LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDD0SD7flHS3 ^^'% '-yws J' %. • » A^-^ * '^^ % .%^-^^ "^^ ron all — for the agent who is sworn to support it, to violate it knowingly and intentionally, would be an act of the grossest immorality and most unmitigat- ed debasement. Such is the condition in which, in my view of the subject, obedience to your instructions would place me. It is known to you, gentle- men, that, on entering the Senate, the only oath which I took was an oath to support the constitution of the United States; to support it in all and each of its provisions; to yield it neither to force, persuasion, nor expediency; no matter what the object, should its attainment confer upon me the greatest personal advantage, still to remain unseduced. Not to touch that forbidden fruit — I entered into a covenant with my Creator, to break which would not fail to place in my bosom a Promethean vulture to tear and devour me. The obligation, then, to obey an instruction which calls upon me to break that covenant, cannot possibly exist. I should be unworthy the confidence of all honorable men if I could be induced, under any circumstances, to commit an act of deliberate perjury. Instead of a seat in the Senate, I should most richly deserve to be put in the pillory, and to lose both my cars as an indeli- ble mark of iny baseness; and such would be the sentence which the law of Virginia would pronounce against mo. You have admitted the truth of this proposition in the alternatives presented in your second resolution. Between those alternatives I cannot hesitate to choose. It is not for every diflerence of opinion which may arise between the representative and constituent, that the constituent would necessarily require the resignation of the representative. In the course of a somewhat long political life, it must often have occurred that my opinions have been variant from the opinions of those I represented; but, in presenting to me the alternative of resignation in this instance, you give me distinctly to be informed that the accomplishment of your object is regarded as of such primary importance, that my resignation is desired if compliance cannot bo yielded. I am bound to consider you as in this fairly representing the sentiments of our common constituents, the people of Virginia, to whom alone you are amenable if you have mistaken their wishes. My position in regard to this whole subject is of a character to preclude me from going into abstractions. I do not hesitate, on the con- trary, to declare, that if you had, as the accredited organs of the people, addressed mo a request to vacate my seat in the Senate, your request would have had with me the force of law — not a day or an hour would I desire to remain in the Senate beyond that day and that hour where- in I came to be informed that it was the settled wish of the people of Vir- ginia that I should retire from their service. That people have honored me with the highest offices witliin their gift. If the talents which I have brought into their service be humble, I have at least brought fidelity to their interests. No where else have I looked for reward, but to their approbation. I have served under four administrations, and might, doul^ilessly, by a course of sub- serviency and sycophancy, have obtained, what is called by some, prefer- ment; but what could have compensated for the baseness of my prostitu- tion, and the betrayal of the confidence reposed in me by a generous people? The Executive files furnish no record of my name as an applicant for any of the crumbs which have fallen from the Executive table. I repeat that I have looked exclusively to the people of Virginia — and when they have extended to me their confidence for twenty-odd years — when I am indebted to them for whatsoever of credit and standing 1 possess in the world — I cannot, and will not, permit myself to remain in the Senate for a moment beyond the_ time that their accredited organs shall instruct me that mv services are no longer acceptable. If gratitude for the past did not, my own conscious weak- ness would control my course. Wiiat would it profit xhn country, or myself, for me to remain in the Senate against their wishes? By retaining my place, in opposition to their fixed, declared, and settled will, I should aid no cause — advance no great purpose — be powerless for good, and provoke only to harm. Reposing on my own feeble strength, I should vainly (latter myself that I could, with my single arm, sustain the constitution, and keep back what I might consider the tide of error — when, in very trutli, I should but excite the popular prejudices more strongly, and ijiiniinently endanger the conslitutiori by my elTorts to sustain it. ^^j^-" In resigning then, gentlemen, into your hands, my p'lace in the Senate of the United States, to which I was called by your predecessors, I trust I shall he indulged in a brief exposition of the reasons which have led me to the conclusion, that, to obey your instructions, would be to violate the constitu- tion of the United States. I shall do so boldly and