inquiry I answer, we ought not only to do that which is for 
 the public interest, but we should do it under circumstances which will 
 enable us to satisfy the people whose business we ti'ansact, that the change 
 was necessary to promote their interest. 
 
 " When the Bank of the United States failed to obey the directions of 
 the government in paying ofi its debt and negotiated with the creditors 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAX JACKSON. ' 313 
 
 for indulgence, I think the deposits ought to have been immediately 
 ■withdrawn, and every federal officer instructed not to receive any of 
 those small drafts or checks, now used as substitutes of five, ten, and 
 twenty dollar notes. Public opinion I have no doubt would then have 
 sustained the executive in such a course ; but the government, from 
 motives which all ought to approve, wished to be certain of the insol- 
 vency of the bank before it withdrew the public deposits, therefore 
 appointed an agent tf) examine and report its condition. That report is 
 before the world, and is as flattering as tlie bank could wish, as to its 
 insolvency. Since then the matter has been brought to the notice of 
 Congress, a committee has been created by the House of Representatives, 
 and a majority of tliat committee has made a report most fovorable to 
 the bank. The minority of the committee has also submitted its view 
 of the solvency and management of the bank, in such terms as, if it stood 
 alone, would create a well-founded belief, that the public money was 
 unsafe where now deposited. But the question occurs, what opinion •will 
 society form from these documents, taking them altogether ? The opinion 
 of the confidential agent of the treasury, and tliat of a majority of the 
 committee one way, and that of the minority of the committee the other, 
 places the question of the solvency of the bank in such an attitude before 
 the public, that I do not believe the executive would act wiselv in order- 
 ing a withdrawal of the deposits from the Bank of the United States, and 
 placing them in State banks at this time. Public opinion will, in my 
 judgment, best sustain the executive in permitting them to remain with 
 the Bank of the United States until its charter expires, or some future 
 development shall show tliat the bank is so managing its concerns as to 
 make it necessary to the public ioterest that the public money should bo ■ 
 withdrawn from the power and control of the bank." 
 
 During the session of Congress next succeeding the removal, upon a 
 question whether a bUl might be introduced to prolong the charter of 
 the Bank of the United States, I took occasion to express my opinions as 
 to the ]30wer of the President to cause the removal, and against the restor- 
 ation of the deposits to the bank ; but as to the wisdom or policy of the 
 removal at the time it took place, the preceding autumn, I explicitly- 
 stated tliat, as a question upon whicli the best friends of the President 
 might well differ in opinion. 
 
 I was then, as I ever had been, and yet am, of opinion that Congress 
 ha,d no power to grant the charter, or to reneiD it, and that if they pos- 
 sessed the power it would be bad policy to exercise it, and as tlie deposits 
 had b«en removed, and constituted a ■fund upon which State banks were 
 doing business, that it would be unwise to restore them to a bank, the 
 charter of wliicli must soon expire, and which I did not believe ought 
 ever to be renewed. 
 
 These were my opinions, freely expressed and acted on. They may 
 
314 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WDITK. 
 
 have been erroneous, but were honestly entertained, and if the President 
 intends to communicate to the public the idea that I ever gave any other 
 opinion, or advice, as to the propriety of the removal, than those I have 
 now adverted to, he is doing himself, as well as me, injustice, because he 
 is communicating to the public information which is not in conformity 
 with the fact. 
 
 At the time the deposits were removed, .before that time, and ever 
 since, I have been of opinion the fiscal concerns of the government could 
 be managed through the agency of State banks, and that they could at 
 the same time furnish the country a sound currency, and I had the most 
 unbounded confidence in the integrity of the Chief Magistrate, and 
 believed he would cause a fair experiment to be made. Had I then fore- 
 seen what I now believe to be true, that the real design was to obtain a 
 control over the public moneys, that they and the State banks might be 
 used for electioneering purposes, and as a means by which favorites could 
 monopolize our public lands, and that then the banks were to be com- 
 pelled to suspend specie payments to prepare the public mind for a trea- 
 sury bank, such a course for such purposes could have had no countenance 
 from me. 
 
 I consider the experiment which has been made with the State banks 
 an experiment to ascertain whether our public deposits will enable an 
 executive to obtain so much control over the State banks as to enable him 
 to induce them to overtrade themselves, and after the political and pecuni- 
 ary purposes of himself and friends have been accomplished, then to 
 compel them to suspend specie payments, g,nd that that experiment has 
 teen successful. 
 
 It is in vain to expect benefits to society fi-om this or that system of 
 laws, upon any subject, unless the system is to be carried into effect by 
 men of integrity and capacity. The best system which can be devised 
 by the wisdom of man will terminate in ruin and distress to society, if 
 its administration is placed in the hands of dishonest and incompetent men: 
 No man- can shut his eyes so close as not to see that many of our oiBces 
 have been filled during the late Administration with the very worst 
 material the country furnished ; aud this is the inevitable- effect of party 
 excess. The great democratic party must be kept up, and how ? By the 
 Administration making a democrat whenever one becomes necessary to 
 control an election, and this is speedily done by taking a rancorous old 
 federalist or monarchist, getting him to promise allegiance to the party, for 
 which he must be given, or promised, an office for which he is unfit, or 
 favored with the purchase of public land, or an Indian reservation; he 
 then becomes ipso facto a democrat, and is sent forth " to shoot as a 
 deserter " any honest man who does not choose, to every extent, to give 
 up his principles and become associated with a party, Avhich has no fixed 
 principles, save the one " that to the victors belong the spoils.''^ 
 
HIS relations' TO GENIERAL JACKSON. 315 
 
 I have felt it mj' duty to make these remarks to prevent, if possible, 
 my constituents from being incautiously led into a trap, which I think 
 has been set for the people of the United States ; I mean the support of a 
 treasury haiiTc. Should such an one be established, and placed as it must 
 be, under the control of the federal executive, the power thus conferred, 
 when added to that already possessed, will give us to every substantial 
 purpose, as complete a monarchy as exists anywhere, and one which will 
 equal, if it does not excel, in its means of corruption, any government 
 known to the civilized world. 
 
 According to what we see in the public prints. Congress is to convene 
 on the first Monday in September' next, for what purpose we are not told, 
 but all presume, to aid in some plan to relieve the country and the govern- 
 ment from the existing embarrassments. Should it be my fortune to 
 make one of that honorabe body, I will most heartily concur in any 
 measure which may conform to the Constitution and be calculated to pro- 
 mote the welfare of the country; but I use this occasion to say, explicitly, 
 that I will be asked in vain, as now advised, to concur in the establish- 
 ment of a treasury iaul; because I believe it woi;ld destroy the last hope, 
 that your children and mine could enjoy that liberty which is their birth- 
 right. 
 
 I now proceed to make some remarks on the comments General Jackson 
 has seen fit to make on my deposition before the committee of investiga- 
 tion, of which Mr. Wise is the chairman ; 
 
 In the card which preceded, by several weeks, the extensive commen- 
 tary, we had a foretaste of what might be expected. ■ 
 
 It commenced with a statement tliat his (the General's) attention had a 
 few days before been called by a friend to my deposition. As much as 
 to say in plain language, that until his attention was thus called to it, he 
 was ignorant of its contents. 
 
 This statement is not such an one as ought to have been expected from 
 so distinguished a man. In AVashington it was repeatedly said, and I 
 have no doubt truly, that'some of the members of that committee daily 
 submitted to the labor of making a copy of whatever was deposed to, 
 and furnished the President with it, before he retired to take his nijiht's 
 repose. When the circumstances under which I was called before tliat 
 committee, what occurred before I was sworn, and-thc PreS'ident's letter 
 to the committee, are considered, it is hardly within the range of proba- 
 bility that he should be indifferent to the matter which the deposition 
 contains as not to have immediately procured a copy of it. Indeed the 
 dates of tlio very certificates he publishes to counteract its contents, and 
 what is stated in that from Mr. Randolph, prove that he was familiar with 
 it long prior to the time indicated in his publication. His real object, no 
 doubt, was to so time his publication, as to have the most effect upon our 
 approaching elections ; some apology for delay was necessary, and the one 
 
316 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 made is, as I thiak, not consistent with the high character a retired Presi- 
 dent ought ever to maintain. 
 
 His next object seems to be, to show that I acted incorrectly in saying 
 anything on the subject of privilege, and then submitting to be sworn as 
 a witness. 
 
 In. endeavoring to do this, his advice, his quotations, and his statements 
 are so lengthy, that it is with some difficulty we can keep pace with him. 
 It may be that I erred in suffering myself to be sworn as a witness ; but 
 as I had to act according to my own feeble judgment without the benefit 
 of his advice, I took that course which I believed to be the most correct. 
 The investigation of the committee had developed some facts not pleas- 
 ant to those concerned ; if a fair examination was persisted in, farther 
 disclosures would add to the iinpleasantness of their situation. To avoid 
 this, I have no doubt, the expedient Avas resoi'ted to, of having several 
 members of Congress, myself among the number, summoned as witnesses. 
 I was not summoned at the instance of any one who wished to pursue 
 the investigation to ascertain whether frauds had been committed or not. 
 The application for the summons was made by Mr. Mann, of New York, 
 and it was distinctly understood that he made this application at the 
 instance of i\iQ President. The committee had no right to issue any such 
 subpoena for me, and this must have been well known to gentlemen as 
 well informed as the President, and the majority of the committee, and 
 I had no doubt, they expected and hoped that I would disobey the subpoena 
 and refuse to be sworn ; then the cry would have been raised that the 
 charges were all groundless ; I knew it, and had refused to testify ; but 
 all these calculations were defeated when I voluntarily appeared, protested 
 against the legality of the proceedings and showed a willingness to be 
 sworn, and at the same time distinctly stated that I understood I was 
 summoned at the instance of the then President and his successor^ and 
 that if sworn must tell what I knew, confidential or otherwise. Mr. 
 Mann was then present, did not contradict one word that I said, and it 
 was evident the party was brought to a pause. After some time I was 
 told by the committee I could then retire, and when -they wanted me I 
 should be notified. This gave rise to the President's letter to the com- 
 mittee, which has been published, and it must be seen he had so entangled 
 himself he could take no other course but that which his letter indicated. 
 I was afterwards notified to attend, did so and made the deposition of 
 which the President complains. 
 
 In all this it appears to me I was right. I had stated nothing either in 
 the Senate or elsewhere, which I did not either know or believe to be true. 
 On my own account, I had nothing to conceal — and, if those who had 
 made confidential communications would have me sworn, what must I 
 do? No tiling but that which I did do, tell the truth and nothing but 
 the truth. 
 
HIS REL ATIOXS TO GENEE AL JACKSON. 3 1 7 
 
 He next proceeds to that part of the deposition relative to the creation 
 of the office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the appointment of 
 Mr. Herring. 
 
 The dopo.sition affirms that the Secretary of "War induced me to intro- 
 duce the bill and have it passed, upon a representation that Mr. Herring, 
 then at the head of the Indian bureau, with a salary of sixteen hundred dol- 
 lars, was so illy qualified for the office, that the public interest was likely 
 to suffer — and that after the law had passed, this same individual was 
 appointed to the new office with the salary of three tht)usand dollars, 
 and that he was really' not qualified, and that the public interest has 
 suffered, and then offers as matter of excuse for the secretary, that ho 
 was probably induced to acquiesce in this appointment, by others for 
 electioneering purposes, &c. Now, what material part of this statement 
 is contradicted ? Not one word of it, by either the President, or any of 
 his witnesses. 
 
 No man has said, or can with truth say, the secretary did not represent 
 him as incompetent. Nor has any one pretended he was competent. 
 
 "Why did not Major Donelson or Mr. Harris testify to one or both 
 these points? iEr. Harris Icnows he toas incompetent, and that in conse- 
 quence of it, the public interest has suffered, and if asked, cannot say 
 otherwise. 
 
 In what situation then does the President's comments and testimony 
 place his secretary ? "Why, in the situation of a man who has practised 
 a gross fraud upon Congress to obtain the creation of a new office, and 
 increased salary for Mr. Herring, and had made the two chairmen of the 
 committees on Indian affairs his dupes to carrry such unworthy views 
 into effect. 
 
 1 did not believe the secretary capable of such conduct, nor do I now 
 think so. I made such apology for him as I believed to be true, and in 
 that belief am not in the least shaken. 
 
 If the Indian department was intended to be used for electioneering 
 purposes, a,n incompetent man of all others was best suited for the office. 
 
 It appears to be thought as Mr. H. was a Clintonian in New York he 
 must have been an enemy to Mr. Van Buren's election as President. 
 Strange conclusion. Clinton is dead, and since his death Mr. Van Buren 
 is himself his friend, and pronounced to his colleagues in Congress a 
 high-wrought eulogy upon his worth and character. 
 
 Mr. Herring in his manners and deportment is a gentleman; I never 
 have heard his integrity questioned, and regret that I have been com- 
 pelled to speak of him, as I have done ; bnt truth is truth, and if any one 
 can conscientiously say his appointment, under the circumstances, "was 
 with a single eye to the public interest," then I can only say I entertaia 
 a very different opinion. 
 
 The President states that after the law passed he had intended to 
 
318 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSOX WHITE. 
 
 nominate anotlier individual for tlie office, had made out the nomination, 
 and was prevailed on by his secretary not to send it to the Senate, and 
 that in conversation with me he had told tne so. 
 
 To this statement, so far as it relates to any communication of such a 
 fact to me, I can only say the President is undoubtedly mistaken. Neither 
 at the time spohen of hy him, nor at any other time, did he ever communi- 
 cate any such fact, nor did I ever hear of it until I read his publication. 
 
 In time past when the President has made statements of facts, which 
 I knew or believed to be erroneous, I was ready to find an apology for 
 them in what I supposed his decayed memory ; but in this publication his 
 statements of some facts and contradiction of others, are so extraordinary 
 that I must leave it to others to find out the cause. I hope it will not be 
 considered as disrespectful when I add, there is reason to believe the loss 
 of memory is not the only mental loss he has sustained within the last 
 few years. 
 
 The attempt to get clear of the efiects which he fears may be produced 
 by that part of the deposition relative to the dissolution of the first 
 cabinet in 1831, is both in the matter and manner of it well calculated to 
 mortify every sincere friend he ever had. It discloses the want of memory 
 and mind, to an extent of which I was not aware. Formerly, although 
 his style was rough and generally not very good English, yet it was ner- 
 vous and perspicuous. In this effort he appears bewildered, and to have 
 lost all distinct recollection of what occurred in the first years of his own 
 Administration. It is confused as to the dates of different facts and trans- 
 actions, and huddles together a confused mass of matter, much of Avhich 
 can have no bearing on the subject. 
 
 The deposition afiirms, that when the cabinet was dissolved, the Presi- 
 dent had made up his mind that Mr. Van Buren should succeed him — 
 that he wished to get clear of the old' cabinet, and create a new one that 
 would be a unit towards accomplishing that object — that he did not wish 
 to lose sight of Major Eaton's services, and therefore desired me to be 
 Secretary of War, and Major Eaton to succeed me in the Senate, &c. 
 
 Now, this is all true, before God, as I religiously believe, and Geperal 
 Jackson can never forget that I know it, in a mode which ought to leave 
 no doubt on my mind ; and he certainly cannot have forgotten that ho 
 was told by me, that if even my seat in the Senate were vacant, it would 
 be very difficult to procure Major Eaton's election, on account of some of 
 his votes while he had been a member of that body. He now states, that 
 at that time Mr. Van Buren had not been thought of as his successor. 
 He is entirely in error, and can perhaps correct himself, if he will recur 
 to Mr. Van Burcri's letter of resignation, and other written evidence, 
 which either is, or ought to he, in his own possession at this time. 
 
 The old cabinet was composed of Messrs. Van Buren, Eaton, Barry, 
 Berrien, Branch, and Ingham. The three first were friendly to Mr. Van 
 
, mS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 319 
 
 Baren's elevation, the three last were supposed not to he so, and there • 
 fore produced a want of harmony. The real desire was to get clear of 
 these gentloinon. It was supposed that if tlie two first resigned, the three 
 last would follow tlieir example, and supersede the necessity of their dis- 
 missal. The experiment was made and failed, and the President was 
 driven to their dismissal, although he admitted their duties had been faith- 
 fully porforiiied. 
 
 Now, if the truth were not as I assert, why was not Barry dismissed 
 also ? The President did not wish to lose him, and if dismissed there 
 was no chance of his coming in from Kentucky. 
 
 Unfortunately for tlie President, but fortunately for the development 
 of trutli, he has gone into some of the secret history of the early part of his 
 Administration ; and among other things, states, that he had reduced to 
 writing the principles upon which his Administration should be conducted 
 — and one of these was, that no member of Ms cabinet should he a candidate 
 to succeed him ; that this paper was shown to me^ and I approved of it^ &c. 
 
 Now, is not this admission proof as clear "as evidence from Holy 
 Writ," that my statement is correct? Mr. Van Buren, from March 1829, 
 to 1831, was a member of the cabinet; then it was determined that he 
 should be the candidate to succeed General Jackson, and as it was an 
 article in the Jacksouian creed, reduced to writing and shown to the 
 members of the party, and approved of by them, it became essential, that 
 he should cease to be a member of the cabinet, and he resigned accord- 
 ingly- 
 
 If General Jackson's mind is so enfeebled that he cannot comprehend 
 
 this, I feel confident the .public Avill understand it very fully. 
 
 These ancient reminiscences give rise to very unpleasant reflections. 
 
 Some former Administrations have heen suspected of using tlic patron- 
 age and influence of tlie federal government to control public opinion in 
 the Presidential elections, simply because members of the cabinets had 
 been candidates. General Jackson and his whole party liad warred 
 against this abuse, had represented it as a high moral and political oftence, 
 and when he came into oflice he came in solemnly pledged to reform this 
 most gross, demoralizing, and alarming abuse of power; and to assure 
 his friends he would carry out this principle in practice, his creed 'con- 
 taining this article was reduced to writing, and shown to myself and others, 
 and I approved of it. 
 
 True as gospel, I approved it tlien, ever since, and never saw the neces- 
 sity for it so strongly as now. 
 
 " How has this solemn pledge been kept? To the ear only, but to the 
 Bense most shamefully, openly and notoriously violated. 
 
 If Mr. Van Buren had continued in tlie cabinet, and been a candidate 
 to succeed General Jackson, it would liave been suspected tliat the 
 patronage and influence of the government was used to elect him. To 
 
320 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSOI:! WHITE. . 
 
 avoid this suspicion he must resign, and then openly and notoriously this 
 very patronage and influence is brought to bear with its whole force upon 
 public opinion, and through this means he is elected; and I and allotliers 
 who will not say this is right, and in conformity with the Jackson demo- 
 cratic creed, are to be excommunicated, and, to use the New York phrase- 
 ology, '' shot as deserters ;" th9,t is, calumniated out of all the character 
 we ever had. 
 
 But the General says, that my statement of his using the appointing 
 power to bring in Mr. Van Buren is unfounded, because after that time , 
 he appointed my step-son, at my instance, to an office, and that he also 
 appointed many other of my friends. 
 
 This statement is calculated to deceive if unexplained. It is true that 
 at my instance he appointed Mr. Frost secretary to the French commis- 
 sion, and about the same time may have appointed other officers upon 
 my recommendation, and I have the gratification of believing that Mr. 
 Frost discharged all the duties pertaining to the office with integrity and 
 ability. 
 
 At the time this appointment was made I was in -full communion with 
 the church, as the President supposed, my name had never been thought 
 of as a candidate, so far as I was informed ; and he no doubt beheved 
 that whenever he and those he could control changed their creed, I would 
 change my creed likewise, and he never was convinced to the contrary, 
 until after his attempt upon me through Mr. Bradley, wliich was in the 
 autumn of 1834. 
 
 If the President or any of his new party will give me the name of any 
 avowed friend of mine having been appointed to office after it was Mown 
 I had consented that my name might he used as a candidate^ other than 
 some one whose opinion was changed, or expected to be changed, by 
 virtue of such appointment, I will thank them for it. 
 
 1 too well know the names of some, who professed to be my friends, 
 having received offices immediately preoeding the election^ and that they 
 changed their opinions and lecame loyal members of the democratic jmrty, 
 whose whole creed is comprised in the few words, " to the victors ielong 
 the spoils y 
 
 This political simony is the very thing of which I and my friends 
 complain, and if either the white people or the Indians, or both, do not 
 in the end, find that they have a hard bargain of some of these " patent 
 democrats," I shall be very much and agreeably disappointed. 
 
 It is admitted in the commentary upon the deposition that a conversa- 
 tion was held with me in relation to appointing Mr. Clayton upon a 
 committee, but it is alleged this conversation was at another time and 
 related to some other committee. 
 
 This allegation is fouiulcd in error. The conversation was at the time, 
 and related to his appointment upon the committee, mentioned in the 
 
HTS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACHSON. 321 
 
 deposition, and to no oilier^ and the substance of that conversation is cor- 
 rectly stated in the deposition. If it had been at another time, and in 
 relation to another committee, why was not the other time and commit- 
 tee mentioned ? 
 
 It is asked why I did not give the names of the other members of the 
 committee ? The answer is so ready that I am surprised it should be 
 asked; it is, because no request was made of me as to any otlier members 
 of the Senate, and the very reason I placed Mr. Clayton on the committee 
 was, that it is in conformity with parliamentary law, to so constitute a 
 committee as to give the proposed measure the fairest chance to be put in 
 such a shape as that it Avill pass. From Mr. Clayton's talents, his liber- 
 ality of sentiment, the position of his State in the Union, and his known 
 influence with his political friends, I believed his course would have a 
 most decided influence on the fate of the bill, and in this belief I was not 
 disappointed. I very naturally concluded the President, and all others as 
 attentive as he was to what was constantly passing, would form the like 
 opinion. 
 
 My wish was to give upon the committee a fair representation of every 
 interest and party in the Union, under the hope that they would agree 
 upon some compromise, and if they did, and the law should pass, it would 
 most likely be acceptable to the nation. 
 
 Mr. Clay was a taritf man, had introduced the bill, was from the "West, 
 and was placed as chairman ; Mr. "Webster from the East, a tariff man ; 
 Mr. Clayton from a Middle State, and friendly to the tariff; and these 
 three were national republicans ; Mr. Calhoun from the South, a nuUifier 
 and anti-tariff ; Mr. Grundy from the "West, a nullifierand anti-tariff like- 
 wise ; Mr. Dallas from a Middle State, and a tariff man, and Mr. Rives 
 from a Southern State, and anti-tariff. The four first named of these gen- 
 tlemen were opposed to the Administration and the three last friendly to it. 
 
 The bill was a measure proposed by an opposition member, who in my 
 judgment was entitled to be chairman, and to have a majority who would 
 probable be inclined to favor his measure. 
 
 Thus, a view is given of the whole committee, their politics and a 
 summary of the reasons for their selection, and who can say it was 
 wrong ? No one except some person who thinks a presiding officer, in 
 party time's, should be a mere party hack, who would disregard the parlia- 
 mentary law, the interest of the country, and pack a committee who 
 would stifle a measure lest his party might lose some influence by its 
 adoption. 
 
 The venerable ex-president thinks that all who know him will believe 
 if I had stated to him Avhat the deposition imports, he would have given 
 a suitable reply, &c. 
 
 My own oi)inion is, he did conduct, in the only manner wliich w(vs sflit- 
 able, and it ought to be remembered if lie had made wliat he would in- 
 
 21 
 
322 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 sinuate would have been a suitable reply, it could have received a suita- 
 ble rejoinder. 
 
 This idle vaunt is all lost upon me. There is no man who knows the 
 ex-president has more confidence in his chivalry and readiness to resent 
 an insult, than I have — but at the same tinie, the history of his life will 
 show, that whenever he intends to make such a reply as might provoke 
 controversy, he has always timed it so prudently, that there should he a 
 sufficient number of persons present to prevent ill temper from producing 
 bad consequences. There were none present but he and I ; no insult was 
 either offered or intended ; but I did mean, as I hope I always shall, to 
 state my sentiments precisely as they were, without stopping to consider 
 whether they would be acceptable or not. 
 
 The statement in the deposition relative to Mr. Stevenson, it is said, is 
 a fabrication. This is a very simple mode of getting clear of an un- 
 pleasant point. The General is mistaken, the facts occurred as detailed, 
 and the gentleman who was the bearer of the message, must have strange 
 and unpleasant sensations, when he reads the charge made by the gen- 
 eral, that the story is a fabrication. He may make new friends by such 
 charges, but by them, he must stagger the faith of old ones. Had the 
 committee asked the name of the gentleman, I should have felt bound to 
 have given it, and he could have been examined, but they did not, and I 
 am sure the General can have no need of the name, as he must well re- 
 member it, and far be it from me uselessly to drag any individual before 
 the public. 
 
 The General next proceeds to controvert the statements made by Mr, 
 Bradley in his letter, a copy of which was attached to my deposition. 
 
 That Mr. Bradley's statement is strictly true, I. have no more doubt 
 than I would have had, if I had been present and heard the conversation 
 between him and the President, and I do not believe, among the whole 
 circle of his numerous acquaintances, one man can be found who, in his 
 heart, believes him capable of making such a statement, if it were not 
 strictly true. The General has, at least, brought nothing to counteract it, 
 but the statements of his two travelling companions : and according to 
 their own account of the matter the whole conversation and propositions 
 might have been repeated ten times over, while Mr, Bradley and the 
 President were together, and those two gentlemen not have heard one 
 word of it. 
 
 The relation in which Mr. Bradley stood to me, our known intimacy, 
 the part ho has acted in the legislature of 1833, at my instance, in rela- 
 tion to my nomination, his detailing to several gentlemen, whose names 
 are gwen by him., this very conversation with the President, immediately 
 .after it took jjlace, Uw support it derives from the testimony of Mr. Pey- 
 "ton and Col. Standifor, place tlie statement beyond the reach of doubt in 
 .any mind desirous to ascertain truth. 
 
HTS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 323 
 
 The fact, no doubt, is, that the General has determined that in his biog- 
 raphy his cliaracter shall appear to posterity, to have been aperfect one — 
 he thinks this proposition^ and several other disclosures wliich have been 
 made, will not well bear examination, when tlie lieat of tlie moment 
 shall have passed away, and wishes to get clear of the effects to be pro- 
 duced by them : Let me assure him he will never mend the matter by his 
 flat contradictions of every man^ who does not testify to suit his wishes. 
 His biographer, if he be lionest, in enumerating the many excellent and 
 striking traits in his character, will not put it down, that in his latter 
 days^ he was a correct narrator of matters of fact. 
 
 He next passes to the statement respecting Mr. Huntsman, and produces 
 a number of certificates to disprove the statement made by Col. O'Brien 
 and Mr. Carriger. With an enlightened public, such certificates can have 
 no effect. O'Brien and Carriger are men of excellent character, could 
 have no inducement to fabricate such a statement; they positively 
 assert, they did hear the President make the statement respecting Mr. 
 Huntsman ; his certifiers only saj", that they did not hear it. Had he 
 obtained an hundred such certficatcs, the facts would still remain 
 proved to he true. 
 
 But on this part of the subject, the ex-president is peculiarly unfortu- 
 nate ; he has taken some pains to prove that he did not reach Jonesbo- 
 rough for some days after I had passed that place, and had made my 
 speech, in which I should have stated, that he had said Mr. Huntsman 
 was on the fence, &c. He therefore argues, that it is absurd to suppose 
 I could know what he would say three days after I had made that 
 speech. 
 
 Now, the facts are, that I was in Jonesborough about the 20th July, 
 1836 — dined there, and made a very short speech, in which Mr. Hunts- 
 man's name was never mentioned, and which never was publislied. The 
 President reached that place about the 22d July, and then made the state- 
 ment respecting Mr. Huntsman. Some days afterwards, Col. O'Brien 
 came to Knoxville, and while there, repeated to me what the President 
 had said, and on the Zlst August^ 1836, I made a speech at Knoxville^ 
 which was published; in which I stated the liberty which had been taken 
 with Mr. Huntsman's name. In addressing the President, Mr. Hunts- 
 man, in his letter, ly mistake, says my speech was made in Jonesborough 
 when he ought to have said Knoxville. As soon as Mr. Huntsman show- 
 ed me his correspondence with the President, / addressed him a note, 
 which teas appended to my deposition. Tliis note of mine to Mr. Hunts- 
 man, no doubt was pernsed, when the other parts of the deposition were 
 under examination, and I leave it to the public to judge, from what motive 
 it has been sui)i)ressed, and a miserable quibble resorted to, which I must 
 think, could not be creditable to a pettifogger. 
 
 It must be painful to any sincere friend of the ex-president, to see the 
 
324 irEMom of hugh lawson white. 
 
 infatuation under which lie seems to act, owing, no doubt, to tiie influ- 
 ence artful and designing men have obtained over him. In almost every 
 paragraph he writes, something can be found to take from the high char- 
 acter we were generally disposed to ascribe to him. Look at his state- 
 ment, even now, in relation to Col. Peyton's conduct relative to the Cher- 
 okee treaty. He set out in the first instance, by asserting that Col. Pey- 
 ton both spoJce and voted against an appropriation to carry it into effect. 
 He was told by those who knew better, and in whom he ought to have 
 confided, that he was misinformed, that Col. Peyton had not only voted 
 for, but had made an excellent speech in favor of the appropriation. He 
 still persisted in a repetition of his assertions, and even now, after he, 
 and every other intelligent man, ought to be possessed of the most au- 
 thentic information, j)7'oinng Ms error ; he jyersists in asserting to the 
 world that although Mr. Peyton voted for the appropriation, he had made 
 an argument against it. If any member of Congress has practised upon 
 his credulity, and caused him to be the retailer of such a glaring miatalce, 
 his name ought to be known, that he might be shunned by every honor- 
 able man. 
 
 The General supposes that Mr. Wise and Colonel Peyton, who were my 
 messmates and friends, were stimulated and advised by me to pursue the 
 course which they did in Congress, I do not think hard of this suspicion, 
 although it is unfounded in fact, and both these gentlemen know it, yet 
 we were messmates for the two last winters, and I am proud to believe I 
 liad their most sincere friendship. They certainly had mine. The Gene- 
 ral ought, in charity to the country, to believe that there are yet some 
 few men, who would not be dictated to in the discharge of their public 
 duties, by either him or myself. "Wise and Peyton are two of them ; 
 talented, well-informed, honest, bold, and men who fearlessly discharged 
 their whole duty, in defiance of all the calumnies of degraded and hired 
 presses, the frowns of those who sat in high places, and even the state- 
 ments of the Chief Magistrate himself, that they ought to be " Ilouston- 
 Ized." 
 
 Their names will be hailed as the dauntless friends and champions of 
 civil liberty, in after times, when the political course of some of their 
 revilers will be spoken of, as the severest affliction with which our 
 beloved country has ever been visited. To have obtained the friendship 
 of such men, is one of the most prized achievements of my wlrole life. 
 Their course relative to the investigations spoken of, was the dictate of 
 their own judgment. Their country ought to thank them for it. They, 
 have elicited enough to show fuller investigations are necessary, that 
 something is probably wrong, otherwise so many obstructions would not 
 have been thrown in the way of ascertaining truth; and when we shall 
 have a Cliiof Magistrate wlio will loud his aid to a fair and faithful inves- 
 tigation, I firmly believe it will bo found the public has boon deceived and 
 
HIS RELATIONS TO GENERAL JACKSON. 325 
 
 injured to an extent of which not ode citizen in one thousand has any 
 conception. 
 
 For myself, I most solemnly declare, I have not either in the Senate, or 
 elsewhere, uttered one sentence relative to the supposed abuses which I did 
 not know or believe to be true ; and if after a tliorough investigation, by 
 an impartial, not a packed committee, it can be shown that my suspi- 
 cions are unfounded — I would consider it one of my first duties, publicly 
 to acknowledge my error. 
 
 The General at the close of his address intimates that he has attained an 
 advanced age, has infirm health and desires repose. Why, then, the state- 
 ments before leaving "Washington, that he intended to feast tins summer 
 upon John Bell and myself — that Tennessee should stand erect, in her 
 politics, in less than six months ? . . 
 
 As I believe, he has come home determined to destroy every man who 
 dared to differ with liini in opinon as to his Successor, and that is the 
 experiment he is now making. If it be his will, let him proceed. Angry 
 discussion can never add to my comfort, it may to his. Our tempera- 
 ment and aim are, as I believe, a little different. I endeavor to take facts 
 as I know or believe them to exist, and meet all the responsibility they 
 justly throw upon me. In the temper he now is, and with enfeebled 
 faculties, he views everything as an enemy that stands in the road of his 
 ambition. He personifies truth, justice and everything else which 
 obstructs his course, and attacks them with all that gallantry, with which 
 he assails political or personal opponents. He has determined he will 
 die having the character of a great man. While my highest ambition is 
 to die conscious that I deserve the reputation of an honest one. 
 
 Your fellow citizen, 
 
 / Hugh L. White. 
 
 Jvly T2, 183T. 
 
 Jackson, «At<^y 1«<, 1887. 
 Dear Sir : Upon reading Gen. Jackson's review of your testimony, I 
 discovered that it seems to be considered a matter of importance in 
 regard to i\\Qi p>lace where you made the speech, in which you alluded to 
 the statement of O'Brien. I had not your speech before mo at Washing- 
 ton city, when I addressed Gen. Jackson upon that subject, consequently 
 I had to depend npon recollection only as to the place. Since I came 
 home I liave had reference to your speech, and find it was delivered at 
 Knoxville, instead of Jonesboro', as I had first supposed, Avhon my letter 
 to the General was written. This may serve to correct the mistake by 
 me in this particular. 
 
 With much respect, yours, 
 
 A. HtlNTSMAN. 
 
 Hon. Hu. L. White 
 
326 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 This reply, addressed to the freemen of Tennessee, was reckoned a 
 satisfactory disposal of the charges mentioned in it. We add a letter 
 addressed to its author in reference to it, shortly after its publication : 
 
 * * * u J ]jope to meet you at the opening of the special session of 
 Congress; but I cannot without violence to my feelings permit the occa- 
 sion to pass, without thanking you most sincerely for j'our masterly 
 * Address to the Freemen of Tennessee.' The ex-president has at no time, 
 nor by any person, been so severely handled, and so fully exposed. I 
 think he will be advised not to enter the field of controversy again with 
 you^ hereafter. * * * You have done no more than justice to Mr. 
 Clayton, in the part he took in the passage of the Compromise Bill. I 
 was advised from day to day of every important proposition tliat was 
 made in the committee, and out of it; and I say without hesitation, that 
 if Mr. Clayton had not been on the committee, the Compromise Bill would 
 not have passed. 
 
 " His geographical residence gave him an influence over both the North- 
 ern and the Southern members; but aside from this, thei-e was no man, in 
 or out of Congress, within my knowledge, so well calculated to conciliate 
 the contending parties and interests on that great and momentous occa- 
 sion, involving the fate of the nation, as was Mr. Clayton. 
 
 " His intelligence, his pure intentions, his firmness, his urbane manners^ 
 bis enlarged national views, and his talents, rarely equalled, qualified him 
 for that occasion. All the faculties of his mind were brought into exer- 
 cise ; for on the fate of the compromise depended, in his judgment, 
 the fate of the. Union. 
 
 * * * " Gen. Jackson did not wish any compromise of the question, 
 lie had no personal objection to Mr. Clayton, as a member of the com- 
 mittee, and in sending to you, he was influenced by a third person, who 
 was hostile to Mr. Clayton. 
 
 "The President wished an opportunity to subdue the disafiected in 
 South Carolina, and then it was his intention to propitiate the South by 
 reducing the Tarifi" at once. The bill gained strength from a desire to 
 defeat his intentions in both particulars mentioned. 
 
 Very sincerely and respectfully yours, 
 
 E. "WniTTLESET." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CANVASS WITH MR. VAN BUREN. 
 
 The estimate placed upon Judge White's character and services by 
 his State and his country is evidenced by the movement in favor of 
 his election to the Presidency ; for he did not become a candidate vol- 
 untarily. 
 
 There was a strong wish on the part of the Tennessee legislature, 
 in 1833, to nominate him for that higb office, but he withheld his 
 assent, and took pains to discourage the movement, and even went so 
 far as to leave it in charge with some of his friends in that body to 
 prevent such a nomination, if attempted in his absence. After his 
 name had been freely used in other parts of the country, the meeting 
 of the Tennessee delegates took place in Washington city. This was 
 not a movement exclusively on the part of his Tennessee friends. At 
 the time, they supposed, and had a right to believe, that he could 
 and would be successfully sustained, and that his Presidency would be 
 the inauguration of a new era in the government. At the time they 
 moved in his behalf, they had assurances of many, not to say of all 
 the leading Jackson men, in every Southern State, that he would be 
 supported. Some of them were a little coy, but still they were relied 
 on, and encouraged the movement. 
 
 Judge White was known to have been opposed to all the leading 
 measures and policy of the whigs of the Northern States. He was 
 the friend of Gen. Jackson, had supported all his leading measures, 
 and it was not natural to suppose tliat he would detach himself from 
 his fortunes. This point was fully discussed between them and his 
 friends, and was an obstacle to their support ; but it was conceded by 
 all that he was a safe man, without intrigue or management, and as 
 his course had always been dignified and liberal towards them, they 
 were resolved to overlook this objection to him, as they greatly pre- 
 
 327 
 
328 MEMOER OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ferred him to Mr. Van Buren. The main reliance, however, was upon 
 the South, which there was every reason to calculate would be united. 
 A few States at the North, or even one large State there would thus 
 have secured his election. That many in that section were casting 
 their eyes hopefully toward Judge White as a pure and available 
 candidate, may be inferred from various letters received by him 
 about this period. One from Condy Raguet, has already been 
 given. Below follows an extract from another, which may be con- 
 sidered at its date (whatever artificial direction may afterwards have 
 been given to j^opular feeling), to have represented the sentiments of 
 no small number of true and honest men. 
 
 Dorchester, Apr. 27, 18S4. 
 "Will you permit me to add, sir, that your opinions and sentiments in 
 reference to the topics of these pamplilets [sent with the letter] will be 
 received with great respect by all who are interested in them ; and that a 
 personal visit to Massachusetts by you, would afford the highest gratification 
 to some of her citizens. There are some, if not many, who are seeking 
 for an individual on whom to bestow their suffrages, whose moral and 
 political character will furnish a guaranty of the perpetuation of what 
 still remains of the patrimony of liberty, and who will firmly resist those 
 intrigues and blandishments which have sometimes seduced those we 
 had confided in, from the paths of Constitutional Repubhcanism. 
 
 "With great respect, &c., 
 
 Samuel WmxcoMB, Jb. 
 
 Of Judge White's answer to this letter — an answer containing no 
 reference to the suggestions just given, but discussing some remarks 
 on Labor, Capital and Society in a former portion of it — we give a por- 
 tion, valuable for clear views and strong good sense. 
 
 * * * We need but one distinction in our society, and that ought 
 never to be lost siglit of. It is the distinction between vice and virtue. 
 If a man's occupation is lawful, useful to himself and his fellow-men, hon- 
 estly and diligently followed, he ought, to be esteemed respectable ; every 
 one ought to be pleased with his prosperity ; and the road to trust and 
 honor ought always be ojjcn to him. We know, however, in fact, that 
 those who own capital are always seeking profitable investments for it ; 
 that the owners have acted, and will act in concert, and that by doing 
 so, they have more actual influence in directing all the operations of gov- 
 
CANVASS Wmi MR. VAN BUREN. 329 
 
 ernraent, than ten, nay, twenty times their nun;iber, without spare capital, 
 and compelled to pursue some honest and useful occupation for a living. 
 This is not just, but I know of no corrective for the evil so likely to be 
 effectual as by all means to enable and encourage this latter class to bet- 
 ter their condition, and increase their information, as to the political 
 concerns of the country. 
 
 In our government there is a thirst for office that is alarming. If this 
 originated in a wish to be useful to the country generally', or in the wish 
 to gratify jiersonal pride by occupying places of distinction, it might be 
 well; but there is reason to fear that in too many instances it has its 
 origin in a wish to make the operations of the government subservient to 
 the pecuniary interest of those in public life, their friends and connec- 
 tions. If this latter be the motive, a mere reduction of salary would not 
 correct the evil, because an unworthy occupant will always make suffi- 
 cient individual gain, by sacrificing whatever public property or interest 
 may be committed to his charge. 
 
 Everything which tends to the dissemination of useful information 
 among that class of individuals who have to labor for a living, and to 
 make it convenient for them to act in concert, when their peculiar inter- 
 ests are likely to be assailed or sacrificed, would in my opinion be an im- 
 provement in the condition of our society ; and in no instance ought any 
 man to be placed in office who is not honest, capable and habitually at- 
 tentive to his business. 
 
 Sound morals, as well as sound politics, and permanent truth, are most 
 eminently in point at the present day. 
 
 Judge "White signified his willingness to be nominated for the 
 Presidency on the 20th December, 1834. The Tennessee delegation 
 in Congress had requested his decision in the following letter : — 
 
 Washington, Dec. 29, 1SS4. 
 
 Dear Sir : — You cannot be unapprised that for some time past your 
 name has been frequently mentioned as a desirable person to succeed the 
 present Chief Magistrate of the United States. 
 
 Being your colleagues in Congress since the commencement of tho 
 present session, we have been repeatedly asked what were the sentiments 
 of our own State upon that sulyect, and more frequently, what were 
 your own wishes, and what would likely to be your course, should public 
 opinion seem to require the use of your name as a candidate, and fears 
 are often expressed tliat you would not give your consent. 
 
 Upon this latter point we are at some loss what answer to give. 
 
 It is our wish not to deceive ourselves, or to be the means of deceiving 
 
330 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITK. 
 
 others. We will tKerefore esteem it a favor if you will put us in posses- 
 sion of your wishes and determinations. 
 
