05^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/americanannualre05bl THE a'merican annual register; FOR THE YEAR 1829 — 30, OR THE FIFTYFOURTH YEAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. SECOND EDITION. BOSTON : PUBLISHED BY GRAY AND BOWEN. NEW YORK: E. AND G. W. BLUNT. 1832. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1831. By Gray & Boaven, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts. CONTENTS. Page. UNITED STATES.— Inauguration of General Jackson.— State of Public Affairs. — Political Principles of President. — New Cabinet. — Removals — Opposition in Senate. — Post-office Department. — Dissensions in the Cabinet. — Controversy between the President and Vice President. — Cause and consequence thereof. . 9 Situation of the Country. — Claims upon France 5 origin of Claims. — Claims upon Denmark ; settlement of — History of French Claims ; negotiations con- cerning same. — Brazil. — Negotiations with Turkey 5 Treaty. — Great Britain; Colonial Controversy; History of Dispute. — Policy of Great Britain ; of United f States.— Law of 1818 ; of 1820.— Negotiation.— British Law of 1822.— Law of 1823. — American Ports opened. — British Law of 1S25. — Colonial Ports closed.— Negotiations renewed. — Proceedings in Congress. — Concessions by United States. — American Ports opened. — Colonial Ports opened. . . . , 26 Treaties between the United States and Cherokees.— Condition of Cherokees.— Constitution adopted by do. — Policy of Georgia. — Views of Federal Govern- ment. — Question between the Cherokees and the United States. — Conduct of Georgia. — Proceedings in Congress. — Bill reported in Senate, — Proceedings in Senate.— In House.— Passage of Bill.— Character of Bill 43 Opinions in South Carolina. — Proceedings in Southern States.— Nullification.— Public Lands; system of disposing of same. — Pretensions of Indiana and Illi- nois. — Graduation Bill. — Mr Foot's Resolution ; Debate thereon. — Mr Hayne's Spccok — Mr Webster's Reply.— Effect of Discussion.— Graduation Bill passes the Senate.— Laid ovei 1- «o„se.— Nullification Party 62 Opening of the First Session of Twentyfirst L.uug.^.„ — President's Message.— Retrenchment. — Amendments to Constitution. — United States t>miK. — ilriff; Bill to enforce ; Policy; Discussion of and Passage. — Bills to reduce Duty on • Salt; on Molasses; on Tea and Coffee. — Tonnage Duties. — Cash Duties. — Mr Benton's Scheme. — Mr Cambreleng's Navigation Bill. — Discussion concerning prosperity of Country ■ . . 143 Treasury Report for 1829. — Appropriations for 1830 — Support of Government. — Discussion on Bill. — Naval Service. — Marine Corps. — Fortifications. — Engineer Department. — Military Service. — Indian Department. — Massachusetts Claim. . 176 Progress of Internal Improvement. — Act of 1824. — Opposition to System. — Cour e of Discussion. — President's Opinion. — Orleans and Buffalo Road Bill. — Surv ey Bill ; Discussion concerning same. — Conditional Approval. — Maysville Ro d Bill ; Rejected. — Discussion on Message. — Washington Turnpike Bill ; Reject- ed. — Louisville Canal and Lighthouse Bills ; Retained. — Harbor Bill. . 191 MEXICO. — Condition of Country. — Invasion from Havana. — Defeat and Capitula- tion of Invaders. — Revolution. — Separation of Yucatan. — Abdication cf Guerre- o — Bustamente chosen 217 COLOMBIA. — Mosquera elected President. — Castillo's project of a Constitution. — Congress convoked on January, 1830. — Attempt to introduce a Monarchy. — Revolt of Cordova. — Arrival of Bolivar at Bogota. — Resigns his office to Con- gress. — Message to Congress ; Character of do. — Separation of Venezuela. Causes of Discontent. — Overthrow of Government. — Negotiations. — Mosquera chosen by Congress. — Commotions at Bogota. — Constitution accepted. — Sucre assassinated. — Movements in favor of Bolivar.— Dissolution of the Government. — Bolivar reassumes the Government. — Bolivar's death. , . . , 222 V iv. CONTENTS. Page, BUENOS AYRES.— Condition of Country.— Civil War.— Retreat of Rosas.— New Government.'— Pacification. — Viamout elected Governor. — Proceedings concerning Dorrego's Execution. — Rosas elected Governor, — New Disturban- ces. — Quiroga defeated. — Invasion of Cuyo.— Meeting of Legislature. — Condi- tion of Country.— Monte Video 244 FRANCE. — Vicissitudes in France. — Polignac Ministry. — Public Opinion. — La Fayette in Lyons.— Breton Association. — Parisian Cafes. — Pamphlets. — Jour- nals. — Journalism. — Comite Directeur. — Jesuits. — State of the Question. — Meeting of the Chambers.-— Character of Parties. 251 France, Continued. — Meeting of the Chambers. — Speech of the King. — Ad- dress of the Deputies. — Prorogation. — Discussions. — Dissolution of the Cham- ber. — New Ministers. — Elections. — Algerine Expedition. — State of Algiers. — Cause of the War. — Preparation. — Landing in Africa. — Surrender of Algiers. — Colonization of Africa. 285 FRANCE;, Continued. — Consequences ofthefallof Algiers. — Ministerial arrange- ments. — State of Parties. — The Ordinances. — Their effect. — Protest of Journal- ists. — State of the Question. — Protest of the Deputies. — Police arrangements. . 307 France, Continued. — The Three Days. — Military arrangements. — Marmont. — The Garrison. — Dispersion of the People. — Night of Tuesday. — The Citizens arm on Wednesday. — Marmont's Plans. — Deputation of the Citizens. — Move- ments of the Troops. — Conflict at the Hotel de Ville. — Retreat of the Troops. — Their conduct. — Barricades, Thursday. — The Polytechnic School. — Position of the Garrison. — Combats. — Capture of the Louvre. — Evacuation of the Tuileries and of Paris. — Conduct of the People. — Their Losses. 323 France, Continued. — Provisional Government of Thursday. — La Fayette. — Proposal of the King. — The Due d'Orleans made Lieutenant General. — State of Paris. — Expulsion of the Bourbons. — Remarks 357 France, Concluded. — Proceedings of the Chambers. — The new Charter. — Due d'Orleans King. — Settlement of the Government. — Conclusion. . . . 3 80 NETHERLANDS.— Opposition of the Allies to Republican Governments.— Kingdom of the Netherlands. — The creation of the Congress of Vienna. — Uni- ted Provinces, Islands, «fec, of German origin. — Walloons of the Gallic race. — Contests of the fifth century between the Salians and Saxons. — Conversion of Witikend to Christianity. — Conquest of the Country by Charlemagne- — Corpo- rate Trades. — Charles, the great-grandfather of Charles Fifth. — Marriacf «f ^'^^ daughter with Maximilian of Austria.— Connexion with Ferdinand and Isabella. — Charles Fifth.— Reformation.— Inqnioitiou.— riiilip.— William of Nassau.— The obnoxious Minister Gianvilie. — Gueux or Beggars, the title of the opposers ot Government. — Division between the Protestants and Catholics. — Union of the Seven United Provinces. — Power of the Dutch in the Seventeenth and Eigh- teenth Centuries.— Conquests in the East and West Indies. — French Revolu- tion. — Batavian Republic. — Kingdom of Holland. — French Province. — Belgium annexed to France. — Revolution of 1813. — Restoration of House of Nassau. — Constitution. — Belgium united with Holland. — Assembly of Notables. — Amend- ed Constitution.— Public Debt. — Situation of the Netherlands as to Foreign Powers.- — Internal disputes from the Catholic Religion and Education. — Free Trade and Restriction.— Ordinances as to Language. — Budget. — M. de Potter, — His Trial. — Session of 1829. — Ministerial Responsibility. — Law on the Press. — Revolution of 26th August, 1830. — Demands of the Belgians. — Meeting of the States General, 12th September, 1830.— King's Speech —Provisional Govern- ment at Brussels. — Attack of Prince Frederick. — Recognition of the Belgians by the Prince of Orange.— Return of M. de Potter to Brussels.— Character of King William 395 THE PENINSULA.— Spain.— Rumors.— Queen's Death.— Public expectations. —Arrival of the new Queen.— Law of Succession.— Portugal 41-$. ENGLAND.— Retrospective view of the settlement of the Catholic Question in 1829. — Its consequences. — Its essential connexion with other projects of Reform. — Meeting of Parliament, February, 1 830. — Debates on the Addresses. — Universal Distress of the Country. — Amendments to the Addresses, proposed; rejected. — Amendment of Lord King. — Reduction and substitution of Taxes. — Parliamenta- ry Reform.— Aff'airs of India.— Foreign Affairs.-Greece.-Portugal.— Death of George IV. — Notices of his Life and Character. — Accession of William IV.— Notices of his previous Life. — Dissolution of Parliament.— Meeting of the new s/.^S CONTENTS. v 0.\7 Page Parliament. — Declaration of the Duke of Wellington against Parliamentary Re- form. — Threatened Riots in London. — Postponement of the Banquet on Lord Mayor's day. — Civil List. — Motion for inquiry carried against the Ministers. — They Resign. — New Ministry. — Earl Grey Premier. — Reform. — Riots and Dis- turbances in the Country 419 Executive Officers of the United States, Judiciary, .... Diplomatic Corps, . . Army Promotions, . . , . Navy Promotions, . . Members of the 21st Congress, Governors of States, Census of 1830, ... Duties received in 1829 Public Debt of the United States, Custom-house Returns, Treasury Returns, Sales of Public Lands for 1829, . Expenditures of United States for 1829, Imports and Exports from 1821 to 1829, Commerce of each State and Territory, for 1828-9, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States for the year ending September 30, 1829, ....... Condensed View of the Tonnage of the several Districts of the United State on the 31st December, 1828, .... . . Abstract of the Tonnage of the Shipping of the several Districts of the United States on the 31st December, 1828, ..... Quantities of American and Foreign Tonnage entered into, and departing from each District of the United States during the year ending Sept. 30, 1829, Recapitulation of the Tonnage of the United States for the yoer 1828, Summary statement of Merchandise imported into the United States, in Ameri ^ can and Foreign vessels from Oct. 1, 1828, to Sept. 30, 1829, Summary statement of the value of the Exports of the Growth, Produce and Manufacture of the United States, during the year ending on the 30th Seo- tember, 1829, . . . • . . \ Statement showing the whole amount of Indian Annuities now payable under treaty provisions ; dates of the acts of oppropriation ; names of tribes to whom payable ; the sums which are permanent, and those which are limited, and the terms of limitation, .... LOCAL HISTORY AND DOMESTIC OCCURRENCES. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri vi CONTENTS. PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Page. Message from the President of the United States to to the Twentyfirst Congress, First Session, . . . ...... 1 Message from the President rejecting the Maysville and Lexington Road Bill, . 22 Treaty between the United States and Brazil, . . . . .33 Treaty between the United States and Prussia, . . . . .43 Convention between the United States and Denmark, . . . .49 Correspondence in relation to the Trade between the United States and British Colonies, .......... 52 Proclamation of President of the United States opening the Ports . . . 114 Circular to the Collectors of Customs, ...... 116 Correspondence in relation to opening the Ports, . , . . .117 Order in Council opening the Ports, ....... 120 Present and proposed Import Duties in the American Colonies, . . . 122 Documents concerning the relations between the United States and the Creek and Cherokee Indians, ......... 123 Message of President Guerrero to the Mexican Congress, .... 146 Proclamation of do. abolishing Slavery, ...... 147 Decree of the General Congress in relation to Imposts, .... 147 Proclamation of the Liberator to the Colombians, ..... 149 Message of do. to the Constituent Congress, ..... 150 Proclamation of General Paez to the Venezuelians, .... 155 New Colombian Tariff, ........ 156 Speech of the Emperor of Brazil on the opening of the General Assembly, . 158 Decree of the Banda Oriental at Montevideo, relative to the Tariff, . . 169 Speech of the King of Great Britain to Parliament, .... 161 Speech of the Governor of Upper Canada to the Provincial Legislature, . . 163 Do. of Governor of Lower Canada. ....... 165 Speech of King of France to the Chambers, ..... 167 Address of the Chamber of Peers to the King, . . . . • 169 Address of the Chamber of Deputies, ...... 171 Proclamation of King of France, ....... 173 Report of the Freneh Ministers to the King, . . . . . 174 Decrees of the King, ........ 180 Protest of the Deputies, ........ 184 Proclamation of the French Deputies, ...... 185 Proclamation of the Due d'Orleans, ...... 186 Ordinances of the Lieutenant General of France, ..... 186 Proclamation of the King of the Netherlands, . ^ . . . 187 Speech of do. to the States General, ...... 188 Abstract of the Treaties which constructed the Kingdom of the Netherlands, . 190 Greek Protocol, ......... 193 Memoir of the Greek Senate, . ..... 196 Resignation of Prince Leopold, ....... 201 Acts of the Tvitentyfirst Congress, First Session. . , 204-237 LAW CASES. James Jackson ex. dem Harman v. Hart. vs. Elias Lamphire— Constitutional Question, .......... 239 HiramCraiget.al. vs. the State of Missouri— Constitutional Question, . . 241 John Soulard, widow and others, appellants vs. the United States, do. . . 260 The Providence Bank vs. Billings and Pitman, ..... 261 OBITUARY. Sir David Baird, Bushrod Washington, Queen of Portugal, Sir Thomas Lawrence, George Tierney, William Tudor, Marquis de Lally Tollendal, Errata, . 265 . 267 . 269 . 269 . 270 . 271 . 273 . 275 AMERICAN ANNUAL REiiiSTEIl, FOR THE YEARS 1829 — 1830- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER I. InaiLguraiion of General Jackson. — Sicite of Affairs. — fo'iticat Principles of President. — New Cabinet . — Rsmovals. — Oppo- sition in Senate. — Post Ojfice Department. — Dissentions in the Cabinet. — Controversy between the President an . I Vice Presi^ dent. — Cause and Consequence thereof. On the 4tb of March, 1829, in the presence of the Senate, tlie members of tlie House of Repre- sentatives and a vast concourse of people, General Andrew Jack- son took the oath of oflice and entered upon the administration of the government of the United States. A long train of fortunate events Iiad prepared his way for a happy and prosperous career in his new character as a Civil Magistrate. His military success at a peculiar crisis had given him a strong claim upon the country, and the energy, decision and self-devotion mani- fested in various trying emergen- cies had obtained for him a large share of the public confidence. 2 Nor was the aspect of the po- lidcal atmosphere less propit; nis. The administration of his prr.de- CGssor had been arrested by the popular will in the nnilst of its career, before the merits or de- merits of its policy had been fully tested, and with so decided an expression of public feeling against its continuance, as to leave its members no ability and a|)pa- rently little inclination to o.Ter an early opposition to the new Ex- ecutive. I'he community was tired of political warfare, and- a general disposition was evinced to give the measures of the adminis- tration a fair trial. Some uncer- tainty of course existed as to die policy which the new President 10 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. might feel bound to adopt. His political experience bad not been great, and the inferences which the public had drawn as to his princi- ples from his declarations and votes when in the federal Senate, liad been rendered somewhat un- certain by the contradictory asser- tions made by his supporters in different sections of the Union end by the decided political char- acter of that portion of his adher- ents, who had been ranked in the previous contest among the friends of the late Secretary of the Trea- sury (Mr Crawford.) That class of public men was regarded as contending for a strict, or what was denominated a narrow, con- struction of the Federal Constitu- tion, and their support w^as given to him upon principles of opposi- tion to the policy that governed the administration of Mr Monroe. All the other candidates in that contest were sustained upon a contrary principle. The con- struction given to the Federal Constitution, by which Congress was deemed to be empowered to protect domestic manufactures, to appropriate moneys for works of internal improvement, to create a United States Bank, and gene- rally to regulate and control all affairs strictly national, had be- come the settled policy of the country. Strong objections were still urged to this construction, by the Representatives from the Southern States, and by some of the leading friends of Mr Craw- ford in other sectio is of the Union. But it had been toa long and too generally acquiesced in to permit the hope of a successful appeal to public opinion in behalf of can- didates offered upon principles of opposition to that construction. All the candidates consequently were understood to be in favor of that construction. Mr Calhoun was an early and ardent advocate of that principle, and had efficient- ly contributed when in Congress and also while in the Cabinet to the adoption of the principal measures, which had provoked the hostility of those who con- tended for a literal construction of the constitution. Mr Clay had long been distinguished as the elo- quent and uncompromising sup- porter of the American System, a system whose characteristic fea- tures were the protection of do- mestic industry and a liberal ap- plication of the public treasure to purposes of internal improvement. Mr Adams at an early period of his political life had manifested his attachment to the cause of in- ternal improvement, and he made no secret of his opinions concern- ing the powers of Congress in all matters of national concern. — General Jackson had not occupied so conspicuous a station in politi- cal life ; but Vvhile in the United States Senate he had been no less decided in his opinions on the long disputed question as to the constructive powers of Congress. During this short term of service the follow^ing bills providing f)r internal improvement came under consideration : 1st. A Bill author- izing a road from Memphis in Ten- nessee to Little Rock in Arkansas. 2d. A Bill for making certain roads in Florida. 3d. A Bill to pro- cure necessary surveys for roads and canals. 4th. A Bill to im- prove the navigation of the Mis- NEW ADMINISTRATION. 11 sissippi, Ohio and Missouri. 5th. A Bill for making a road in Mis- souri. 6th. A Bill to subscribe to the stock in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. 7th. A Bill to extend the Cumberland road to Zanesville. 8th. A Bill authorizing a subscrip- tion to the Portland and Louis- ville Canal Company. On the passage of all these bills, General Jackson's name was recorded in the affirmative ; and his vote in fa- vor of the tariff of 1824, a tariff which was founded on the princi- ple of protection, afforded suffi- cient evidence that his opinions accorded rather with those of Mr Adams, Clay and Calhoun, than with those of the supporters of Mr Crawford. In the presidential contest of 1824, therefore, the friends of the Secretary of the Treasury stood alone in tiie attitude of opposition to the established policy of the country. The supporters of the other candidates indeed had their personal preferences, but in point of principle there was no essen- tial difference between them. At an early period of the canvass the Secretary of War (Mr Calhoun) was withdrawn by his friends in Pennsylvania, who, yielding to the popular feeling of the State, fell in to the support of General Jackson. This example was fol- lowed by his adherents throughout the Union, with some few excep- tions, and they mainly contributed to the sudden and rapid augmen- tation of the strength of General Jackson during that canvass. In this transfer of support, how- ever, no sacrifice of principle was supposed to have been made. It was merely relinquishing a per- sonal preference under the pres- sure of circumstances, and the election of General Jackson, equal- ly with that of Mr Adams, would then have been regarded as a pledge to the country of the con- tinuance of the policy of the pre- ceding administration. Mr Clay's principles were similar ; but from the ardor of his character, his fearless disregard of consequen- ces and his avowed opinions in behalf of the American System, and on the subject of South American independence, appre- hensions were entertained that he would not sacrifice enough to ex- pediency, but would follow those opinions out to their legitimate consequences. Hence it was ob- vious that no sacrifice of principle was involved in the support, in- differently, of any of these can- didates who stood on a common ground of policy. Mr Crawford alone was supported upon oppo- site principles, and as it was mani- fest that ill such a contest his weakness would be evinced, an attempt was made to represent him as the only orthodox repub- lican candidate, and to nominate him as such to the suffrages of the nation through a caucus of the members of Congress assembled at Washington. The attempt to- tally failed. It was regarded by a great majority of the people as an unauthorized interference with their constitutional privileges, and it terminated in the caucus can- didate's being brought by the votes of Virginia and Georgia and a few scattered votes from New York and Delaware, into the House of Representatives as the 12 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. lowest of the three candidates, iVom which the President was to be chosen. Here the choice fell upon Mr Adams, and from the moment of his election the parti- 'fan^ of t!ie unsuccessful candi- tlates united in opposition, either avowed or secret, to his adminis- tration. Tiiose wiio had ori,2:i- I'ally advocated the claims of General Jackson found a sufficient jnotive to opj)Osition in the defeat of their favorite, whose election they asserted was dem.anded hy tlie people. Tiiat reason howev- er could not he urged hy the iViends of the caucus candidate, who had been zealously sustained to the last, in spite of ill health, although the result in the electoral colleges had demonstrated that ho had but a slight hold upon the public favor. Indeed the entire failure of this party in their elec- tion plainly indicated the unpopu- larity of its political creed, and at the commencement of Mr Ad- rms' administration it held itself aloof and apparently uncommitted as to its future course. The can- didate who was boldly taken up as the opposition candidate, had evinced as latitudinarian senti- ments concerning the povvers of Congress as his successful rival, and to come in to his support would be to abjure those political doctrines which were deemed so essential to the independence of the States. The political principles of the party already organized, therefore, were as heterodox as those of the existing Cabinet, and any combi- nation uhich might take place must be founded upon the sacri- fice of principle by one of the sections of the opposition. This discordance in its materials pre- vented any harmonious concert of action at the first session of the nineteenth Congress ; but during the vacation and the succeeding session, great efTorls vvere made to promote a closer union between the different sections of the oppo- sition, and before the adjournment it had assumed a consistent shape. The first public intimation of this imion was given by a leading op- position member from Virginia, who shortly before the close of the second session of the 19th Congi'css, announced, that the combinations for effecting the election of General Jackson vvere nearly completed. Shortly be- fore this public declaration, an intimation almost equally distinct of future opposition, was given by one of the most prominent lead- ers of the caucus party in a let- ter to the Legislature of New York, expressing his acknow- ledgments for his re-election to tl)e federal Senate. In this letter lie promises zealously to exert himself to protect the remaining rights reserved to the States and to restore those of which they had been divested by construc- tion. Other indications, which could not be mistaken, were given of the intention of the caucus party to join the opposition, and that one of the main grounds of opposi- tion would be, that certain povvers which the Federal Government had habitually exercised were unauthorized by the Constitution and that they ought no longer to be submitted to. It had been u favorite doctrine of the Virginia NEW ADMINISTRATION. 13 school of politics, that the powers of the General Government had been extended beyond their con- stitutional limits, and the dispute between the federal authorities and those of Georgia in relation to the Creek treaty, had rendered it convenient for that State to con- tend most earnestly for the same construction of the Constitution. A most intimate connexion had been cultivated between the politi- cians of this school and the lead- ing supporters of Mr Crawford in New York, who inclined to the same construction of the Consti- tution, and who were not much behind their southern coadjutors in declaring their determination to favor the election of General Jackson. This determination of the opposition to combine in his support, induced much specula- tion as to the nature of the pledges, which w^ere said to have been given as to his political course, and it was boldly predicted, that an opposition so constituted, could not continue united after the go- vernment should fall into its hands, without a complete sacrifice of principle by one of the sections of the combined party. The President would of course be compelled to adopt the literal construction of the Constitution or to pursue the policy marked out by his predecessors. During the pendency of the election, tlie public might be left in doubt. Such as were inclined to promote his elevation in the north and west could justify their preference, by appealing to his votes when in the Senate in favor of the Tariff and Internal improvement, while his supporters in the South could be equally zealous, either relying upon a more intimate ac- quaintance with his opinions, or upon those measures which his character as a candidate, sustained upon the principle of reform, should compel him to adopt in case of success. But after his inauguration he must decide be- tween these conflicting preten- sions, and this decision would compel those to whom that deci- sion should prove unpalatable to decide in their turn between the abandonment of their polit- ical party or their principles. This very position properly view- ed was but another of the fortu- nate circumstances in which the successful competitor for the Chief Magistracy found himself placed at the time of his elevation. Chosen by an unparalleled ma- jority of the electoral votes, he owed his success to his own popu- larity. Generally sanctioning the policy under which our na- tional institutions had been buiJt up, he was at liberty to review his opinions and to establish them upon incontrovertible and immu- table grounds. His admiaistra tion was not bound to persist in any particular measi.'res which experience had proved to be in- expedient; but claiming as it did to be constituted upon the basis of reform, it vvas able to modify the existing policy, and to carry out its principles under all the advantages oflered by the hghts of experience and the develop- ment of public opinion. Equally uncommitted was he respecting the parties, which had formerly distracted the country. His ad- vice to Mr Monroe in 1816 to 14 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. di.-card all pr:rty feelings, nnd to icmember, tlrdt as Cliief Magis- trate be acted for the whole, and not for apart of the comiruinity, — sentiments which did equal honor to bis bead an{l his heart, and wbicli he reiterated as his settled opinion in 1824, left bim free to call to bis councils the ablast and most virtuous men of the nation, without regard to the party denominntions by whicli they bad been previously distinguished. Under these fortunate circum- stances GenerulJackson assumed the Executive GoverniTicnt on the fourth of March, 1829, with a stu'plus of more thnn five millions of dollars in the national treasury, the cc'jntry respected abroad, at peace v/ith all the world, and m a state of unexnmpled and pro- gressive domestic prosperity. After taking the oath of office he delivered according to the custom of his predecessors an inaugural address setting forth the principles upon which be intended to administer the government. That address is as follows : — # ' Fellow Citizens : About to undertake the arduous duties that 1 have been appointed to perform, by the choice of a free people, I avail mysetf declare all legislation for the pro- tection of domestic manufactures to be unconstitutional, as being in favor of a local interest and that Congress had no power to legis- late except upon subjects of gene- ral interest. Tlie power to con- struct roads and canals, within the limits of a State, or to appropriate money for that purpose, was also denounced as unconstitutional, as was all legislation for the purpose of meliorating the condition of the free colored or the slave popula- tion of the United States. On this last topic, it was inti- mated that no reasoning could take place between the United States and South Carolina. It was a question of feeling, too in- timately connected with their tran- quillity and safety to be discussed. In remonstrating against these violations of the Constitution, the State should appear as a sove- reign, and not as a suppliant be- fore the National Legislature, and 64 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. resolutions, expressive of the ap- proljatioo of the Stale Legislature of these principles, having passed both Houses, they were transmit- ted, with the report, to the dele- gation in Congress, to be laid be- fore that body, then engaged in the consideration of the tariff. That law having passed, the State Legislature, at the next session, sanctioned a protest, against it as unconstitutional, op- pressive and unjust, which was transmitted to their Senators in Congress to be entered upon the journal of the Senate. This was done on the lOih of February, 1829. The change which took ])lace in the Federal Government caused a belief that some satisfac- tory modification would be made of the tariff; and during the sum- mer of 1829 the excitement ap- peared to be directed less against the administration and more con- centrated against the law itself. The doctrine, however, of the right of a State to nullify an act of Congress was not relinquished, although it seemed to be conceded that it would be best to attempt first to procure the repeal of the obnoxious law. In these opin- ions the State Government of Georgia fully concurred. As a measure of policy, the tariff was equally unpopular, and the con- troversy respecting the Indians had been carried to that length, as to bring the State in collision with a law of Congress, and to induce the Legislature to declare that it should be disregarded and held void. The Legislature of Virginia also declared its assent to the same principle of nullification by a vote of 134 to 68 ; and judging from the opinions expressed by the public functionaries of those States, the time appeared to be near at hand when the Union was about to be dissolved by the de- termination of a large section not to submit to the laws of the Fede- ral Government, nor to any com- mon tribunal appointed to decide upon their constitutionality. A check was indeed given to this spirit by the State of North Carolina, which, although not less averse to the policy of the tariff, declared itself against all violent measures in opposition to it. The State of Alabama also in 1 828, when remonstrating against the passage of the tariff, conceded the right of Congress to pass revenue laws, although the inci- dental effect might be to protect domestic manufactures. In 1829, indeed, it went farther and assum- ed nearly the same ground with Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia ; still the qualified oppo- sition first made to the law proved, that the South was not united in the unconstitutional stand taken by some of the Slates on that sub- ject, and that the injustice and op- pression which were so vehe- mently denounced, were not so plainly and generally felt as to ren- der resistance to the tariff a popu- lar step. Indeed it was doubted whether the feelings of the peo- ple in the three States, which had declared in favor of nullification, were not misrepresented by the local legislatures. However de- cidedly they might have disap- proved of the policy of protection, no suflicient evidence had yet been given that they deemed it a PUBLIC LANDS. 65^ greater evil than disunion, and the declarations and resolutions put forth by the State Governments were justly considered as the sud- den ebullitions of violent feelings or as efforts on the part of leading ^ men to excite a tempest in the public mind for political effect. This movement was not rendered less dangerous by the motives of those who made it. When the storm began to rage, it would be impossible to control it. It might as easily break down the barriers of the Constitution and overturn the government, as annul an un- popular law. The federative principle of the Constitution and the whole authority of Congress and of the Federal Judiciary were put in issue by the question now started, and however unwilling the leaders might be to destroy the Union ; still experience had loo clearly shown the difficulty of restraining an excited people, not to create apprehension as to the result of these efforts to throw off the authority of the General Gov- ernment. Similar movements in another portion of the Union, also originating in local interests, and aiming at an extension of State sovereignty, to the detriment of the just claims of the Federal Government, gave additional ground for these apprehensions. Efforts had been made of late 3^ears in some of the Western States, to induce them to claim, under pretence of their rights as sovereign States, the public lands belonging to the U^nited States within their several limits. The lands, forming the public domain of the country, were ac- quired by the Federal Govern- ment in two modes. The portion west of the Missis- sippi, forming much the larger part is held under the Louisiana treaty, having been acquired by purchase from France. The residue was acquired at the treaty of 1783, the fruits of conquest from the crown of Great Britain. Several of the States set up claims to these lands, then lying beyond the farthest frontier settlements and west of the Alleghanies and in- habited only by Indian tribes ; but after some dispute these claims were relinquished (New York setting the examj)le) and the right of the United States acknowledged to all these lands, which were di- vided into the Northwest and Southwest or Mississippi terri- tories. Out of these territories, new- States have been from time to time erected and admitted into the Union under certain conditions and stipulations inserted in the act of Congress, authoriz'ng the in- habitants to form constitutions. These States have been settled chiefly by emigrants from the old thirteen States and the titles to their land have been derived mostly from the United States. Prior to the adoption of the Federal Con- stitution, but few sales had been made. Three large tracts were sold, one called the triangle, north of Pennsylvania, east of Ohio and west of New York, on lake Erie, consisting of 202,1 87 acres, which was sold to the State of Penn- sylvania, September 4th, 1778 ; one tract on the Ohio and Musk- ingum rivers, to the Ohio company, originally containing two million acres, but afterwards reduced by consent to 964,285 acres; and a m ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. third tract between the Great and under proclamations of the Presi- Little Miami, to John Cleves dent at the minimum price of Symmes, containing at first one $1,25 per acre. Lands not sold million, but afterwards reduced to at public sale are afterwards sub- 248,540 acres. ject to entry at private sale at the Besides these, 72,974 acres minimum price, were sold in 1787, under the or- The whole public domain of dinance of 1785, for disposing of the United States amounts to lands in the western territory and 1,063,000,000 acres, while the 48,566 acres in 1796, were also superfices of the States and ter- sold under the same ordinance, rilories, as ownfed by the States A regular system was afterwards or their citizens, amount to less adopted for the disposition of the than 350,000,000 acres, public domain and Surveyor Gen- Of the public lands, where the erals appointed. In 1800, the Indian title has not yet been ex- acts containing the principal fea- tinguished, 750,000,000 acres lie tures of the present land system in the great Western Territory : were passed. 56,804,824 acres in Huron Ter- They have been subsequently ritory, west of Michigan Lake : modified, and in 1820, cash sales 11,411,040 acres in the Territo- were substituted for sales on cred- ries of Michigan and Florida, and it; but as they now exist they are 38,574,598 acres within the lim- substantially as follows. its of States now members of the The public lands when sur- Union. Besides this, there are veyed, which is done under the 72,892,661 acres in the Territo- superintendence of five Principal ries of Florida, Alabama and Surveyors, at the expense of the Michigan, and 132,780,037 acres United States, are divided into within the limits of States where townships of six miles square, the Indian title has been extin- and these are subdivided into 36 guished. sections of a mile square, contain- About 150,000,000 acres have ing 6^0 acres each. been surveyed up to the present The dividing lines run east and time ; of which 20,000,000 have west or north and south, though been sold ; 20,000,000 have sometimes a navigable river or an been granted by Congress for Indian boundary creates a frac- education, internal improvement tional section. and other purposes ; 80,000,000 The section No. 16, in each have been proclaimed for sale township, is reserved for the sup- and are now^ subject to entry at port of the schools in the town- the minimum price, and 30,000,- ships and distinct reservations are 000 have not yet been proclaimed made for Colleges. Salt springs for sale on account of the want of and lead mines are also reserved, demand. The annual expense subject to be leased by the Presi- of these surveys amounts to about dent. §70,000. The total expense of The other sections are offered selling the public lands from 1800 for sale at public auction for cash, to 3825 amounted to $1,154,- PUBLIC LANDS. 67 951, and the moneys received from the sales during the same period to $31,345,964, besides $7,955,831 due from purchasers, of which only part can be recov- ered. Although the value of the land not sold is incomparably less in proportion to the quantity than that disposed of, the increase of population and the advancing settlement of the country is dai- ly augmenting the value of the portion remaining unsold ; and when v^^e regard the future and compare it with the past, sufficient is seen to convince us that the public domain is of vast and incalculable importance to the Federal Government. Whether viewed as an economical or as a political question, it is one full of momentous results ; and when taken in connexion with the claims of State sovereignties it becomes as delicate as it is im- portant. The large quantity of lands within the limits of States, now members of the Confederacy, must eventually give to that ques- tion an absorbing interest. It has even now begun to evince the character which renders it a dan- gerous question to the authority of the Federal Government, and connects the pretensions of the States agitating the subject with the claims and doctrines of the States of Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. Acting upon the new principle advanced by Geor- gia in relation to the sovereignty of the State over all land , within its limits, some of the new States have lately set up a claim to the property in the soil of all lands not owned by individuals as m incident of sovereignty. Complaints had been previous- ly made of the system pursued by the United States, in disposing of the, public domain. The princi- ple of holding all lands in the hands of the Government which did not bring the minimum price, it was said, prevented emigrants from settling in those States, where the best lands had been preoccupied, and the population became thus sparsely scattered over a vast extent of country. A system of graduated prices ac- cording to their actual value would bring about the sale of large tracts now unsold, and which would remain unsold so long as more valuable land could be purchased farther west at the same price. Donations of small tracts were also recommended to actual set- tlers ; and a contest was obviously about to commence between those who, regarding the public do- main as a fund for the common benefit, were desirous of making it productive to the treasury, by selling it upon liberal terms, and those who, looking only to the settlement of their several States, advocated the forcing the public territory into market without refe- rence to the demand, or to any- thing except the promotion of lo- cal views and objects. Memorials were sanctioned by some of the Western Legislatures, remonstrating against the existing mode of disposing of the public lands, and the State of Illinois in- timated that if it were not chang- ed grave questions would arise among them, whether the title of 68 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. ihe United States to the public lands was valid and binding over the new States, and whether the claims of the General Govern- ment, in relation to the public do- main, were not inconsistent with the rights of the several States. The memorial containing these doctrines was presented to the Senate of the United States in February, 1829 ; and about the same time the State of Indiana undertook to decide the question for herself, in the same manner that the Southern States gave their own construction of the Federal Compact as the only one to which they would submit. On the 9ih of January, 1829, a reso- lution was adopted by the Leg- islature of that State in the follow- ing terms : ' Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, that this State, being a sovereign, free and independent State, has the exclusive right to the soil and eminent domain of all the unappropriated land within her acknowledged boundaries — which right was reserved to her by the State of Virginia in the deed of cession of the Northwest territory to the United States, be- ing confirmed and established by the articles of confederation and the Constitution of the United States.' Attempts, too, had been made in other States to excite dissatis- faction at the mode of selling pub- lic territory, adopted by the Fede- ral Government, and to throw doubts upon the validity ol its tide to that portion within the limits of States. One of the measures tending to excite and promote dissatisfaction on this subject, was a bill providing for the selling, at graduated prices, which was in- troduced into the Senate of the United States by Mr Benton, of Missouri, in 1826.* The Legislatures of Alabama, Illinois and Missouri, at differentsessions, passed resolutions approving the principle of the bill. By these movements public attention was strongly attracted towards this subject ; and on the 29th day of December, 1829, Mr Foot, of Connecticut, intro- duced the following resolution into the Senate : ' Resolved, That the Committee on Public Lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of limiting, for a certain period, the sales of the Public Lands, to such lands only as have heretofore been offered for sale and are subject to entry at the minimum price, and also whether the office of Surveyor General may not be abolished without detriment to the public interest.' The next day, on taking up this resolution. Sir Foot said he was induced to offer it from hav- ing ascertained that 72,000,000 acres still remained unsold at the minimum price ; and that it ap- peared from the report of the Land Commissioner that the an- nual demand amounted to about one million acres, and that in one district in Ohio, where the land was of inferior quality and only 300,000 acres for sale, the cash sales amounted to $35,000 ; • This proposition was favorably received in the West DEBATE IN SENATE. m whtle in other districts, where the jand was of hetter quality, and larger tracts lor sale, tlie sales amounted only to 2000. He thought, therefore, it was proper to inquire into the expe- diency of stopping for a time this indiscriminate sale of public lands. Mr Benton opposed this i"eso- kition as part of a systematic policy for crippling the growth of the West, which had been pursu- ed for forty years. It was as old as the existence of the Govern- ment. The practical effect of the resolution would be to check emigration to the West — for who would move to a new country if it was not to get new lands ? He was desirous of meeting the ques- tion now, and he would move to make it the order for a future day. Mr Noble was opposed to the resolution, but was willing to meet the question, and proposed to make it the older of the day for Monday next, Mr Benton wished a longer day and mov- ed for its postponement to the succeeding Monday. On the 18th of January, iS30, the subject was resumed and i\ir Benton commenced a speech in opposition to the resolution, which he asserted was intended to stop the surveying of public lands ; to abolish all the offices of the Sur- veyors General, and to limit the sales to the land now in market. The effect of these measures would be to check emigration to the new States, to retard their settlement, to deliver up large portions of them to the dominion of wild beasts, and to remove all the land records from the new 7 States He contended that the effect of tlie inquiry would be to alarm and agitate the West. Two great attempts had been made to prevent emigration to^l"^ West, besides the one now making, to induce the people of the East 10 stay at home, and work in man- ufactories, instead of emigrating to the West. The first great at- tempt was in 1786; the scheme was, to give up the navigation of the Mississippi, for twentyfive or thirty years, to Spain ; seven States north of Maryland, voted for that surrender ; six States south of Maryland, inclusive, voted against it. In this attempt was to be discerned the germ of that policy by which the valley of the Mis- sissippi had been dismembered, and her rivers amputated. The second great attempt was made by a committee of twelve in Con- gress, of whom eight were from the north, and four from the soutli of the Potomac. The commit- tee were Messrs Long, of New Hampshire ; R. King, of Massa- chusetts ; Howell, of Rhode Island ; Johns-on, of Connecticut ; R. R. Livingston, of Nev/ York ; Stewart, of New Jersey ; Gar- diner, of Pennsylvania ; Henry, of Maryland ; Grayson, of Vir- ginia ; Williamson, of North Car- olina ; Ball, of South Carolina ; and Houston, of Georgia. This committee reported the present plan of surveys of the public land ; but they also reported a provision, which would have prevented a settlement out of sight of the Pennsylvania lino. This was, that ' eacit township should be sold out complete, before any land was 70 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. offered in the next one.' This would have been fatal to t'le West. By the exertions of Virginia, and the whole South, aided by scatter- ed reinforcements from the North, the provision was stricken out, and thus ended the second great attempt to injure the West. The object, however, had never been abandoned, and it could be seen at intervals, in refusing troops and money to defend the frontiers of the West, and to extinguish the Indian titles; and in Mr Adams' withdrawal from the market, in violation of law, of 1000 square miles in Missouri. The West must still look to the solid phalanx of the South for succor, until by the quiet superiority which the census of 1840 would give her, she could set all right. On the 19th of January, Mr Smith of Maryland, expressed himself in favor of the inquiry, and of his personal knowledge denied that Mr Adams was the first to relinquish the Colorado as a boundary. Mr Adams said that must and should be our west- ern boundary, and this occasioned a quarrel betwixt Mr Adams and Don Onis. Mr Holmes of Maine objected to an attempt to charge one sec- tion with hostility to another. He had never been sectional. Dur- ing the late war he had done what he could to sustain the West. The East hostile to the West ! Where } When ? In what act of Congress ? Was it in the charter of July, 1787 ? Was it in provid- ing by that able state paper for new States, and receiving them when they possessed. 60,000 in- habitants? The fact of purchas- ing lands showed that the East was not hostile to emigration ; Mr Holmes replied to Mr Benton n detail. He stated that 200,000,- 000 of acres were now ready ad in the market for settlers. Mr Woodbury, of New Hamp- shire, offered an amendment, which proposed an inquiry into the expediency of hastening the sales and extending more rapidly the surveys of public lands. He alluded to the bounties given to settlers in Canada, and the neces- sity of countervailing it. Mr Foot, of Connecticut, op- posed an amendment. Mr Barton, of Missouri, would vote for the amendment. Mr Smith of Maryland, could see no occasion for the amend- ment. He was in favor of an inquiry. The result of an inqui- ry would show that no hostility existed. The Senate had always been liberal to the new States and they had acknowledged it. Mr Livingston, of Louisiana, said there was a regular and an irregular mode of doing business. By the regular mode, resolutions went to a com.mittee ; by the ir- regular miode, members undertook to furnish information and go into subjects at length. He wished the regular mode had been pre- ferred. He was opposed to the original resolution, but in favor of the amendment. Mr Sprague, of Maine, suggest- ed a union of the two proposi- tions, and Mr Foot, of Connecti- cut, accepted it ; so the resolution as it stood, ordered an inquiry mto the expediency of hastenmg as well as of limiting sales ; and of extending more rapidly the sur- DEBATE IN SENATE. 