fearlessly; but with all becoming respect, and with all the brevity in my power, * The Senate is or- dered by the constitution to keep a journal of its proceedings, and to publish it froin time to time. This injunction is thus solemnly imposed upon the ag- gregate body, and on each individual Senator: whatever sliall be done, shall be faithfully recorded by the Secretary, and shall be faithfully kept — not for an hour, and then to be defaced; not for a day, and then to be erased; not for a year, and then to be expunged; but forever, as a perpetual witness, a faithful history by which the conduct, the motives, the actions of men shall be judged, not by those of the present day only, but through all time. It was a wise cus- tom among the Cl)inese, which required the' biography of each Emperor to be written before the close of his life, and placed before him, so as to give him foreknowledge of what the world would think of him after his death. It was designed to restrain his evil passions, to curb the exercise of despotic sway. It addressed itself to his ambition, and excited within him a longing for au immorlaliiy in the gratitude and admiration of succeeding ages. But this pro- vision in our constitution is still wiser. Each Senator writes daily his own biography. He is required to record his own acts, and takes an oath to keep that record, and to publish it fro7n time to time. The applause or censure of his fellow-men is not postponed until he has descended to the tomb. It is dail}' uttered by the living generation. How powerful are the inducements thus addressed to each member to be faithful to tlie trust confided to him! How much to be admired tiie wisdom of our ancestors, in framing the consti- tution! If this was its only feature, their title to immortality would seem to be established. This simple provision is one of the great secuj'ities of Ameiican liberty. It takes nothing upon trust. If the Senate kept no journal, it would be a secret conclave, where deeds the most revolting might be performed in secrecy and darkness. The train might there be laid, the mine prepared, and the first knowledge of the treason might be the explosion and consequent overthrow of free government. Liberty could not co-exist with such a state of thino-s. There is no liberty where there is no responsibility, and there can be no re- sponsibility where nothing is known. To have a Secretary seated at the table of the Senate, to write down its proceedings, and to claim for itself the right to cancel, obliterate, or ex[)unge what he had written, is equivalent to having no journal at all — a mockery and a fraud. The journal of the morn- ing may be cancelled in the evening. That of to-day ma}^ be expunged to- morrow. Cancel it in any way — vi'hether by black or red marks — whether with circles or by straight lines — it ceases to be a journal; and that which was, is not. The journal is to he published. But there is no journal; there was one yesterday, but ere it can reach the press, it is cancelled, marked out, or expunged. These are the necessary results of obedience to your instructions. If that journal contain a transaction discreditable to the Senate, I would pre- serve it as a perpetual monument of its disgrace — if, to a party leader, I will give him and his friends, who may temporarily have the ascendency, no war- rant to erase or blur the page on which such act of misconduct is recorded. I should be afraid, after performing such a deed, if Virginia is as she once was, (and I do not doubt it,) to return within her limits. The execrations of her people would be thundered in my ears; the soil which had been trod by her heroes and statesmen would furnish me no resting-place. I should feel my- self guilty, most guilty; and however I might succeed in concealing myself from the sight of men, I could not, in my view of the subject, save myself from the upbraidings of my own perjured conscience. How could I return to mix among her people, to share their hospitality and kindness, with the declaration on my lips, " I have violated my oath for office, and, sooner than surrender my place in the Senate, have struck down the constitution'?" If the Senate has a right to touch the Journal under instructions, it has the right to do so without; if to cancel a part, a right to expunge the whole; if to use ink from a pen, a right to pour it from a bottle; to destroy the Journal in any other way, to burn it; to make a bonfire of all that is bright and glorious in our history. I know it has been said, the process directed to be adopted by your resolutions is not designed to expunge. I cannot believe this, and reject it as equally injurious to yourselves and unjust to tliose you repre- sent. You direct the words " expunged by order of the Senate" to be writ- ten across the resolution on which you have made war. I will not believe that you merely design to ensnare my conscience — much less will I indulge, for a moment, the idea that you direct a falsehood to be recorded by me. Those do not understand you who make such ascriptions to you, and I am not misled by them. The General