 Very respectfully, sir, 
 
 We are your oot. servts. 
 
 Wm. M. Inge, 
 Balie Peyton, 
 James Standifer, 
 John Blair, 
 
 W. 0. DUNLAP, 
 
 Saml. Bunch, 
 
 Jno. Bell, 
 
 David Crockett, 
 
 John B. Forrester, 
 
 Lttke Lea, 
 
 David W. Dickenson. 
 
 Judge White's answer was this, dated next day : 
 
 Gentlemen: — ^Your note dated yesterday was handed me a few 
 minutes since. 
 
 I am aware that for some time past my name has been occasionally 
 mentioned in our own State and elsewhere, for the office you mention, 
 I had never supposed it would be so far acceptable to the public, as to 
 render an application to me necessary to ascertain my wishes or deter- 
 mination. 
 
 Not having taken any pains to ascertain public opinion upon that sub- 
 ject, I am, perhaps, less acquainted with the sentiments even of our own 
 State than any of my colleagues. As to my own wishes and determina- 
 tion, I can have no difficulty in giving you an answer. 
 
 I am not conscious that at any moment of my life, I have ever wished 
 to be President of the United States. I have never knowingly uttered 
 a sentence, or done an act, for the purpose of inducing any person to 
 think of me for that distinguished station. When the duties and respon- 
 sibilities of tlie office are considered, in my opinion it is an object more 
 to be avoided than desired. I shall certainly never seek it while I have 
 so little confidence in my own capacity to discharge the duties of it, as I 
 DOW have. 
 
 Those for whose benefit it was created, have a right to fill it with any 
 citizen they may prefer, provided he is eligible by the Constitution; and 
 tlie person wlio would refuse to accei)t such an office, if offered by the 
 people of the United States, ought to have a much stronger hold upon 
 public opinion, than I can ever hope to possess. 
 
 My most anxious wisli is, that in any use you may think proper to make 
 of my name, you may lose sight of every consideration except the public 
 
CANVASS -WlXn MK. VAN BUKEN. 331 
 
 interest. I have not had any agency in causing it to bo aaed, and I do 
 not feel that I would bo justified in directing the use of it to be discon- 
 tinued. I can, however, with truth say, that if those political friends 
 who liave used it tims far, shall have reason to believe that a further use of 
 it will be an injury, instead of a benefit to the country, and may choose to 
 withdraw it, they will have my hearty concurrence. 
 
 I am, most respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Hu. L. "WniTE/ 
 
 This permission having been given, Judge White was formally 
 nominated for the Presidency of the United States by the Legislature 
 of Tennessee, on the IGth and iVth of October, 1835, by the adoption 
 of the following preamble and resolutions : 
 
 ■Whereas, the people of the State of Tennessee in 1822, in 1825, and 
 again in 1827, animated by a sincere determination to support those car- 
 dinal doctrines and principles which had distinguished the true republi- 
 can party from the commencement of the federal government, up to 
 that period, and also to correct and reform those practices whicli appeared 
 to be erroneous, and to constitute abuses in the policy and adminstration 
 of the government, brought forward General Andrew Jackson, our 
 present distinguished Chief Magistrate, as a person qualified by his prin- 
 ciples, energy, and great popularity, to effect tliese objects. And whereas, 
 among the most important of these objects were : 1st. To secure to the 
 people the exercise of the right of suffrage in the election of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, independent of the influence and dictation of 
 caucus nominations. 2d. To resist the establishment of the practice of 
 electing the President of the United States according to any plan of regu- 
 lar succession among the great functionaries of the government. 3d. The 
 limitation and control of executive ])atronago within such safe and expe- 
 dient bounds as to secure the freedom and purity of the elective fran- 
 chise against all undue official influences. And tohereas, we are firmly 
 persuaded that the principles upon which General Jackson was origin- 
 ally nominated and supported for the Presidency, by the people of the 
 State of Tennessee, have lost nothing of their truth or importance by 
 the lapse of time, and change of circumstances, we feel impelled by a 
 proper regard for consistency, now, when again called upon to reconsider 
 them in reference to the choice of a successor, or to re-aflirm them by 
 a renewed and solemn declaration. 
 
 In the organization and proceedings of the lato Baltimore Convention 
 we perceive the same violation of the spirit of the Constitution, the same 
 tendency to a usurpation of the rights and powers of the people in the 
 
332 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 election of President, the same spirit of intrigue, the same liability in the 
 members to be corrupted and influenced in their course by the promise 
 and expectation of office, which we saw in the organization and proceed- 
 ings of the Congressional caucus in 1823, and then condemned in the 
 most public and solemn manner. 
 
 And whereas^ no individual has been presented to the consideration of 
 the American people as a candidate for the next Presidency, whose 
 character and political opinions afford the same guarantee for the main- 
 tenance of those principles which brought General Jackson into office, 
 and for carrying out the principal measures of his administration, and 
 which so well accord with the political sentiments of the people of Ten- 
 nessee, as set forth in this preamble, as our fellow citizen, Hugh Lawson 
 White — th er efore, 
 
 Hesolred, That Hugh Lawson "White be recommended to the people 
 of the United States as a man eminently qualified to fill the office of 
 President. 
 
 Eesolxed^ That we approve generally of the principles and policy, both 
 foreign and domestic, of the administration of the federal government 
 during the term of service of our present distinguished Chief Magistrate, 
 General Andi-ew Jackson. 
 
 Epheaim H. Foster, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 
 Jonathan Webster, 
 Speaker of the Senate. 
 
 Adopted in the House on the 16iA, and concurred in iy the Senate on 
 the nth of Octoler, 1835. 
 
 These proceedings were communicated to Judge White in the 
 following letter, dated Nashville, Oct. 22, 1833 : 
 
 To the Hon. Hugh L. White : 
 
 ' SiE : The undersigned have been appointed a joint committee of both 
 houses of the General Assembly, to inform you that the people of the 
 State of Tennessee have by their representatives ntiminated you to their 
 fellow-citizens of the United States, for the ofiice of Chief Magistrate. 
 
 This duty, we conceive, will be best discharged by communicating to 
 you the preamble and resolutions adopted by both houses of the General 
 Assembly. From them you will learn the principles on which the nomi- 
 nation was made. These, as also the attending circumstances, we take 
 leave to say, appear to us no less honorable to the people of the State 
 than to yourself. By this act, they have shown a discrimination and 
 devotion to principle, worthy the imitation of posterity. 
 
 We avail ourselves of this occasion to tender to you the assurances of 
 
'€AisTASS wrrn mr. van bueen. 333 
 
 Committee on 
 the part of the 
 Senate. 
 
 Committee on 
 • the part of the 
 Uouse. 
 
 our esteem and veneration for your character, and our ardent wishes for 
 
 your personal happiness. 
 
 "Wm. Ledbetter, 
 EoBT. II. IIynds, 
 Terey II. Cahal. 
 
 Addison A. Anderson, 
 Wm. MoOlain, 
 Granthj^e D. Seaeot, 
 Lion Rogers, 
 
 G. W. CHURCnWELL, 
 
 Harvey M. Watterson, 
 "Wm. B. Campbell, 
 J. A. !Mabey, 
 Charles Ready, 
 Robertson Topp. 
 
 To tins communication Judge White responded in the following 
 dignified letter, dated Nashville, Oct. 23, 1835 : 
 
 Gentlemen: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 communication under date of yesterday, inclosing a copy of a preamble 
 and resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Tonnesee, recom- 
 mending me as a suitable person to succeed the present Chief Magistrate 
 of tlie United States. 
 
 To receive evidence at any time that the representatives of the people 
 of my own State continue to repose confidence in me would be highly 
 gratifying ; but at this particular time, and after such multiplied efforts 
 have been unceasingly made from various quarters to destroy my reputa- 
 tion, to receive such testimony of increased confidence is matter calcu- 
 lated to call forth my most profound acknowledgments. 
 
 Some of those who are members of the present General Assembly, and 
 who were members of the same body two years ago, can bear testimony 
 to the fact that I earnestly endeavored to prevent my name from being 
 submitted to the American people for the highest office within their gift, 
 but my efforts have been unavailing. A state of things has been pro- 
 duced which induces a portion of my political friends to believe the 
 interest of the country would be promoted by the use of my name as a 
 candidate, and when applied to on various occasions, I liavo given my 
 consent, and I now take this opportunity to state that this consent will 
 not be withdrawn. 
 
 In common with a large majority of the citizens of Tennessee, 1 was an 
 humble advocate of the principles set forth in the preamble to your 
 
 21 
 
334 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 resolutions. Time anA increased experience have tended to confirm me 
 in tlie opinion tliat on the maintenance of these principles the liberties 
 of the people of the United States essentially depend. 
 
 Fi'oni the formation of the Federal Constitution, up to this time, there 
 have been parties in the United States. Where they are separated upon 
 principle the members of each may honestly believe the permanent wel- 
 fare of the country depends upon having the government administered 
 upon the principles which they advocate, and may honorably use every 
 foir effort to elevate their own party, and put down their opponents. 
 But when an attempt is made to create a party not founded upon any 
 settled political principles, composed of men belonging to every political 
 sect, having no common bond of unity save that of a wish to place one of 
 themselves in the highest oflice known to the Constitution, for the pur- 
 pose of having all the honors, offices, and emoluments of the government 
 distributed by him among his followers, I consider such an association, 
 whether composed of many or of few, a mere faction, which ought to be 
 resisted by every man who loves his country, and wishes to perpetuate 
 its liberty. 
 
 To conciliate the favor, or procure the support, of any man or set of 
 men, belonging to any party, I have not changed, nor agreed to change, 
 any one political principle I ever avowed. Those upon which I have 
 heretofore practised shall continue to be my guide in whatever situation 
 I may be placed, so long as I believe them to be correct; disdaining, as 
 I hope I ever shall, an attempt to win my way to power upon one set of 
 principles, and then to practice upon another. 
 
 Through you I beg leave to tender to the General Assembly my un- 
 feigned and heartfelt thanks for this additional evidence of their continued 
 and unbroken confidence, and for yourselves be pleased to accept the 
 assurance that I am, with sentiments of the highest respect, 
 
 Your most obedt. servt., 
 
 Hu. L. White. 
 
 The President, upon finding that lie had been foiled in his efforts 
 to influence Judge White to become a candidate on the Van Buren 
 ticket for Vice-President, or to accept a seat on the Supreme bench, 
 now began to use the patronage of the government to seduce from 
 Judge White's interest some of the leading men in the Southern 
 States. The plea urged by them for withdrawing from Judge AVhite's 
 support was, that, by running more than one man, the great repub- 
 lican party would be divided, and that unless Judge White obtained 
 the nomination of the Baltimore Convention, they could not sustain 
 him. Had General Jackson's election depended upon a caucus nom-i- 
 nation, he would never have been President ; but lie entertained 
 
CANVASS WITH MR. VAN BUREN. 335 
 
 different views at that time ; and when first presented by the people 
 of Tennessee and Pennsylvania did not prohibit the use of his name, 
 although there were no less than three other candidates in the field, 
 besides himself; Mr. Clay, Mr, Crawford, and Mr. Adams. 
 
 General Jackson having decided upon his course, his confidential 
 friends, the Editor of the Globe, and Major Donelson, his private secre- 
 tary, circulated a statement that the contest in this canvass would 
 really be between him and Judge White. The Van Buren papers 
 spoke confidently of Judge White's defeat even in Tennessee. This 
 prediction, as they affirmed, was based upon General Jackson's pre- 
 ference for Mr. Van Buren. Neither Judge White nor his friends 
 gave any attention to these movements; and General Jackson, in the 
 confidence of his power over the minds of the people of Tennessee, 
 took occasion fully to define his position through a letter to the Rev. 
 Samuel Gwinn, in which he advocated the Baltimore Convention. It 
 was then said in Washington (alluding to this letter), that a document 
 had been sent to Tennessee, which would settle the matter there. 
 
 This Convention — which assembled at Baltimore on the 20th ^fay 
 — ^had been gotten up for the express purpose of nominating Mr. Van 
 Buren, who very naturally received its unanimous vote. The three 
 States of Alabama, Illinois, and South Carolina, were not represented 
 in the Convention. As the President had recommended this Con- 
 vention to his Tennessee friends, a failure on their part to appoint 
 delegates, created such a universal regret in that assembly, as to 
 induce a Mr. Rucker, a gentleman from Tennessee then accidentally 
 present, and invited to act as delegate, to cast fifteen votes for the 
 State, and thereby to secure Col. R. M. Johnson's nomination for the 
 Vice-Presidency. To show the invalidity of this vote, it is only neces- 
 sary to insert Mr. Rucker's own letter to the Editors of the Nashville 
 Union, explanatory of his conduct on this occasion. 
 
 You will discover my name introduced into "the proceedings of the 
 Baltimore Convention. To prevent all misunderstanding, I make the 
 following statement : I was not delegated to act in that convention. I 
 happened in Baltimore at the time of its sitting, and after the delegates 
 from the different States had their credentials examined by the committee 
 appointed for that purpose, there appeared to be no one present repre- 
 senting Tennessee. This circumstance seemed to be deeply regretted by 
 many, and upon its being mentioned that I was there, and a Tennessean, 
 it was suggested by some that I might vote, which I accordingly did. 
 
 E. Rucker. 
 
336 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSGN WHITE. 
 
 Tliis latituclinarian proceeding gave rise to tlie plirase "Rnckerize," 
 ■whicb. was then and afterwards used to describe that and other simi- 
 lar contrivances. 
 
 It was supposed that the decision of the Baltimore Convention, and 
 the Gwinn letter, would have the effect of causing Judge White's 
 friends to make the issue between him and Gen. Jackson, wliich was 
 so desirable to the friends of Mr. Van Buren, Charges of cowardice, 
 and want of chivalry, in not assailing the President at once, with 
 various taunts and epithets of abuse, such as " disorganizers, intriguers, 
 anti-republicans," were heaped upon that portion of the community 
 which could not perceive the justice, or acknowledge the truth of the 
 accusation that Judge White had lost his claim to the names of a 
 good republican and a virtuous citizen, by consenting to become a 
 candidate for the Presidency. It now seemed that all their efforts 
 were about to prove abortive. The Gwinn letter had failed — the 
 hoped-for issue had not been . secured — and other means must be 
 resorted to — the work must he accomplished. 
 
 The public mails were soon flooded witb " Globes " and extras, con- 
 taining most virulent attacks upon Judge White, with specific charges, 
 of " bargain, intrigue and corruption," between Judge White and Mr. 
 Bell, and Judge White and the opposition. These papers bore the 
 President's frank. The dishonorable course of the Administra- 
 tion, in this franking privilege, became necessarily subject to the ani- 
 madversions of the public press. Even then. Judge White's friends 
 were willing to believe, and to avow their belief, that Gen. Jackson's 
 confidence had been abused and his name used in this illegal way 
 by designing men. Investigation proved this supposition to be cor- 
 rect, to some extent. However, when suspicion settled upon Major 
 Donelson, the President's private secretary, Gen, J, wrote a second 
 Gwinn letter, asserting that he had never franked any packages for 
 Major Donelson, without a perfect knowledge of their contents, and 
 contending, that the packages contained public documents, though it 
 was notorious and has been fully proven that they were those malicious 
 assaults upon Judge White, which have just been mentioned. 
 
 These things transpired a little before the State elections ; and one 
 object evidently was, to influence those elections in such a manner, as 
 to secure a legislature, subject to the will of the party in power — and 
 who would relieve it of Judge White's opposition in the Senate, by 
 passing resolutions instructing him to vote" for Mr. Benton's expunging 
 resolutions. To insure success in this experiment, the copies of the 
 
CANVASS WITH MR. VAN BUREN. 337 
 
 Globe, containing Col. Benton's speech on these resolutions, were 
 franked by the President to many members of the legislature, and 
 letters were written by him to Mr. Brown, and A. 0. P. Nicholson, 
 complaining that "Judge White had not only feiled to take part in 
 his defence, but had moved to strike out the word 'expunge,' and all 
 the reasons on which Mr. Benton's motion rested." 
 
 In his course on this subject. Judge Whita was sustained by many 
 distinguished members of the Jackson party, viz.. King of Ala., King 
 of Ga., Cuthbert, Buchanan, McKeever, Tipton and Hendricks. What 
 was a virtue in them was a crime in him. His political enemies were 
 not y.et fully aware of the materials of which the Tennessee legisla- 
 ture was composed, and their great desire to expel Judge White only 
 made his friends more resolved to sustain him. They had elected him 
 a few months before, with a full knowledge of this objection, and could 
 not be induced to instruct him to act differently. So, instead of hold- 
 ing his seat by the President's endorsement, he unexpectedly held it 
 in defiance of his protest. 
 
 Col. E. H. Foster, writing to Judge White, date Nashville, Feb. 2G, 
 1836, gives the following graphic account of the struggle in the leg- 
 islature of Tennessee, to manoeuvre through the instructions to vote 
 for expunging, and the resolutions to withdraw Judge White's nomi- 
 nation : 
 
 In other matters, a very large majority of that legislature who 
 elected you, sir, with one voice^ have proudly distinguished this noble 
 State before the whole ATucrican Republic. They have witlistood alike 
 the persuasions and the threats of the strongest arm in the nation, and 
 that mighty arm laid bare and unblushiugly held up to the gaze of all, 
 that nothing of its overwhelming eifects on popular love and veneration 
 might be lost — that arm, hitherto and perhaps still invincible, was laid 
 upon you and your friends. Tliank God, licre we have thus far with- 
 stood its withering, destructive, paralyzing force, and we stand proudly 
 erect after the storm has spent its violence and wasted its strength. How 
 happy I am in the reflection I leave your own patriotic feelings to paint. 
 * * * The " expunging resolutions" had been suffered to sleep in quiet 
 for the space of near a five-month. Meanwhile, as you have no doubt 
 heard, no means were left untried to gain friends indoors and without. 
 The people were invoked, and Gen. Jackson's reputation, like Cassar's 
 pierced and bloody mantle, was lield up before them. Public meetings 
 were called, and private memorials circulated. Tiiey souglit to seduce 
 the ignoi'ant by misrepreiientation, and to allure otiicrs by [)roiiiise6 and 
 
 22 
 
338 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 flatteries. Gen, Jackson, as you may have seen, did not think it ont of 
 the way to address himself personally, and by strong appeals, to many 
 members of the legislature, and among them to some who must have 
 been designated by some shrewd friend at Washington (the Speaker of 
 the House, we suppose here), for they had never had the honor to see or 
 be seen by the President, and were surprised — not flattered off by the dis- 
 tinction. "Well, the session was fast drawing to a close, and the Van 
 Buren leaders (not bad tacticians, I assure you), determined on an effort. 
 Friday, the 12th instant, they [the expunging resolutions, Ed^ were 
 called for, and notwithstanding many of your friends, afixious for the 
 fight, voted with the enemy to bring them up, the call failed. Not to be 
 out-done, or disappointed in all hopes of making something by a discussion 
 that miglit bring your name into angry collision with the President's, they 
 then called for Col. Johnson's " Te laudamus " resolutions. The call ,suc- 
 ceeded, and the forgotten and long-neglected paper, almost .covered with 
 dust and cobweb, was dragged to light. The question was on the 
 amendment in lieu of the whole, offered by Mr. "Whiteside, when the paper 
 came from the Senate last October. Mr. Pvidley obtained the floor, and 
 moved to amend Mr. "Whiteside's amendment, by engrafting on it most 
 of the servile matter contained in the original resolutions. Mr. Martin, 
 of Madison, inquired if a motion to amend the original would take pre- 
 cedence of a. motion to amend the amendment? Being answered from 
 the chair in the affirmative, he proposed an additional resolution approv- 
 ing " both generally and specially," the President's proclamation against 
 South Carolina nullification; "not" as he observes, " that he approved of 
 the reasoning or the doctrine contained in that paper, either in whole or 
 in part ; for he had made, and still made open-day war against the instru- 
 ment, its logic and its, conclusions, and his arm w^ould never be grounded; 
 but he felt a desire to try the stomachs of some of his over-righteous, 
 v\'hole-hog Jackson friends, and as the occasion fitted so well, he could 
 not forego the pleasure, or the malice, as gentlemen might choose to call 
 it, of making the experiment." If a whizzing little bomb had fallen on the 
 floor, it would not have produced more amazement in certain quarters, 
 than this villainous amendment did. Mr. Humphreys, Mr. Overton, and Mr. 
 Allen, of Perry, all " good men and true " to the cause of Mr. Van Buren, 
 sprang on the nullifier. It seemed as if they really intended to devour 
 him. I cast a longing eye towards Martin, for I felt for him. One glance 
 convinced me that I might save my compassion. There he sat, like a 
 huge bull-dog, casting a calm and indifferent eye, now on this side and 
 now on that, at the whole pack that bayed him, conscious no doubt of 
 his own strength, and knowing that he could crush them whenever they 
 ventured too far. On the question, tlie amendment was ordered by a large 
 vote, Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Allen voting with tiie minority, and doubt- 
 less cursing the artificer and the artifice that forced thein to so unmannerly 
 
• CANVASS WITH MR. VAN BUKEN.^ 339 
 
 ap exposure. Nat contented >vith tliis experiment, but resoWpd to try their 
 ■" faith" by the most horrible and at the same time! indisputable test, Martin 
 again reached the floor, and moved an amendment, that the President's 
 course, iu attempting by his influence to secure the election of a successor 
 of liis own choice, by his franl>s and his letters, so far as any member had 
 knowledge of such letters and franks, met the hearty approbation of the 
 General Assembly. This, indeed, was the "unkindest cut of all." Old 
 Job himself, i)atience personified, could not stand it longer. But neces- 
 sity is the mother of invention ; and the Van Buren men, tlius cha.sed 
 and caught in their own toils, immediately took shelter under. the " expung- 
 ing resolutions." Col. Guild moved a substitute in lieu of Mr. Martin's 
 amendment. It was a new and improved edition of the " expunging reso- 
 lutions," just from Washington, dispatched by Col. Benton, as was pub- 
 licly charged in debate and not denied ; and defined " expunging " to 
 consist in drawing black lines around and making notes across, and Hot 
 in blotting out or erasing an offensive entr}*. And then by a war of 
 ingenuities, a debate not anticipated originated in the, House. It pre- 
 sented, I assure you, an animated scene. The lobby was soon thronged 
 to overflowing, and many went away who could not crowd in. In jus- 
 tice to all, I must say, the discussion was ably, adroitly and at times 
 eloquently conducted, on both sides. It continued Friday, Friday night, 
 Saturday all day, and until 12 at night, and despite all my e.vertions, was 
 received at times with loud applause in the lobby and on the floor. As 
 you will readily imagine, yourself and Mr. Van Buren . both got some 
 hard knocks, and among hands the "old hero " himself now and then 
 received an unlucky blow, only, however, wlien the stroke was aimed at 
 Mr. Van Buren ensconced behind his mighty buckler. As I told you, the 
 House continued the debate until 12, o'clock, and then adjourned without 
 taking the question. On Monday, and perhai)s the next or a succeeding 
 day, several ineffectual attempts were made to bring up the subject. On 
 Saturda}- morning last, and when but few anticipated the movement, Mr. 
 Tup|), the talented, eloquent and spirited member from Shelby, having 
 being deprived of an opportunity to address the House when the debate 
 Avas in progress before, and resolved not to be cut off from delivering his 
 sentiments, rose in his place, and offered a preamble and resolutions highly 
 complimentary to you, and approving j^our course on Mr. Benton's 
 expunging resolutions. He followed up his motion by one of the most 
 pungent, forcible, and interesting speeches I have yet heard. He cut all 
 round witli a two-edged sword, and being about to close, mentioned that 
 it was not his intention at that late period to lay the resolutions before 
 the House — that he had si mjdy introduced them to enable him to give 
 his honest sentiments against the odious proposition to expunge, and that 
 he would now withdraw them as he had a right to do by the rules. * * * 
 And thus the" expunging " and tlie "laudatory" resolutioiis descend for tho 
 
340 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 present to the "tomb of the Capulet^;" tlio former, I trust in Gotl, never to 
 rise again, nor the latter, while they come to us in strains of adulation 
 more suited to the attributes of his Maker than of man. 
 
 Judge White's correspondence at and about this period bears suffi- j 
 cient testimony to the equanimity with which he bore the assaults 
 and manoeuvres of his enemies, although a proper regard for his own 
 character and for the friends who were upholding him rendered it a 
 right, that he should now be interested in his own success, and at 
 least do whatever was necessary to a proper appi'eciation and acknow- 
 ledgment of their endeavors. These letters show likewise that he 
 was well aware of the corrupt means used by his opponents, who 
 descended even to the unlawful examination of private mailed letters. 
 
 A personal friend writes to him, to Washington, from home, date 
 January 7, 1836 : 
 
 I have this moment had a conversation with Mr. James Jackson, who 
 is directly from Nashville, and who says that the members of our Legis- 
 la;ture have very lately received communications from the President, 
 urging them to adopt the resolution instructing you to vote for Benton's 
 expunging resolution, and very abusive of yourself. 
 
 Believing it the duty of a friend to advise you of such proceedings, 
 I do so, and in addition that you may not be deceived, I here state to you 
 that Andrew Jacl:son''s frank is very frequent on papers abusive of your- 
 self and Col Bell, sent to this office. I tliink (tliough you did not as 
 early as myself make the discovery) you will be satisfied that he is not' 
 the man we at one time took him to be. 
 
 At one time I was a very clever fellow, and so were you and Bell; 
 but we have become great scoundrels in the estimation of the tyrant who 
 wields the executive department (indeed all) of the government. 
 
 A short statement made by Judge White in the Senate, June 28, 
 1836, furnishes a summary of the various underhanded engineerings 
 to which his opponents were stooping : 
 
 At the last session, the member fi'om Missouri (I doubt not from a 
 conviction of the correctness ot the procedure) submitted his proposition 
 to expunge. The Chief Magistrate had made up his mind Avho should be 
 liis successor, and liud detvnninod to use all his personal influence and offi- 
 cial patronage to secure his election. Whilst there was a majority of the 
 
CANVASS WITH MR/ VAN BUREN. 341 
 
 Senate opposed to him, this patronage conkl not be brought to operate 
 with full eftect. Upon discussing the expunging resolution, the opinions 
 of every senator were expressed. Thd times of some were then expiring 
 — the very da}' of voting. The venerable Chief Magistrate a-t once saw 
 the use which could be made of this instrument, and he has given it his 
 full influence ever since, under the hope that, through its use, the Senate 
 could be expurgated, members whom he deemed unworthy of the station 
 excluded, and their places supplied by athers, in his opinion, more worthy. 
 He seized the weapon, and has wielded it with all the effect he could. 
 The cry " exj>unge " was raised, and has been continued. 
 
 I shall speak of what I know, and what I believe to be true. The time 
 of one of the senators in my own State had expired. Members of the 
 legislature and to the House of Representatives were to be elected in 
 August. The Chief Magistrate interfcre<], through the agency of others, 
 in the elections to be made by the people, and in the election to b^ made 
 by the legislature. 
 
 Does any one who hears me doubt this statement ? He need not. 
 The following facts will show, incontestably, that he interfered in tlie 
 election to be made by the people : 
 
 1st. His two letters addressed to the Rev. Mr. Gwin, which all who 
 look into newspapers must have read. They were intended for publica- 
 tion, and were actually published. 
 
 2d. Besides the number of copies of the Globe itself, hundreds of which 
 he has sent to Tennessee under his frank, he franked many copies of the 
 prospectus for the extra Globe, which contains very little except misre- 
 l)resentations and insinuations utterly unfounded and untrue. There can 
 Tie no pretence that this was sent because it contained any speech, or any 
 public document. There is no such thing in it. I hold one that he sent 
 to Tennessee, frank and all, in my hand, just as received by the gentleman 
 to whom it was addressed ; aiid many others were scattered through the 
 country under his frank. 
 
 8d. He wrote a letter to Mr. Curry, which was used in Col. Standifer's 
 district, with a view to influence public opinion. 
 
 4th. He w' rote a letter to my colleague, a copy of which was furnished 
 to ^fr. Johnson, who used it in his canvass upon the stump with a view to 
 aid his election ; and it must have been intended for such use when writ- 
 ten, otherwise we must suppose my colleague abused the confidence of 
 the Chief Magistrate, in permitting his letter to be applied to a purpose 
 not intended by the writer. 
 
 These few facts, independent of many others which might be stated, 
 satisfy me that he did interfere, and use his infltience with the people to 
 regulate their opinions in the elections. 
 
 Secondly. He interfered with the legislature. 
 
 1. On the next day after they assembled, under his frank, each member 
 
342 MEiiOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 received three numbers of the extra Globe, amonnting to three hundred. 
 Here is one of tliera, frank and all. Some of these Globes contain matter 
 of the lowest" kind, intended, no doubt, to disgust the members with their 
 former senator, and to prevent his re-election. 
 
 2. He wrote a letter to Mr. Nicholson, one of the members, which we 
 have seen published in the newspaper, in which he complains of the for- 
 mer senator for not defending him on the expunging resolution at the 
 last session, and justifying the iise.made of his franking privileges. 
 
 3. He wrote a similar letter to Mr. Brown, another member, a copy of 
 which I now hold in my hand. 
 
 4. He wrote to Mr. Guild, one of the leading members, a letter con- 
 taining an argument to prove the propriety of instructing the senators ^o 
 vote for expimging the resolution of March, 1834, and urging the propri- 
 ety of giving such instructions, and authorized Mr Guild to submit it to 
 the perusal of other members ; which he did ; and 
 
 5. From this place was sent to this same Mr. Guild a copy of the form 
 of expunging, which the senators were_to be instructed to use ; and this 
 form corresponds, as I have understood, with that used in the resolution 
 proposed at this session by the senator from Missouri. 
 
 All these facts prove that the first object was to defeat the re-election 
 of a senator, who, at the last session, had shown he would not conform 
 his conduct to the will of the Chief Magistrate ; and, when that foiled, to 
 cause such instructions to be given as it w^s known that that senator 
 could not ohey^i and thereby force him to resign. Both these objects 
 failed. The senator was re-elected, and the legislature would not give 
 any instructions. 
 
 Mr. President, I have not stated these facts by way of complaint against 
 the executive. I perhaps am, least of all others, competent to judge 
 whether such a course was in conformity with his station or his peculiar 
 situation ; but I state them that justice may be done to the independence 
 of the legislature, and to their determination not to be persuaded or 
 forced from what they thought the path of duty.. Their course is the more 
 commendable, when it is remembered they sat within a few miles of his 
 residence ; were suri'ounded by his personal friends ; and that they them- 
 selves can furnish from their own bod}' many of his earliest, firmest, and 
 most undeviatingpfZi^icaZ and j3e7'«onanViends. Let it be remembered, 
 also, that they then were, and now are, the firm and unflinching svp- 
 porters of his Administration, upon every point where his measures con- 
 form to the jtrinciples avowed to bring him into power. Yet they would 
 not, and did not, give their senators any instructions upon this question. 
 They were willing to trust them without instructions upon this as well 
 as other points ; and on this account it is that I feel myself under higher 
 obligations to endeavor to carry out the will of my State upon this subject, 
 than I should have been if formally instructed. 
 
CANVAS3 WITH SVR. VAN HUREN. 343 
 
 Writing to Hon. Geo. W. Churchwell, date Washington, January 
 3, 1836, he says: 
 
 My Dear Sik: I ought to, as I do, sincerely thank you for your two 
 letters. They are the only ones received frooi any member since I reached 
 Wasliiiigtun. Your last letter had evidently been opened and very 
 clumsily closed aj^ain. 
 
 Every eflbrt has been making here to influence public opinion. B. wa<i 
 beaten for no other reason than because he would not go against me. It 
 was urged by the faithful, that by the election of Polk, the vote of Ten- 
 nessee would be changod. The course of Alabama, it is now said, will be 
 followed by the legislature of Tennessee, and that in a very short time my 
 name will be dropped everywliere. 
 
 I have never had a word frpm Mr. Clay, but understand from others 
 that he says without hesitation, that he will not be a candidate. "Web- 
 ster, it would seem, having lost the nomination in Pennsylvania and 
 Maryland, will either be dropped soon, or if his name is continued, it 
 will be thought to be done to benefit Mr. Van Buren. 
 
 I have not heard that Mr. "Webster himself has said one word on the 
 subject. Gen. Harrison, from every indication, will continue a candi- 
 date, and my friends do not believe my prospects are to be materially 
 changed by it. 
 
 Everything which can be done to my injury, within their power, is 
 done by Grundy and Johnson, from my own State, and probably by 
 Polk, also. 
 
 By the faithful, it is confidently supposed, that you will pass the reso- 
 lutions, ordering us to expunge. 
 
 Those who can be seduced by hopes of power and benefits are opei*a- 
 ted on in that way; others are denounced in the coarsest terms. 
 
 As to myself, I await my fate with the most perfect indifference on 
 my own account. For others, I have much feeling; but for nothing so 
 much as the reputation of my State. She now has the proudest name in 
 the Union, and upon her firmness in this crisis, her future fame essen- 
 tially dei)ends. 
 
 Her citizens, in primary assemblies first, and her legislature afterwards, 
 have brought my name before the world. Torrents of unmerited abuse 
 have been poured on my devoted head, for not prohibiting them from 
 doing so, and if now it is withdrawn by the mandate or management of 
 any earthly power, then, indeed, will I admit I knew nothing of the 
 character of the people among whom I have been raised. 
 
 I wish the expunging resolutions were disposed of, if thej' are to pass, 
 the public interest would require I should know it in time to appHse the 
 legislature of my course before they adjourn. "Write me treqneutly ; even 
 
344 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 if our letters are read, it makes no difFereace, provided they would even 
 then forward them. 
 
 Wliat will be the fate of any nomination before the Senate, I know not. 
 My course must be an individual one, as I am not in the confidence of 
 any party. I shall, so far as my vote will go, carry out the great princi- 
 ple of checking executive patronage, being employed to influence the right 
 of suffrage. ^ . , - •' • 
 
 With the most sincere esteem and regard, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Ilu. L. White. 
 Hon. George W. Chtjechwell. 
 
 And again, a little later: 
 
 Senate Chamber, February 23, 1836. 
 
 ' Mtt Dear Sir : Tour favor under date of the 8th instant, was 
 received, apparently safe, on yesterday. We have had, almost constantly, 
 a state of very high excitement in Congress, and have, as yet, done but 
 little, except talk. 
 
 The Globe has become more and more abusive. It is now plainly seen 
 that I will neither be coaxed, nor driven from the position, in which I 
 have been placed by my political friends. The only alternative, there- 
 fore, is to destroy me if possible. I am charged Avith insincerity, 
 duplicity, falsehood, suppressing the truth &c., without stint. In addi- 
 tion, it is obvious the whole power and patronage of the executive is 
 brought to bear. For all this, I care not. My leading friends here, stand 
 firm, and fearlessly do their duty. How many of them may do so else- 
 where, time alone will show. 
 
 I shall calmly, coolly, and without faltering, as well as I am able, dis- 
 charge what I think the duty assigned me, without stopping to consider 
 whether it will elevate or depress me in public opinion. 
 
 The policy is to whistle off as many of my friends as possible, and to 
 sacrifice the rest. 
 
 Wlien the contest is over, even if left a private citizen, I would not 
 exchange either feelings or character, with the venerable Chief Magis- 
 trate. I intend to act, as far as God may enable me, upon the princi- 
 ples which I have ever avowed, which I believe are sound and correct. 
 I will, therefore, have my own approbation : whereas, my old friend is in 
 open disregard of the leading measures he professed to entertain when 
 he sought power, and is saying, and countenancing others in saying, 
 things against me, which he has the strongest reasons to believe are 
 unjust and unfounded. 
 
 •Our French war is hapj)ily ended. Should the instructing, expunging 
 resolutions have passed, I shall leave for home as soon as I can make the 
 necessary preparations. 
 
CANVASS ^\TTn MR. TAN BUKEN. 345 
 
 If permitted to remain here, I have no donbt we shall have the names 
 
 of some of Our Flying /S2;ia(^ in Tennessee "before the Senate' for their 
 
 pay. My health continues very good. 
 
 Most sincerely and truly, 
 
 llu. L. "WniTE. 
 Hon. G. "W". Chttrohwell. 
 
 WisniNOTON, June 18iA, 1836. 
 
 Mt Dear Sm : I thank you most sincerely for your letter enclosed to 
 Mr. Lea, and which he handed me on yesterday. 
 
 I see no reason to conclude that anything which has occurred here 
 during the session can have the eflTect of doing us harm; on the contrary 
 I think we may well flatter ourselves tliat progress has been made in 
 giving to the people some useful information. 
 
 Everything in the power of the executive to do for the purpose of 
 injuring me has been done, and I doubt not the same course will be 
 continued. V 
 
 In conformity with n^y own judgment, as well as what I believed the 
 wishes of my constituents I have in every instance sustained the execu- 
 tive, excepting only in such measures as I believed inconsistent with the 
 great principles for which we all struggled when the present President 
 came into power. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, I have no doubt the truth is, the President is 
 exceedingly anxious that it should be known that his successor will have 
 been elected by his means and influence ; and I am perfectly convinced 
 he intends to put down eyei-y man who dares to throw any obstacles in 
 his way. 
 
 That the timid and calculating will yield to his wishes is according to 
 the common course of things; as to myself I am content to await the 
 result without anxiety. I will never yield to the dictation of any one 
 man living, but will willingly abide the expressed Avill of a majority, be 
 that what it may. That tlie patronage of the government lias been used, 
 is now being used, and will continue to be used to influence public opinion, 
 I firmly believe. After the 4th March, 1837, the opinion and influence of 
 General Jackson will be regulated entirel}' by the manner in which his 
 whole public conduct shall be estimated by the community at large. 
 
 I venture one prediction, and that is that if he ever after that 
 period should need friends he will find very few among those he is now 
 serving most zealously. 
 
 Why should we try to prove our letters were broken? "Who cares? 
 Those who are profited by such villainy will only be the better pleased. 
 All we can do in such cases is to state the truth as it is, whenever and 
 wherever we please,, and let others believe or disbelieve us as best suits 
 them. 
 
346 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 You must expect and so you will find the truth to be, that you will 
 have the opposition and enmity of all those who believe you are, or will 
 be, in their way ; and you will have better luck than I, if you do not 
 find tliose most bitter whom you have treated best. 
 
 Patience and good temper under injustice is- always the best policy. 
 When people lie, live them down by exemplary conduct. 
 
 Your letter at the close of the session was received and answered. As 
 you did not receive the answer some one else received the benefit of it. 
 
 If iir usage could disgust any one with the world I ought to be dis- 
 gusted : but I am not. When those who ought to treat me well, ill use 
 me, I am more than compensated by the friendship and support of those 
 who are under no obligation to me. 
 
 Most sincerely and truly, yours, 
 
 Htr. L. White. 
 George W. Ohtjkchwell, Esq. 
 
 A speech made by Judge White at a dinner given him by his 
 constituents at Knoxville, in August of the same year, contains a clear 
 exposition of the principles upon which he was and had been acting, 
 of the gross violation and desertion of them by the party who were 
 now seeking Mr. Van Buren's election, and of the methods and motives 
 by which the opposition to himself was- conducted by the Adminis- 
 tration. The sentiment introducing him was the following : 
 
 Our distinguished guest and neighbor the. Hon. Hugh Lawson White. — 
 His public career has been no less conspicuous for its consistency, inde- 
 pendence, and usefulness, than his private life for its propriety, purity, 
 and uprightness. Malevolence and persecution cannot prostrate him. 
 Tennessee will sustain him firmly and fearlessly against the slanders of 
 malice and the magic of the most influential name. 
 
 After the loud and reiterated bursts of applause with which this 
 sentiment was received, had subsided, Judge White rose and said : 
 
 Gentlemen: The sentiment just given, and the feelings with which it 
 has been received, encourage me to do something more than make my 
 acknowledgments for your undeviating support, and continued confi- 
 dence. 
 
 After an absence of almost nine months, seven of which Avere devoted 
 to my duties in Congress, \\\)m\ my return home, to find my neighbors, 
 the people of my own county, ready to greet me as a friend, and to 
 declare in the face of the world, that my character as a private citizen 
 does not deserve reproach, and that my conduct as a public man meets 
 
CANVASS "wrrn mr. tan buren". 317 
 
 their approbation, is a source of the highest gratification. More especially 
 when I reflect how incessantly I have been assailed, and with how much 
 industry the vilest slanders have been circulated, under tiie sanction of 
 names, some of which I know are, and long have been, very dear to you, 
 as well as to the great majority of my fellow-citizens. 
 
 For eleven years I have, in part, represented Tennessee in the Senato 
 of the United States. Until tlie two last, my services, humble as they 
 were, appeared to be acceptable to the great body of the people. Any 
 complaints against me were made, comparatively, by a few, and they 
 were of those decidedly opposed to the present Chief Magistrate and his 
 Administration. 
 
 Now the matter has changed, and I have been violently assailed by 
 some of those with whom I have formerly acted, and several of those who 
 were my bitter opponents on account of ray attachment to the Chief 
 Magistrate, have becoihe his zealous friends, while they still continue 
 their hostility to me. Having resided in the State from my boyhood, 
 and having, from the time I attained the years of discretion, been busy 
 among the people in some capacity or other, I believed a large and over- 
 whelming majority of our fellow-citizens were decidedly Jeffersonian 
 Hepublicatis, and belonging to that school of politicians myself, when 
 honored with a seat in the Senate, I flattered myself that on all important 
 questions, when I honestly carried out, in practice, my own political 
 opinions, I would also faithfully represent the opinions of ray constituents. 
 I have neither solicited nor desired the berth, and could not have been 
 induced to accept it, if a sacrifice of any of my principles had been 
 required. At one period, domestic afflictions visited mo in such rapid 
 succession, and with such weight, that I had made up my mind to with- 
 draw, and let my place be supplied by some one, whose mind would not 
 be doomed to brood so much over his own misfortunes ; but abandoned 
 the idea at the earnest solicitation of some, whom I, childishly, then 
 thought my friends,' and who are now under the hypocritical pretence of 
 continued friendship, ray most deadly enemies. 
 