71 veys, as well as of abolishing the office of Surveyor General. Mr Hayne, of South Carolina, now rose and said, that to op])ose inquiry was not necessarily an un- parliamentary course. He con- curred with the gentleman from Missouri, that it could never be right to inquire into thr expediency of doing a great and acknowledg- ed wrong. There were two great systems and two great parties in relation to the settlement of the public lands. One system was that which we had pursued, of selling the land at the highest price. Another was that of Great Britain, France, and Spain, of granting their lands for a penny or a peppercorn. He described the opposite results of these systems. That of the United States pro- duced poverty and universal dis- tress, and took away from the settlers all the profits of labor. It drained the new States of all their money in the same manner as the South, by the operation of the tariff, was drained to enrich more favored sections of the Union. The South could sympathize with the West. If the opposite sys- tem had been pursued, who could tell how much good,, how much improvement, would have taken place, which has not, in the new States ! But there was another purpose to which it was supposed the public land could be applied ; viz. so as to create and preserve in certain quarters, a population suitable and sufficient for manu- facturing establishments. It was necessary to create a manufactory of paupers, and these would sup- ply the manufactories of rich proprietors and enable them to amass great wealth. This doc- trine was broached by the late Secretary of the Treasury. The lands were pledged for the public debt. This would be paid in three or four years. He was in favor of a system, which looked to the total relinquishment, at that time, of the lands to the States in which they lie, at prices, he would not say nominal, but certainly so moderate, as not to keep the States long in debt to the United States. In the course of his remarks, Mr Hayne appealed to the gentlemen from (he Atlantic States, if it was not true that the whole of their country was parcelled out and settled under the liberal system of Britain, instead of the hard and draining one, which we had hith- erto pursued in regard to the West. Mr Hayne urged the necessity of distributing the lands to the States, from a regard to State sovereignty and the tendency of such a fund to produce consolidation. Mr Webster, of Massachusetts, rose to reply, but gave way, on motion of Mr Benton, for an ad- journment. Wednesday, January 20th. Mr Webster took the floor He de nied that their was any analogy between the cases of the British colonies and the Western States. The British colonies fled from persecution, or came and settled here at their own charge and risk Our frontier settlers were protect ed, and had the Indian title extin guished for them, at a great ex pense both of blood and treasure A protecting arm was evei stretched over them. They had gone forth and continued undet the shadow of the pareat's wing 72 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 He said that by the terms of re- linquishment ol' the territory north- west of the Ohio, by the States Ol Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and of acceptance, on the part of the United States, Congress ha yes, sir, the impracticable South, was to be ' out of your protection.' The gentleman from Massa- chusetts, in alluding to a remark of mine, that, before any dispo- sition could be made o the public lands, the national debt (for which they stand pledged) must be first paid, took occasion to in- timate ' that the extraordinary fervor which seems to exist in a certain quarter [meaning the South, sir] for the payment of the debt, arises from a disposition 10 weaken the ties which bind the people to the Union.'' While he deals us this blow, he professes an ardent desire to see the debt speedily extinguished. He must excuse me, however, for feeling some distrust on that subject until 78 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. I find this disposition manifested by something stronger than pro- fessions. Sir, if I were at hberty to judge of the course which he would pursue, from the princi- pies which he has laid dowMi in relation to this matter, I should be bound to conclude, that he ^vill be found acting with those Avith whom it is a darling object to prevent the payment of the pub- he debt. Sir, let me tell that gentleman, that the South repudiates the idea that a pecuniary dependence on tlie Federal Government is one of the legitimate means of holding the States together. A moneyed interest in the Government is es- sentially a base interest. The link which binds the public credi- tors, as such, to their country, binds them equally to all Govern- ments, whether arbitrary or free. In a free Government, this princi- ple of abject dependence, if ex- tended through all the ramifica- tions of society, must be fatal to liberty. Already have we made alarming strides in that direction. The entire class of manufacturers, the holders of stocks, with their hundreds of millions of capita], are held to the Government by the strong link o{ pecuniary inter- ests ; millions of people, entire sections of country, interested, or believing themselves to be so, in the public lands, and the public treasure, are bound to the Gov- ernment by the expectation of pecuniary favors. If 'this sys- tem is carried much farther, no •man can fail to see, that every generous motive of attachment to tiie country will be destroyed, and in its place will spring up tijose low, grovelling, base and selfish feelings which bind men to the footstool of a despot by- bonds as strong and enduring as those which attach them to free institutions. The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts has gone out of his way to pass a high culogium on the State of Ohio. In the most impassioned tones of eloquence, he described her majestic march to greatness. Me told us that, having already left all the other States far behind, she was now passing by Virginia and Pennsyl- vania, and about to take her sta- tion by the side of New York. To all this 1 \tas disposed most cordially to respond. When, however, he proceeded to contrast the State of Ohb WMth Kentucky, to the disadvantage of the latter, I listened to him with regret ; and when he proceeded further to at- tribute the great, and, as he sup- posed, acknowledged superiority of the former in population, wealth, and general prosperity, to the policy of Nathan Dane, of PvTassachusetts, which had secured to the people of Ohio, (by the Ordinance of '87) a po-pulation of free men, I will confess that my feelings suffered a revulsion, which I am now unable to de- scribe in any language sufficiently respectful towards the gentleman from Massachusetts. In contrast- ing the State of Ohio with Ken- tucky, for the purpose of })ointing out the superiority of the former, and of attributing that superiority to the existence of slavery in the one State, and its absence in the other, I thought I could discern the very spi?'it of the Missouri question intruded into this de- bate, for objects best known to DEBATE IN SENATE. 79 the gentleman himself. Did that gentleman, when he formed the determination to cross the south- ern border, in order to invade the State of Soiuli Carolina, deem it prudent or necessary to enlist un- der his banners the prejudices of the world, which, like Swiss troops, may be engaged in any cause, and are prepared to serve under any leader ? Or was it supposed that, in a premeditated and unprovoked attack upon the Soudi, it was advisable to begin by a gentle admonition of our supposed weakness, in order to prevent us from making that firm and manly resistance, due to our own character and our dearest interest? Mr President, the im- pression which has gone abroad, of the weakness of the South, as connected with the slave question, exposes us to such constant at- tacks, has done us so much inju- ry, and is calculated to produce such infinite mischiefs, that I em- brace the occasion presented by the remarks of the gendeman of Massachusetts, to declare that we are ready to meet the question promptly and fearlessly. We are ready to make up the issue with the gentleman, us to the influence of slavery on indi- vidual and national character — on the j)rosperity and greatness, either of the United States, or of pardcular States. When arraign- ed before the bar of public opin- ion, on his charge of slavery, we can stand up with conscious rec- titude, plead not guilty, and put ourselves upon God and our country. We will not stop to in- quire whether the black man, as some philosophers have contend- ed, is of an inferior race, nor whether his color and condition are the effects of a curse inflicted for die offences of his ancestors? We deal in no abstractions. We will not look back to inquire wheUier our fathers were guihless in introducing slaves into this country. If an inquiry should ever be instituted in these mat- ters, hovvever, it will be found that the profits of the slave trade were not confined to the South. South- ern ships and Southern sailors were not the instruments of bring- ing slaves to the shores of Ameri- ca, nor did our merchants reap the profits of that ' accursed traf- fic' But we will pass over all this. If slavery, as it now ex- ists in this country, be an evil, we of die present day, found it ready made to our hands. Find- ing our lot cast among a people whom God had manifestly com- mitted to our care, we did not sit down to speculate on abstract questions of theoretical liberty. We met it as a practical question of ohligation and duty. We re- solved to make the best of the situation in which Providence had placed us, and to fulfil the high trust which had devolved upon us as the owners of slaves, in the only way in which such a trust could be fulfilled without spread- ing misery and ruin throughout the land. We found that we had to deal with a people whose physical, moral and intellectual habits and character, totally disqualified them from the enjoyment of the bles- sings of freedom. We could not send them back to the shores from whence their fathers had been taken ; their numbers for- bade the thought, even if we did not know that their condition here 80 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. is infinitely preferable to what it possibly could be among the bar- ren sands and savage tribes of Af- rica ; and it was wholly irreconci- lable with all our notions of hu- manity to tear asunder the tender ties which they had formed among us, to gratify the feelings of a false philandiropy. When the gentleman from Massachusetts adopts and reiter- ates the old charge of weakness as resulting from slavery, I must be permitted to call for the proof of those blighting effects which he ascribes to its influence. It is a popular error to suppose that, in any possible state of things, the people of a country could be called out en masse, or that half, or a third, or even a fifth part of the physical force of any country could ever be brought into the field. The difi.iculty is not to procure men, but to provide the means of maintaining them ; and in this view of the subject it may be asked whether the Southern States are not a source ohircngih ai\d poioer, and not of weakness to the country ? 1 know it has been supposed by certain ill-informed persons, that the South exists only by the countenance and protection of the North. This is the idlest of all idle and ridiculous fancies that ever entered into the mind of man. In every state of this Union, except one, the free white population actually preponderates ; while in the British West India Islands, (where the average white population is less than ten per cent of the whole) the slaves are kept in entire subjection; it is preposterous to suppose that the Southern States could ever find the sniallest difficulty in this re- spect. On this subject, as on all others, we ask nothing of our Northern brethren but to ' let us alone.' Leave us to the undis- turbed management of our domes- tic concerns, and the direction of our own industry, and we will ask no more. But, whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the effect of slavery on national wealth and prosperity, if we may trust to ex- perience, there can be no doubt that it has never yet produced any injurious effect on individual or national character. Look through the whole history of the country, from the commencement of the revolution down to the present hour , where are there to be found brighter examples of intellectual and moral greatness, than h.avc been exhibited by the sons of the South From the Father of His Cot:ntry, down to the dis- tinguished Chieftain, who has been elevated by a grateful peo- ple to the highest office in their gift, the interval is filled up by a long line of orators, of statesmen, and of heroes, justly entitled to rank among the ornaments of their country, and the benefactors of mankind. Look at ' the Old Do- minion,' great and magnanimous Virginia, ' whose jewels are her sons.' Is there any State in this Union which has contributed so much to the honor and welfare of the country Sir, I will yield the whole question — 1 will ac- knowledge the fatal effects of slavery upon character, if any one can say, that for noble disinter- estedness, ardent love of country, DEBATE IN SENATE. 81 exalted virtue, and a pure and promotion of injustice, causing holy devotion to liberty, the peo- domestic discord, and depriving pie of the Southern States have the States and the people ' of the ever been surpassed by any in blessings of liberty' forever, the world. The gentleman boasts of be- In the ceurse of my former longing to the party of National remarks, Mr President, I took Republicans. National Repub- occasion to deprecate, as one of licans ! — a new name, for a very the greatest evils, the coiisolida- old thing. The national repub- tion of this Government. The gen- licans of the present day were the tieman takes alarm at the sound, federalists of '98, who became ^ Consolidation, like the tariff,' federal republicans during the war grates upon his ear. He tells of 1812, and were manufactured us ' we have heard much of late into national republicans some- about consolidation ; that it is the where about the year 1825. As rallying word for all who are en- a party, (by whatever name dis- deavoring to weaken the Union, tinguished,) they have always been by adding to the power of the animated by the same principles. States.' But consolidation (says and have kept steadily in view a the gentleman) was the very ob- common object, the consolidation ject for which the Union was of the Government. The party formed ; and, in support of that to which I am proud of having opinion, he read a passage from belonged, from the very com- the address of the President of mencement of my political life to the Convention to Congress, the present day, were the Demo- which he assumes to be authority crats of '98, [Anarchists, Anti- on his side of the question. The Federalists, Revolutionists,! think gentleman is mistaken. The ob- they were sometimes called.) ject of the framers of the Con- They assumed the name of l)em-. stitution, as disclosed in that ad- ocratic Republicans m IS22, and dress, was not the consolidation have retained their name and of the Government, but ' the con-, principles up to the present hour., sohdation of the Union.' It was True to their political faith, they not to draw power from the States have always, as a party, been in in order to transfer it to a great favor of limitations of power ; National Government, but, in the they have insisted that all powers language of the Constitution itself, not delegated to the Federal Gov-. * to form a more perfect Union,'' ernment are reserved ; and have — - and by what means ? By been constantly struggling, as thjey * establishing justice, promoting now are, to preserve the rights of domestic tranquillity, and securing the States, and to prevent them the blessings of liberty to ourselves from being swallowed up by one and our posterity ? ' But, accord- great consolidated government, ing to the gentleman's reading, The true distinction between the object of the Constitution was these parties is laid down in a to consolidate the Government, and celebrated manifesto issued by the the means would seem to be, the Convention of the Federalists of \ ANNUAL RJEGISTER, 1829 — SO. Massachusetts, assembled in Bos- ion, in February, 1824, on the occasion of organizing a party opposition to the reelection of Governor Eustis. The gentleman will recognise this as ' the canon- ical book of political scripture ;' and it instructs us that, ' when the American Colonies redeemed themselves from British bondage, and became so many independent nations, they proposed to form a National Union — (not zl fed- eral Union, sir, but a National Union.) Those who were in favor of a union of the States in this form, became known by the name o( federalists ; those who wanted no union of the States, or dis- liked the proposed form of union, became known by the name of anti-federalists. The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, while he exoner- ates me personally, from the charge, intimates that there is a party in the country who are looking to disunion. If he had stopped there, the accusation would have ' passed by me as the idle wind which I regard not.' But when he goes on to give to his accusation a local habitation and a name, by quoting the ex- pression of a distinguished citizen of South Carolina, (Dr Cooper) * that it was time for the South to calculate the value of the Union,' an() in the language of the bitter- est sarcasm, adds, ' surely then the Union cannot last longer than July, 1831,' — it is impossible to mistake either the allusion, or the object of the gentleman. The Senate will do me the justice to remember, that at the time this unprovoked and uncalled for at- tack was made upon the Soutb, not one word had been uttered by me, in disparagement of New England, nor had I made the most distant allusion either to the Senator from Massachusetts, or the State he represents. But, that gentleman has thought proper, for purposes best known to him- self, to strike the South, through me, the most unworthy of her servants. He has crossed the border, he has invaded the State of South Carolina, is making war upon her citizens, and endeavor- ing to overthrow her principles and her institutions. When he provokes me to such a conflict, I meet him at the threshold. It is with unfeigned reluctance, Mr President, that I enter upon the performance of this part of my duty — I shrink almost instinc- tively from a course, however ne- cessary, which may have a tenden- cy to excite sectional feelings, and sectional jealousies. But the task has been forced upon me ; and I proceed right onward to the per- formance of my duty. Be the consequences what they may, the responsibility is with those who have imposed upon me this ne- cessity. The Senator from Mas- sachusetts has thought proper to cast the first stone ; and if he shall find, according to a homely adage, 'that he lives in a glass house' — on his head be the con- sequences. If there be one State in the Union, Mr President, (and I say it not in a boastful spirit) that may challenge comparisons with any other for a uniform, zealous, ardent and uncalculating devotion to the Union, that State is South Carolina. From the very com- DEBATE IN SENATE. mencement of the Revolution up to this hour, there is no sacrifice, however great, she has not cheer- fully made ; no service she has ever hesitated to perform. She has adhered to you in your pros- perity ; but in your adversity she lias clung to you with more than filial affection. What, sir, was the conduct of the South during the Revolution.^ I honor New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But great as is the praise which belongs to her, I think at least equal honor is due to the South. They espoused the quarrel of their brethren, with a generous zeal, which did not suffer them to stop to calculate their interest in the dispute. Favorites of the mother country, possessed of neither ships nor seamen to create a commercial rivalship, they might have found in their situation a guarantee, that their trade would be forever fos- tered and protected by Great Brit- ain. But trampling on all con- siderations either of interest or of safety, they rushed into the con- flict, and fighting for principle, perilled all, in the sacred cause of freedom. Never was there ex- hibited in the history of the world higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering and heroic en- durance, than by the whigs of Carolina, during the Revolution. The whole State, from the moun- tains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the ene- my. The fruits of industry per- ished on the spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The ' plains of Car- olina' drank up the most precious blood of her citizens ! Black and smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitations of her children ! Driven from their homes, into the gloomy and almos impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and South Carolina (sustained by the example of her Sumpters and her Marions,) proved by her conduct, thatthough her soil might be over- run, the spirit of her people was invincible. But our country was soon call- ed upon to engage in another re- volutionary struggle, and that too was a struggle for principle. I mean the political revolution which dates back to '98, and which, if it had not been successfully achiev- ed, would have left us none of the fruits of the revolution of '76. The revolution of '98 restored the Constitution, rescued the Hb- erty of the chlzen from the grasp of those who were aiming at its life, and in the emphatic language of Mr Jefferson, ' saved the Consti- tution at its last gasp.' And by whom was it achieved.** By the South, aided only by the democ- racy of the North and West. 1 come now to the war of 1812, a war which I well remember was called in derision, (while its event was doubtful,) the Southern war, and sometimes the Carolina war ; but which is now universally ac- knowledged to have done more for the honor and prosperity of the country, than all other events in our history put together. What were the objects of that war ? ' Free trade and sailors' rights ! ' It was for the protection of North- ern shipping and New England seamen, that the country flew to arms. What interest had the 84 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 South in that contest? If they had sat down coolly to calculate the value of their interests involv- ed in it, they would have found that they had everything to lose, and nothing to gain. But with that generous devotion to country so characteristic of the South, they only asked, if the rights of any portion of their fellow-citizens had been invaded ; and when told that Northern ships and New England seamen had been arrested on the common highway of nations, they felt that the honor of their country was assailed ; and acting on that exalted sentiment ' which feels a stain like a wound,' they resolved to seek in open war, for a redress of those injuries, which it did not become freemen to endure. The whole South, animated as by a common impulse, cordially united in declaring and promoting that ivar. South Carolina sent to your councils, as the advocates and supporters of that war, the noblest of her sons. How they fulfilled that trust, let a grateful country tell. Not a measure was adopted, not a battle fought, not a victory won, which contributed in any de- gree, to the success of that war, to which Southern councils and Southern valor did not largelycon- tribute. Since South Carolina is assailed, I must be suffered to speak it to her praise, that at the very moment when in one quarter, we heard it solemnly proclaimed ' that it did not become a religious and moral people to rejoice at the victories of our army or our navy,' her Legislature unanimously ' Resolved, That we will cor- •dially support the Government in the vigorous prosecution of the war, until a peace can be obtained on honorable terms, and we will cheerfully submit to every priva- tion that may be required of us, by our Government, for the ac- complishment of this object.' South Carolina redeemed that pledge. She threw open her treasury to the Government. She put at the absolute disposal of the ofncers of the United States all that she possessed — her men, her money and her arms. She appropriated half a million of dollars, on her o'.vn account, in defence of her maritime frontier, ordered a brigade of State troops to be raised, and when left to })rotect herself by her own means, never suffered the enemy to touch her soil, without being instantly driven off or captured. Such w^as the conduct of the South — such the conduct of my own State in that dark hour ^ which tried men's souls.' When I look back and con- template the spectacle exhibited at that time, in another quarter of the Union, when I think of the conduct of certain portions of New England, and remember the part which was acted on that memorable occasion by the po- litical associates of the gentle- man from Massachusetts — nay, when I follow that gentleman into the councils of the nation, and lis- ten to his voice during the darkest period of the war, I am indeed astonished that he should venture to touch upon the topics which he has introduced into this debate. South Carolina reproached by Massachusetts 1 And from whom DEBATE IN SENATE. does the accusation come ? Not from the Democracy of New England ; for they have heen in times past, as they are now, the friends and allies of the South. No, sir, the accusation comes from that party, whose acts, dur- ing the most trying and eventful period of our national history, were of such a character that their own Legislature, but a few years ago, actually blotted them out from their records, as a stain upon the honor of the country. But how can they ever be blotted out from the recollection of any one who had a heart to feel, a mind to comprehend and a memo - ry to retain, the events of that day ? I shall not attempt , to write the history of the party in New England, to which I have alluded — the war party in peac^? and the peace party in >^ar. That task I shall leave ta some future biographer of Nathan Dane, and I doubt no^ it will be found quite easy ^ V^ove that the peace party c/ Massachusetts were the only defenders of their country, dur^ig the war, and ac- tually acK^ved all our victories by land ^^^d sea. In the mean- time, sir, and until that history sha/1 be written, I propose, with ti'ie feeble and glimmering lights which I possess, to review the conduct of this party, in connex- ion with the war, and the events which immediately preceded it. It will be recollected that our g;reat causes of quarrel with Great Britain, were her depredations on Northern commerce, and the im- pressment of New England sea- men. From every quarter we were called upon for protection. 8* Importunate as the West is now represented to be, on another subject, the importunity of the East on that occasion was far greater. I hold in my hands the evidence of the fact. Here are petitions, memorials and remon- strances, from all parts of New England, setting forth the injus- tice, the oppressions, the depre- dations, the insults, the outrages, committed by Gre?t Britain against the unoffending com- merce and seamep of New Eng- land, and callir\f "pon Congress for redress. The copc^Lict of Great Britain, we werr then told, was * an out- rage ^pon our national indepen- dence.' These clamors, which' commenced as early as January, 1806, were continued up to 1812. In a message from the Governor of one of the New England States, as late as the 10th of October, 1811, this language is held : 'A manly and decisive course has become indispensable : a course to satisfy foreign nations, that while we desire peace, we have the means and the spirit to repel aggression. We are false to ourselves, when our commerce or our territory is invaded witlt impunity.' About this time, however, a remarkable change was observa- ble in the tone and temper of those who had been endeavoring to force the country into a war. The language of complaint was changed into that of insult, and calls for protection, converted in- to reproaches. The war at length came, and what did we behold ? The very men who had been for six years 8$ ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. clamorous for war, and for whose protection it was waged, became at once equally clamorous against it. They had received a miracu- lous visitation ; a new light had suddenly beamed upon their minds, the scales fell from their eyes, and it was discovered that the war was declared from ' sub- sirviency to France;' and that Congress and the Executive ^ had sold then.selves to Napoleon that Great Britain had in fact ' done us no essential injury that she was ' the bulwark of our re- ligion ;'that where ' she took one of our ships, she prolt/^ted twen- ty,' and that if Great Bi\tain had impressed a few of our strinien, it was because ' she could not distinguish them from her owl' And so far did this spirit extend, that a committee of the Massa- chusetts Legislature actually fell to calculation, and discovered, to their infinite satisfaction, but to the astonishment of all the world beside, that only eleven Massa- chusetts sailors had ever been •impressed. Wonderful discove- ry ! The Secretary of State had collected authentic lists of no less than six thousand impressed Americans. Lord Castlereagh himself acknowledged sixteen hundred. Calculations on the basis of the number found on board of the Guerriere, the Mace- donian, the Java, and other Brit- ish ships (captured by the skill and gallantry of those heroes, whose achievements are the treasured monuments of their country's glory), fixed the num- ber at seven thousand ; and yet, it seems, Massachusetts had lost but eleven ! Eleven Massachu- setts sailors taken by mistake ! A cause of war, indeed ! Their sinps, too, the capture of whicii had threatened ' universal bank- ruptcy,' it was discovered that Great Britain was their friend and protector j ' where she had taken one, she had protected twenty.' Then was the discovery made that subserviency to France, hos- tility to commerce, ' a determina- tion on the part of the South and the West to break down the Eastern States, and especially (as reported by a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature), to force the sons of commerce to populate the wilderness,' were the true causes of the war.* But let us look a litde farther lato the conduct of the peace pany of New England, at that impouant crisis. Whatever dif- ference of opinion might have existed as to the causes of the war, the country had a right to expect that vhen once involv- ed in the conK^t, all America would have cordially united in its support. The war effected, in its progress, a union oC all par- ties at the South. But naso in New England ; there, greai ef- forts were made to stir up ii\e jTiinds of the people to oppose it. Nothing was left undone to em- barrass the financial operations of the Government, to prevent the enlistment of troops, to keep back the men and money of New Eng- land from the service of the Lmion, to force the President from his seat. Yes, sir, ' the Island * Olive Branch, pnges 134— 291. DEBATE IN SENATE. 87 of Elba ! or a halter !' were the alternatives they presented to the excellent and venerable James Madison. The war was further op- posed by openly carrying on illicit trade with the enemy, by permit- ting that enemy to establish herself on the very soil of Massachusetts, and by opening a free trade be- tween Great Britain and Ameri- ca, with a separate Custom House. Yes, sir, those who cannot endure the thought that we should insist on a free trade in time of pro- found peace, could without scru- ple claim and exercise the right of carrying on a free trade with the enemy in a time of war ; and finally by getting up the renown- ed ' Hartford Convention,' and preparing the way for an open resistance to the Government, and a separation of the States. If I am asked for the proof of those things, I fearlessly appeal to cotemporary history, to the public documents of the country, to the recorded opinions, and acts of public assemblies, to the declaration and acknowledgments, since made, of the Executive and Legislature of Massachusetts her- self. Mr Hayne then proceeded to illustrate the prevailing feeling in the Eastern States during the war, by reading extracts from the Olive Branch, in which are col- lected quotations from the speech- es of excited partisans, fast ser- mons of political divines, and es- says in newspapers, with the de- sign of proving the disaffection of the inhabitants of those States at that critical moment. He then said, that — As soon as the public mind was sufficiently prepared for tlie measure, the celebrated Hartford Convention was got up ; not as an act of a few unauthorized indi- viduals, but by authority of the Legislature of Massachusetts. I do not desire to call in question the motives of the gentlemen who composed that assembly. ] knew many of them to be in private life accomplished and honorable men, and 1 doubt not there were some among them who did not perceive the dangerous tendency of their proceedings. I will even go further, and say, that if the authors of the Hartford Conven- tion believed, that ' gross, delibe- rate, and palpable violations of the Constitution' had taken place, utterly destructive of their rights and interests, I should be the last man to deny their right to resort to any constitutional measures for redress. But, in any view of the case, the time when, and the cir- cumstances under, which that convention assembled, as well as the measures recommended, ren- der their conduct, in my opinion, wholly indefensible. Let us con- template for a moment, the spectacle then exhibited to the view of the world. I will not go over the disasters of the war, nor describe the difficulties in which the Government was involved.. It will be recollected that its credit was nearly gone. Wash- ington had fallen, the whole coast was blockaded, and an immense force collected in the West Indies was about to make a descent, which it was supposed we had no means of resisting. In this awful state of our public affairs, when the Government seemed almost 88 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. to be tottering on its base, when 'Great Britain, relieved from all her other enemies, had proclaim- ed her purpose of ' reducing us to unconditional submission' — we beheld the peace party of New England (in the language of the work before us), pursuing a course calculated to do more injury to their country, and to render England more eflective service than all her armies. Those who could not find in their hearts to rejoice at our victories, sang Te Deum at the King's Chapel, in Boston, for the resto- ration of the Bourbons. Those who could not consent to illumi- nate their dwellings for the cap- ture of the Guerriere, could give visible tokens of their joy at the fall of Detroit. The * beacon fires' of their hills were lighted up, not for the encouragement of their friends, but as signals to the enemy ; and in the gloomy hours of midnight, the very lights burn- ed blue. Such were the dark and portentous signs of the times, which ushered into being the re- nowned Hartford Convention. That convention met, and from their proceedings it appears, that their chief object was to keep back the men and money of New England from the service of the Union, and to eftect radical changes in the Government — changes that can never be effect- ed without a dissolution of the Union. It is unnecessary to trace the matter further, or to ask what would have been the next chap- ter in this history, if the measures recommended had been carried into effect ; and if, with the men and money of New England withheld from the Government of the Unhed States, she had been withdrawn from the war ; if New Orleans had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and if, without troops and ahnost destitute of money, the Southern and the Western Stales had been thrown upon their own resources for the })rosecution of the war, and the recovery of New Orleans What- ever may have been the issue of the contest, the Union must have been dissolved. But a wise and just Providence, which ' shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will,' gave us the victory, and crowned our efforts with a glori- ous peace. The ambassadors of Hartford were seen retracing their steps from Washington, * the bearers of the glad tidings of great joy.' Courage and patriot- ism triumphed — the country was saved — the Union was preserv- ed. And are we, Mr President, who stood by our country then ; who threv/ open our coffers ; who bared our bosoms; who freely perilled all in that conflict, to be reproached with want of attach- ment to the Union If we are to have lessons of patriotism read to us, they must come from a different quarter. Mr President, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that all the remarks I have made on this sub- ject, are intended to be exclu- sively applied to a party, which 1 have described as, the ' peace party of New England.' Sir, no- thing has been further from my thoughts than to impeach the char- acter or conduct of the people of New England. For their steady DEBATE IN SENATE. 89 habits and hardy virtues, I trust I entertain a becoming respect. I fully subscribe to the truth of the description given before the Rev- olution, by one whose praise is the highest eulogy, ' that the per- severance of Holland, the activity of France, and the dexterous and firm sagacity of English en- terprise, have been more than equalled by this "recent people. ' Hardy, enterprising, sagacious, industrious, and moral, the people of New England of the present day, are worthy of their ancestors. Still less, Mr President, has it been ray intention to say anything that could be construed into a want of respect for that party, who, trampling on all narrow, sectional feelings, have been true to their principles in the worst of times — 1 mean the Democracy of New England. I will declare, that, highly as 1 appreciate the democracy of the South, I consider even higher praise to be due to the democracy of New England, who have main- tained their principles ' through good and through evil report,' who, at every period of our na- tional history, have stood up man- fully for 'their country, their whole country, and nothing but their country.' In the great political revolution of '98, they were found unhed with the democracy of the South, marching under the ban- ner of the constitution, led on by the patriarch of liberty, in search of the land of political promise, which they lived not only to be- hold, but to possess and to enjoy. Again, in the darkest and most gloomy period of the war, when our country stood single handed, against ' the conqueror of the con- querors of the world,' when all about and around them was dark and dreary, disastrous and dis- couraging, they stood, a Spartaiii band, in that narrow pass, where the honor of their country was to be defended, or to find its grave - And in the last great struggle^ involving, as we believe, the very existence of the principle of pop- ular sovereignty, where were the democracy of New England ? Where they always have been found, struggling side by side, with their brethren of the South and the West, for popular rights, and assisting in their glorious tri- umph, by which the man of the people was elevated to the high- est office in their gift. Who, then, Mr President, are the true friends of the Union Those who would confine the Federal Government strictly with- in the limits prescribed by the Constitution ; who would pre-- serve to the States and the peo- ple all powers not expressly dele- gated ; who would make this a federal and not a national Union^ and who, administering the Gov- ernment in a spirit of equal jus- tice would make it a blessing, and not a curse. And who are its enemies Those who are in favor of consolidation — who are constantly stealing power from the States, and adding strength to the Federal Government. Who, assuming an unwarrantable jurisdiction over the States and the people, undertake to regu- late the whole industry and capital of the country. But, of all descriptions of men, I consider those as the worst enemies q[ ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the Union, who sacrifice ihe equal rights which belong to every inember of the confederacy, to combinations of interested ma- jorities, for personal or political objects. The Senator from Massachu- setts, in denouncing what he is pleased to call the Carolina doc- trine, has attempted to throw ridicule upon the idea that a State has any constitutional reme- dy, by the exercise of its sove- reign authority, against ' a gross, palpable, and deliberate violation of the Constitution.' He calls it * an idle ' or a ' ridiculous notion,' or something to that effect, and added, that it would make the Union 'a mere rope of sand.' As the gentleman has not con- descended to enter into any ex- amination of the question, and has been satisfied with throwing the weight of his authority into the scale, I do not deem it neces- sary to do more than to throw into the opposite scale the authori- ty on which South Carolina relies, and there, for the present, I am perfectly willing to leave the con- iroversy. The South Carolina doctrine, that is to say, the doc- trine contained in an exposition reported by a committee of the legislature in December, 1828, and published by their authority, it is the good old republican doc- trine of '98 — the doctrine of the celebrated * Virginia Resolutions' of that year, and of ' Madison's Report ' of '99. It will be re- collected that the legislature of Virginia in December, '98, took into consideration the Allen and Sedition laws, then considered by all republicans as a gross violation of the Constitution of the United States, and on that day passed, among others, the following reso- lutions. ' The General Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily de- clare, that it views the powers of the Federal Government as re- sulting from the compact to which the States are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no farther valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that com- pact ; and that in case of a de- liberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the States who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respec- tive hmits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.* In addition to the above reso- lution, the General Assembly of Virginia ' appeal to the other States, in the confidence that they would concur v. lib that Commonwealth, that the acts aforesaid [the alien and sedition laws] are unconstitutional, and that the necessary and proper mea- sures would be taken by each for cooperating with Virginia in main- taining, unimpaired, the aulhorlties, rights and liberties, reserved to the States respectively, or to the People.' The Legislatures of several of the New England Slates having, contrary to the expectation of the Legislature of Virginia, expressed their dissent from these doctrines ; the subject came up again for DEBATE IN SENATE. 91 consideration, during the session of 1799, 1800, when it was re- ferred to a select committee, by whom was made that celebrated report, which is familiarly known as * JMadison's Report,' and which deserves to last as long as the Constitution itself. In that re- port, which was subsequently adopted by the Legislature, the whole subject was deliberately re-examined, and the objections urged against the Virginia doc- trines carefully considered. The result was, that the Legislature of Virginia re-affirmed all the principles laid down in the reso- lutions of 1798, and issued to the world that admirable report, which has stamped the character of Mr Madison as the preserver of that Constitution which he had contributed so largely to create and establish. But our authorities do not stop here. The State of Kentucky ^ responded to Virginia, and on the 10th of November, 1798, adopted these celebrated resolutions, well known to have been penned by the Author of the Declaration of American Independence. In those resolutions the Legislature of Kentucky declares * That the government created by this com- pact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discre- tion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party had an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and njeasure of redress.' At the ensuing session of the Legislature, the subject was re- examined, and on the 14th No- vember, 1799, the resolutions of the preceding year, were deliber- ately reaffirmed,'and it was among other things solemnly declared : ' That if those who administer the General Government be per- mitted to transgress the limits fixed by that compact, by a total disregard to the special delega- tions of power therein contained, an annihilation of the State Gov- ernments, and the erection upon their ruins of a general consoli- dated government will be the in- evitable consequence. The prin- ciples of construction contended for by sundry of the State Legis- latures, that the General Govern- ment is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of des- potism ; since the discretion ' of those who administer the govern- ment, and not the Constitution, would be the measure of their powers. That the several States who formed that instrument, be- ing sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction, and that a nullification by those sovereignties, of all authorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.' Time and experience confirm- ed Mr Jefferson's opinion on this all important point. In the year 18.21, he expressed himself in this emphatic manner. ' It is a fatal heresy to suppose that either our State Governments are su- perior to the Federal, or the Federal to the States ; neither is authorized literally to decide which 92 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — SO. belongs to itself or its copartner in government : in differences of opinion, between their different sets of public servants, the appeal is to neither, but to their employ- ers peaceably assembled by their representatives in Convention.' The opinion of Mr Jefferson on this subject has been so repeatedly and so solemnly expressed, that they may be said to have been among the most fixed and setded convictions of his mind. In the protest prepared by him for the Legislature of Virginia, in December, 1825, in respect to the powers exercised by the Fe- deral Government in relation to ihe Tariff, and Internal Improve- ments, which he declares to be * usurpations of the powers retain- ed by the States, mere interpola- tions into the compact, and direct infractions of it,' — he solemnly reasserts all the principles of the Virginia resolutions of '98 — pro- tesis against ' these acts of the Federal branch of the Govern- ment as null and void, and de- clares that although Virginia would consider a dissolution of the Union as among the greatest calamities that could befall them, yet it is not the greatest. There is one yet greater — submission to a Government of unlimited powers. It is only when the hope of this shall become so absolutely desperate that further forbearance could not be indulged.' Such, sir, are the high and imposing authorities in sup- port of ' the Carolina doctrine,' which is in fact the doctrine of the Virginia resolutions of 1798. At that day the whole country was divided on this very question. It formed the line of demarcation between the federal and republi- can parties, and the great political revolution which then took place, turned upon the very question involved in these resolutions. That question was decided by the people, and by that decision the Constitution was, in the emphatic language of Mr Jefferson, ' saved at its last gasp.' I should sup- pose it would require more self- respect than any gentleman here would be willing to assume, to treat lightly, doctrines derived from such high sources. Rest- ing on authority hke this, I will ask gendemen, whether South Carohna has not manifested a high regard for the Union, when under a tyranny ten limes more grievous than the alien and sedi- tion laws, she has hitherto gone no farther than to petidon, remon- sti'ate, and to solemnly protest against a series of measures which she believes to be w4iolly uncon- stitutional, and utterly destructive of her interests. South Carolina has not gone one step farther than Mr Jefferson himself was disposed to go in relation to the present subject of our present complaints — not a step farther than the statesmen from New England were disposed to go un- der similar circumstances ; no farther than the senator from Massachusetts himself once con- sidered as within ' the limits of a constitutional opposition.' The doctrine that it is the right of a State to judge of the violations of the Constitution on the part of the Federal Government, and to protect her citizens from the op- erations of unconstitutional laws, was held by tlie enlightened citi DEBATE IN SENATE. 98 Kens of Boston, who assembled in Faneuil hall, on the 25th of January, in 1809. They state, in that celebrated memorial, that ' they looked only to the State legislature, who were competent to devise relief against the uncon- stitutional acts of the General Government. That your power, (say they) is adequate to that ob- ject, is evident from the organi- zation of the confederacy.' A distinguished senator from one of the New England States, (Mr Hillhouse,) in a speech de- livered here, on a bill for enforc- ing the embargo, declared — ' I feel myself bound in conscience to declare, (lest the blood of those who shall fall in the execution of this measure shall be on my bead,) that I consider this to be an act which directs a mortal blow at the liberties of my country — , an act containing unconstitutional provisions, to which the people are not bound to submit, and to wiiich, in my opinion, they will not sub- mit.' And the senator from Massa- chusetts, himself, in a speech de- livered on the same subject in the other House, said, ' ' tliis op- position is constitutional and legal ; it is also conscientious, ft rests on setded and sober conviction, that such policy is destructive to the interests of the people, and dangerous to the being of Govern- ment. The experience of every day confirms these sentiments. Men who act from such motives are not to be discouraged by tri-- fling obstacles, nor awed by any dangers. They know the limit of constitutional opposition ; up 10 that limit, at their own discre^ tion, they will walk, and waik fearlessly.' How ' the being of the Government' was to be en- dangered by ' constitutional op- position' to the embargo, 1 leave to die gentleman to explain. Thus, will be seen, Mr Presi- dent, that the South Carolina doctrine is the republican doc- trine of '98 ; that it was promul- gated by the fadiers of the faith — that it was maintained by Virginia and Kentucky in the worst of times — = that it constituted the very pivot on which the political revolution of that day turned — that it embraces the very princi- ples, the triumph of vv^hich, at that time, saved the Constitution at its last gasp, and which New England statesmen were not un- willing to adopt, when they be- lieved themselves to be the vic- tims of unconstitutional legislation. As to die doctrine that the Fede- ral Government is the exclusive judge of the extent as well as the limitations of its powers, it seems to me to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty and independence of the States. It makes but little difference, in my estimation, whether Congress or the Supreme Court are invested with this pow-. er. If the Federal Government, in all or any of its departments, are to prescribe the limits of its own authority, and the States are bound to submit to the decision, and are not to be allowed to examine and decide for themselves, when the barriers of the Constitution shall be overleaped, this is practi- cally a ' government without lim- itation of powers.' The States are at once reduced to mere petty corporations, and the people are. 94 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. entirely at your mercy. I have but one word more to add. In all the efforts that have been made by South Carolina, to resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has extended over them, she has kept steadily in view the preservation of the Union, by the only means by which she believes it can be long preserved — a firm, manly, and steady resistance against usurpa- tion. The measures of the Fed- eral Government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. But even this evil, great as it is, is not the chief ground of our complaints. It is the principle involved in the con- test, a principle, which, substitut- ing the discretion of Congress for the limitations of the Constitution, brings the States and the peo- ple to the feet of the Federal Government, and leaves them nothing they can call their own. If the measures of the Federal Government were less oppressive, we should still strive against this usurpation. The South is acting on a principle she has always held sacred — resistance to un- authorized taxation. These aie the principles which induced the immortal Hampden to resist the payment of a tax of twenty shil- lings. Would twenty shillings have ruined his fortune ? No ! but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle on which it was demanded, would have made him a slave. If in acting on these high motives — if ani- mated by that ardent love of lib- erty which has always been the most prominent trait in the South- ern character — we should be hurried beyond the bounds of a cold and calculating prudence, who is there, with one noble and generous sentiment in his bosom, that would not be disposed, in the language of Burke, to exclaim, ' You must pardon something to the spirit of liberty ! ' This speech, addressed as it was to the local prejudices of the South and West, and obviously with a view of uniting those great sections of the country, in a cru- sade against the predominant party in the Eastern States, called up Mr Webster in a reply, which for power and effect, never was sur- passed on the floor of Congress. From the pointed and marked character of the attack, and the manner in which the speech of Mr Hayne was eulogized throughout the country, by the friends of the administration, it was evident that they believed a fatal blow had been aimed at the political stand- ing of the Senator from Massa- chusetts. The reply, however, was yet to come, and his acknowledged ability caused some apprehension as to the resuh. Public attention was strongly excited, and the Sen- ate Chamber was crowded to overflowing, in expectation of the reply. Following Mr Hayne in debate, Mr Webster commenced by remarking upon the manner in which they had wandered from the resolution before the Senate, and asked the Secretary to read the resolution. He then proceed- ed. We have thus heard, sir, what the resolution is which is actually before us for consideration ; and it DEBATE IN SENATE. will readily occur to every one that it is almost the only suhject about which something has not been said in the speecli, running through two days, by which the Senate has now been entertained by the gentleman from South Car- olina. Every topic in the wide range of our public affairs, whether pastor present — everything, gen- eral or local, whether belonging to national politics or party politics, seems to have attracted more or less of the honorable member's attention, save only the resolution before us. When this debate was to be re- sumed, on Thursday morning, it so happened that it would have been convenient for me to be else- where. The honorable member, however, did not incline to put off the discussion to another day. He had a shot, he said, to return, and he wished to discharge it. That shot, which it was kind thus to in- form us was coming, that we might stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves to fall before it, and die with decency, has now been re- ceived. Under all advantages, and with expectation awakened by the tone which preceded it, it has been discharged, and has spent its force. It may become me to say no more of its effect, than that, if nobody is found, after all, either killed or wounded by it, it is not the first time in the history of hu- man affairs that the vigor and suc- cess of the vv^ar have not quite come up to the lofty and sounding phrase of the manifesto. But the gentleman inquires why he was made the object of sucVa reply ? Why was he sin- g.led out? If an attack had been made on the East, he, he assures us, did not begin it — it was the gentleman from Missouri. I answered the gentleman's speech because I happened to hear it ; and because, also, I chose to give an answer to that speech, which if unanswered, I thought most likely to produce injurious impres- sions. 