Assembly of a proud and lofty State is incapable of a mere quibble, and such a one as would disgrace a King's jester. No, gentlemen, the act which you direct to be performed is designed to be, and is, equivalent to an actual obliteration in all its practical results. The man- ner of accomplishing this act of cancellation is wholly immaterial. In pub- lishing this J ourna], from time to time, hereafter, the resolution thus cancelled cannot be published as a part of it. It is declared to be expunged on its face. But if, in this, I could possibly be mistaken — if, after all, it is merely child's play, the making a few flourishes, and putting the Secretary of the Senate to the trouble to write a few unmeaning words, the question would not be changed. Such as is the Journal, so shall it remain — unaltered in a letter, un- changed in a comma — the same as it now is " to the last syllable of recorded time;" such is the fiat of the constitution. There is not a clerk or deputy clerk in the commonwealth of Virginia who would execute such an order in re- gard to his records. The people would be alive to the question, and, in vindi- cation of their rights, would expuvgc the court, sooner than permit the record containing the titles to their estates to be cancelled in any manner whatever. They surely cannot take less interest in the preservation of the constitution, the great charter of all their rights. The eft'ort has been made to hunt up precedents to justify this act. The pages of English parliamentary history have been ransacked; and an array has been made of examples drawn from the times of the Jameses and Georges of England. With equal force might examples be quoted to justify an American President in executing capitally a citizen of any one of the States without the form of a trial. He might equally be justified in the use of the bow-string, because such is the power of the Grand Seignor. The power of the English Parliament is unlimited; so is that of many of the States of this Union in regard to this particular subject. No precedent can have force to overthrow an express enactment of the constitution. Un- der its provision the Senate is directed to keep a journal of its proceedings, to preserve it, and to publish it from time to time. If I were permitted to look elsewhere than to that constitution, I would go to Virginia for bright and glorious examples to conduct me in safety. The first in point of prom- inence, although not in point of time, was the course attempted to be adopted by the King's party in the House of Burgesses in 1765, as to the celebrated resolutions of Patrick Henry of that period. Those resolutions were declaratory of the rights of British America. After their adoption, many of those who voted for them left the city of Williamsburg, thereby giving to the opposite party the accidental ascendancy, and they immediately formed the resolution to expunge them from the journal. But, by a stroke of policy as bold as it was successful, Mr. Henry saved those resolutions from being expunged, which form at this day one of the brightest pages in Vir- ginia history, and, recorded on any man's tomb, would etetnize his fame. And yet to expunge them from the journal was regarded as much an act of duty by those who proposed it, as you, gentlemen, can esteem it to be in the case under consideration. They failed; and ray prayer as a citizen of a free country is, that you too may be unsuccessful. Your posterity may have good cause to rejoice in your failure. Another example, almost as illustrious, is to be found in the conduct of Robert Beverly during the administration of Lord Culpepper. The history of the incidents of that transaction is not only instructive, but highly interesting. Lord Culpepper, armed with all the authority of the , King of England, his master, ordered that a resolution adopted by the House of Burgesses, during the administration of Herbert Jeffries, should be expunged from their records, " as highly derogatory to His Majesty's pre- rogative." Robert Beverly was clerk to the House of Burgesses. Every effort was made to induce him to produce the journal in order to have it ex- punged; he was subjected to all manner of persecution, but he gloried in his sufferings, and his noble spirit rose in proportion to his persecutions. He peremptorily refused to comply, alleging " that his masters, the House of Bur- gesses, had alone a right to make such a demand, and that their authority alone he durst or would obey." And I, too, reply to those orders which are now given me, that I will not expunge the records of the Senate until the constitution, which while it is permitted to remain as it is, master over all, shall be changed, altered, or abolished. You will have full opportunity, gen- tlemen, to appoint another in my place. For my part, I will not consent to be made an instrument to accomplish such an object, nor shall I envy any successor whom you may send on such a mission. Had your resolutions directed me to rescind or repeal the resolution of the Senate, I would have obeyed your orders — although with great