 In the great struggle to bring the present Chief Magistrate into office, 
 it becaTue necessary that his friends should proclaim and enforce, by all 
 the arguments they could advance, theii; political principles ; and what 
 were they ? 
 
 1st. All useless expenditures of the public moneys should be discon- 
 tinued. 
 
 2d. All offices should be filled by men who were honest, capable, faithful 
 to the Constitution, and of business habits. 
 
 3d. Tiiat neither Congress nor any department of the federal govern- 
 ment had any power, except that which was expressly granted by the 
 Constitution, or was necessary and proper to carry into etfoct some power 
 which was expressly granted. (. 
 
. 348 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 4th. That the Executive power should he so limited and regulated by 
 law, that neither the President nor any officer appointed by, or dependent 
 upon him, could use Ms influence or power to control or guide puMic 
 opinion in elections. 
 
 5th. That the Constitution sliould be so amended as to secure to the 
 people the right of choosing the Chief Magistrate themselves. Tliat the 
 same person should not be elected for a second term, and that offices 
 should not be filled with members of Congress. 
 
 6. That all surplus moneys which might accumulate in the treasury, 
 beyond the reasonable wants of the federal government, should be 
 divided among the States by some fair ratio, to the end that the people, 
 to whom it rightfully belonged, might have the benefit of it tor internal 
 improvements, education, &c. 
 
 7th. That all caucuses or comMnations of men, whose object it was to 
 create or control puMic opinion in the election of President and Vice- 
 President should be discountenanced and put down. 
 
 These were the great and leading principles for which we, in common 
 with others., contended. The public voice sanctioned them by the elec- 
 tion of the Chief Magistrate in 1828. In his inaugural address in 1829, 
 and in his subsequent addresses, he has avowed and proclaimed several of 
 them. 
 
 They are the very doctrines on which I have practised from that day 
 to this, so far as my humble capacity enabled me; and I now challenge 
 my persecutors to put their fingers on the cases in which I have departed 
 from them. 
 
 How then has it happened, that for the last eighteen months, or two 
 years, my humble name has, in a certain set of newspapers, and among 
 a certain clan of politicians, been constantly coupled with some degrad- 
 ing charge ? 
 
 Upon this subject, I can, perhaps, give you some facts not heretofore 
 generally known, and this I shall do, not for the purpose of injuring any 
 one, but for the sake of making a just defence of myself. 
 
 The General Assembly of this State sat in Nashville in the fall of 1833. 
 At the commencement of its session, as is my habit, I was there. While 
 there, the news reached us that the deposits of the public moneys had 
 been removed by the order of the President, from the bank of the United 
 States. I immediately foresaw that this would produce a violent effort 
 in Congress to put down the Administration. I ascertained that there 
 was a wish among the members, before the session closed, to present my 
 humble name to the people of the United States, as a suitable person to 
 succeed the present Chief Magistrate. To every member Avith whom I 
 conversed, and to every otlier person who addressed me on the subject, I 
 iised all the arguments in my power to prevent them from doing so ; and 
 with some that I could take most liberty with, when coming away, left 
 
CANVASS WITK MK. VAN BIJKEN. 349 
 
 it. in charge, that should a nomination be attempted in my absence, to 
 "have it prevented. 
 
 At the close of the session one of those gentlemen wrote me, that he 
 T\ras censured as unfriendly, for not concurring in the \>]iin of a nomina- 
 tion. I immediately answered his letter, assuring him lie had not only 
 acted in conformity with my wishes, but in accordance with my request 
 — and tliat so sure was I that such a nomination would have weakened 
 the President in Congress, that if it had been made, I would have held 
 myself bound to withhold my assent. 
 
 In the spring of 1834, I received communications from ditferent quar- 
 ters upon the same subject, proposing that if it met my approbation, tliorc 
 would be meetings of the people to nominate me. To tliis course I gave 
 no encouragement. During that year the President visited Tennessee, 
 our convention was in session, and after their rise, I was informed, that 
 some of the members had wished to nominate me, but had abandoned the 
 attempt after they had ascertained it would incur his displeasure. On 
 his journey to Washington, he conversed freely with some of jny friends, 
 and remonstrated against any attempt to nominate me as President — 
 said that there must be a national convention, that Mr. Van Buren ought 
 to be nominated as President, I, as Vice President, and when his eight 
 years were expired I was young enough then to ie taken vp as President. 
 AU this was communicated to me, and the only answer that I could 
 make was, that either ofBce was beyond my merits, but that I could not 
 enter into any arrangement, which would operate as a lure to induce any 
 person to vote for myself, or for any other person contrary to his judg- 
 ment. Thus the matter stood when the session of Congress commenced 
 in December 1834. During that winter, many county meetings were 
 held, at which ray name was brought before the public, as well as by 
 the legislature of Alabama. 
 
 Under a full belief that a system was .about being put in operation, 
 which would destroy the freedom of election, which was intended to 
 transfer all federal power into certain hands, who, by the like process, 
 Avould transfer it into the hands of others at their pleasure, and that the 
 effect of this would be to give the operations of the government such a 
 direction as would favor the interests of one class of citizens, at an entire 
 sacrifice of the interests of all others, I consented that my political friends 
 might use my name, or not, as they believed would most promote the 
 public interest.' 
 
 In tliis I might have erred ; but if I did it was an honest error. 
 
 After giving tl;is consent, and before the Baltimore Convention, I was 
 rcpoatodly forewarned what I might exi)ect if my name was not with- 
 drawn. Those threats carried no terrors to me. Whatever of character 
 I have, was given to me by my country, and whenever it becomes neces- 
 sary to risJg the whole of it., in defence of those principles which I think 
 
350 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 essential to the preservation of liberty, I willingly stake it all. I feel 
 that I ■wa;s not intended to be the slave of any man orset of men — that 
 I have some mind, and that the author of my existence intended that I 
 should exercise it — that I should form opinions as to politics and reli- 
 gio7iy and freely and fearlessly act upon them, without being intimidated 
 by what either man or devils can do. Could I have hesitated for one 
 moment in my course, I would have fancied that I heard myself addressed 
 from the toinbs in yonder church-yard (pointing to the place where his 
 father and motlier are buried), in language like this : my son, remember 
 tliat the same principles are now involved, which were proclaimed in July, 
 1776. That to maintain them, I risked my life, and everything dear to 
 man — that after struggling through a seven years' war, with my compa- 
 triots in arms, we succeeded in the establishment of a free government 
 — under it Hived happy, prosperous, and died witliont leaving a spot 
 upon my name — that good name, and that free government, I left my 
 children as an invaluable inheritance ; and is it possible that, for the lack 
 of moral coiirage, you will deprive yourself and your children of those 
 blessings for which I toiled so long, and risked so much? If I still 
 doubted, a voice still more endearing, if that be possible, would salute 
 my ears in accents like these : can you for an |nstaht forget the lessons 
 taught by your mother ? — remember you have not only your father's 
 name in charge, but that you have also that of my family. Do you not 
 recollect how I used to encourage you, and your brother to discharge 
 your duty, as my only sentinels to ^atch and warn me when the tories 
 Avould approach our dwelling for plunder, in your father's absence in the 
 tented field ? That I would then inform you, that my familj^ were 
 among the first to hoist the pole of liberty in the South, and among the 
 most firm and fearless in defending it ! And will you, who have not a 
 drop of any but whig blood in your veins, hesitate aS to the course you 
 ought to pursue ? To these questions I could give but one answer — Fear 
 not for me. The same good name you have transmitted, .and tlie same 
 rich inheritance, shall be left unstained, and transmitted unimpaired to 
 your grand children. 
 
 But to proceed — the Baltimore Convention met, and in due form nomi- 
 nated a candidate for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, against whom 
 no man has heard me say one word. They have accepted tlie nomina- 
 tions, and I have no doubt, in doing so, acted on those principles whith 
 they think it right to maintain. As to myself, I solemnly declare tliat 
 with the knowledge I liave of the manner in wliioh that convention was 
 brought about, tlie object it was intended to acc(>ini)lish, and the conse- 
 quences expected to fioAV from it, had I been nominated by it for either 
 office, such nomination would have been almost the only contingency 
 upon which I would ha\Q proluhlfrd the use of niy name. 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood — I am very far from intimating it as my 
 
CANVASS WITH MR. VAN UUKEN. 351 
 
 opinion, that the whole of that assemblage, or a majority of them, were 
 either dishonest,' or dishonorable men. Many of tlieni are strangers to 
 me, and I hope were governed by Avortliy motives, and I doubt not 
 believed great good would result from their labors. I, on the contrary, 
 think nothing but evil can result from a nomination ty a set of men col- 
 lected under the auspjoes of the executive, with a view to nominate an 
 individual designated by hira. 
 
 Notwithstanding tins nomination, my name lias been permitted to 
 remain where it was before placed, and the tlireatened vengeance has 
 been pouring out upon my devoted head ever since. "Tray, Blanche, 
 and Sweothoart, little dogs and all," have been let loose upon me. I liave 
 heeded them not. It has been my aim to bear any and everytliing. I 
 have uniformly conformed ray public conduct to my avowed principles, 
 and what I believed the politics of my State. So far as the Admir>rstrar 
 tion has acted on the principles which drought the Chief Magistrate into 
 poicer, I have been, as I think, a uniform and steady, tiiough very 
 humble, supporter. If on any point he has changed his principles, h ib 
 unreasonable to expect me to change witli him, unless I can be furnished 
 with sufficient reasons for such cliange. 
 
 Humble as my pretensions are represented to be, wo all now see, and 
 know, that my venerable friend, the Chief Magistrate himself, in his 
 own proper person, has openly, andln the view of tlie sovereign people 
 themselves, nndei-taken to control and regulate public opinion. This is a' 
 trouble Avhich I am very sorry he had to take on my account. Ilis acts are 
 to live after hira. He occupies the most dignified station npon earth. If 
 any man living did more to waMs elevating him to that station tlian I 
 did, it was because he had more influence. He has the efficient Control 
 of tlie whole fund of the nation — the disposal of onr invaluable pnblic 
 domain — the appointment of all officers at home and abroad — the power 
 to remove tens of thousands of officers, who have no means to procure 
 subsistence for a day if he chooses to remove them ; they must do as ha 
 directs, or be turned loose to starve. All this power I zealously strove to 
 give him, and I did so under a thorough conviction that he would only 
 use it in accordance with the .=;pirit of the Constitution. That he would 
 follow the wise example of Washington, of Jefferson, of Madison, and 
 Monroe. That so far from openly interfering in the election of liis suc- 
 cessor, or encouraging any executive officer to do so, he would sternly pro- 
 hibit it in others, and think it a high political and moral duty in liimself 
 to be perfectly " neutral,^'' and lest he should disclose his preference would 
 " avoid conversing on the subject with his most intimate friends.^'' In tliis 
 I have been disappointed. I have been apprised that for twelve months 
 past he has neitlier been sparing.nor backward in liis censures of me^ 
 It gave me no uneasiness — I was willing to bear it all without com- 
 plaint. My only wisli was that he might so conduct as to take nothing 
 
352 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON 'WIIITE. 
 
 from the high character which in common with others, I Iiad for years 
 endeavored to give hirii. Not content with this lie come* to our own 
 State, among my own constituents, those in whose employ I now am, 
 took a circuitous route through East Tennessee, so as to be in many 
 villages, and is still on his tour through West Tennessee into North 
 Alabama, openly denouncing me as a " red hot Federalist^''''- having abari- 
 doned his Administration^ and being as far from Mm as the poles are 
 asunder, &o. Now with great deference to the opinion of that highly 
 esteemed and venerable man I must be allowed to say he is entirely mis- 
 taken. T am not now and never was a Fedei-alist, in any sense of that 
 term recognized by or known to the American people. I ana now and 
 ever have been, a Republican of Mr. Jefferson's school, so far as I have 
 been able to comprehend the doctrines taught by him. The true way to 
 test this matter is for each of us to put down the articles of his political 
 creed, and see in what we disagree. I have given you mine ; you and 
 the American people, who have taken the trouble to read what 1 have 
 said, or to notice my recorded votes, know that I have practised on my 
 professions. ,It is not with me to say whether the Chief Magistrate has 
 pi-actised on his or not. If AVe now disagree in anything, I aver that I 
 agree with the Republican creed, and that he will be found on that side 
 which leads directly to monarchy, although I hope he does not so intend it. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that upon one point he and I are antipodes, as 
 far apart as the poles are from each other. He thinks it an important 
 point of his Administration before his time expires, to select his suc- 
 cessor, and through the medium of a Convention, got up under his own 
 auspices, to have the person thus selected, recommended as a suitable can- 
 didate, to use all his influence and patronage to procure the election of the 
 person thus recommended, and he denounces every man as a Federalist^ 
 and as opposed to his Administration, who will not vote for and support 
 such person. 
 
 I disagree with this, whole doctrine, and insist, it is no part of his duty 
 to select liis successor, to have him recommended by a convention, or to 
 use his influence or patronage to induce or coerce persons to vote for him. 
 This is obviously the point of disagreement,. anil I willingly leave to the 
 present generation, and to those who are to succeed us, to say which of 
 us holds the Republican side, . - 
 
 Suppose Mr. Adams to be now President, and his term about to expire, 
 and he had designated Mr. Clay as his successor, and was using all his 
 patronage to induce persons to vote for him, and was actually travelling 
 through Massachusetts and elsewhere, haranguing the people and denounc- 
 ing General Jackson as a red-hot federalist, because- he would not with- 
 draw his name and vote for Mr. Clay. What would be said by our 
 venerable friend in such case? 
 
 With a view to bring this docti-ine home to the comprehension of every 
 
CANVASS "WITH MR. VAN BUREN. 353 
 
 man ; suppose there were now a proposition to amend the Constitution, 
 and make it the duty of every President before his term expired to select 
 the man in his judgment best qualified to succeed him — to have a conven- 
 tion called to recommend such person, and then to use all his patronage 
 and inliuence.to have him elected. Is there any one man in America so 
 stupid as not to see, it would be taking from the people all clioice, all 
 power in electing their Chief Magistrate, and vesting it in the hands of 
 one man ? If such an amendment were to prevaili so far as the election 
 of President was concerned, we would have to all intents and purposes a 
 Monarchy. Well ; if we can be prevailed on to think this practice ought 
 to be pursued, without such an amendment, practically the government 
 is a monarchy, because the people will have given up their right of choice 
 and transferred it to one man. It is not me alone that is denounced, but 
 every friend I have in Congress from the State. They are taken up one 
 by one by name and denounced by the President as federalists, and 
 opponents of his Administration. In what have they opposed his Ad- 
 ministration? Did they vote against his three millions session before 
 last? Did they vote against expunging the journals? Not they. Not 
 one of them. Yet they are opposed to his Administration, because they 
 will not vote for the person he has selected as his successor. It is true as 
 to one of them, Mr. Huntsman, when the President was asked how he 
 was, he said he did not know, he was hanging on the fence, and it was 
 doubtful which side he would fall. 
 
 In justice to that gentleman I must be permitted to state, if there be any 
 sincerity in man, he is as much on the Tennessee side of the fence, as any 
 of his colleagues. I have thought it right on this occasion to bring this 
 point plainly and distinctly to your view that you might every one see 
 the reason why I and my friends are denounced as Federalists, opposed 
 to the Administration and the antipodes of our esteemed and venerable 
 Chief Magistrate. 
 
 The real offence which I have committed is not the abandonment of 
 my principles, but that I would not abandon them. Not because I 
 became the tool of the opposition : but because I would not unite with 
 an old and valued friend in doing that, under evil and mischievous advi- 
 sers, which before God I believe, would rob the people of that freedom 
 for which our fathers " perilled their lives, their fortune and their sacred 
 honor," and bring reproach upon our memory Avhen wo are numbered 
 with the dead. 
 
 I have no controversy with the Chief Magistrate. I aspire to nothing 
 which he wants. If there is any controversy it is between my country- 
 men, who solicited the use of my name, and him. They have solicited 
 me to let my name be used as his successor, and I have consented. This 
 is my whole offence. If tliere he anything wrong in it, who is the cause 
 of it ? It is not I who am to. be put down and disgraced in thlj coutro- 
 
 23 
 
354 MEJIOIK OF HUGH LAWSON "WHITE. 
 
 versy, if Tennessee is either coaxed or coerced to surrender herchoice. 
 It is the people, who have placed me in the position I now occnpy. The 
 Saviour of the World, when upon earth, found among the small number 
 of his disciples, one Judas, who not only sold, but betrayed him for his 
 thirty pieces of silver. It were vain for one of my humble attainments, 
 who has nothing to offer but his best efforts to promote the public wel- 
 fare, to hope that all who professed to be his friends would continue to 
 act up to that character. Already have I found more than one Judas, 
 who by parting with their interest in me have received or expect to 
 receive more than twice their thirty pieces. I doubt not there may be 
 more who will yet do so ; but if it is the will of Providence that the use 
 of my. name shall be of service to my fellow-men, it will be so ordered 
 that in place of such hollow-hearted and false friends, I shall receive the 
 aid and support of many honest men, who will desire notliing but that 
 the government may be preserved in its purity : and if there lives the 
 man, who can induce a majority of the people of Tennessee to abandon 
 their own principles, and sacrifice an individual, whose name they had 
 placed before the public to gratify his wishes, then will I admit that I 
 never understood the character of the people among whom I have lived 
 for almost fifty-two years. 
 
 My enemies have made a mistake. They imagine that as I have deter- 
 mined not to advocate my own pretensions for the most dignified station 
 upon earth, that they may charge me with what misconduct they please, 
 in my present station as senator, and that I must remain silent, or lay 
 myself liable to the charge of indecency in electioneering. I cannot and 
 will not act on any such false delicacy. If I am unjustly accused — if I am 
 charged with entertaining principles, which do not belong to me, and 
 these charges are made to my own constituents, by a person of the 
 highest standing, it is due to you, it is due to the country and it is just to 
 myself, that I not only repel the charges, but disclose the motives of those 
 who make them. 
 
 My political friends who have placed my name before the public, are 
 Jeffersonian Jackson Republicans^ professing and practising now, the same 
 creed they professed in 1828. Our motto is " not words hut deeds.'''' We 
 determine to prove our " faith in our creed by our practices." If for this 
 we are to be denominated " new-born Whigs," we are content. Instead 
 of being placed in the company of aliens and strangers we will still be in 
 the embraces and arms of our long-cherished principles. "Names are 
 nothing," said our venerable Chief Magistrate, in his letter to Mr. Monroe. 
 Dress a tory in the garment of a whig and he will be a tory still. As 
 well might W3 expect to conceal tlie wolf by putting on the covering of the 
 lamb, as to suppose that we conceal the conspirator who seeks to deprive 
 the people of their right of suffrage, by throwing over liim the name of 
 a " good old Jeffersonian democratic republican." 
 
CANVASS WITH MR. VAN -BUREN. 355 
 
 All political power is vested originally, iu the great body of the peoplo. 
 It all resides there yet, except such portions of it, as they kave vested ia 
 their different agents, to be used for their benefit. They have reserved 
 to themselves the right freely to choose tlie two liighest officers, known 
 to the Constitution, in that mode pointed out by it. 
 
 Tliis riglit is the sure rock, upon which the whole superstructure rests. 
 Upon it I have planted myself — " The rains of slander may descend, the 
 floods of cnlnniny may come, the winds, the storms, and the tempests of 
 denunciation may beat upon me," but there will I remain unmoved, until 
 some political earthquake shall shiver both it and me to atoms. 
 
 In conclusion, permit me to add, that as to cm* venerable and esteemed 
 Chief Magistrate, if in anything I have said there is the appearance of 
 iinkinduess, or want of respect, it was certainly not intended. He has 
 assailed me openly for my conduct, while in your employ. One of the 
 first laws of our nature is self-defence, I obey that law as a freeman, 
 whose rights and reputation are dear to him. "We disagree in opinion on 
 a most important subject. At our age, and every circumstance consid- 
 ered, it becomes us both to disagree, in opinion, in good temper. Ia 
 times past he has had his troubles, and in them, he never was without a 
 friend to justify or excuse his conduct when I was present. He has 
 decreed that we shall separate, or I surrender that freedom for wliich my 
 father fought. The first is the only alternative for a man determined to 
 preserve his self-respect. He and I are poorly employed, if we lose our 
 temper about human governments. In the course of nature they must 
 soon cease to have any operation upon eitlior of us. "We must soon 
 appear before a tribunal where the Judge liimself will be the only wit- 
 ness. He cannot be misled as to our acts^^ov our motives ; ayd my prayer 
 is, that instead of applying the rules of strict justice to either, our errors, 
 vices and infirmities may find forgiveness in his mercy. 
 
 If thanks from the fullness of a grateful heart would avail you any- 
 thing for your unshaken confidence and steady support under every 
 change and vicissitude of life, I would pour them out as long as my 
 strength would permit ; but I feel that I have detained you .'dready too 
 long. I offer you the following sentiment, in which I know you will 
 cheerfully unite. 
 
 Prncticfg, not profissioita : — The Republican? of Tentiepsee are now what thoy were in 1829, 
 Jitcksonidns, folloioing the creed of that Apostle of TAherty, Thomas Jefferson. Should this 
 entitle them to a " New-born " name, tliey care not; provided they are left in the full enjoy- 
 meiit of their inalienable right of sulTrage. They would rather have even a bad name with 
 good principles, than bad principles concealed under a good name. 
 
 The President now determined to make the issue boldly and pub- 
 licly between Judge White and himself; and for that purpose, when 
 Congress rose iu 183G, he made a second visit to Teuaessee. As he 
 
356 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 passed tlirougli East Tennessee, Le appeared in the character of an 
 open electioneerer. His conversations at Biountville, Jonesboro', 
 Greenville, and Newport proved that the object of this tour was to 
 aid Mr, Van Buren, Judge White was denounced by him as a 
 federalist ; and Mr. Van Buren was eulogized as one of the purest 
 democrats that ever lived. He remarked to Mr. Sewell of Lebanon, 
 that no one could be his friend, who was Judge White's; that they 
 were as far apart as the East from the West. The same remark in 
 substance he made in the presence of Mr. Gillespie of Nashville, a 
 strong Jackson and Van Buren man. But he ascertained, that as his 
 former interference, through the agency of others, could effect no 
 change in favor of his candidate, so neither could his presence, now. 
 The freemen of Tennessee claimed the right of thinking and acting 
 for themselves, and by their independent course, did more honor to 
 their State than any other could have secured. 
 
 The result of this contest is known to all. Judge White lost the 
 election, but received the handsome majority of 10,000 votes in his 
 own State, notwithstanding the whole power of the press, the patron- 
 age of the government, and the personal popularity of General Jackson 
 were used to prevent it. The vote in the Hermitage district was 
 forty-three for White, eighteen for Van Buren. Besides Judge White 
 and Mr. Van Buren, there were three other candidates in the field ; 
 Mr. Webster, Mr. Mangura, and General Harrison. The last men- 
 tioned was the third person presented, and his introduction into the 
 canvass was supposed to have been a movement on the part of Mr. Clay. 
 To this opinion Judge White subsci'ibed, and avowed it to his constitu- 
 ents in a speech at Knoxville, 1st August, 1838. This speech fol- 
 lows. It is another proof of the inflexible honesty with which the 
 speaker clung to his principles, and of the easy versatility with which 
 Lis opponents held or dropped them, as the case might demand. 
 
 Fellow Citizens : I accept your invitation, not so much to partake of 
 your hospitality, as to thank you, in great sincerity, for your continued 
 confidence and support. You have been to me an impenetrable shield 
 against calumniators and enemies. 
 
 After an absence of twelve months, with but little intermission, I am 
 again among my constituents. 
 
 Tlianks to a kind Providence, and to my enemies, I am in good health, 
 ready and willing to converse with you, on all that has passed, and is 
 likely to hapi)eu. 
 
 My political enemies sought to destroy me ; they fancied it an easy task ; 
 
CAirVASS WITH MR, TAN BUREX. 357 
 
 more of life was left than they or I supposed; their unjust attacks 
 revived energies which I mj'self believed were extinct, and to all appear- 
 ances they have renewed my life's lease for some ten or twenty years. 
 
 I am not only here, but in good health ; and although tlie two last ses- 
 sions of Congress were among the most laborious I have ever served, I 
 have no want of health to plead, for any deficiency you may find in the 
 performance of my official duties. 
 
 I am grateful to Providence, and proud before you, in the belief that 
 • I have not been that simple automaton which, by the oflScial organ, I was 
 represented to be, capable only of saying yea or nay to the different ques- 
 tions presented to the Senate for decision. 
 
 The labors of Congress, both at the called and regular sessions, have 
 been arduous ; and although but few laws of a general nature have been 
 passed, yet it has not been from inattention to the great interests of the 
 country. There was a continued struggle between the executive and 
 Congress ; the first wishing to obtain an unlimited discretionary power 
 and control over the moneys belonging to the public ; the latter anxiously 
 endeavoring so to provide as to have them safely kept and secured, ia 
 such manner as to make them applicable at all times, to the wants of the 
 public. To the opposition in the House of Representatives, the credit is 
 due, of pre venting the moneyed power from b.eing, in due form, added to 
 the other powers of the executive. 
 
 Shortly after I Altered your service in the Senate, the great controversy 
 commenced, which ended in ousting the then incumbent, and placing the 
 late Chief Magistrate in the executive chair. The principles for which 
 you and I contended, and which we successfully maintained, ought never 
 be forgotten, and cannot be too often recurred to. 
 
 "We contended that tlie powers of the executive were too great, and 
 ought to be reduced, and limited by law. 
 
 That the expenditures of the government were extravagant, and ought 
 to be reduced. 
 
 That it was a crime in the President, or any officer under him, to use 
 his official station to influence the people in elections. 
 
 That all moneys wliich came into the treasury, beyond those which 
 tvere necessary to defray the economical expenses of the government, 
 ought to be returned to the people, who were the true and legitimate 
 owners. 
 
 And we solemnly pledged ourselves in the face of the civilized world, 
 that if we could obtain place and power, retrenchment and reform should 
 be the order of the day. That the Augean stable should be thoroughly 
 swept out and cleansed. 
 
 Emblematic of what we intended to accomplish, we chose for our motto 
 the broom, not one of the common material, but the Hickory broom. 
 
 Hickory, when young, is of all descriptions of wood the most tough. 
 
358 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 strong^ an4 durahle^ but when old and worm-eaten^ tlie most brittle 
 and worthless. 
 
 Confiding in the sincerity of onr professions, the sovereign people, 
 through the ballot box, placed onr political friends in power, and after a 
 most solemn and formal renewal of onr pledges, we commenced our 
 operations, and for the first four years I believed we were making some 
 headway. "We had checked internal improvements within the States, by 
 mere federal power, by vetoing the Maysville Eoad Bill, the Eockville 
 Road Bill, and by vetoing a bill to re-charter the Bank of the United 
 States ; but when the second four years of our terms commenced, then 
 commenced also a controversy upon the question, who should succeed the 
 then Chief Magistrate. 
 
 For one, I kept on, endeavoring to accomplish the task we had under- 
 taken, but the more we swept the dirtier the stable became, and eventu- 
 ally we found our 'broom would not perform its oiEce ; the political moths 
 and worms had got into it, and had eaten the splits so badly, that the 
 moment we attempted to sweep, tliey broke ofi', and finally, when the 
 second four years ended, and we come to look into the Augean stable, we 
 found it ten times as full of litter and filth as it was when we commenced 
 our operations. 
 
 In the Senate we made an effort to pass, and did actually pass, a bill 
 to limit the power of the executive in removals fi-om ofiice. This bill 
 was precisely similar to one reported by a committee of which I was a 
 member, while Mr. Adams was in ofiice. So far as I know, it was then 
 approved by the whole pohtical party to which I belonged ; I therefore 
 gave it all the support in my power, and made in favor of it, what I 
 thought the best speech I had ever made in Congress. But alas ! when 
 we came to take the vote, had it not been for Col. Benton, who with 
 diihculty voted for it, of all my old Democratic friends., I would have 
 been found " solitary and alone " in its support. 
 
 For this vote and this speech, I have never been forgiven by these in 
 power. I was excommunicated ; that which was sound democracy when 
 Mr. Adams was in power, was, in their opinion, rank federalism in the 
 days of liis successor. 
 
 They did right to excommunicate me. It was a mistake to suppose I 
 ever belonged to such a set of changelings. I had been in earnest in my 
 professions, and wished to carry them out in practice. You know what 
 Bort of a democrat ■ I am. I claim to be a republican of the Jefferson 
 school, such an one as my God and my education have made me. 
 Modern democrats are a different sect entirely. They are made at any 
 time the federal executive needs them. He makes a riiodern democrat 
 out of an old federalist, or any other worse material. You and I both 
 know some, that not many years since were made out of anti-war federal- 
 ists, so rank, that during the late war the young men had thoughts of 
 
CANVASS WITH MR. VAN BUREN. 359 
 
 soaking them in the tanvats, on account of their tory sentiinents. The 
 process is a very simple one; the President lias a political jar ready filled 
 with a yellow metal, and by rubbing well the candidate for democracj', 
 with this metal, his views and principles are entirely changed, and he 
 immediately becomes a fit communicant of this modern cliurch. Away 
 with such democrats; they cannot, and will not long deceive the people. 
 Ere long it will be found by all, that while this sect have democracy on 
 their lips, at heart they are tyrants and despots. 
 
 For what did you and I toil and labor to displace Mr. Adams ? It was 
 that we might bring back the practice of the government to sound Jetfer- 
 sonian principles ; to an economical expenditure of the public money. 
 
 Before the second term of his successor had expired, some of my politi- 
 cal friends believed ray humble name ought to be presented to the peo- 
 ple as a candidate for the high station he filled. Some in this a.ssem- 
 blage well know I remonstrated against this use of my name, and fore- 
 told that with my limited capacity and humble pretensions, no hope of 
 success ought' to be entertained. They thought differentl}'^ ; I did not, 
 and would not yield my assent until informed that the federal executive 
 had threatened that if I did permit the use of my name, I should be 
 rendered odious to tociety. This threat answered a purpose that the per- 
 suasion of friends could not. Despotic power never has governed and 
 never shall govern me. My name was given to the public, and should 
 have been, if the act had lost me the good opinion of every political 
 friend I had upon earth, and I might almost add if it had even endan- 
 gered the good opinion of ray Avife and children. The result is known to 
 us all. The Administration did its worst. Its thousand presses were 
 opened upon me and rny friends, and here I am, in better health, and I 
 tliink entitled to more character than when they commenced uj)on me. 
 Still, let no man scorn the power of the press. To witLstand its inlluence 
 is a perilous efiTort. I have made the experiment, and now assure you. 
 tliat I should feel less risk in to-morrow shouldering my musket and 
 knapsack, and marching to the swamps of Florida for a six months' cam- 
 paign against the Seminoles, than in encountering such incessant- dis- 
 charges of calumny and slander from all the presses which an American 
 executive has the power to l)ring into action. 
 
 In this conflict you, the freemen of Tennessee, were my shield. The 
 poisoned arrows of my enemies liave fallen harmless at my feet. I have 
 sustained no injury, and your firmness has given a brilliancy to the star 
 which glitters over the name of Tennessee, of which we may all be proud. 
 
 For one, T am quite satisfied with the result. Let none suppose I am 
 either disappointed or mortified. Still more, all may be assured, that 
 with my consent my name will never again be used for any office what- 
 ever. If I ever had any aspirations for high office, time has put an end 
 to them. I am not so old yet, as to have the childish belief, that my 
 
N 
 
 360 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 vigor of body and mind are to last always. In all the stations I have yet 
 occupied I have been enabled so to acquit myself, as never to mortily ray 
 friends. Humble as my pretensions are, I have sometimes been placed 
 in high oiBce, as the associate of some, who have had much character 
 among men ; many of you were witnesses of the manner in which our 
 official duties were discharged, and I am proud in the belief that my 
 reputation has never suffered by any comparison. My hope and prayer 
 is, that I may have discretion enough to surrender even my present sta- 
 tion, before I am so enfeebled, either in body or mind, as to make it 
 necessary for the interest of Tennessee to hiss me from the stage. 
 
 The late executive, then, has had his will carried into eifect by the vote 
 of the American people. They have listened to his statements " that the 
 whole value of his Administration would be lost, unless Mr. Van Buren 
 was elected to carry out his unfinished measures." The appointee of the 
 late President has been elected to " finish his unfinished business." 
 
 My friends, is he not getting through it with a rapidity which you did 
 not anticipate ? From the height of prosperity, in about six months from 
 the day of his inauguration, the country was brought to a state of unex- 
 ampled embarrassment. Should he keep on in his ill-advised course, 
 he will have performed his allotted task, long before the lapse of his four 
 years. The great interests of the country will be alt sacrificed, and by an 
 addition of the moneyed power of the government, in an organized form, 
 to the powers already possessed by the federal executive, the liberty of 
 the people will be near its termination. 
 
 Do not deceive yourselves by thinking that the executive project for 
 uniting the purse with the sword, is to be abandoned. 
 
 IlTo such thing. It will-be renewed, again and again, so long as the 
 most distant hope of success continues. The present executive knows 
 full well he has no distinctive character of his own. That he must con- 
 form to the will and wish of those who placed him in his present high 
 station. He knows the means by which he acquired it, and must act out 
 his part. 
 
 Remember that the miserable lizard can reach the pinnacle of the same 
 spire on which the eagle proudly perches himself; but the process by 
 which he reaches it, is very difterent. The latter trusting to his 
 native strength and his own good wings, fearlessly soars aloft, and 
 proudly perches himself on the summit, in view of all beholders. While 
 the other, degraded reptile, stealthily and cautiously creeps up, clinging 
 to, and ascending, that side of the column wliich will but screen him 
 from observation until ho reaches the pinnacle, and then slily peeps over, 
 ready to shrink back when he finds himself discovered. 
 
 Do you ask what then is to be done, when a political lizard has taken 
 possession of the station which ought alone to be occupied by the eagle? 
 My answer is ready. Through the ballot-boxes, keep steadily switching 
 
CANVASS WITH MR. VAN BUREN. 361 
 
 him, until he descends to that level which it is the interest of mankind 
 he should occupy. 
 
 It is useless to deny tlie foct, it is undeniably true, that notwithstand- 
 ing all tlie promises, professions, and ^'lodges of the late Aduiinistration, 
 the executive branch of the government has become a piece of mere 
 party machinery, operating in all elections, both State and federal. Some 
 few years since, on the centenary birth-day of General Wasliington, it was 
 beautifully said, by one of our most distinguished men, " tliat whenever 
 our government became a party machine, the liberty of the country 
 could not be preserved ; that tlie government could, by law, protect men 
 against murder, but not against suicide." There is great force in the 
 remark, yet I hope it is not true. There is, however, but one remedy in 
 either case. Take from the individual the razor with which he is about 
 to cut his throat, and he is, for the present, safe against suicide. In the 
 same waj', when you find those in possession of executive power using it 
 as the machine of political suicide, take away the means of miscliief, and 
 you prevent political suicide. Take from them their offices, and place 
 them in hands more worthy, and the Kepublic may yet be saved. 
 
 The late Administration came in on the question of reform, and a 
 retrenchment of expenditures. Pray, what abuse has been corrected ? 
 Kot one ! What retrenchment has taken place ? None, Abuses have 
 been multiplied and expenditures have been increased. 
 
 Mr. Adams was turned out because he was expending from twelve to 
 thirteen millions of dollars per year, and now we are expending from 
 thirty -five to forty millions per annum. 
 
 Can any man be so stupid as not to see this is all wrong ? Can the 
 babble of democracy sanctify such a course ? 
 
 Partisans may sing democracy until, like the locusts, their backs are 
 split, but it will not satisfy the people. We must be taught two tilings, 
 and that speedily. We must have sound currency^ and the government 
 must expend less money. 
 
 There is a constant press to increase offices, and to increase salaries. 
 Can any friend of the Administration put his finger upon any message, 
 specifying the office to be abolished, or the salary to be decreased ? 
 Yet they prate of democracy. 
 
 A short time since, we had a great struggle to know what should be 
 done with surplus money in the treasury. Now the struggle is to kinnv 
 how to raise enough to keep the government in motion. 
 
 Tliat which we had, is all gone. Onr currency is destroyed, and with 
 it the commerce of the country. Our sources of revenue are the sales of 
 public lands, and duties upon importations of goods. 
 
 While the currency is deranged, both these sources of revenue are dry- 
 ing up, and we are without revenue to supply actual wants, and wliat 
 have we resorted to ? To making paper money ; to issuing treasury 
 notes. 
 
362 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 A short time since, we and our families were to be made glad, by peep- 
 ing at our Benton yellow jackets, that were peeping through our purses at 
 us : but what now have we ? Nothing but yellow-backed treasury notes, 
 intended to supply the double purpose of a deficit in the treasury, and a 
 circulating medium. 
 
 Since the first of September last, we have authorized the issuing of 
 twice ten millions of treasury notes, and why ? Because we needed 
 money, and had it not. 
 
 The credit of the United States is good, and we have an express power 
 to borrow money ; but if we borrow, the public will see that a national 
 debt is contracting, and will inquire into the expenditures ; therefore, the 
 Administration prefer a resort to treasury notes. They appear to cost 
 nothing, and if tolerated, extravagant expenditures may be continued 
 without alarm to the public. This contrivance ought to be nipped in the 
 bud. 
 
 Treasury notes are unconstitutional, except used as a means to procure 
 a loan. Bills of credit cannot be used as a cm-rency, by either federal or 
 State authority. If tolerated, we will soon have an extravagant govern- 
 ment, and a depreciated paper currency. Whenever an amount of trea- 
 sury notes is issued as a currency, beyond the duties and sales of the pub- 
 lic lands, they must and will depreciate, and the mass of the people are 
 to be the sufferers. 
 
 Against these issues I have raised my voice, and recorded my votes, 
 and shall continue to do so. 
 
 You are ready to ask me what is a remedy for the evils under which 
 the country labors ? I tell you plainly. The remedy must be found in a 
 firm and manly exercise of the elective franchise. Vote for no man, who 
 will not firmly and fearlessly exert himself to prevent these now in power 
 from accomplishing the purposes they have in view, and when the time 
 arrives, let us exert ourselves to displace the present Cliief Magistrate. 
 
 I may ask, who will you put in his place ? Is he not one of your own 
 original party and will you go against a man of your own principles ? 
 
 In all sincerity I will answer these questions. In the first place then I 
 say, at present, I do not know whom we ought to endeavor to put iu the 
 place of the present incumbent. Two years and more are to elapse before 
 the election. Previous to that time every man whose name has been 
 mentioned as a probable candidate, may be removed from the stage of 
 action, as matters may be disclosed in relation to him, which may 
 change entirely our opinions of liis character and qualifications. There 
 is only one tiling on tliis sul)ject upon which my mind is at rest, and that 
 is that for the present incumbent I will never vote, while I entertain the 
 same opinion of him which I now do. 
 
 I have now the same politics, and the same political objects to accom- 
 plish, wliich I had in 1828, wlien you and I successfully exerted ourselves 
 to elect the late Chief Magistrate. 
 
CANVASS wrrn me. van buken. 3G3 
 
 Towards the accomplishment of this object, we have made no progress 
 whatever. We have been deceived and disappointed, and in my opinion 
 the present incumbent has been the cliief instriiinent in effectiug this 
 deception and disappointment. To continue him longer in office would 
 therefore be giviug ui) all wish for those improvements in our pub- 
 lic affairs, which I believe the interests of the country pressiugly 
 require. 
 
 Before the time of election arrives, some man, not now thought of as a 
 candidate, holding political opinions similar to my own, may be brought 
 before the public with a reasonable prospect of success. In that event he 
 should have my cordial support. 
 
 Although much has been said during the last session of Congress on 
 the subject of the next election ; yet I have taken no part in it, either 
 directly or indirectly, and to no one of those spoken of as candidates have 
 I in any degree committed myself. I am now as free to make my choice 
 as any of you can be. 
 
 I have however reflected on this subject, in all its bearings and contin- 
 gencies, and am fi-ee to state, that from present indications, I ihink it 
 most probable Mi-. Van Buren will be a candidate for re-election, and that 
 he will be opposed by some one, only, of the old opposition. Very prob- 
 ably Mr. Clay. In that event I have asked myself the question, what 
 course ought I to pursue ? 
 
 For Mr. Van Buren I have already said I never can and never will 
 vote, if he pursues the course pursued for the last few years. My motto 
 is " not words, but deeds." I judge of him by what he has done, and 
 caused to be done, and not by what he has professed. 
 
 It is true he has professed, at times, to belong to the same political 
 party to which I have ever adhered ; but his practice has on no one point 
 corresponded with that profession. 
 
 He is a tariff man and voted for that most odious of all our tariffs, that 
 of 1828. I am against all tariffs for protection merely. 
 
 He is for internal improvements by the federal government where the 
 object is what he calls national, and actually voted for the erection of toll 
 gates on the Cumberland Road. 
 
 T deny that the federal government possesses any such power within 
 the State. 
 
 He is against a national bank, and so am I, but then he goes for a 
 treasury bank, which I think is worse than a national bank, by incorpo- 
 rating stockholders. 
 
 He is for increasing executive power and patronage. I am for dimin- 
 ishing and limiting them. 
 
 He is in favor of the federal executive, and officers under him using 
 their power to influence public opinion in elections; I am decidedly 
 opposed to any such practices. 
 
I 
 
 364 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 He is in favor of the Chief Magistrate, in office, selecting his successor, 
 and using all his influence to have him elected. 
 