1 did not stop to inquire who was the original drawer of the bill. I found a responsible indorser before me, and it was my purpose to hold him liable, and to bring him to his just re- sponsibility without delay. But this interrogatory of the honorable member was only introductory to another. He proceeded to ask me, whether I had turned upon him, in this debate, from the con- sciousness that 1 should find an overmatch, if I ventured on a contest with his friend from Mis- souri. If the honorable member, ex gratia modestice^ had chosen thus to defer to his friend, and to pay him a compliment without intentional disparagement to oth- ers, it would have been quite ac- cording to the friendly courtesies of debate, and not at all ungrate- ful to my own feelings. \ am not one of those who esteem any tribute of regard, whether light and occasional, or more serious and deliberate, which may be be- stowed on others, as so much unjustly withholden from them- selves. But the tone and manner of the gentleman's question, for- bid me that I thus interpret it. I am not at liberty to consider it as nothing more than a civility to his friend. It had an air of taunt and disparagement, a little of the loftiness of asserted superiority, ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. which does not allow me lo pass it over without notice. It was put as a question for irie to an* swer, and so put, as if it were difficult for meto answer, wheth- er I deemed the member from Missouri an overmatch for myself in debate here. It seems, to me, that this is extraordinary language, and an extraordinary tone, for the discussions of this body. Matches and over- matches ! Those terms are more applicable elsewhere than here, and fitter for other assemblies than this. The gentleman seems to forget where and what we are. This is a Senate; a senate of equals: of men of individual honor and per- sonal character, and of absolute independence. We know no mas- ters : we acknowledge no dicta- tors. This is a hall for mutual consultation and discussion ; not an arena for the exhibition of champions. I offer myself, as a match for no man ; I throw the challenge of debate at no man's feet. But then, since the jion- orable member has put the ques- tion, in a manner that calls for an answer, I will give him an answer ; and I tell him, that, holding my- self to be the humblest of the members here, I yet know nothing in the arm of his friend from Missouri, either alone, or when aided by the arm of his hiend from South Carolina, that need deter, even me, from espousing whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from debating when- ever 1 may choose to debate, or from speaking whatever I may see fit to say on the floor of the Sen- ate. When uttered as matter af commendation or compliment, I should dissent from nothing which the honorable member might say of his friend. Still less do! put forth any pretensions of my own. But when put to me as matter of taunt, I throw it back, and say lo the gentleman that he could possibly say nothing less likely than such a comparison, to wound my pride of personal character. The anger of the tone rescued ttie remark from intentional irony, which otherwise, probably, would have been its ge- neral acceptation. But, if it be imagined that by this mutual quo- tation and commendation ; if it be supposed that, by casting the characters of the drama, assigning to each his part : to one the at- tack ; to another the cry of onset ; or, if it be thought that by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory, any laurels are to be won here ; if it be imagined, especial- ly, that any, or all these things, will shake any purpose of mine, I can tell the honorable member once for all, that he is greatly- mistaken, and that he is dealing with one of whose temper and character he has yet much to learn. I shall not allow myself, on this occasion, ] hope on no oc- casion, to be betrayed into any loss of temper, but, if provoked, and I trust I never shall allow myself to be, into crimination and recrimination,the honorable mem- ber may, perhaps, find, that, in that contest, there will be blows to lake as well as blows to give ; that others can state comparisons as significant, at least, as his own, and that his impunity may per- haps, demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he DEBATE IN SENATE. 07 may p.ossess. 1 commencl him to a prudent husbandry of his re- sources. Jn the course of my observa- tions the other day, Mr President. I paid a passing tribute of respect to a very worthy man, Mr Dane, of Massachusetts. It so happened tiiat he drew the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the Northwestern Territory. I spoke, of the ordinance of 1782, which prohibited slavery, in all future times, northwest of the Ohio, as a measure of great vv^isdom and foresight; and one which had been attended with highly beneficial and permanent consequences. I supposed, that on this point, no two gentlemen in the Senate could entertain differ- ent opinions. But the simple ex- pression of this sentiment has led the gentleman, not only into a labored defence of slavery, in the abstract, and on principle, but, also, into a warm accusation against me, as having attacked the system of domestic slavery, now existing in the Southern States. For all this there was not the slightest foundation, in anything said or intimated by me. I did uol utter a single word, which any ingenuity could torture into an attack on the slavery of the South. I said only that it was highly wise and useful in legislating^ for the northwestern country, while it was yet a wilderness, to prohibit the introduction of slaves ; and added, that I presumed, in the neighbor- ing state of Kentucky, there was no reflecting and intelligent gen- tleman, who would doubt,*' that if the same prohibition had been extended, at the same early pe icd, 9* over that commonwealth, her strength and population would, at this day, have been far greater than they are. If these opinions be thought doubtful, they are, nevertheless, I trust, neither ex- traordinary * or disrespectful. They attack nobody, and menace nobody. And yet, the gentle- man's optics have discovered, even in the mere expression of this sentiment, what he calls the very spirit of the Missouri ques- tion ! He represents me as mak- ing an onset on the whole South, and manifesting a spirit which would interfere with, and disturb their domestic condition ! This injustice no otherwise surprises me, than as it is done here, and done without the slightest pretence of ground for it. I say it only surprises me, as being done here ; for I know, full well, that it is, and has been the settled policy of some persons in the South, for years, to represent the people of the North as disposed to interfere with them, in their own exclusive and peculiar concerns. This is a delicate and sensitive point in southern feeling; and of late years it has always been touched, and generally with effect, when- ever the object has been to unite the whole South against northern men or northern measures. But the feeling is without adequate cause, and the suspicion which exists, wholly groundless. There is not, and never has been, a dis- position in the North to interfere with these interests of the South. Such interference has never been supposed to be within the power of Government ; nor hes it been in any way attempted. It has al- 98 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829— ways been regarded as a matter of domestic policy, left with the States themselves, and with which the Federal Government had nothing to do. Certainly, I am, and ever have been, of that opin- ion. The gentleman, indeed, argues that slavery, in the abstract, is no evil. Most assuredly, 1 need not say I differ with bim, altogeth- er and most widely, on that point. J regard do-mestic slavery as one of the greatest of evils, both moral and political. But though it be a malady, and whether it be curable, and if so, by what means ; or, on tbe other hand, whether it be tile vulniis vnmedicnhile of the social system, I leave it to those whose right and duty it is to in- quire and to decide. The do- mestic slavery of the South, I leave where I find it — in the hands of their own Governments. It is their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain of the peculiar effect which the magnitude of that ])opulation has had in the distribu- tion of power under this Federal Government. We know, that tlie l epresentation of the States in the other house is not equal. We know that great advantage, in that respect, is enjoyed by the slave holding States ; and we know, too, that the intended equivalent for that advantage, that is to say, the imposition of direct t^xes in the same ratio, has become merely nominal : the habit of the Gov- ei-nment being almost invariably to collect its revenues from other sources, and in other modes. Nevertheless, I do not complain : nor would I countenance any movement to alter this arrange- ment of representation. It is the original bargain, tbe compact- — let it stand : let tbe advantage of it be fully enjoyed. The Union itself is too full of benefit to be hazarded in propositions for chang- ing its original })asis. I go for the Constitution as it is, and for the Union as it is. But I am re- solved not to submit, in silence, to accusations, either against my- self individually, or against the North, wholly unfounded and un- just ; accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade the con- stitutional compact and to extend the power of the Government over the internal laws and domestic condition of the States. All such accusations, wlierever and when- ever made, all insinuations of the existence of any such purposes, I know and feel to be groundless and injurious. An attempt has been made to transfer, from the North to the South, the honor of this exclusion of slavery from the Northwestern Territory. The journal, without argument or comment, refutes such attempt. The cession by Virginia was made, March, 1784. On the 19th of April following, a committee, consisting of Messrs Jefferson, Chase, and Howell re- ported a plan for a temporary government of the territory, in which was this article ; ' that, after theyear 1800, there shall be neith- er slavery, nor involuntary servi- tude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof tbe party shall liavebeen convicted.' Mr Speight, of North Carolina, moved to strike out this paragraph. Tlie question was put, according to the form then practised : ' Shall these DEBATE IN SENATE. 9^ words stand, as part of the plan ? ' &ic. New Hampshire, Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — seven states, vot- ed in the affirmative. Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, in the negative. North Carolina was divided. As the consent of nine States was necessary, the words could not stand, and were struck out accordingly. — Mr Jefferson voted for the clause, but was overruled by his colleagues. In March of the next year, [1785,] Mr King, of Massachu- setts, seconded by Mr Ellery, of Rhode Island, proposed the form- erly rejected article, with this ad- dition : ' And that this regulation shall he an article of compact^ and remain a fundamental prin- ciple of the constitutions between the thp'teen original States and each of the States described in the resolve,^ fyc. On this clause, which provided the adequateand thorough security, the eight North- ern States at that time voted af- fimatively, and the four Southern States negatively. The votes of nine States were not yet obtained, and thus the provision was again rejected by the Southern States. The perseverance of the North lield out, and two years afterwards the object was attained. It is no derogation from the credit, what- ever that maybe, of drawing the ordinance, that its principles liad before been prepared and discuss- ed, in the form of a resolution. But the honorable member had now found out that this gentleman, Mr Dane, was a member of the Hartford Convention. However uniformed the honorable mem- ber may be of characters and oc- currences at the North, it would seem that he has at his elbow on this occasion some high-minded and lofty spirit, some magnani- mous and true-hearted monitor possessing the means of local laiowledge, and ready to supply the honorable member with every- thing, down even to forgotten and moth-eaten two-penny pamphlets, which may be used to the disad- vantage of his own country. But as to the Hartford Convention, allow me to say, that the proceed-, ings of that body seem now to be less read and studied in New England, than further South. — They appear to be looked to, not in New England, but elsewhere, for the purpose of seeing how far they may serve as a precedent. But they will not answer the pur- pose — they are quite too tameo The latitude in which they origin- ated was too cold. Other con- ventions, of more recent existence, have gone a whole bar's length beyond it. The learned doctors of Colleton and Abbeville have pushed their commentaries on the Hartford Collect so far that the original text-writers are thrown entirely into the shade. I have nothing to do with the Hartford Convention. Its journal, whicli the gentleman has quoted, I never read. So far as the honorable member may discover in its pro- ceedings a spirit in any degree resembling that which was avow- ed and justified in those other conventions to which I have al- luded, or so far as those proceed- ings can be shown to be disloyal to the Constitution, or tending to disunion, so far I shall be as ready 100 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. as any one to bestow on them reprehension and censure. J need not repeat at large, the general topics of the honorable gentleman's speech. When he said, yesterday, that he did not attack the Eastern States, he certainly must have forgotten, not only particular remarks, but the whole drift and tenor of his speech ; unless he means, by not attacking, that he did not com- mence hostilities — but that an- other had preceded him at the at- tack. He, in the first place, dis- approved of the whole course of the Government, for forty years, in regard to its dispositions of the public land ; and then, turning northward and eastward, and fancying he had found a cause for alleged narrowness and nig- gardliness in the' accursed policy' of the tariff, to which he repre- sented the people of New Eng- land as wedded, he went on, for a full hour, with remarks, the whole scope of which was to ex- hibit the resuhs of this policy, in feelings and in measures unfavora- ble to the West. I thought his opinions unfounded and errone- ous, as to the general course of the Government, and ventured to reply to them. The gentleman had remarked on the analogy of other cases, and quoted the conduct of Eu- ropean Governments, towards their own subjects, settling on this continent, as in point, to show that we have been harsh and rigid in selling, when we should have given the public lands to setders. I thought the honorable member had suffered his judg- ment to be betrayed by a false analogy ; that he was struck with an appearance of resemblance, where there was no real similitude. But this is not the point of the debate. The real question be- tween me and him is, where has the doctrine been advanced, at the South or at the East, that the population of the West should be retarded, or at least, need not to be hastened, on account of its effect to drain off the people from the Atlantic States ^ Is this doc- trine, as has been alleged, of Eastern origin } Has the gentle- man found anything by which he can make good his accusation ? I submit to the Senate, that he has entirely failed ; and as far as this debate has shown, the only person who has advanced such sentiments, is a gentleman from South Carolina, and a friend to the honorable member himself. New England is guiltless of the policy of retarding western pop- ulation, and of all envy and jeal- ousy of the growth of the new States. Whatever there may be of that policy in the country, no part of it is hers. We approach, at length to a more important part of the hon- orable gentleman's observations. Since it does not accord with my views of justice and policy to give away the public lands altogether, as mere matter of gratuity, I am asked by the honorable gendeman on what ground it is, that I con- sent to vote them away in particu- lar instances ? How, he inquires, do I reconcile with these profess- ed sentiments, my support of measures appropriating portions of the lands to particular roads particular canals, particular rivers, DEBATE IN SENATE. 101 and particular institutions of edu- cation in the West? This leads to tlie real and wide difference in political opinions between the hon- orable gentleman and myself. On my part, I look upon all these objects as connected with the common good, fairly embraced in its objects and its terms ; he, on the contrary, deems them all, if good at all, only local good. The interrogatory, which he proceeded to put, at once explains this differ- ence. ' What interest,' asks he, ' has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio ? ' This very question de- velopes the gentleman's whole political system ; and its answer expounds mine. I look upon a road over the Alleghany, a canal round the Falls of the Ohio, or a canal or railway from the At- lantic to the western waters, as being objects large and extensive enough to be fairly sftid to be for the common benefit. The gen- tleman thinks otherwise, and this is the key to open his construction of the powers of the Government. On that system, Ohio and Caro- lina are different Governments, and different countries, connected here, it is true, by some slight and ill-defined bond of union, but in all main respects, separate and diverse. On that system, Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio, than in jMexico. The gentleman, therefore, only follows out his own principles ; he does no more than arrive at the natural conclusions of his own doctrines ; he only announces the true results of that creed which he has adopted himself, and would persuade others to adopt, when he thus declares that South Car- olina lias no interest in a public work in Ohio. We narrow mind- ed people of New England do not reason thus. Our notion of things is entirely different. We look upon the States, not as separated, but as united. We love to dwell on that Union, and on the mutual happiness which it has so much promoted, and the common renown which it has so greatly contributed to acquire. In our contemplation, Carohna and Ohio are parts of the same country ; States, united under the same General Government, hav- ing interests common, associated, intermingled. In whatever is within the proper sphere of the constitutional power of this Gov- ernment, we look upon the States as one. We do not impose geo- graphical limits, to our patriotic feeling or regard ; we do not fol- low rivers and mountains, and lines of latitude, to find boun- daries beyond which public im- provements do not benefit us. We who come here as agents and representatives of those narrow minded and selfish men of New England, consider ourselves as bound to regard, with equal eye, the good of the whole, in what- ever is within our power of legis- lation. If a rail road or a canal, beginning in South Carolina, and ending in South Carolina, appear- ed to me to be of national impor- tance and national magnitude, (believing, as I do, that the power of Government extends to the encouragement of works of that description,) if 1 were to stand up here, and ask, what interest has Massachusetts in a rail road in South Carolina, I should not be willing to face my constituents. These same narrow minded men 102 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. would tell me, that they had sent me lo act for the wiiole C(iuntry, and that one who possessed too little comprehension, either of intellect or feeling, one who was not large enough, in mind and heart, to embrace the whole, was not fit to be entrusted with the interest of any part. 1 do not desire to enlarge the powers of the Government, by unjustifiable construction ; nor to exercise any not within a fair interpretation. But when it is believed that a power does exist, then it is, in my judgment, to be exercised for the general benefit of the whole; so far as respects the exercise of such a power, the States are one. It was the very object of the Con- stitution to create unity of interests to the extent of the powers of the General Government. In war and peace, we are one ; in com- merce one ; because the authority of the General Government reach- es to war and peace, and to the regulation of commerce. 1 have never seen any more difficulty in erecting light-houses on the lakes, than on the ocean ; in improving the harbors of inland seas, than if they were within the ebb and flow of the tide ; or of removing obstructions in the vast streams of the West, more than in any work to facilitate commerce on the Atlantic coast. If there be power for one, there is power also for the other; and they are all and equally for the country. There are other objects appa- rently more local, or the benefit of which is less general, towards which, nevertheless, I have con- curred with others to give aid, by donations of land. It is proiX)sed to construct a road in or through one of the new States in which this Government possesses large quantities of land. Have the United States no right, as a great and untaxed proprietor; are they under no obligation to contribute to an object thus calculated to ])romote the common good of all the proprietors, themselves in- cluded ? And even with respect to education, which is the extreme case, let the question be consider- ed. In the first place, as we have seen, it was made matter of com- pact with these States, that they should do their part to promote education. In the next place, our whole system of land laws proceeds on the idea that educa- tion is for the common good ; be- cause, in every division, a certain portion is uniformly reserved and appropriated for the use of schools. And, finally, have not these new States singularly strong claims, founded on the ground already stated, that the Government is a great untaxed proprietor in the ownership of the soil. It is a consideration of great importance, that probably there is in no part of the country or of the world, so great a call for the means of education as in those new States ; owing to the vast number of per- sons within those ages, in which education and instruction are usually received, if received at all. This is the natural conse- quence of recency of settlement and rapid increase. The census of these States show how great a proportion of the whole popula- tion occupies the classes between infancy and manhood. These are the wide fields, and here is DEBATE IN SENATE. 103 the deep and quick soil for the seeds of knowledge and virtue ; and this is the favored season, the spring time for sowing them. Whatever the Government can fairly do towards these ohjects, in my opinion, ought to be done. These, are the grounds, suc- cinctly stated, on which my votes for grants of lands for parucular objects rest ; while I maintain at the same time, that it is all a com- mon fund, for the common bene- fit. Those who have a different view of the powers of the Govern- ment, of course, come to different conclusions, on these, as on other questions. I observed, when speaking on this subject before, that if we looked to any measure, — a road, a canal, or anything else, intended for the improvement of the West — it would be found that if the New England ayes were struck out of the list of votes, the southern noes would always have rejected the measure. The truth of this has not been denied and cannot be denied. In stating this I thought it just to ascribe it to the constitutional scruples of the South, rather than to any other less favorable or less charitable cause. But no sooner had I done this, than the honorable gen- tleman asks, if I reproach him and his friends with their constitu- tional scruples ? Sir, I reproach nobody. I stated a fact, and gave the most respectful reason for it that occurred to me. But how has the gentleman re- turned this respect for others' opinions ? His own candor and justice, how have they been ex- hibited towards the motives of others while he has been at so much pains to maintain, what no- body has disputed, the purity of his own ? Why, sir, he has asked when, and hoxo, and why, New England voles were found going for measures favorable to the West ; he has demanded to be informed whether all this did not begin in 1825, and while the election of President was still pending? To these questions retort would be justified ; and it is both cogent, and at hand. Nevertheless, I will answer the inquiry not by retort, but by facts. I will tell the gentleman luhen, and hoiv, and ivhy, New England has supported measures favorable to the West. I have already refer- red to the early history of the Government — to the first acqui- sition of the lands — to the orig- inal laws for disposing of them and for governing the territories where they lie ; and have shown the influence of New England men and New England principles in all these leading measures. Coming to more recent times and to measures of a less general character, I have endeavored to prove that everything of this kind designed for western improve- ment, has depended on the votes of New England ; all this is true beyond the power of contradic- tion. In 1 820, (observe, Mr Presi- dent,) in 1820, the people of the West besought Congress for a re- duction in the price of lands. In favor of that reduction, New- England with a delegation of forty members in the other house, gave thirtythree votes, and one only against it. The four South- ern States, with fifty members, 104 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. gave thirty two votes for it, and seven against it. Again, in 1821 (observe again, sir, the lime,) the law passed for the relief of the purchasers of the public lands. This was a measure of vital im- portance to the West, and more especially to the Southwest. It authorized the relinquishment of contracts for lands, which had been entered into at high prices, and a reduction in other cases, of not less than 37 1-2 per cent on the purchase money. Many mil- lions of dollars, six or seven, I believe, at least, probably much more, were relinquished by this law. On this bill New England, with her forty members, gave more affirmative votes than the four Southern States, with their fifty two or three members. These two are far the most important measures, respecting the public lands, which have been adopted within the last twenty years. They took place in 1820 and '21. That is the time when. And as to the manner how, the gentleman already sees that it was by voting, in solid column, for the required relief; and lastly, as to the cause why, I tell the gentleman, it was because the members from New England thought the measures just and salutary ; because they entertained towards the West neither envy, hatred, nor malice ; because they deemed it becoming them, as just and enlightened pub- lic men, to meet the exigency which had arisen in the West, with the appropriate measure of relief ; because they felt it due to iheir own characters, and the characters of their New England predecessors in this Government, to act towards the new States in the spiiit of a liberal, patronizing, magnanimous policy. Having recurred to these two important measures, in answer to the gendeman's inquiries, 1 must now beg permission to go back to a period still something earlier, for the purpose still farther of showing how much, or rather, how little reason there is for the gentleman's insinuation that polit- ical hopes, or fears, or party asso- ciations, were the grounds of these Nev/ England votes. This government, Mr President, from its origin to the peace of 1815, had been too much engross- ed with various other important concerns, to be able to turn its thoughts inward, and look to the development of its vast internal resources. In the early part of President Washington's adminis- tration, it was fully occupied with organizing the government, pro- viding for the public debt, defend- ing the frontiers, and maintaining domestic peace. Before the ter- mination of that administration, the fires of the French Revolution blazed forth, as from a new opened volcano, and the whole breadth of the ocean did not entirely se- cure us from its effects. The smoke and the cinders reached us, though not the burning lava. Difficult and aghating questions, embarrassing to government, and dividing public opinion, sprung out of the new state of our foreign relations, and were succeeded by others, and yet again by others, equally embarrassing, and equally exciting division and discord, through the long series of twenty years, till they finally issued in DEBATE IN SENATE. 105 the war with England. Down to the close of that war, no distinct, marked and deliberate attention had been given, or could have been given, to tlie internal condi- tion of the country, its capacities of improvement, or the constitu- tional power ofthe Government, in regard to objects connected with vguch improvement. The peace, Mr President, brought about an entirely new, and a most interesting state of things ; St opened to us other prospects, and suggested other duties ; we ourselves were changed, and the whole world was changed. The pacification of Europe, after June, 1815, assumed a firm and perma- nent aspect. The nations evi- dently manifested that they were disposed for peace ; some agita- tion of the waves might be expect- ed, even after the storm had sub- sided, but the tendency was, strongly and rapidly, towards set' tied repose. It so happened, sir, that I was at that time a member of Congress and, like others, naturally turned my attention to the contemplation of the newly altered condition of the country and of the world. It appeared plainly enough to me, as well as to wiser and more ex- perienced men, that the poheyof the Government would necessarily take a start in a new direction ; because new directions would necessarily be given to tlie pursuits and occupations of the people. We had pushed our commerce far and fast, under the advantage of a neutral flag. But there were now no longer flags, either neutral or belligerent. The harvest of neutrality had been great, but we had gathered it all. With the 10 peace of Europe, it was obvious there would spring up, in her circle of nations, a revived and invigorated spirit of trade, and a new activity in all the business and objects of civilized life. Hereafter, our commercial gains were to be earned only by success in a close and intense competition. Other nations would produce for them- selves, and carry for themselves, and manufacture for themselves, to the full extent of their abilities. The crops of our plains would no longer sustain European armies, nor our ships longer supply those, whom war had rendered unable to supply themselves. It was ob- vious, that under these circumstan- ces, the country would begin to survey itself, and to estimate its own capacity of improvement. And this improvement, how was it to be accomplished, and who was to accomplish it ? We were ten or twelve millions of people, spread over almost half a world. We were twentyfour states, some stretching along the same seaboard, some along the same line of inland frontier, and others on opposite banks of the same vast rivers. Tv«^o consider- ations at once presented them- selves, in looking at this state of things, with great force. One was, that that great branch of im- provement, which consisted in furnishing new facilities of inter- course necessarily ran into different States, in every leading instance, and would benefit the citizens of all such States. No one State, therefore, in such cases, would assume the whole expense, nor was the cooperation of several States to be expected. Take the instance of the Delaware break- 30(5 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 —30. water. Jt will cost several millions of money. Would Pennsylvania alone have ever constructed it? Certainly never, while this Union lasts, because it is not for her sole benefit. Would Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware have united to accomplish it, at their joint expense ? Certainly not, for the same reason. It could not be done, therefore, but by the general government. The same may be said of the large inland undertak- ings, except that, in them, govern- ment, instead of bearing the whole expense, cooperates with others who bear a part. The other con- sideration is, that the United States have the means. They enjoy the revenues derived from commerce, and the States have no abundant and easy sources ofpublic income. The custom-houses fill the gene- ral treasury, while the States have scanty resources, except by resort to heavy direct taxes. Under this view of things, I thought it necessary to settle, at least for myself, some definite no- tions, with respect to the powers of government, in regard to inter- nal affairs. It may not savor too much of self-commendation to remark, that with this object, I considered the Constitution, its judicial construction, its cotempo- raneous exposition, and the whole history of the legislation of Con- gress under it ; and I arrived at the conclusion, that government had power to accomplish sundry objects, or aid in their accomplish- ment, which are now commonly spoken of as Internal Improve- ments. That conclusion was edopted, and acted on, even so aly as 1816. And, Mr Presi- dent, I have further to say, that I made up these opinions, and enter- ed on this course of political con- duct, Teucro Buce. Yes, sir, I pursued, in all this, a South Caro- lina tract. I repeat, that leading gentlemen from South Carolina were first and foremost in behalf of the doctrines of internal im- provements, when those doctrines first came to be considered and act- ed upon in Congress. The debate on the bank question, on the tariff of 1 8 1 6 and on the direct lax, will show whowas who, and what was what, at that time. The tariff of 1816, one of the plain cases of oppression and usurpation, from whichjif the government does not recede, individual states may jus- ly secede from the government, is, sir, in truth a South Carolina tariff, supported bySouth Carolina votes. But for those votes, it could not have passed in the form in which it did pass ; whereas if it had de- pended on Massachusetts votes, it would have been lost. I do not say this to reproach South Caroli- na ; I only state the fact, and I think it will appear to be true, that among the earhest and boldest advocates of the tarifl^, as a meas- ure of protection, and on the ex- press ground of protection, were leading gentlemen of South Caro- lina in Congress. The act, sir, then passed, and received on its passage the support of a majority of the representatives of South Carolina present and voting. This act is the first, in the order of those now denounced as plain usurpations. We see it daily in the list by the side of those of 1824, and 1828, as a case of manifest oppression, justifying disunion. 1 put it home DEBATE IN SENATE. lor to the honorable member from South Carolina, that his own State was not only ' art and part ' in this measure, but the causa causans. Without her aid, this seminal prin- ciple of mischief, this root of Upas, eould not have been planted. I have already said, and it is true, that this act proceeded on the ground of protection. It interfered directly, with existing interests of ereat value and amount. It cut up the Calcutta cotton trade by the roots. But it passed, never- theless, and it passed on the prin- ciple of protecting manufactures, on the principle against free trade, on the principle opposed to that which lets us alone. Such, Mr President, were the opinions of important and leading gentlemen from South Carolina, on the subject of internal improve- ment, in 1816. I went out of Congress the next year, and re- turning again in 1823, thought I found South Carolina where I had left her. I really supposed that all things remained as they were, and that the South Carolina doc- trine of internal improvements would be defended by the same eloquent voices, and the same strong arms, as formerly. . In the hpse of these six years, it is true, political associations had assumed a new aspect and nev/ divisions. A party had arisen in tlie South, hostile to the doctrine of internal improvements, and had vigorously attacked that doctrine. Anti-con- solidation was the flag under whicli this party fought, and its support- ers inveighed against internal im- provements, much after the man- ner in which the honorable genlle- ipan has now inveighed against ihem as part and parcel of tlie system of consolidation. Whe- ther this party arose in South Carolina herself, or in her neigh- borhood, is more than I know. 1 think the latter. However that may have been, there were those found in South Carolina ready to make v.'ar upon it, and who did make intrepid war upon it. Names being regarded as things, in such controversies, they be- stowed on the anti-improvement gentlemen, the appellation of rad- icals. Yes, sir, the name of radicals, as a term of distinc- tion, applicable and applied to those who denied the liberal doc- trines of internal improvements, originated, according to the best of my recollection, somewhere between North Carolina and Georgia. Well, sir, these mis- chievous radicals were to be put down, and the strong arm of South Carolina was stretched out to put them down. About this time, sir, I returned to Congress. The battle with the radicals had been fought, and our South Carolina champions of the doctrines of internal improvements had nobly maintained their ground, and were understood to have achieved a victory. Such are the opinions, sir, which were maintained by South Carolina gentlemen in the house of Representatives, on the subject of internal improvement, when I took my seat there as a member from Massachusetts, in 1823. But this is not ail : we had a bill before us, and passed it in that house, entitled ' An act to procure the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates, upon the subject oi roads and canals.' It authorized the President to cause such surveys ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 and esiimGtcs io he made of the routes of such roads and canals as he might deem of national impor- tance in a commercial or military point of view, or for the transpor- tation of the mail; nnd appropria- ted thiity thousand dollars out of the treasury, to defray the expense. This act, tiiough preliminary in its nature, covered the whole ground. It took for granted the complete power of internal improvement, as lar as any of its advocates have ever contended for it. Having passed the other house, the bill came up to the Senate, and was here considered and debated in April, 1824. The honorable member from South Carolina was » -member of the Senate at that time. While the bill was under consideration here, a motion was made to add the following proviso : ' Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to affirm or admit a power in Con- gress on their own authority, to make roads or canals, within any of the states of the Union.' The yeas and nays were taken on this' proviso, and the honorable member voted in the negative. The proviso failed. A motion was then made to add this proviso, viz. ' Provided, That the faith of the United States is hereby ])ledged, that no money shall ever be expended for roads or canals, except it shall be among the several States, and in the same proportion as direct taxes are laid nnd assessed by the provisions of the Constitution.' The honorable member voted a^rainst this proviso also, and it failed. The bill was then put on its ])assrjge. and the honorable mem- ber voted for it, and it passed, and became a law. Now, it strikes me, sir, that there is no maintaining these votes, but upon the power of internal improvement, in its broadest sense. In truih, these bills for surveys and estimates have always been considered as test questions. They sliow who is for, and who against internal improvement. This law itself went the whole length, and assumed the full and complete power. The gentle- man's votes sustained that power, in every form, in w hich the various propositions to amend presented it. He went for the entire and imrestrained authority, without consulting the Slates, and without agreeing to any proportionate dis- tiibution. And now, suffer me to remind you, Mr President, that it is this very same power, tlius sanctioned, in ever form, by the gentleman's own opinion, that is so plain and manifest a usurpation, that the state of South Carolina is supposed to be justified in refusing submission to any laws carrying the power into effect. The tariff, which Soudi Caro- lina had an efficient hand in estab- lishing, in 181G, and this asserted power of internal improvement, advanced by her in the same year, and as we have now seen approved and sanctioned ])y her representa- tives in J 824, these two measures are the great grounds on which she is now thought to be justified in breaking up the Union, if she sees fit to break it up ! I may now safely say, I think, tliat we have had the authority of DEBATE IN SENATE. i09 leading and distinguished gentle- men from South Carolina in sup- port of the doctrine of internal improvement. I repeat, that, up to 1824, J, for one, follovveii South Carolina ; but when that star in its ascension, veered off in an unexpected direction, I relied on its light no longer. [Here the Vice President said — does the Chair understand the gentleman from Massachusetts, to say, tfiat the person now occupying the Chair of the Senate, has changed his opinions on the sabject of internal improvements ?] From nothing ever said to me, sir, have I had reason to know of any change in the opinions of the per- son filling the Chair of the Senate. If such change has taken place, I regret it ; I speak generally of the State of South Carolina. As well as I recollect the course of his remarks, the honorable gentleman next I'ecurred to the subject of the tariff. He did not doubt the \vord must be cf un- pleasant sound to me, and pro- ceeded, with an effort neither new, nor attended with new success, to involve me and my vote in in- consistency and contradiction. I am happy the honorable gentle- man has furnished me an oppor- tunity of a timely remark or two on that subject, f was glad he approached it, for it is a question 1 enter upon without fear from anybody. The strenuous toil of the gentle-nan has been to raise an inconsistency between my dissent to the tariff in 1824 and my vote in 1828. li is labor lost. A plain tale explains the whole mat- ter. In 1816, 1 had not acquiesced m the tariff, then supported by South Carolina. To some parts of it, especially, t felt and ex- pressed great repugnance. 1 held the same opinions in 1821 at the meeting in FaneuilHall, to whicli the gentleman has alluded. I said thei!, and say now, that, as an original question, the authority of Congress to exercise the re- venue power, with direct refer- ence to the protection of man^'- fiictures is a questionable authority, far more questionable, in my judg- ment, than the power of internal improvem,ents. I must confess, that in one respect, some impres- sion has been made on my opin- ions lately. Mr Madison's publi- cation has put the power in a very strong light. He has placed it, i must acknowledge, upon grounds of construction and argtiment, which seem impregnable. Biit even if the power were doubtful, on the face of the Constitutioji itself, it had been assumed and asserted in the first revenue iaw ever passed under that same Con- sthution ; and, on this ground, as a matter settled by cotemporane- ous practice, 1 had refrained from expressing the opinion that the ta- riff la ws transcended constitutioaal. limits, as the gentleman supposes. With a great majority of the representatives of Massachusetts, I voted against the tariff of 1824- My reasons were then given, and I will not now repeat them. But, notwithstanding our dissent, the great States of New Fork, Penn- sylvania, Ohio and Kentucky went for the biil, m almost unbroken colun^n, and it passed. Congress and the Pres;ident sanctioned it, and it became the law of the land, Wbatj the% were we to do ? Our 110 ANNUAL REGISTZR, 1829 — 30. only ojjlion was either to fall in with this settled course of public ])olic'y, and accommodate our- selves to it as well as we coiild, or to embrace the South Carolina doctrine, and talk of nullifying the statute by Siate interference. This last alternative did not suit our principles, and, of course, wc adopted the former. In 1827, the subject came again before Congress, on a proposition favor- able to wool and woollePiS. We looked upon the system of pro- tection as being fixed and settled. The law of 1824 rcmiiined. It had gone into full operation, and in regard to some objects intended by it, perhaps most of them had produced all its expected effects. But owing to subsequent and unforeseen occurrences thebeneCit intended by it to wool and wool- len fabrics, liad not been realized. Events, not known here when the Jaw passed, had taken place, which defeated its object in that jiarticular respect. A measure w'as accordingly brought forward to meet this precise deficiency, to remedy this particular defect. It was limited to wool and woollens. Was ever anytliing more reasona- ble? If the policy of the tariff laws had become established in ].rinciple, as the permanent policy of the goveriiment, should they liOt be revised and amended, and made equal, like other laws, as exigencies should arise, orjustico require ? Because we had doubt- ed about adopting the system, were we to refuse to cure its manl- iest defects, after it became adopt- ed, and when no one attempted its repeal? And this is the in- consistency so much bruited. 1 had voted against the tariff of 1824 — but it passed; and in 1 827 and 1828, 1 voted to amend it in a point essential to the inter- est of my constituents. T need not recur to the history of u measure so recent. Its enemies spiced it with whatsoever they thought would render it distasteful ; its friends took it, drugged as it was. Vast amounts of property^ many millions, had been invested in manufiictures, under the induce- ments of 1824. Events called loudly, as I thought, for further regulation to secure the degree of protection intended by that act. I was disposed to vote for such regulation, and desired nothing more ; but certainly was not to be bantered cut of my purpose by a threatened augmentation of duty on molasses put into the bill for the avowed purpose of making it obnoxious. The vote may have been right or wrong, wise or un- wise ; but it is little less than ab- surd to allege against it an incon- sistency v>ith opposition to the former law. As to the general subject of the tariff 1 have little now to say. Another opportunity may be pre- sented. 