reluctance, I would, nevertheless, have felt myself constrained to do so by my recogni- tion of your right to instruct me. That proceeding would have reversed and annulled the act complained of. If your object was to vindicate the President in the authority which he assumed, and still exercises, over the public money, and you esteemed it necessary, in order to do so, to have your opinions expressed through me in the Senate chamber, they should have been faithfully represented. His vindication, after all, cannot consist in the form in which it may be urged. It is to be found alone io the legislative 8 expression of opinion; and even il" your declarations in his behalf were con- fined to your own journals, the historian would not fail to avail himself of them as efficiently as if they stood emblazoned on the heavens. From my knowledge of you, 1 am sure that you would not be willing to pull down the constitution unnecessarily and without object. In 3'Our effort to vindicate the President, you have cast on me, in common with others, the very reproach which you are pleased to regard as so offensive in reference to him. You have publicly, and before the world, declared a re- solution for which I voted to be " subversive of the rights of the House of Re- presentatives, and the fundamental principles of free government." If you designed to charge me with impurity of motive in the vote thus given, your accusation would imply the highest censure. But this I do not ascribe to you. You intend to say no more than that your judgment and opinion differs from that expressed by me upon the subject, out of which grew the resolution of the Senate; and that the .Senate committed an error which, in its effect, is cal- culated to subvert " the rights of the House of Representatives, and the fun- damental principles of free government." The censure which your reso- lution conveys, implies a want of correct judgment on my part in voting for that resolution, and nothing more. If this be your true meaning, (and I will not permit myself to think otherwise,) I am yet to learn how I incur the hazard of " subverting the rights of the House of Representatives, and the funda- mental principles of free government," by having declared, in substance, v.'hat, as a member of the Senate, I did by my vote declare — that the Presi- dent had mistaken his course, and that his conduct was " in derogation of the constitution and laws." Have I done more in this than you have done in your declaration'? and, if not, I submit it in all candor to your dispassionate judgment to say, whether, if I v.'cre liable to trial on impeachment before you, you would consider yourselves as having already pronounced upon my guilt in advance. I should certainly not dream of excepting to you as my judges, because, resting on my integrity of motive, I should feel confident of acquit- tal. There can be no guilt without a criminal design; and I am sure you would be among the last to ascribe to the President any criminality of design. Am I to understand you as declaring, because the House of Representa- tives may originate an impeachment against the President or other officer of the Government, that the Senate has no right to express an opinion as to any act of the President or other officer — no matter what may be the act, even if it annihilates the powers of the Senate? Has it no rights, in- herent in all other bodies, of self-protection and defence? A Brennus may invade the body and pluck it by the beard, and yet, according to this, it has no authority to resist. Go to that venerable patriarch of Montpelier, (JVIr. Madi- son,) and ask him whether, in framing the constitution, he designed that the Senate should be a mere motionless stock, or a vigilant sentinel to give notice of the approach of danger to that constitution which it is sworn to support. Whether the representatives of sovereign States are such mere automata, as to move only when they are bidden, and to sit in their places like statues, to record such edicts as may come to them? If the President recommends a measure which the Senate believes impolitic, shall it not say so? If he adopts a course which he may believe to be correct, but which the Senate tb'nks un- constitutional, may it not say so? And does its so declaring tend to subvert or support the fundamental principles of free government? You surely can be at no loss to decide. The Senate, in the instance of the laio Postmaster General, (Mr. Barry,) who had contracted loans, in his official character, for the use of his Department, without authority, declared, by a unanimous vote, that his proceedings in this respect were in violation of the constitution; and 9 yet no complaint has been uttered against that resolution of the Senate. How comes it about that anathemas have not been thundered in the ears of the Senate because of that vote^ Why is that not ordered to be expunged? Why is not that also declared " subversive of the rights of the House of Rep- resentatives, and of the fundamental principles of free government?" Is not the error as vital when it affects William T. Barry, as when it affects Andrew- Jackson? If so, every motive of generosity prompted an interference in behalf of the first. He was powerless, and is now in his grave. I had a per- sonal regard for Mr. Barry. Ho was talented, and his fault lay in his being too confiding; honest himself, he did not suspect others, and they deceived him. This was the rock on which he split. In voting for that resolution, I did not design to impute to him moral guilt. 