 I think such a practice calculated to convert our Republic into a 
 Monarchy, and therefore believe no man ought to be President who holds 
 such doctrine. 
 
 It is useless now to pursue this contrast any further, You will readily 
 perceive it is an entire mistake to suppose Ave ever belonged to the same 
 party ; yet it is true we once nominally did. He came into it, and gave 
 his support at rather a late day, when possibly he believed he would 
 succeed whether he joined us or not. 
 
 To him I have still another objection. He did not come into ofiBce 
 upon any character of his own, and no man is fit for the station he now 
 occupies unless he attains it upon the strength of his own principles and 
 character. He is nothing but a mere tuft of political misletoes, having 
 no root of his own, adhering to and supported by, the limb of a distinct 
 trunk altogether, and must as infallibly perish whenever that trunk 
 ceases to nourish him, as the tuft on yonder oak, whenever that oak shall 
 kave decayed and fallen. 
 
 The question then recurs, should Mr. Clay be the opposing candidate, 
 what ought I to do ? 
 
 I answer I ought to exercise my right of suffrage, so as most to pro- 
 mote the public welfare. I am entirely opposed to following the exam 
 pie of throwing away my vote, because the community will neither 
 select me nor the man of my choice. It is my duty deliberately and 
 impartially to compare tlie principles and characters of those between 
 whom the choice is to be made, and to vote according to my best judg- 
 ment. Permit me, then, for a few moments, to draw your attention to 
 a contrast between these two gentlemen. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren is in favor of a protective tariff, and voted for that of 
 of 1828. 
 
 Mr. Clay is also in favor of a protective tariff, but did not vote for that 
 of 1828. He is the author of the Compromise Act of 1832, which settles 
 the question to the satisfaction of the country at large, and which he 
 believes ought not to be disturbed. 
 
 Mr. Clay. thinks the fedei'al government has the power to make inter- 
 nal improvements within the States, but ought not to exercise the power 
 except upon an object of general or national utility, and that now, as the 
 States have taken up the business of internal improvements, tlie federal 
 government ouglit not to meddle with it, but rather aid the States with 
 means by distributing, when our funds will permit us, the proceeds of 
 our public lands. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren thinks the federal government can and ought to make 
 internal improvements when the object is national; but has no such 
 power where the object is local. 
 
MK. VAK BUKEN AND IfK. CLAT. 365 
 
 This opinion I think more exceptional than that of Mr. Clay, because 
 nnder it, the President has a discretionary power to make improvements 
 •where he pleases, by calling the objects natronal, and refusing them at 
 pleasure, by calling the objects local. 
 
 Mr. Clay thinks we have the power to charter a national bank, and 
 that we ought to exercise it. 
 
 Mr. Van Bureu is against a national bank, but is in favor of a treasury 
 bank. 
 
 The last is in my judgment the most dangerous opinion. 
 
 One great objection to incorporating a national bank is a fear that tho 
 directors and president might co-operate in elections, and if they did, 
 that the moneyed power united with executive patronage would be an 
 overmatch for any power in tlie hands of the people. 
 
 Now in case of a national bank owned by stockholders, this Union 
 might, or might not take place ; but in case of a treasury bank the Union 
 is certain, and everything is in due form of law put into the power of 
 the President. 
 
 9 
 
 Even upon these great leading points, I think Mr. Clay greatly prefera- 
 ble to Mr. Van Buren ; but the contrast ought not to stop here. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren is in favor of executive power and patronage in its 
 very worst forms and ramifications. Mr. Clay is in ftivor of reducing 
 and limiting them by law. 
 
 In a few words I must state, that I think the great difference between 
 the two men is, that Mr. Van Buren will pro/ess any opinions which will 
 gain him most votes in an election, and that when elected, he will prac- 
 tice on whatever principles will give to himself and his partisans the 
 most money, without any regard to the great interest of the country. 
 
 That Mr. Clay is a bold, ambitious, frank, and talented man. That in 
 office he would be ambitious so to administer the government as to make 
 for himself the reputation of a great man, in the estimation of enlight- 
 ened men in his own day, and of posterity in all time to come. 
 
 I have thus frankly stated to you my opinion in relation to these men. 
 I have done so the more willingly, because I am under no obligation 
 to either, nor have I anything to hope from them. 
 
 It has been the fasliion with you and with me, to endeavor to put down 
 and keep down Mr. Clay in time past. In turn he has helped to put and 
 keep me down. His third candidate for the Presidency furnished the only 
 argument wliicli enabled the late Chief Magistrate to transfer tlie Southern 
 States to his candidate. For all this I care not. I had no claims on Mr. Clay. 
 On several great questions we had ever disagreed and still do. Should 
 I support him in the coming contest, it will not be because I have changed 
 or intend to change my principles; but because I like his better than 
 those of Mr. Van Buren, and because should he be elected I expect much 
 benefit to the country ; but not all I would expect by electing a candi- 
 date with whom I accorded in opinion, upon all great questions. 
 
366 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Be it therefore remembered, that if I sustain Mr. Clay, neither he nor 
 his friends are to believe for a moment that I surrender any one of my 
 political principles. Far otherwise ; I will retain them all, and should I 
 still be in the Senate, if he were elected, and attempted to carry out any 
 principle in which I have disagreed with him, he would find in me the 
 same opposition I have ever manifested. 
 
 In voting in elections, as in the discharge of every other duty to society, 
 it is my business to do all the good I can, and if I cannot get a candi- 
 date to vote for, who comes up to my political standard, to select th^ 
 one who comes nearest to it. 
 
 Fellow-citizens : I thank you for your continued confidence and good 
 opinion ; I thank you for the patient manner in which you have given 
 me your attention. Had I the voice now, which I had, when, forty-two 
 years ago I first addressed my countrymen on yonder hill (pointing to the 
 court-house), you would have been enabled to hear me without crowding 
 together in so small a compass: but your kindness can always remedy 
 my imperfections. I ask you to join me in the sentiment which I will 
 read, and pass to your president to be proposed as one nearest to my 
 heart: — 
 
 *' Tennesseey — May she ever adhere to her own principles — remain 
 too honest to be purchased, too well informed to be mislead, and too 
 unyielding to be subdued. In every struggle between parties may her 
 sons rally as a body-guard to protect the Constitution. 
 
 In reply to this avowal of Judge White's sentiments respecting 
 Mr. Clay, the latter gentleman addressed to him the following let- 
 ter ; which is published in justice to that distinguished statesman, 
 and as proof that the charge of a coalition between Judge White and 
 the opposition was unfounded. 
 
 Ashland, Aug. 27, 183S. 
 Dear Sir: I am indebted to you, or to some other friend, for a 
 copy of the speech which you delivered on the late occasion of a 
 public dinner with which you and Mr. Bell were complimented on your 
 return from Washington. I have attentively perused it, and with much 
 satisfaction ; and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of saying to you that 
 it is candid, independent, and in perfect consistency with your own prin- 
 cii)les, character, and course. I might not be Avilling to admit the ambi- 
 tion which you ascribe to me ; but I do not mean to insist upon that 
 observation of yours as detracting from the general fairness of the 
 speech. My chief object, however, in now addressing you, is to correct 
 an error into which you have fallen, in respect to the last Presidential 
 election. Ytm appear to be under the impression that Gon. Harrison 
 was a candidate brought out by me, and brought out to avenge injuries 
 
LETTER FROM MR. CLAY. 367 
 
 •which I had previously experienced from you. Now, I assure you, sir, 
 that I had no more agency in presenting the General as a candidate than 
 you had. It was done without anj- prompting of mine, and without any 
 prior consultation with me, Nor did 1, during the whole of the canvass, 
 take any active part in it. I felt the difficulty of supporting the General, 
 on account of the military basis of his pretensions : and I felt the diffi- 
 culty of supporting you, on account of the difference which existed 
 between us on some leading points. But I never forgot tliat it was duo 
 to my own character to avoid becoming an active partisan. Towards 
 the close of the canvass, in October of 1836, a gi'eat barbecue was gotten 
 up in sight of my house, connected with the presidential election, and I 
 was invited to it. I could not decline going ; and very much against my 
 wishes, I was drawn out to say a few words on the sulyect of the 
 approaching election. The main idea which I expressed was, that it 
 was the duty of the people, in my opinion, to make the most determined 
 opposition to Mr. Van Buren ; and for one, I declared my hearty prefer- 
 ence for eitlter of the other candidates. I spoke of you in terms of high 
 respect, and avowed my preference of you to Mr. Van Buren. Finally, 
 I stated to the meeting that I should vote for Gen. Harrison, because I 
 thought that he combined the greatest prospects of defeating Mr. Van 
 Buren. Most certainly the General was not my first choice. I should 
 have preferred Mr. Webster to him, and so stated. 
 
 The condition of the opposition to Mr. Van Buren at the last election, 
 was unfortunate. No mode was devised, and none seemed practicable, 
 to present a single candidate in opposition to him. The Soutliern, and 
 Soutliwestern States wouhl not unite in the election of Gen. Harrison or 
 Mr. "Webster, and their friends would not unite in your election. Under 
 these circumstances it was thought to be the best that could be done, by 
 those who took an active part in those matters, tliat all three of you should 
 be run. On a review of the past, I think you nmst admit that the disap- 
 pointment was greatest in those States which were supposed to be 
 friendly to you. That may have been in consequence of the number of 
 candidates in the field; but that cause did not prevent Gen. Harrison from 
 obtaining quite as many votes as were ever expected. And I am sure 
 you will regard it only as matter of history wlien I express the opinion 
 that if tlie General had been out of the way, I do not think tliat you 
 could have obtained the votes which he received. They would have 
 gone to Mr. Webster, or, wliich is more probable, have been divided 
 between hirn and Mr. Van Buren. In the course of a long conversation 
 with Mr. Webster, months before the election, I expressed to him the 
 opinion of the expediency of his retirement from the contest, but he did 
 not retire. 
 
 If, as by this time I hope, you will believe tliat I had no agency in 
 putting forward Gen, Harrison, and certainly no purpose of injur- 
 
368 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ing you, you will do me no more than justice in believing the assur- 
 ance that I now make ; that I felt no injury from you^ which required to 
 be avenged. I certainly felt no obligation to the party of the late Presi- 
 dent to which jou were once attached ; but I had never understood that 
 you had been distinguished by any peculiar enmity towards me. And at 
 the period of the late election I regarded you with feelings far different 
 from those of a political enemy or opponent. 
 
 I thought these explanations due. I hope they will be received in the 
 same frank and friendly spirit in which they are made. 
 
 I hope you have recovered from the fatigue of our late exhausting ses- 
 sion of Congress. Although I have not been five miles from home 
 since my return, I feel the want of further repose. 
 
 Mrs. Clay desires her respects to be presented to Mrs. "White, and I beg 
 leave to add mine also, and for yourself, assurances of the most cor- 
 dial esteem and regard of 
 
 Your faithful and ob't servant, 
 
 H. Clat. 
 The Hon. Hugh L, "Whitb. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RETIREMENT FROM PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 In the fall of 1838, Judge White's health became much impaired, 
 in consequence of an attack of congestive fever, which had prevailed to 
 an alarmina: extent in Knoxville. Under the belief that he should be 
 unable to reach W'T-'^liington in time for the meeting of Congress, he 
 sent in his resignation, which Governor Cannon refused to accept. 
 
 As soon as it was ascertained that the legislature of 1839 contained 
 a majority of Administration members, it was at omce determined by 
 them, to instruct him out of the seat which he had so repeatedly 
 desired to resign, but had retained to gratify the leading men of their 
 own party. To effect this object as speedily as possible, and at the 
 same time to avoid, if it might be, the odium that must attach to them 
 in consequence of such a course, they, in the tirst place, endeavored 
 to make his resignation, which had been tendered the preceding fall, 
 take effect then ; and a resolution was passed by the Senate, calling 
 upon the governor for the correspondence which had passed between 
 them. 
 
 In answer to which resolution his excellency sent in reply the fol- 
 lowing communication : — 
 
 Gentlemen of the Senate : In compliance with your resolution 
 of the lltli instant, I have the honor to state that there is not in my 
 possession, or in the executive department, or ever has been, a copy of 
 the correspondence between the lion. Hugh L. White and myself, touch- 
 ing his resignation as senator. No copy of the same has ever been taken, 
 nor is his letter to me on that subject in ray possession, or in the execu- 
 tive department, it having been returned to him, by his recpiest, a short 
 time after it was received. I have kept no memorandum of this com- 
 munication, nor do I now remember its precise date. I am under the 
 impression, however, that it was in the early part of November last, that 
 I received a communication from this honorable senator informing me of 
 the severe affliction lie had suffered and tlie ver)- feeble state of his health 
 at tliat time ; also expressing his behef that lie would not be able to reach 
 
 24 269 
 
370 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Congress by the ensuing session. And in consequence of his inability he 
 proposed resigning his seat in the Senate of the United States in order 
 that a pro tern, appointment might be made by me in due time. On the 
 reception of this letter, I determined to suspend my official action on. the 
 resignation thus tendered for a reasonable length of time, for the restora- 
 tion of the health of our senator, sufficiently to enable him to proceed to 
 the discharge of his duties ; which determination was communicated to 
 him with such reasons and suggestions as at that time were deemed appro- 
 priate, and resulted in an acquiescence of the withdrawal of his letter 
 containing the proposition to resign, which was returned to him by his 
 request, without my acceptance of his resignation or my official action 
 on it in any way whatever. 
 
 This is, according to the best of my recollection, the substance of the 
 correspondence which took place between the honorable senator and myself, 
 during the time and on the subject referred to in your resolution. Ilis 
 praiseworthy course on this occasion afforded to my mind strong 
 additional evidence (to a long course of the most faithful public services) 
 of the most exalted and refined sense of honor and honesty, by which he 
 has been influenced, and few examples of which have been set before us, 
 by the public men of our times. It has seldom happened that those occu- 
 pying similar situations, whether in reference to the general or State 
 governments, have shown, under such circumstances, equal patriotism and 
 devotion to the public interests, and in the assumption of authority on 
 my part, which has been exercised in this case by me as executive of the 
 State, I am conscious of having been influenced by honest views of the 
 interests of the people for whom I have acted, together with what was 
 due under the circumstances, to a well tried and faithful pubhc servant; 
 and in assuming the responsibility which belongs to the station I have 
 occupied, in the discharge of this part of my duty, I cannot for a moment 
 believe that I have misconstrued the just and generous character of the 
 people of our State or that of their senators in the legislature, with regard 
 to the kind and indulgent feelings which animate them towards those 
 faithful public servants who have rendered faithful and important ser- 
 vices to our country, to every citizen of which, as well as to your honorable 
 body, I feel equally responsible for every official act. 
 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 "Newton Canxon. 
 
 " Extcutive office, Jfashville, Oct. 12th." 
 
 Resolutions to the following eflfect were shortly introduced by Mr. 
 Levin H. Coe, instructing their senators, and requesting their repre- 
 sentatives to vote for them — 
 
 1. Against a national bank. 
 
 2. In favor of the sub-treasury. 
 
legislattvt: instructions to judge white. 371 
 
 3. Against Mr. Crittenden's Bill to secure the freedom of elections, or 
 any similar bill. 
 
 4. Against the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. 
 
 5. In favor of a bill rei)ealing all duties on imported salt. 
 
 6. To support in good faith the leading measures and policy of the 
 present Administration. 
 
 While these resolutions were under discussion in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, previous to their passage in that body, the representative 
 from Knox county, Gen. Jacobs, by reading the following letter gave 
 the House full assurance of the course which Judge White would 
 pursue in the event of his receiving such instructions. 
 
 Sept. 5th, 1835. 
 
 Dear Sik : Your note of this date has been handed me a few hours 
 since. By it you request me to Inform you what course I will feel it my 
 duty to [)ursue, in case the Genei'al Assembly should pass resolutions 
 instructing their senators to vote for the bill, denominated tlie Sub-Treas- 
 ury Bill, or resolutions simply expressing the opinion that such bill ought 
 to pass, without any express instructions to the senators to vote for it. 
 
 I have long been an advocate for the doctrine of instructions, and am 
 of opinion that when a senator receives instructions from the legislature 
 of his State, upon any subject, when no constitutional question is involved, 
 he ought to conform his conduct to, and vote according to such instruc- 
 tions, or resign ; and I have never been able to see any good reason why the 
 expression "of an opinion by the legislature should not be considered as 
 instructions, although no express instructions accompany such expression 
 of opinion, unless the legislature say they do not intend an expression of 
 their opinion to control the conduct or votes of their senators. 
 
 I have considered a senator as the agent or trustee of the people of his 
 State, and tliat he ought to carry into effect, so far as is in his power, the 
 sentiments of a majority of the people he represents upon all subjects, 
 when he can do so, without violating the Constitution. He ought to 
 suppose the legislature, who are his immediate constituents, express no 
 opinion, or give no instructions which do not accord with the sentiments 
 of a majority of the people, and if he does not conform his conduct to the 
 expressed opinion of the people, through the agency of the legislature, 
 he is guilty of a breach of trust, and does not faithfully represent his State. 
 
 The Sub-Treasury Bill, so far as I am advised, does not involve any 
 constitutional question ; therefore, if the General Assembly deem it pro- 
 per to instruct their senators to vote for its passage, or consider it wise 
 to express the opinion that it ought to pass, in eiilier of these cases I 
 should consider myself bound, either to give it the support of my vote, or 
 to resign ; and I shcMild certainly adopt the latter branch of the alterna- 
 tive. No consideration could induce me knowingly to misrei)re^ent the 
 
372 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 people of Tennessee, especially upon a subject so important, and hj my 
 vote, no bill productive of so many ill consequences, as I think this 
 would be, shall ever be passed. Consistently, therefore, >vith my princi- 
 ples, no course would be left me but to resign. 
 
 I have heretofore opposed the sub-treasury, and voted against it, under 
 a firm conviction, tliat if passed, it would be productive of much mis- 
 chief; I believed a large majoritj of the people of Tennessee entertained 
 the same opinion. At the last session our General Assembly instructed 
 me to pursue this course; with much pleasure I conformed to those 
 instructions, and I cannot now act so inconsistent a part as to support a 
 measure, in my judgment fraught with such ruinous consequences to 
 society. I still believe a majority of the people of this State accord with 
 me in opinion upon this subject, but as a senator, do not consider myself 
 at liberty to go behind the legislature in search of public opinion. I 
 will act as if I believed they correctly expressed the opinion of my State, 
 and if they do not, they are accountable, not to me, but to the people 
 who are our common constituents or masters. 
 
 It is true, as I have heretofore said, that in 1834, when the sub- 
 treasury was first spoken of, I thought favorably of it, and would have 
 supported it, provided my political friends had agreed with me in opin- 
 ion, but the matter is now entirely changed in my view of this sulrject. 
 Then my idea was that the details should be such as to lesseo, not to 
 inci-ease, the power of the executive over the public moneys. Now the 
 project is to give, in my opinion, almost unlimited control over them. 
 
 Then it was very doubtful whether safe banks could be induced to 
 take charge of the public moneys upon reasonable and fair terms. Now, 
 no such doubts are entertained. 
 
 Then, I had entire confidence in the executive ; now, that confidence 
 does not exist. 
 
 Then, we had not the benefit of experience on this subject. The sub-trea- 
 sury has now been in actual operation for several years, and I consider 
 that this experience ought to have taught us all, that, under its opera- 
 tions, the public money will be unsafe, and society will be demoralized 
 by the illegal use of it, and that the power of the federal executive will 
 be increased to an extent inconsistent with our liberties. 
 
 It was my intention not to obtrude my opinions upon this, or any 
 o^her subject, upon any of the members of the General Assembly, but at 
 the same time, I can have no inducement to conceal them. I have, there- 
 fore, endeavored very briefly to answer all the points embraced in your 
 note, and have no difficulty in giving the permission you ask, to use my 
 answer in any way you may think proper. 
 
 With sentiments of the most sincere regard, I am 
 
 ■ Your ob't servant, 
 
 Hugh L, "White. 
 Gen. Solomon D. jAOona. 
 
LEGISLATIVE DTSTEUCTIONS TO JUDGE WHrHE. 373 
 
 Completely frustrated in their previous attempt, the political oppo- 
 nents of Judoe White now determined to eft'ect what seemed to be 
 their sole object without regard to consequences. After the disposal 
 of a long and tedious series of obstructing amendments offered by 
 whig senators, Mr. Gillespie, at the end of a month's hard labor, 
 moved the previous question, and succeeded in carrying tlirough the 
 resolutions at midnight, November 8th, by a strict party vote. 
 
 These proceedings brought upon their contrivers the reprobation 
 of the country, as is shown by the tone of the public journals of the 
 day. 
 
 The "Madisonian" thus treats the subject : — 
 
 Since the destructives carried the State of Tennessee by political tur- 
 pitude and chicanery, they have been unceasing in tlieir efforts to push 
 Judge White from his seat. We do not wonder at it — there is a daily 
 beauty in the presence of that pure and exalted patriot, which makes 
 this hideous ; hence the ghost of the blood-stained Banquo was not a 
 more unwelcome visitor to the tyrant at his feast, than would be Judge 
 White-to the ruling party in the Senate. We most sincerely trust he 
 will not resign. At this particular juncture, the nation at large, as well 
 as tlie State of Tennessee in particular, has a deep interest in his retain- 
 ing his seat. We cannot bear the idea that a station held with honor to 
 himself and usefulness to the nation, should be yielded to make room for 
 some of those suppliant tools that have been engendered through the 
 base degeneracy of the times. Although in some instances, the private 
 station may be the post of honor, yet in others it becomes the duty of 
 the statesman to yield his individual views to the wishes of the country. 
 We feel persuaded that however much Judge White may have desired 
 repose, their base attempts at intimidation will nerve him to a proper 
 resistance of their nefarious schemes. 
 
 The " N. Y. Times," in speaking of the movement of tbe ruling party 
 in Tennessee, says: — 
 
 We are sorry to say that the manner in which these gentlemen were 
 "instructed" out of their seats, was grossly rude and insulting. More dis- 
 gusting samples of low-bred abuse than are to be found in the speeches 
 made by some of the locofoco members at Judge White during the 
 debate on the instructing resolutions, never disgraced a parliamentary 
 body. This portion of the jjicture is, however, somewhat relieved by a con- 
 templation of the beautiful dilemma in which the locofocos were involved 
 by their acute and ehxiuent opponents. So completely were the former 
 entangled in a wob of contradictions, so ludicrous were their perplexed 
 
374 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 efforts to steer between the Charyhdis of giving the lie to Gen. Jackson, 
 by voting against resolutions erabodj'ing his very words, and the yet 
 more awful Scylla of repudiating the sub-treasury by endorsing them, 
 that we suppose we must find some palliation for the overflow of their 
 malignity in the agony of their annoyance. 
 
 The " Louisville Journal " thus commented upon the subject : — 
 
 The speaker of the lower branch decided that an amendment could 
 not be laid on the table without carrying witli it the main question. This 
 decision was clearly correct ; it was in accordance with all parliamentary 
 usage. Some members, however, in order to test the sense of the House, 
 took an appeal to that body ; and the decision was almost unanimously 
 confirmed, the locofocos going for it in a mass. Well, only two or three 
 days afterwards, while the instructing resolutions were up for considera- 
 tion, the whigs began to torment the locofocos by proposing certain trou- 
 blesome amendments, which the locos did not dare to vote either for or 
 against. The only way they saw of getting rid of them, was to lay them 
 on the tablej and so in direct defiance of the previous decision, the 
 speaher decided and all the party except three sustained him in it, that 
 an amendment might be laid on the table without carrying with it the 
 main proposition. 
 
 The following is from the "Hamilton Gazette," a neutral paper, pub- 
 lished in Tennessee : — 
 
 "Well might the venerable "White exclaim against his own State, as 
 did tlie noble Csesar against his fellow and friend Brutus when he too 
 stabbed him in the Koman Senate. Judge "White is an old public 
 servant ; he has won a good name from every dispassionate man. "We 
 are told that in "Washington City his unbending morality and inflexible 
 patriotism, manifested by every action public and private — his lofty 
 demeanor and talents of the first order — his attention to business, and 
 "whole general bearing is so much assimilated to that of the " father of his 
 country," that he stands pre-eminent, even among the Clays, Calhouns, 
 Websters and Adamses. Yet this man, for no other reason than because 
 his views and sentiments do not exactly tally with the majority of the 
 legislature, has been requested to resign his seat in the Senate of the 
 United States. It is not often tliat we permit our feelings to lead us into 
 a censorious notice of either party. But we confess, that when we think 
 of the disgrace that, has been brought upon our State, by the reckless 
 mendacity and total disregard of evei-y principle of right, to foster the 
 pretensions of a party, our "gorge rises," and we are almost disposed to 
 think that a worse curse is coming upon us through the management of 
 
LEGISLATIVE INSTRUCTIONS TO JUDGE WHITE. 375 
 
 our rulers, than rested upon France in her most bloody era. If it were 
 possible for a more judicious choice than Judge "White to be made in 
 Tennessee, the case would not be so bad. But every man in the majority, 
 knows full well, tliat if half a dozen of their leaders Avere thrown into a 
 crucible, purified, and cast into one man, that he would fall short of the 
 merits of Judge White." 
 
 The party being now anxious to precipitate measures at "Washing- 
 ton, on the 13th January, Mr. Wright called up the Sub-Treasury Bill 
 in the Senate, and pressed its consideration on that body. Thereupon, 
 Judge White rose and said, that " he held in bis band a number of 
 resolutions adopted by the legislature of his State, one of which 
 instructed him to vote in favor of the bill, proposed for the considera- 
 tion of the Senate to-day." 
 
 He requested permission to read to the Senate his reply to the 
 legislature, which was granted. 
 
 Mr. White then addressed the Senate to the following effect : 
 
 Mr. President : I have a duty to perform this morning, before we pro- 
 ceed to any regular order of the day. Presuming that the business of 
 presenting petitions is now over, I proceed to discharge it with as little 
 delay as possible. 
 
 When I reached this place on the 29th of November last, I was fur- 
 nished by one of our ofBcers with a letter, which contained several reso- 
 lutions adopted by the legislature of Tennessee, condemning one of the 
 votes given by the senators from that State, at the last session, and 
 instructing them how to act in future, on many subjects, I beheved my 
 duty to my State, and to the public, would be best discharged by remain- 
 ing in my sea^ and continuing to attend to the business of the Senate, in 
 the manner I had been accustomed to do, until some of the subjects 
 specifically mentioned in the resolutions should be placed before the body 
 for discussion. On this day of the last week, the honorable chairman of 
 the committee of finance reported a bill, commonly called the Sub-Treas- 
 ury Bill, and gave notice that on this day he would ask for its considera- 
 tion. This being one of the subjects mentioned in the resolutions, the 
 time has arrived when, in my opinion, it is respectful to the legislature 
 of my State,- that I should present them to this body, to the end that the 
 members of it, as wcU as the community at large, may be made acquainted 
 with what the General Assembly has chosen to express as public opinion 
 in Tennessee. I move that the preamble and resolutions, which I now 
 send to the secretary, may be read, printed, and laid on the table. 
 
 After the resolutions had been read, Mr. White proceeded and said, 
 
376 MEMOm OF nCGH LAWSON "WHITE. 
 
 Mr. President — As I am now a member of tliis body, and my instruc- 
 tions have been read and ordered to be printed, I consider it proper that 
 I should follow the example set by others, and make equally public the 
 conclusions to which I have come in relation to them. 
 
 The subjects of which they treat are of vital interest to the country, 
 and I am anxious that the opinions I entertain and express upon them 
 should neither be misunderstood nor misrej^i'esented ; I will, therefore, 
 take the liberty of deviating from my usual course of delivering my sen- 
 timents (which has been not even to use notes), and will now read the 
 answer which I have prepared, and intend, without delay, to forward to 
 the same body which adopted the resolutioijs. 
 
 Mr. "White then read his answer in the followinor words 
 
 To the Honorable the General Assemily of the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Gentlemen: On the 29th of ISToveraber last, in the city of Washington, 
 I received a copy of sundry preambles and six resolutions, which appear 
 to have been adopted by you on the 14th of that month, instructing your 
 senators, and requesting the representatives in the Congress of 'the United 
 States how to act on a variety of subjects. 
 
 An answer to the resolutions would have been immediately given had I 
 not believed it. my duty to remain at the post assigned me by your prede- 
 cessors, until some of the matters specified in them should be presented 
 to the Senate for its action. Although I might entertain an opinion 
 different from that employed by your honorable body, and might be 
 unwilling to surrender that opinion ; yet if no case should be presented 
 for the action of the Senate, in relation to which such difference of 
 opinion existed, I could perceive no good reason why I should state what 
 course I would pursue, upon a subject, which might never be presented 
 for consideration. Now, however, bills are presented to the Senate upon 
 some of the subjects embraced in your resolutions, and I deem it my duty, 
 without further delay, to inform you, that I cannot obey the instructions 
 contained in some of those resolutions, and respectfully to assign some 
 of the reasons which influence my conduct. 
 
 That I may be the better understood, I will notice each of the resolu- 
 tions in the order in which they were adopted. 
 
 First. As one of your senators, I am instructed "to vote against the 
 chartering by Congress of a national bank." 
 
 This instruction corresponds with the opinion I have repeatedly 
 expressed and acted on, and I could now feel no difficulty in conforming 
 my vote to your wishes on this subject. 
 
 Secondly. I am instructed " to vote for, and use all fair and proper 
 exertions to procure the passage of the measure brought forward in the 
 
JUDGE "white's resignation. 377 
 
 Congress of tho United States, commonly (^filled the Sub-Treasury Bill, 
 or Independent Treasury Bill," <fec., &e. 
 
 The followin<r, with many other reasons, induced me to believe I ought 
 not t-o comply with the instructions contained in this resolution. 
 
 It has often happened, and will generally be the case, that a consider- 
 able time must elapse between the receipt of public money from tho 
 debtor to the United States, and its disbursement to their creditors ; 
 during this interval tlie money will be much more safe in tlie custody of 
 well selected banks tlian it can be in the hands of individuals, supposing 
 them to be faithful. 
 
 Supposing any one of your honorable body had one hundred thousand 
 dollars of his own money, which he did not intend to use for six or nine 
 months, and lived in the vicinity of a bank of respectable standing, 
 •would he keep the money in his own liouse, under his own care, or 
 would he deposit it in bank for safe-keeping until he wished to use it? 
 If he was a prudent man, regarding his own interest, he certaiidy would 
 deposit it. 
 
 Are we then justified in taking less care of the people's money than a 
 prudent man would take of his own ? With great deference to your bet- 
 ter judgment, I think not. 
 
 It often happens that the receiving officers have on hand much larger 
 sums than that named in the supposed case, and as the sum is increased 
 and the time it is to be kept between its receipt and disbursement 
 enlarged, the danger of loss, when in the hands of an^individual, is 
 increased likewise. 
 
 Again. All experience teaches ns that large sums of public money left 
 in the hands of individuals will be misused and squandered. It will 
 either be used by the individual himself for his own purposes, or loaned to 
 importunate friends whom he may wish to accommodate, and who are 
 sure not to be able to return it when called for. 
 
 It is said banks are irresponsible, therefore not to be trusted. In my 
 opinion, generally, they are more responsible than individuals. They 
 have more means with which to pay, and if they fail to make payments 
 wlien required, they are as much amenable to the process of a court of 
 justice as individuals are ; and in addition, they are to be found with much 
 more certainty, as a corporation aggregate can very seldom abscond, or 
 leave the countrj-, which an individual easily can, and often does do when 
 he misuses the public money. 
 
 We need all the checks which can reasonably be imposed on our 
 collecting and disbursing officers. Banks have been found to furnish 
 one highly beneficial upon both of these classes. By a regulation between 
 the treasury department and each deposit bank, the latter lias been 
 required at short periods to furuisli its account current with the treasurer, 
 and on the face of it to show all sums deposited to his credit, when such 
 
378 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 deposits were made, and by whom. By comparing this account with tho 
 accounts furnished by the respective officers themselves, it can readily be 
 discovered whether they are misusing the pubhc money or not. By the 
 proposed change, and allowing the collector or receiver to be himself the 
 Tceeper^ until the money is wanted for use, you have no check whatever, and 
 the whole money received by an officer may be squandered before it is 
 wanted for disbursement, without any means of detection. 
 
 I, therefore, conclude the Sub-Treasury Bill ought not to be passed, if 
 there were no other objections to it save that of the public money being 
 less secure. But there are other weighty objections. 
 
 The only plausible reason which can be assigned why we should dis- 
 card banks entirely and appoint sub-treasurers, keepers of the public 
 funds, must be, that the banks are unworthy of confidence. 
 
 If that be so, does it not necessarily follow that you ought either not 
 to receive any bank notes in discharge of dues to the government, or if 
 received, that you should order the officer with whom they are deposited 
 for safe-keeping, immediately to call upon the banks for specie to their 
 amount. It is absurd to say we will not deposit with the bank, because 
 we have no confidence in it, and at the same time to allow our officers to 
 receive bank notes, and retain them in the hands of our officer, up to the 
 time we wish to pay the money away. There is less probability that the 
 banks would redeem their notes in specie when called on, than that they 
 would deny the payment in specie for money received on deposit. 
 
 The practice, then, of receiving nothing but specie from debtors, or of 
 immediately converting the notes received into specie, and locking that 
 up until the time of disbursement arrives, must be resorted to, in order 
 to carry out your wishes. 
 
 This, I apprehend, would be ruinous to society. A large portion of the 
 specie that might otherwise circulate, would be withdrawn from the use 
 of every person a considerable portion of each year. This would affect 
 the prices of property, of labor, and of everything else, and would render 
 it next to impossible for even a prudent man, who happened to be in 
 debt, ever to extricate himself. 
 
 Beside this, the heavy draws for specie upon banks, would compel 
 them, in a short time, either to wind up or to do a very precarious busi- 
 ness. Whenever a suspension of specie payments would take place, we 
 would have a depreciated paper currency, on which to do the business of 
 the country, and specie would become an article of merchandise. The 
 man in office, or who had a job or contract with the government, would 
 receive his salary or his pay in specie, which he would immediately sell 
 for bank paper, receiving a premium of some ten or fifteen per centum, 
 and with that paper pay his debts or purchase such property as he might 
 wish. This practice is at this moment in operation. For every hundred 
 dollars paid me as a member of Congress, I can receive one hundred and 
 
JTDGE white's KESIGNATION. 379 
 
 eight or nine dollars in bank notes, and with them pay the landlord who 
 feeds, or the tailor who clothes me. 
 
 It has appeared to me, if we commence this entire operation which 
 your resolution contemplates, and go into this thorough hard money 
 system, we shall presently, in Tennessee especially, be in a deplorable 
 condition. Look at its effects : all debts and taxes are to be paid to the 
 federal government in hard money, or in bank notes, for which the spe- 
 cie will be immediately received, and the specie thus received is to be 
 locked up securely, until it is paid out ia discharge of some debt due by 
 the government. Suppose our first year's taxes paid, in all the States, 
 amounting to some twenty-five or thirty millions of dollars. That is 
 only to be returned into circulation when the federal government pays 
 the debts which it owes. "What cliauce will Tennessee have to receive, 
 by federal disbursement, any portion of what she may have paid ? We 
 have no forts, no foundries, no arsenals, no fortifications, no army, no 
 navy, navy-yards, or dry-docks. In short, we have next to no objects 
 upon which the federal government expends money ; therefore none of it 
 would be returned to us. We must pay up our full proportion of all 
 indirect taxes in hard money, with a certainty that little or none of it 
 would be returiMjd to us by federal expenditures, and in the course of a 
 very few years, we must be drained of every hard dollar we now have. 
 
 There is another class of objections against this measure, entitled, I 
 think, to still more grave considerations. 
 
 The addition it will make to the powers of the federal executive. 
 Every officer with which the money is to be deposited, or left for safe- 
 keeping, will be appointed by the President, and removalle at his plea- 
 sure. We might as well give it to the President himself, as entrust it to 
 those whom he can and wilf control. 
 
 This plan will multiply officers and increase considerably our expenses 
 at its commencement, and in the end, no man can foresee the swarms of 
 dependents it may generate, and the additions it may occasion to our 
 expenditures of the public money. 
 
 By the use of the patronage already belonging to that officer, we all 
 know and feel that a large portion of the power vested in tlie legislative 
 department exists only in name; it is in substance vested in, and 
 expressed by, the President as he wills ; shall we, then, give him a con- 
 trolling power over all the pecuniary resources of the federal govern- 
 ment ? For one, I cannot consent to it. 
 
 Lastly, this sub-treasury is nothing but a stepping-stone to a bank 
 created by the federal government, bottomed on its own funds, attached 
 to the treasury department, and all placed at the control of the Presi- 
 dent, or of those who will never have any will which does not correspoud 
 with his. 
 
 It appears to me, no reasonable man can think if we commence this 
 system we are to stop short of such a bank. 
 
380 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Let one year only pass with all your revenue-in specie, and tliat locked 
 up, your State banks and paper currency deranged, and what then? 
 Those who may wish to carry out this system will then recur to the 
 sound doctrine advanced by the late President Jackson, " that the money 
 of the country ought not to be kept locked up by the government, any 
 more than the arms belonging to the citizens— both will be sure to be 
 misused." And it will be urged that society is suffering for a sound cir- 
 culating medium ; we must pass a law authorizing this money to be 
 loaned, the interest will ease us of the payment of much taxes, and by 
 circulating treasury notes, or drafts drawn by one of these treasurers 
 upon another, we will have a sound paper currency, good everywhere, 
 and bottomed on a metallic basis. This doctrine will become the demo- 
 cratic doctrine, and every man who opposes it will be denounced as a 
 bank-bought federalist ; the law will pass, and in due form we shall have 
 the Treasury Bank ; and what then ? 
 
 The 2mrse and the sword icill ie wiited^ and a power to increase the 
 vurse, as need may require, not by adding eagles and hard dollars to our 
 funds, but by issues of paper, in such sums as may be deemed necessary 
 and proper. This bank, with its pecuniary means, and the credit and 
 resources it will possess, can either destroy or render subservient to the 
 views of the executive any State banks which may be in existence. The 
 whole moneyed power, not only of the federal government, but of all 
 State banks, being thus placed in the hands of the President, he Avill be 
 able to control the destinies of the country. 
 
 His will becomes the law of the land. He will never again have to 
 appeal to " the sober second thought of the peopW^ to carry any favorite 
 measure. His first recommendation will always secure its speedy enact- 
 ment into a law. 
 
 In the views which I take of this subject, I may be in error; but they 
 are sincerely entertained. In the first instance, I placed my vote against 
 it, under the belief that such were the sentiments of the people I repre- 
 sented. Afterwards, I was instructed by the legislature to continue my 
 opposition. I did so, from a conviction that I was right ; and nothing 
 would give me more pleasure than to conform my vote to your wishes, 
 if the measure were an ordinary one, or if I believed the error of sanction- 
 ing it could be corrected ; but beheving, as I do, that the power once 
 granted to the executive can never be recalled, and that its exercise Avill 
 take from the people that freedom of thought and of action which alone 
 entitles our government to be considered free, I most respectfully, but 
 decidedly state, that I cannot and will not oiey the instruction contained 
 in your second resolution. 
 
 Your third resolution unqualifiedly condemns the provisions of a bill 
 of the last session, entitled, a bill to prevent the interference of certain 
 federal ofllcers in electiops, declares the same to be a violation of the 
 Constitution of the United States, unqualifiedly condemns the vote givea 
 
JUDGE white's KESIGNATION. 381 
 
 in favor of said bill by my colleague aud myself, and instructs your Sena- 
 tors to vote against, and to' use all fair and proper exertions to prevent 
 the passage of the same, or any similar bill. 
 
 When my colleague and myself gave our votes in favor of that bill, 
 •we acted under the same solemn sanction of an oath to support the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, that the members of your honorable body 
 did when they voted in favor of this condemnatory resolution. We had 
 the benefit of very able arguments both for and against the bill. Wo 
 examined it with all the care we could, and came to the conclusion that 
 it was not unconstitutional, and believing that the prevailing practice )f 
 the President interfering in elections, both State and federal, through the 
 instrumentality of officers, who hold their places during his pleasure, 
 called loudly for a remedy ; we voted in favor of its passage. 
 
 If your decision was tinal, I would not be so childish as to ask of you 
 to reconsider the constitutional question. 
 
 To men of ordinary capacity, or equivocal moral character, I might 
 make such a request, from a belief that the decision was a hasty one, 
 produced by some extraneous influence^ and that a more deliberate inves- 
 tigation of the subject might lead to a difievent conclusion ; but wlien I 
 reflect that the leading members of that majority which passed the 
 resolution are men as much distinguished by their moral cliaracter as by 
 their intellectual attainments and deep research on subjects connected 
 with constitutional law, and see that my vote is not only '-'condemned,''' 
 but " unqualifiedly condemned," I cannot hope that one of ray bumble 
 pretensions could urge anything which would occasion even a doubt in 
 your minds of the correctness of your decision. 
 
 But there is a higher earthly tribunal than your honorable body, that 
 will judge both your vote and mine, and pass sentence dispassionately, 
 without any predisposition to unqualifiedly condemn either of us, but in 
 charity hoping that each believed, when giving his vote, he was acting 
 correctly. To that tribunal, then, our common constituents, througli you, 
 their immediate representatives, I beg leave respectfully and briefly to 
 assign some of the reasons which influenced the vote complained of. 
 
 Every officer named in that bill holds his office at the tcill of the Pre- 
 sident, and js liable to be dismissed whenever it istho pleasure of the 
 President i6 dismiss him. Each and every one of the offices is created 
 by act of Congress. The qualification for the office, the tenure of it, and 
 the duties'to be performed by the officers are, and were, matters of legis- 
 lative enactment. 
 