1 remarked the other day, that this policy did not begin with us in New England ; and yet, sir. New England is charged with vehemence, as being favora- ble or charged with equal vehe- mence, as being unfavorable to the tariff policy, just as best suits the tlfne, ))lace, and occasion for makim; s(Mne charge against her. The credulity of the public has been put to its extreme capacity of false impression, relative to her conduct, in this particular. DEBATE IN SENATE. lit Through ail the South, during the kite contest, it was New England j)olicy and a New England ad- ministration, that was afflicting the country with a tariff policy beyond all endurance, while on the other side of the Alleghany, even the act-of 1828 itself, the very sublimated essence of op- })ression according to Southern opinions, was pronounced to be one of those blessings, for which the West was indebted to the ' ge- nerous South.' With large investments in manufacturing establishments and many and various interests con- nected with and dependent on them, it is not to be expected that New England, any more than other portions of the country, will now consent to any measure, de- structive or highly dangerous. The duty of the Government, at the present moment, would seem to be to preserve, not to destroy ; to maintain the position which it has assumed ; and for one, 1 shall feel it an indispensable obligation to ho]d it steady, as far as in my power, to that degree of protec- tion which it has undertaken to bestow. No more of the tariff. Professing to be provoked by w-hat he chose to consider a charge made by me against South Caro- lina, the honorable member, Mr President, has taken up a new crusade against New England. Leaving altogether the subject of the public lands, in which his suc- cess, perhaps, had been neither distinguished nor satisfactory, and letting go, also, of the topic of the tariff, he sallied forth in a general assault, on the opinions, politics, and parties of New England, as they have been exhibited in tlie last thirty years. This is natural. The ' narrow policy' of the public lands had proved a legal settlement in South Carolina, and was not to be removed. The ' accursed poli- cy' of the tariff, also, had estab- lished the fact of its birth and par- entage in the same State. No won- der therefore, the gentleman wish- ed to carry the war, as he express- ed it, into the enemy's country. Prudently willing to quit these subjects, he was doubtless desir- ous of fastening on others, which could not be transferred south of Mason and Dixon's line. The politics of New England became his theme. What has he done Has he maintained his own charges ? Has he sustained him- self, in his attack on the Govern- ment, and on the history of the North in the matter of the public lands ? Oh, no, but he has ' car- ried the war into the enemy'.^ country ! ' Carried the war into the enemy's country ! Yes, ami what sort of a war has he made of it ? He has stretched a drag- net over the whole stirface of perished pamphlets, indiscreet sermons, frothy paragraphs, and fuming popular addresses ; over whatever the pulpit, in its mo- ments of alarm, the press in its heats, and parties in their extra- vagance, have severally thrown off, in times of general excitement and violence. He has thus swept together a mass of such things, as but that they are now old, the public health would have required him rather to leave in their state of dispersion. For a good long hour or two, we had the unbroken pleasure of listening to the boa- 112 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. orable member, wiiile he recited, with his usual grace and spirit, and with evident high gusto, speeches, pamphlets, addresses, and all the et ceteras g1" the polit- ical press, such as warm heads produce m warm times ; and such as it would be ' discomfiture^ in- deed, for any one, whose taste did not delight in that sort of read- ing, to be obliged to peruse. That is iiis war. This ft is to carry the war into the enemy's country, it is in an invasion of this sort, that he flatters himself with the expectation of gaining laurels, fit to adorn a Senator's brow. Mr President, I shall not, it will not, I trust, be expected that i should, either now, or at any lime, separate this farrago into parts, and answer and examine its components. 1 shall hardly bestow upon it at all, a general remark or two. In the run of forty years under this -Constitution, we have exjjerisnced sundry successive violent party contests. Party arose, indeed, with the Constitd- tion itself, and, in some form or other, has attended it through the greater part of its history. Whether any other Constitution than the old articles of confeder- ation, was desirable, was, itself, a question on v/hich parties form- ed ; if a new Constitution were framed, what powers should be given to it, was another question ; and, when it iiad been formed, what was, in fact, the just extent of the powers actually conferre{l, was a third. Parties, as we know, existed, under the first adniinistra- tion, as distinctly marked, as those which nianifested themselves at any subsequent period. The con- test immediately preceding the political change in 1801, and that again, which existed at the com- mencement of the late war, are other instances of party excite- ment, of something more than usutil strength and intensity. la all these conflicts there was, no doubt, much violence on both and all sides. It would be impossible, if one had a fancy for such em- ployment, to adjust the relative quantum of violence between these contending parties. There was enough in each, as must al- ways be expec^ted in popular Gov- ernments, With a great deal of proper and decorous discussion, there was mmgled a great deal, also, of declamation, virulence, crimination, and abuse. In regard to any party, proba- bly, in one of the leading epochs in the history of parties, enougli may be found to make out anoth- er equally mflamed exhibition, as that with which the honorable member has edified us. For my- self, I shall not rake among the rubbish of by-gone times, to see what I can find, or whether I cannot find something, by which 1 can fix a blot on the escutcheon of any State, any party, or any part of the country. General Washington's administration was steadily and zealously maintained, as we all know, by New England. It was violently opposed else- where. We know in whst quarter he had the most earnest, constant and persevering support, in all his great and leading measures. We know where his private and per- sonal character was held in the highest degree of attachment and veneration; and we know, too, DEBATE IN SENATE. 115 where his measures were opposed, his services slighted, and his cha- acter vilified. We know, or we might know, if we turned to the journals, who expressed respect, gratitude, and regret, when he retired from the chief magistracy ; and who refused to express either respect, gratitude, or regret — I shall not open those journals. Publications more abusive or scur- rilous never saw the light, than were sent forth against Washing- ton, and all his leading measures, from presses south of New Eng- land. But I shall not look them up. I employ no scavengers — no one is in attendance on me, tendering such means of retalia- tion ; and if there were, with an ass' load of them, with bulk as huge as that which the gentleman himself has produced, I would not touch one of them. I see enough of the violence of our own times, to be no way anxious to rescue from forgetfulness the extravagances of times past. Besides, what is all this to the present purpose ? It has nothing to do with the pubhc lands, in regard to v/hich the attack w^as begun ; and it has nothing to do with those seritiments and opinions which I have thought tend to dis- union, and all of which the hon- orable member seems to have adopted himself, and undertaken to defend. New England has, at times, so argues the gentle- man, held opinions as dangerous as those which he now holds. Be it so. But why, therefore, does he abuse New England ? If he finds himself countenanced by acts of hers, how is it that, while he relies on these acts, he covers, or seeks to cover, their authors with reproach ? But if, in the course of forty years, there have been undue effervescences of party in New England, has the same thing hap- pened nowhere else ? Party ani- mosity, and party outrage, not in New England, but elsewhere, de- nounced President Washington, not only as a federalist, but as a tory,a British agent, a man who, in his high office, sanctioned cor- ruption. But does the honorable member suppose, that if I had a tender here, who should put such an effusion of wickedness and folly in my hand, that I would stand up and read it against the South ? Parties ran into great heats, again, in 1799, and 1800. What was said, or rather what was not said, in those years, against John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and its admitted ablest defender on the floor of Congress ? If the gentleman wishes to in- crease his stores of party abuse and frothy violence ; if he has a determined proclivity to such pur- suits, there are treasures of that sort south of the Potomac, much to his taste, yet untouched. — I shall not touch them. The parties which divided the country, at the commencement of the late war, were violent. But then there was violence on both sides, and violence in every State. Minorities and majorities were equally violent. There was no more violence against the war in New England than in other States ; nor any more appearance of violence, except that, owing to a dense population, greater facility 114 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. of assembling, and more presses, there nmy have been more in quantity spoken and printed there lhan in some other places. It is enough for me to say, that if, ill any part of this, their grateful occupation, if, in all their researches, they find anything in the history of Massachusetts, or New England, or in the proceed- ings of any legislative, or other public body, disloyaho the Union, speaking slightly of its value, pro- posing to break it up, or recom- mending non-intercourse with neighboring States, on account of difference of political opinion, then, sir, 1 give them all up to the hon- orable gentleman's unrestrained rebuke ; expecting, however, that lie will extend his bufFetings, in like maner, to all similar pro- ceedingSy wherever elsefovnd. Mr President, in carrying his warfare, such as it was into New England, the honorable gentleman all along professes to be acting on the defensive. He desires to consider me as having assailed South Carolina, and insists that lie comes forth only as her cham- pion, and in her defence. I do not admit that I made any attack whatever on South Caro- lina. Nothing like it. The honor- able member, in his first speech, expressed opinions, in regard to revenue , and some other topics, which I heai-d both with pain and with surprise. 1 told the gentle- man that I was aware that such sentiments were entertained out of the Government, but had not expected to find them advanced in it ; that I knew there were per- sons in the South, who speak of Qur Union with indifference, or doubt, taking pains to magnify its evils, and to say nothing of its benefits ; that the honorable mem- ber himself, I was sure, could never be one of these ; and I regretted the expression of such opinions as he had avowed, be- cause I thought their obvious ten- dency was to encourage feelings of disrespect to the Union, and to weaken its connexion. I said nothing of the recent conventions. I spoke in the most guarded and careful manner, and only express- ed my regret for the publication of opinions which I presumed the honorable member disapproved as much as myself. In this, it seem^s, I was mistaken. I do not remember that the gentleman has disclaimed any sentiment, or any opinion, of a supposed anti-union tendency, which on all or any of the recent occasions has been ex- pressed. The whole drift of his speech has been rather to prove that, in divers times and manners, sentiments equally liable to my objection have been promulgated in New England. And one would suppose that his object, in this reference to Massachusetts, was to find a precedent to justify pro- ceedings in the South, were it not for the reproach and contumely, with which he labors, all along, to load his precedents. This two-fold purpose, not very consistent with itself, one would think was ■ exhibited more than once in the course of his speech. He referred, for instance, to the Hartford Convention. Did he do this for authority, or for a topic of reproach ? Apparently for both j for he told us tliat he should find no fault with the mere fact of DEBATE IN SENATE. 115 holding such a convention, and considering and discussing such questions as he supposes were then and there discussed ; but what rendered it obnoxious, was, the time it was holden, and the cir- cumstances of the country, then existing. We were in a war, he said, and the country needed all our aid ; the hand ol Government required to be strengthened, not weakened ; and patriotism should have postponed sucb proceedings to another day. The thin^ itseli^ then, is a precedent; the time and manner of it, only, subject of censure. I go much farther, on this point, than the honorable member. Supposing, as the gen- tleman seems to, that the Hart- fort Convention assembled for any such purpose as bi caking up the Union, because they thought unconstitutional laws had been passed, or to concert on that sub- ject, or to calculate the value of the Union ; supposing this to be their purpose, or any part of it, then 1 say the meettng itself was disloyal, and was obnoxious to censure, whether held in time of peace or time of war, or under whatever circumstances. The material matter is the object. Is dissolu- tion the object 1 If it be, ex- ternal circumstances may make it a more or less aggravated case, but cannot affect the principle. 1 do not hold, therefore, sir, that the Hartford Convention was pardonable, even to the extent of the gentleman's admission, of hs objects were really such as have been imputed to it. There never was a time, under any degree of excitement, in which the Hart- ford Convention, or any other convention, could maintain itself one moment in New England, if assembled for any such purpose as the gentleman say would have been an allowable purpose : To hold conventions to decide ques- tions of constitutional law! — to try the binding validity of statutes, by votes in a convention ! Sir, the Hartford Convention, I pre- sume, would not desire that the honorable gentleman should be their defender or advocate, if he puts their case upon such untena- ble and extravagant grounds. Then, sir, the gentleman has no fault to find with these recently promulgated South Carolina opin- ions. And, certainly, he need have none ; for his own sentiments, as now advanced, and advanced on reflection, as far as I have been able to comprehend them, go the full length of all these opinions. I propose, sir, to say something on these, and to consider how far they are just and constitutional. Before doing that, however, let me observe, that the eulogium pronounced on the character of the state of South Carolina by the honorable gentleman, for her revolutionary and other merits, meets my hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowledge, that the honorable member goes before me in regard for whatever of dis- tinguished talent, or distinguished character. South Carolina has produced. I claim part of the honor, 1 partake in the pride of her great names. I claim them for countrymen, one and all. The Laurens, Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Ma- rions — Americans all — whose H6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. fame is no more to be hemmed in by State lines, than their talents and patriotism were capable of being circumscribed within the same narrow limits. In their day and generation, they served and honored the country, and the whole country, and their renown is of the treasures of the whole country. Him, whose honored name the gentleman himself bears — does he suppose me less capa- ble of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy forhis sufferings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light in Masbachusetts, instead of South Carolina? Does he suppose it in his power to exhibit a Carolina name so bright as to produce envy in my bosom ? No, sir — increased gratification and delight, rather. I thank God, that if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is said to be able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which would drag angels down. When I shall be found, in my place here in the Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit, because it happened to spring up beyond the little limits of my own State or neigh- borhood ; when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any cause, the homage due to American talent, lo elevate patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the coun- try ; or if I see an uncommon endowment of heaven — if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue in any son of the South — and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by State jealousy, I get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ! Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollec- tions — let me indulge in refresh- ing remembrance of the past — let me remind you that in early times no States cherished greater harmony, both of principle and of feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God, that harmony might again return. Shoulder to shoulder they went through the revolution — hand in hand they stood round the ad- ministration of W^ashington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feelings, if it exists, alienation and distrust, are the growth, unnatural to such soils, of false principles since sown. They are weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered. Mr President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts — she needs none. There she is — behold her and judge for yourselves. There is her history — the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill ; and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, fallen in the great struggle for indepen- dence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, from New England to Georgia ; and there they will lie forever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it — if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it ; if folly and madness. DEBATE IN SENATE. 117 if uneasiness, under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in vvhicli its infancy was rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain over the friends who gather around it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest momuiients of its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin. There yet remains to be per- formed, Mr President, by far the most grave and important duty, which [ feel to be devolved on me by this occasion. It is to state, and to defend what I conceive to be the true principles of the Con- stitution under which we are here assembled. 1 might well have desired that so weighty a task should have fallen into other and abler hands. But I have met the occasion, not sought it; and I shall proceed to state ray own sentiments, without challenging for them any particular regard, with studied plainness, and. as much precision as possible. I understand the honorable gen- tleman from South Carolina to maintain, that it is a right of the State Legislatures to interfere, whenever, in their judgment, this Government iransceads its Con- stitutional limits, and to arrest the operation of its laws. I understand him to maintain this right, as a right existing un- der the Constitution ; not as a rightto overthrow it, on the ground of extreme necessity, such as would justify violent revolution. I understand him to maintain 11 an authority on the part of the States, thus to interfere, for the purpose of correcting the exercise of power by the General Govern- menX, of checking it, and of com- pelling it to conform to their opin- ion of the extent of its power. I understand him to maintain, that tlie ultimate power of judging of the Constitutional extent of its own authority, is not lodged ex- clusively in the General Govern- ment, or any branch of it : but that, on the contrary, the Slates may lawfully decide for them- selves, and each State for itself, whether, in a given case, the act of the General Government trans- cends its power. 1 understand him to insist, that if the exigency of the case, in the opinion of any State Government require it, such State Government may, by its own sovereign author- ity, annul an act of the General Government, which it deems plainly and palpably unconstitu- tional. This is the sum of what I un- derstand from him to be the South Carolina doctrine. I propose to consider it, and to compare it with the Constitution. Allow me to say, as a preliminary remark, that I call this the South Carolina doctrine, only because the gentle- man himself has so denominated it. I do not feel at liberty to say that South Carolina, as a State has ever advanced these sentiments. I hope she has not, and never may. That a great majority, of her people are opposf^d to the tariiT laws is doubtless true. That a majority, somewhat less than that just mentioned, con- scientiously believe these laws un- 118 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. conslitutional, may probably also be true. But, that any majority holds to the right of direct State interference, at State discretion, the right of nullifying acts of Congress by acts of State legisla- tion, is more than I know, and what I shall be slow to believe. That there are individuals, be- sides the honorable gentleman, who do maintain these opinions, is quite certain. I recollect the re- cent expression of a sentiment, which circumstances attending its utterance and publication justify lis in supposing was not unpre- meditated. * The sovereignty of the State ; never to be controlled, construed, or decided on, but by her own feelings of honorable justice.' [Mr Hayne here rose, and said, that for the purpose of being clear- ly understood, he would state, that his proposition was in the words of the Virginia resolution, as follows : * That this Assembly doth ex- plicitly and peremptorily declare, that it view& the powers of the Federal Government, as resulting from the compact, to which the States are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no farther valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact ; and that, in case of a deliberate, pal- pable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the States who are parties thereto have the right, and are in duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective hmits, the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.'] Mr Webster resumed : I am quite aware, Mr President, of the existence of the resolution which the gentleman read, and has now repealed, and that he relies on it, as his authority. I know the source too, from which it is understood to have proceeded. I need not say, that I have much respect for the constitutional opin- ions of Mr Madison ; they would weigh greatly with me, always. But before the authority of his opinion be vouched for the gentle- man's proposition, it will be proper to consider what is the fair inter- pretation of that resolution, to which Mr Madison is understood to have given his sanction. As the gentleman construes it, it is an authority for him. Possibly, he may not have adopted the right construction. That resolution declares, that in the case of the dangerous exercise of powers, not granted by the General Govern- ment, the States may interpose to arrest the progress of the evil. But how interpose, and what does this declaration purport ? Does it mean no more, than that there may be extreme cases, in which the people, in any mode of as- sembling, may resist usurpation, and reUeve themselves from a tyrannical government ? No one will deny this. Such resistance is not only acknowledged to be just in America, but in England also. Blackstone admits as much, in the theory and practice too, of the English constitution. We, sir, wlio oppose the Carolina doc- trine, do not deny, tliat the people DEBATE IN SENATE, 119 may, if they choose, throw off any government, when it becomes op- pressive and intolerable, and erect a belter in its stead. We all know that civil institutions are established for the public benefit, and that when they cease to answer the ends of their existence they may be changed. But I do not under- stand the doctrine now contended for, to be that which, for the sake of distinctness, we may call the right of revolution. I understand the gentleman to maintain, that without revolution, without civil commotion, without rebellion, a remedy for supposed abuse and transgression of the powers of the General Government, lies in a di- rect appeal to the interference of the State Governments. [Mr Hayne here rose : He did not contend, he said, for the mere right of revolution, but for the right of constitutional resistance. What he maintained was, that in case of a plain, palpable violation of the Constitution by the General Government, a State may inter- pose ; and that this interposition is constitutional.] Mr Webster resumed : So I understood the gentleman, and am happy to find tliat I did not misunderstand him. What he contends for is, that it is constitutional to interrupt the ad- ministration of the Constitution itself, in the hands of those who are chosen and sworn to administer it, by the direct interference, in form of law, of the States, in vir- tue of their sovereign capacity. The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny ; and they have another right, and that is, to resist uncon- stitutional laws, without overturn- ing the government. It is no doctrine of mine, that unconstitu- tionaljaws bind the people. The great question is, whose preroga- tive is it to decide on the constitu- tionality, or unconstitutionality, of the laws ? I admit, that there is an ultimate violent remedy, above the Constitution, and in defiance of the Constitution, which may be resorted to when a revo- lution is to be justified. But I do not admit, that under the Consti- tution and in conformity with it, there is any mode in which a State government, as a member of the Union, can interfere and stop the progress of the General Govern- ment, by force of her own laws, un- der any circumstances whatever. This leads us to inquire into the origin of this government, and the source of its power. Whose agent is it ? Is it the creature of the State Legislatures, or the creature of the People ? If the Government of the United States be the agent of the State Govern- ments, then they may control it, provided they can agree in the manner of controlling it ; if it is the agent of the People, then the People alone can control it, re- strain it, modify or reform it. It is observable enough, that the doctrine for which the honorable gentleman contends, leads him to the necessity of maintaining, not only that this General Government is the creature of the States, but that it is the creature of each of the States severally ; so that each may assert the power, for itself, of determining whether it acts within the limits of its author- ity. It is the servant of four and twenty masters, of differ- 120 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. cut wills and different purposes ; and yet bound to obey all. This absurdity, (for it seenns no less) arises from a misconception as to the origin of this government and its true character. It is, sir, the People's Constitution, the Fco- ]]Ie's Government ; made for ilie People; made by the People; nnd answerable to the People. The People of the United States have declared that this Conslilution shall be the supreme law. We must either admit the proposition, or dispute their authority. The States are unquestionably sove- l eign, so far as their sovereignty is not affected by this supreme law. The State Legislatures, as political bodies, however sove- reign, are yet not sovereign over the people. So far as the People have given power to the General Govennnent, so far the grant is unquestionably good, and the Government holds of the People, and not of the State Governments. We are all agents of the same supreme power, the People. The General Government and the State Governments derive their authority from the same source. Neiilier can, in relation to the other, be called primary ; though one is definite and restricted, and the other general and residuary. The National Government possesses those powers which it can be shown the People have conferred on it, and no more. All the rest belongs to the State Governments or to the People themselves. So iar as the People have restrained State sovereignty, by the expres- sion of their will, in the Constitu- tion of the United States, so far, it must be admitted, State sove- reignty is effectually controlled. I do not contend that it is, or ought to be, controlled farther. The sentiment to wliich I have referred, propounds that State sovereignty is only to be controlled by its own ' feeling of justice that is to say, it is not to be controlled at all ; for one who is to follow his own feelings is under no legal control. Now, hovv'ever men may think this ought to be, the fact is, that the people of the United States liave chosen to impose control on State sovereignties. The Constitution has ordered the matter differently from what this opinion announces. To make war, for instance, is an exercise of sovereignty ; but the Constitution declares that no State shall make war. To coin money is another exercise of sove- reign power ; but no State is at liberty to coin money. Again, the Constitution says, that no sove- reign State shall be so sovereign as to make a treaty. These prohi- bitions, it must be confessed, are a control on the State sovereignty of South Carolina, as well as of the other States, which does not arise ' from her own feelings of honorable justice.' Such an opinion, therefore, is in defiance of the plainest provisions of the Constitution. There are other proceedings of public bodies which have already been alluded to, and to which I refer again for the purpose of ascertaining more fully, what is the length and breadth of that doctrine, denominated the Caro- lina doctrine, which the honorable member has now stood up on this floor to maintain. In one of them I find It resolved, that 'the Tariff DEBATE IN SENATE. 121 of 1828, and every other Tarift' designed to promote one branch of industry, at the expense of others, is contrary to the meaning and intention of the Federal com- pact; and as such, a dangerous, palpable, and deliberate usurpation of power, by a determined major- ity, wielding the General Govern- ment beyond the limits of its delegated powers, as calls upon the States which compose the suffering minority in their sove- reign capacity, to exercise the pow- ers which, as sovereigns, necessa- rily devolve upon them, when their compact is violated.' Observe that this resolution holds the Tariff of 1828, and every other Tariff, designed to promote one branch of industry at the expense of another, to be such a dangerous, palpable, and deliberate usurpation of power, as calls upon the States, in their sove- reign capacity, to interfere by their own power. Here is a case, then, within the gentleman's principles, and'all his qualifications of his prin- ciples. It is a case for action. The Constitution is plainly, dan- gerously, palpably, and deliber- ately violated : and the States must interpose their own authority to arrest the law. Let us suppose the State of South Carolina to express this same opinion, by the voice of her Legislature. That would be very imposing, but v/hat then ? Is the voice of one State conclusive? It so happens, that at the very moment when South Carolina resolves that the tariff laws are unconstitutional, Penn- sylvania, and Kentucky, resolve exactly the reverse. They hold those laws to be both highly pro- 11* per, and strictly constitutional. And now, sir, how does the hon- orable member propose to deal with this case ? How does he get out of this difficulty, upon any principle of his ? His construction gets us into it ; how does he pro- pose to get us out? In Carolina, the tariff is a pal- pable, deliberate usurpation ; Car- olina, therefore, m^ij nullify it, anjd refuse to pay the duties. In Penn- sylvania, it is both clearly constitu- tional, and highly expedient ; and there, the duties are to be paid. And yet, we live under a Govern- ment of uniform laws, and under a Constitution, too, which contains an express provision, as it happens, that all duties shall be equal in all the States ! Does not this ap- proach absurdity? If there be no power to settle such questions, independent of either of the States, is not the whole Union a rope of sand ? Are we not thrown back again, precisely, upon the old Confeder- ation ? It is too plain to be argued. Four and twenty interpreters of constitutional law, each with a power to decide for itself, and none with authority to bind any- body else, and this constitutional law, the only bond of their union ! What is such a state of things, but a mere connexion during pleasure, or, to use the phraseology of the times, during feeling ? And that feeling, too, not the feeling of the people, who estabhshed the Con- stitution, but the feeling of the State governments. In another of the South Caro- lina addresses, having premised that the crisis requires ' all the 122 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. concentrated energy of passion,' an attitude of open resistance to the laws of the Union is advised. Open resistance lo the laws, then, is tlie constitutional remedy, the conservative power of the State, which the South Carolina doc- trines teach for the redress of [political evils, real or imaginary. And its authors further say, that, appealing with confidence to the Constitution itself to justify their opinions, they cannot consent to try their accuracy hy the courts of justice. In one sense, indeed, sir, this is assuming an attitude of open resistance in favor of liberty. But what sort of liberty ? The liberty of establishing their own opinions, in defiance of the opinions of all others ; the liberty of judg- ing and of deciding exclusively themselves, in a matter in which others have as much right to judge and decide as they ; the liberty of placing their own opinions above the judgment of all others, above the laws, and above the Constitu- tion. This is their liberty, and this is the fair result of the proposition contended for by the honorable gentleman. Or it may be more properly said, it is identical with it, rather than a result from it. In the same publication we find the following : ' Previously to our Revolution, when the arm of oppression was stretched over New England, where did our northern brethren meet with a braver sympathy than that which sprung from the bosom of Caro- linians. We had no extortion, no oppression, no collision with the King^s ministers, no navigation interests springing up, in envious rivalry of England.' This seems extraordinary lan- guage. South Carolina no colli- sion with the King's ministers, in 1775 ! no extortion ! no oppres- sion ! But, sir, it is also most significant language. Does any man doubt the purpose for which it was penned ? Can any one fail to see that it was designed to raise in the reader's mind the question, whether, ai this time — that is to say, in 1828 — South Carolina has any collision with the King's ministers, any oppression or ex- tortion to fear from England ? Whether, in short, England is not as naturally the friend of South Carolina as New England, with her navigation interests springing up in envious rivalry of England ? And now, sir, what I have first to say on this subject is, that at no time, and under no circumstances, has New England, or any State in New England, or any respecta- ble body of persons in New Eng- land or any public man of standing in New England, put forth such a doctrine as this Carolina doctrine. New England has studied the Constitution in other schools, and under other teachers. She looks upon it with other regards, and deems more highly and reverently, both of its just authority, and its utility and excellence. The his- tory of her legislative proceedings may be traced — the ephemeral effusions of temporary bodies, called together by the excitement of the occasion, may be hunted up — they have been hunted up. The opinions and votes of her public men, in and out of Congress may be explored — it will be in vain. The Carolina doctrine can derive from her neither counte- nance nor support. She rejects it now ; she always did reject it ; DEBATE IN SENATE. 123 and till she loses her senses, she always will reject it. The honor- able member has referred to ex- pressions, on the subject of the embargo law, made in this place, hy an honorable and venerable gentleman, (Mr Hillhoiise,) now favoring us with his presence. He quotes that distinguished Sen- ator as saying, that in his judgment the embargo law was unconstitu- tional, and that, therefore, in his opinion,the people were not hound to obey it. That, sir, is perfectly constitutional language. An un- constitutional law is not binding ; hut then it does not rest with a resohtiion cr a law of a State Legislature to decide whether an Act of Congress be, or he not constitutional. An unconstitu- tional act of Congress would not bind the people of this district, although they have no legislature to interfere in their behalf ; and, on the other hand, a constitutional law of Congress does bind the citizens of every state, although al their Legislatures should under- take to annul it, by act or resolution. Let ns follow up this New England opposition to the embargo laws ; let us trace it, till we dis- cern the principle, which con- trolled and governed New Eng- land, throughout the whole course of that opposition. We shall then see what similarity there is be- tween the New England school of constitutional opinions, and this modern Carolina school. The gentleman, I think, read a petition from some single individ- ual, addressed to the Legislature of Massachusetts, asserting the Carolina doctrine — that is, the right of State interference to ar- rest the laws of the Union. The fate of that petition shows the sen- timent of the Legislature. It met no favor. The opinions of Mas- sachusetts were otherwise. They had been expressed, in 1798, in answer to the resolutions of Vir- ginia, and she did not depart froni them, nor bend them to the times» Misgoverned, wronged, oppressed as she felt herself to be, she still held fast her integrity to the Union. The gentleman labors to prove that she disliked the em bargo, as much as South Carolina dislikes the tariff, and expressed her dislike as strongly. Be it so ; hut did she propose the Carolina remedij ? did she threaten to in- terfere, hy State authority, to an- nul the Laws of the Union ? The very case required by the gentleman, to justify State inter- ference had then arisen. Massa- chusetts beheved this law to be ' a deliherate, palpable, and dan- gerous exercise of a poiver, not granted hy the Constitution,'' Deliberate it was, for it was long continued ; palpable she thought it, as no words in the Constitution gave the power, and only a con- struction, in her opinion most vio- lent, raised it ; dangerous it was, since it threatened utter ruin to her most important interests. Thousands of families, and hun- dreds of thousands of individuals, were beggared by it. While she saw and felt all this, she saw and felt also, that as a measure of national policy, it was perfectly futile ; that the country was no way benefited by that which caused so much individual dis- tress; that it was efficient only for the production of evil, and all 124 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. that evil inflicted on ourselves. In such a case, under such cir- cumstances, how did Massachu- setts demean herself? She re- monstrated, she memorialized, she addressed herself to the Gen- eral Government, not exactly ' with the concentrated energy of pas- sion,' but with her own strong sense, and the energy of sober conviction. But she did not in- terpose the arm of her own power to arrest the law, and break the embargo. Far from it. Her principles bound her to two things; and she followed her principles, lead where they might. First, to submit to every constitutional law of Congress, and secondly, if the constitutional validity of the law be doubted, to refer that question to the decision of the proper tri- bunals. The first principle is vain and ineffectual without the second. A majority of us in New England believed the embargo law uncon- stitutional ; but the great question was, and always will he, in such cases, who is to decide this ; Who is to judge between the Peo- ple and the Government ? And, it is quite plain, that the Constitu- tion of the United States confers on the Government itself, to be exercised by its appropriate De- partment, this power of deciding ultimately and conclusively, upon the just extent of its own authority, if this had not been done, we should not ha:ve advanced a single step beyond the old Confedera- tion. Being fully of opinion that the embargo law was unconstitutional, the people of New England were yet equally clear in the opinion — it was a matter they did doubt upon — that the question, after all, must be decided by the Judi- cial tribunals of the United States. Before those tribunals, therefore, they brought the question. Un- der the provisions of the law, they had given bonds, to millions in amount, and which were alleged to be forfeited. They suffered the bonds to be sued, and thus raised the question. In the old fashioned way of settling disputes, they went to law. The case came to hearing, and solemn argument. The established tribunals pro- nounced the law constitutional and New England acquiesced. Is not this the exact opposite of the doctrine of the gentleman from South Carolina ^ Accord- ing to him, instead of referring to the judicial tribunals, we should have broken up the embargo, by laws of our own ; we should have repealed it, ^'woac? New England ; for we had a strong, palpable, and oppressive case. We believed the embargo unconstitutional ; but still, that was matter of opinion, and who was to decide it ? We thought it a clear case ; but, never- theless, we did not take the law into our own hands, because we did not wish to bring about a revolution^ nor to break up the Union ; for I maintain, that, be- tween submission to the decision of the constituted tribunals, and revolution, or disunion, there is no middle ground — there is no ambiguous condition, half allegi- ance and half rebellion. There is no treason made easy. And, sir, how futile, how very futile it is, to admit the right of State interference, and then attempt to save it from the character of un- DEBATE IN SENATE. 125 lawful resistance, by adding terms of qualification to the causes and occasions, leaving all these quali- iications, like the case itself, in the discretion of the State Gov- ernments. It must be a clear case, it is said ; a deliberate case ; a palpable case ; a dangerous case. But then the State is still left at liberty to decide for her- self, what is clear, what is delib- erate, what is palpable, what is dangerous. Do adjectives and epithets avail anything? The liuman mind is so constituted, that the merits of both sides of a controversy appear very clear, and very palpable, to those who re- spectively espouse them ; and both sides usually grow clearer, as the controversy advances. South Carolina sees unconstitu- tionality in the Tariff ; she sees oppression there also ; and she sees danger. Pennsylvania, with a vision not less sharp, looks at the same Tariff, and sees no such thing in it — she sees it ail con- stitutional, all useful, all safe. The faith of South Carolina is strengthened by opposition, and she now not only sees, but Re- solves, that the Tariff is palpably unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous ; but Pennsylvania, not to be behind her neighbors, and equally willing to strengthen her own faith by a confident assevera- tion. Resolves also, and gives to every warm affirmative of South Carolina, a plain, downright, Pennsylvania negative. South Carolina, to show the strength and unity of her opinion, brings her assembly to a unanimity, within seven votes ; Pennsylvania, not to be out done in this respect more than others, reduces her dissenti- ent fraction to five votes. Again I ask the gentleman, what is to be done ? Are these States both right ? Is he bound to consider them both right ? If not, which is the wrong ? or rather, which has the best right to decide ? And if he, and if I, are not to know what the Constitution means, and what it is, till those two State legis- latures, and the twentytwo others, shall agree in its construction, what have we sworn to, when we have sworn to maintain it ? 1 w^as forcibly struck with one reflection, as the gentleman went on in his speech. He quoted Mr Madi- son's resolutions to prove that a State may interfere, in a case of deliberate, palpable, and danger- ous exercise of a power not granted. The honorable member supposes the tariff law to be such an exercise of power ; and that, consequently, a case has arisen, in which the State may, if it see fit, interfere by its own law. Now it so happens, nevertheless, that Mr Madison himself deems this same Tariff law quite constitu- tional. Instead of a clear and palpable violation, it is, in his judgment, no violation at all. So that, while they use his authority for a hypothetical case, they re- ject it in the very case before them. All this, shows the in- herent fuulity — I had al- most used a stronger word — of conceding this power of inter- ference to the States, and then attempting to secure it from abuse by imposing qualifications, of which the States themselves are to judge. One of two things is true ; either the laws of the Union \ 1-26 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. p.re beyond the discretion and be- yond the control of the States, or else we have no Constitution of General Governn^ent, and are thrust back again to the days of the Confederacy. Let me here say, that if the gentleman's doctrine had been received and acted upon in New England, in the times of the em- bargo and non-intercourse, we should probably not now have been here. The Government would very likely have gone to pieces and crumbled into dust. No stronger case can ever arise than existed under those laws ; no States can ever entertain a clearer conviction than the New England States then entertained ; and if they had been under the influence of that heresy of opinion, as I must call it, which the hon- orable] member espouses, this Union would, in all probability, have been scattered to the four winds. I ask the gentleman, therefore, to apply his principles to that case ; I ask him to come forth and declare, whether, in his opinion, the New England States would have been justified in interfering to break up the em- bargo system, under the conscien- tious opinions which they held upon it ? Had they a right to an- nul that law ? Does he admit or deny ? If that which is thought palpably unconstitutional in South Carolina, justifies that State in arresting the progress of the law, tell me, whether that which was thought palpably unconstitutional also in Massachusetts, would have justified her in doing the same thing. I deny the whole doctrine. It has not a foot of ground in the Constitution to stand on. No public man of reputation ever advanced it in Massachusetts, in the warmest times, or could main- tain himself upon it there at any time. I must now beg to ask, whence is this supposed right of the States derived ? where do they get the power to interfere with the laws of the Union ? The opinion, whicii the honorable gentleman maintains, is a notion, founded in a total misapprehension, in my judgment, of the origin of this Government, and of the founda- tion on which it stands. I hold it to be a popular Government, erected by the People, those who administer it are responsible to the People ; and itself capable, of be- ing amended and modified, just as the People may choose it should be. It is as popular, just as truly emanating from the People, as the State Governments. It is created for one purpose ; the State Governments for another. It has its own powers ; they have theirs. There is no more author- ity with them to arrest the oper- ation of a law of Congress, than with Congress to arrest the oper- ation of their laws. We are here to administer a Constitution eman- ating immediately from the Peo- ple, and trusted, by them, to our administration. It is not the creature of the State Govern- ments. It is of no moment to the argument, that certain acts of the State Legislatures arc neces- sary to fill our seats in this body. That is not one of their original State powers, a part of the sove- reignty of the State. It is a duty which the People, by the Con- DEBATE IN SENATE. 127 slitution itself, have imposed on the State Legislatures ; and which they might have left to be per- formed elsewhere, if they had seen fit. So they have left the choice of the President with elect- ors ; but all this does not affect the proposition, that this whole Government, President, Senate, and House of Representatives, is a popular Government. It leaves it still all its popular character. The Governor of a State, (in some of the States) is chosen, not directly by the People, but by those who are chosen by the People, for the purpose of per- forming among other duties, that of elecdng a Governor. Is the Government of the State on that account, not a popular Govern- ment ? This Government is the independent offspring of the pop- ular will. It is not the creature of State Legislatures ; nay more, if the whole truth must be told, the People brought it into exist- ence, established it, and have hitherto supported it, for the very purpose, among others, of im- posing certain salutary restraints on State sovereignties. The States cannot now make war, they cannot contract alliances, they cannot make, each for itself, separate re- gulations of commerce, they can- not lay imposts, they cannot coin money. If this Constitution, sir, be the creature of State Legisla- tures, it must be admitted that it has obtained a strange control over the volitions of its creators. The People erected this Gov- ernment. They gave it a Con- stitution, and in that Constitution they have enumerated the powers which they bestow on it. They have made it a limited Govern- ment. They have defined its au- thority. They have restrained it, to the exercise of such powers as are granted ; and all others, they declare, are reserved to the States or the People. But, sir, they have not stopped here. If they had, they would have accom- plished but half their work. No definition can be so clear, as to avoid possibility of doubt; no limitation so precise, as to exclude all uncertainty. Who, then, shall construe this grant of the People ? Who shall interpret their will, where it may be supposed they have left it doubtful ^ With whom do they leave this ultimate right of deciding on the powers of the Government ^ They have setded all this in the fullest manner. They have left it with the Gov- ernment itself, in its appropriate branches Sir, the very chief end, the main design, for which the whole Constitution was framed and adopted, was to establish a Government that should not be obliged to act through State agen- cy, or depend on State opinion, and State discretion. The Peo- ple had had quite enough of that kind of Government, under the Confederacy. Under that sys- tem the legal action — the appli- cation of law to individuals, be- longed exclusively to the States. Congress could only recommend — their acts were not of binding force, till the States had adopted and sanctioned them. Are we in that condition still ^ Are we yet at the mercy of State discre- tion, and State construction } Sir, if we are, then vain will be our attempt to maintain the Constitu- tion under which we sit. But the People have wisely 128 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. provided, in the Consdtution it- self, a proper, suitable mode, and tribunal, for settling questions of Constitutional law. There are, in the Constitution, grants of powers to Congress ; and restric- tions on these powers. There are also prohibitions on the States. Some authority must therefore necessarily exist, having the ul- timate jurisdiction to fix and as- certain the interpretation of these grants, restrictions, and prohibi- tions. The Constitution has it- self pointed out, ordained, and established that authority. How has it accomplished this great and essential end? By declaring, that ' the Constitution and the Jaws of the United States, made in, pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwith- standing,'' Tliis, sir, was the first great step. By this, the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States is declared. The People so will it. No State law is to be valid, which comes in conflict with the Constitution, or any law of the United States. But who shall decide this ques- tion of interference ? To whom lies the last appeal? This, sir, the Constitution itself decides, also, by declaring, ' that the Ju- dicial power shall extend to all cases arising under the Constitu- tion and Laws of the United States.