1 did not believe it. 1 designed nothing more than to vindicate the constitution. I thought that, in doing so, I gave support to the " fundamental principles of free government," and never once dreamed that I had done an act in the remotest degree "subversive of the rights of the House of Representatives." But, say that in all this 1 was wrong. In voting for the resolution of the Senate, against which you are now so indignant, I did no more than carry out the expressly declared views of the Legislature, as expressed in then resolutions of that day, and which were passed by overwhelming majorities of more than two to one in both Houses. The terms employed by the Le- gislature were strong and decided. The conduct of the President was repre- sented as dangerous and alarming. I was told that it could not be too strongly condemned; that he had manifested a disposition greatly to extend his official jnflweiice; and because, with these declarations before me, I voted for a reso- lution which declares " that the President, in the late executive proceedings, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of botii," I am now ostracised by your fiat, which requires obedience or resignation. Compare the resolutions of the General Asscmblv of that day with the above resolution, and its mildness will be •entirely obvious. I submit, with all due deference, to yourselves, what is to be the condition of a Senator in futiue, if", for yielding obedience to the wishes of one Legislature, he is to be called upon to resign by another. If he disobeys the first, he is condemned; if he obeys the last, he violates his oath and becomes an object of scorn and contempt. I respectfully ask if this be the mode by which the great right of instructions is to be sustained? May it not degene- rate into an engine of faction — an instrument to be employed by the outs to get in? Instead of being directed to noble purposes, to the advancement of tlie cause oi' civil liberty, may it not be converted into a political guillotine devoted to the worst of purposes? Nor are these anticipations at all weak- ened by the fact, as it exists in the case now under consideration, that several of those who constitute the present majorities in the General Assembly, and who now call upon me to expunge the journal or to resign my seat, actually voted for the very resolutions of a previnus srssion to which I hai'c referred.^ I have tiius, gentlemen, with frankness, but without designing oft'ence, -expressed to you my opinions. With the question whether the resolution of the Senate which you direct to be expunged be true or false, I have nothing in this [)lacc to do. If false, to njscind or repeal it was to anniliilale its force as effectually as to cancel it. You have preferred to adopt a differ- ent course. I dare not touch the journal of the Senate. The constitution forbids it. In the midst of all the agitations of party, I have heretofore stood by thai sacred instrument. It is the only post of honor and of safety. Par- ties are continually changing. The men of to-day give place to the men of 10 to-morrow; and the idols which one set worship, tlie next destroy. Theon!y object of my political worship shall be the constitution of my country, f will not be the instrument to overthrow it. A seat in the Senate is sufficiently elevated to fill the measure of any man's ambition, and, as an evidence of the sincerity of my convictions that your resolutions cannot be executed without violating my oath, I resign into your hands three unexpired years of my terra. I shall carry with me into retirement the principles which I brought with me into public life; and by the surrender of the high station to which I was called by the voice of the people of Virginia, I shall set an ex- ample to my children which shall teach them to regard as nothing, place and office, when either to be attained or held at the sacrifice of honor, I am, gentlemen. Your fellow-citizen, JOHN TYLER. 