 The President has no power to dismiss or control one of these officers, 
 merely because he is President, but because Congress, by law, gave him 
 that power. The bill itself expressly provided that all these officers 
 should be secure in the right to vote on all elections, according to their 
 (fwn judgment, and only forbid their interference to control and influence 
 the votes of others. 
 
382 MEMOm OF HUGII LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 I affirm that Congress had the poWer to create these offices, or not, at 
 its pleasure. That, when they were created. Congress could prescribe 
 the duties of the officers. That, if it had been deemed necessary. Con- 
 gress could have enacted that the officers should hold the office during 
 good hehavior ; but that, if any one of the officers interfered to influence 
 the votes of others^ in any election, either State or federal, it should be a 
 misdemeanor in office^ for which he should be dismissed. 
 
 When the bill complained of was under consideration. Congress had 
 exactly the same power over the subject that it had when the offices were 
 first creating. They might have repealed the law entirely, and thus have 
 turned out every one of these officers. 
 
 Suppose, instead of the bill complained of, a bill had been introduced 
 and passed, stating that, whereas these officers were in the habit of inter- 
 fering to influence the votes of the citizens in elections, therefore. Be it 
 enacted, that the law creating their offices should be repealed, .&c., would 
 your honorable body venture the opinion that such law would have been 
 unconstitutional, and that these officers would still have remained in 
 office? I think not. 
 
 On the question of constitutional power, there can be no distinction 
 between the case supposed and the bill complained of. If the one would 
 have been constitutional, so is the other. 
 
 Prior to the year 1820, these officers held their office during pleasure. 
 Congress tken believed many of them had misdemeaned themselves, were 
 defaulters, &c. ; and, with a view to provide a remedy, on the 15th of 
 May, in that year, an act was passed changing their tenure^ and limiting 
 each of them to the term of four years., and made them removable at 
 pleasure within these four years. Has it ever been thought that act was 
 unconstitutional? Not at all. Yet such an objection might have beea 
 urged with much more force in that case than in this. 
 
 The only reason assigned in your resolution why this bill was uncon- 
 stitutional is, that it took from these officers the liberty of speech, and 
 the Constitution provides that " Congress shall pass no law abridging the 
 freedom of speech and of the press." 
 
 This provision in the Constitution was intended for the safety and 
 protection of the common citizen who holds no office. It was foreseen 
 that those in office might alnise their trust, and to protect themselves 
 against exposure, might pass laws, restraining the citizens from censuring 
 them, either in speeches or through the pi-ess. Now, in your resolution, 
 you exactly reverse the matter, and suppose it was intended to protect 
 the instruments of the President, who hold office at his will, in their 
 endeavoi's to influence and mislead the people in elections. During tl^e 
 administration of the elder Mr. Adams, many complaints were made and 
 charges urged, both in speeches and through the press, by the citizens, 
 against him, and those in ollicc under him. With a view to silence the 
 citizens, and to maintain and shield' those in office, the sedition law was 
 
JUDGE wnrrE's resignation. 383 
 
 passed. The Republicans, one and all, condemned it as unconstitutional 
 and unjust, and they were rigjit in such condemnation. 
 
 Your rej;olution maintains now, exactly the same doctrines then 
 advanced by the federalists. They wished to silence the people, that 
 they might retain their places and power, and your resolution seeks to 
 allow the officeholders to go forth with all tlieir power and intluence, to 
 mulead and corrupt the pe6i»le — obtain their votes in elections, and tlms 
 retain their offices with all their emoluments. 
 
 Does your honorable body intend to affirm that Congress has no power 
 to regulate the conduct of this class of officers ? 
 
 Are they to be allowed to go forth on days of election, and with a view 
 to procure votes for the President or his favorites, promise mone?/ or offices, 
 jobs or contracts, by which much money may be made with but little 
 labor? The officeholder, in making these promises to injliience votera 
 would be using his powers of sjyeech, which the resolution affirms Con- 
 gress cannot abridge or lessen. If the proposition can be maintained, 
 then Congress had better go home, and yield up everything to the Presi- 
 dent, and the corps who hold office at his pleasure. 
 
 "We will, after a little reflection, perceive that this resolution not only 
 unqualifiedly condemns your senators for their vote, but necessarily the 
 conduct and opinions of others whom the country has most delighted to 
 honor. 
 
 The only reason assigned in your resolution why this bill was uncon- 
 stitutional is, that it airidged the freedom of speech. 
 
 If you are correct, how dare Mr. Jefferson, " the Apostle of Liberty," 
 in his letter to Governor McKean, use the language he did on this subject? 
 Still more, when tie came into office as President, why did he dare to 
 issue his circular letter, prohibiting this class of officers, on pain of dis- 
 missal, from interfering in eleoti<)ns farther than to give their own votes? 
 He was stcorn to sup[)ort the Constitution, and if Congress abridges the 
 freedom of speech, secured by the Constitution, by the enactments pro- 
 posed in this bill, it follows clearly that the President in his circular 
 violated the same 2}rovision, by pronouncing the Ulce penalty for the like 
 offence ? 
 
 I defy any person to condemn the one without condemning the other • 
 unless, indeed, we suppose there is a class of politicians who believe the 
 Constitution does not and ought not to impose any restraint upon the 
 President. 
 
 I fear such a sect has lately sprung up, and is increasing. It cannot be 
 too speedily suppressed. 
 
 The late President, General Jackson, in his inaugural address, whei/. 
 *'he was fresh from the people," inculcated the same doctrine with ^fr. 
 Jefferson. "To prevent the patronage of the government from being 
 brought into conflict with the freedom of elections, was a duty inscribed 
 
384 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 in characters too legible to be misunderstood," &c., was the strong lan- 
 guage he then used. How was the duty to be discharged ? Did we not 
 one and all, believe he would discharge it as Mr. Jefferson had done ? If, 
 then, these 'Presidents coiM, 10 Ithout violating the Constitution, prohihit 
 these officers from interfering in. elections, why could not Congress by its 
 enactments prohibit them likewise ? 
 
 No satisfactory answer can be given to this question. 
 
 The President already had the power vested in him to dismiss these offi- 
 cers at his pleasure ; and Congress unquestionably had the power to limit 
 his discretion, by specifying the cases in which he should exercise it. If, 
 then, my colleague and I erred on this question of power, with great 
 deference I submit that, the company with which our opinions were 
 associated ought, at least, to have softened the asperity of the language 
 in which our condemnatipn was pronounced. If there was any one sub- 
 ject aboy^ all others, upon which I believed iny colleague and I could 
 not mistake the sentiment of our constituents, it was that embraced in 
 
 that bill. 
 
 To prevent the President, through those officers, from interfering in 
 elections, was a theme upon which the friends of the late President 
 (Jackson) had dwelt most, both in and out of Congress. In 1826, a 
 committee of the Senate, of which I was a very humble member, througli 
 their chairman had made a most able report, the principles of which 
 were applauded by the whole party, and ly our State in particular. Upon 
 them, mainly, General Jackson came into power; he gave them liis 
 solemn sanction in his inaugural address, in presence of thousands of wit- 
 nesses. I had been twice elected after my opinions were well known 
 upon this subject, and now, when I endeavor faithfully to carry them 
 out, to be unqualifiedly condemned for doing so, and that by those who 
 then professed to think as I sincerely did, Avas what I did not anticipate. 
 I am sure that, upon this subject, my practice has corresponded with my 
 .professions. Still, I should feel degraded if I were to pronounce any old 
 associate a traitor, or liken him to Benedict Arnold, because at this time 
 he disagrees with me in opinion. 
 
 They are greatly mistaken who suppose the object of this bill was to 
 take from this class of officers any right whatever. Precisely the reverse 
 was the intention. It was to emancipate them from the slamsh bondage 
 in which they were held. It was to enable every man of them to vote 
 according to the dictates of his own judgment, and to absolve them from 
 the painful alternative of being compelled to not only vote, but to elec- 
 tioneer for candidates not of their choice, but of the President, on pain of 
 dismissal from office. 
 
 The great object was, to prevent the President ivom .controlling the 
 people in the choice of their officers, State and federal. This class of offi- 
 cers, whose daily bread for their families, depended on executive favor, 
 
JUDGE white's kesignation. 385 
 
 ■were constrained, as a part of their official duty, not only to vote 
 as the President toished, but to endeavor to influence others to do so 
 likewise. If they did not perform this duty they were dismissed, and 
 with their families left to starve. An eulif^htened statesman once called 
 them the " enlisted sokliers of the President." 
 
 A politician who knows as well as any other man the motives by 
 which men are influenced in relation to elections, says: — " WTienecer he 
 sees an officeholder interfering in elections, he concludes he is thinking of 
 his salary and his hread, and is a very unfit adviser of the iieoiAeP By 
 the passage of this bill it was hoped the instruments for misleading the 
 people would be taken from the President, that these " enlisted soldiers " 
 would be discharged from electioneering duties, and yet receive their 
 pay ; and that if they performed the duties of tlieir ofliccs faithfully, they 
 might safely vote according to the dictates of their own judgment, and 
 vet be secure in their " salaries and their daily bread." 
 
 By your fourth resolution, as one of your senators, I am instructed to 
 " vote against the measure heretofore brought before Congress, which 
 had for its object, the distribution among the States of the proceeds of the 
 sales of the public lands." 
 
 Injustice to myself, as well as to my constituents, I must be permitted 
 to state the manner in which my mind has operated on this subject at 
 difterent times and under different circumstances. 
 
 When a bill was first introduced, having such distribution as that 
 spoken of for its object, I voted against its passage, and in favor of the 
 veto of the Chief Magistrate, on the ground that no such distribution 
 ought to be made until the 'public debt was all paid. 
 
 Upon looking into the deeds, by which those lands were ceded to the 
 United States, by the respective States, I found that they were conveyed in 
 trust to pay out of the proceeds of their sales, our public debt then 
 owing by the United States, and that the residue should be for the joint 
 benefit of each of the several States, including those making the ces- 
 sions. 
 
 At that time a portion of the public debt was unpaid, and I deemed it 
 improper to distribute any part of this fund until the debt was fully dis- 
 charged, that being the primary object of the donor. 
 
 When a like bill "was afterwards introduced, I not only voted for it, 
 but gave it such support as my feeble abilities enabled me. 
 
 By this time the public debt had been fully paid, and we had a very 
 large sum in the treasury, beyond the necessary wants of the federal 
 government. 
 
 I could not doubt the power of Congress to make the distribution, 
 because there was an express trust that this fund should bo for the use 
 of the respective States ; we had a large sum on hand which I thought, 
 in honesty, belonged to the States, and the portion belongiug to Tenues- 
 
 26 
 
3'86 MEMOIR OF HUGH LA.WSON WHITE. 
 
 see, I believed, "would be highly useful in enabling her to make internal 
 improvements, and in providing a system for the education of those who 
 might be unable to bear the expenses of educating themselves. In addi- 
 tion to these considerations, I perceived if this large sum was not dis- 
 tributed, it would encourage a system of extravagant expenditure incon- 
 sistent with the welfare of the country. 
 
 I still believe these views were sound, and that if I committed any 
 error, it was not giving my support to the first bill as well as the last. 
 I believe it would be unwise, perhaps unconstitutional, for the federal 
 government to impose taxes for the purposes of collecting more money 
 than is necessary to carry out its afiairs, to the end that it might have a 
 surplus to distribute among the States : but this fund stands on a dif- 
 ferent ground ; it is a trust fund which belongs not to the federal, 
 but to the State government. 
 
 The ordinary duties necessary and proper for the regulation of our 
 commerce with foreign nations, ought to be sufiicient to bring into the 
 treasury, as much money as would defray the economical expenses of 
 the federal government, and each of the States ought to receive its 
 fair proportion of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands. 
 
 I cpnsider Tennessee as honestly entitled to her proportion of this 
 fund, as any of your honorable body is to a tract of land devised to 
 him by his father. 
 
 It appears to me, even at this time, onr State very much needs her 
 proportion of this fund, and that in a short time we shall be much more 
 in want of it. 
 
 Your honorable body may be satisfied that a majority of our citizens 
 are willing to relinquish their interest in this fund, but I am not so 
 satisfied, and as a senator in Congress, I will not do any act by which 
 sucli an idea is to be sanctioned. 
 
 It may be in the course of a very short time, that this fund will be 
 indispensably necessary to save our citizens from heavy taxation^ and I 
 should never forgive myself, if by yielding to your instructions, I did an 
 act which produced a serious injury to the people, who have so long 
 honored me with their confidence. 
 
 By the last clauses in your fourth resolution, I am instructed to vote 
 for graduating the price of the public lands, and for granting pre-emption 
 rights to occupants. 
 
 These instructions correspond with the opinions I have maintained and 
 acted on, therefore, I should find no difliculty in conforming to your 
 wishes in relation to them. 
 
 In th'e fifth resolution, your instructions are "to vote for and use all 
 fair and proper exertions to procure the passage of a law repealing the 
 duties on imported salt." 
 
 This subject has been before the Senate on several occasions since I 
 
JUDGE white's RESIGNATIOIT. ' 387 
 
 have been a member, and my votes have ever been in favor of removing 
 this duty, and I should still conform my conduct to my settled convic- 
 tion, tliat my past course on this subject has been correct. 
 
 In your sixth resolution you state, tliat yon " heartily approve tlie 
 leading measures and policy of the Administrations of Andrew Jacksou 
 and Martin Van Buron, and" instruct "your senators to support in good 
 faith, the leading measures and policy^ as brought forward and advocated 
 by the present President of the United States, and to use all fair and 
 proper exertions to carry out, sustain, and accomplish the same." 
 
 The phraseology of this resolution is so general and indefinite, that 1 
 am not sure I comprehend the meaning of your honorable body; but 
 believe you intend that I shall supj)ort all the leading measures of the 
 Cliief Magistrate, as well those hereafter to bo brought forward as those 
 heretofore recommended. 
 
 To instructions of this description, I could not with propriety, pay any 
 attention whatever. 
 
 Our fathers and statesmen believed they had done much towards the 
 security of civil liberty, when, by the Constitution, they divided the 
 great powers conferred into three departments^ each, in its sphere, inde- 
 pendent of the other two. These were the legislative, the executive, 
 and the judicial. 
 
 If the powers of any two of these departments should be placed in the 
 same hands, the whole machinery of the govei-nment is destroyed, and 
 the checks interposed are removed. 
 
 You instruct your senators to conform their votes on all the leading 
 measures, to the will of the President, who is at the head of the execu- 
 tive department. If you have a right to give such instructions, and your 
 senators are bound to obey, every other legislature in the Union has the 
 Baine right, and their senators would be equally bound to yield obedience. 
 
 Why not let the President at once make the law, and then execute it? 
 If we are bound to vote as he recommends, it is a solemn mockery to 
 consult us at all. The law would not be the will of the Senate, but the 
 will of the President. By this process the whole legislative power Would 
 be yielded up and surrendered to the executive. 
 
 I have been educated to believe, that continued watchfulness, and con- 
 stant jealousy of those in power, are essential to the preservation of 
 liberty. 
 
 Your honorable body would now teach me a diiferent lesson, and 
 instead of being a sentinel on the watch-tower, to guard tlie liberty of my 
 constituents, I am to betake myself to slumber, examine notliing, but 
 vote on all leading measures as the President may recommend. 
 
 If this be the kind of service to which your senators are to be applied, 
 I never can perform it, and feel myself unsuited to a station, which I 
 have heretofore considered most honorable as well as confidential. 
 
388 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 After your resolutions shall have performed their wonted office and my 
 resignation shall have iecn received^ ie/ore electing my successor, I hope 
 in your wisdom you will either rescind or expunge this sixth resolution. 
 Our common constituents, the free and chivalrous citizens of Tennessee, 
 I hope will ever be represented in the Senate by those whose principles 
 and feelings are in accordance with their own ; and while this resolution 
 is suffered to remain, no man can accept that high station but one who 
 is himself enslaved, and fit only to represent those in the like condition 
 with himself. 
 
 I have now troubled you with all the remarks I deem it necessary to 
 make upon your six resolutions, taken separately, but do not feel that I 
 will have discharged my whole duty until I have shown the deduction to 
 be drawn from them when connectedly considered. 
 
 They contain the political creed of the present Chief Magistrate of the 
 United States, as expressed through his friends in the Tennessee legisla- 
 ture ; and what is it ? 
 
 By the 2d resolution it is proved he wishes the whole moneyed power 
 of the United States vested in him, and subject to his control. 
 
 By the 3d it is proved he will not agree that the patronage and power 
 he now exercises shall be either lessened or regulated by law. 
 
 By the 4th, it is proved that in order to have full coffers, he wishes the 
 States to surrender their right to the moneys arising from the sales of the 
 public lands, and 
 
 By the 6th, it is proved that he wishes Oongi-ess compelled to vote for 
 every leading measure he may recommend, and I am instructed in good 
 faith to give my aid to maintain this creed. 
 
 These instructions I cannot and will not obey. So far from it, my 
 creed upon these points is : 
 
 . 1st. That the power over the public purse ought to be constantly kept 
 under the control of the legislature. 
 
 2d. That the patronage as well as the expenditures of the executive are 
 already too large, and ought to be reduced. 
 
 3d. That instead of surrendering the rights of the States to any portion 
 of the public moneys, they ought to adhere to those rights, and in due 
 season provide for a fair distribution of tlie land funds ; and 
 
 Lastly, for no consideration ought we to agree that any other portion 
 of the legislative power shall be vested, either directly or indirectly, in 
 the President, save that which is already vested in him by the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States. 
 
 At last, no person can help seeing that the difference between your 
 honorable body and myself is, tliat you wish to add to the power and 
 patronage of the executive, I wish to lessen his power and patronage. 
 
 On the decision of this contest by the American people, in my opinion, 
 the liberty of the country depends. Should your creed prevail, ere long 
 
JUDGE WHITES RESIGNATION. 389 
 
 the whole legislative power, vested in Congress by the Constitution, 
 will be transferred, substantially, to the President, and the only use of 
 Congress will be to stand beticeen the President and public odium, whea 
 laws are enacted which are disapproved by the people. 
 
 In addition to this, the election of State officers, and State legislation, 
 will be regulated according to the will of the executive of the Union. 
 Should mine prevail, the States will retain the powers they now possess; 
 the powers of tlie federal government will remain divided into diflferent 
 departments in substance as well as form. 
 
 Wliich of thege creeds will best secure the liberty, the happiness and 
 prosperity of the people, I cheerfully submit for decision to the Freemen, 
 of Tennessee. 
 
 In England, this would be the common contest between the prerogative 
 of the crown and the privileges of the people. Those maintaining your 
 side would be called tories, those maintaining mine would be called 
 whigs. 
 
 Here it is a contest between the patronage of the President and the 
 right of suffrage of the people. I will not at present give those wlio 
 maintain 3-our creed any name — ^you may give those who maintain mine 
 any one you choose. 
 
 " Names are nothing with me." My motto is, " Principles in prefer- 
 ence to men ; " while I sometimes think that of some of my opponents 
 ought to be, " Men without principles ; " though I would be sorry to 
 intimate that such a motto would suit your honorable body. 
 
 I shall trouble you with no further observations on these important 
 topics. It has been my aim to state my opinions with candor, and to 
 maintain them with firnmess ; but, at the same time, to treat your hon- 
 orable body with the most perfect respect. 
 
 I was called to the service of my State, fifteen years ago, without any 
 solicitation on my part. With reluctance I accepted the high station I 
 noAV occupy. I have been continued in it, perhaps, too long for the 
 interest of the country. I have been thrice elected, by the unanimous 
 vote of your predecessors. My services have been rendered in times of 
 high party excitement — sometimes threatening to burst asunder the bonds 
 of this Union — and your resolutions contain the high compliment that 
 bitter political opponents can find only a solitary vote worthy, in their 
 judgment, of '•'•unqualified condemnation.'''' 
 
 I hope it will be in your power to select a successor who can bring 
 into the service of the State more talents — I feel a proud consciousness, 
 that more purity of intention, or more unremitting industry, h^ never can. 
 
 For the sake of place., I will never cringe to power. You have instnicted 
 me to do those things which, entertaining the opinions I do, I fear I 
 would not ha forgiven for .^ either in this ivorld or m the next ; and prac- 
 tising upon the creed I have long professed, I hei'eby tender to you my 
 
390 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 resignation of the trust confided to me, as one of the senators from the 
 
 State of Tennessee to the Congress of the United States. 
 
 Allow me to add my sincere prayer that the Governor of the Universe 
 
 may so over-rule ow dissensions as to secure the liherty and promote the 
 
 prosperity of our common constituents. 
 
 I have the honor io be, gentlemen. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Hu. L. White, 
 Senate Chamber.; Jan. 11, 1840. 
 
 After whicli he proceeded and said : 
 
 Mr. President — I liave now finished my task ; lienceforth, I am to cease 
 being a member of this body. I cannot share with former associates, the 
 honors., ih& privileges., or the emoluments of a senator in the Congress of 
 the United States. At the same time, I will be relieved from my portion 
 of the labors., and from sliaring with you the high responsibilities which 
 necessarily pertain to the station. 
 
 In taking my leave of you, in the utmost sincerity my prayers are, that 
 coMectively and individually you may be , enabled to pursue a course, 
 which will afford you the highest comforts in this life ; and that your 
 labors may be so blessed as to secure you the grateful remembrance of 
 the present and all succeeding generations. 
 
 His retirement from the Senate is thus described by the corres- 
 pondent of the " Knoxville Times : " 
 
 Washington, Jan. \Zth. 
 
 The Hon. Hugh L. White resigned his seat in the Senate to-day. Tho 
 Senate chamber was crowded with members of the House, and the gal- 
 leries tlironged with citizens and strangers attending to see this veteran 
 Statesman quit the fi.eld in which he had so long and so faithfully toiled. 
 
 Speaking of his letter to the legislature, the writer says : • 
 
 It is a most able paper, giving at its conclusion a short review of his 
 political life. It was received in the most profound silence, and created 
 deep feeling. His remarks on the resolutions of the legislature instructing 
 him to vote for and sustain the leading measures of tlie Administration 
 were very severe. Ho then bade adieu to the senators, tendering them, 
 individually and collectively, his best wishes for their happiness, and 
 remarking he had now no share in the honors of that body, and was 
 excused from any participation in its labors. Judge White's old friends 
 went up and shook him cordially by the hand, as he stood by the Jire- 
 
JUDGE white's resignation. 391 
 
 place, in view of every one, and expressed their regret at parting with 
 an " old soldier," who had so faithfully served his country. Messrs. Clay, 
 Southard, and Preston were among the rest. It was a proud day in the 
 history of Hugh L, White. lie has left the Senate with the pleasant 
 consciousness of having never failed in his duty to the peoi)le, Ilis hands 
 are not soiled with the puhlic plunder, nor hia heart stained with either 
 treason or hypocrisy. Had the old farmers of Knox — had the people 
 of Tennessee witnessed the scene, hoAV would their eyes have flashed 
 with virtuous indighation, and their hps muttered of future revenge ! 
 
 The "National Intelligencer" thus notices Judge White's retire- 
 ment : 
 
 The Senate chamber has rarely presented a scene of more solemn 
 Interest than that exhibited yesterday by the resignation of Judge White. 
 The universal estimation in which this venerable citizen was held by 
 men of all parties — his long services — the unquestionable honor of his 
 character, and his antique sternness of virtue, combined to make him, at 
 such a moment, the object of great and just interest. And well was this 
 interest sustained by the able, eloquent, and dignified document, which 
 he read to the profoundly attentive Senate. There has rarely been a 
 more solemn sacrifice upon the altar of party. 
 
 A correspondent of the " Cincinnati Gazette," writing as a retired 
 citizen of Campbell county, thus speaks of Judge White's letter of 
 resisfnation : 
 
 Mk. Editor: Although an obscure individual, of a remote spot in 
 Campbell County, Ky., there occasionally falls into my hands a news- 
 paper, by private conveyance. Some days since a gentleman of Newport, 
 Ky;, handed me your paper of the 6th inst., in which was published the 
 Hon. Hugh L. White's letter of resignation to the legislature of Tennessee. 
 
 This letter of Judge White's is a strong document. It is couched in 
 terras which show the great deptli of his intellect, and the incorrupti- 
 bility of his heart. As an expose of the great political heresies of the day, 
 it is pre-erhinent. His strictures upon the si)irit of the Tennessee resolu- 
 tions are so palpable, that the absurdities are made manifest even to " the 
 ' wayfaring man." 
 
 What does the language of the Tennessee resolutions convey, but the 
 precise doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance, which came 
 into repute immediately after the abdication of Richard Cromwell, and 
 upon the accession of Charles II. to the throne of England. This vasal- 
 age was opposed, indeed, by the enemies of the crown, and here (1660) 
 we date the origin of the distinction of whig and tory ; the whigs oppos- 
 
392 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ing the crown, the tories advocating it. But in Judge White we had a 
 senator who was not that pliant sycophant, that, " for the sake of place," 
 would yield his principles and become the mere tool of the President. 
 Beholding the corrupt and dangerous tendency of the resolutions, he 
 spurned, with indignation, their propositions, and by his resignation has 
 given Tennessee the opportunity to fill his place with some one more 
 flexible and temporizing. But in his response, he has exhibited facts 
 which deserve the deep contemplation of every American citizen. He 
 has shown that submissiveness to the President's will on the part of our 
 legislators, or their constituents, would but presage the wrech of our 
 boasted republic. Tea ! it would but augur the speedy destruction of aU 
 that renders us happy and free. 
 
 When Judge White's letter of resignation was read before the 
 House of Representatives of the General Assembly on the 28th Jan., 
 General Jacobs moved that the letter be entered at large upon the 
 journals, which motion was accompanied by the following remarks,: 
 
 Mr. Speaker : I request the indulgence of the House for a single 
 moment, while I make a few remarks in relation to the individual who is 
 the subject of the resolution which I have just had the honor of submit- 
 ting ; to the adoption of which I trust there will not be a single dissent- 
 ing voice. 
 
 f wish not, I intend not, sir, on this occasion to arouse a single party 
 feeling, or to add a solitary splinter to the political flame which is already 
 burning with too intense a heat among us. I should do injustice to the 
 distinguished author of the communication wliich has just been read, as 
 well as to my own feelings, were I to attempt to do so. With the act of 
 the majority of the legislature of Tennessee, which has compelled him to 
 retire from the Senate of the United States, I have nothing, at this time, 
 to do ; it is before the tribunal of the people whom we represent, and it 
 is their province to pass judgment upon it. 
 
 In my boyhood, Mr. Speaker, I was taught to reverence the name of 
 Hugh L. White, and I have lived to witness the reality of all that my 
 youthful imagination had pictured of this truly good and great man. I 
 have known him intimately for more than twenty years : I have seen hira 
 at the bar, on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, and on the 
 floor of Congress : I have known him in the domestic and social circle, 
 and in the heat and turmoil of political agitations, and can bear testimony 
 to his claims to the character of a profound lawyer, an able and impar- 
 tial judge, a consistent politician, a pure patriot, and an honest man. 
 I have seen him under circumstances the most trying, and amid afilictions 
 the most severe, when one after another of a numerous, most interesting 
 and amiable family were cut off in the prime of youth, and yet has he 
 
JUDGE white's resignation. 393 
 
 never been absent from his post, or swerved from the path of duty and 
 rectitude. Bold, firm, manly and independent, both in his i)rivate and 
 political department; possessing an intellect, clear, powerful and discrimi- 
 nating; pure, spotless and uncontaminated by tlie pollutions of party, and 
 unawed by the strong arm of power, this venerable statesman lias kept 
 " the even tenor of his way," regardful only of his country and his coun- 
 try's good. He has never cringed for favor, or shrunk from responsi 
 bility ; he has never feared anything but dishonor, or loved anything 
 better than his coimtry. 
 
 Nor, sir, is his private character less pnre and unexceptionable, thaa 
 his political career has been consistent and patriotic. The record of hi3 
 private life does not exhibit a single spot or blemish. No violation of 
 promise ; no sin of ingratitude ; no act of extortion ; nothing illiberal, 
 unmanly, immoral, or dishonest, from his infancy to the present moment, 
 can rise up in judgment against him. Ills friends, his neighbors, his 
 acquaint^ances, all, all revere him ; around him are entwined the strong 
 cords of their affection, and nothing but the baud of death can unloose 
 them. 
 
 By the deliberate act of the majority of this legislature this incorruptible 
 citizen, this venerable patriot has been compelled to retire to private 
 life. His political race is run ; and in the course of human events his 
 earthly pilgrimage, in a very few years, will also be terminated; and 
 when the waves of oblivion shall have swept over the present, and the 
 party feelings and political excitements of the times shall have become 
 hushed into a calm ; when the prejudices consequent on this state 
 of things shall have been consigned to the '' Tomb of the Capulets," 
 and sober, dispassionate judgment and reflection fesume their sway, 
 full and ample justice will be done his character. He has served his 
 country forty years and, in the name of this venerable statesman, and 
 incorruptible patriot, and on account of his long and faithful services, I do 
 most respectfully ask that this House will spread upon its journals the 
 communication which has just been read, that they will admit to record 
 this last will and testament of his political existence. 
 
 "The motion was carried by 47 to 26 votes. In the Senate a similar 
 motion was made and rejected by a vote of 13 to 11." 
 
 To show that the people did not sanction the course of their represen- 
 tatives towards their senators, we have but to read the preamble and 
 resolutions adopted by a whig convention which met at Knoxville on tlio 
 10th Feb. 1840. This convention was composed of delegates from the 
 various counties of East Tennessee convened for the purpose of nomi- 
 nating electors for the districts of East Tennessee and the State at large. 
 Judge White's name was placed upon the latter ticket ; and that, together 
 with the other proceedings, certainly may be considered an indication 
 of the sentiments of the people whom ho had so lung and faithfully, 
 served. 
 
i 
 
 394 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSOU "WHITE. 
 
 Whereas, we have recently seen with mingled feelings of regret and 
 indignation, an old, faithful and well-tried pnblic servant, the greater 
 portion of whose life has been spent in the councils of his country, pro- 
 Bcribed by the blind, infuriate zeal of faction — therefore, 
 
 Jiesohed, That the Hon. Hugh L. White be invited to meet. his East 
 Tennessee fi-iends in Knoxville, at such time as may suit his convenience, 
 and partalvc with them of a barbecue, to be prepared for the occasion. 
 
 Eesolved^ That the president of the convention express to Judge White 
 the kind feelings and grateful recollections of the members of this con- 
 vention, and tender to him the invitation to the contemplated festival. 
 
 Resolved^ That a committee of thirty be appointed by the president, to 
 superintend the necessary arrangements for the proposed barbecue. • 
 
 The preamble and resolutions were adopted, but Judge White's health 
 was too feeble on his return home to accept the flattering and kind invi- 
 tation and receive the gratulations of his many warm friends. But ho 
 placed the highest estimate upon their attentions. 
 
CHAPTER XVIT. 
 
 ■wAsHiKGTON dinner: speeches of judge white and others. 
 
 A few days after Judge White's resignation a dinner was given 
 Lira in Washington City, as a last mark of affectionate respect from 
 those with whom he had been so long privately and politically asso- 
 ciated. To give an adequate idea of this deeply interesting scene, a 
 sketch of some of the speeches made on the occasion by distinguished 
 men, as well as of that of Judge White himself is here inserted. Mr. 
 A. R. Ilumes, at the expense of some time and much trouble, col- 
 lected copies of these proceedings and transmitted them to the 
 <' Knoxville Times" for publication. Below is an extract from his 
 communication on this occasion. 
 
 Washinoton, Jan. 18th, 1840. 
 
 The public dinner, given yesterday in honor of Judge Wliite, was 
 attended by many of the most illustrious and distinguished men of whom 
 our nation can boast. It was one of the grandest exhibitions of varied 
 talent ever witnessed on a like occasion. The several impromptu 
 speeches abounded in sallies of wit, the keenest satire, and the richest 
 classical allusions. 
 
 About one hundred and fifty were present, principally members of 
 Congress. 
 
 At 8 o'clock, the comi)any was ushered into the splendid hall at 
 Brown's hotel, and when Messrs. Clay and Preston entered with their 
 distinguished guest, the " National Band " struck up the inspiring air of 
 " Hail Columbia." 
 
 It was indeed a scene of melancholy and imposing grandeur. By the 
 pati-iotic Tennesseean, it would have been witnessed with the most con- 
 tradictory emotions. To see the father of his State dishonored in his 
 old age, by the blind infuriate zeal of party ! To see the man who had 
 achieved for Tennessee a just and honorable fame! — "the noblest 
 Roman of them all" — a willing victim upon the altar — preferring ban- 
 ishment from office, to the desertion of principle — he would have most 
 deeply felt that the true glory of his State was indeed eclipsed for the 
 moment. 
 
 395 
 
396 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 The Hon. William C. Preston presided ; at Lis right and left were 
 seated Hugh L. "White and Henry Clay. One might easily have believed 
 that he lived in times equalled only by the best days of the republic of 
 Eome for here were senators of more than Roman virtue. Tliere stood 
 the aged Cato with the crown of martyrdom on his head — banished 
 from the councils of his country, yet firm to his faith, and inflexible in 
 truth. 
 
 Messrs. Davis of Massachusetts, Biddle of Pennsylvania, Gen. Walter 
 Jones, Col. George Washington of Maryland, and Mr. Corwin of Oliio, 
 acted as vice-presidents on the occasion. 
 
 It was indeed a brilliant scene. The rich chandeliers threw a blaze 
 of light over the extensive room, which was tastefully decorated with 
 evergreens, and wine gushed forth from the bottle, and mirth from the 
 heart. 
 
 But there was yet higher banquetting. 
 
 Mr. Preston, the president, said : — 
 
 " I rise to perform a very agreeable duty. We are here to do honor 
 to a man whose private worth has commended him to our alfections, 
 and whose public'services challenge our approbation and gratitude. The 
 vicissitudes of public life have removed him from a high station, which he 
 has long tilled in such a way as to honor it, as much a?s it had honored 
 him. He ascended to it through various gradations of public service, 
 both in his own State, and in this government — at each step displaying 
 an assemblage of high and useful qualities— of virtues and of talents, 
 which showed him capable of a still more extended sphere. 
 
 His life has been a pattern to statesmen of an honest and unflinching 
 adherence to principle. He came here to Washington, the loved and 
 honored favorite of a great and dominant party, who had the power, and 
 the inclination to gratify all that his ambition might have aspired to ; 
 but when their policy no longer conformed to his judgment, he surren- 
 dered at once the smiles of power for the duties of patriotism. 
 
 The purity of his motives is vindicated by the fact, that he left the 
 strong for the weaker side. The vigor of his patriotism is shown, by his 
 willingness to incur for the sake of his country, the displeasure of a friend in 
 the moment of his power, to whom, in every variety of his fortune, through 
 a long life he had adhered with a romantic fidelity. He quitted the palace 
 for his principles, he gave up the CQurt for his country. He did not 
 believe that a palace sanctifies what without its walls was reprehensible. 
 He was of sterner stufi" than to 'crook the pregnant hinges of the 
 knee,' where ' thrift might follow fawning.' With a noble self-sacrifice 
 he pursued the steady tenor of his principles wherever they led him, and 
 has permitted mo to present his name to you. I doubt not it will so 
 stand in after times : — 
 
 «' Hdgu L. Wuitk. — The man ami the statesman, without fear and without reproach." 
 
FAKEWEIX DINNEK AT WASHINGTON. 397 
 
 These remarks wore delivered in the most finished style of oratory, and 
 •when Mr. Preston pronounced the ahove sentiment, its reception was 
 bailed with loud and continued "huzzas." But when the venerable form 
 of that veteran statesman, to whom it was addressed, was seen rising 
 from his seat, the welkin rung with "yet a louder, and a louder strain." 
 
 Mr. White rose and said : 
 
 " Gentlemen : The most eloquent response I could make to the senti- 
 ments contained in your toast, would be to remain entirely silent. No 
 language of which I am master, can convey an adequate idea of the emo- 
 tions produced by the expression of such sentiments, and the man- 
 ner in which they have been received by this large and respectable 
 assembly. At a time when I am hanished from the service of my country^ 
 without any hope that I can be longer useful to any man, to find myself 
 surrounded by so many men, whose friendship and countenance, any man 
 in any age or country, in possession of the most extensive power, would 
 justly feel proud of, overwhelms me. Thanks, from my heart, I return 
 you, and it is probably the only return I can ever make, for your kind- 
 ness and attention. 
 
 " Were I to go alone from the service of the public, I could find but little 
 to regret. My country would be more ably served by some one who has 
 seen fewer years. [Cries of ' never ! never ! '] Now in my sixty- 
 seventh year, the last thirty-eight almost wholly spent in some public 
 employment, little more could be expected of me ; but, for the sake of 
 reaching me, my late colleague must be made a victim likewise. [Cries 
 of ' sliame ! shame ! '] lie had served his State but one session in the 
 Senate, and I think all now present, who are acquainted with him, will 
 agree with me in opinion th.it no man who has entered that body in our 
 day, made more friends in the same length of time. [' No ! none.'] A 
 man of the strictest integrity, with a mind highly endowed and well 
 cultivated, aided by manners pleasing to all with whom he associated, of 
 untiring industry, and in the vigor of life ; had he been spared, his State 
 and the country at large, had much to hope from his labors. For myself, 
 I am proud that my State can, in my person., produce yet one man willing 
 to be made a sacrifice rather than sacrifice his principles.'''' [Nine cheers !] 
 
 Mr. White continued — " One thing may yet be permitted to me, and that 
 is to beseech my Siate that when, hereafter, that "monster, party spirit," 
 shall call upon her to furnish a victim fur the altar, she may spare her 
 younger sons, and let loose her blood-liounds \\\)0\\ some man already 
 worn out in her service, who may be found willing to be offered up as a 
 sacrifice, rather than stamp as hypocritical his former professions." 
 
 He next alluded to his separation from the late Administration, and 
 said — " Wlien my countrymen asked the use of my name, as a candidate 
 
398 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 for the Presidency, and I gave my consent, my destruction was decreed, 
 and how was it to be effected ? In no way but. by driving me from the 
 Administration'; and how was tliis to be accomplished? I would not 
 and did not abandon any one political principle, T had ever professed. 
 The separation, therefore, could only be brought about by the Adminis- 
 k-ation changing its practice in relation to. every great subject, except 
 that of removing the Indians. It did so, wheeled to the right about, and 
 I kept on, directly in its former course." 
 
 [Mr. White was here interrupted by loud bursts of applause and con- 
 firmations of his statement.] 
 
 He continued — " That branch of the public service in which I labored 
 most, related to the Indian affairs. In that I, and the late Administra- 
 tion, had stuck together to the last, and the Indians are mostly removed 
 from Georgia, North Oarolhia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
 Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan." And'he asked, with 
 boldness and emphasis— " Who dare charge me with failing to give my 
 best support both to the late and present Administration, on that great 
 and interesting subject? Upon this subject, I willingly leave my charac- 
 ter, to be settled by the testimony of my colleagues, upon the committee." 
 [A voice from a senator — ' I am a witness.'] 
 
 " I am thankful to my State, that she permitted me to remain here, until 
 her Indians were removed, and our lands brought into market, so that 
 the State is now receiving into her treasury the proceeds of their sales." 
 
 [It is well known that Mr. White has long been ,the able chairman of 
 the committee on Indian affairs.] 
 
 " There is yet a most important part of the great plan to be accomplished, 
 and that is establishing a plan for their government, by which they can 
 be made secure among themselves, and the neighboring whites rendered 
 safe from any of their depredations, and one upon which they can be 
 civilized and christianized. 
 
 "This latter object the committee have endeavored to accomplish. 
 They have for several sessions, reported a bill, and had it passed in the 
 Senate. They at first had the aid and sanction of the Administration for 
 the measure. Now, however, it has got off the Jackson track, (laughter) 
 and is discountenancing the measure, and what the President wishes 
 done, the Lord only knows. (Loud laughter.) / do not know, and he 
 has not deemed it necessary, in his labored message, to give us a useful 
 hint upon the subject. 
 
 " A high responsibility rests upon the executive, and to my old asso- 
 ciates I say, if this subject be not faitlifully attended to, and delicately, 
 as well as ably managed, we will, I fear, ere long witness the blaze' of 
 war, from one end of our southern frontier to the other. 
 
 " Before the year closes a Chief Magistrate is to be elected for four years, 
 succeeding the -ith March, 1841. Since the respective parties have agreed 
 
FAREWELL DINNER AT "WASHINGTON. 399 
 
 npon their candidates, I have amongst yon, said nothing as to "vvhom I 
 should prefer. 
 
 " Upon this subject I do not wish to bo non-committal. Neither of the 
 gentlemen named would have been my choice. I would greatly have 
 preferred the distinguished gentleman from, Kentucky, now near me. 
 (Jlr. Clay bowed — the whole company rose as by one impulse, and gavo 
 three deafening cheers at the mention of this great man.) 
 
 "Upon some subjects, he and I did not agree ; but upon the same points, 
 I disagree with the present Chief ]^agistrato also. Most of tlicse have 
 now ceased to be practical. Upon the great subjects now practical, I 
 coincide heartily with that gentleman, and disagree with the present 
 incumbent. Had he continued a candidate, I would have given him a 
 cordial support. His talents, integrity, and past services, in trying times, 
 at home and abroad, entitle him to it. His qualifications are of that 
 order which.would have made me feel my country safe, under his admin- 
 istration. He would have been as great, if not a greater man, than any 
 one called to his aid, and therefore could not have been misled by any 
 pretended friend, in or out of his cabinet. 
 
 " I once exerted myself in favor of an intimate acquaintance, in whose 
 honesty, decision, and knowledge of human character, I had unbounded 
 confidence. I believed a defective knowledge of what was in books, 
 could be supplied by calling in the aid of enliglitened and honest men, 
 and thus the well-being of the community secured. 
 
 "I was disappointed, and determined never again to make such an 
 experiment. 
 