^ These two provisions cover the whole ground. They are, in truth, the key-stone of the arch. With these, it is a Consti- tution, without them, it is a Con- federacy. In pursuance of these clear and express provisions, Congress established, at its very first session, in the Judicial act, a mode for carrying them into full effect, and for bringing all ques- tions of Constitutional power to the final decision of the Supreme Court. It then became a Gov- ernment. It then had the means of self-protection ; and but for this, it would, in all probability, have been now among things which are past. Having consti- tuted the Government, and de- clared its powers, the People have further said, that since somebody must decide on the extent of these powers, the Government shall itself decide ; subject al- \^ays, like other popular Govern- ments, to its responsibility to the People. And now I repeat, how is it, that a State legislature ac- quires any right to interfere? Who, or what, gives them the right to say to the People, we, who are your agents and servants for one purpose, will undertake to decide, that your other agents and servants, appointed by you for another purpose, have tran- scended the authority you gave them ? The reply would be, 1 think not impertinent — 'Who made you a judge over another's servants ? To their own masters they stand or fall.' I deny this power of State le- gislatures altogether. It cannot stand the test of examination. Gentlemen may say, that in an extreme case, a State Govern- ment might protect the People from intolerable oppression. In such a case the People might protect themselves, without the aid of the State Governments. DEBATE IN SENATE. 129 Such a case warrants revolution. It must make, when it comes, a law for itself. A nullifying act of a State legislature cannot alter the case, nor make resistance any more lawful. In maintaining these sentiments, I am but assert- ing the rights of the people. I state what they have declared, and insist on their right to declare it. They have chosen to repose this power in the General Gov- ernment, and I think it my duty to support it, like other constitu- tional powers. For myself, I doubt the juris- tliction of South Carolina, or any other State, to prescribe my con- stitutional duty, or to settle, be- tween me and the people, the validity of laws of Congress, for which I have voted. 1 decline her umpirage. I have not sworn to support the Constitution accord- ing to her construction of its clau- ses. I have not stipulated, by my oath of office or otherwise, to come under any responsibility, except to the People, and those whom they have appointed to pass upon the question, whether laws, supported by my votes, conform to the Constitution of the country. And if we look to the general nature of the case, could anything have been more preposterous, than to have made a Government for the whole Union, and yet left its powers subject, not to . one interpretation, but to thirteen, or twentyfour interpretations? Instead of one tribunal, established by all, responsible to all, whh power to decide for all, shall constitutional questions be left to four and twenty popular bodies, each at liberty to decide for itself, 12 and none bound to respect the decisions of others ; and each at liberty, too, to give a new con- struction, on every new election of its own members? Would anything, with such a principle in it, or rather with such a destitution of all principle, be fit to be called a government ? No, sir. It should not be denom- inated a Constitution. It should be called, rather, a collection of topics for everlasting controversy ; heads of debate, for a disputatious people. It would not be a Gov- ernment. It would not be ade- quate to any practical good, not fit for any country to live under. To avoid all possibility of being misunderstood, allow me to repeat again, in the fullest manner, that I claim no powers for the Govern- ment by forced or unfair construc- tion. I admit that it is a^Govern- ment of strictly limited powers ; of enumerated, specified, and particularized powers ; and that whatsoever is not granted, is with- held. But notwithstanding all this, and however the grant of powers may be expressed, its limit and extent may yet, in some cases, admit of doubt ; and the General Government would be good for nothing, it would be incapable of long existing, if some mode had not been provided, in which those doubts, as they should arise, might be peaceably, but authorita- tively, solved. Direct collision, between force and force, is the unavoidable result of that remedy for the re- vision of unconstitutional laws which the gentleman contends for. It must happen in the very first case to which it is applied. Is 130 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. not this the plain result ? To resist, by force, the execution of a law generally, is treason. Can the courts of the United States take notice of the indulgence of a State to commit treason ? The com- mon saying, that a State cannot commit treason herself is nothing to the purpose. Can it authorize others to do it ? If John Fries had produced an act of Penn- sylvania, annulling the law of Congress, would it have helped his case ? Talk about it as we will, these doctrines go the length of revolution. They are incom- patible with any peaceable admin- istration of the Government. They lead directly to disunion and civil commotion ; and there- fore it is, that at their commence- ment, when they are first found to be maintained by respectable men, and in a tangible form, that I enter my public protest against them all. The honorable gentleman ar- gues, that if this Government be the sole judge of the extent of its own powers, whether that right of judging be in Congress, or the Supreme Court, it equally sub- verts State sovereignty. This the gendeman sees, or thinks he sees, although he cannot perceive how the right of judging, in this matter, if left to the exercise of State Legislatures, has any ten- dency to subvert the Government of the Union. The gentleman's opinion may be that the right ought not to have been lodged with the General Government; he may like better such a Consti- tution, as we should have under the right of State interference ; but 1 ask him to meet me on the plain matter of fact — I ask him to meet me on the Constitution itself — I ask him if the power is not found there — clearly and visi- bly found there ? But what is this danger, and what the grounds of it ? Let it be remembered, that the Consti- tution of the United States is not unalterable. It is to continue in its present form no longer than the People who established it shall choose to continue it. If they shall become convinced that they have made an injudicious or in- expedient partition and distribu- tion of power, between the State Governments and the General Government, they can alter that distribution at will. If anything be found in the National Constitution, either by original provision, or subsequent interpretation, which ought not to be in it. the people know how to get rid of it. If any construc- tion be established, unacceptable to them, so as to become, practi- cally, a part of the Constitution, they will amend it at their own sovereign pleasure. But while the people choose to maintain it as it is ; while they are satisfied with it and refuse to change it, who has given, or who can give, to the State Legislatures, a right to alter it, either by interference, construction, or otherwise ? Gen- tlemen do not seem to recollect that the people have any power to do anything for themselves ; they imagine there is no safety for them, any longer than they are under the close guardianship of the State Legislatures. The people have not trusted their safety, in regard to the General DEBATE IN SENATE. 131 constitution, to these hands. They have required other secu- rity, and taken other bonds. They have chosen to trust themselves first, to the plain words of the in- strument, and to such construction as the Government itself, in doubt- ful cases, should put on its own powers, under their oaths of office, and subject to their responsibility to them ; just as the people of a State trust their own State Governments with a similar power. Secondly, they have reposed their trust in the efficacy of frequent elections, and in their own power to remove their own servants and agents, when- ever they see cause. Thirdly, they have reposed trust in the judicial power, which, in order that it might be trustworthy, they have made as respectable, as disinterested, and as independent, as was practicable. Fourthly, they have seen fit to rely, in case of necessity, or high expediency, on their known and admitted power, to alter or amend the Constitution, peaceably and quiet- ly, whenever experience shall point out defects or imperfections. And, finally, the People of the United States have, at no time, in no way, directly or indirectly, authorized any State Legislature to construe or interpret their high instrument of government ; much less to interfere, by their own power, to arrest its course and op- eration. If the people, in these respects, had done otherwise than they have done, their Constitution could neither have been preserved, nor would it have been worth preserv- ing. And if its plain provisions shall now be disregarded, and these new doctrines interpolated in it, it will become as feeble and helpless a being as its enemies, whether early or more recent, could possibly desire. It will exist in every State, but as a poor ' dependent or State permission. It must borrow leave to be, and will be, no longer than State plea- sure, or State discretion, sees fit to grant the indulgence, and to prolong its poor existence. But although there are fears, there are hopes also. The people have preserved this, their own chosen Constitution, for forty years, and have seen their happi- ness, prosperity and renown, grow with its growth, and strengthen with its strength. They are now, generally, strongly attached to it. Overthrown by direct assault, it cannot be ; evaded, undermined, NULLIFIED, it will not be, if we, and those who shall succeed us here, as agents and representatives of the people, shall conscientiously and vigilantly discharge the two great branches of our public trust — faithfully to preserve, and wise- ly to administer it. Mr President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doctrines which have been advanc- ed and maintained. I am con- scious of having detained you, and the Senate, much too long. 1 was drawn into the debate, with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. I cannot even now, persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing, once more, my deep convictioa m ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. that since it respects nothing; less than the Union of the States, it is of most vital and essential impor- tance to the public happiness. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole •country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for what- ever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached, only by the disciphne of our vir- tues, in the severe school of ad- versity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influen- ces, these great interests immedi- ately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed widi fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings ; and although our territory has stretch- ed out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection, or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hid- den in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that nnhe us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could 1 gard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this Government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I seek not to ))enetrate the veil. God grant, that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant, that on my vision neves may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the Sun in Heaven, may 1 not see hitn shining on the broken and dishon- ored fragments of a once glorious Union ; on States dissevered, dis- cordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the gor- geous Ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured — bearing for its motto, no such miserable interro- gatory as — What is all this worth ? Nor those other words of delusion and folly — Liberty first, and Union afterwards — but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing ^n all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart — Liberty and L^nion, now and for ever, one and inseparable ! DEBATE IN SENATE. The effect of this sp-eech througliout the Union was de- structive to the hopes of the ad- vocates of nullification. They had been gradually gaining strength owing in a great measure to the inattention of the public to the pernicious consequences of their doctrines. In Georgia, they formed a majority, had carried their principles into practical ef- fect, and their doctrines had re- ceived the implied sanction of the President in reference to the In- dian question. In South Carolina and Virginia, they constituted a majority of the legislatures, and in New York an obvious leaning towards the same principles was manifested by the dominant party under the specious pretence of attachment to State rights. Public opinion however was now fully awakened. The warm and patriotic language of the Sen- ator from Massachusetts met with a ready response from the Ameri- can people. They felt the Union to be in danger from the move- ments of this anti-federal party and they evinced their attachment to the Constitution by the warmest approbation of the sentiments ad- vanced by Mr Webster. These unequivocal testimonies of popular feeling checked the tendency on the part of the leading politicians to nullification, and they began to retrace their steps. The Debate in the Senate anni- hilated the party by demonstrating the utter inconsistency of their opinions with the peaceful and legal administration of the Gov- ernment. Mr Hayne, upon Mr Webster's resuming his seat, at- tempted a reply, which in sub- stance is as follows. 12* After commenting on the per- sonal topics introduced into the debate, Mr Hayne proceeded to deny that the tarifi'of 1816, was the commencement of the ex- isting policy. It was a bill for reducing the duties from the war standard, and it was intended that the reduction should be gradual, until they should reach the lowest amount necessary for revenue in time of peace. i\'or did this bill de- pend upon South Carolina votes. It was carried by a vote of 88 to 58, and would have passed if every representative from South Carolina had voted against it. The internal improvement bill referred to, was one not appro- priating but setting apart a fixed sum (the bank bonus) for internal improvements to be distributed among the States on principles of perfect equality. This measure was defeated by the veto of Mr Madison, but if it had been adopted, it would have prevented much of the inequality and injustice, that have since taken place. Mr Hayne said that a great change of opinion, however, had since occurred in the South- ern States on the subject of inter- nal improvement. The war had produced a feeling in favor of en- larging the powers of the Federal Government, but before timeiiad confirmed that opinion, the evils of the system were so fully de- veloped and the dangers from that source so manifest, as to thoroughly convince them that the system of internal improve- ment was not only unequal and unjust, but an alarming innovation on the Constitution. He thanked Mr Webster for having given him an opportunity of explaining his ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. vote on ihe survey bill of 1824. He was llien n-ew in his seat and his opinions on this point were not fully settled. That bill was advocated on the ground that be- fore adopting any system, it was proper to have the whole ground before Congress. In the belief that no great work would be adopted until all the information was procured and submitted by the President in one complete view, and that but a (ew great works in which all the States had a common interest were intended to be embraced in the bill, he voted for it and he also voted against every proposition to amend it, in order to have the sub- ject before the public, unembar- rassed and as an entire scheme. In this expectation he had been deceived and ever since he had discovered its true character, he had voted against all appropria- tions for surveys, unless they were exceptions to the general rule. After explaining the motives of the opponents ofthetarifFof 1828, in refusing to strike out some of its obnoxious provisions, Mr Hayne entered upon that part of his argument relating to the Fed- eral Constitution and the powers of the Supreme Courts. He said that he had indeed depre- cated the consohdation of the Government, but he had con- tented himself with citing the high authorities on which his opinions rested . The proposition laid down by him, was taken from the Virginia resolution of 1798, and stated that ' in a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise by the Federal Government of powers not granted by the com- pact, the States, who are parlies thereto had a right to interpose to arrest the progress of the evil, and to maintain within their re- spective limits the authorities, rights and hberties appertaining to them.' The Senator from Massachu- setts contended that the States liad no riglit to decide, whether the Constitution had been violated or not, and that the Federal Gov- ernment was the exclusive judge of its own powers. That the de- cision of the Supreme Court was final on the point in dispute. These are the points of difference between us, and in order to de- cide them it will be necessary to go back to the origin of the Gov- ernment. Mr Hayne asserted that be- fore the formation of the Consti- tution, each State was an inde- pendent sovereignty, and after- wards they remained equally in- dependent as to all powers not expressly delegated to the Fed- eral Government. This was de- clared in the tenth article of the amendments to the Constitution. Its true nature therefore was a compact to which the States are parties, agreeing that certain de- signated powers shall be exercised by the United States in the man- ner prescribed in that instrument. All acts therefore by the Federal Government beyond the pale of its authority are clearly void. A State, on the contrary, may law- fully act in all cases where she has not restricted herself. It is a compact between sovereigns, and the question arises as to the re- medy for a clear violation of its terms by one of the parties. Mr DEBATE IN SENATE. 135 Hayne contended tlicit no power of deciding upon the extent of its own autiiority, had been grant- ed to the Federal Government and no inference in favor of such power, could be drawn, which would not apply with equal force in behalf of a State. All sovereigns were necessarily equal, and the rule applicable to a difference of opinion concerning treaties, was applicable to that concerning the Federal compact. The Federal Government was not superior to the State Gov- ernments, nor had the latter sur- rendered their sovereignty. They had surrendered certain specified powers, but they had an independent legislature, executive and judiciary, and in all other re- spects they were as omnipotent as any other independent nation. He denied that the words in the pre- amble to the Constitution * we the people of the United States,' referred to them as to one com- munity. It related to them only as citizens of the several States. In every part of the instrument they are spoken of in that char- acter, and when every State but one had consented to its adoption, that State was not held to be bound. A majority of the people in any one State bound that State, but nine tenths of all the people of the United States did not bind Rhode Island, until as a State she had consented to the com- pact. The States were at the time of forming the Constitution, under organized governments, and if their citizens became entitled to the character of citizens of other States, it was by virtue of that clause in the Constitution confer- ring upon them such privileges. After quoting from Mr Madison's report to the Legislature of Virginia to prove that the States are parties to the compact, Mr Hayne asserted that in a com- pact between sovereign powers, such as the Constitution, there could be no tribunal to decide upon its violation^ The Supreme Court was not such a tribunal, when the dispute arose between a State and the United States. No such authority was given in the Constitution. Questions of sovereignty were of too delicate a nature to be submitted to a Ju- dicial tribunal. Courts were the mere creatures of the sovereign power, and though they w^ere competent to decide upon inci- dental questions growing out of treaties, they were not the proper tribunals to decide upon the con- struction to be put by sovereigns upon their treaties. These are political, not judicial, questions, and the jurisdiction given by the Government to the Federal Courts is expressly limited to all ques- tions in law and equity ; i. e. to cases where jurisdiction is inci- dentally acquired in the ordinary administration of justice. The Supreme Court has never as- sumed jurisdiction over ques- tions arising under treaties be- tween the sovereign parties there- to, nor can it under the Con- stitution, over questions be- tween individual States and the United States. It is entirely with- out its sphere. Besides, it is un- fitted for the office by being en- tirely dependent on one of the parties, i. e. the Federal Govern- 136 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. -ment. Is it to be supposed that the States could ever have de- -signed to leave to a court to be created by the Federal Govern- ment the right to decide on the extent of its powers. Such a course would have been suici- dal and destructive to their in- dependence. After illustranng the positions, Mr H. proceeded to show that Congress could not be the proper judge of its own constitutional powers, and that the Constitution was framed chiefly with the de- sign of confining the majority within definite limits. Mr Hayne inferred from these premises that the right of a State to judge of infractions of the Constitution on ihe part of the Federal Govern- ment, resuhed from the nature of the compact, and that such a pow- er is neither expressedly nor im- pliedly reserved exclusively to the Federal Government, nor to any of its departments. He also contended, that the power in question might be fairly considered as reserved to the States, by that clause of the Con- stitution, providing that all powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the States respec- tively or to the people. Before the States entered into the com- pact, (he said) they possessed to tbe fullest extent, the right of de- termining the limits of their own powers. They had never parted with that right, nor agreed to limit or restrict it. They had agreed that certain specific powers should be exercised by the Federal Gov- ernment ; but the moment that Government stepped beyond its charter, the right of the States to interpose, was as full and com- plete as before the Constitution was formed. It was plenary then, and of course must be plenary now. This collision of opinion be- tween the two Governments did not necessarily produce war. It was the common case of differ- ence of opinion between sove- reigns as to the true construction of a compact. In all such cases some mode must be devised to settle the difficulty, and happily for us, the mode is clearly indicat- ed by the Constitution itself, and results from the form and struc- ture of the Government. The creating power is three fourths oi the States. By their decision the parties to the compact have agreed to be bound, even to the extent of changing the entire form of the Government, and it follows of necessity, that in cases of delib- erate and settled difference of opinion between the parties to the compact, as to the extent of the powers of either, resorts must be had to their common superior — (that power which may give any character it pleases to the Consti- tution) viz., three fourths of the States. This was Mr Jefferson's opin- ion, and conforms to the doctrines of the famous Virginia resolutions and report of '98, and the Ken- tucky resolutions of 1799. Mr H. then contended that when a State had declared a law of Con- gress to be unconstitutional, it could not go into effect until it had been sanctioned by three fourths of the States, If the nullifying State were DEBATE IN SENATE. 137 compelled to appeal to the three fourth votes, in order to arrest the law, she would be compelled to submit to the exercise of an unconstitutional power and it would be absurd to suppose that any redress could be obtained upon such an appeal, even if a State were at liberty to make i^ A majority of both Houses of Congress must sanction the law before it could be passed, and there was no probability of its being declared unconstitutional by three fourths of the States. A proposition too, to amend the Con- stitution, can only come from two thirds of the two Houses of Con- gress or from the legislatures of two thirds of the States. A minority therefore has no other mode of obtaining redress. There is no danger of weakening the Union in this manner. The Government is one of checks and balances, and it is in the "true spirit of the system, that the States should have the power to check the Federal Government, so far as to preserve the Constitution from ' gross, pal- pable, and deliberate violations,' and to compel an appeal to the amending power in cases of real doubt and difficulty. This check is by far the safest and least liable to abuse, of any ])rovided by the Constitution. A fjuorura of the Supreme Court, can, by a bare majority, consisting only of three judges, declare a law to be unconstitudonal. Mr H. said that without mean- ing to detract from that high tri- bunal, for whose decisions when confined to their appropriate sphere (' questions in law equity') he had great respect, he thought that that delicate power might be as safely entrusted to a State. She would always feel the neces- sity of consulting public opinion both at home and abroad before she would venture to resort to such a measure, and as it was only an extreme case that would justify the interposition, there would be no danger of any abuse of the power. In reply to the call to show the practical effects of his doctrine, Mr Hayne said that the right of a State being established, the General Government, as a matter of course, was bound to acquiesce in a solemn decision of the State acting in its sovereign capacity, until the people by an amendment of the Constitution had decided to the contrary. Until this solemn decision is thus reversed, the Federal Government is bound not to resort to any means of coercion ascainst the citizens of the dissenting States. All col- lision is thus prevented. But if a law unconstitutional in the opin- ion of the citizens of any one State, should be carried into effect even with the concurrence of all the branches of the Federal Gov- ernment, collision must ensue. The juries in the dissenting State would not giv^e effect to the un- constitutional law, and unless they could be coerced by the bayonet, the law would be in effect nulli- fied. The difference between the Senator from Massachusetts and himself respecting a clear violation of the Constitution which ought to be resisted, was, that he advocated upon the principles of revolution and he (Mr Hayne) upon those of constitutional re- sistance. He would make force the only arbiter in cases of colli- 138 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. sion between the Federal and Stale Governments, while he (Mr Hayne) would resort to a peaceful remedy, the interposition o f the States to arrest the pro- gress of the evil, until a conven- tion called according to the Con- stitution should determine the dis- pute. In reply to this argument Mr Webster said, that the argument of Mr H. consisted of two pro- positions, and an inference. His propositions are — 1. That the Constitution is a '•compact between the States. 2. That a compact between two, with authority reserved to one to interpret its terms, would be a surrender to that one of all power ■whatever. 3. Therefore, (such is his In- ference) the General Government does not possess the authority to fConstrue its own powers. Now, sir, who does not see, without the aid of exposition or detection, the utter confusion of ideas, involved in. this, so elaborate and systematic argument. The Constitution, it is said, is a compact hetiveen States; the States, then, and the States only, are parties to the compact. How comes the General Government itself a party ? Upon the honora- ble gentleman's hypothesis, the General Government is the result of the compact, the creature of the compact, not one of the par- ties to it. Yet the argument, as the gentleman has now stated il, makes the Government itself one of its own creators. It makes it a party to that compact, to which it «wes its own existence. For the purpose of erecting the Constitution on the basis of a compact, the gentleman considers the States as parties to that com- pact ; but as soon as his compact is made, then he chooses to con- sider the General Government, which is the offspring of that com- pact, not its offspring, but one of its parties ; and so, being a party, has not the })Ower of judging on the terms of the compact. In what school is such reasoning as this tauglii? If the whole of the gentleman's main proposition were conceded to him,ihat is to say — that the Constitution is a compact between States, the inferences, which he draws from that proposition, are warranted by no just reason. Be- cause, if the Constitution be a compact between States, still, that Constitution, or that compact, has established a government, with certain powers ; and w^hether it be one of those powers, that it shall construe and interpret for it- self, the terms of the compact, in doubtful cases, can only be de- cided by looking to the compact, and inquiring what provisions it contains on this point. Without any inconsistency with natural rea- son, the Government, even thus created, might be trusted w^ith this power of construction. The ex- tent of its powers, therefore, must still be sought for in the instru- ment itself. If the old Confederation had contained a clause, declaring that resolutions of the Congress should be the supreme law of the land, any State law or constitution to the contrary notwithstanding, and that a committee of Congress, or any other body created by it. DEBATE IN SENATE. 139 should possess Judicial powers, extending to all cases arising un- der resolutions of Congress, then the power of ultimate decision would have been vested in Con- gress, under the Confederation, although that Confederation was a compact between States. And for this plain reason : that it would have been competent to the states, who alone were parties to the compact, to agree, who should decide in cases of dispute arising on the construction of the com- pact. For the same reason, sir, if I were now to concede to the gen- tleman his principal propositions, viz. thatt^e Constitution is a com- pact between States, the question would still be, what provision is made, in this compact, to setde points of disputed construction, or contested power, that shall come into controversy ? and this ques- tion would still be answered, and conclusively answered, by the Constitution itself. While the gentleman is contending against construction, he himself is setting up the most loose and dangerous construcdon. The Constitutio declares, that the laws of Con- gress shall he the supreme law of the land. No construction is necessary here. It declares, also, with equal plainness and precision, that the Judicial power of United States shall extend to every case arising under the laws of Congress. This needs no con- struction. Here is a law, then, which is declared to be supreme : and here is a power established, which is to interpret that law. Now, sir, now has the gentleman met this ? Suppose the Constitu- tion to be a compact, yet here are its terms, and how does the gen- tleman get rid of them ? He can- not argue the seal off the bond, nor the words out of the instru- ment. Here they are — what answer does he give to them ? None in the world, sir, except, that the effect of this would be to place the States in a condition of inferiority ; and because it results, from the very nature of things, there being no superior, that the parties must be their own judges ! Thus closely and cogently does the honorable gentleman reason on the words of the Constitution. The gendeman says, if there be such a power of final decision in the General Government, he asks for the grant of that power. Well, sir, 1 show him the grant — I turn him to the very words — T show him that the laws of Con- gress are made supreme ; and that the Judicial power extends, by express words, to the interpre- tation of these laws. Instead of answering this, he retreats into the general reflection, that it must re- sult from the nature of things, that the States, being parties, must judge for themselves. I have admitted, that if the Constitution were to be considered as the creature of the State Gov- ernments, it might be modified, interpreted, or construed, accord- ing to their pleasure. But even in that case, it would be necessary that they should agree. One, alone, could not interpret itc on- clusively ; one, alone, could not construe it ; one, alone, could not modify it. Yet the gentle- man's doctrine is, that Carolina, alone, m.ay construe and interpret 140 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. that compact, which equally binds all, and gives equal rights to all. So then, sir, even supposing the Constitution to be a compact be- tween the States, the gentleman's doctrine, nevertheless, is not main- tainable ; because, first, the Gen- eral Government is not a party to that compact, but a Government established by it, and vested by it with the powers of trying and deciding doubtful questions; and, secondly because, if the Consti- tution be regarded as a compact, not one State only, but all the States, are parties to that com- pact and one can have no right to fix upon it her own peculiar construction. So much, sir, for the argument, even if the premises of the gen- tleman were granted, or could be proved. But, sir, the gentleman has failed to maintain his leading proposition. He has not shown, it cannot be shown, that the Con- stitution is a compact between State Governments. The Con- stitution itself in its very front, refutes that : it declares that it is ordained and established by the People of the United States. So far from saying that it is estab- lished by the Governments of the several States, it does not even say that it is established by the People of the several States; but it pronounces that it is estab- lished by the people of the Uni- ted States, in the aggregate. The gentleman says it must mean no more than the People of the sev- eral States. Doubdess, the Peo- ple of the several States, taken collectively, constitute the Peo- ple of the United States ; but it is in this, their collective capacity. it is as all the People of the United States, that they establish- ed the Constitution. So they de- clare ; and words cannot be plainer tlian the words used. When the gentleman says the Constitution is a compact between the States, he uses language ex- actly applicable to the old Con- federation. He speaks as if he were in Congress before 1789. He describes fully that old state of things then existing. The Confederation was, in strictness, a compact : the States, as States, were parties to it. We had no other General Government. But that was found insufficient, and inadequate to the public exigen- cies. The People were not satis- fied with it, and undertook to establish a better. They under- took to form a General Govern- ment, which should stand on a new basis — not a confederacy, not a league, not a compact be- tween States, but a Constitution ; a Popular Government, founded in popular election, directly re- sponsible to the People them- selves, and divided into branches, with prescribed limits of power, and prescribed duties. They or- dained such a Government ; they gave it the name of a Constitu- tion^ and therein they established a distribution of powers between this their General Government, and their several State Govern- ments. When they shall become dissatisfied with this distribution, they can alter it. Their own power over their own instrument remains. But until they shall alter it, it must stand as their will, and is equally binding on the General Government and on the States. DEBATE IN SENATE. 141 The gentleman, sir, finds an- alogy where I see none. He likens it to the case of a treaty, in which, there being no common superior, each party must inter- pret for itself, under its own ob- ligation of good faith. But this is a Constitution of Government, with powers to execute itself, and fulfil its duties. I admit, sir, that this Government is a Govern- ment of checksj and balances ; that is, the House of Representa- tives is a check on the Senate, and the Senate is a check on the House, and the President a check on both. But 1 cannot compre- hend him, or, if I do, I totally differ from him, when he applies the notion of checks and balances to the interference of different Governments. He argues, that if we transgress, each State, as a State, has a right to check us. Does he admit the converse of the proposition, that we have a right to check the States ? The gentleman's doctrines would give us a strange jumble of authorities and powers, instead of Govern- ments of separate and defined powers. It is the part of wisdom, I think, to avoid this ; and to keep tlie General Government, and the State Governments, each in its proper sphere, avoiding, as care- fully as possible, every kind of interference. Finally, sir, the honorable gen- tleman says, that the States will only interfere, by their power, to preserve the Constitution. They will not destroy it, they will not impair it — they will only save, they will only preserve, they will only strengthen it ! Tins is but 13 the old story. All regulated Gov- ernments, all free Governments, have been broken up by similar disinterested and well disposed interference! It is the common pretence. After this discussion concern- ing the relative powers of the Federal and State Governments, the debate continued for several weeks, and the speakers wandered from the subject of the public lands to discuss almost every topic of general interest connected with the politics of the day. The right of the President to remove without cause was ex- amined, and the prescriptive sys- tem of the present administration was severely censured, and as earnestly defended. Many of the speeches were distinguished for eloquence, inge- nuity and power, but it would be inconsistent with the plan of this work to pursue the analysis of the debate. The original cause of Mr Foot's resolution still subsisted in the bill for the graduation of the prices of public lands, which had been brought forward early in the session by Mr Benton and was still urged upon the Senate. This bill provided, that after the 30th of June, 1830, all lands which had been subject to private entry since 1827, might be entered at $i per acre; that heads of fami- lies, single men over 21, and widows might each enter one quarter of a section, remaining unsold on payment of seventy- five cents per acre and on forth- with settling and cultivating the 142 ANNUAL REGISTER 1829 — 30. same for five years. Preemption rights of A section were to be granted to settlers at sevenlyfive cents per acre. Provision was also made for the closing of land officers in districts where the land was sold, and for fixing the fees of the land officers. According to the bill, as origin- ally proposed, all land remaining unsold on the 30th of June, 1835, was to be transferred to the States within which it was situated, for the purposes of promoting edu- cation and internal improvement ; but upon motion of Mr Hayne, this provision was stricken out, as was one (upon motion of Mr Woodbury) authorizing donations of 80 acres each, to persons in in- digent circumstances. The bill was brought up for final decision on the 5th of May. Mr Clayton, moved to postpone the bill inde- finitely, not because he was op- posed to an equitable graduation or reduction of the price of the public lands (according to the real value) that had remained in the market at the minimum price for a length of time and unsold, but because he objected to the principle as established by this bill, of equalizing the value of the seventy millions of acres of the public lands upon which it is in- tended to operate. This motion was negatived yeas 20, nays 25 Mr Bell then moved to lay the bill on the table until the next day, in order that it might be printed as amended, which was negatived by yeas and nays, 22 to 23. The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, yeas 24, na3'S 22, and was finally passed by the Senate on the 7th of May by the same vote. It was taken up in the House on the 29th of May, two days be- fre the close of the session, and it being deemed too late to dis- cuss a bill involving the policy of the existing land laws of the United States, a motion was made by a western member to lay^ the bill on the table, which was car- ried, 82 affirmative and 68 neg- ative. Although the ostensible cause of this great debate in the Senate was thus disposed of, the real question at issue concerning the relative powers of the Federal and State Governments was still agitated, and in South Carolina the nullifying party made strenu- ous efforts to obtain possession of the State Government, with the avowed intention of carrying their principles into practice. A State convention was de- manded ; but the proceedings in relation of that subject properly fall within the history of the next year. CHAPTER V. Opening of the First Session of Twenty first Congress. — Presi* denfs Message. — Retrenchment. — Amendments to Constitu- tion. — United States Banl{. — Tariff. — Bill to enforce ; Poli- cy ; Discussion of and passage. — Bills to reduce Duty on Salt; on Molasses; on Tea and Coffee. — Tonnage Duties. — Cash Duties. — Mr Benton^ s Scheme. — Mr Cambreleng^s Navigation Bill. — Discussion concerning Prosperity of Country. The first session of the twenty- first Congress commenced on the 7th of December, 1829. Thirtyfive Senators appeared at the commencement of the ses- sion, and Samuel Smith resumed the Chair as President pro tem- pore. In the House of Representa- tives 191 members answered to their names and proceeded to or- ganize the House. Upon ballot- ing for Speaker, the vote stood, Andrew Stevenson, .... 152 Wm. D. Martin, 21 Scattering, 18 Mr Stevenson having been elect- ed Speaker, the House adjourned to the next day, when the Presi- dent of the United States trans- mitted his annual Message to Congress. This message, which did not in point of expression fall behind those of his predecessors, will be found among the Public Docu- ments. It gave a succinct account of the foreign relations of the United States and stated emphatically that in the execution of that branch of his duties, 'it was the settled purpose of the President to ask nothing that was not clearly right and to submit to nothing that was wrong.' The controversies with Eng- land, growing out of the disputed boundary and the colonial trade, were stated to be in a train of adjustment, and a strong hope was expressed that the efforts to arrange the terms of intercourse with the British Islands would prove successful. The claims with France were said to have been made the sub- ject of the special attention of our minister, who was instructed to urge their settlement upon the French Government as a matter which must continue to furnish the subject of unpleasant discus- sion and possible collision betvveea the two Governments. 144 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. The ministers at Denmark and Spain were urging the claims of American citizens upon those Governments upon their attention ; and their claims upon the South American Governments were stated to have been satisfactorily adjusted. A treaty had been made with Austria, and one with Turkey, it was intimated, might be expected. The relations with Portugal were said to have been renewed upon the principle of acknowledg- ing the Sovereign de facto, and our relations with the new Ameri- can powers were declared to be on a satisfactory footing, with the exception of Mexico, where an unfounded and extraordinary jea- lousy prevails. Among the most urgent of his duties, the President considered that of recommending an altera- tion of the Constitution, so as to make the election of the Chief Magistrate immediate by the peo- ple, and to limit him to one term of service. He also recommended the ex- clusion of Members of Congress from all offices except judicial, diplomatic or connected immedi- ately with the Cabinet, and a ge- neral extension of the law hmiting appointments to four years. Some general observations were made respecting the tariff, and a modification of its details was re- commended with the view of ren- dering it more acceptable to the different sections of the Union. The condition of the treasury was declared to be flourishing. The balance in the treasury, Jan. 1st, 1829, was #5,972,435, The receipts of the year were estima- ted at $24,602,230. The ex- penses at $'26,1 64,595 ; leaving a balance on the 1st January, 1830, of $4,410,070. During the year .$'12,405,005 had been paid on account of the public debt, re- ducing it on the 1st of January, 1830, to $48,565,406, including $7,000,000 subscribed to the stock of the United States Bank. From this aspect of the public finances, he inferred, that the speedy discharge of the national debt would soon bring a large surplus into the treasury, which, however beneficial it might be to apply to the internal improvement of the country, could not be so applied, in the opinions of many, without a violation of the Consti- tution, and in the opinions of all, at the expense of harmony in the Legislative Councils. To avoid those evils, he recommended an apportionment of the surplus reve- nue among the several States, according to their ratio of repre- sentation. The President also recom- mended the creation of a depart- ment, at whose head the Attorney General was to be placed, to en- force the collection of debts due to the United States. The military academy was also highly recommended to the fos- tering care of Congress, and a modification of the pension law, so as to impart relief to every revolutionary soldier unable to maintain himself. The attention of Congress was directed to the condition of the Indian tribes, and a system of policy recommended, which will be found fully detailed in chapter third. A suggestion was made RETRENCHMENT. 