11 NOTES. The foUow'mg are the resolutions of the present General Assembly, for which the Senators from Virginia were required either to vote or resign their seats: Preamble and resolutions upon the subject of expunging from the journals of the Senate of the United States a resolution of that bodi/, and rela- tive to the right of instruction. Whereas the Senate of the United States did, on the twenty-eighth day of March, eighteen hundred and thirty-four, adopt the following resolution: " Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both;" which resolution now stands upon the journal of the Senate: And whereas the General Assembly of Virginia regard this act of the Senate as an assumption of power not warranted by the constitution, and calculated to subvert the rights of the House of Representatives, and the fundamental principles of our free institutions: And whereas this Assembly deem it their solemn duty again to reassert, in behalf of themselves and the people of Virginia, the right of the constituent to instruct, and the duty of the representative to obey or resign: Therefore, Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia., That the Senators from this State, in the Congress of the United States, be, and they are hereby, in- structed to introduce, and vote for, a resolution, directing the aforesaid reso- lution of the Senate, of the twenty- eighth day of March, eighteen hundred and thirty-four, declaring — "that the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both," to be expunged from the journal of the Senate of the United States, by caus- ing black, lines to be drawn around the said resolution, as it stands on the original manuscript journal, and these words plainly written across the face of the said resolution and entry: Expunged by order of the Senate of the United States. Resolved^ also. That this Assembly regard the right of instruction "as rest- ing on the broad basis of the nature of representation," and one of the vital principles of our free institutions; and that it is the duty of the representative to obey the instructions of his constituents, or resign the trust with which they have clothed him, in order that it may be transferred into the hands of those who will carry into execution the wishes and instructions of the constituent body. Resolved, That the Governor of the Commonwealth be requested to trans- mit the foregoing resolutions to each of the Senators from Virginia, in the Congress of the United States, with a request that they lay the same before the Senate. Agreed to by the General Assembly, February 20, 1836. GEORGE W. MUNFORD, C. H. D. The following are the resolutions of the General Assembly which were adopted by majorities of more than two to one in the House of Delegates and Senate, in the year 1834; in pursuance of which the Senators from Virginia voted for the resolution of the Senate now ordered to be expunged: 12 1. Resolved by the General Jlssembly, That the recent act of the President of the United States, exerting a control over the public deposites, by causing them to be withheld and withdrawn, on his own responsibility, from the United States Bank, in wiiich they had been ordered to be placed by the act of Con- gress chartering the said bank, is, in the judgment of the General Assembly, a dangerous and alarming assumption of power by that officer which cannot be too strongly condemned. 2. Resolved, That while the General Assembly will ever be ready to sus- tain the President in the exercise of all such powers as the constitution has con- fided to him, they, nevertheless, cannot but regard with apprehension and dis- trust the disposition to extend his official authority beyond its just and proper limits, which he has so clearly manifested in his recent interference with the Treasury De[iartment of the Federal Goverim»ent, in the exercise of a sound discretion which Congress iiad confided to the head of that department alone. 3. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Repre- sentatives requested, to use their best exertions to procure the adoption, by Congress, of proper measures for restoring the public moneys to the Bank ot the United States, or, at least, for causing them to be deposited therein for the future, according to the direction and stipulation of the act of Congress char- tering the said bank, if, at the time of their action on the subject, the said bank be, in their opinion, a safe depository of the public treasure. 4. Resolved, That the General Assembly cannot recognise as constitutional the power which has beeri claimed by Congress to establish a United States Bank, because, in the opinion of tlve General Assembly, as they have here- tofore solemnly declared, that power is not given to Congress by the constitu tion of the United States. 5. Resolved, That the General Assembly do not intend by the declaration of their opinion in regard to the unconstitutionality of the Bank of the United States, to qualify, or in any manner to impair, the force of their disapproba- tion of the withholding and withdrawing of the public deposites. 6. Resolved, That the Governor of the Commonwealth be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to each of our Senators and Representa- tives in the Congress of the United States. 'The following is a list of the names of the members of the present General A&sembly who voted, except the first two named, for the first, and all for the second resolution, and who have now voted for the present expunging orders, to wit: y Linn Banks, Speaker of the House of Delegates. Thomas Sloan, of the same House. vStaftord H. Parker, Speaker of the Senate. Archibald R, Harwood, Samuel L. Hays, .John \V. Nash, William Shands, Francis Billingly, William Basye. 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