 " General Harrison is by birth a Virginian; his father was a patriot, 
 and signer of the Declaration of Independence. At an early age he joined 
 the ai'my, and was distinguished under the gallant "Wayne. Preceding 
 and during the last war, we find him battling with the savage foe at 
 Tippecanoe; then with the combined British and Indians at Fort Meigs, 
 and finishing in a blaze of glory at the river Thames. 
 
 " These important services, no man can doubt. Real and documentary 
 testimony establish them beyond contradiction. 
 
 " In the civil department, his services have been still more useful. He 
 was governor, and superintendent of Indian affairs, north west of the 
 river Ohio, over a tract of country of immense extent. Look at your 
 Indian treaty book, and you will find him the able negotiator of many 
 Indian treaties. He was a delegate in Congress, a member of the House 
 of Representatives, and afterwards, a member of the Senate, and finally 
 a minister, to represent us in Spanish America. 
 
 " In each of those stations, he was useful and conspicuous. He probably 
 had control'of millions of dollars of public money, and not one dollar did 
 he squander or misuse. He gives the highest evidence of honest integ- 
 rity. Although frugal, he is poor — rwith nut more ready money than Lis 
 
400 MEMOIR OF HUGn LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 necessities require." [Mr. White here said, he had detained the company 
 long enough. Cries of " No ! no! goon! goon!"] 
 
 He continued — " What are the services of his opponent, in military or 
 civil life? He has been long a public man, and I wish I could find one 
 of his friends, who could point me to any one, great measure, beneficial 
 to his country, of which he was the author, /n, a7id of himself he is 
 entitled to less standing than almost any one of his party who is at aU 
 distinguished. 
 
 " Take from him the importance he has acquired, by glueing himself to 
 General Jackson, and there is nothing of public character left, which any 
 man need envy. He is a feeble glimmering rushlight, which when the 
 sconce of General Jackson, from which we have a bright reflection, is 
 withdrawn [roars of laughter] nothing is left, by whicli anything useful 
 can be discovered. 
 
 " When we are to choose men for oflBce, we commonly judge of what they 
 will do by what thay have done. As General Harrison has been found 
 honest and capable heretofore, I am willing to trust him again. As he 
 has often risied his life for the country, I am willing to 7'isk my vote for 
 him. [" So are we ! so are we, all .'"] 
 
 " With a heart fuU of gratitude for all past kindness, I have one last 
 favor to ask — that you join me in the sentiment with which I close : — 
 
 " Our country — May every whig stand prepared to be offered up, as a sacrifice for the wel- 
 fare of the republic, in preference to witnessing the sacrifice of the public interest, to the 
 aggrandizement of selfish individuals." 
 
 This is but a faint outline — an imperfect sketch — of the eloquent 
 remarks of Judge White. They were received with marked interest and 
 the most enthusiastic applause. 
 
 Having taken his seat, his friends and feUow statesmen thronged 
 around him once more, to shake the hand of him whom they loved to honor, 
 and whose public services, if denied him by his own State, demand the 
 gratitude of our common country. 
 
 Vice President Davis was then called upon, and Massachusetts was ably 
 represented. After a few brief and appropriate remarks, he said — • 
 " that the old Bay State, had gotten drunh on fifteen gallons, but was just 
 getting solery He alluded, in a glowing strain, to the mists that 
 shrouded Bunker Hill — but they were soon dispersed. It is true, that 
 clouds now overshadow Massachusetts, but they too would soon be dissi- 
 pated, and the whigs again would triumph. 
 
 He concluded by oflering the following sentiment : — 
 
 " 77ie great ir<3«i— She has unfurled her banner in the Great Whig Cause ; as «A« goes, so 
 goes the Country." 
 
 Loud and repeated calls were here made for Mr. Clay from every 
 
FAEEWELL DINinat AT WASHINGTON. 401 
 
 quarter of the room, and when he arose, he was greeted with thun- 
 ders of applause. 
 
 He spoke, with deep feeling, of the occasion which had called 
 them together, and delivered a most eloquent and appropriate eulo- 
 fifium on the character and virtues of the late venerable senator. He 
 denounced with an unsparing hand, the ruinous policy of the past 
 and present Administration, and briefly alluded to General Jacksoa 
 as " the distinguished person of the Hermitage." He referred to the 
 Harrisburg convention, and said that the result of the deliberations of 
 that enlightened body, met his most hearty and cordial approbation. 
 In conclusion, he gave a sentiment : — 
 
 " May Tennessee yet learn to honor and do justice to her distinguished son, whom by her 
 
 mistaken course, she lias compelled to quit the councils of his country." 
 
 ' Mr. Clay's remarks, though few, were received with great and 
 universal acclamation. They were worthy of him and of the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 Mr. Preston was here called upon, and in addition to his intro- 
 ductory speech, made some eloquent remarks, which I regret for the 
 present I am unable to furnish you. 
 
 Vice-president Corwin of Ohio, being called on by the president, 
 rose and said : — 
 
 He responded to the call with feelings of mingled triumph and regret. 
 He had listened to the noble and patriotic sentiments which an honored 
 guest (Judge White) expressed with no common interest. Mr. President, 
 said Mr. Corwin, a great ethical writer of integrity, has said that the noblest 
 sight ever exhibited to the eye of man, is that of a great patriot strug- 
 gling and falling with the falling institutions of his country. Wo see . 
 before us, one of the oldest, most beloved, and faithful of the American 
 patriots of our times, nobly sacrificing station, and power, and tlie means 
 of serving his country in its public councils, to his own stern regard for 
 a great principle. We see him driven by his old associates, either to for- 
 sake his and their former principles, or himself to surrender the station 
 he holds in the public service. He has not hesitated, sir ! if he had, he 
 would have proved false to his own history, false to his country, false to 
 himself. It is melancholy to see selfish faction, combined with execu- 
 tive power thus even temporarily successful, in their most unhallowed 
 purposes. Still, as I have said, sentiments of triumph are inspired, 
 when we behold such martyrs falling in our cause. If human nature is 
 not changed, if past history has not ceased to instruct in the future, then 
 such a cause as ours, so sanctified by principle, so consecrated by sacri- 
 
 26 
 
40?' MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 fice, so illustrated by the mei> who sustain and adhere to it, mmt triumph. 
 Sir, I only rose to express in a few words, my hearty and sincere 
 concurrence in the sentiments of high regard for our venerable friend 
 (whose retirement has called us together), which have echoed from every 
 quarter of this crowded hall. A gentleman from Massachusetts has to- 
 night alluded to the banner of our party lately unfurled in the " great 
 West." As a citize^ of the "West, I cannot but feel some pride that the 
 standard-bearer of that host of battle for constitutional hberty, is taken from 
 amongst the citizens of my own State, and let me assure you, Mr. President, 
 let partisans from any quarter say what they will, throughout the whole 
 extent of tliat great "West, victory, proud and complete victory awaits 
 that flag. Mr. President, we have met here to do honor and homage to 
 one who has nobly sacrificed self to duty, who has turned away from old 
 friends and clung only to his country. Sir, I see before me others, who 
 in a sphere less conspicuous, but with a courage not less unyielding and 
 steady, have fought the same battle, and conquered. Men, who, in oppo- 
 sition to great names, and what was thought overwhelming influence, 
 did not hesitate, when their country called, to defy names however great, 
 influence however powerful, and old associates however strong. Sir, 
 when I look around this hall, and over this country, I see in out caiuse, 
 and those who sustain it, the sure indications of future and speedy tri- 
 umph. I remember, sir, when a boy, to have listened with strong inter- 
 est to the narrative of one who had been present at the battle of the 
 Eapids, where Gen. "Wayne finally vanquished the Indian forces in the 
 North-"West, and gave peace to a widely extended frontier settlement. 
 The old soldier said, that whilst the battle was raging hottest, many in 
 that wing of the army where he was, were beginning to falter and 
 think of a retreat. Just at the moment when this feeling began to be 
 prevalent, a young lieutenant, who was known as the confidential aid of 
 old Mad Anthony, galloped up to the line and called to the men, with 
 a voice that was heard above the roar of battle: " Onward! my brave 
 fellows! the enemy is flying, one fire more and the day is ours." Sir, that 
 young lieutenant was "William Henry Harrison, now, the bearer of that 
 glorious banner under which we wage war against usurping power, 
 crafty peculation and blind hostility to the good old maxims of our 
 fathers. There are our foes — there are our country's foes ; let me exhort 
 you iu the language of the young lieutenant — " One fire more, and the 
 day is ours !" 
 
 Mr. Evans ofMaine being called upon, said : — 
 
 He appeared there in a representative capacity, and although he was 
 not generally much in favor of the doctrine of instructions, especially 
 practised, as it has been, to drive from the service of the country, at a 
 critical period of its affairs, one of the most venerable, distinguished, and 
 
FAREWIXL DINNER AT WASIITNGT'ON. 403 
 
 useful of its public scrvauts, yet lie acknowledged and would obey the 
 instructions, which he (Ml-. E.) had received on the present occasion. 
 
 It happened, Mr. Evans said, that altliough he was anxious to unite in 
 this testimonial to the worth of the honored guest of this evening, ho, 
 accidentally, had expressed his determination in the hearing of a fair 
 friend, just betbre coming to the hall, not to obtrude any remarks or 
 sentiments of his own; upon the attention of the meeting. To this,the 
 lady to whom he referred made decided objection, and finally laid com- 
 mands oft him, in her behalf, to express the sentiments, which according 
 with his own she entertained for the public character and private worth 
 ©f the distinguished guest, in whose honor, we are assembled. The 
 friend in Avhose behalf he spoke, was a lady of great classical and his- 
 torical attainments, of varied learning, of accurate taste, and just percep- 
 tion of the api)ositeness of comparisons — and her first thought was to 
 propose a sentiment, alluding to the ostracism of the Just, from the city 
 he had served so long, and faithfully. Yet a moment's reflection sug- 
 gested the thought, that the allusion was so obvious, that doubtless it 
 would occur to many others also, and would be frequently made during 
 the evening. We, tlierefore, acknowledging the great propriety of the 
 comparison, concluded to abanilon the Idea of designating ^e honorable 
 senator as the Aristides of the Republic. The event has proved the 
 accuracy of her observations, for the allusion has been made more than 
 once already, and all of us perceive its propriety. 
 
 It then occurred to her, to apply to our venerable friend, the cognomen 
 of tJie Cincinnatus of our Commonwealth. To which I objected, as we 
 had already appropriated the title to anotlier, whom, by the blessing of 
 God, the people of these United States designed to call, not many months 
 hence, from his farm, on the banks of tlie beautiful Ohio, to the executive 
 mansion, and the executive duties, here. My objection was deemed 
 valid. 
 
 My learned friend then suggested that in the ingratitude of the Eepub- 
 lic toward this eminent servant, he .bore resemblance to Belisarius, among 
 the last and most distinguished sons of the Ancient Mistress of the world ; 
 but we could not bring ourselves to confess, even so remotely, tliat our 
 country was yet in its last days of degeneracy and corruption. We 
 looked forward to the day, now dawning, when. the pristine virtues of 
 our country would agahi be restored and illustrated — a day which our 
 aged guest, we trust, will be spared to see and rejoice in. 
 
 Coming dcnvn to later days, and regarding the purity of the character 
 of our friend — knowing that he was Without fear, and witliout reproach, 
 and if he is now to fall, he falls with his face to the enemy, it was sug- 
 gested to me, that allusion might very appropriately be made to tbe 
 celebrated chevalier of the sixteenth century, the Chevalier Bayard, and 
 this was the sentiment I was instructed to offer. Anticipating, however, 
 
404 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 from the manifest fitness of the allusion, that some other gentleman 
 might propose it, before I should have the opportunity, as has in fact 
 happened, and to guard against being unprepared, in such an event, 
 various other references were suggested. In recalling to mind the history 
 of eminent patriots, statesmen, and philanthropists of other days, "wherever 
 worth, public and private, integrity without blemish, patriotism pure 
 and unalloyed, had appeared among men, or many points of resemblance 
 existed, to which reference could be made, so much of all that was glori- 
 ous and valuable, and praiseworthy in human character, and conduct, 
 had been displayed and developed in the hfe of the eminent statesman 
 who is about to leave us, that the great difficulty was from which to 
 select. 
 
 TVe thought of Pericles, of Themistocles and Oato, and of the wise and 
 good of later days, but circimistances in the life of each, rendered the 
 allusion not, in every particular, literally correct, without some alteration. 
 
 Finally, not to be tedious, I was reminded of the expression of the mother 
 of Brasidas, over his dead body, which had been brought home from the 
 battle, where he so gloriously fell. It was the answer of a Spartan 
 mother. Tennessee may, in some respects, in the coming contest be our 
 Sparta, and although I see around me distinguished men of that State, 
 and others I know to be in the field not now here, they will excuse me, I 
 know, in the sentiment I was charged to offer, for altering somewhat the 
 expression of the mother of the Spartan hero. 
 
 Our Honored Guest. — " Sparta hath ne'er a worthier son, than he." 
 
 A sentiment from General Thompson, of South Carolina, elicited 
 the following remarks from Mr. Habersham : 
 
 Mr. President : The honor which has just been conferred upon me, 
 was so wholly unexpected, that I feel myself entirely unprepared to make 
 a suitable acknowledgment. I feel, however, that that compliment was 
 rather extended for the State which I here in part represent, than for 
 any merit of my own. It is a fact which may have been forgotten by 
 many, perhaps by most of the gentlemen at this table, that in the great 
 contest for the Presidency some three or four years ago, Georgia was 
 almost the only State which cast her vote in favor of the venerable and 
 distinguished man whom we have met here to honor. Sir, I took part 
 in that contest in behalf of that venerable man, and battled in the ranks 
 of his friends. Sir, as I have said, Georgia stood almost alone in her vote 
 ,for that individual. She stood so, in support of that great principle 
 which she has so often carried out into practice — the great principle of 
 millification. I mean nullification in its only true and legitimate mean- 
 ing : the principle of sustaining the Constitution and the law, as passed 
 
FAREWELL DINNER AT -WASHINGTON. 405 
 
 in pursuance thereof. Yes, sir, she stood in his support to maintain that 
 principle, as far as circumstances would permit. 'Tis true, that this 
 venerable guest had opposed that principle as acted out in South Caro- 
 lina; but of the candidates then presented to our choice, he was in our 
 oi)inion, the man most likely to stem the torrent of corruption, to main- 
 tain the rights of tlie South, and the integrity of our beloved Constitution. 
 He had 7iot promised " to follow in the footsteps^ 
 
 Sir, on this principle I and my friends had dared also to stand forth in 
 maintenance of Carolina, in her great struggle for Constitutional riglits — 
 in tliat struggle, we had fallen into a minority in our own State, and the 
 victory obtained in behalf of Judge White,-was the first which graced our 
 banner, after a long series of defeats. 
 
 In maintenance of that principle Mr. President, once so dear to your 
 own beloved State of South Carolina, I was sent here— and to maintain 
 it, I have come here. Yes, sir, I and my colleagues have maintained it 
 in an assembly here, more noisy and boisterous than this, composed of 
 the representatives of twenty-five States and the sixth of a State. Wo 
 maintained New Jersey, by our vote, in her struggle for those Constitu- 
 tional rights of which she has been robbed. We maintained the prin- 
 ciple in our vote in behalf of the Constitution and the laws passed in 
 pursuance thereof. 
 
 I little dreamed, sir, when I came here, of the scenes I was about to 
 ■witness. In the' otie hall I saw, as it seems to me, a majority of the 
 representatives of the people, trampling under foot the sacred compact of 
 our Union. From that hall, I passed into the other, at the further end 
 of the Capitol, and there again, I witnessed a scene, which was enougli to 
 make the heart of any man bleed, who respected the sacred institutions 
 of his country. I know not that I have ever had my feelings so deeply 
 excited, as in witnessing tlie retirement t)f our venerable guest from his 
 seat in the Senate, which he had so long honored. Sir, he was at that 
 moment obeying the mandate of his legislature; and, however I may 
 diflfer with him on the right of a legislature to instruct, I could but com- 
 mend him, for he was acting honestly, and carrying out the principle 
 which he himself had always maintained. Sir, in my humble oi)inion, 
 this doctrine of instruction, as now insisted upon and practised, is 
 destructive of that permanence and independence which the Constitution 
 intended to secure in the Senate ; I maintain the right of the people to 
 instruct — but it belongs solely to the people in their sovereign capacity 
 when met in Convention. The legislature is the mere agent provided by 
 the Constitution to elect a senator — he is elected for six years — the legis- 
 lature for but one. He represents the sovereignty of the State in the 
 Councils of the Union — they, the s'bvereignty of the people, to make 
 laws for the States ; they are both agents for the people of the State — 
 neither tlje Constitution nor the people have given to the legislature the 
 
406 MEMOm OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 right to dictate to, or to control the senator. That right the people have 
 res&rred to themselves^ to he exercised in Convention ; and the attempt to 
 instruct a senator is an 'Usurp)ation hj the legislature, of the right 
 resented to the peoiile. The senator is not the agent of the legislature. 
 The legislature is but itself an agent of the people for certain purposes 
 specified in the Constitution of the State. The senator is the agent., and 
 re2)resentative of the sovereignty of the State in tlie Senate of the Union, 
 and is only hound by instruction from that sorereign body, the people 
 of the State, to whom alone the right belongs, and by whom alone it can 
 be exercised. 
 
 But, sif, that venerable man, that honest man, felt himself bound to 
 obey the instructions, and there, in that Senate Hall, I saw him standing — 
 his grey locks streaming over his shoulders — a tear, not of weakness, but 
 of deep and manly feeling, trembling in his eye — there he stood, while in 
 tremulous tones of the deepest feeling, he took, perhaps, a last leave of 
 the associates with whom he had so long acted. It almost seemed to me 
 as if that tear was about to fall upon the very ashes of the Constitution. 
 It seemed to me as if the last pillar of the Constitution was about to 
 crumble into dust — I almost imagined, that I saw " the hand-writing on 
 the wall." But God in his mercy has given us time for repentance^ — He 
 still spares us from the wrath of his mighty indignation. 
 
 Tlius, at both ends of the Capitol, in that self-same hour did I witness 
 what seemed to me, the utter destruction of the great compact of our 
 Union. I have done — I did not expect to make a speech at this board, 
 and was utterly unprepared to do so, I do trust that our honored guest 
 may live long enough to allow his State to do him justice by sending him 
 back to his old seat in the Senate. I give you, sir. 
 
 The Hon. John Bell of Tennessee. — The man who had the courage to grapple with 'the lion 
 
 In his den. ' 
 
 r 
 
 Mr. Biddle, on a call from the president, alluded to the terms in 
 which that honorable gentleman had himself deprecated, and for some 
 time eluded, a similar call on the plea of shrinking from an attempt 
 to follow the eloquent addresses that had been heard. 
 
 It looked a little like mockery, after a noble addition to the formidable 
 list, to turn round and make the present requisition. Yet he (Mr. E.^ 
 was willing to believe that the feeblest echo of the prevailing sentiment 
 miglit prove acceptable to the enthusiasm around us. He must, in can- 
 dor, admit that he had no other sentiment about him — absolutely none — 
 but the absorbing one of tlie evenlng-^profound respect, and he might 
 add affection — for him whpra they had assembled to honor. 
 
 It is not known, perhaps, said Mr B., even to that gentleman himself, 
 
FAREWELL DINNER AT WASniNGTON. 407 
 
 that he and I, sixteen years ago, were fellow-laborers in the same politi- 
 cal struggle, Yes, sir, in 182-t, I was amongst th,e ardent supporters in 
 Peiiusylvania, of Gen. Jackson for the Presidency. "We were not led 
 away merely by military renown. "Who has forgotten the lofty and 
 noble principles of action announced in the memorable letters to Mr. 
 Monroe ? These letters were surreptitiously obtained and published to 
 do him prejudice, yet, what-a trumpfet-note of hope to .the young and the 
 sanguine ! — "What blessings, in the perspective, upon our beloved country, 
 when party, with all its vileness, its profligacy, its fraud, its idolatry, its 
 proscri[)tion, was to be trampled into dust with an iron heel ! , 
 
 It is not a little curious to look back and recollect who, at that period, 
 were the most bitter and vindictive in their opposition to Gen. Japk- 
 son. Whose ridicule was most pungent at his pretensions ? Who loudest 
 to declare that his election would be a curse to the country? Sir, they 
 were the mere party hacks, the .professional politicians, who found mat- 
 ter foi' alarm in the very fl-eshness, purity, and ingenuousness which 
 seemed to breath in every line of those letters. lie was not a safe Presi- 
 dent for them. Can it be denied that the men who thus reasoned, and 
 with whom, in Pennsylvania, we had to struggle, were afterwards rallied 
 to the contest by Mr. Ritchie in the South, Mr. Van Buren in the North, 
 and Mr. Benton in the West? His supposed virtues were a terror, and it 
 was not then ascertained that his foibles and his passions could be turue^l 
 to profitable account ! 
 
 Sir, I well remember Iiow often, in those days, the name of Hugh L. 
 White was upon our lips. When Gen. Jackson was denounced as a man 
 of violence and outrage, we pointed to those who were Jcnown to be his 
 closest friends, his most confidential advisers, and whose characters 
 aflTorded a guarantee for the manner in which public aifairs would b« 
 conducted. Need I say that foremost on the list was Judge White ? All 
 bad heard of, and revered, a name identified with profound wisdom, lofty 
 honor, and ai-dent patriotism. The severe and fixed simplicity of his Hft 
 was believed to furnish the best security tliat human frailty affordi. 
 against mutability amidst the temptations and blandishments of prosperity 
 As a commissioner under the Florida Treaty, his reputation had, of late, 
 been more widely difi:'used, for indefatigable industry, unerring judgment, 
 and spotless integrity. It was known too, that his high spirit (of which 
 Bome flashes had been seen to-night) would for ever prevent his becoming 
 a tool of power, or being approached by grovelling and sinister influences. 
 
 At the end of sixteen years, I am in the presence of this man ! And 
 how crowded with great events are these memorable years ! Who are 
 how to be found in the pride of power and place, under the protection of tL., 
 name of Jackson ? The very spoilers who trembled at the lofty aspira- 
 tion of his outset; but who found, at length, with the cunning of thel. 
 tribe, that by ministering to his passions he could be made to minister tf 
 their interest and advancement. And where is our guest ? The same as 
 
408 MEMOm OF HUGH LAIVSON WHITE. 
 
 in 1824, unchanged, nnchangeable ; faithful amongst the perfidious ; pure 
 amongst the sordid ; the victim of his virtues, with the crown of martyr- 
 dom upon his brow ! 
 
 Sir, it cannot be that such triumphs over integrity and moral worth 
 are to be perpetual. In those days of the revolution, to which our vene- 
 rable friend has so touchingly alluded, the prospect often seemed darker 
 and more appalling. At Brandy wine, our fathers had to give way before 
 Howe — backed as he was by the corps of Hessians, under Kniphausen, 
 and Count Donop. The Capital was taken. And may we not take it 
 as an omen, that he who in after years became the guest of the nation, 
 was on that occasion trodden upon under foot by mercenaries, and des- 
 perately wounded, yet lived to take part in the great triumph at 
 Yorktown ? 
 
 Mr. President, it is not for us, as I very well know, to read lessons to 
 the gallant State of Tennessee. Her spirit would take fire. She will 
 permit no interference with her domestic differences. It is for her and 
 her 07ily to say, how she will regard this attempt to stigmatize her 
 venerable statesman in the high presence of this whole Union. Denunci- 
 ation from us would but wound the ear of our honored guest, who kindles 
 at even a sarcasm against Tennessee, from the lips of strangers. He has 
 told us that he goes home with no rankling in his bosom, but to seek 
 repose and a final resting-place : — 
 
 " An old man broken with the storms of State, 
 Is come to lay his weary bones among ye ; 
 Give him a little earth for charity." 
 
 Yes, he asks but for a little earth — yet it must, in charity, be the earth 
 of Tennessee. He would fain take his last sleep amidst those hills and 
 streams and valleys that he loves so dearly ; where each inanimate object 
 may often times cast back the glow of other days upon the chillness of 
 age ; and where stands, in sacred privacy, the domestic altar at which 
 his heart has ministered from youth upwards ! No, sir, no ! this is not 
 the place for invective. Yet may we not hope that a better and a kinder 
 feeling will spring up ? Can it be that this savage cry of exultation 
 over prostrate integrity, is to be for ever heard ? Can it be that, while 
 the hearts, even of strangers, weep at this spectacle of degradation, it 
 shall be gloated over in triumph by those who are the friends, the neigh- 
 bors, the daily companions of the victim ? I will not believe it. 
 
 Our excellent guest is about to leave us. Let him on his return, 
 appeal, I will not say from Philip drunk to Philip sober, but from the 
 Jacksonism of 1839, to the Jacksonism of 1824 ! Can we doubt that on 
 such an appeal, justice, good faith, consistency, fidelity to principle, may 
 be triuinj)hantly rallied ? Sir, I will not despair ; and, in view of such a 
 resurrection (if you will pardon the term) I propose to you 
 
 " The Future State of Tennessee." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 JOURNEY HOME. 
 
 Soon after the scene just described, Judge White set out for home, 
 
 At ahiiost every step, he was greeted with spontaneous and hearty 
 
 applause. At Lexington, Va., a pubHc dinner was tendered him, the 
 
 acceptance of which, however, in consequence of the uncertain state 
 
 of his health and the long journey before him, he was compelled to 
 
 decline. 
 
 As he drew near his own State, he met a deputation of citizens 
 
 from Sullivan County, inviting him to attena a public dinner, at 
 Kingsport. Similar manifestations of respect were shown him at 
 every town from the Tennessee line to Knoxville. He invariably 
 declined these invitations ; but, when he reached these several places, 
 he was forced to accept their hospitalities, everything being in readi- 
 ness for his entertainment. These manifestations bore a superabound- 
 ing testimony to the high appreciation that the people placed upon 
 his eminent public virtues and private worth. This was peculiarly grate- 
 ful to the heart of him against whom the storms of political injustice 
 had beaten with such violence, because it was an atiectionate emana- 
 tion from the hearts of the dwellers around his own fireside ; of those 
 who knew him best, and best understood the motives that governed 
 all his actions. These testimonials were especially grateful from 
 their entire disinterestedness and sincerity. For the people of his 
 own State well knew, that the days of his political power had passed 
 away, and that he would never again have public fjivors to bestow. 
 
 The malevolence of his enemies, however, kept pace with the affec- 
 tions of his friends, and this spirit determined them not to permit 
 him to pass on his way without insult. At Rogersville, a number of 
 the leaders of the party hung over the principal street by which the 
 town was entered, a cloth upon which was written in lai-ge letters, 
 " VanBuren and Polk,"declaring, that Judge White should, by pass- 
 ing under this, acknowledge himself the victim of the I'residont of 
 
 409 
 
410 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 the United States, and of tbe Governor of Tennessee. Several of the 
 most respectable citizens of Rogei'sville requested, as a special favor, 
 that this inscription should be removed. Instead of granting this 
 request, a band of ruffians rallied around it, to defend it and prevent 
 its removal by force when Judge White should reach the place. 
 Upon being informed of the affair, with his usual disinterested con- 
 sideration for his friends he requested to be conducted on his way 
 by a more unfrequented route, declaring that " no one, capable of 
 such disgraceful conduct, had the power to insult him." His ene- 
 mies were thus denied the gratification of accomplishing their malig- 
 nant purpose. Escorts of citizens accompanied him along the whole 
 route from the Virginia line ; and even in the country, and by the 
 road-side, as he pursued his way, his fellow-citizens greeted him with 
 smiles of affection, approbation and hearty acclamations of applause. 
 A gentleman of Rogersville, Mr. Wales, voluntarily preceded Jqdge 
 White, having under his charge a piece of artillery, whose frequent 
 discharges sent- the reverberating echo through hill and valley, 
 announcing the coming of " the man who esteemed honor dearer than 
 office." The banner that floated above the gun, was surmounted by 
 a wreath of evergreen presented by the ladies of Rogersville, and 
 bore this inscription : 
 
 HUGH L. WHITE, 
 
 WORTHY OF ALL HONOB 
 
 BOTH AS 
 A MAN AND A STATESMAN. 
 
 He now entered Knoxville, "the place where he had been reared 
 from his boyhood, where he was greeted by the firing of cannon, the 
 ringing of bells, and the earnest gaze of old and young, who thronged 
 the streets to look upon him. Accompanied by a large procession of 
 persons on horseback, with his aged head uncovered, he passed on to 
 his own residence, through a multitude, who testified in various ways 
 the high estimation in which they held him. The following extract 
 from the " Richmond Whig," written by a distinguished Virginian, is 
 evidence of the high reputation he sustained abroad, as well as at 
 home : — 
 
 The name of this gentleman demands a passing note. If there be 
 truth in the adage, '' nemo felix ante mortem,'" then is he more to be 
 
EETDRN HOME. 411 
 
 envied than any man on earth. Ilis political life was more than half liia 
 existence, and he lias rendered it up and rendered up an account of his 
 deeds, and received while he yet lives, that judgment in which even his 
 enemies concur, and which, therefore, posterity must ratify, lie lives 
 to read his own epitaph, and its languai^e is that of praise. He lives 
 to hear the voice of lamentation at his untimely fall, arising from all the 
 land. He hears himself mourned as a father by his children. He widks 
 among us as though his disembodied spirit had retiirned to earth, and we 
 turn aside with awe, and look upon him as a thing not of this world. 
 Men gaze upon him, as he passes, and the question " Which is he ?" is 
 asked, not because he is a distributor of honors and emoluments, but 
 because he has secured to himself an honor which the world gave not, 
 and cannot take away — an honor greater than any the world can give. 
 We have God's word for it, that his gray hairs, worn, as they have been, 
 in the " paths of righteousness," are indeed " a crown of glory," May 
 God's peace rest and abide with him. 
 
 An appropriate requiem is found in the following lines addressed by 
 an English poet to an old oak, uprooted by a tempest: — 
 
 " Thou who unmoved hast heard the tempest chidCi 
 
 Full many a winter round thy craggy bed ; 
 
 And, iike an earth-born giant hast out-spread 
 Thy hundred arms, and heaven's own bolt defied ; 
 Now liest along thy native mountain's side 
 
 Uptorn ; yet deem not that I come to shed 
 
 The idle drops qf pity o'er thy head, 
 Or basely to insult thy blasted pride. 
 No ! still 'tis thine, tho' fallen, imperial oak. 
 
 To teach this lesson to the wise and brave : 
 That 'tis far better, overthrown and broke. 
 
 In freedom's cause to sink into the grave, 
 Than, in submission to a tyrant's yoke. 
 
 Like the vale reed, to bow and be a slave." 
 
 lie came back among his old friends worn down by severe illness ; 
 having performed a trying journey of thirty-three days, in a state of 
 su('h extreme debility, that his friends watched each day, with trem- 
 blino-, lest it should be his last. Yet, throughout all this suflering, 
 the public welfare continued to excite his deepest interest. The sub- 
 joined letter, one of the last which he ever wrote, shows that his 
 country, her institutions, and her prosperity, inspired him with tha 
 profoundest solicitude. 
 
 My Friend : — If towards any man I ought to use that term, I know 
 of no one to whom I can apply it with a deeper conviction it is merited. 
 You have stuck to me through good and evil report, without ever falter- 
 ing or making a false or foolish move. Tho object of this letter is to 
 
412 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 give you all now in an old man's power, and one who feels on the verge 
 of the grave — my most heartfelt thanks for your kind, able, and efficient 
 care of me and my reputation, I am now through. On the 13th Jan. 
 my political life was terminated by my enemies. I have no faith in 
 the political resurrection of old men ; but think not I am either mortified 
 or depressed. Although I may be placed Tiors de combat^ I hope that 
 some seeds have dropped even from the last limbs of my decayed trunk, 
 which, if watered and cherished, may yet bring forth fruit for the good 
 of the country. 
 
 Late letters from some of my colleagues in Washington, assure me that 
 from every quarter the news in relation to General Harrison's prospects 
 are most encouraging. 
 
 I like your electoral ticket with the exception of my name. That I 
 think unfortunate, considering the state of my health; but time will 
 show what ought to be done, and my rule is never to act in haste. 
 
 "Would to God I could be with you a day or two. I write now to 
 show that there is yet something of me left, although you will see there 
 is very little of either mental or physical strength. 
 
 Sincerely 
 
 Hugh L, While, 
 A. A. Hall, Esq. 
 
 His last prayer was answered. His country was redeemed from 
 the reproach which had been thrown upon it. Although the grave 
 closed over him, before he was permitted to witness that redemption, 
 yet the foul stain, which had been cast upon his own fair fame, was 
 wiped out by an overwhelming majority in the Presidential contest 
 of 1840, a result to which the influence of his speeches and actions 
 largely contributed. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 HIS FAMILY HIS AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 Judge "White's social and domestic affections were remarkably 
 strong; and so far as his political career withdrew him from the 
 sphere of theii: attractions, it was far from delightful to him. He 
 loved home as such, and seldom left it except when business rendered 
 it necessary. 
 
 In 1798 he married Miss Elizabeth Moore, daughter of his early 
 friend and instructor, the Rev. Samuel Carrick. She was born in 
 Rockbridge county, Virginia, and possessed all the warmth, frankness, 
 and generosity characteristic of the people of her native State. Her 
 father was one of the early settlers of Tennessee. He was the first 
 Presbyterian minister who ever had charo-e of a confjreo-ation in 
 Knoxville, and was afterwards the founder and first President of 
 Blount College 
 
 His daughter was but just verging upon her fifteenth year at th« 
 period of her marriage ; and although her personal beauty was the 
 first cause of attraction, yet, even at that early age, her capacity for 
 fulfilling the important responsibilities of the position then assumed 
 soon developed itself and proved to be of no ordinary grade. She 
 was early distinguished for her many domestic virtues. As a wife 
 she was preeminently faithful to all the interests of her husband, kindly 
 caring for his personal comfort, and in his absence zealously watching 
 over his pecuniary interests. Nor was her usefulness confined within 
 the limits of her household. 
 
 She seldom lost an opportunity of alleviating the distresses of thft 
 miserable, and destitute. 
 
 It was the will of Providence to continue this conjugal relation, 
 which was productive of so much domestic happiness, for thirty-three 
 years. They soon found themselves surrounded by a large family of 
 children. Four sons and eight daughters cemented this union — 
 
 413 
 
414 MEMOIK OF HUGH LAWSOISr WHITE. 
 
 of whom two died in infancy, and the remainder reached years of 
 maturity. 
 
 For twenty-five years they lived in the full enjoyment of all the 
 social pleasures the little world of home could bestow ; and the happi- 
 ness they themselves enjoyed was imparted to others. " Their house 
 •was the abode of every delight and virtue." * The fond attachment 
 of the husband was manifested by the regard and acts of kindness 
 which he showed to all who were objects of interest to her, and on 
 her part was reciprocated by cheerfully gratifying the wants and pro- 
 moting the welfare of all his friends. 
 
 As parents they labored assiduously to " impress the minds and 
 imbue the hearts '' of their children with all those graces which 
 would alone fit them for time and eternity. He was peculiarly gifted 
 in awakening and encouraging their most confiding affection, and at 
 the same time commanding their most profound respect, whil6 she as 
 a mother, was eminently qualified to keep alive and growing these 
 important principles ; and the result was, they were happy in seeing 
 these objects of their warmest solicitude, grow up around them models 
 of gentleness and truth. 
 
 But the scene changed. Death entered their quiet and happy 
 home, in that insidious but most fatal of all forms of disease, pul- 
 monary consumption ; and the first born was the first victim of the 
 relentless tyrant. Carrick, their eldest son, died in 1826, in the 27th 
 year of his age — when, says a cotemporary, " the attainments of his 
 mind were but just developing themselves, and yet already in his pro- 
 fession of the law, his brethren of the bar, and the public were ready 
 justly as well as generously, to award him the praise of almost unri- 
 valled acuteness and promise, and his clients the most unbounded 
 confidence in the strictness of his integrity and the fidelity of his 
 course." 
 
 The following letter to his friend James Park, Esq., the father-in- 
 law of his son, shows that notwithstanding the sad news was not 
 altogether unlocked fqr, yet his sensibilities were completely over- 
 \^helmed when it reached him. 
 
 Washington, Jan. 81s<, 1S26. 
 My Dear Sir. — Be pleased to deliver the inclosed letter to Nancy. 
 Letters from James and Doctor AVatkins liad taujrlit ine expect the sad 
 news, which this morning's mail brought me. That my beloved sou is 
 
 * Dr. Foot's funeral sermon upon Judge White. 
 
DOMESTIC AFFLICnONS. ' 415 
 
 no more. Yes, that Carrick is gone, gone forever, and that without the 
 farewell of his father. Dreadful, heart-rendiug, and life embittering 
 thoiiglit ! 
 
 I am iiicaj)able of offering any advice about anything. I should be 
 glad to hear from you, who are cai)able^of deriving consolation in the 
 midst of all misfortunes, from sources of which I liave no right to draw. 
 
 Most sincerely yours, 
 
 IIu. L. WniTE. 
 James Park, Esq. 
 
 From this time his domestic life became a scene of constant trial. 
 The destroyer severed in rapid succession the ties of affection. From 
 time to time he was doomed to drink still more dee]»ly of the bitter 
 cup of sorrow, which only a parent's heart can know as he sees the 
 objects of his fondest hopes, in the fidl prime of manhood, and in the 
 full blush of womanhood sinking one after another into premature 
 decay. Early in the year 1827, another daughter and daughter-in- 
 law passed away. 
 
 In anticipation of the calamity, he again writes to the same friend. 
 
 Senate Chauber, Feb. 6th, 182T. 
 
 Dear Sir:— Your favor of the 22d January is this moment received. 
 Your previous letter loitered long by the way. I answered it immediately 
 after it was received. 
 
 I have for some time been desirous to write to Nancy and to Lucinda ; 
 but cannot bring myself to write to either. 
 
 For some weeks I have been under the belief that even the painful 
 satisfaction of ever seeing either of them in this life is not to be afforded 
 
 me. 
 
 I already feel as though they were lost to me; the aflBiction you realise 
 I know : But " shall we receive good and not be prepared to submit to 
 affliction from the hand of the Lord?" 
 I have no news. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Hit. L, "WniTE. 
 James Park, Esq. 
 
 On this occasion his feai-s were not fully realised. He arrived at 
 home on the morning of the 20th March, and his daughter Lucinda, 
 of whom he writes in this letter, died on the evening of tJie same day. 
 So that she xlied not, without giving a parting look of recognition to 
 the father she loved so tenderly. 
 
 The year 1S28 was more fatal to him than any which liatl preceded it. 
 
416 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 In this year liis second daughter, Mrs. Mary L. Swan, who had been 
 married but eight months, died. The following July his eldest daughter, 
 Betsey, relict of Newton Scott, died. " She was early taught by the 
 death of her husband, but a few months after their marriage, the entire 
 instability of all earthly expectations, and she had the happiness to 
 profit in ihe school of adversity." In November of the same year he 
 ■was deprived of his second son, James, under circumstances, if possible 
 still more distressing. Soon after obtaining a license to practise law, 
 he removed to Huntsville, Ala., and commenced his professional 
 career. He had remained there but a few years, when his course was 
 arrested by disease. He then returned with his family to Knoxville, in 
 the hope of recovering his health. At the approach of winter he 
 sought a milder climate, presuming it would be more congenial to 
 his constitution, and assist in the restoration of his strength ; but he 
 was unable to proceed farther than Tuscaloosa, where he died, 
 without the aflectionate care of wife, mother or sister, to watch over 
 his helpless hours of sickness, to soothe his pains, or minister to his 
 infirmities. 
 
 Says a friend, in writing of this son : " In his profession, though young, 
 he was conspicuous ; though his career was short, it was brilliant. He 
 was argumentative and eloquent, ingenious and profound, and had a, 
 fair prospect of obtaining a preeminent reputation." 
 
 Although Judge White's heart was filled with profound sorrow at 
 these untimely losses, yet there was no murmuring or repining. His 
 entire submission to the Divine will in these bereavements will be 
 seen from the following letter to Dr. Coffin, President of East Tennessee 
 College, and former preceptor of his sons. 
 
 Washington, Dec. 6th 1828. 
 Deae Sie. — By the mail which arrived this morning I received a letter 
 from Tuscaloosa, which gave the sorrowful information that James is no 
 more. Believing, when I parted with him, that we would never meet 
 again in time, I liad been striving to reconcile my mind to such a separa- 
 tion, and Loped tliat I could hear of his death with composure, but while 
 there was Mfe there was also hope, and I foiuid the news had an effect I 
 did not anticipate. In and by my children I expected to obtain my dis- 
 tinction while I lived, and by the same medium to be known to posterity. 
 My leading object was to deserve the reputation of integrity, to acquire 
 funds equal to a comfortable sui)port, and to the giving them a good edu- 
 cation. Providence favored tliese endeavors to every desirable extent. 
 ■\Vitli my"elder children, good dispositions and an aptitude to learn, it 
 
LETTER TO DR. COFFIN. 417 
 
 appeared to me, were found united. Mj- assiduous attention was given 
 to inculcate, in the first place, the value of good morals, and in the next, 
 to create a strong desire for the improvement of their minds. I was 
 flattered in the belief that I had succeeded, and they had become my most 
 intimate companions. I was proud of them, they were just as I had 
 desired they should be. Now, where are they ? Of twelve, only five 
 younger ones remain. Seven have had their state of probation, and have 
 passed to their everlasting home. Good God ! I am forced to realize the 
 solemn thought, that they and I never can see each other in time. This 
 is a heart-rending reflection, which I can hardly summon up fortitude 
 enough to bear. So it is, and I must submit to it. 
 