145 as to the propriety of modifying the judicial system of the United States, by dividing the Circuit Judges into two classes, and pro- viding that the Supreme Court should be held by these classes alternately; the Chief Justice always presiding. A new de- partment was also recommended, to be called the home department ; and a strong opinion was express- ed against the propriety of re- newing the charter of the United States Bank upon its expiration in 1836, on the score that the law creating it was deemed unconsti- tutional and inexpedient ; and that it had failed in establishing a uni- form and sound currency. As a substitute to that institu- tion, the President recommend- ed the establishment of a Nation- al Bank, founded upon the credit and resources of the Government. Other topics of less importance were also introduced in the mes- sage, which will be found among the Public Documents in the se- cond part of this volume. So much had been said by the supporters of the President dur- ing the late canvass, on the sub- ject of retrenchment and reform, and the augmented expenditure of the Government had been so directly imputed lo the extrava- gance of those administering it, that a general expectation prevail- ed that one of the first acts of the triumphant party would be to curtail the public expenses by abolishing offices which might be deemed useless, and by di- minishing the salaries of those which could not be dispensed with. The two parties had joia- 13* ed issue upon these points during the contest ; one insisting that the increased expenses of the Feder- al Government furnished conclu- sive proof of the extravagance of the administration; and the other contending that they grew out of the increasing growth and pros- perity of the nation and the ex- tended relations of the Govern- ment. The people had decided in fa- vor of the former, and it now de- volved upon them to put in prac- tice their maxims of reform. In the message to Congress the President invited that body to in- quire into the condition of the Government, with the view to a general retrenchment of its ex- penses; and also recommended a vigorous prosecution of the out- standing claims of the Govern- ment, the recovery of most of which was deemed desperate. Congress was looked to as a body, therefore, that would un- doubtedly act upon this recom- mendation of the Executive, and the session opened with an ex- pectation of the speedy realization of those promises of reform which had been so liberally made when out of power by the party now in possession of the Government. Of the select committees ap- pointed in the House, was one on this subject, composed of Messrs Wicklifte, Coulter, Davis, of Massachusetts, Lamar, Coke, Huntington and Dewitt. The recommendation in the message was of course referred to that committee, as upon mo- tion of Mr Chilton were also the bills reported by the committee on retrenchment at the last Qon- 146 ANNUAL REGIS': gress, in pursuance of the views inculcated in its celebrated re- port. The subject was therefore again fully before the country, and the Committee felt bound to at least appear to act in behalf of a cause upon which so much stress had been laid during the pendency of the appeal to public opinion. Bills were accordingly brought in at different times during the ses- sion, 1st, to regulate the mileage of members of Congress ; 2d, the allowance for forage to army officers ; 3d, to prevent improper allowances to public agents in setding their accounts ; 4th, to abolish the board of Navy Com- missioners ; 5th, to prohibit the use of secret service money in time of peace ; 6th, to abolish the office of Major General in the army ; 7th, brevet rank both in the army and marine corps ; 8th, to abolish the practice of annually examin- ing the land officers ; 9ih, to regu- late the pay of military and na- val officers : 10th, to secure the accountability of public agents in foreign countries. Resolutions were also brought in by the Committee to abolish the office of Draughtsman of the house ; to diminish the expenses of public printing, and also in favor of specific appropriations ; but they were permitted to re- main undisturbed except the re- solution relating to the Draughts- man, which after long and fre- quent debates was carried, 95 af- firmative, 80 negative. A similar fate attended the bills reported to curtail the ex- penses of the Government,,, with the xception of that abolishing PER, 1829 — 30. the practice of examining the books of the land officers once a year and ascertaining the bal- ance in the hands of the receivers. This bill was passed into a law, but the others, which, aimed more directly at retrenching expenses, that were stigmatized as indica- tions of the corrupt administration of affiiirs, were not deemed of sufficient importance to warrant a vigorous effort to carry them. That establishing an uniform mode of computing the mileage of members of Congress indeed received the sanction of the House of Representatives, but was laid on the table in the Senate upon motion of Mr Bibb, and remained there until the termination of the session. Most of the other bills re- mained undisturbed in the House, and the session closed without further notice of a subject, which had proved the cause of so much agitation and invective during the last administration. Nothing was retrenched and the attempts which were made by some of the accounting offi- cers of the Treasury to introduce a new system into that department, caused so much confusion and inconvenience, that Congress was compelled by resolution or by law to direct the continuance of the former allowances. The cause of reform fared no better in the Senate, where a select Committee was appointed to take this and other subjects of a political character into consider- ation. Bills were reported by the chairman (Mr Benton) to carry, into effect the principles of reform, which had been so highly praised UNITED STATES BANK. 147 viz. to regulate the publication of the laws and public advertise- ments ; to displace defaulters ; to regulate the appointment 6f post- masters, cadets and midshipmen, and to prevent military and naval officers from being dismissed at the pleasure of the President. The period however had pass- ed when these bills were in the opinion of the former, indispensa- bly necessary ; tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis, had now become the motto of the dominant party, and the work of retrench- ment and reform found as little favor in the Senate as in the other branch of the Legislature. The amendments to the Con- stitution were deemed equally unimportant and met with like neglect. The message of the Presklent recommended them to the attention of Congress, and the Committee in the Senate pursuant to the recommendation, reported a resolution to amend the Con- stitution by altering the mode of electing the President and Vice President. Nothing however was done to give effect to the recom- mendation, and the amendment of the Constitution slept side by side with the reform in the ad- ministration of the Government. These subjects of excitement had subverted the purposes for which they were intended, and the objects of the agitators being answered in the triumph of their party, the instruments by vvhich they had accomplished their ends, were laid aside as no longer ne- cessary. Another topic introduced into the message, met with a still worse reception in Congress. The President had thought it incum- bent on him to express a strong opinion against the propriety of renewing the charter of the bank of the United States, which ex- pires in 1836. The bank had not applied for a renewal of its charter, but as the attention of Congress had been thus distinctly directed to this institution, it was referred to the Committees on finance in the several Houses of Congress for examination. The subject was fully consid- ered by these Committees, and on the 13th of April, 1830, Mr McDuffie, the chairman of the Committee of ways and means in the House, made a report diametrically opposite to the re- commendation of the President. Respecting the first proposition contained in the message, that Congress had not the constitu- tional power to incorporate a bank, the committee deemed that question no longer open for discussion. They however cited in its behalf, not only the deci- sions of the judiciary and the opinions of all the leading states- men of every party, but the offi- cial sanction of every President, including Mr Jefferson, under whose administration the old bank was authorized to establish a Branch at New Orleans. The first bank of the United States was incorporated about two years after the formation of the Government, when most of the framers of the Constitution were either in Congress or in the Cab- inet. The act incorporating it was passed by large majorities and received the sanction of General 4 148 ANNUAL REGI Wasbinglon. This bank contin- ued its operations for twenty years, during which time public and pri- vate credit w^ere advanced to an elevated condition, and the finan- ces of the country placed upon a solid foundation. Mr Jefferson came into power after a violent political conflict, and the bank was in popular opin- ion associated with those mea- sures, which had rendered the federal party unpopular. As a party, therefore, those ad- ministering the Government were opposed to the renewal of its charter, and on the proposition to renevv^ it, the question was nega- tived by the casting vote of the President of the Senate and by a majority of a single vote in the House of Representatives. Within less than three years after the expiration of the charter, the circulating medium became disordered, the public finances deranged, and the public credit impaired. Every member of the Cabinet was convinced by experi- ence of the necessity of a national bank, and the measure was recom- mended to Congress by the Sec- retary of the Treasury (Mr Dallas). Congress accordingly took the subject into consideration, and finally passed by large ma- jorities, the act incorporating the present bank. This history of the bank fur- nished a strong argument in favor of its constitutionality, and in ad- dition to this, there w^as a deci- sion of the Supreme Court di- rectly to the same point. The committee then went into an ex- amination of the constitutionality TER, 1829 — 30. of the bank as shown from the Con- stitution itself, and came to the conclusion, that Congress was empowered to institute a bank not only as one of ' the necessary and proper means' of executing the powers vested in it by the Constitution, but also as an indis- pensable m.eans in regulating the national currency. They also came to a different opinion from that contained in the message respecting the expedien- cy of the measure. At the time when the bank was established, the currency of the Union was disordered to such an extent that in some places it was depreciated 25 per cent more than in others. The circulating medium of the United States had been increased by the excessive issues of the banks to $110,000,000; and the effects of this depreciated currency were not only manifest- ed in all the business transactions of the community, but had been productive of irretrievable ruin to thousands of innocent individ- uals. Shortly after the establishment of the bank, the other banks were compelled to resume specie pay- ments and within three years from the date of its charter, the cir- culating medium of the country was reduced to $45,000,000, and the nation furnished with a sound currency, more uniform in its value than specie itself, and of absolute uniform value for all the purposes of paying the public contributions and disbursing the public revenue. As the annual collections of the government amount to $23,000,- UNITED STATES BANK. 149 000, or nearly one half of the whole circulating medium of the country, the bills of the bank are thus rendered of nearly uniform value for all purposes, aud more so than the circulating medium of any country of equal extent in the world. They therefore concluded, that the bank had fulfilled the ends for which it was chartered, and that if the question were now on the renewal of its charter, that expediency and a regard for the public interest would dictate its renewal. Those in whose hands the in- stitution was now placed had managed it with discretion and ability, and had scrupulously avoided all interference with poli- tics. The stockholders had gen- erally purchased in at advanced prices, and a large portion of them were small capitalists or trustees of widows and ophans, and it was believed that as advan- tageous terms could be obtained by the government for a renewal from the present bank as from any new institution with a greater certainty of their being fulfilled. The Committee then proceeded to examine the proposition of the President to establish ' a national bank, founded upon the credit of the Government and its revenues.' Without branches they thought it would fail to furnish a currency, that would be available to the Union at large and would in effect be merely a district bank, but whether with or without branches it would be objectionable ; inas- much as it would vest in its direc- tion the power to pledge the whole credit and resources of the United States, and would take away all limit to excessive issues. With branches, it would be still more objectionable, as it vested the Federal Government with a patronage of most extensive in- fluene and embracing the con- trol of all the bank accommoda- tions to the standing amount of $50,000,000. Such a control would introduce more corruption in the Government, than all the patronage now belonging to it. It was a desperate financial ex- periment, without parallel in the history of the world. The Com- mittee also doubted the power of Congress to vest the power of loaning the public funds in another body ; but, if it were clear, the objections to the scheme were so obvious and conclusive, that they unhesitatingly condemned it as pregnant with the most porten- tous mischiefs and calculated to introduce the most pernicious in- fluence into the pubhc councils. The report from the Committee on finance in the Senate, concur- red with that of the House in its conclusions, and was equally de- cisive in its condemnation of the sentiments of the President. The friends of the administra- tion formed a majority in both Committees, and the marked dif- ference in the opinions entertained by them from that expressed in the message, afforded a striking proof of the want of harmony between the Cabinet and the party which had brought it into power. The effect produced in the public mind by the message was entirely done away, and the stock of the bank, which had fallen 150 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. upon the delivery of the message ffom 126 to 120, rose after the publication of these reports to 127 and finally attained the price of $'130 per share. On another topic of general importance, the recommendation of the President met with more favor. The TarifFof 1828, be- came a law during the excitement of a contested election, and in adjusting its details, more regard had been paid to the political ef- fect of the law than to the per- manent interests of the country, or to the rules of political econo- my. Indeed some provisions had been introduced into the bill by its enemies, with the express view of rendering it obnoxious, and the very end of the law, that of encouraging the woollen interest, was hazarded, and at all events rendered more difficult of attain- ment by the almost prohibitory duty imposed on the coarse wool of South America. In his annual message the Presi- dent had invited the attention of Congress to the subject, and stated, that the general rule to be observed in imposing duties upon articles of foreign production was that which would place our own in fair competition with those of other countries, except those ar- ticles which are of primary necessity in time of war. In laying down this rule for the modi fication of the tariff, an im- plied dissent, except as to articles required in time of war, w^as given to the principle of protection, upon which the tariff of 1828, was founded ; nor was any reser- vation made in favor of the princi- ple of retaliation, a principle which, in the opinion of many, was deemed to have entered more largely into the motive to the tariff of 1828, than any desire to protectthe American manufac- turer from foreign competition. In modifying the tarif}', the at- tention of Congress was particu- larly invited to the agricultural interest, as superior in importance to all other interests, which were deserving of encouragement only so far as they contribute to in- crease the value of agicultural productions; and it was also ad- vised to unite in diminishing all burdens obnoxious to any par- ticular section of the Union. This recommendation was too oracular to be relied on as indi- cative of the real opinions of the President on this disputed ques- tion. The exceptions in favor of arti- cles required in time of w^ar might be indefinitely extended, so as to comprehend more than even the advocates of an, ultra tariff demanded. A nation requires in war all and even more than it consumes in peace, and even in an army, woollen, cotton, linen and iron manufactures and a variety of other protected ardcles, are of prime necessity. Unless the ex- ception be confined to fire arms, powder and ball, it is too in- definite to mean anything, and with that construction, the recom- mendation is hostile to the tariff policy. It was probably so understood, and with the view of affecting a modification of the revenue sys- tem, several bills were introduced TARIFF. to repeal or diminish the duties on various articles of general con- sumption. This hostility to the tariff had been manifested early in the session by many of the friends of the administration ; but an equally strong feeling of dissatisfaction with the existing law, on the ground of its inadequate protec- tion to the woollen manufacturer, had induced the friends of the policy to bring forward the sub- ject with the view of obtaining a modification of the law more favorable to their interests, and to prevent the frauds, which were alleged to be daily practised on the revenue. A bill was accordingly reported in the House of Representatives by Mr Mallary, chairman of the committee on manufactures, on the 27th of Jan., 1830, to regulate the entry of woollen importations. This bill provided, that a sworn copy of the invoice of manufac- tures, of which wool is a compo- nent part, should be delivered to the collector and compared with the goods which were to be sent to the custom-house for the pur- pose of comparison. Provision was also made for the appraisement of the goods, and for the forfeiture of ^ thereof if the appraised value exceeded the invoice price more than 10 per cent; ^thereof if more than 15 per cent ; and for the forfeiture of the whole, if more than 20 per cent. A reappraisement could be demanded by the importer, or he might appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury, and provision was also made for forfeiture for alter- ing or^ counterfeiting the marks on the goods, and to prevent frauds or false valuations by foreign part- ners or agents of the resident im- porters. The bill received its 1st and 2d readings and then remained on the table until the 15ih of April, when, after dispos- ing of some preliminary business in the Committee of the whole house, Mr Mallary moved, that the Committee take up the bill amending the tariff, which was carried. The bill having been read through — Mr Mallary explained that the object of the bill being merely to give effect to the Tariff Bill of 1828, it involved no principle which was likely to distract the opinions of the House, as he pre- sumed that all would unite in giv- ing force to an existing law. He then proceeded to show in what manner the law of 1828 had been violated, and to point out the efficacy of the remedy proposed by the bill under con- sideration. On the policy of for- eign countries in reference to their trade, he made some re- marks, exonerating France, Hol- land, &1C, from any attempts to embarrass our trade. England adopting her new notions of free trade, has also adopted the im- pression that it is almost doing God service to put down our pro- tective policy. He stated what were the regulations of the exist- ing law by which collectors of the Custom Houses were govern- ed. He showed that the cause of the great frauds that had been committed, was to be found in the fact that the goods were not left in the possession of the collector, as m ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the law presumed that they would be, and that the only goods over which he was able to exercise con- trol, were the packages in the Ap- praiser's Office. He read from a private memorandum some opin- ions on the subject of the law. Mr Cambreleng wished to know the authority to which he referred. Mr Mallary replied that the au- thority was a good one. Mr Drayton rose to order. He wished to know if the gen- tleman from Vermont was not bound to give up his authority when asked for it. The Chair decided that Mr Mallary was in order, and that it was entirely at his discretion to give or withhold his authority. Mr Mallary then proceeded to read the memorandum which he had commenced, together with another which specifies the forms at the Custom House. One pack- age in twenty only is sent by the Appraiser, and the other nineteen are distributed in all quarters, where they are beyond the reach of the Collector either for the pur- pose of enforcing penalty or ascer- taining value. He stated that goods which it was known would produce five dollars in Boston, had passed the Custom House in New York un- der the dollar minimum. As to the evasion of the reve- nue, he referred to the message of the President, and to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to show that they are such as re- quire remedy. The Collector of New York also admitted that mon- strous evasions of the revenue have taken place : but he wanted the power to prevent them. Here he complimented the vigilance and industry of the present Col- lector in the highest terms. He had done his duty as far as he could, and the present bill would give that power which is required to make his exertions effectual. He stated, on the authority of an Appraiser, what was the practice in the Appraising Department. Having gone through these statements, he inquired where was the security which this law was to give to the revenue ? It was alleged that the foreign man- ufacturer and agent are honest men, who are to be trusted. Yet members of this House, it had been declared on this floor, could not be trusted to calculate their own mileage : and the Speaker could not be permitted to appoint a draughtsman. He took a view of the condi- tion of the importing business. Before the war, there were about fifty importing merchants in New York ; now, there are not more than five or six. At Bos- ton there were thirty or forty : there are now about seven. There are about six or seven out of seventy in Philadelphia ; and they are in about the same ratio in Baltimore. Although there were formerly about 160 import- ing merchants, he could only now make out about sixteen. The na- ture of the importing business has also undergone great changes. He admitted the influence which auction sales had had in the cor- ruption 01 trade, but contended that this corruption had been greatly increased by the successful frauds practised on the revenue. TARIFF. 153 On the subject of the individ- uals who are engaged in the im- porting trade, he stated that many of these were foreigners, who came here to carry on importa- tion, abuse our country, live two or three in a garret, where they make out their invoices, write es- says on free trade, and having an- swered the purposes for which they came, return home to enjoy the profits of their labors. Thus the fair and high reputation of the American merchant had been un- dermined : but he hoped that the day was at hand when this reputa- tion would be again placed on its once elevated station. He stated, that from all the evi- dence he had seen, he was satis- fied that in ten years there had been evasions of the revenue to the amount of thirty millions, being an average of three millions a year, in consequence of the fraudulent invoices of ad valorem goods. He then referred to the progress which smuggling had made within a short time, on the frontier. From an investigation, he had recently come to the inevitable conclusion, that great frauds were thus committed on the public. After going through the general subject, he explained the details of the bill, as regards their char- acter and operation, obviating the objections which had been made against it. The Committee had avoided the introduction of any new principle, and had kept as near the letter of the old law as possible. He concluded with urging on the House the necessity of enact- ing some remedies for the 14 evils which had been proved to exist. The subject was then postponed for other business, until the 26th of April, when upon motion of Mr Mallary the bouse again went into Committee of the whole, and re- sumed the consideration of the bill. Mr McDuffie replied to Mr Mallary, and commenced by say- ing, that the bill under considera- tion was designed to enforce ex- isting laws of the country, and effect a more faithful collection ol' the duties on imports. This was an object right and proper in it- self, and one which he was will- ing to promote. He would be always in favor of enforcing the faithful collection of the revenue, even though he niigbt object to the laws, by v/hich it was levied. In this case, however, he would attain the faithful collection of the revenue by a mode different from that contemplated by the bill. He would do it by diminishing the du- ties, and thereby removing the inducement to evade the duties. With this view he moved to amend the bill by striking out all of the bill after the first section, and inserting provisions reducing the duties on woollen and cotton man- ufactures, iron in bars and bolts, hemp flax, molasses, indigo, cot- ton bagging, to vThat they were previous to the tariff of 182 4; and that the duty on sa^t be re- duced to 15 cents per bushel of 56 pounds, from and after the 30th of June next^ and 10 cents after June, 1831. Mr McDuffi« saiil that the course prescribed by his amend- ment, would afford the best secu- rity for the faithful collection of 154 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the revenue. He expressed his conviction that the present Tariff system was not only destructive of our commerce, ruinous to our commercial marine, and oppres- sive on the Southern States, but also oppressive on the great mass of the community, even on the manufacturing States themselves, where nine individuals are injured for the benefit of one. He then went at great length into all the arguments which have been from time to time advanced against the Tariff policy, and continued his argument on that question during the residue of that day and also the 28th and 29th of April, when thebillwasagain considered. The discussion being thus begun, was continued in Committee on the 3d, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th of May. when the bill was reported to the House with an amendment, which was in ef- fect the substitution of a new bill, having, however, the same object in view. This bill with some unimportant amendments will be found among the Acts of Con- gress in the second part of this volume.* Upon the report being read, Mr McDuffie moved the amendments proposed by him in Committee. The first, reducing the duties on woollen manufac- tures, was negatived, 68 affirma- tive, 120 negative. Tlie second re- lating to cotton, hemp, iron, mo- lasses, he, was negatived, 70 aff. 117 neg. and the third reducing the duty on salt, to 1 5 cents per bushel after September 1st, 1830, and 10 cents after September 1st, 1 831 , was carried, 120 affirmative, fi3 negative. Mr Wilde then moved an amendment, the effect of which was to repeal the tariffof 1828, which was negatived 68 affirma- tive, 120 negative. Mr Gorham then moved a reconsideration of the 2d amendment proposed by Mr McDuffie relating to the duties on hemp, iron, flour, molasses, indigo and cotton manufactures. Mr Gorham said that he had voted in good faith with the friends of protection, against what was re- garded as a general hostile move- ment against the tariff. His own original objections to the tariff were known, and his reasons for refusing to repeal it after the sys- tem had been established. He had now voted with the friends of the system, against any part of the repeal proposed by the gendeman from South Carolina, even on those articles, iron, hemp, he, on which he most disliked to con- tinue the duty ; but as the decision of the House on the salt duty showed that it was willing to di- minish the duty on one article, it was necessary to re-open the sub- ject, and see whether it would not also modify the duty on other arti- cles equally deserving of reduc- tion. He, therefore, had made this motion, and went on to sus- tain it by argument at considera- ble length. Mr Storrs, of N. Y. concurred with Mr G. in his objections to the repeal of the sah duty, and in favor of his motion. The State of New York had been a firm supporter of the protecting system, but let its friends repeal the salt duty, and thus touch one great source of her canal fund, Vide 2(1 part, page 222 TARIFF. 155 and force her to resort to a direct tax to supply the loss, and gentle- men would find that State not going with them much longer in supporting the other parts of the Tariff. After some desultory debate the House adjourned to the next day, when Mr Gorham again briefly explained his object in making the motion and asked what would be the effect of now mov- ing the previous question ? The Speaker said it would then bring back the House to the ques- tion of reconsideration. Mr Gorham then asked, that, supposing he withdrew his motion to reconsider, and then moved the previous question, what would be the effect ? The Speaker said the effect would be to bring back the bill before the House in its original shape, as reported by the Com- mittee on Manufactures, exclud- ing all the amendments made in Committee of the Whole. Mr Gorham said, such was his own view. He would therefore withdraw his motion to reconsider, and move the previous question. He considered the vote upon the Salt Duty as breaking in upon the present system of revenue, instead of regulating its collection, which was the object of the orig- inal bill now under consideration. He appealed togendemen whether it was possible to pass any bill on this subject at this Session, if the whole field of debate was thus thrown open. Mr G. concluded by saying, that, under this view of the case, if any gentleman would move to reconsider the vote upon the Salt Duty, so as to make it possible to agree upon any bill upon this subject, he would, to make way for such a motion, withdraw the motion he had made. Mr Doddridge, of Virginia, having intimated a disposition to make the motion suggested by the member from Massachusetts, Mr Gorham withdrew his motion , and Mr Doddridge moved to re- consider the vote upon M B irrin- ger's amendment for reducing the duty on Salt, Mr Wayne, of Georgia, asked whether it was the intention of the gendeman from Massachusetts to renew his motion if the pend- ing motion was rejected. Mr Gorham declining to make any pledge on that point — Mr Wayne, taking it for granted that such was the intention of Mr Gorham, made a decided speech against the course now proposed, considering it as a mere proposi- tion, call it by what name gende- men would, of bargain and sale ; against which he inveighed with considerable warmth and zeal. Mr Barringer, of North Caro- lina, deprecated a protracted de- bate on this question of recon- sideration, and expressed great regret that so much difficulty should exist in obtaining a reduc- tion of the duty on this necessary of life. He dwelt upon the course of the State of North Carolina in reference to this duty and to die Tariff generally, and made a very strong appeal to the magnanimity and spirit of conciliation of mem- bers from other States to grant this litde boon to a State which had heretofore asked for so little, and submitted so cheerfully to the laws regulating the dudes on im- m ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. porls, and lo the general legisla- tion of Congress. Mr B. con- cluded bis sj)eech by a rnoiion for the previous question (which would have been upon the ques- tion immediately pending, \iz. reconsideration.) The House refused to second the previous question, by a vote of 98 to 83. Mr Reed, of Massachusetts, then presented his views of the subject of the duty on Salt. He reviewed the history of the Salt manufa-cture, from its begin- ning at the commencement of the Revolution, and its present state. He expatiated on the value of this manufacture and the cheapness of the article now produced by the Eastern manufactories ; and showed the very different state of things existing now from that which existed when the duty was fixed — a state of things which in his view afforded a strong argu- ment against the proposed reduc- tion of duty. He repelled the suggestion of bargain in this mat- ter, remarking that all legislation was founded on compromise, and that giving it an ill name did not change its general principle. Mr Vinton, of Ohio, addressed the House at considerable length against the repeal of the duty ; when he had concluded — Mr Thomson, of Georgia, moved to lay the motion to recon- sider on the table, and asked for the ayes and noes, but he with- drew his motion at the request of Mr McCoy, who then spoke in favor of the repeal of the duty, and against the motion to recon- sider. He renewed the motion to lay the resolution on the table. The ayes and noes were then ordered. The question was then taken and decided in the negative — ayes 95, noes 101. Mr Polk then made soir.e ob- servations against the motion to reconsider. Mr Everett thinking the ques- tion sufficiently argued, demand- ed the previous question . Mr Wayne moved a call of tbc House, l)ut the motion w as nega- tived — ayes G8. The call for the previous ques- tion was seconded. Mr Cambreleng asked for the ayes and noes on the previous question, which was ordered. The House then decided that the main question be now put — ayes 171, noes 25. The ayes and noes were then ordered on the motion to recon- sider. The question was taken and decided in the affirmative — aves 102, noes 97. So the House agreed to recon- sider. The question then recurring on the amendment proposing to reduce the duty on salt, Mr McDuffie modified the amendment so as to defer the re- duction to 15 cents, to the 1st of September, 1831, and the reduc- tion to 10 cents, from and after the 31st December, 1832. The debate was now renewed, and continued with unabated ani- mation and occasional pungency during several hours. Messrs Cambreleng, Drayton, Barringer, Angel, Semmes, Craig of Va. Jennings, Wilde and Lea, advocated the amendment, and TARIFF. 157 the propriety of reducing the duty : and Messrs Spencer of N. Y., Mallary, Storrsof N. Y., Irvin of Ohio, Test, Davis of Mass., and Reed, opposed the amendment for various reasons ; some because they were opposed to the reduction as impolitic, and which would not diminish the price to the consumer ; others that it was improper, connected with this bill ; others that it would put the bill itself in jeopardy, though they were not opposed to the repeal of the duty, if it were an unconnected proposition. For the reason last mentioned, Messrs Ramsay and Miller stated they should vote now against the amendment, ahhough they yester- day voted for it. The question at length being put on the amendment, it was negatived by the following vote ; 98 affirmative, 102 negative The question then recurring on the substitute to the original bill, agreed to in Committee of the Whole, Mr Polk called for a division of the question so as to leave for separate decision, the section con- taining the amendment respecting the duty on iron (the 9th,) offered in Committee of the whole, and after some explanatory remarks by Mr P. and some passages be- tween him and Mr Sterigere on a point of order, The question was put on all the sections of the substitute, ex- cepting that above mentioned, and agreed to by yeas and nays — yeas 185, nays 11. The question then came up on the amendment of Mr Scott, strik- ing out the provisos in the 9th section of the bill. 41* The question being put on striking out the |)roviso, it was negatived byyeas and nays — yeas 36, nays 140. Mr Ciiilton moved to include in the amendfnent imported iron ' used for axes, hoes, or ploughs, or for any other purpose of agri- culture,' and made some remarks- against favoring large and wealthy rail road companies, and refusing the same favor to the poor who labored for their bread. He con- cluded by asking for the ayes and noes on his amendment, but they were not granted, and the amend- ment was negatived — ayes 57. Mr Drayton then moved to add to the amendment an amendment providing for a repeal, after De- cember next, of the duty laid on imported slates by the tariff of 1828, and he exhibited a number of reasons, and several facts in support of his amendment. Mr Buchanan made a state- ment of facts relative to the abund- ant supply of slates which Penn- sylvania furnished, to show the inexpediency of the amendment. Mr Carson replied to Mr and controverted the propriety of allowing a profit of 300 per cent to the workers of slate in the Uni- ted States, and Mr Hunt and Mr Ihrie sustained the statement of Mr B. to show the capacity of the country to supply plenty of slate, but that the business could not be prosecuted without the protecting duty. It being now after 8 o'clock, a motion was made to adjourn but negatived. Mr Drayton replied to all the objections, to show that ihd duty was onerous and improper. The question being then put, 15S ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the amendment offered by Mr D. was rejected — ayes 55. Mr Tucker rose to move an amendment, that after June next, the duty on molasses be reduced to five cents a gallon. He con- fessed that he had, when the ob- noxious tariff law of 1825 was before the House, voted for the high duty on molasses, in hopes of killing the bill ; he thought he could make good come out of evil; but he was deceived. He did not think the friends of that bill would swallow the molasses, but he was disappointed. As he, however, had aided to put on the duty, he now wished to try to take it off, and he asked the yeas and nays on the question : but they were refused by the House : and The amendment was negatived without a division. Mr Drayton then moved that after the 30lh of June next, the same duty now imposed on a ton of slates, be imposed on 1000 slates, for reasons which he ex- plained ; but the motion was nega- tived. The question was then put on the amendment of Mr Scott, to insert the 9th section, which was carried, yeas 103, nays 69, and the bill ordered to a od reading, 1 1 8 affirmative, 24 negative. On the 13th of May the bill was read a third time, and the question stated — ' shall the bill pass ? ' Mr Hall, of North Carolina, made a few remarks, embracing his objections to this bill and to the system of which it is a part ; and stating that even had the re- peal of the duty on salt been re- tained, much as he desired that measure, he could not have voted for the bill. He called for the yeas and nays on its passage, and they were ordered. Mr Tucker, of South CaroHna, entered pretty largely into a state- ment also of his objections to the bill, and to the protecting sys- tem. He was followed by Mr Chil- ton, of Kentucky, who argued earnestly at some length on the same side, and concluded with a motion to lay the bill on the table, which was negatived. Mr Cambreleng briefly stated why he should vote for the bill, notwithstanding his repugnance to some of its provisions, which he deemed improper, but which he relied on the Senate to rectify. The question was then put on the passage of the bill, and de- cided in the affirmative by the following vote : 127 yeas, 41 nays. In the Senate the bill was re- ferred to the Committee on Com- merce, which reported it with verbal amendments, and on the 19th of May it was brought up for consideration, when the amend- ments were agreed to. Mr Cham- bers then moved further to amend the bill by inserting in the sixth line of the third section, after the word ' article,' the words ' of same price in the invoice ; ' it was de- termined in the negative, as fol- lows : yeas 1 8, nays 24. The bill was then further amended and reported to the Senate ; and the amendments being, in part, concurred in, the bill was further amended, and on the question of engrossing the bill for a third reading, it was deter- mined in the affirmative — 28 yeas, 14 nays. TARIFF. 159 The bill was then sent back lo the House, where the amendments were concurred in, and the bill being sanctioned by the President became a law. The divisions so frequently taken during the progress of this bill, showed that a strong party in the House was in favor of re- ducing the duties on salt and mo- lasses, and it was determined to urge these subjects on the con- sideration of Congress. As many had declared their willingness to vote for a reduction of the duties on these articles, but had inti- mated a wish to have the subjects distinctly presented, separate bills were introduced for each article. The salt duty had been frequent- ly agitated during the session, and on the 13di of May, Mr Taliaferro moved a resolution to instruct the Committee on Ways and Means to prepare a bill to reduce the duty to ten cents per bushel, and after September 30, 1831, abolishing the duty al- together. This resolution was discussed during the hour allotted to the consideration of resolutions on the 15thj 17th, and 18lh of May, when it was withdrawn, the mover having been informed that the Committee had prepared a bill on the subject. On the 19lh, accordingly, Mr McDuffie, from the Committee on Ways and Means, reported the following bill : Be it enacted, he, That the duty on salt be fifteen cents per bushel of fiftysix pounds, from the 31st of December next, until the 31st of December, 1831, and after that time, ten cents per bush- el, and no more. The bill having been read, Mr Earle opposed the second read- ing of the bill. The question being put — ' shall the bill be rejected ?' Mr Davis, of South Carolina, moved a call of the House, which was ordered. The call was proceeded in un- til the doors were closed, when further proceedings were dispens- ed with, and the doors were open- ed. Mr Miller briefly gave his reasons for voting in favor of this bill. Mr Davis, of Massachusetts, spoke against the present reading of the bill a second time, and pledged himself, if it were post- poned, to offer a resolution, call- ing for information which was ne- cessary for the correct action of the House. He moved to post- pone the bill till the first Monday in January. Mr P. P. Barbour asked for the previous question — yeas 92. So the call was seconded. Mr Powers moved to lay the bill on the table. On the call of Mr Conner the ayes and noes w^ere ordered on this question. The question was then taken and decided in the negative — yeas 83, nays 102. The ayes and noes were then ordered on the question — ' shall the main question be now put ^ which main question is — 'shall the bill be rejected The question was then taken, and the House determined that the main question shall be now put — yeas 110, nays 73. The question was then taken on the question — ' shall the bill ]60 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. be rejected ?' and decided in the negative — yeas 84, nays 102. On the 20tli the bill was read a second time, when Mr King, of New York, moved that the bill be committed to the Committee of the whole House. Mr McDuffie opposed this course, as merely going to pro- duce delay and a defeat of the bill, which if there was a majority favorable to the object should be acted on immediately to effect its passage this session. Mr Ingersoll moved that the Committee of the whole be in- structed to amend the bill so as to reduce the duty on molasses to five cents per gallon, and to allow a drawback on spirits distilled from foreign molasses. Mr Ingersoll said, if there was one article on which the tariff of 1828 operated unjustly, it was that which he now sought to re- lieve. The injustice of the double duty imposed on molasses, in 1828, would be very generally acknowledged, and by none more frankly than those by whose votes the increase was efiected. No man would now deny that molas- ses was loaded with a heavy duty for the purpose of rendering the tariff odious. It was hoped by the Southern gentlemen who voted it in, that the bill v^ould be thus drugged by too heavy a dose to go down. In that they were dis- appointed, and he was glad to see a disposition, which had been ex- pressed on a lateoccasion,by one of those who were in the vote, to undo what had in that respect failed to answer the object intend- ed. Mr Ingersoll felt more soli- citude on this subject at the pres- ent time, from having recently examined with care the report from the Treasury Department, in regard to the commerce and navigation of the country for the past year. He found in that document that our trade with Cu- ba, the island from whence our greatest importations come, had declined nearly a million of dol- lars during the past year from what it had usually been. The cause of this decline was princi- pally to be attributed, as he learned from a most intelligent resident in that island, to the fact, that under our present heavy duty upon molasses, taken in connexion with the expenses of freights and casks, the islanders could not make sales of the article to us to any extent ; and they now actu- ally spread over their land and use as manure immense quanti- ties of molasses, which they would gladly exchange for the lumber and breadstuffs of our country if we would but let the trade go on. Are gentlemen aware, said Mr Ingersoll, that the trade with Cu- ba is one of the most valuable branches of our foreign com- merce ? It stands on the list next to England and France in amount, and strike out the articles of cot- ton and tobacco, which go to these countries, and it will exceed our trade with both nations. Nay, sir, as a market for our breadstuffs it is more valuable to us than all Europe. It is, too, a trade in which every section of this country is deeply interested — it has no sectional bearing. It takes, in large quantities, the rice TARIFF. 161 of the South, the lumber of North Carolina, the grain and beef of the West, which descend the Mississippi, and find there ahnost their only foreign market — the flour of the Middle States, the corn, meal, lumber and live stock of New England. Besides this, immense quantities of our manu- factured articles find an outlet there. Not those manufactures which are obnoxious to some parts of this country, but those which are produced in the work- shops of our mechanics in every State of the Union — such as hats, leather, carriages, shoes, harnesses, soap, candles and cabinet furniture. A trade like this is one of the last that should he shackled. We impose heavy duties on European goods, be- cause we cannot barter away our breadstufFs or agricultural pro- ducts for them ; but here is a market that offers to take every- thing that you will send — it in- vites to it every interest that can be named. Why, then, cripple it by an ungenerous regulation of your own? and why visit your heaviest tax upon the humblest article which goes into the con- sumption of the poorest people of the country ? Mr Ingersoll said he would say a few words as to the proposed reduction of the duty on salt, as he might not have another op]ior- tunity to give his reasons for the votes he had given, or should give, on that question. The salt trade of this country had not been correctly represented. We have heard much of the salt tax, as bearing severely and peculiar- ly on the poor : and so far as that was the case, he could go as far as any man in extending relief. But there never was a time, even when salt was duty free, that it could be had cheaper than it now can, even on the seaboard ; and never so cheap in the interior, near the extensive salt works which have grown up under the operation of the existing duty. The bulk of our importation of salt, and on which most of the duty operates, is not the coarse West India salt, used to pack pro- visions, and which is consumed principally by the poorer citizens, but the refined, or blown salt, as it is called, which we import from Liverpool, or other ports of Great Britain. The value of foreign salt imported during the last year, as appears by the Treasury re- turns, amounted to 714,618 dol- lars, of which 467,213 dollars was imported, not from Turk's Island or from any West India port, but from England and Ire- land. This kind is imported prin cipally in its refined and manu- factured state, for the tables of the rich, and is as fair a subject for revenue as any one that can be named. He should be op- posed to reducing the duty on this refined article ; ^but would cheerfully reduce the duty on the coarse and strong West India or Turk's Island salt, because that was used by the poor, and goes largely into the agricultural ope- rations of the country. Should the amendment which he now of- fered prevail, he pledged himself to follow it up by another, making a discrimination on salt, that he thought would be acceptable to every part of the House. 162 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Mr Tucker, for the purpose of bringing on a decision upon the bill by itself, moved the previous question ; which motion being se- conded by a majority, and the previous question being sustained by a vote, by yeas and nays, of 98 to 96. The main question was then put, viz : ' shall the bill be en- grossed and read a third time ? ' and was decided in the affirma- tive by the following vote : yeas 103, nays 87. On the 27th of May the sub- ject was again resumed and the question on the passage of the bill being stated, a motion was made by Mr Storrs, of New York, that the said bill be recom- mitted to the Committee of Ways and Means, with instructions so to amend the same as to postpone any reduction of the duty on salt unxii the 30th September, 1831. Mr Storrs alleged as a reason for his motion that he wished to give the State of New York time to alleviate by her legislation the effect of this measure on her in- terest, and to adapt her policy to a change which would inflict so great an evil on her pecuniary in- terest. Mr P. P. Barbour moved the previous question. Mr Stanberry moved to lay the bill on the table ; on which motion Mr Vinton demanded the yeas and nays, and they were or- dered. Mr Potter moved a call of the House. [At this moment a number of the Senators coming into the Hall, it was ascertained that the Senate bad adjourned ; and as the joint rules of the two Houses provide that * no bill that shall have pass- ed one House, shall be sent for concurrence to the other, on ei- ther of the three last days of the session,' it became a question, whether it would be worth while to pass the bill under considera- tion, inasmuch as this was the last day on which a bill could be sent to the Senate for concurrence, and the Senate had now adjourn- ed.] Mr Taylor was of opinion that as the Senate had adjourned, it would be useless to pass the bill, as it could not be sent there for concurrence. Mr McDuffie said it was evi- dent that the Senate had by inad- vertence overlooked the rule, and had adjourned without being aware of the effect; therefore, doubtless something would be done to remove the difficulty, as there were several bills which it was indispensable to pass. He hoped, therefore, the House would go on with this bill and pass h. Mr P. P. Barbour thought the bill could be sent to the Senate, notwithstanding it had adjourned. Suppose the Senate was not to sit two of the four last days of the session ; could that deprive the House of the benefit of all the bills which might be passed by it? Sir, said Mr B., the Clerk of this House can deliver this bill today, if it pass, to the Secretary of the Senate, and the Senate can tomorrow take it up and act on it, although it be not in session today when the bill goes there. Mr Vance now moved that the House adjourn, and the yeas and TARIFF. 1C3 nays being demanded by Mr La- mar, ihey were taken, and the motion was negatived — ayes 54, noes 127. Mr Sterigere moved to lay it on the table, and the motion for a call of the House was ordered to lie on the table. The question was then taken on laying the bill on the table, and negatived — ayes 83, noes 99. The previous question was then seconded by a majority of the House, and the previous question was carried by yeas and nays, 108 to 78. The main question was then put on the passage of the bill and carried in the affirmative — ayes 105, noes 84. So the bill was passed and sent to the Senate for concurrence. In the Senate it was reported by the Committee on Finance without amendment, and on the 29th of May, on motion of Mr Smith of Maryland, the Senate took up for consideration, as in Committee of the Whole, the bill entitled ' An act to reduce the duty on salt' — yeas 25, nays 12. Mr Sanford then moved to postpone the bill indefinitely, which was negatived by the fol- lowing vote : yeas 13, nays 24. Mr Silsbee then moved to amend the bill by striking out all after the enacting clause, and in- serting — that from and after the 20th of June, 18S2, the duty on salt shall be 12 J cents per bushel of 56 pounds, and no more, which was negatived by the following vote : yeas 14, nays 20. The bill was then reported and ordered to be read a third time — yeas 24, nays 15, and became a law. The bill reducing the duly on molasses met with less opposition. The duty itself had been aug- mented in reference to other ob- jects, and those whose votes had contributed to that result were particularly anxious to remedy the evil that had been caused by their indiscretion in a moment of an- ger. On the 21st of May, Mr McDuffie, from the Committee of Ways and Means, reported a bill to reduce the duty on molas- ses to five cents per gallon, and to allow a drawback of four cents per gallon, on spirits, distilled from foreign materials. The bill being read the first and second time, Mr McDuffie moved that the bill be engrossed for a third reading. A call of the House was moved and ordered, but suspended be- fore the Clerk had got through the roll. Mr WicklifFe moved to lay the bill on the table, and asked for the yeas and nays on the motion, which being ordered, the question was taken, and the motion decid- ed in the negative — ayes 56, noes 120 ; and the bill was order- ed to be read a third time by a large majority. On the 27th of May it was read a third time and put on its passage. Mr Barringer moved the pre- vious question, fearing that debate might arise on the bill and endan- ger it by delay. Mr Vance moved to lay the bill on the table, which was negatived ; and the previous question being 164 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. seconded and agreed to, the ques- tion was put on the passage of the bill, and decided in the affir- mative, by yeas and nays, 118 to 60. So the bill was passed and or- dered to be sent to the Senate for concurrence. In the Senate it was referred and being reported without amendment, it was on the 29th of May ordered to be read a third time, and passed by a vote of 30 affirmative, 8 negative. The attempts to reduce the duties on these important articles at last proved successful, in con- sequence of each subject having been presented distinctly and separately to the consideration of the House. A bill introduced by Mr McDuffie, at an early period of the session (Feb. 5), for the same purpose, but including also a reduction of the duties on wool- len and cotton manufactures, iron, flax, hemp, &,c, was refused a se- cond reading and laid upon the table, 107 yeas, 79 nays. The House evinced its determination to keep each subject of considera- tion distinct and separate, and to avoid a renewal of the intermina- ble discussion concerning the ta- riff policy on abstract principles. A bill to reduce the duties on tea and coffee was sustained on differ- ent grounds. These articles did not come in competition with any do- mestic productions, and a reduc- tion of the duties was advocated on account of their being of pri- mary necessity, and lower duties being more confoifmable to the flourishing condition of the pub- lic finances. A bill for that pur- pose was reported to the House on the 5th of Febuary from the Committee of Ways and Means, and after being twice read, it re- mained on the table until the 14th of April, when Mr McDuffie moved in the Committee of the whole to take up this bill ; which motion was agreed to, and the bill was taken up. On motion of Mr McDuffie, the bill was amended by substituting a specific duty of two and a half cents a pound on coffee, instead of the ad valorem duty, and the period for the commencement of the reduction changed from June 30 to December 31, 1831. On motion of Mr McDuffie, the bill was further amended by sub- stituting a specific duty on the va- rious teas (amounting generally to about half the former duty), instead of an ad valorem duty, and the period for its operation made the same as that on coffee. Mr Conner, of North Carolina, then moved to insert a clause to reduce the duty on salt to ten cents a bushel. Mr McDuffie beseeched his friend from North Carolina to with- draw this amendment. The mer- chants had been suffering for years for this bill ; vessels were now coming in and insolvences must be the consequence of fur- ther delay. The amendment would bring up a tariff discussion, and, although as much opposed to that whole system as any one, he deprecated bringing up the question on this bill. He there- fore begged the gentleman to withdraw it. Mr Conner, not apprehending COFFEE that his amendment would embar- rass the bill, and deeming it a proper opportunity for trying the question, he declined withdrawing his motion. Mr Barringer, of North Caro- lina, then moved so to amend the amendment of his colleague as to make the reduction of the duty on salt gradual — first to be fif- teen cents till December 31, 1832, and after that time ten cents. The question being put on the propositions successively, they were both negatived by large majorities. On the suggestion of Mr Gor- ham, and after some explanation from him, the bill was so modifi- ed as to apply to teas imported from ' any place east of the Cape of Good Hope,' instead of ' from China' alone. Mr Cambreleng moved to amend the bill so as to put coffee on the same footing as to the privilege of being deposited in the public stores, as tea. This motion brought on some discussion between the mover and Messrs McDuffie and C. P. White, in the course of which the last named gentleman, in illustra- tion of the subject, read the fol- lowing statement : Coffee imported in 1827, . 