 In the midst of all these bereavements I have had, and continue to havei, 
 some sources of high consolation. Of the five who were grown, no one 
 was addicted to any one vice, so far as I know. If not entitled to the 
 appellation of pious, each of them was at least moral. It pleased God so 
 far to restrain them, that each of them lived esteemed, and died without 
 having done any act disgraceful, in the estimation of society. They were 
 so far favored that each died of a slow, and lingering complaint, seldom, 
 if ever deprived of the full exercise of their reason. They were thus 
 enabled solemnly to review their short lives, to repent of all departures 
 from the Will of their Maker, and to pray for forgiveness to that Being 
 who alone has the power to pardon. 
 
 "While spared to me I had all the satisfaction with them, and believe 
 they had -with me, which can reasonably be expected between a father 
 and his children. Enabled by the blessing of Providence to supply all 
 their temporal wants, and having done so with the most heart-felt satis- 
 faction, and they in return having given me not only their gratitude but 
 their fondest filial love, I see not why I ought to grieve. "The Lord 
 gave them " to me, He made them a blessing to me while here, " He hath 
 taken 'them away," and surely I ought to add, " blessed be the name of 
 the Lord." He knew best when to give them, how long to permit them 
 to remain, and when and how to remove them to that place, as I hope, 
 " where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." 
 
 If, according to my blind wishes, he had permitted either of them to 
 have lived in health, a week, or even one day longer, they might have com- 
 mitted some act more distressing than their death. I will then try to be 
 satisfied. He who removed them hence knows all things, and orders 
 everything for the best. Therefore His will, not mine be done. 
 
 Present me in terms of kindness to your good lady and your children, 
 and believe that, 
 
 I am, with the highest regard and esteem. 
 
 Your most ob't servant. 
 
 Hit. L. White. 
 Doctor C11AELE8 CoFFix. 
 
 27 
 
418 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Two other daughters soon followed. In January 1829, Ms fifth 
 daughter, Cynthia, died at the age of seventeen ; and Melinda,. his 
 sixth daughter, in April 1830, at the age of fifteen. 
 
 Though the recital of so many similar events has made the scene 
 familiar, yet we have now to record one, if possible, of more melan- 
 choly importance. The malady which had carried away the chil- 
 dren, demanded also the mother. In the autumn of 1830, she was 
 attacked with illness, and to avoid a separation, accompanied her 
 husband to Washington, where she lingered through the winter. 
 All hopes being abandoned of her restoration to health, her only wish 
 now seemed to be, to reach home, and see those of her family who 
 remained behind. She and her husband left Washington on the 5th 
 March and travelled at the rate of ten or twelve miles a day. 
 
 She continued to decline, and died on the 25th March 1831, at a 
 public house near the Natural Bridge in Virginia, in the same county 
 in which she was born. Her remains were placed in a coffin, and 
 brought to Knoxville, three hundred and twenty miles, and deposited 
 in their ancestral burying place. 
 
 Although there were friends with him, who would have done him 
 any act of kindness, yet lest the carriage should be rudely driven, the 
 mourning husband undertook the sad task, and carefully conducted 
 her lifeless form to its last resting-place. 
 
 The day preceding his arrival at home, he was met by a number 
 of his friends and neighbors, who remained with him all night, and 
 by many acts of personal kindness, softened the private afflictions he 
 had been doomed to suffer, and enabled him to remain at his post, 
 and fearlessly and unfalteringly to discharge his duty to them and his 
 country. 
 
 His fourth daughter, Margaret W. Alexander, upon learning her 
 mother's real situation, requested to be taken to her. Her friends, 
 knowing the difficulties and dangers which must attend a trip 
 through the valley of Virginia, at that inclement season, attempted 
 to dissuade her from it. For a while she acquiesced and endeavored 
 to comply with her father's injunction to remain at home. But 
 finall)', upon hearing of the low condition of her mother, she could 
 not be dissuaded from her purpose. She left home in company with 
 her husband, and reached the Natural Bridge on the morning of the 
 26th, too late to receive the parting blessing of her parent. From 
 exposure consequent upon this trip, she contracted the same disease, 
 and died the following September. 
 
DOMESTIC AFFLICTIONS. 419 
 
 But few men have ever been so severely chastened. Death was so 
 continually and so suddenly destroying all around him, that in the 
 short space of six years he wjvs called to resign the companion of 
 his youth and eight grown children, and so rapidly that four were con- 
 signed to the tomb in the short space of nine months. The duties of 
 his position were such, that he had the privilege of being with only 
 three out of the number in their last hours. Even his wife, whoso 
 fortitude never forsook her, amidst those multiplied trials, was denied 
 the comfort of his presence. 
 
 These afflictive dispensations produced their legitimate results. 
 Under the first bereavements he turned tremulously away from God, 
 as one who felt he had no claims upon His promise of sustaining 
 grace ; but as renewed strokes of chastening from a kind Father's hand 
 were laid upon him, he bowed submissively, not only acknowledging 
 the power, but the goodness of God. 
 
 He now found himself alone with " the recollection of what they 
 were ;" and still so strong wet-e his attachments for home, that ho 
 preferred remaining by his now desolate hearthstone to seeking 
 enjoyment elsewhere. It was at this period that he was more than 
 ever resolved upon retiring from public life, but was induced to sacrifice 
 his personal feelings to the interests of his friends and the public. 
 
 Out of twelve, two children were all that were left him ; a son 
 aged six years, and a daughter aged nine. 
 
 His grandchildren now shared with his children his paternal soli- 
 citude. His sons left four children, and his eldest daughter one ; 
 the latter was reared in his own house — and the education of all was 
 his peculiar care. But while engaged in discharging his duty to the 
 livinof, he did not for2;et the sacred debt he owed to those who were 
 no more. Upon leaving and returning home his first and last visits 
 were to their quiet resting-place. This habit continued with him 
 throughout life, and proved that their virtues were embalmed in" his 
 memory. 
 
 In November, 18B2, Judge White formed a second marriage with 
 Mrs. Ann E. Peyton, of Washington City, a lady of fine mind and 
 polished address, with whom he lived eight years, in great happiness, 
 and from whom he was seldom separated. She proved herself an 
 affectionate and devoted wife, and shared a large portion of his last 
 thoughts. She survived her husband seven years, and died at his 
 residence near Knoxville, in April, 1847. Her remains were taken 
 by hcF request to Washington, and interred by the side of her daughter. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 HIS DEATH. 
 
 Judge White's health was somewhat impaired, in consequence of an 
 attack of pneumonia, which he had before leaving Washington. The 
 fatigue and exposure of travelling at so inclement a season of the year, 
 caused his disease to terminate in pulmonary consumption. As soon as 
 he found himself upon the soil of his own State, the very air of Ten- 
 nessee seemed to exert a reviving and invigorating influence upon his 
 health. After he reached home, he so far improved, that he was able 
 to take an interest in everything around him ; and his mind was con- 
 stantly employed in devising plans for the future comfort of his 
 family. He made a contract for building on his farm (two miles dis- 
 tant from his residence) where, as he frequently expressed himself, he 
 would pass the remainder of his life with his wife and children. 
 
 His physical strength did not entirely forsake him to the very last. 
 He was able to take his accustomed rides of one or two miles, 
 almost daily, either on horseback or in a carriage, which gave his 
 friends cause to hope his life might yet be prolonged. On the 8th of 
 April he rode four miles in a carriage, but was unable to sit up all 
 the way. This was the last exercise he took. On the 9th, the day 
 previous to his death, he did not leave home, but sat up the greater 
 part of the day and until a late hour at night, and was unusually 
 cheerful. He slept as comfortably as usual until tvpo o'clock, a. m., 
 when it was discovered that his cough was changed. The abscess on 
 his lungs had broken, and being too feeble to discharge it, he lived 
 about six hours, suffering apparently little pain, and died at half-past 
 eight o'clock, on the morning of the 10th of April, 1840. To the 
 last hour of his life the vigor of his intellect remained unabated. 
 Although unable to talk much, he was perfectly conscious, and occa- 
 sionally expressed great ooncern about his family. 
 
 420 
 
ms DEATH. 421 
 
 He never made any public profession of religion ; but, from the pious 
 precepts and examples placed before him in early life, he imbibed a 
 veneration for all its institutions. He believed that religion consisted 
 more in doing right, from a sense of obligation to the Supreme Being, 
 than in forms and ceremonies. His resignation to the Divine will, 
 and confidence in his acceptance with God, was full and perfect. A 
 few davs before his death he was visited by the Rev. Dr. Foot, presi- 
 dent elect of Washington College, who conversed with him fully and 
 freely upon the subject of his approaching change. Judge White was 
 a firm believer in Christianity as revealed in the Bible, and as 
 expounded by orthodox Christians. He had entire faith in the plan 
 of atonement. He affirmed in his last hours, that " having made it 
 a point through life, to do all the good in liis power, and as little harm 
 as possible, and placing a firm reliance on the merits of Christ to 
 supply all the deficiencies incident to human frailty, he now had no 
 more fear of appearing in the presence of his Heavenly Father, than 
 he would in that of a kind, earthly parent. 
 
 When the intelligence of his death reached the town, all business 
 was immediately suspended. The Chancery Court, which was in ses- 
 sion, adjourned over to the ensuing day. 
 
 His body was interred in the burial ground of the First Presbyterian 
 Church on Sunday, at two o'clock, p. m., and was followed to the grare 
 by an immense concourse of citizens. The procession left his late resi- 
 dence in the following order : — Clergy — members of the medical pro- 
 fession — judges and members of the bar — pall-bearers — the body — 
 relatives of the deceased — trustees of East Tennessee University — 
 president and professors of East Tennessee University — students of 
 the University — principal and students of Hampden Sydney Academy 
 — citizens. Immediately behind the body of the deceased, followed 
 his riding horse, Rienzi, with saddle and bridle, but without rider; 
 whose slow and measured tread seemed to betoken that he, too, sadly 
 felt the loss of his master, and called forth a fresh burst of grief from 
 his friends and fellow citizens. 
 
 Appropriate services were held at both the house and grave. After 
 which the assembly dispersed ; and all classes of the community seemed 
 to feel that they had been called to mourn a heavy calamity. 
 
 A plain tomb-stone marks the spot where rest the ashes of this good 
 and great man, with the following simple inscription : — 
 
422 MEMOIB OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 So 
 
 THE MEMORY OP / 
 
 HUGH LAWSON WHITE, 
 
 "9C6j 3ust," 
 Who was born Oct. 29th, 1773, and departed this life April lOth, 18i0. 
 
 Composed in suffering, and in joy sedate, 
 Good witliout noise, witliout pretension great, 
 True to his word, in every tliougiit sincere, 
 He linew no wisfi but what the world might hear. 
 
 This humble tribute of devoted affection and deep regret is deposited by his 
 
 bereaved wife. 
 
 In different parts of the country, numerous public discourses were 
 delivered on the occasion of his death, and frequent testimonials of 
 respect appeared in the public journals of the day. One is selected 
 from, those published in each division of his State, because of the 
 treatment he had received from a small portion of its citizens. An 
 account of the meeting at Washington is also given in consequence 
 of his long residence and services in that city. These addresses 
 were delivered by men who had known the deceased intimately for 
 many years both in his public and private capacity ; and there- 
 fore their testimony is entitled to confidence. 
 
 On the 26th Api-il, 1840 a funeral seimon was expected to have 
 been delivered in the Presbyterian church at Knoxville, by the Rev. 
 J. I. Foot, D. D., who was killed by a fall from his horse on the 20th 
 of the same month, within a few miles of Rogersville, while on his 
 way to Washington College. A part of the sermon was, however, 
 prepared, from Isaiah xl. 6. " The voice said. Cry. And he said, 
 What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof 
 is as the flower of the field : The grass withereth, the flower 
 fadeth." 
 
 At a meeting of the members of the Bar, at Knoxville, Hon. 
 Thomas L. Williams was called to the chair, and John H. Crozier, 
 Esq., appointed secretary. 
 
PUBLIC MEETING AT KNOXVILLfe. 423 
 
 The Hon. Edward Scott presented the following preamble and 
 resolutions, which were unanimously adopted. 
 
 A GREAT MAN HAS FALLEN IN ISEAEL ! 
 
 This day, about the lionr of nine o'clock, at his residence near this 
 place the Hon. Hugh L. White ceased to exist. Henceforth he will live 
 only in the memory of his friends and his countrymen. He was cer- 
 tainly a -roat and worthy man; a friend to truth, virtue, liberty, and the 
 Constitution. His was a life of labor and activity-a life of usefulness, 
 moderation, regular conduct, and inflexible integrity. The law was his 
 profession. By his fair, open, and manly conduct, he won the sincere 
 affection and approbation of all his contemporaries. He was an agreea- 
 ble and eloquent speaker. In Idm were happily blended a profound judg- 
 ment and accomplished address. In him the unfortunate and the hon- 
 est ever found a protector, while the guilty were marked for pumshment. 
 Raised to the highest office in his profession, he did honor to the station 
 and was among the greatest, and abtest magistrates that ever lived 
 amono- us Elevated to a seat in the United State Senate, he maintained 
 bat p°urity of character which marked his private life. He loved the Con- 
 stitution, nor would he consent to a forced construction of that mstru- 
 ment for the oppression of the people. The future historian will not fad 
 to record his virtues. We all know that his private character was with- 
 out blemish; he was an affectionate husband, a kind parent and a stead- 
 fast friend. In short, he died as he lived, a true republican, an ardent 
 advocate of the rights of man, and an enemy to arbitrary power. 
 
 Resolved, That in token of our high respect and esteem for the private virtues, and public 
 character of the deceased, we will wear the usual badge of mournmg for thirty days. 
 
 On motion of John H. Crozier, it was 
 
 Resolved, That'thefore^oingpreamble and resolutions be presented by the H^". Edward 
 Scott, on to-morrow morning, to tl>e Chancery Court now ut session ,n th.s place, with the 
 ,nr.„^«t that the same be entered on the record of tlie Court. 
 
 Zm ?ha we tender to the family and relatives of the deceased our sincere condolence 
 on Iheir lat'e distressing bereavement, and that the Secretary furnish them with a copy of 
 these proceedings. ^^^^^^ ^ Williams, Chainnat,. 
 
 Jobs H. Cbozier, Secretary. 
 
 At a meeting of the citizens of Nashville, Thursday, the Gth of 
 April, Col. George Wilson was called to the chair, and Edwin H. 
 Ewing, Esi|., appointed secretary. 
 
424 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 The chairman having stated the object of the meeting, Allen A. 
 Hall oflered the following preamble and resolutions : — 
 
 THE BEAUTY OF ISRAEL IS SLAIN UPON THY HIGH PLACES. 
 
 Hugh Lawson White has passed off the stage of the great theatre of 
 life ! Well and nobly has he sustained the high character for which he 
 was cast. Would that the curtain of mortality had not fallen, till the 
 epilogue to his eventful life had all been acted out and spoken, in the 
 surely vindicating future. Quod scripUim scripUim est! "What is 
 written, is written." Yes ! in the court above, the decree — how truly 
 irreversible ! — has been entered up : and the name, and virtues and 
 services of Judge Wliite are become the priceless inheritance of his coun- 
 try. Conspicuous among those of his day, to whom it has happened to 
 have hved, acted and spoken under the scrutinizing eye of history, he 
 has labored for the benefit of his country, as truly as ever a man toiled 
 for his family. 
 
 Illustrious by the eminence of his virtues, the usefulness of his talents, 
 the importance of his functions, his character needs no indeterminate 
 commendations, no accumulated epithets — no didactic reflections. His 
 merits require no exaggeration. He had nothing to dissemble. His his- 
 tory, written with faithfulness, will be his best eulogium. " He hath so 
 planted his honors in our eyes, and his actions in our hearts, that for our 
 tongues to be silent, and not confess so much, were an ungrateful injury : 
 to report otherwise, were a malice, that giving itself the lie, would pluck 
 reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it." 
 
 The spontaneous feeling of unaffected sorrow, which has here convened 
 the friends of the deceased, can find but imperfect expression in these 
 extemporaneous and preliminary proceedings. We pause at the threshold 
 till, some orator, worthy of his subject, shall bid us enter, with becoming 
 awe, the temple of his fame. 
 
 From the age of thirteen, roughly disciplined in the border hfe of Ten- 
 nessee ; at nineteen, acting a manly part in savage warfare ; a judge, at 
 the early age of twenty-eight, and for twelve years giving universal 
 satisfaction by able, and in many instances important decisions ; twelve 
 years president of the Bank of Tennessee, it was always prosperous by 
 his prudent and wise counsels ; a senator in the State legislature ; 
 district attorney of the United States ; commissioner between Virginia 
 and Kentucky in the settlement of important land claims, and again, 
 under the Spanish treaty. In all these varied trusts, equally honest and 
 capable, he was the exact, efl^cient man of business ; twice was he elected 
 without opposition to the Senate of the United States, and on a memor- 
 able occasion, when in the conflict of great principles, an arbiter was 
 needed to control giant minds, he was chosen to preside over that body. 
 
PUBLIC MEETmO AT KNOXVILLE. 425 
 
 As self-poiserl and magnanimous in declining honors, as in accepting 
 oftice ; he refused a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and more than once a place in tlie cabinet of the federal executive. 
 In a piihlic career of forty years, of spotless intefjrity, with a rare disin- 
 terestedness, he twice refused compensation, to a large amount, for most 
 valuable public services. 
 
 Nor is the reverse of the medal less beautifully defined. His private 
 life exhibited the perfect liarmony of his whole character ; and so attrac- 
 tive has it ever been, that his numerous friends have regarded liim more 
 with the sentiments of paternal affection, and the tenderness of a near 
 relationship, than witli the ordinary feelings which attach a public man 
 to his constituents. Accordingly they have rejoiced at his well deserved 
 success, or have been indignant at the ungrateful returns, which the best 
 benefactors often receive, and in all vicissitudes, they have felt his repu- 
 tation dear to them as their own personal concern, and they still 
 
 "Wear liim 
 In their heart's core; ay, in their heart of hearts." 
 
 Ungrateful returns ! Thev were the vouchers of his uncompromising 
 integrity and consistency; they were the evidences of his greatness! 
 
 When attacked, he defended himself beyond all ordinary powers of 
 endurance, with the weapons of truth, and the bravery of conscious 
 uprightness. That reiuitation which grows, as the oak, through all 
 changing seasons amidst alternate storms, and sunshines, shall still be 
 firmly rooted and majestic, when the rude tempests of party strife are all 
 blown over. The subject of our eulogy has been in this triumphant, 
 that his last days were the best witnesses of his worth. Death only could 
 subdue him. "■ Without fear and without reproach," he had a right to 
 demand an honorable discharge ; but his self sacrificing, generous love of 
 country, brought him to the foremost place in that hot fight, in which we 
 are now engaged. He has died in his armor, covered with glory. " His 
 end lamented by the good, by none more than by us." 
 
 •' Dear let his memory be, and proud his grave ! 
 
 And this his epitaph : " He lived, he fought 
 
 For truth and wisdom, foremost of the brave, 
 
 Him Rlory's idle fancies dazzled not, 
 'Twas liis ambition, generous and great, 
 A life to life's great end to consecrate!" 
 
 "He came to his grave in full age, like as a shock of corn comcth in, 
 in his season." Full of years, and of just honors full, the vuuerabl© 
 White " rests from his labors, and his works do follow him." 
 
 Resolved, That we lament the death of the Hon. Hugh L. White, as a great calamity; in 
 which our sens.e of loss tg that cause to which he was more especially pledged, in the present 
 
 posture of pulilic affairs, is merged in condolence with the good, the cnliglilcned, and the libe- 
 ral of all parties. 
 
426 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 Rvaolved, That it be suggested to the whig electors to wear the usual badge of mourning 
 ninety days. 
 
 liesiilved. That we deeply sympathize with the immediate family of the deceased, and that 
 a copy of these proceedings be transmitted to tliem, as an expression of our condolence. 
 
 Iie.\olee(J, That the record of these proceedings, signed by the Chairman and Secretary, be 
 published in the newspapers at Nashville. 
 
 Ephraini H. Foster, Esq., having seconded the adoption of the fore- 
 going preamble and resolutions in a few appropriate remarks, tliey were 
 adopted without a dissenting voice. Whereupon the meeting, on motion 
 of Henry HoUingswoVth, Esq., adjourned. 
 
 Geokge Wilson, Chairman. 
 Edwin H. Ewing, Secretary. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the State of Tennessee, in session at Jaclcson, 
 on receiving the melancholy intelligence of the death of the Uon. 
 Hugh L. White, immediately adjourned ; after which the members 
 of the Bar of West Tennessee, in attendance on the Supreme Court, 
 convened at the court-house for the purpose of paying a tribute of 
 respect to the memory of the deceased. 
 
 Whereupon, on motion of Adam Huntsman, Esq., P. M. Miller 
 Esq., was called to the chair, and Micajah Bullock, Esq. and Austin 
 Miller, Esq., were appointed secretaries, 
 
 Henry G, Smith, Esq., then offered the following preamble and 
 resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Information having been this day received of the death of the Hon. 
 Hugh L. White, of Knoxville, formerly a judge of the Supreme Court of 
 this State, and long a distinguished member of our profession ; as a tes- 
 timonial of re;spect to his memory, due alike for his eminent public ser- 
 vices, for his great private worth, to the purity, propriety, and dignity, 
 of his long and active life, the members of the Bar of West Tennessee in 
 attendance upon the Supreme Court at Jackson, assembled for the pur- 
 pose of declaring their sentiments : — 
 
 Resolved, That in his death the Bar of this State has sustained the loss of a most distin- 
 guished member and ornament ; the people of Tennessee, of a long tried and faithful servant; 
 society, of a good and useful citizen ; his family, of a kind father and affectionate husband; 
 mankind, of one of the noblest of the race. 
 
 And, therefore, that we are penetrated with feelings of an unfeigned sorrow and regret upon 
 the occasion of his death; andtliat the members of the Bar of West Tennessee, assembled at 
 this meeting, respectfully and affectionately tender their condolence and sympathy to hia 
 bereaved family. 
 
 liesoloed. That a copy of the proceedings of this meeting be presented to the Supreme Court 
 at this i)Iace, with the request tliat tlie same may be entered on the minutes of the court; and 
 that a copy be addressed to the family of the deceased ; 
 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BAR AT JACKSON. 427 
 
 And that a copy be furnished for the press, with a request that the proceedinga may be pub- 
 Ished ; 
 And that the same be signed by the Chairman and Secretaries. 
 
 "Whereupon the meeting adjourned. 
 
 M. BULLOOK, 
 
 P. M. MiLi-EK, Chairman. 
 
 3K, ) 
 ^7 ) 
 
 . ,, f Secretaries, 
 
 A. Miller 
 
 jACBaoN, April, 18, 1840. 
 
 And afterwards, on Monday, the 20tli day of April, the resolutions 
 above were presented to the court at its opening in the morning, with 
 the request that they might be entered on the minutes of *tlie court. 
 The request was promptly complied with, and the following response 
 to the motion was made by his honor Judge Reese, presiding on 
 behalf of the court : — 
 
 We have been requested to cause to be spread upon the records of this 
 court, a copy of the proceedings of a meeting of the members of the bar of 
 West Tennessee, in attendance at the present term, intended by thorn as a 
 testimonial of their regret for the death, and tlieir respect for the memory 
 of the Hon. Hugh L. White. We promptly and cordially assent to this 
 
 request. 
 
 We received with the liveliest sensibility and profoundest regret, the 
 melancholy intelligence that one so long and so eminently distinguished, 
 as a member of our profession, and as a judge of this court, is no more 
 to be numbered among the living. The individual upon whom has 
 devolved the duty of responding to the request of the gentlemen of the 
 bar, has known the deceased intimately for the last twenty years. The 
 traits of his character were strongly marked. His intellect was unuspally 
 active, acute, clear, and vigorous. He had great firmness of purpose and 
 energy of will, and if his temper was ardent, and his emotions sometimes 
 intense, he had a prudence, discretion and fairness which directed his 
 eiforts to right ends by the use of proper means. His professional career 
 commenced about the time when this State became a member of the 
 Union, and he rose at once to honorable distinction. Although his 
 preparation, scholastic and professional, as might be expected from 
 the character of the country and the times, was rather accurate and use- 
 ful, than extensive ; still, such were the endowments of his mind, and the 
 strength of his character, that for forty-five years, and to the last, ho 
 kept up with the improvements of society and the development of our 
 institutions, and never lost that position in the very first rank of his pro- 
 fession with which he set out. As a lawyer, he was ever at his post and 
 always prepared. As a speaker at the bar, he was animated, argumen- 
 tative and eminently impressive; force and perspicuity were his striking 
 
428 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 attributes. As a judge, he was courteous, dignified, impartial and able. 
 This elevated station he reached at an early age, and he largely contri. 
 buted by the purity of his personal character and the energy, wisdom and 
 justice of his official actions, to impress upon a new community that 
 respect for, and submission to, an enlightened administration of the law, 
 which has in all times and ' under all circumstances since, so honorably 
 distinguished them. 
 
 The moral qualities of Hugh L. White were of the first order. Truth, 
 that basis upon which must rest all the virtues he strongly loved, and 
 scrupulously practised. His integrity was inflexible ; no example of 
 others, no fashion of the times could tempt him, for a moment, into any 
 transaction, questionable in the motives, or equivocal in the tendency. 
 He was an honest man, and ever kept his escutcheon stainless ; and this 
 he himself regarded as the highest and most honorable point in personal 
 character. As a husband, a father and neighbor, he was all that a man, 
 such as we have described him, could be expected to be. His long and 
 active life brought him in contact with society at points which we mean 
 not here to discuss. He was much in the political service of his country : 
 even here we may be permitted to express the individual conviction that 
 the period is not distant, when the turmoils of the present moment having 
 passed by, few, if any, of his countrymen will be found to question the 
 motives of his public conduct, or to deny that, in all the solid and essen- 
 tial qualities of a virtuous patriot and an enlightened statesman, he was 
 eminently distinguished among the men of his time. 
 
 Upon Judge White's death being announced in the Senate bj his 
 successor, Mr. Alexander Anderson, the motion for the customary 
 honors to be paid to his memory was seconded by Mr. Preston of 
 South Carolina, who at the same time pronounced the following brief 
 and merited eulogy upon the virtues of the deceased : 
 
 , "I do not know, Mr. President, whether I am entitled to the 
 honor I am about to assume in seconding the resolutions which have 
 just been offered by the Senator from Tennessee, in honor of his late 
 predecessor ; and yet, sir, I am not aware that any one present is 
 
REMARKS OF HON. MR. PRESTON. 429 
 
 more entitled to this melancholy honor, if it belongs to long accjuaint- 
 ance, to sincere admiration, and to intimate intercourse. If these 
 circumstances do not entitle me to speak, I am sure every senator 
 will feel, in the emotions which swell his own bosom, an apology for 
 my desire to relieve my own, by bearing testimony to the virtues and 
 talents, the long services and great usefulness, of Judge White. 
 
 " My infancy and youth were spent in a region contiguous to the 
 sphere of his earlier fame and usefulness. As long as I can re- 
 member anything, I remember the deep confidence he had inspired 
 as a wise and upright judge, in which station no man ever enjoyed a 
 purer reputation, or established a more implicit reliance in his abilities 
 and honesty. There was an antique sternness and justness in his 
 character. By a general consent he was called Cato. Subsequently, 
 at a period of our public afiairs very analogous to the present, he 
 occupied a position which placed him at the head of the financial in- 
 stitutions of East Tennessee. He sustained them by his individual 
 character. The name of Hugh L. White was a guarantee that never 
 failed to attract confidence. Institutions were sustained by the 
 credit of an individual, and the only wealth of that individual was 
 his character. From this more limited sphere of usefulness and 
 reputation, he was first brought to this more conspicuous stage as the 
 member of an important commission on the Spanish treaty, in which 
 he was associated with Mr. Tazewell and Mr. King. His learning, 
 his ability, his firmness and industry, immediately extended the 
 sphere of his reputation to the boundaries of the country. Upon 
 the completion of that duty, he came into this Senate. Of his career 
 here I need not speak. His grave and venerable form is even now 
 before us — that air of patient attention, of grave deliberation, of un- 
 relaxed firmness. Here his position was of the highest — beloved, re- 
 spected, honored; always in his place — always prepared for the 
 business in hand — always bringing to it the treasured reflections of a 
 sedate and vigorous understanding. Over one department of our 
 
430 MEMOIR OP HUaH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 deliberations lie exercised a very peculiar control. In the manage- 
 ment of our complex and difl&cult relations with the Indians, we all 
 deferred to him, and to this he addre.ssed himself with unsparing 
 labor,- and with a wisdom, a patient benevolence, that justified and 
 vindicated the confidence of the Senate. 
 
 " In private life he was amiable and ardent. The current of his 
 feelings was warm and strong. His long familiarity with public 
 affairs had not damaged the natural ardor of his temperament. We 
 all remember the deep feeling with which he so recently took leave 
 of this body, and how profoundly that feeling^was reciprocated. The 
 good-will, the love, the respect which we bestowed upon him- then, 
 now give depth and energy to the mournful feelings with which we 
 ofilr a solemn tribute to his memory." 
 
 At a meeting, in the Capitol at Washington of the personal friends 
 and admirers among the members of the House of Representatives ia 
 Congress, of the late Hugh L. White of Tennessee, called on the 
 21st instant, for the purpose of paying a tribute of respect to his 
 memory ; 
 
 The Hon. Thomas W. Chinn, of Louisiana, was called to the 
 Chair, and the Hon. William K. Bond, of Ohio, was appointed 
 secretary. 
 
 The Hon. John Bell, of the Tennessee delegation, rose and intro- 
 duced the object of the meeting, with the following remarks : — 
 
 As the senior member of the Tennessee delegation, now present, it 
 may be expected that I should state the object of this meeting, which is 
 simply to make some suitable manifestation of our sorrow for the death 
 of the late Judge White, and to pay such tribute of respect to the excel 
 lence of his character, as I am sure will be equally grateful to our own 
 feelings, and to his numerous relatives and friends, wherever they may 
 be. 
 
 Not having been a member of the House of Kepresentatives, the pre- 
 cedents do not authorize the annunciation of his name in that body, nor 
 
REMARKS OF HON, JOHN BELL. 431 
 
 admit the customary proceedings in honor of departed fellow members. 
 The deep and unaffected concern with which the melancholy intelligence 
 of his death was received by every member wlio had formed a pereonal 
 acquaintance with him iu the course of his public service, and the anx- 
 ious solicitude tliey expressed that some mode should be adojited, by 
 wiiicli they could testify tiieir feelings to tlie world, will, periiaps, after 
 all, be regarded as a higher testimonial of his worth than any we can 
 liow offer. 
 
 ' Many were of opinion that his long and useful public services, the ven- 
 erable age at which he had arrived, and above uli, the unbleinislied 
 purity of liis whole life, were sufficient to set aside all precedents, and to 
 justify an extraordinary proceeding in the House. But on reflection, it 
 was concluded that nothing should be attempted, which under tlie excite- 
 ment of the times, could be attributed to any possible motive except the 
 desire of doing sincere homage to the virtues of the deceased. I must 
 confess, however, there is something very unsatisfactory to the feelings, 
 in the customary proceedings of the two Houses, upon the occasion of 
 the decease of a member. They are, for the most part, indiscriminate; 
 tliere is tlie same routine in every case; oftentimes tlie duty of speaking 
 the eulogy is devolved upon one who has neitlier the heart to appreciate, 
 nor perhaps, the inclination to do justice to his memory. I, therefore, on 
 every account, prefer the mode of our present meeting. Here, there is 
 no involuntary or exacted homage; none give their attendance, but 
 those whose feelings would not allow them to be absent. Here, too, we 
 can give full scope to our friendship .<ind admiration, unrestrained by the 
 fear of giving offence to the taste of the cold and indifferent; and besides, 
 it is not the member of Congress whose death we now deplore, to whoso 
 memory we offer the tribute of our sorrow and our tears. It is to the 
 man, the public officer, the statesman, who was an honor, and a bright 
 and shining one, not only to the State in whicli he lived, to the country 
 he served so long, so ably, and so faithfully, but to human nature 
 . itself. For if there be trutli in the proposition, that the noblest work of 
 Deity is an "honest man," then was the late Hugh Lawson Wliite, of 
 Tennessee, one of the noblest specimens of divine workmanship. Alto- 
 gether, he formed a character of rare perfection. Tiiough determined in his 
 own purposes of ardent and decided attachments, thougli engaging freely 
 and actively in all the concerns of life, there was notliing in his whole 
 career, no infirmity, no act, public or private, over which his friends 
 need draw a veil in charity. Tlie history of his last days we all know. 
 Retiring from the Senate, in obedience to his principles and that inexora- 
 ble sense of duty which had influenced his whole life, though suffering 
 from indisposition at the time, he resolved to set out immediately for his 
 residence in Tennessee. Incapable, from long habits of self denial, of 
 personal indulgence, the entreaties and warnings of his friends, who had 
 
432 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON "WHITE. 
 
 bat too clearly foreseen the perils of so long a travel, in a season of such 
 uncommon severity, vrere unavailing. The exposure and privations of 
 his journey were fatal to his health. Disease fastened on a vital part of 
 his system, and he finally sunk under it, with signal composure and 
 fortitude. 
 
 Thus terminated a life of uncommon usefulness, and one which, I tni.^t, 
 when it shall become more generally known, will leave a salutary 
 impress upon the whole country. Judge White was, indeed, in many 
 respects, a man of most rare and felicitous endowments, some of which 
 may have passed unobserved even by many of those who enjoj-ed his 
 friendship during the latter years of his existence. His manly patience 
 and fortitude under the severest afflictions, are known to' but few. 
 Though tender and affectionate to the last degree, in his domestic rela- 
 tions, yet his patient endurance under the greatest and most overwhelm- 
 ing domestic bereavements, was almost superhuman. By calling to his 
 aid the will^ that faculty, which, with him, when once summoned into 
 action, was absolute and invincible, he could appear among his friends 
 with serenity upon his brow, while his heart was pierced with the keenest 
 anguish. 
 
 It may not be generally known, that this venerable patriot was, late 
 in life, destined to the affliction of beholding the objects of his early pater- 
 nal care, the pride, and joy, and hope of his affections fall, stricken by 
 the " insatiate archer," one by one, in succession, until two only of a lovely 
 and cherished group of ten remained ; and what seemed yet a harder, 
 and more relentless fate, all these sank into the tomb at full maturity — 
 his sons in the vigor of manhood, and giving high promise of all their 
 father was — the more tender and lovely members of his family in the 
 full bloom of youthful beauty. Yet so stern was the sense of public duty, 
 which always governed this eminent citizen, that, at its bidding, I have 
 known him to allow himself but a single hour in which to weep the early 
 doom of still another " daughter dear." 
 
 By a singular and unfortunate coincidence, a measure of great impor- 
 tance in the Senate of which he had charge, and which he alone, from 
 his intimate acquaintance with the subject, was able to explain and 
 enforce, was set for the very day on which he received the melancholy 
 tidings of this new bereavement. The measure was urgent, and admit- 
 ted no postponement. One moment I saw him with his heart wrung by 
 inexpressible anguish — the next, he appeared in the Senate, composed 
 and resolute, and a moment afterwards he entered upon one of the ablest 
 and most effective speeches ever delivered by him in that body. 
 
 One other illustration of these less conspicuous, and perhaps, less use- 
 ful qualities, yet still so characteristic of the man, I cannot forbear to 
 give. I would speak of his gratitude — a virtue which he highly prized in 
 himself, and the violation of which in others, he was less able to bear 
 
KEMAKKS OF IIOX. JOHN BELL. 433 
 
 than any man I have known. Yet this cup, bitter as it is, he was, near 
 tlie close of his valuable, life, compelled to drain to the dregs. 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to see in this assembly so many of thosa 
 who assisted upon another, but very difforeiit oocasioti, to consecrate, 
 and canonize the last public act of this distinguislied public servant. The 
 generous sympathy, tlie just measure of approbation and applause 
 you bestowed ujwn his public course, and upon the principles and 
 reutinients he avowed in that, his last intellectual eftort in this 
 capitol — in this world — contributed to make tlie close of his public 
 career the proudest and most glorious event of his life. I am sure it 
 will long be a subject of pleasing reflection to each of yon, to bo 
 informed that the recollection of the friendship and admiration so 
 kindly manifested by you on that occasion, continued to animate and 
 console him during the remaining, but too short, period of his lite. It 
 sui)pol-ted him in his painful journey-Jiome, as the letters which now lie 
 before me fully evince. It continued to be the frequent theme of his 
 conversation and of his pen in the last days of his atl^ictioii, and it 
 atiorded a gleam of light to illumine the darkness of his last hour. This 
 will not appear extraordinary, when we know that next to the approval 
 of his own conscience, he valued and coveted,, above all things, the good 
 opinion of his friends and countrymen. His great ambition through life 
 was to live without reproach, to be esteemed in private life, an honest 
 man, aad in public, a useful and faithful servant. This Avas his passion, 
 and surely no man in our times, through so long a life, and filling so 
 many important stations, has lived so well and so snccessfully up to the 
 standard his ambition had prescribed for the regulation of his conduct. 
 
 It is no common-place or unmeaning eulogy to say, that Aristides wa^ 
 not more just. He was in truth a model to two generations, for the 
 moral conformation of the youth of the country around him— a mirror in 
 Avliich to dress themselves out in all the moral excellences of our nature 
 — in all those qualities which make up the eminently useful and distin- 
 guished citizen. 
 
 When we reflect upon the keen sensibility of onr lamented friend, his 
 leading passion, the moderate though noble measure of his ambition, 
 judge ye what must have been the intensity of his emotions when — after 
 a life, of nearly forty years spent in the public service, filling with the 
 unanimous approbation of the whole people, for so long a period, the 
 highest and most responsible stations, witliout censure or reproach, or 
 question of his fidelity, and at a time, too, when, in the course of nature, 
 he verged towards the close of his public labors — he was abruptly driven 
 from the public councils, dismiivsed that public service he had so long 
 adorned, not only with indiflVrence, but with personal indignity and 
 invective superadded. We can better imagine tlian embody in words the 
 effect of such treatment upon a man constituted as he was. la truth, it 
 
 28 
 
434 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAW SON WHITE. 
 
 o^me near riving liis noble heart. For a moment it quite vanquislied 
 him ; for one moment his inflexible spirit seemed to give way, but it was 
 onlj" for a moment. The consciousness of having discliarged every duty 
 tVuthfullj' to the last, and a strong sense of the unmerited censure wjiich 
 had been cast upon him, soon came to his relief, and restored hiui to the 
 exercise of his accustomed fortitude and power of endurance. 
 
 My feelings will allow me to proceed no furtlier. I olfer to the meet- 
 ing, for their adoption, the resolutions which I hold in my hand : 
 
 Resolved, That the.prgSent meeting, composed, of the personal friends and admirers of the 
 late Hugh Lawson White, of Tennessee, have received the information of his death with the 
 deepest emotion and regret. 
 
 ■Resolved, That, in testimony of those feelings, and as some small tribute of respect for the 
 rare virtues, the distinguished ability and usefulness of a man who, in his whole life, was an 
 example fit for the study and imitation of the present and future generations of his^ountrymen, 
 we will wear the customary badge of mourning during thirty days. 
 
 '" After the reading of the above resolutions, Mr. Wise, of Virginia, 
 rose and paid an. eloquent tribute to the character of the deceased, 
 and when he had concluded his remarks, the above resolutions were 
 unanimously adopted. 
 
 Whereupon, on motion of Mr. Wise, 
 
 Resolved, That the chairman of this meeting forward a copy of these proceedings to the 
 family of the deceased. * 
 
 Received, That copies of these proceedings be sent to the editors of the "National Intelli- 
 gencer " and the " Knoxville Times," with a request that the same be published in their res- 
 pective papers. 
 
 Thomas W. Chinn, Chairman. 
 William R. Bond, Secretary. 
 
 At the Young Men's Whig Convention assembled in Baltimore, 
 May, 1841, Mr. A. R, Humes of Tennessee being called upon for a 
 report from that State, alluded in the following touching strain to 
 Judiie White. The " Madisonian " savs, one of the most strikinij 
 incidents of the day was the manner in which the immense assemblage 
 received his reference to the good and great Hugh L. White. He 
 said : — 
 
 " Fellow Citizens : In the midst of this ' army of banners,' borne aloft 
 by the stout arms of freemen, there is one robed in the sable weeds of 
 r^ourning. Tennessee deplores the death, and this day honors the mem- 
 ory of Hugh L. White." 
 
 The very moment the name of the departed patriot was mentioned, 
 the thousands who surrouuiled the rostrum simultaneously took oflf 
 
KKMARK9 OF MR. UDME8. 435 
 
 their hats, and bent their heads in mournful liomao;e to his memory. 
 The efi'ect was instantaneous — was subHme — was electric. 
 Mr. Humes continued : — 
 
 You, my countrymen ! by your uncovered heads, at the mention of his 
 great name, and by the holy and virtuous indiguation you feel, written 
 in legible characters, upon every face in this vast assembly, pay a just 
 tribute to the worth of this parted patriot. He now sleeps with " the 
 illustrious dead." His heart no longer tbrobs with the pulsations Of 
 freedom ; his voicei no longer eloquent in the councils of the nation, is 
 hushed for ever, in the unbroken silence of the grave. 
 
 Mr. Humes, in alluding to the universal proscription of the party 
 in power, said : — 
 
 " Among the many victims, who have bled upon the altar of this mod- 
 ern Moloch, this fierce, relentless despotism, was that man, who has been 
 justly termed " the Cato of the Republic." He forsook a past Adminis- 
 tration in the noon-day of its power in defence of tlie Constitution and 
 the laws — he renounced adherence to men, for the sake of principle. He 
 " passed the Paibicon " and the decree went forth. He was ianished 
 from office — and with a heart full of deep, unutterable feeling, and a ven- 
 erable form, trembling beneath the palsying hand of age, he returned, 
 once more, to the peaceful abodes of private life. But the storms of 
 winter, and the baseness of ingratitude, " more sti-ong than traitor's arm, 
 <iuite vanquished him." Disease and calumny completed their work — 
 he returned to his final home — a dishonored soil received the ashes of her 
 injured exile. There we might hope, he would rest in undisturbed 
 repose. But no ! Avith fiendish malignity, do his- defamers pursue him. 
 Like fierce hyenas, they prowl around his grave, and insult his injured 
 manes. But, fellow citizens ! there is a day of terrible retribution. 
 The blades of twenty thousand freemen are leaping from their scabbards 
 to revenge his wrongs. A voice, from his fresh sodden grave, speaks in 
 tones of thunder to you, this day. The foul stain upon the brightness 
 of gallant Tennessee, will soon be wiped ofi"— her glory is eclipsed, 
 but not departed — the dark spot upon her broad disk, will soon pass 
 away, and the year 1841 will dawn upon the young Switzerland of 
 America regenerate and redeemed." 
 
 These eloquent tributes to the memory of Judge White, emanating 
 from such high sources, w^ere, certainly, grateful to his many friends. 
 They were no less gratified by the many other marks of the same 
 deep respect for liis character and of the same unaft'ected and sincere 
 Borrow manifested at his loss by the people. 
 
436 MEMom or Hugh lawson white. 
 
 A battalion of militia mustered in Roane County, Tennessee, 
 when Judffe White died. When the news of his death was carried 
 to the place, by request of the commanding officer, the event was 
 announced to the battalion, by Thomas J. Campbell Esq., who was 
 present, and who added appropriate remarks touching his public and 
 private character. The whole battalion evinced the deepest interest 
 on" the occasion, and unanimously determined on their return march 
 from the field, to proceed with muffled drums, shrouded in black, which 
 was accordingly done. 
 
 Another incident shows the affection with which he was regarded 
 by the people. At the great whig convention held in Knoxville, in 
 Augiist, 1840, a gentleman who was present, and heard Col. David 
 W. Dickenson's speech, says that, " when he (the orator) came to 
 speak of Judge White, almost every man in that vast assembly was 
 in tears." 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Having given the leading incidents in the life of Judge White, 
 and shown hira firm in, his adherence to all his duties both of a pub- 
 lic and private nature, in defiance of all denunciation, or seductive 
 influences, the- subject might well be left, in the confident belief that 
 posterity will not fail to render that award of lofty merit which his 
 character so eminently deserves. Testimonials to his worth have 
 been inserted from so many and such high authorities, that it is 
 sc^rceiy necessary to say much in conclusion. But for the more per- 
 fect- completion of the task a few observations may not improperly be 
 added, descriptive of his appearance, or illustrative of his character. 
 
 His health, naturally delicate, had given him much trouble from 
 the year 1819 until his death. His lungs were the seat of his disease, 
 and althouofh he was never so ill as to render it necessary for him to 
 absent himself from his public duties, yet his hemorrhages were so 
 frequent as to keep him in a constant state of apprehension. 
 
 Hi? personal appearance changed but little towards the close of 
 his life; he retained -his erect form, and elastic step, almost to th€ 
 last. He had an acute sense of the ludicrous, and was a lover of wit, 
 although his appearance indicated a want of mirthfulness. 
 
 Assiduity in him was combined with great mental activity. He 
 was distinguished for his ability to apply his mind intensely and pro- 
 tractedly, and for an unusual power of concentrating his thoughts 
 upon a single subject. Accustomed from the beginning to considei 
 seriously the impediments in the way of his attaining an object, he 
 attentedly weighed them, and when he had undertaken to execute 
 his purpose, his perseverance overcame every obstacle. Additional 
 obstructions awakened additional strength, new and unforeseen diffi- 
 culties led to the device of new and unforeseen expedients, until he, 
 ■who might, in a sense, have appeared to be weak, and unable to main- 
 tain his own position, was changed into an intellectual giant, divest- 
 ing his adversary of his armor, destroying his strong-hold, and lead- 
 
 437 
 
438 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 ino- him captive at bis will. His mind was not of that brilliant order, 
 whose only use is to astound the multitude. It delighted not to 
 indulge in flights of the imagination, nor in sallies of wit. It did not 
 chiefly rely on circumstances for its operation. What it had accom- 
 plished at one time, and in one class of circumstances, it could also 
 accomplish in others of a widely different nature. Those mental 
 eflforts which depended on external and occasional excitements in 
 other men, were by industry and perseverance easily and habitually 
 performed by him. It was this reliable and ready power which made 
 him equal to the exigencies of every cause which he undertook, and 
 th€ duties of every office which he was called to till. The vigor, 
 which in some other men of equal, and perhaps superior, genius 
 was fluctuating and doubtful, was with him more uniform. 
 
 He was a deep thinker, and remarkable for his power of compari- 
 son and of discovering inconsistencies, and of clothing his ideas in 
 suitable language. 
 
 He examined thoroughly the arguments of others, his mind grasped 
 and retained the leading |X)ints of a subject with great vigor, and his 
 reasonino- was so clear, that he made his ideas intelligible to the 
 understanding of all. His style was forcible, perspicuous and concise. 
 His sentences were commonly short and so selected and arranged 
 that whatever he said could readily be followed. His style was often 
 figurative, for purposes of illustration ; never for the sake of ornament. 
 He addressed himself to the understanding and moral sensibilities 
 and not to the passions — and when speaking, either in popular assem- 
 blies, or in parliamentary debate, his manner was marked by the most 
 impassioned earnestness and he seldom failed to fix the attention of 
 
 his hearers. 
 
 The operations of his mind were rapid ; his feelings were quick and 
 
 intense and susceptible of exquisite enjoyment or extreme pain. His 
 mental activity grew out of an ardent temperament. He used to say 
 that he was naturally one of the most irritable and passionate of men, 
 but he governed his temper well, and that was one secret of the influ- 
 ence which he exercised over the minds and conduct of others. 
 
 His own purity of motive rendered him slow to suspect or t'» censure 
 the doings of others. Yet he was not deficient in the power of resist- 
 ino- ; and he never allowed his character to be trifled with, his rights 
 invaded, or his friends imposed upon. This trait was more fi'equently 
 • exercised and clearly exemplified, by means of circumstances occur- 
 ring during the last years of his life. 
 
JUDGE white's cuaracter. 439 
 
 His incorruptible integrity was, however, the most' prominent fea- 
 ture in his whole character. He abliorred the subtlety with which 
 some advocates are accustomed to plead, and to seek to obtain an unjust 
 verdict, and ever}' course where success depended upon management 
 and intrigue lie regarded as uns6und. Neither personal friendships, 
 nor personal dislikes or animosities, ever colored his decisions ; and the 
 accuracy of his opinions and his uncompromising honesty secured for 
 him universal respect. 
 
 In private life he was remarkable for the dignity and simplicity of 
 his manners. In all his trans:ictions the same honorable frankness of 
 heart manifested itself. No instance is known in which his probity 
 was ever suspected. His domestic habits were simple. He was an 
 '«arly riser, and when he had no- particular business to transact, he 
 spent his time in reading or in some other useful occupation. H« 
 was an excellent marksman, and rode much on horseback. Many of 
 his journeys to Washington were performed in that way, and so par- 
 ticular was he in his attention to his horse, that he was never 
 known to take his meals without first seeing that it received attention. 
 Although his family were provided liberally with domestics, his habit 
 was to wait upon himself, and he seldom called upon them for atten- 
 tions ; he required his children to imitate this example. He was 
 systematic and orderly in all his habits ; he had a place for every- 
 thing and kept everything in its place. He particularly disliked any 
 disturbance in the arrangement of his room ; and was quick to detect it. 
 
 He was not insensible to praise or censure. He valued much the 
 good opinion of his fellow-men — but highly as he prized the approba- 
 tion of the public in regard to his public conduct, he valued flir more 
 the testimony of his companions and competitors in the same profes- 
 sion, and of his neighbors and friends, who had been witnesses of his 
 conduct from his entrance upon the busy scenes of life. His reputation 
 in distant parts of the land, was not greater than that he enjoyed in 
 his own State and town. By his long and constant attention to the 
 interest of his friends, he had become so endeared to them, that they 
 never withheld an expression of their warmest approbation, or lost an 
 opportunity of bestowing their renewed confidence and honors upon 
 him. In all the domestic relations his character was without a staiu. 
 He was a devoted husband, an affectionate father, a kind neighbor, 
 and a good master. His servants loved, yet feared to offen<l him. 
 He rarely passed one of them, however small, without speaking a kind 
 woid. 
 
440 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 One or two anecdotes will exemplify this trait. Judge White 
 owned a number of slaves, and had a manager to see that they dis- 
 charged their duty. It so happened that the family were unprovided 
 with fuel at a time when the weather became extremely cold and 
 unpleasant, and probably neither the manager nor servants were ap- 
 prised of the fact, or if they were, considered that no one in his 
 senses would think of turning out in such weather. The negroes 
 were collected around a log-heap fire in their cabins, and the mana- 
 ger, a man of by no means slight figure, or delicate constitution, in 
 his own comfortable quarters, all in full view of Judge White's 
 dwelling. Upon being notified that there was no wood, the Judge, 
 without saying a word to any one on the subject, protected himself 
 as well as he could against the weather, went to the stable, harnessed 
 the horses and hitched them to the wagon before it was known what 
 he was doing. As soon as the news reached the cabins he was im- 
 mediately waited on to know what were his wishes. He very mildly 
 and calmly requested the manager and servants all to return to their 
 homes, and make themselves comfortable; that he could, without 
 the least inconvenience, endure the cold. Of course he was not left 
 alone, however, but made it a point to drive the horses himselT. 
 
 In relating this, the manager said, as long as he was with Jud^^e 
 White, after this, he never found the weather too bad to do whatever 
 was necessary to be done. 
 
 A little domestic occurrence may indicate his careful ovei-sight of 
 the moral training of his family. 
 
 One Saturday in August, a grand-daughter and two nieces of 
 Judge White went out to make their grandfather and uncle a visit. 
 The Judge was then living in the suburbs of the town, and near him 
 resided a Presbyterian clergyman. Soon after their arrival, it was 
 
 announced by one of the company that the Rev. Mr. M had a 
 
 peach tree loaded with ripe fruit, the first, that had been seen that 
 season. It was at once agreed by the whole party, including the 
 Judge's daughter and a grand-daughter, residing with him, to visit 
 the parson's garden some time during the day, and, if possible, pro- 
 cure some of the fruit. The day passed away pleasantly enough 
 until dinner was over, when the little party assembled themselves 
 together, and began to speculate as to the best means of accomplish- 
 ing their object. After some consultation, one of the number, rather 
 more expert than the rest, proposed that the daughter apply to the 
 
ANECDOTES OF JUDGE WHITE. • 441 
 
 father for permission for the part}- to take a walk. The unscasoa- 
 ableness of the hour (for it was mid-day of mid-summer) struck the 
 Judge's mind as rather odd for such recreation, and he at once began 
 to interrogate as to the object, and direction, and extent of the ram- 
 ble. All questions were promptly answered, that but a short walk 
 was contemplated, not beyond the confines of an enclosure, containing 
 some eighteen acres, which lay immediately in front of the house. 
 Finally, consent was obtained, but it was expressly enjoined upon the 
 young people that they should not transcend the bounds agreed upon. 
 Bonnets were put on, and all hands started off in high spirits ; some 
 of them, perhaps, fearing that they were engaged in a rather hazard- 
 ous expedition, but still not sufficiently inipressed with the idea to 
 induce them to abandon it. The guilty company sauntered along 
 leisurely for some time, every now and then one of them turning 
 round to see that no one was near who could or would report them. 
 After making an almost entire circle, they reached at length that 
 part of the lot which lay nearest the parson's. It was now determined 
 that three of them should remain on watch, while the other two 
 crossed the fence, went to the house and obtained permission to ga- 
 ther the fruit. However, upon reaching the place, they found the 
 house closed, and the whole family absent. So, not liking the idea 
 of being disappointed, they resolved, as circumstances did not seem to 
 favor their obtaining the fruit by leave, that it would do no harm to 
 help themselves to a few without leave. Aprons were filled, and a 
 return made to join their former comrades. . Now all was glee, each 
 one feeling perfectly satisfied that they had not been discovered. 
 Seats were procured under a large oak tree, the fruit disposed of, and 
 the seeds scattered, and the little folks began to retrace their steps. 
 They had got about half way when they met the Judge, who accosted 
 them with ''Well, children, you did not go outside?" ''No, sir," 
 responded all, save the daughter, who was silent, and feeling some 
 misgivings about deceiving her father, returned and communicated 
 all that had taken place, though remonstrated with by her friends, 
 and urged not to expose them. This conduct, of course, drew upon 
 them the displeasure of the Judge. He directed them to proceed to 
 the house, and not to leave until his return. In the course of an 
 hour, the whole five were summoned to appeared in his presence. 
 There being no alterative, they obeyed — all the time feeling that 
 they would father face the world than the Judge, under the circum- 
 
442 ' MEMOIR' OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 stances. After hearing that the Judge had witnessed the whole 
 affair from a window on the second floor, and hearing a lecture of 
 some" twenty or thirty minutes' length, many promises of better con- 
 duct in future were given, and tnose of them not belonging to the 
 family began to make arrangements for home. To this Judge White 
 objected, assuring them that they should have tea in time to return 
 before night. Here again the guilty trio were compelled to face him 
 at table. Scarce a word was spoken. Now they were suffered to 
 depart, and it became the Judge's time to take a stroll. He returned 
 with his hands full of peach-seed, and presenting them to his chil- 
 dren, said, he had always heard that stolen fruit was the best, and 
 requested them to plant the seed, and thereby be saved the necessity 
 of robbing a clergyman's orchard in future. There stand the trees 
 DOW, a monument of disobedience, and other juvenile peccadilloes. 
 The lesson was never forgotten. 
 
 The elevated moral qualities and the lofty mental powers, whicli 
 are essential to the character of a perfect statesman were united in 
 Judge White. Intrepidity and determination were combined with 
 freedom from prejudice, and from excesses of every kind ; and firm- 
 ness of purpose, which seemed to calculate the consequences of doing 
 his duty, with prudence in counsel, and energy in action. At the 
 time of his death he had nearly completed his 68th year, and hud 
 been engaged uninterruptedly almost forty years in laborious public 
 duties, and at the close of his political life, he exhibited the same 
 purity of intention, and earnestness and ardor in the promotion of 
 the public welfare, which were manifested in his eatlier days. 
 
 He was strictly just in his dealings with all men, whether of busi- 
 ness or friendly intercourse. He loathed anything like duplicity. 
 His desire was, to be to all men in truth, what he appeared to them 
 to be. His great purity of character placed him above the intrigues 
 of politics, and, consequently, he was seldom or never cognizant even 
 of those of his own party. 
 
 Upon this trait Dr. llumsey remarks : 
 
 I can recollect well when he was last a candidate for the State Senate. 
 He was too honest to act the demagogue, and had too high regard for 
 the constituency to try to deceive or flatter them. He addressed only 
 their cool and dispassionate judgment — neither laughing himself nor 
 exciting laugliter in others ; I remember that he spoke of his competitor 
 rarely, and that then he used the adjective tvorthy when he did mention 
 
ANECDOTES OF JUDGE WRITE. ^ 443 
 
 him. He never spoke to Buncombe (excuse the vulgarism), and his 
 hi^h eulogy is that he never courted, the people, nor sought to be 
 their favorite. He tried to deserve applause rather than to re- 
 ceive it. 
 
 In relation to other points of Judge White's character, Dr. llarasay 
 says: 
 
 Another instance of benevolence, more private, but not less honorable 
 to his memory, I may not omit to mention ; as it was not heralded ubruad, 
 and, indeed, vras known only to a few intimate friends. Rev. T. II. Nel- 
 son, pastor of the Old Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, was, as is well 
 known, a poor man, and inadequately supported. In the erection of his 
 humble residence he had not only exhausted his private means, but 
 had contracted considerable debt, which he had no means of liqui- 
 dating, and which hung like an incubus upon his drooping spirits. For 
 some reason, too, a portion of his salary had not been paid ; and these 
 accumulated discouragements led him almost to despair. Judge Wiiite, 
 though not a member of his church, hearing of the embarrassed condi- 
 tion of Mr. Nelson, called upon Captain Crozier, an elder in his church, 
 and proposed to be one of eight, six, or even four, to assume Mr. Nel- 
 son's debt, and take up his note, then in bank, for the amount. In tho 
 captain he found a congenial spirit. Four men were found who paid 
 the bank debt; the note was sent to the minister cancelled, and his mind 
 set at ease." 
 
 The judge was present once when an effort was being made to get up 
 a dancing school. He favored the object by remarking, " that young 
 men should learn to dance, for if they were unable to participate in that 
 amusement, they would at parties resort to cards, which would load to 
 (jamhUng. He was a great student ; if he was not always reading, what 
 was still better, he was always thinking. Earnest and profound think- 
 ing was a (perhaps the) prominent feature of his intellect. He thought 
 quickly, yet deeply and accurately. What others found by a pains-tak- 
 ing search and tedious investigation, ho obtained intuitively. To look 
 at a subject at all was to penetrate it with an eagle's glance, to touch 
 was to dissect, to handle was to unravel and analyze. He wrote well, 
 yet his productions possessed few of the embellishments of art, and none 
 of the ornaments of style, though always enlivened and brilliant from 
 the flashes of a true and innate eloquence. 
 
 Like other truly great men. Judge White's manners were simple and 
 unpretending. He rarely, out of the private circle, jested, and though 
 an impressive and instructive talker, he never was loquacious. In lai-go 
 assemblies he was rather retiring and taciturn ; and yet when he did 
 
444 MEMOIR OF HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 speak, the attention of every hearer was arrested with the good sense, 
 the originality, and the profundity of his remarks. Where he chose to 
 use them as weapons of defence^ he resorted effectually to irony, ridicule 
 and sarcasm, and woe to the antagonist on whom he turned these instru- 
 ments of torture, accompanied by the significant pointing of his finger, 
 and the withering glance of his piercing eye — " I would rather be in 
 hell," exclaimed a profane juror, " than to have been in 's shoes to- 
 day, in the court-house." And yet to his friends he was habitually kind 
 and benignant, and faithful. None were more so — he was grave without 
 being haughty, and dignified without being arrogant. He had a lofty 
 reserve and a consequential bearing, which belong to, and are insepa- 
 rable from, superior mental endowments, and superior moral principle, 
 and a severe public and private virtue ; but nothing of the supercilious- 
 ness that belongs to, or is affected, by the weak pretender or the peda- 
 gogue. Mens conscia recti did elevate him in his own, as well as in the 
 esteem of others, and no one man than he better deserved the proud 
 epitaph, 
 
 " Integer vitas scelerisque purus." 
 
 On his first election to the United States Senate, he remarked to a 
 number of young men around him, when the news arrived from Nash- 
 ville, " Young gentlemen, never seek office — let office seek you." 
 
 He was exceedingly industrious, punctual, and methodical. An early 
 riser, he was generally in town, and in his office, before the citizens had 
 eaten their breakfast — though his residence was for many years two 
 miles in the country. He was very domestic, and though qualified to 
 figure in the public counsels, he was always fond of home and retirement. 
 I mention a single other trait of character — his filial piety. He not only 
 venerated his father, but he bowed before and idolized his mother. From 
 her he inherited his genius, and his intellect — his quickness, and his 
 originality, and her he never ceased to admire and reverence. ,: 
 
 I have thus thrown together some of my recollections of the subject of 
 your volume — some of my remarks are condensed from my manuscript 
 of a future volume of my History of Tennessee: Take them for what 
 they are worth. Your theme is an interesting one, and will, I doubt not, 
 be a valuable contribution to Tennessee Literature, and Tennessee Bio- 
 graphy. I am already impatient to see it. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 J. G. M. Ramset. 
 
 Mecldenburg, Tenn., Dec. ISth, 1855. 
 
 But honest and benevolent as were all his intentions throuchout life, 
 his character would have beeh greatly defective without that confi- 
 
ANECDOTES OF JUDGE WHITE. 445 
 
 dence and serenity which he displayed amidst his many vexations and 
 disappointments. Friends became estranged from him — he was 
 called to surrender up parents, brothers, sisters, children, and wife — 
 and to follow their cold bodies to " the home appointed for all the 
 living." Yet in all afflictions he acknowledged the hand of God — 
 and by them his heart was brought into a holy conformity to the 
 divine will. 
 
 When through the machinations of his political opponents he was 
 not only driven from an honorable station, but abused and insulted 
 even along the highway, his patience and gentleness, and his noble 
 saying that he could have no other feeling than pity for those who 
 thus assailed him, showed that ho lived in a continual sense of the 
 presence of God; and committed his cause into the hands of Ilim 
 unto whom reward and punishment belong. 
 
 A single characteristic anecdote of Judge White, extracted from 
 Rev. James Gallagher's " Western Sketch Book," is here added : 
 
 From his youth, Judge White was characterized by profound reve- 
 rence for the ordinances of the gospel. He was a regular attendant at 
 the house of worship. And while he was a Presbyterian, that being the 
 church of his fathers, and the church of his choice, he was benevolent 
 and liberal towards other branches of the great Christian family. He 
 gave to the Methodist church, at Knoxville, the ground on wliich their 
 house of worship was built ; and occasionally he would appear in the 
 congregation and join them at their worship. 
 
 Now in those days there was a notable "presiding elder" in that re- 
 gion, called Father Axley; a pious, laborious, uncompromising preacher 
 of the gospel, who considered it his duty to rebuke sin wherever it should 
 presume to lift its deformed head within the limits of his district. And 
 while Father Axley was a man of respectable talents, undoubted piety, 
 and great ministerial fidelity, he had moreover a spice of humor, oddity, 
 and drollery about him, that rarely failed to impart a characteristic 
 tinge to his performances. The consequence was, that amusing anec- 
 dotes of the sayings and doings of Father Axley abounded throughout 
 the country. 
 
 On a certain day, a number of lawyers and literary men were together 
 in the town of Knoxville, and the conversation turned on the subject of 
 preaching and preachers. One and another had expressed his opinion 
 of the performances of this and that pulpit orator. At length Judge 
 White spoke up: "Well, gentlemen, on this subject each rnan is, of 
 course, entitled to his own opinion ; but I must confess, that Father Ax- 
 ley brought me to a sense of my evil deeds, at least a portion of thorn, 
 
446 MEMOIR OP HUGH LAWSON WHITE. 
 
 more effectually than any preacher I have ever heard." At this, every 
 eye and ear veas turned; for Judge White waa never knovrn to speak 
 lightly on religious subjects, and, moreover, he was habitually cautious 
 and respectful in his remarks concerning religious men. The company 
 now expressed the most urgent desire that the Judge would give the 
 particulars, and expectation stood on tiptoe. 
 
 "I went up," said the Judge, "one evening to the Methodist church. 
 A sermon was preached by a clergyman with whom I was not acquaint- 
 ed ; but Father Axley wag in the pulpit. At the close of the sermon he 
 arose, and said to the congregation : ' I am not going to detain you by 
 delivering an exhortation. I have risen simply to administer a rebuke 
 for improper conduct which I have observed here to-night.' This, of 
 course, waked up the entire assembly ; and the stillness was most pro- 
 found, while Axley stood and looked for two or three seconds over the 
 congregation. Then stretching out his large, long arm, and pointing 
 with his finger steadily in one direction, 'now,' said he, 'I calculate that 
 those two young men who were talking and laughing in that corner of 
 the house, while the brother was preaching, think that I am going to 
 talk about them. Well, it is true, that it looks very bad, when well- 
 dressed young men, who you would suppose, from their appearance, be- 
 longed to some genteel, respectable family, come to the house of God, 
 and instead of reverencing the majesty of Him that dwelleth therein, or 
 attending to the message of everlasting love, get together in one corner 
 of the house (the finger all this while pointing straight and steady as the 
 aim of a rifleman), and there, through the whole solemn service, keep a 
 talking, tittering, giggling, laughing, and annoying the minister, dis- 
 turbing the congregation, and sinning against God. I'm sorry for the 
 young men. I'm sorry for their parents. I'm sorry they've done so to- 
 night. I hope they'll never do so again. But, however, that's not the 
 thing I was going to talk about. It is another matter, and so important 
 that I thought it would be wrong to suffer the congregation to depart 
 ■without administering a suitable rebuke. Now,' said he, stretching his 
 huge arm and pointing in another direction, ' perhaps that man who was 
 asleep on the bench out there, while the brother was preaching, thinks 
 I am going to talk about him. Well, I must confess, it looks very bad 
 for a man to come into a worshipping assembly, and, instead of taking 
 his seat like others and listening to the blessed gospel, carelessly stretch 
 himself out on a bench and go to sleep ! It is not only a proof of great 
 insensibility with regard to the obligations which we owe to our Creator 
 and Redeemer, but it shows a Want of genteel breeding. It shows that 
 the poor man has been so unfortunate in his bringing up, as not to have 
 been taught good manners. lie doesn't know what is polite and respect- 
 able in a worshipping assembly, among whom he comes to mingle. I'm 
 sorry for the poor man. I'm sorry for the family to which he belongs. 
 
 
ANECDOTES OF JUDGE WHITE. 447 
 
 I'm sorry he did not know better; I hope he will never do so an;ain. 
 But, however, that is not what I was going to talk about.' Thus Father 
 Axley went on for some time ; ' boxing the compass,' and hitting a num- 
 ber of persons and things that he was 'not going to talk about,' and 
 hitting them hard, till the attention and curiosity of the audience were 
 raised to the highest pitch, when finally he remarked : ' The thing of 
 which I was going to talk, is chewing tobacco. Now, I do hope, when 
 any gentleman comes here to church who can't keep from chewing to- 
 bacco during the hours of public worship, that he will just take his hat 
 and put itr befpre him, and spit in his hat. You know we are Methodists. 
 You all know that our custom is to kneel when we pray. Now, any 
 gentleman may see in a moment how exceedingly inconvenient it mast 
 be for a well-dressed Methodist lady to be compelled to kneel down in a 
 great puddle of tobacco spit!' 
 
 " Now," said Judge White, "at this very time I had in my mouth an 
 uncommonly large quid of tobacco. Axley's singular manner, and train 
 • of remark had strongly arrested my attention. While he was striking to 
 the right and left, hitting those things that he was not going to talk 
 about, my curiosity was roused, and conjecture was busy to find out 
 what he could be aiming at. I was chewing my huge quid with uncom- 
 mon rapidity, and spitting, and looking up at the preacher, to catch 
 every word and every gesture, and when at last he pounced on the 
 tobacco, behold, there I had a great puddle of tobacco spit ! I quietly 
 slipped the quid out of my mouth, and dashed it as far as I could under 
 the seats, resolving never again to be found chewing tobacco in a Me- 
 thodist church." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 It was not until after the printing of the foregoing pages that there 
 appeared, in Chapter of Vol. II. of Senator Benton's "Thirty 
 Years' View," certain unfortunate misrepresentations respecting pas- 
 sages in Judge White's life. The evident fairness of intention with 
 which Mr. Benton has written, and the value and authority of the 
 opinions of one so able, generally reliable and experienced, render it 
 the more requisite that these errors should here meet a suitable cor- 
 rection. 
 
 Mr. Benton, after having spoken of Judge White's life, services 
 and character, so worthily and nobly as even by his own words to seem 
 inconsistent in what follows, proceeds to state his reasons, why Judge 
 White, although '' so favored by his State during a long life, should 
 have lost that favor in his last days, received censure from those who 
 had always given praise, and gone to his grave under a cloud, after 
 having lived in sunshine." He accounts for this version of Judge 
 White's non-election, and for what he represents as disappointment 
 and grief arising from it, as follows : " The reason is briefly told. In 
 his advanced age he did the act which, with all old men, is an experi- 
 ment, and with most of them, an unlucky one. He married again j 
 and this new wife, having made an immense stride [!] from the head 
 of a boardiug-house table to the head of a Senator's table, could see 
 no reason why she should not take one step more, and that compara- 
 tively short, and arrive at the head of the Presidential table." And 
 lastly; he says that the various opponents of Mr. Van Buren, with 
 intent to use Judge White in defeating Mr. Van Buren, << combined 
 and worked in concert ; and their line of operations was through the 
 vanity of the victim's wife. They excited her vain hopes. And this 
 modest, unambitious man, who had spent all his life in resisting office 
 pressed upon him by his real friends, lost his power of resistance in 
 his old age, and became a victim to the combinations against him — 
 29 (44^) 
 
450 APPENDIX. 
 
 which all saw and deplored, except himself." Mr. Benton further 
 quotes as corroborating authoi-ity an extract from a letter, written not 
 in the most delicate manner, by a member of Congress from Ken^ 
 tucky, Hon. R. P. Letcher, and published by his correspondent, after 
 a fashion still less gentlemanly, as follows : " Judge White is on the 
 track, running gaily, and won't come off; and if he would, his ici/e 
 Kon't let him." 
 
 Some of these expressions are somewhat deficient in point of deco- 
 rum ; but they are liable to the much graver objection of unreason- 
 able error. 
 
 To consider these points in the order of time, Mr. Benton says, in 
 substance, that Mrs. White was vain and ambitious even to folly ; 
 that Judge White exhibited equal weakness by permitting her to 
 govern his public conduct ; and that the opponents of Mr. Van Buren 
 made her the instrument of deceiving him with unfounded hopes of 
 the Presidency, merely to further their own intrigues. 
 
 It will hardly be claimed that there was anything wrong or foolish, 
 in a desire or aspiration on the part of Mrs. White, to see her hus- 
 band President, and herself at the head of his table ; for unless some 
 privileges of some aristocratic order are to be set up, it is difScult to 
 see on what principle any lady in the United States is to be blamed 
 for the same ; and much more then, was the desire a right one, when 
 the circumstances of the case rendered its fulfilment so honorably 
 profitable. 
 
 But there is improbability in this imputation against Mrs. White. 
 She was of a respectable and influential family ; the daughter of 
 Colonel Craven Payton, of Loudon County, Virginia, who lost his life 
 in the war of 1812. Educated most thoroughly, and possessed of un- 
 common force of character, as well as great talent, she was one of the 
 most attractive women in the Union. She had been unhappily mar- 
 ried; and having been divorced, and nobly resolving not to be a 
 burden upon her friends, she deliberately undertook to maintain her- 
 self and her two children by her own exertions. Having failed in an 
 attempt to establish a school at Alexandria, she opened a boarding, 
 house at Washington, and by financial tact, skill and perseverance, 
 not only extricated herself from the pecuniary embarrassments which 
 her first failure had , brought upon her, but also accumulated a con- 
 siderable property. Her house was well known as the resort of the 
 jnost respectable class of visitors to Washington ; and after Judge 
 White had resided there while in that city, from 1820 to 1832, she 
 
APPEN'DIX. 451 
 
 became bis wife; She was abundantly qualifiod for her new position, 
 and she filled it with credit, attracting much attention, and giving 
 great pleasure to her husband, who loved her and was proud of her. 
 
 ;3ut t^iat he suffered himself to be gov-erned by her desires in 
 determining his official or public course, and especially that he was led 
 away into a vaiu and foolish ambition by her, is a gratuitous assump- 
 tion, totally irreconcilable with the main body of Mr. Benton's own 
 statements respecting his character, and with the truth. He would 
 doubtless do all that was possible to comply with her wishes; but there 
 is not one action or word in all his life, which does not aid in demon- 
 strating that in regard to the ordination especially of his public and 
 official acts, he proceeded according to the principles of right and 
 duty, without swerving aside in deference, either to his owu comfort 
 or pleasure, or to that of others, however near and dear. 
 
 It is not a little surprising that Mr. Benton should have reproduced, 
 even with the modified form of expression which he has substitutedj 
 so vulgar a piece of slang and scandal as the remark about Judge 
 White's being now " on the track," &e., and that even if he should 
 desire to come off, " his wife won't let him." Mr. Letcher's conduct 
 in relation to the nomination of Judge White, and his motives as In- 
 dicated in this letter, were discreditable enough to have justified entire 
 silence about the transaction • but since Mr. Benton has chosen to 
 endoi-se the idle tale, it is best to answer it, Mr. Letcher was sharply 
 reproved for his conduct and his words, and that by men not sus- 
 pected of unduly favoring Judge White. Mr. Blair, of the Globe, 
 says, in an editorial, Nov. 30, 1835, " With regard to jMr. Letcher's 
 introduction of Judge White's wife into his political epistle, we think 
 no reprehension too severe. Enjoying as he did last winter, the con- 
 fidence and intimacy of Judge White and his friends, and tbe portion 
 of his family then in this city living in social intercourse with that of 
 tbe Judge, we cannot conceive a more ungrateful return than tbe 
 ridicule he attempts to cast on tbe victim of his political intrigues, 
 through his dearest domestic relation." 
 
 Whatever Mr. Blair's personal relations with Judge White may 
 latterly have been, his words in this relation are entitled to great 
 weight. And he more than once repeated the reproof 
 
 But Mr. Benton represents Judge Whitd as having been a mere tool 
 in the hands of his wife ; and the intelligent and pa.^sive victim 
 through her means, of the deceitful machinations of Whigs, Cal- 
 houn men and disaffected Democrats, working together to defeat ]Mr. 
 
452 APPENDIX. 
 
 Van Buren at any sacrifice. This has always been the representation 
 of the partisans of Jackson and his successors, who of course were 
 interested to maintain the reputation of their own managers. Mr. 
 IBIair, in the same articles which administered to Mr. Letcher a 
 deserved castigation, gave, as his version of the facts, precisely the 
 substance of Mr. Benton's representations. 
 
 It is true, as Mr. Benton himself states, that Judge White did not, 
 like most political men, seek office, but merely consented to accept it, 
 often refusing. As of other nominations, so was this true of the 
 Presidential nomination. It was repeatedly pressed upon him before 
 he consented to accept it; and when he did accept it, it was in answer 
 to the calls of duty, not of ambition. His nomination, instead of 
 being a contrived scheme of Calhoun, Clay, and other opponents of 
 Van Buren, working together, was the spontaneous voice of his own 
 and other States; and the ultimate partial abandonment of it was not 
 the result of the further efforts of those same schemes, but of the 
 machinations of those pretended friends of Judge White, within his 
 own political party, who, along with General Jackson, were determined 
 to continue what might be called a dynasty of Jacksonian Presidents, 
 by the election of Van Buren. The abandonment of his nomination 
 by the Legislature of Alabama, was one success for this combination ; 
 but the rebuke whicli they received in Tennessee, has been stated. 
 That this is the real state of the case, satisfactory evidence has been 
 adduced in the preceding chapters ; especially in the twelfth, and the 
 five next succeeding. 
 
 Mr. Benton also states very positively, and as a thing undisputed, 
 another old partisan story, viz., that Judge White's alienation from 
 the " Democratic " organization, and his opposition to Mr. Van 
 Buren's administration, brought upon him the censure of his own 
 State. Now it is very true that this alienation and opposition brought 
 upon Judge White the bitter and unscrupulous enmity of the leading 
 " Democrats," who, even then, both at Washington and in Tennessee, 
 had degenerated from statesmen into mere managers and place hunt- 
 ers ; and that the machinations of these men prevailed to carry, in 
 the Tennessee Legislature, those instructions in response to which 
 Judge White resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. 
 But it certainly is altogether incorrect to represent this vote as the 
 voice of the State of Tennessee. The hearts of the mass of citizens 
 in that State were steadily with Judge White, as well after his differ- 
 ence with Jackson and the other schemers for Van Buren, as before. 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 Was it a sign of departed conflJenee and a mark of reprobation, that 
 in Jackson's own State, and against the whole immense ■weight of his 
 ■ oflBcial and personal influence, strenuously used and abused, Judge 
 White had a majority of ten thousand, forty-three to Van Buren's 
 eighteen in the Hermitage district itself? And although the admin- 
 istration members of the Tennessee Legislature did afterwards eontrive 
 to pass the instructing resolutions which it was well known would 
 oblige Judge "White to resign, yet the work was only done after a des- 
 perate struggle, and by the stringent operation of party and parlia- 
 mentary machinery. It certainly was not done in obedience to any 
 call from the people of Tennessee, for the subject was not passed upon 
 or even alluded to during the election which constituted that Leeisla- 
 ture. It was not the deliberate demand of a dissatisfied constituency ; 
 it was a shy contrivance, sprung and engendered by a few angry and 
 unprincipled enemies. The indignation meetings which afterwards 
 took place in various parts of Tennessee, the triumphal progress of 
 Judge White's final journey from Washington to his home, were much 
 truer indications of his place in the esteem of the voters whom be had 
 60 long and so faithfully represented. 
 
 Judge White never swerved from consistent practice accordant with 
 the principles which governed his conduct. These principles were 
 perhaps too pure and lofty to harmonize with the views of most of 
 those who then led the " Democratic " hosts. At any rate, it was 
 Judge White who did not deviate from pure and consistent Demo- 
 cratic principles, and from upright political conduct, but Jackson and 
 the remaining friends of Mr. Van Buren who did so deviate ; and 
 thus it was, according to all experience, that the delinquents expended 
 all their anger, and strove to cast all the blame of the difference in 
 opinion, upon him whose unstained honor and undeviating consistency 
 was a standing monument of their own duplicity and shame. 
 - As Mr. Benton says, Judge White, although of measured and quiet 
 deportment, was a man of strong feelings. He was peculiarly alive 
 to anything savoring of ingratitude, meanness, or deceit. Such beinor 
 the case, it would not be strange if the proceedings of these men in 
 the Jackson and Van Buren interest, who had formerly been his own 
 personal friends, had received so many kindnesses from him, and had 
 niade so many professions, not only of general good feeling, but of 
 efficient advocacy and support in that very nomination — it would not 
 be strange if these evidences of foul play touched him deeply. They 
 did; but that either they, or the ignoble mortification of a disappointed 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 office-seeker, were causes sufficient to shorten a life so pure, self-sus- 
 tained and noble, so unstained by passion, and so uninlluenced by sel- 
 fish interests, is a proposition absurd on its face. It is, moreover, 
 directly in conflict with the uniform assertions of Judge White him- 
 self, before, during, and after the election; and whatever distrust is 
 usually felt of such professions from men in public life, probably no 
 man will impugn the absolute and perfect truthfulness of Judge 
 White, even in a matter so immediately concerning himself. 
 
 These misrepresentations, in short, are neither even presumptively 
 .reasonable, nor based upon correct statements of actual fact. It is as 
 absurd as it is untrue to assert that after a long life of honor and use- 
 fulness, passed, before the sight of all men, upon an eminence so lofty 
 as that to which Judge White's integrity and abilities lifted him, and 
 under the searching gaze which always scrutinizes such men, without 
 a single stain or shadow of folly or wrong doing — it is as absurd as it 
 is untrue to assert that the patriot grown old in the practice of wisdom 
 and in disinterested toil, closed the long succession of his honorable 
 and honored actions, with the exhibition of superannuated folly and 
 imbecile grief charged upon him by his former opponents, and yet 
 reproduced even by the best of their survivers. 
 
 It remains to suggest adequate reasons for these erroneous imputa- 
 tions of passive folly, of weak ambition, and of weaker lamentation. 
 They are not wanting. 
 
 First. That which is described as having been the unresisting sub- 
 mission of a weak old man, was singly perseverance in a long life rule 
 "never to seek office, but to let office seek him." Such were Judge 
 White's own words ; and as always before, so did he now quickly pre- 
 pare to respond to the call of his fellow-countrymen, if it should be 
 uttered. It was a thing of course, that his unmoved and dignified 
 conduct should, in the eyes of the greedy, grasping and intriguing 
 class of selfish politicians, who at that period descended like a cloud 
 of locusts upon the land, seem to be foolishness and imbecility. Nor 
 were they the first shrewd men who have been " wiser in their own 
 generation " than the loftier and more far-sighted, whoso principles 
 of action and views of true expediency they could neither practice 
 Dor comprehend. 
 
 But — with due respect be it said — it is, secondly, to be observed, 
 that this verdict from Mr. Benton seems easily to be accounted for by 
 his very general habit of attributing all the actions of his prominent 
 political cotemporaries of opposite belief, to motives purely selfish and 
 
APPEXDIX. 455 
 
 personal. He has given, for Judge White's conduct, such reasons as 
 it is his habit to give for the conduct of many other eminent men ; 
 although, indeed, he has not attributed such to Gen. Jackson, or to 
 any others of those with whom his own political communion has been 
 undisturbed. The " Panama Mission " is said to have been contrived 
 and used, only as an Administration measure, in the behalf of Presi- 
 dent Adams and Mr. Clay; vol. I., p. 65. The Tariff of 1828 was 
 advocated by Mr. Clay and the Administration, with reference to the 
 election of 1828, as a means of beating Jackson, not for the good of 
 the country ; vol. I., p. 95, et seq. Clay and Calhoun desired the 
 Tariff question to be withdrawn from politics, because they could not 
 use it to become Presidents with; vol. I., p. 314. Calhoun attempts 
 to become President by Nullification; p. 340. Both these gentle- 
 men, Chap. LXXXV., arranged the <' Compromise of 1833 " with 
 sole reference to their own Presidential aspirations. Clay, Calhoun, 
 and Webster, join to aid the United States Bank in procuring a re- 
 charter, that they may overthrow Jackson and rise by his fall; Chap. 
 XGVIII. Indeed, assertions and implications to similar effect are 
 too numerously sprinkled throughout Mr. Benton's work, to permit 
 more than a very few of them to be referred to. It need not be sup- 
 posed that that honest and upright statesman has consciously wronged 
 any man. Such a conviction has not improbably been the legitimate 
 result of his observations. His error in this single case is simply 
 failure to recognise an exception to a rule unhappily generally correct. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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