50,051,986 lbs. Exported, 21,697,789 lbs. Consumed, 28,354,197 lbs. Coffee imported in 1828, . 55,194,697 lbs. Exported, ...... 16,037,964 lbs. Consumed, 39,1 56,733 lbs. The amendment was ultimately agreed to. Mr Pearee made an unsuccess- 15 DUTY. 165 ful motion to insert a clause, to allow, after a certain period, a drawback of nine cents a gallon on rum ; when the bill was re- ported to the House. On the 20th of April the House again took up the bill to reduce the duty on tea and coffee, with the amendment reported thereto to the Committee of the Whole. The amendment respecting tea ^vas concurred in. The amendment fixing the du- ty on coffee at 2y cents a pound, after the 31st December, 1831, coming up, Mr Semmes, of Ma- ryland, moved to amend the amendment by striking out 2^ cents, and inserting one cent as the duty. This duty, Mr Sem- mes said, was not necessary for the revenue, as under any modi- fication of the tariff, that was like- ly to take place, the revenue would be sufficient to pay off the national debt as fast as it became due, and as the article did not come in competition with any do- mestic product, the duty was not necessary for protection. Fur- ther, the article was no longer one of luxury, but had become one of general and necessary use, and he for these reasons hoped the duty would be reduced to one cent, at the lime proposed, and ultimately abolished altogether. Mr Burges suggested the pro- priety of fixing the duty at two cents. This would be a very heavy reduction, and he thought would be suflicient for the pres- ent. Mr Semmes said he would vary his motion so as to striko out the two and a half cents, and leave the blank to be filled with 166 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. two or one as the House might decide. Mr Ingersoll advocated the policy of gradual, not great and sudden reductions of duties. This was the reason why the Commit- tee of Ways and Means reported in favor of two and a half cents, ■which was a reduction of one half the present duty. This alone would probably take off a million of revenue ; and with the reduc- tion on tea would amount to a diminution of two millions of reve- nue. The best and safest policy, he argued, was a gradual reduc- tion of duties. He feared the amendment, if passed, would em- barrass, perhaps defeat, the bill ; and the agitation of the question so long before its passage, had already ruined many merchants. Mr Semmeshad abstained from going fully into the merits of the question when he offered his amendment, sup|X)sing every one was ready to vote on the subject. As it was opposed, however, he would offer a few reasons, more at large, in favor of his amend- ment. He did so, and avowed that he had himself been in favor of a total abolition of the duty, for the reasons briefly stated above ; but had yielded to the suggestions of some members who were prac- tical merchants, and who thought the total removal of the duty might afford opportunity for frauds, &;c, and he had accordingly agreed to keep on a duty of one cent. He was in favor of repeal- ing the duty on all articles which do not 'come in competition with domestic productions. The question on striking out two and a half was decided in the negative — yeas 70, nays 81. Mr Taylor, of New York, then moved to strike out the half cent, so as to leave the duty two cents. This motion prevailed — ayes 96. Mr Semmes then moved to in- sert an amendment, to reduce the duty to one cent at the expira- tion of a year after the duty of 2 cents should go into operation ; and for the first time, asked the yeas and nays. They were or- dered, and the amendment was agreed to — yeas 108, nays 70. Mr Reed, of Massachusetts, next moved to insert a clause to reduce the duty on Cocoa to one cent per pound. The present duty is two cents ; and Mr Reed said there was last year imported 5,331,000 pounds. The com- mon price is only five cents a pound, so that the duty was a high one in proportion, and the article entered largely into the consumption of the poorer classes. He would not argue the question, but hoped the amendment would prevail. The amendment was agreed to without a division. Mr Conner, of North Carolina, now renewed his motion which he had made in Committee of the Whole, modified agreeably to the proposition also made by his col- league (Mr Barringer), to reduce the duty on imported salt, first to fifteen cents, and at a stipulated period thereafter to ten cents a bushel; and he demanded the yeas and nays on the question. Mr Barringer spoke at consid- erable length, and with earnest- ness, in support of the amend- ment. Mr Gorham was opposed to try- ing this often debated and long contested question of a diminution TONNAGE DUTIES. or abolition of the salt duty on this bill, which was of great im- portance, had been reported unanimously, and received the general assent of the House, and might be defeated if this amend- ment prevailed, or was again de- bated at large. He therefore, for the first time in his life, moved the previous question ; but with- drew it at the request of Mr McDuffie, who avowed his oppo- sition to the salt duty as one of the most odious and oppressive features of the system by which the South was burdened ; but if the amendment were adopted, it would not only embarrass the bill, but possibly defeat it. He hoped, therefore, the motion would be withdrawn, and not force a resort to the previous question, especial- ly as there was a bill to come up (which he named) on which the motion would be consistent and proper. Mr Conner denied that the motion would embarrass or defeat the bill, because if there was a majority for the amendment, the same majority would pass the bill. He therefore, for this and other reasons which he stated, but could not be distinctly heard, in- sisted on the amendment. Mr McDufiie then moved the previous question, which was se- conded by a majority of the House. Mr Barringer demanded the yeas and nays on the previous question, which were taken, and the main question was ordered — yeas 107, nays 75. The main question was accord- ingly put (on the engrossment of the bill),and carried, and the bill ordered to a third reading. The bill was accordingly pass- ed the next day and sent to the Senate for concurrence. In the Senate the bill was pass- ed on the 13th of May, after an inefiectual attempt'to insert a pro- vision, reducing the duty on salt, which was rejected, 20 yeas, 26 nays. The other amendment report- ed by the Committee on Finance not being important, were sanc- tioned by the Senate and concur- red in by the House. A bill abolishing the tonnage duties on vessels of the United States, and of all countries, where the discriminating duties are abolished upon vessels of this country, was brought forward in the Senate, and having passed that body without much opposi- tion received the sanction of the House and of the Executive, and became a law. Other measures, proposed with a view of modifying the revenue system were left for future con- sideration, or laid on the table as visionary and impracticable. Among the former of these was a bill proposed in the Senate to alter the terms of credit on cus- tom house bonds, with an ulti- mate design to establish a system of cash payments of duties. This bill passed the Senate but remained in the House at the end of the Session among the unfin- ished business. Among the latter was a bill proposed in the Senate by Mr Benton, which, like the advertise- ments of quack medicines, had '168 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the catching title ' to provide for the abolition of unnecessary du- ties, to relieve the people of six- teen miUions of taxes and to im- prove the condition of the agri- culture, manufactures, commerce and navigation of ihe United States. Another bill of the same class was reported in the House by Mr Cambreieng from the Com.- mittee of Commerce. This bill proposed to vest the President of the United States with power to arrange the com- merce between the United States and other countries upon the fol- lowing footing viz : Whenever he should be satisfied that the pro- duce and manufactures of the United States could be imported into any country at a rate of duty not exceeding thirty per centum, ad valorem, he was authorized, by proclamation, to admit twelve months after its date the importa- tion of the produce and manufac- tures of that country into the United States at the same rate of duty. On the 30th of April, when this bill was reported, Mr Cam- breieng moved that it be commit- ted to the Committee of the whole and printed. Mr Mallary called for the read- ing of the bill; and it having been read, he said it would be impossible to act on such a mea- sure at this session, if it ought to be acted upon at all ; therefore, he moved to lay the bill on the table. At the request, however, of Mr Cambreieng he withdrew the motion to give an opportunity for explanation. Mr Cambreieng said that the majority of the Committee on Commerce, under whose direc- tions he had reported this bill, were perfectly aware that the sentiments of the majority of the House were in opposition to it at this time. The Committee had directed him to say that it was not their intention to ask for its consideration during the present session — perhaps not at the next. The provisions of the bill arc novel and important, and require matured deliberation. All that the Committee now desire is, that the measures should go forth to the nation — that it may be generally understood, and that the great agricultural interest of the country should determine for themselves whether they will ex- change the produce of their farms for the merchandize of other countries, on terms of just reci- procity. There is no novelty in the principle of the bill — it mere- ly proposes to carry out the rule of reciprocity which this Govern- ment has acted upon ever since the war. We have been for six- teen years proposing to all nations to abolish all restrictions on naviga- tion — we have been proclaiming that we were ready whenever they were, mutually to exchange pro- ductions on reciprocal terms. This I know is not the doctrine of some gentlemen in this House, but it is the voice of two thirds of the American people. They are willing to exchange the vast amount of their own productions for those of all other nations who are willing to receive them on terms of fair reciprocity. Sir, we cannot be insensible to the contest now going on in Eng- RECIPROCAL POLICY. land — a contest between the de- mocracy and aristocracy of that country, similar to that which we now see in this country — where the democracy, who are crying for cheap bread, are oppressed as the democracy cf this country is by the aristocracy. Sir, what have I seen in this House ? How were tJie tariffs of 1824 and 18.28, passed ? Have we not all seen duties voted by majorities of four and five votes ? Were they not carried by the votes of those who were interested directly or indi- rectly in the stock of cotton and woollen companies — of members whose patriotism lies in the pock- et — who imagined that their bankruptcy or prosperity depend- ed on the vote they mi_g'ht give Did not the ultimate fate of the tariff of 1824 depend on the cast- ing votes of the Speaker, given on some of the items of the bill Yes, sir, I say there is in this country an aristocracy of manu- facturing capitalists who would, if they could, grind the democracy of this nation to ashes, as the no- bility of Great Britain would the poor laborer who cries for bread. Sir, the Committee entertain no delusive hope that this bill will effect the policy of Great Britain — at least for some years to come. No — her policy in relation to grain is regulated and controlled as ours has hitherto been here, by those who are deeply interested in perpetuating monopoly. The great land proprietors of the House of Lords — - the hered itary nobility — control the policy of Great Britain by their votes. It is not to be expected that a ma- jority of that description will con- 15* sent, at least for the present, to receive our grain in exchange for British productions. Neither is" it probable that France will, for some time to come, reciprocate commerce with the United States on the equal terms proposed by the bill. But there are other na- tions with whom a beginning may be made. Portugal is one. We had once a valuable trade with that country — it has been entirely sacrificed by the unwise restric- tions of both countries. There are in our commerce with that nation no conflicting interests. I have no doubt that a treaty stipulating commercialreciprocity might be formed with that nation tomorrow, by which we should very soon enjoy a large and valu- able trade with that country in the mutual exchange of our pro- ductions. There are countries, also, in the North of Europe with whom reciprocal arrangements might be made. But I have gone further into this question than I had intended to do. The Committee merely pro- pose the measure for the consid- eration of the House and of the nation — the laboring, the me- chanic and the agriculture inter- ests of the country — they have no expectation of changing the opinions of our masters, whose pecuniary interests are involved. We ask nothing, sir, from the majority of this House, but what we have a right to ask. The mi- nority has its rights as well as the majority. They have a right to expect parliamentary courtesy from the majority — an op})ortu- nity to be heard — to have their measures fully and fairly debated. ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. — an open and an honorable con- test. This new course of arrest- ing measures at their second read- ing — of stopping inquiry and stiffling debate, is not only extra- ordinary, but alarming. When- ever such should become the practice of a majority of the House, he should consider it one of the most alarming symptoms of approaching dissolution. We do not, I repeat it, desire to go into this debate during this session. Let the measure go forth to the nation — let us debate it at the next session, and then let gentlemen do as they please with it. Mr Mallary asked what was the real character of the bill pro- posed ? It is a measure that is intended to give the power to the President to control the great in- terests of this country. No such power should be put into the hands of any one man Hving. * The gentleman tells us that the whole manufacturing interest is in the hands of an aristocracy, who oppress and grind to dust the de- mocracy of the nation. This shows clearly and plainly that he knows nothing about either the aristocracy or democracy of the country. I say that the great agricultural interest north of Ma- son's and Dixon's Hne, and a solid proportion South of it, are in favor of the protecting policy — the Tariff. If the gentleman wants to find friends and advocates to that policy, let him go into ' every hamlet and house in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New England, and he will find a vast majority in its favor. Talk of the aristocracy of the country ! It is the real democracy of the United States, who arc the friends and advocates of the protecting system. Not British agents — Liverpool mer- chants. Talk of aristocracy ! The farmers, the agriculturists, are the men who support the Tariff. They well know that the manufacturer gives a market for their productions, which no for- eign nation allows. If our farmers did not know that their interests, their salvation did not almost de- pend on the manufacturing sys- tem, they would be willing to give it up. Sir, the gentleman openly avows that his object in bringing this bill forward is not for discus- sion or action this session, and per- haps not the next. What then is his intended object ? Sir, I think I know. The object mani- festly is, to have the measure hang over our protecting policy, in ter- rorem, like a portentous cloud. It is for the purpose of scattering doubts, and fears, and apprehen- sions, among our manufacturing interests, and to invite foreign na- tions to press down upon us with all their power, and overwhelm our system of national indepen- dence. Sir, I cannot, consent to see such a measure, brought for- ward under such auspices, held up to terrify and alarm our own coun- try, and give hopes and expecta- tions to another. The gentleman says he does not expect that the bill will make the smallest impres- sion on England. Make no im- pression on England ? I suppose the gentleman considered England a perfect model for our imitation ; that free trade was her motto, and that she really meant, what she had published to the world ! that she was ready to throw her doors RECIPROCAL POLICY. 171 wide open to the commerce of all nations. He tells us that the measure is intended to help the laboring classes of England — The democrats of England 1 He says they are crying for bread, and he wants to feed them. His feelings are all engaged for the democrats of England. Sir, I am for sustaining the democrats of the United States. These English democrats have but little affection for their brother demo- crats this side of the water. They are hostile to our prosperity. They tremble at the sight of a rising manufactory in the United States. They, hke the gentleman from New York, would like to see the domestic industry of this country palsied, prostrated. The gentleman says the bill will have no operation on France. We all well know that. France minds her own business. She has adopted the protecting policy ; and all the arts and efforts of Eng- land cannot divert her from her own independent course. But up the Baltic we can have free trade. Pennsylvania can send corn to Dantzic ! That is flatter- ing ! We can have the trade of Portugal. That the gentleman seems to suppose would be every- thing to us. And for these fan- cied benefits we are to invest the President with the most extraordi- nary powers. The great interests of this country are to be regulated by the caprice or policy of any nation in the world, and the Presi- dent compelled to execute it. I would not trust the power he pro- poses to any man. This is a sub- ject that belongs to Congress ; to the representatives of the people. Here let it be retained. But, said Mr M. the gentleman declares thatthe bill purposes only reciprocity. Let England put her duties at thirty per cent and we will do the same. Thirty per cent on flour of Ohio, Pennsyl- vania. Why, sir, it would cost more to send a barrel of flour, worth Jive dollars, in the New York market, to Liverpool, than it would cost to bring one thou- sand — five thousand dollars worth of foreign manufactures into this country. The difference may be five hundred per cent against us. The farming interest of the United States will not be deluded by such a show of reciprocity. The gentleman tells us about a tremendous explosion,\i\\\e{neni\s of the tariff policy persist. Sir, this means, in plain English, re- bellion. Are we to be driven from our path of duty — from the true interests of the country, by threats of a tremendous explosion ? Is a minority on the floor of this House to tell a majority, you shall submit to our will, or the most dreadful consequences will follow? For one, I will not be driven from my course by such language. When a minority can, on any question, by threats and menace, overawe the majority, this country must be reduced to the most ex- traordinary condition. It is worse than no government at all. How are we to decide on any great question, whether it relates to the established policy of the country, or to any new measure presented for delibera- tion and action? Is a majority to shrink back, give way, surren- der, when a minority demands a right to rule? This is the essence of aristocracy. In plain truth, 172 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. sir, if Representatives cannot come here and exercise their own inde- pendent opinions, without being awed and menaced into submis- sion by those who may happen to differ, the Government is not worth preserving; its republican character is gone. Mr Wayne then rose to make some remarks, when the Speaker interrupted him by stating that the Clerk had informed him that the bill had received its second read- ing, by its title, which fact the Chair had overlooked, and the question being now simply on the commitment, it precluded a dis- cussion of the merits of the bill. Mr Wayne bowed to the de- cision of the Chair ; and after some under conversation between other members. Mr Gorham, for the purpose of opening the bill to discussion, moved its indefinite postponement. Mr Cambreleng regretted that he had not on this occasion the pow- erful aid of the gentleman from Massachusetts — he remembered nine years ago, when the House was electrified by that gentleman for near three hours ; and he must say, that he heard on that day, what he thought then, and still thought the most able, elo- quent, and convincing argument he ever listened to, in favor of the broad principles of free trade. He hoped that the gentleman from Massachusetts would vary his motion so as to postpone the ques- tion till the first Monday in Jan- uary next ; when he was not with- out hope, that the gentleman from Massachusetts might change his opinions, again become an advo- cate of free trade ; at all events give the friends of this measure a fair opportunity to defend its merits. Mr Gorham said, the gentleman from New York must think him very sincere, if, after the extrava- gant but altogether unmerited compliments of the gentleman, he still persisted in his opposition to this bill, as a measure of the most extraordinary character ever pro- posed in this House. Sir, said Mr G. this bill contains provisions which, in their operation, will de- range our whole revenue system, and change all our commercial relations at home and abroad, in- troducing at the same time an endless series of frauds and per- juries. It transfers, too, to the President, almost the whole con- trol over the commerce and rev- enue of the country. If practi- cable, which I doubt, it will in- troduce a principle into commer- cial policy, mischievous in the highest degree. In the first place, it reduces at once all duties to 30 per cent ad valorem, and to the extent of that reduction is a repeal of the Tariff laws ; not indeed, as it may suit the interest and convenience of our own Government, or our own citizens, but when the will or in- terest of any foreign nation may require it. The mere reduction of duties I do not regard as the worst aspects of this part of the bill. It is that foreign nations are to judge for us, and not we for our- selves ; that all specific duties are, with regard to some nations, to be charged in ad valorem duties, and reduced, while, with regard to others, they are to remain spe- cific, and at their old rate ; and RECIPROCAL POLICY- 173 that the duties on articles of the same kind from different countries, are not only of different rates, but differently estimated. And then, too, what numberless frauds will be practised in fixing this 30 per cent ad valorem, by appraise- ments without end, not only in our own ports, but in those of the nations which may come into this strange and novel scheme of re- ciprocity ? Mr Speaker, time does not per- mit me now to say anything upon the extraordinary principle of transferring to the Executive De- partment, as this bill would sub- stantially do, almost the whole control over our foreign and do- mestic commercial relations. Nor can I now enumerate one half the mischiefs of a different char- acter, which would result from the adoption of this most pernicious project. A single instance will serve to illustrate its effects in a hundred other cases ; and I will ask the attention of the House to only one branch of commerce — the sugar trade. The sugar of Lou- isiana is now protected by a duty of three cents per pound upon the imported article, which is more than a duty of 50 per cent ad va- lorem. The prosperity of that State depends in a great measure upon sugar planting. Now, we bring sugar from Cuba and oth- ers of the West India islands, from South America, particularly from Brazil, and from the East Indies, places wholly independent of each other. Should this bill pass into a law, some one of these countries, Brazil probably, (and I believe Brazil alone,) would ac- cept our offer of reciprocating du- ties ; and what would be the con- sequence ? the sugar of Brazil, which costs but four or five cents per pound, would come here charged only with a duty of 30 per cent ad valorem, equal to a duty varying from a cent to a cent and a half less than half the present duty. There can be no doubt, then, that in a very short time the im- porter of that article would drive the Louisiana planter from his own market. The ruinous effects to that State are obvious ; her prosperity is destroyed at a blow. Nor is this all : Brazil will proba- bly a,2;ree to this scheme ; but Cuba and Port Rico, being dependen- cies of Spain, could not. The places in the East Indies from which we bring sugar, from the peculiarity of their political con- dition, could not or would not, adopt it. And thus, the high duty of three cents on sugar, from those places, is virtually a prohibition of trading with them ; and our trade at present with Cuba, as every one knows, and particularly in sugar, is one of the most flourishing and important branches of our com- merce. Frauds, too, of a differ- ent character from those I have mentioned would be resorted to ; England and France would not, indeed, cannot reciprocate this rule. But they would be very desirous that we should adopt it with other nations ; because, they could, through those nations, derive every advantage from it, without yielding us any equivalent in return. Tliere is little doubt, that Hamburg, Bremen, and all the Hanseatic towns, Sweden and Denmark, and perhaps Holland — some if not all these, would 174 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. ^ agree with us. The course of things would then be, that British and French goods would be shipped to those places, and eith- er there, or at home, so mark- ed and packed, that they might be imported into the United States as Dutch, Swedish, or Dan- ish goods, at the reduced duty. And thus, France and England, holding firmly to their restrictive system towards us, would enjoy through other nations, all the ad- vantages of a total relaxation of our system towards them. The measure, if adopted, is a radical change in our revenue sys- tem, and all our commercial rela- tions, and cannot but be followed by the most pernicious conse- quences. The bill is strangely en- litled, a * bill to amend the naviga- tion laws of the United States,' yet makes no reference to any one of those laws, and contains not one word about either ships, ves- sels, or navigation. It should be entitled ' a bill to encourage frauds and perjuries, disturb the revenue, and embarrass and restrict the commerce of the United States.' JVIr G. concluded by saying, that he had been surprised into this debate ; and he threw out those few remarks, the suggestions of the moment, to show the impolicy and ruinous tendency of the measure. Mr Wayne said he had two things to complain of, one of them in common with the gentleman from Massachusetts — first, he had been surprised into the de- bate, and then he had been sur- prised out of it. {Here the hour expired, and the debate was arrested for the day.] The debate thus commenced was continued daily during the hour allotted to the consideration of resolutions and reports, until the 4di of May, when Mr Cam- breleng moved to postpone the further consideration of the bill till the first Monday in January next. This motion precludes debate on the merits of the bill. Mr Bates, who had desired to enter into the discussion, request- ed that the motion would be with- drawn, but the request was not complied with. Mr Reed gave some reasons why the further consideration should not be post- poned. Mr Storrs, of New York, said, that with a view to place the bill where it should not be heard of again, he moved to lay it on the table. On the call of Mr Cambreleng, the yeas and nays were ordered on the question. The question was then put and decided in the affirmative, yeas 130, nays 38. So the bill was laid on the table. In addition to the discussions growing out of these proposed bills, extraordinary efforts were made to render the tariff policy unpopular by highly colored statements of its injurious effects upon the prosperity of the coun- The navigation oi the United States was asserted to be in a de- pressed and declining condition ; while that of Great Britain was declared to be highly flourishing, and to be supplanting our vessels in various branches of trade for- PROSPERITY OF COUNTRY. 175 merely monopolized by them — results which were attributed sole- ly to the ruinous effects of the tariff. These fables were gravely published to the world in a report of the Committee of Commerce to the House, and being circulated with unremitting industry, gave a momentary alam to the public mind, and great cause of exulta- tion to the Edinburgh and Quar- terly Reviews. Unfortunately, however, for the predictions and inferences of these theorists, com- merce was prosecuted with re- doubled activity. The returns of the tonnage engaged in foreign trade showed an increase in 1828 of 65,449 tons : while the in- crease of the tonnage employed in the coasting trade m 1828 was 55,335 tons. Thisincrease, which was not, however, to be attributed to the tariff, entirely disproved the predictions of the alarmists ; and the fresh impulse given to trade, which had been gradually accom- modating itself to the changes in commerce occasioned by the general peace in Europe, dissi- pated the apprehension of the mercantile class and reconciled them to the modification of the revenue system. While commerce evinced such striking evidence of its advancing prosperity, the agricultural and manufacturing interests gave equally strong proofs of their be- ing favored in even a higher de- gree. In the distant West the wilderness was rapidly retiring and giving place to the farms of the frontier settlers ; while in the older sections of the country, greater attention was paid to cul- tivating the soil ; new processes of agricultural and more conve- nient farming implements were introduced ; the breeds of domes- tic animals were improved, and every indication afforded of the substantial and healthful prosperi- ty of a class so indispensable to the existence of the community. Still greater activity was evinced by the manufacturing interest. The water fpower, both on the small and greater rivers began to be in demand ; and while large towns, like Lowell on the Merri- mac, were suddenly created by the wealth of capitalists diverted into the manufacturing business, single factories of a size propor- tioned to the powerrof the fall on the smaller streams, gave em- ployment to the neighborhood, and furnished a domestic market to the farmers in different portions of the country. The increasing wealth of the community was also exhibited in public improvements of a perma- nent character, to facilitate inter- nal communication and the trans- portation of produce to^lmarket. Canals and rail roads were com- menced to connect the most prominent points and places, and more was effected in this species of internial improvement in the United States within the last five years, than all that had been pre- viously done since their existence as an independent nation. CHAPTER VJ. Treasury Report for 1829. — Appropriations for 1830. — Sup- port of Government. — Discussion on Bill. — Naval Service. — Marine Corps. — Fortifications. — Engineer Department. — Military Service, — Indian Department. — Massachusetts Claim. The annual report of the new Secretary of the Treasury (Mr Ingham), on the state of the public finances was transmitted to Congress on the loth of Decem- ber, 1829. This report showed a balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of January, 1829, of $5,972,435. The actual receipts into the 'treasury during the first three quarters of the year 1829 were estimated at $19,437,231, viz: Customs, 17,770,745 Lands, 972,059 Bank Dividends, .... 490,000 Miscellaneous, .... 204,427 Estimated receipts during the fourth quarter, . . 5,165,000 Total receipts, .... $24,602,231 The expenditures during the three first quarters of the year 1829, were estimated at $18,- 919,114, viz: Civil, Diplomatic and Miscel- laneous, 2,482,416 Military service, including; pensions, fortifications, In- dian affairs and internal im- • provement, &c, . . • • 5,155,256 Naval service, buildings, &c, 2,565,979 Public debt, 8,715,463 Estimated expenditures dur- ing the fourth quarter, . . 7,245,481 Total expenditure for 1829, $26,164,595 Leaving an estimated balance in the Treasury on the 1st of Janu- ary, 1830, of $4,410,072. It thus appeared that during the first year of an administration, which was elected upon professed principles of retrenchment and reform, the expenditures exceed- ed the receipts $1,562,364, while Kthey exceed the ependitures of 1828 by the sum of $675,281, and the expenditures of the pre- ceding year by the sum of $3,507,83]. The receipts for the year 1830 were estimated at $23,840,000 viz : Customs, $22,000,000 Lands, 1,200,000 Bank dividends, .... 490,000 Incidental receipts, . . . 150,000 The expenditures at $23,755,- 527,viz : Civil, diplomatic and miscel- laneous, > 2.473,226 Military service, &c. . . 5,525,190 Naval service, 4,257,111 Public debt, 11,500,000 Leaving an estimated excess of the receipts over the expenditures of $84,473. The gross amount of duties ac- cruing during the first three quar- ters of 1829 was estimated at APPROPRIATIONS 1 77 $21,821,500, and the debentures for drawbacks during the same period amounted to $3,059,060. The amount of debentures out- standing on the 30ih of Septem- ber, 1829, chargeable on the revenue of 1830, was $1,111,- 136. The total amount of the public debt on the 1st of January, 1829, was $58,406,418. Consisting of six per cents, $16,279,822 Five per cents, including $7,000,000 subscribed to Stock of United States Bank, 12,792,000 Four and a half per cents, 15,994,064 Tliree per cents, . . , 13,296,250 Unfunded debt, .... 44,282 The payments made on ac- count of the public debt durini^ 1829 were, on account of interest, $2,563,994 ; towards the reduc- tion of the principal, $9,841,012, leaving the total debt on the first of January, 1830, at $48,565,- 406. The Secretary, besides fur- nishing the above statements con- cerning the public finances, went into an examination of the antici- pated demands u[)on the Treasu- ry, and came to the conclusion, that the duties on various articles might be reduced without any detriment to the public service. Certain regulations were also re- commended to prevent frauds on the revenue, and the erection of public warehouses for the purpose of storing goods entered for draw- back or on which the duties should not be paid. A change, too, in the credit on bonds for duties was proposed, so as to per- mit the purchasers to bond the goods instead of the importer, and to make the term of six, nine and 16 twelve months the average terms of the credits on all importations. Nothing was definitely said as to the propriety of the tariff policy, from v.hich the sentiments of the administration could be gathered. The Secretary's report and the necessary estimates having been furnished to the House, it devolv- ed upon Congress to make the necessary appropriations for the public service. As- the party which had been so clamorous for economy and retrenchment was now in power, but little opposition was to be ex- pected to those appropriations, which were deemed necessary for the ordinary service of the Gov- ernment ; although those items during several years past had fur- nished the most fruitful, topics of deba!te. It t\'as to be presumed that a reforming party would con- fine the public expenditure within the proper limits ; and so long as no extraordinary drafts were made on the treasury, there was no necessity for the interference ol those who were not ranked among the supporters of the administra- tion. The bills providing for. the re- spective branches of the public service having been reported, on the ITth of January, 1830, that making provision for the revolu- tionary and other pensioners was taken up, and having passed both Houses without opposition,, be-v came a law. By this act $1,^ 157,961 were appropriated for pensions for 1830, and $101,700 for the arrearages of 1829. The bill making appropriations for the support of the Government for 1830 was taken up in the 178 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. House on the 9th of February. When the bill was before the Committee of the Whole, Mr McDuffie moved to fill up the blank of the section of the bill containing the appropriation for the contingent expenses of both Houses of Congress with the sum of 135,000 dollars. Mr Wickliffe moved to amend the bill by adding thereto the fol- lowing paragraphs : To defray the expenses of printing for the two Houses of Congress, performed by the public Printer of each House, agreeably to his contracts. Stationary, book binding, fuel, newspapers, post office, carpen- ters' work, furniture, repairs to the Senate Chamber and Hall of Congress and Rooms. Messengers and horses, blank books and ruling paper and books. Expenses of the Police of the Capitol. Expenses of witnesses, includ- ing officers' fees, for summoning, &c. Expenses of engraving maps and surveys, ordered by either House. Mourning and funeral expenses. Hack hire, when employed in the public service. Extra clerk hire. Mr Wickliffe said his object in proposing this amendment was, to confine the contingent fund to the legitimate expenses of both Houses of Congress, and for that purpose he procured from the Clerk of the House an enumera- tion of the different items of ex- penditure for the last session of Congress, which are all embraced in the amendment. Mr Coulter opposed the amend- ment. He said it would be inef- fectual to accomplish the object it professed to have in view, inas- much as from the very nature of contingent expenses, it would be impossible to enumerate all the articles which the circumstances of Congress may render necessary hereafter. He also said, that it implied a reproach on the char- acter and integrity of the two Houses of Congress, since it de- prived them of the discretionary power vested in the other depart- ments of the Government to man- age their own funds as their exi- gencies may require. Mr Polk supported the amend- ment. Mr McDuffie said he would have no objection to the amend- ment of Mr Wickliffe if he was certain it embraced all the arti- cles of the contingent expenses of both Houses of Congress. He suggested to Mr Wickliffe to amend his proposition by reserv- ing the sum of five thousand dol- lars to meet expenses which may possibly be omitted in the enu- meration he has made. He in- quired from what source the spe- cifications in his amendment were procured. Mr Everett and Mr Ingersoll severally opposed the amendment and expressed their regret that the appropriation bills should be thus encumbered. Mr Ingersoll said that it would be a better mode to introduce a specific bill embracing the objects of Mr Wickliffe's amendment, especially as it would be impossible to antici- pate the contingent expenditures of both Houses of Congress. He asked in what department of Government this discretionary APPROPRIATIONS. 179 power which the amendment pro- posed to take away, could be de- posited, if not with the represen- tatives of the people ? Mr Barringer opposed the amendment, and condemned the practice of thus attempting to remedy special evils by general legislation. Mr Ellsworth and Mr Hunting- ton were also opposed to the amendment. Mr Daniel supported it at con- siderable length. Mr Wilde opposed the amend- ment, and said that the object of it would be much better accom- plished by. the introduction of a distinct bill to limit the expendi- tures as proposed. Mr Polk suggested to Mr Wickliffe a modification of his amendment so as to meet the views of Mr Barringer who expressed his disapprobation of general acts of legislation for par- ticular cases. He said he would make such a motion if Mr Wick- liffe would not accept it as a modification of his amendment. Mr Wickliffe replied that it was not in his power to comply with the request of Mr Polk, as the amendment he offered was not at his own instance, but pro- ceeded from the Committee on Retrenchment. Mr Polk then moved to amend the amendment by adding to it the following words : ' To the payment of the ordi- nary expenses of the contingent fund of the Senate and House of Representatives : Provided, That no part of this appropriation shall be applied to pay for any printing not connected with the proceed- ings of either House of Con- gress, and executed by the pub- lic printer, unless the same be authorized by a joint resolution, or a law providing for the same.' The amendment was agreed to — yeas 55. After a few observations] from Mr Taylor the amendment as amended, was also agreed to — yeas 65, nays 61. Mr Semmes moved to amend the bill by adding the following proviso : ' Provided, That nothing h.^re- in contained shall be construed to prevent any expenditure already authorized by either House of Congress.' The question on this amend- ment was negatived — yeas 49, nays 53. Mr Everett proposed to amend that part of the bill relative to the library, by adding to it the follow- ing words : * For the library of Congress, 5,000 dollars.' This amendment was agreed to — yeas 56, nays 49. After some further amend- ments in Committee on the 10th of February, the bill was reported to the House on the 11th, when the question being on agreeing to the amendments of Messrs Wick- liffe and Polk, in relation to the printing, a division was demanded and the vote was 91 yeas, 68 nays. The question recurring on the bill, Mr Wickliffe asked why th appropriation for the diplomatic service was greater than that for the last year ? Mr McDufiie replied that, un- til the last year there had beea 180 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. an accumulation of unexpended balances, which being expended, a larger sum was required for this year. Some further conversation oc- curred, in which Mr Ingersolltook a part, when Mr Verplanck rose and disclaiming any intention to make party allusions, stated thai Mr Adams provided liberally for the foreign intercourse during the first year of his own term, hav- ing when 'Secretary of State, drawn the bills, or suggested the. appropriations ; there being, when hecamein, a large unappropriated balance. Notwithstanding this, and the fact that his own political friends filled the diplomatic. de-. partment, he asked for two hun- dred and thirteen thousand dollars for this fund during his first year. The year after, corresponding to the present year of the present administration, he asked, for one hundred and eightynine thousand five hundred dollars ; then came a call for forty thousand dollars for the Panama Mission. Making a total of four hundred and forty- two thousand five hundred dol- lars, deemed proper and conve- nient to be used, and passed by the House, during the two first years of that administration. At the close of that administration there was on hand a surplus fund to a considerable amount. The Sec- retary of State, with a laudable desire to do up his business,'asked for no addition to the surplus fund. Under these circumstan- ces only one hundred and thirty- seven thousand dollars was given for contingencies. Certain reasons induced the present Executive to make some recalls ; and under these circum- stances it was hardly wonderful that some additional appropriation was necessary. The administra- tion now asked two hundred and ten thousand dollars. The amount (be presumed) which would be called for during the two first years of this administration for foreign intercourse would be three hundred and fortyseven thousand dollars. Makins; a difl^erence of nearly one hundred thousand dol- lars in favor of the present ad- ministration. The administration meant to go back to the good old act of 1810 — an act drawn with more than usual precision — which left nothing to come from the contingent fund. There would be no more constructive embassies ' — no more forty thou- sand dollars appropriated for hunting up Congresses which were not to be found ; unless, indeed, they were in the moon, or in that other place described by the poet as the ' receptacle of things lost upon earth.' Under these circumstances, he presumed the Government would get along the two years for one hundred thousand dollars less than the last administration. Mr Ingersoll replied that, since Mr Verplanck got up to put me right, he has put himself doubly wrong. I understood him to say that, during the two first years of Mr Adams' term two hundred and thirteen thousand dollars were appropriated for the foreign inter- course. If he will take the trouble to look into the statute books he will see that the sum was but one hundred and forty- seven thousand five hundred dol- APPROPRIATIONS. 181 lars. He was also incorrect in stating the sum called for during the last year of Mr Monroe's ad- ministration. He says it was two hundred thousand dollars. The book shows that it was but one hundred and seventysix thousand ; and that amount was not expend- ed, but was faithfully accounted for by the honorable gentleman then at the head of the State Department. The gentleman from New York threw out another insinuation, when alluding to the extravagance of the administration when the late President was Secretary of State. Is he aware where that leads him ? The appropriations then were liberal. The last year that Mr Adams was Secretary of State, the year 1824, the appro- priation was one hundred and for- tynine thousand dollars — liberal, but not more liberal than the pres- ent year. In the year 1823 there was but seventyfour thousand dol- lars called for — not one half as much as is asked for this year. In the year 1822, but eightythree thousand dollars was asked for this fund. The increase was gradual — the public history ex- plained the cause of the increase ; if the gentleman from New York would examine, he would find that the expenses were not more than was reasonable, and not be- yond those of the present time. The salaries are all fixed by law, and the sum to be called for is accordingly ascertained. In my previous remarks I made no inti- mation that there was anything more than necessity called for at present. I would suggest to the gentleman, however, if. in refer- 16* ring to abuses which have hereto- fore existed, it is worth our while to run into those which we have condemned Are we, in the first year of reform, to do the very thing we have once censur- ed ? It appears that outfits have been taken this year from the contingent fund. 1 do not com- plain because they do this, but because they do now what, dur- ing the last administration, they condemned. Mr Buchanan said, he did not expect the House would get into a party debate upon an appro- priation bill. He did not think either of the gentlemen who had spoken had taken a correct view of the subject. It must be ad- mitted, in the regulation of foreign intercourse, that a small saving may be an immense loss. It is the duty of the Executive to have the foreign intercourse so conduct- ed that the interests of the country shall suffer no loss. It could not be possible that the wisdom or folly of any administration was ta be tested by the expenditure un- der one or another head of appro- priations. Statesmen looked at the objects, and considered what the country required. I was one that condemned the last ad- ministration, not on account of the money expended, but because, in my judgment, they expended it in violation of the law of 1810. That system had grown up under one President, followed by the others, until outfits were charged for appointments made abroad. There had been appointments made of Ministers about to return, converting their Secretaries into Charges^ and allowing them four 182 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. thousand five hundred dollars for outfits ; and in one case this had been done only to return. But this was a question for the people to settle. The Executive was competent to make recalls, and who would condemn him for using his discretion. It must be an extreme case, indeed, for the House to withhold appropriations onabling the Executive to use a discretion which he was at liberty to use. The people would decide whether his movements were ju - dicious. Mr Everett said that he agreed, with the gentleman from Pennsyl- vania, who had just taken his seat, as to the cause of the increase in the appropriation. That gentle- man had stated it to be the recall of several of the foreign ministers and the outfits of their successors ; and it was evident, from the com- parison of the bill of this year with the appropriation law of the last, that such was the fact. He also agreed with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, that the recall and appointment of Ministers was a matter of Execudve discretion ; and that it was only in an extreme case that the House would be jus- tified in interposing to withhold an appropriation for the outfit of a Minister thus appointed. Mr Ev- erett begged to recall to the recol- lection of the House the manner in which this debate arose. The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr Wickliffe), had put the question To llie Chairman of the Commit- tee of Ways and Means, why the •appropriation for the diplomatic service of this year amounted to one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, while the last year it was but one hundred and thirtyseven thousand ? To his inquiry the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means had replied that, there had been, previous to the last year, an accumulation of un- expended balances of former ap- propriations, which had rendered it necessary to appropriate less for that year ; but that these surplus- es being all expended, a larger sum was required for this year. With great deference to the source from which this statement pro- ceeded, Mr Everett could not agree to its correctness. He did not find, in looking at the esti- mates from the Department of State for 1829, that there was any such surplus under this head of appropriation. Mr McDuffie said it was far from his intention to say anything which any human being could construe into a party allusion. He did, in reply to the question of the gentleman from Kentucky, state the reason that the balance of the fund was all expended. Mr Everett said that, the gen- tleman's explanation was in ac- cordance with his own view of the case, and he was about, him- self, immediately to state that, the surplus alluded to was in a differ- ent fund, for which no appropria- tion at all was made in 1829 ; and that consequently the increase of forty thousand dollars in the diplomatic service of the present year over the last, was not owing to any such surplus being added to the appropriation of 1829. It was an increase of expenditure, owing, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania stated, to die re- call of the foreign Ministers and APPROPRIATIONS. 183 the appointment of their succes- sors. Supposing this matter to be now understood all round the House, he should say no more about it. He must however, dwell a moment on another point con- nected with this appropriation, in which, after what had been said, he need not disclaim being a vol- unteer. These outfits, to the amount of over forty thousand dollars, have been paid, whhout any specific appropriation. On the contrary, a gentleman from Georgia (Mr Wilde), the last winter, proposed, in Committee of the Whole, to make an appro- priation for the outfits of Minis- ters who might be appointed ; and the Committee declined mak- ing such an appropriation. They passed the bill as they found it, with specific appropriations for certain designated salaries and outfits, with an estimated addition for contingencies of twenty thou- sand dollars. This looked rather — when considered in connexion with the refusal of the Committee just alluded to — like excluding all outfits not provided for in the bill. And yet, notwithstanding this, forty thousand dollars, in out- fits, for which no appropriation had been made, have been paid during the past summer. Mr Everett did not mention this as criminating the present administration, but as vindicating the past. It had been asserted and reiterated here and else- where, that the late administra- tion had improperly paid outfits out of the contingent fund ; and transferred to one object what was specifically appropriated to another. Now here we have forty thousand dollars expended in out- fits, without any specific appro- priation ; although two outfits, he believed, were specified ir\ the act of last year. From what fund the money was taken he could hardly tell. That part of the estimates was not very clear. There is no such thing as a ' di- plomatic fund' known to the ap- propriation law. The sum now asked for appears to be asked as a repayment of so much taken frona other items. Of this he was not disposed to complain; but he hoped gentlemen would now feel how unjustly the late administra- tion had been criminated for a course so soon adopted by the pres- ent, and which must of necessity be adopted by any, administration. Mr McDuffie replied that, vi^hatever other people had said, he had made no such charge against the late administration, nor had he said such appropriations were wrong. Whoever made such objection could not under- stand the subject. Mr Everett replied that, he did not maintain that the gentleman from South Carolina, individually, had held this doctrine. But it had been distinctly laid down, in the reports of two Committees of the House, at the last Congress, the Committee 6n the Expendi- tures of the Department of State and the Retrenchment Commit- tee. The latter Committee had recommended the abolition of the fund for the contingent expenses of the Forfeign Missions on the ground that it enabled the Ex- 184 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. eculive, at his 'discretion, to aug- ment tl)e allowance to Foreign Ministers. Mr Cambreleng thought the gentleman from Massachusetts must have confounded the Secret Service Fund with the Fund for Foreign Intercourse. That was the only fund which the Commit- tee on Retrenchment proposed to abolish. Mr Everett said, I am not mistaken. The Committee of Retrenchment proposed to abolish the fund appropriated for ' the contingent expenses of all the missions abroad,' as the gentleman from New York would find by turning to their report. Mr Norton said, during his legis- lative life he had always voted for the largest sum reported by the Committee. He was not one who expected to build himself up by talking of retrenchment. He did not feel as if he was called upon to inquire whether the sum received was large or small ; he trusted to the able gentleman who was at the head of the Commit- tee of Ways and Means, and he should vote for it as it stood. The bill was then passed and sent to the Senate for concurrence. In the Senate the bill was taken up on the 4th of March and an amendment reported by the Com- mittee of Finance to strike out the amendments proposed in the House by Messrs WicklifFe and Polk, in relation to the printing of Congress, became the topic of discussion. The debate was inter- rupted by other business and post- poned to the next day, when the bill was again taken up. A division was called for by Mr Barnard, and the question was taken on the first member of the sentence, viz : to strike out the words. Provided, That no part of the appropriation shall be applied to any printing other than of such documents or papers as are connected with the ordinary proceedings of either of the said Houses, during the session, and determined in negative — yeas 22, nays 23. On the question to strike out the residue of the sentence, viz : and executed by the public prin- ters agreeably to their contracts, unless authorized by an act or a joint resolution ; it was determin- ed in the negative — yeas 22, nays 23. A motion was made to strike out the outfits of the new minis- ters appointed since the 4th of March, 1829, and negatived — yeas 3, nays 39. Certain unimportant amend- ments were then made in the bill, which was passed and sent to the House, where the amend- ments were concurred in and the bill became a law. By this act the following ap- propriations were made, viz * For the expenses of the Ex- ecutive Department, includ- ins; salaries of Vice Presi- dent, all the Departments at Washington and of the terri- torial governments, . $640,184 Of Diplomatic intercourse, . 248,500 Of Congress, 670,050 Of the Judicial Department, . 243,023 For light-houses, beacons, &c. 231,103 For pensions, 1,750 For miscellaneous expenses, . 67,700 For taking the census of 1830, in addition to $350,000 for- merly appropriated, . . . 250,000 APPROPRIATIONS. 185 The bill making appropriations for the naval service for 1830 was taken up on the 23d of February, and having passed the House was sent to the Senate, where it also jjassed without amendment and became a law. This act appropriated for pay, subsistence and provision, $1,978,666 Repairs of vessels, .... 590,000 Medicines and hospital stores, 30,500 Ordnance and ordnance stores, 30,000 Repairs and improvement of navy yards, 180,500 Gradual increase of navy, . 152,380 Enumerated contingencies for 1830, 250,000 Non enumerated contingen- cies, 5,000 Expenses of marine corps for - ■ 1830, ........ 188,465 Arrearages of marine corps for 1829, 11,973 Besides the appropriation for arrearages in 1829, for the ma- rine corps, a law was also passed for the arrearages in the naval service for that year, appropria- ting For pay and subsistence, . $136,923 For repairs of vessels, . . . 82,841 For contingent expenses, . . 30,392 For medicines, &c, .... 2,598 For marine corps, .... 16,757 An act was also passed for re- pairing and fitting out the Frigate iirandywine, appropriating $92,- 369 for that purpose. An additional sum was also appropriated for the Marine Corps the last day of the session, in con- sequence of a determination of the new fourth Auditor (Amos Kendall) to introduce a reform in his Department. In his zeal to do this he refused to make cer- tain extra allowances to the offi- ■cers of the Marine Corps, wliich had been habitually made, on the ground that they were not author- ized by any law. When this reform was brought to the knowledge of Congress, a joint resolution was passed di- recting those unauthorized allow- ances to be made as former- ly ; and on the last day of the session, upon discovering that these allowances had not been in- cluded in the estimates presented to Congress by the Department, a law was brought in and hurried through both Houses, appropri- ating in general terms a sum suf- ficient to pay those extra allow- ances. The sole effect of this reform was to cause great distress to the officers of that corps, who were curtailed of their pay for nearly a year, and finally loose and hasty legislation to remedr the evil. The sum formerly appropriated for the suppression of the slave trade was reappropriated at the last day of the session as an ex- penditure falling under the super- vision of the Navy Department. No change had been recom- mended in the policy adopted by the Government, to gradually place the coast in a state of de- fence by fortifying the principal points and seaports, and the bill appropriating the necessary sums for that purpose encountered no serious opposition. By that bill the following sums were appropriated for the com- pletion of fortifications, viz : For Fort Adams, .... $100,000 " " Hamilton, .... 86,000 " " Monroe, .... 100,000 " " Calhoun, .... 100,000 " « Macon 60,000 186 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829— 30. Fort at Oak Island, .... $60,000 Fortifications in Charleston, . 25,000 at Mobile point, 90,000 Jackson, , . 85,000 " Pensacola, . 130,000 Contingencies and purchase of a site for a fort, 15,000 The bill making appropriations for the Engineer, Ordnance and Quarter-master's Department was taken up in the House, March 30th and continued under exami- nation the next day and also April first and fifth. An appropriation of $150,000 for arming the new fortifications was stricken out by the House — yeas 130, nays 43. A motion made by Mr Crocket to strike out an appropriation of 2,500 dollars for erecting a military laboratory at West Point was negatived : as was also a motion to strike out an appropria- tion for a military road in Arkan- sas, and one for the purchase of five and a half acres of land in Springfield for the use of the na- tional armory. The bill was amended in the Senate and the House concurred in two of the amendments. From the other amendment it dissented and the Senate receding from it, the bill passed and became a law. By this act appropriations were made For barracks, .f 69,064 *' store-houses, .... 3,500 armories and arsenals, . . 47,700 roads, 49,452 *' miscellaneous, 44,421 The military appropriation bill for 1830 was taken up on the 22d of February, and was sanc- tioned by both Houses without opposition. It made the follow- ing appropriations : For pay of the army and sub- sistence of officers, . . $1,063,909 Forage and subsistence, . . 341,719 Clothing, 156,774 Medical and Hospital Depart- ment, . 28,000 Quarter-master's Department 407,000 Military Academy, .... 24,163 Contingencies, 10,000 National armories, .... 360,000 Armament of fortifications, . 100,000 Current expenses of ordnance service, 56,000 Arsenals, 90,000 Recruiting service, . . . 8,377 For arrearages prior to 1817, 6,000 " of 1828, . . 270 The appropriations for the In- dian service, an expenditure un- der the supervision of the War Department, for 1830 were. For the expenses of the Indian Department, . . . • . $87,975 For presents to the Indians . . 15,000 Expenses of distributing Indian annuities and of holding con- ferences with them, . . . 21,849 Of blacksmith shops, .... 23,766 To carry into effect subsisting treaties, 143,799 Expenses in holding Indian trea- ties, 14,022 When the bill appropriating these last items came under con- sideration, Mr Vance moved an amendment to the clause giving pay to Colonel M'Neill, so as to preclude him from receiving pay both as an officer of the army and as a commissioner to hold a trea- ty with the Indians. Mr Miller asked if the officer alluded to had received his pay as an officer and was about to re- ceive the pay as a commissioner. Mr Vance said he did not know the fact, but he knew what had been the practice. The officer now at the head of this govern- ment received his full pay as an officer, and also as a commission- er for holding treaties. SUPPORT OF GOVERNMENT. 187 Mr Cambreleng asked if there were not some incidental ex- penses. Mr Vance said, that could not effect the item under considera- tion. Mr Wickliffe said he should vote for the amendment. Mr McDuffie suggested that General M'Neill should have his option, either to take his pay as an officer or his pay as a com- missioner. Mr Vance then modified his amendment so as to make its phraseology correspond with the wishes of Mr McDuffie. The amendment was agreed to. The bill was then reported to the House, when Mr Miller objected to the amendment as to the pay of Gen- eral M'Neill. Mr Buchanan also took excep- tion to this amendment, on the ground that however just the principle that the Government had an undoubted right to the whole services of their officers, it was not correct to apply the principle in a case where the officer must have accepted the duty under the implied understanding that the old practice was to be con- tinued. He suggested that the Committee on Retrenchment should report a bill to prevent these double allowances. Mr Wickliffe stated that the Committee had reported such a bill. Mr Burges spoke in favor of the amendment, and asked gen- tlemen from what law or practice officers received extra pay for civil services. If there was none such, then there could be no im- plied understanding that in the present case such would be the result. He stated the practice to have been that an officer who was employed in the civil service, should not receive pay as an offi- cer at the time that he was re- ceiving pay for those civil services. There was a rule in existence under the old Congress which prevents such double pay ; and no gentleman had produced any law showing a contrary practice. We are, however, promised a milennium of retrenchment ; and so we had been promised frorn year to year. He hoped such would be the case, and that abuse after abuse should not be permit- ted until we became bankrupt by precedent. He would have given this officer his double pay if such was the contract made with him, but not under the idea that there existed any implied understand- ing in consequence of any exist- ing law tolerating such construc- tion. Mr Polk made some observa- tions in reply, in which he ex- pressed himself content with the amendment. Mr Vance disclaimed any idea of introducing party feelings, as was intimated by the last gentle- man. He thought that although he did not belong to the Commit- tee on Retrenchment, he had supposed he might offer some- thing like a bit of retrenchment. He stated that he had always been an enemy to those double allowances ; and had determined to take the first opportunity of re- sisting them. In this case the officer was perhaps less entitled to this double pay than any, be- 188 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. cause he commanded a post in the immediate neighborhood of these Indians, and as the comman- der of the post he had double ra- tions and extra allowances. He did not wish to introduce party considerations. He had indeed referred to a distinguished individ- ual who had received double pay ; and if the gentleman wished to dr^w back money from those who had received double allow- ances it will operate as severely at head-quarters as anywhere. He asked for the yeas and nays on this question. Mr Drayton defended the prac- tice of employing officers as com- missioners to hold Indian treaties, and moved to amend the amend- ment of the gentleman from Ohio, by striking out all after the word ' that,' and inserting words which made the provision general and prospective. Mr Vance said he had been asked by a gentleman from Penn- sylvania if this had been the prac- tice of Government, and he had risen and said this was the prac- tice, and had referred to the only case within his knowledge. He wished to be understood as hav- ing had good reason for his refer- ence ; and if he had misunder- stpod the exact terms of the in- terrogatories put to him he had merely made a mistake, and he was willing to have it attributed to him v^'hether he had made his remark gratuitously or not. Mr Grennell replied briefly to the remarks of the gentleman from South Carolina, as to the peculiar propriety of employing officers as negotiators, and to the idea thrown out that General M'Neill had entered on ihe duties of.commissioner under the implied understanding that he was entitled to double pay. Mr Barnwell made some re- marks in favor of the double al- lowance to General M'Neill. He contended that where, by an er- roneous construction, officers had received more than the sums to which they were entitled, it was unjust to compel him who had rendered the service, to refund. The fault is in those who have put the false construction on the law, and who alone should be re- sponsible. Mr Davis, of Massachusetts, rose and observed that, he should not detain the House but a mo- ment, as it appeared to be anx- ious to take the question. But he would join the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr BarnU'ell.) in calling attention back to the real ground of discussion. The bill provided for the reimburse- ment of money paid by the Ex- ecutive, where no appropriation had been made, for the services of an officer of the army holding by brevet the rank of a Brigadier General, who had served as a commissioner in making a treaty wid) the Winnebagoes and others. This officer, at the time of his appointment, was in the military service, and drawing his pay ; and the question is, whether he shall, in addition to his pay as an officer, receive also the pay of a com- missioner. The appointment, he said, was not a military command, which the officer was obliged to obey, but a civil commission which he had his option to accept or de- INDIAN BILL. 189 cline, as he might think expedient, it was an appointment to another service of a totally different char- acter, and to be rewarded in a different manner. He accepted that appointmRiU and performed the service, and it had been said that the Government became ihereby bound to allow him his p^y as a military oiiicer, and also the same amount in addition as the Other commissioners had who served in but one capacity. This, sir, would be paying for service by construction — because no- thing is more plain than that he would not render service to the ihe Government in both offices. When he accepted the appoint- ment as commissioner and enter- ed upon the duties, he ceased to perform all duties as a military officer and ihereby ceased to have any right to pay unless we mean to adopt the doctrine that a person shall have pay for ser- vices which he does not and can- not perform. He could not, he said, bring his mind to the belief that the Government was under any legal or equitable obligation to make such an allowance, as the service as commissioner was the voluntary choice of the officer, and assumed by him with a full knowledge that his military ser- vice must cease, and therefore his pay ought to stop. It has been said that prece- dents exist. On this point he observed he was uninformed : but if such precedents existed it was now acknowledged on all hands to be an abuse, and there seems to be no reason why the injurious practice should be further coun- tenanced. This officer, by his 17 own election, placed himself on the same ground as other com- missioners, and it would seem hardly just to them to pay him twice as much as they receive for their services. He therefore hoped the amendment of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr Vance) would so far prevail as to limit the principle to those bounds. Mr Clay suggested to the gen- tleman from South Carolina to withdraw his amendment until the other amendment should be disposed of. Mr Drayton withdrew his amendment. Mr Buchanan then stated the case of General M'Neill and ad- vocated the propriety of his ap- ])ointment, and of the remunera- tion now made to him by the bill. The money had been received, as appeared on the face of the bill, and it would be unjust to com- pel him to refund it. Mr Coulter admitted that the President might employ a general of the army to negotiate, and it often occurs that, in consequence of this military character, he is a negotiator. A Governor of a State is often employed, but a Governor is not an officer of the United States. A military officer in the pay of the United States has no claim to additional com- pensation for his civil service, and if he has received double })ay, he cannot, in conscience, retain it. He referred to the case of Com modore Decatur, who negotiated a treaty with the Barbary Pow- ers. There was an officer em- ployed by General Washington to negotiate a treaty. He was allow- ed his expenses, but not double 190 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. pay. He understood that the expenses are allowed to General M'Neill. Mr Sutherland spoke in favor of the allowance in the bill and against the amendment. Mr J. W. Taylor said the only question is, if you will reimburse your contingent fund the money which has been taken out of it. If you do, the contingent fund is made whole ; if not, your contin- gent fund is short. It is not a question if you will pay General M'Neill. He has received his money ; and if you direct the law officer to institute a suit against General M'Neill, the general will produce the commission of the President — prove that he has done his duty, and no court will compel him to refund a cent. He thought, therefore, the amend- ment irrelevant and would vote against it. Mr Sterigere now called for the previous question, which was seconded by a majority of the House. The previous question was then put and carried [which supersedes all pending amendments,] and the main question was put, viz : on the engrossment of the bill, and carried — yeas 84, nays 52. The sum of five hundred thou- sand dollars was also appropria- ted to carry into effect the bill pro- viding for the removal of the Indians. An account of this bill has already been given in chapter third. Certain sums, being unexpend- ed balances, were also reappro- priated An appropriation was also made for the partial settlement of a claim of long standing, and which involved no slight political feeling. This was the claim for the services of the militia of Mas- sachusetts during the late war with Great Britain. This claim had been objected to because the Government of the State had re- fused to place the militia under officers of the Federal Govern- ment ; and though in some in- stances their services were such as to render the claim undenia- ble, yet no distinction had been made between the different class- es of claims, and the unadjusted account had hitherto been the subject of dispute. Now, how- ever, an appropriation was made of four hundred and thirty thou- sand seven hundred and forty- eight dollars, for the payment of all claims for services where the militia were called out to repel invasion, either actual or where good ground existed to apprehend it : 2d. Where the calling out was recognised by the Federal Government : 3d. Where they were called out and served under the requisition of the President of the United States, or of an officer of the United States. Appropriations were also made for the internal improvement of the country; but from the pecu- liar importance which this sub- ject assumed towards the close of the session, it is deemed proper to treat of this class of appropri- ations in a separate chapter. CHAPTER VIII. Progress of Internal Improvement. — Act of 1824. — Opposition to System. — Course of Discussion. — President's Opinion, — Orleans and Buffalo road hill. — Survey bill. — Discussion concerning same. — Conditional approval. — Maysville road bill ; Rejected — Discussion on Message. — Washington turnpike bill; Rejected. — Louisville Canal and Light-house bills ; Re- tained. — Harbor bill. Previous to the accession of Mr Jefferson to the Presidency, the necessities of the country and the demands upon the public treasury growing out of the debts of the revohition, and the organ- ization of the government, had prevented the application of any part of the pubhc revenue to the purposes of internal improvement. No question was made as to the powers of the General Govern- ment to make such application, because more urgent demands upon its attention had prevented the agitation of such a question. The finances of the country then began to wear a more pro- mising aspect and a surplus in the treasury left the Government at liberty to attend to other demands, besides those of primary neces- sity. The difficulty of access to the great western wilderness from the want of roads soon forced itself upon the attention of Congress, and May 1st, 1802, a law was passed, making appropriations for opening roads in the Northwest territory. This was the first ap- propriation made by Congress for such a purpose, and during Mr Jefferson's administration, it was followed up, by acts making ap- propriations for roads from Nash- ville to Natches, from Georgia to New Orleans, and other roads within the limits of States, be- sides appropriations for the Cum- berland road, and for roads with- in the State of Ohio, under the act of March 3d, 1803, appropri- ating 3 per cent of the proceeds of the public lands in that State, for the purposes of internal im- provement. A survey of the coast was also authorized and $50,000 appropriated for that object. A report was also made to the Senate by Mr Gallatin, in answer to a resolution moved by Mr J. Q, Adams, in 1807, which 192 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. gave a general view of the sub- ject and presented a digested and systematic plan for the improve- ment of the country. Under that administration, the policy of internal irnprovement by the General Government, may be considered as having been com- menced, and it was thenceforward prosecuted with more or less ac- tivity according to the state of the public finances. During Mr Madison's adminis- tration, the ap])ropriations for this purpose were increased, and by the act of May 11th, 1812, a survey was authorized of the main post road from Robinstown in M.aine, to St Mary's in Geor- gia- ^ While Mr Monroe was at the head of the Government, these appropriations were still further augmented, and surveys were ordered of the interior rivers, and roads were opened by the author- ity of Congress — ail indicating the growing prosperity of the nation and the increasing attention of the government to this subject. A check was indeed given to the policy by the veto, which Mr Monroe in 1822, put upon the bill authorizing the collection of tolls, for the preservation and repair of the Cumberland road. This veto was founded on an opinion, that Congress had not a complete right of jurisdiction and sovereignty over the soil for the purposes of internal improve- ment, which he considered as distinct from the power to make appropriations for that end, with the consent of the States, through which the road or canal should pass. In this opinion the President differed from his cabinet, and al- though his veto was sustained by an additonal message, setding forth at length his reasons for his opinion, it is to be presumed that he subsequently changed his views of the question, as the ob- jects contemplated by the acts of April 30ih, 1824, (to which he assented) are at variance with the strict construction of the powers cf Congress contended for in his veto message. This act, which appropriated $30,000 for the necessary surveys, plans and estimates of such roads and canals as were deemed by the President of national impor- tance ; and also authorized the employment of the engineer corps in that service, was justly regarded as the deliberate adoption of a system of internal improvement. It was indeed only an initiatory step ; but the direction to lay the estimates before Congress, plainly indicated, that it was the intention of the Government to act effi- ciently, and that in the belief oi Congress the time had arrived, when he resources of the country could not be more advantage- ously employed than in improving the channels of .communication between different portions of the Union. The engineer corps was accordingly ordered upon that service, and Mr Adams, when he assumed the office of chief mag- istrate, intimated his determina- tion to give effect so far as fell within the sphere of the Execu- tive Department, to the recom- mendation of Congress ; and also an entire conviction of the ex- pediency of the policy and the INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 193 constitutionality of the power. This frank exposition of his views removed a difficulty, which had prevented many appropria- tions during the preceding ad- ministration, and Congress took into immediate consideration those plans of internal improvement, that were deemed of the most immediate importance. During that administration, ac- cordingly, more appropriations were made for that purpose, and a greater impulse was given by the Government to the internal improvement of the country, than in all the preceding administra- tions. It was indeed one of its distinguishing characteristics, and contributed in no small degree to awaken the hostility, whicli was waged against it, from its organi- zation. The Representatives from the Southern States, excepting South Carolina, had generally evinced great repugnance to the exercise of this power on the part of the General Government, as one not authorized by the Constitution. All power vested in that Govern- ment, they argued, must be either specifically granted by the Con- stitution, or incidental to some power specifically granted. No power to make internal improve- ment was to be found among the specified powers, nor was it in- cidental to any of those powers. Those who maintained that the power existed in the General Government contended, that it was derived 1st, from the power to establish post roads ; 2d, from the power to regulate commerce between the States; 3d, from the power to make and carry on war, 17* and as one of the necessary means to construct roads and canals for the transportation of troops and munitions; 4th, from the power to lay taxes to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States ; 5th, from the power to pass all laws necessary to carry into effect its constitutional powers, and 6th, from the power to make all needful rules respecting ihe public territory. As in most constitutional dis- cussions, both parties were fixed in their own conclusions, and al- though those who denied the power were invariably overruled in Congress, they were no less clamorous in protesting against its exercise as one of the striking proofs of the tendency of the Federal Government to corrup- tion and consolidation. The question of the expediency of exercising such a power by Congress was also strongly ques- tioned, and it was predicted that it would be productive of dis en- sions and improper combinations in the legislature ; great extrava- gance in the expenditure of public moneys; accumulation of power in the Federal Govern- ment, which would render the State Governments mere depen- dencies upon its generosity or caprice, and that it would place at its command a host of contractors, engineers, toll gatherers and su- perintendents, who would exer- cise a control in the local elections incompatible with the indepen- dence of the State Governments. On the other hand, the neces- sity of these improvements ; the inability of the State Governments 194 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. or of private associations to exe- cute them ; and their tendency to strengthen the bonds of union were eloquently pourtrayed ; and it was aptly replied that any argu- ment drawn from the danger to the independence of the State Governments, or of dissensions or improper combinations in Con- gress, or of extravagant expendi- tures on account of appropria- tions of this character, was just as applicable to the system of fortifi- cations or to any appropriations for local objects undeniably within the jurisdiction of the General Government. That the subject matter of legislation, if within the constitu- tional power of Congress, must be left to its discretion, and how- ever much that discretion might be abused, its abuse did not ef- fect the constitutional question which necessarily depended upon reasons of a difierent kind. The remedy for an abuse of power was vested in the people, and a sufficient check would be found in the periodical elections to prevent all tendency to extravagance or corruptioti in the exercise of a power so indispensable to the pros- perity of the country. While this discussion as to the expediency and constitutionality of the power was renewed with unusual animation, during Mr Adams' administration, the oppo- nents of internal improvement seemed to have forgotten, that the opposing candidate to the in- cumbent had evinced, while in the Senate of the United States quite as latitudinarian opinions on tills disputed point. His votes on certain bills making appropria- tions for roads and canals were not only in favor of the system of surveys as established by the act of 1824, but also in favor of sub- scriptions to the stock of private canal companies and of appropri- ations for roads within the limits of particular States. This he- terodoxy was overlooked, or in- dulging in the hope, that the con- stitutional principles of that can- didate were not yet definitely settled, or that as the representa- tive of a reforming party, he might be induced to make them more conformable to their own political creed, the Southern States and those of the same party in the north yielded him their most ardent support, undaunted by the fact, that he was represented in the Western and Middle States as the friend of internal improve- ment and that these votes were appealed to as conclusive evidence of his sentiments. His inaugural message gave no indication x)f any change of opinion, but simply advanced the oracular proposition that ' internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the con- stitutional acts of the Federal Government are of high impor- tance.' In the message at the opening of Congress, he first man- ifested an unwillingness to the ex- ercise of this power by Congress ; but his recommendation of an apportionment of the surplus revenue among the States, as a substitute for internal improve- ment by the Federal Government was scarcely regarded as a mea- sure seriously contemplated. As the session advanced, how- ever, the divisions on the passage INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 195 of certain bills authorizing inter- i]al improvements began to indi- cate, that no support of these bills could be expected from the more confidential friends of the Executive and that the cause of internal improvement would be left chiefly to the care of the op- position. Many however who were classed among the supporters of the administration were staunch advocates of internal inprove- ment and so vitally important did they deem the assertion of the powers of Congress on this ques- tion, that in one instance, after the rejection of a bill of this charac- ter by too strong a vote to hope lor its final passage, they voted in favor of its reconsideration to prevent any inference being drawn as to the motive which influenced their votes. This occurred in the House of Representatives in re- ference to a bill brought forward early in the session to construct a national road from Buffalo to New Orleans. After much discussion concern- ing this bill, on the 14th of April, the previous question was called for, and the House decided by a vote of 88 yeas, 150 nays, that it should not be read a third time. Mr P. P. Barbour then rose and congratulating the House on this decision, observed that it had achieved glory enough for one day and moved an adjournment. This observation ofTended many who voted against the bill, as it seemed to place its rejection up- on the ground of its being con- sidered unconstitutional, whereas their votes were given simply in reference to the expediency of making this particular road. The motion to adjourn thus asked was accordingly negatived, 78 yeas. 111 nays, and the next day upon motion of Mr Spencer of New York, the House deter- mined to reconsider the bill, 99 yeas, 91 nays. As it was not intended to press the passage of the bill, a motion was then made, that it lie on the table, and car- ried, 94 yeas, 88 nays. The discussion was again re- newed upon the consideration of the bill, making appropriation for examinations and surveys. This bill was taken up in the House on the 25th of March, when on mo- tion of Mr McDufHe, the House resolved itself into Committee of the whole on the state of the Union, and took up the bill mak- ing appropriations for examina- tions and surveys, &ic, viz : For defraying the expenses in- cidental to making examinations and surveys for national works under the act of 30th April, 1824, and also for arrearages on account of surveys in 1826, 1827, and 1828, 30,000 dollars; For completing the Cumber- land Road from Zanesville to Columbus, 91,000 dollars; For continuing the road from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, 7,000 dollars ; For continuing the road from Detroit to Saganaw Bay, 7,000 dollars ; For continuing the road from Detroit to Chicago, 8,000 dol- lars ; For completing the road from PensacolatoSt Augustine, 10,000 dollars ; For completing the survey and estimate of a canal to connect the 196 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf f Mexico, 10,400 dollars. In reply to a question from Mr WicklifFe. Mr McDufRe said that the Committee of Ways and Means had determined to make the ap- propriation this year, but there was a disposition in the Committee to discountenance any excess of ex- penditure on these objects. Mr Hall, remarking on the term ' National objects,' asked if there was not a national object to which the revenue could be pro- perly and beneficially applied ; he meant the payment of the national debt. That was the only national object in his view. Mr Hemphill stated that the present appropria- tion was partly required to com- plete surveys already commenced. He thought the appropriation of .f 30,000 insufficient : and moved to add $5000. Mr Ingersoll expressed his re- gret that the gentleman from Penn- sylvania had moved to increase the sum. He stated that it had been the practice, till this year, to pay the arrearages, as well as the current expenses out of this 30,000 dollars ; but he under- stood that this year the Depart- ment had ordered only the current expenses out of the 30,000 dollars. Mr Hemphill withdrew his proposition to amend. Mr WicklifFe moved so to amend the bill as to confine the appropriation to surveys of nation- al works which have been com- menced and are not completed. Mr Clay opposed the amend- ment, the object of these surveys being to give that information on which Congress may found legislation. Mr Mercer also expressed his hope that no sudden impulse caus- ed by the remarks of the gentle- man from Kentucky, would induce the House to adopt the amend- ment. He adverted to charges which had been formerly made of improper expenditures in these surveys, charges which he said had never been, in any single in- stance supported by anything like a plausible argument. He instanc- ed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, to show that the Govern- ment was not subject to call after call for the same object. For that canal, which the Engineers esti- mated at eight millions. Congress had subscribed one miUion. No second application had been made and he would say further, that no second call would be made on Congress to aid the eastern sec- tion of the work, estimated at eight millions. He stated that these surveys are made for the purpose of obtaining knowledge ; and with- out that knowledge we must legis- late in the dark, and the public money would be wasted, in larger sums, in useless discussions as to the routes of roads and canals- Mr Lea suggested to Mr Wick- lifFe, to enlarge his proposition, so as to include all objects which may be recommended by either House of Congress. Mr Ellsworth thought the Hm- itation unjust and unreasonable. If there are objects which are na- tional, yet to be commenced, it would be unjust to postpone them because they had not been begun. Mr WicklifFe accepted the amendment of Mr Lea as a mod- ification of his amedment. The question was then put on the amendment as modified, and INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 197 decided in the negative — yeas 50, nays 06. The bill having been reported to the House was again taken up on the 31st of March, when Mr Wickliffe moved to amend the bill in the clause appropriating money for surveys, by adding a proviso, that the sum appropriated should be expended on works heretofore directed, or which may be directed by either House of Congress. Mr Ellsworth expressed a hope that the amendment would not be adopted. He reminded the House that it had been customary to pass an appropriation of this kind annually ; and he desired that it be applied on the usual principle, diat the same discretion, which had been hitherto given to the proper department in the disbursement of this money, should still be given to them. He argued against the pro- posed change as inexpedient, un- just and unreasonable. It seemed to contemplate that whenever a proposition for any ap- propriation for any particnlar work is made, the subject is to undergo a discussion in this House ; and members are to be called on to decide, with the superficial know^- ledge they must be supposed to possess, on the preference of mak- ing a survey for a route here^ over that for a route there. He hoped, therefore, that the amend- ment would not prevail. Mr McDuffie repeated .the ob- jections he had urged against this limitation at the last session, when a simxilar proposition was negativ- ed by a vote of four to one. If this limitation should be adopted, every member will have his own peculiar project carried through or no propositions will pass. Com- plaint had been made that the works begun were not national, yet it was proposed to compel the Government to complete them in- stead of taking up others which might be national. It was there- fore an unreasonable proposition, and he hoped it would not be adopted. Mr Wickliffe defended his amendment on the ground gene- rally of the abuse which the present mode led to, the unimportant na- ture of the w^orks which it enabled members to procure to be under- taken, &:c. Mr Martin stated that, although opposed to the system, he was still more opposed to the amend- ment, in its present form. If the system was to be continued, he was for leaving its exercise where it was now, to the Execu- tive, end to keep ibis Huuiiu a§ clear as possible of the contention^ and the agitation which it was cal- culated to produce here. He then moved to amend the amendment by striking out, ' or such as may hereafter be directed by either House of Congress.' Mr Trezvant made some re- marks against the commitment of a discretion to the Departments as to the direction of any surveys. He wished to confine the appropri- adon to such surveys as have been commenced, and that the House should afterwards decide on the propriety of new ones. He argu- ed at some length in explanation of his views, and hoped the amend- ment of the gendeman from South Carolina would not be adopted. Mr Hall opposed the whole sys- tem, the amendment as well as 198 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the bill itself. If he took the amendment of Mr Martin, the re- mainder of MrWickliffe's amend- ment would contain enough to in- volve all his principles. He could vote for none of the questions pro- posed. Mr Mercer suggested that many surveys had been ordered by Con- gress which have not yet been commenced. And the effect of the amendment would be to relieve the Executive of all responsibility whatever. The amendment moved by Mr Martin to the amendment, was then negatived. Mr P. P. Barbour suggested a modification of the amendment so as to strike out the words ' either House of,' so as to read — shall be directed by Congress. Mr Wickliffe declined to ac- cept the modification. Mr P. P. Barbour then moved his proposition as an amendment. Mr Drayton stated that his opinion had always been that the act of 1824, authorizing this ex- penditure for surveys, was uncon- stitutional. He consequently was opposed to all appropriations for these objects ; but he was in favor of the amendment for reasons he stated — the chief of which was that it would tend to prevent abuses in the execution of the act, and contending that works beginning and ending in the same State, could not be deemed national, but many such under the present sys- tem had been undertaken. Mr P. P. Barbour enforced the propriety of the amendment he had offered. The vole of this House is the vote of the repre- .sentatives of the people, while that of the Senate is the vote of the representatives of the States ; and he wished to unite both. He declared himself utterly opposed to the whole system, and every scheme, surrey, and appropria- tion under it. Mr Mercer advocated the pow- er of the Government to make these surveys, and the practice which had prevailed under that power, denying peremptorily that it had led to any abuses, although the allegation was so often repeat- ed, and arguing that a work com- mencing and ending in a State might be, and often was strictly national ; many cases of which he cited ; among others, he main- tained that if a line of canals from Maine to Georgia was a national work, any part of that line, how- ever small, is national. The whole work cannot be completed at once ; it must be constructed in detail and in parts. The Buffalo and New Orleans road, he con- sidered as national, whether it was cut up in decimal parts, or viewed as a whole. He said he had carefully investigated the practice of the Department, and he be- lieved it to be free from abuse. Even in a case which he had four years ago considered the most doubtful, he had subsequently satisfied himself that there was no ground for doubt. To objections on the score of local interests be- ing too influential, he replied that in time of war it was as important a power which regulated the di- rection of an army, as that which gives the direction of a road. The western part of the State of New York had entirely sprung up under the fostering influence of INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, 190 \he late war, as millions had been expended there, in consequence of the march of troops there. Yet no one contended that in that case the Government should be controlled lest the local interests of one section should be preferred to those of another. Mr Ambrose Spencer stated that the question as to the power of the Government to make these surveys, was settled by the act of 1824, and that it was useless now to make it a subject of discussion. He was opposed to imposing upon the present administration a Hm- itation which had not been impos- ed on their predecessors. He declared himself adverse to the amendment to the amendment, as well as to the amendment. He expressed his concurrence in the views which had fallen from the last speaker, and controverted the idea that works confined en- tirely to particular States were necessarily not national, cases of which he cited. Mr Irwin of Penn. expressed his hope that both the amend- ment of the gendeman from Ken- tucky and that of the gendeman from Va. would be rejected. Mr Mallary contended that it was due to the President, who is at the head of the military force, to give to him an entire command over those works which are con- nected with the military defence of the country. He could, in the exercise of that power, lead to more full and more satisfactory results, than we can ever be brought to by listening to the con- tending claims of conflicdng inter- ests in the House. There was no reason for imposing this limita- tion on the present Executive. Mr Barringer said the adoption of the amendment could only lead to a multiplication of surveys, and he argued briefly to show the inexpediency of the amendments. The amendment to the amend- ment was negatived — yeas 72, nays 96. . The question was then taken on the amendment of Mr Wick- lifFe, and decided in the negative — 75 yeas, 111 nays. The bill was then ordered to a third reading — ^121 yeas, 64 nays, and having been passed was sent to the Senate for concur- rence. In the Senate, it was amended by two additional sections, appro- priating $100,000 for opening the Cumberland road west of Zanesville ; $60,000 for contin- uing it through the State of Indi- ana ; $40,000 for continuing it through Illinois; and $32,400 for opening it from St Louis to Jefferson City in Missouri, and also providing for the appointment of superintendence of that road in those States, upon the same terms as those superintending the road in Ohio. These amendments were sanctioned by the Senate ; yeas 26, nays 16. An appropriation of $15,000 was also made for arrearages on account of the Cumberland road. An amendment was also offered by Mr Dickerson, to strike out the appropriation for the survey of a canal between the Gulf of Mexico and the Adantic. This was rejected, 15 yeas, 31 nays, and the bill was passed the next day (April 17th) 26 yeas, 17 nays. In the House the amendments were concurred in except those 200 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. providing for the continuation of the Cumberland road from St Louis to Jefferson City. Those parts were stricken out in the House, on the 29th of May, and the Senate having concurred, the bill was sent to the President for his sanction. He had now taken his stand on the question of internal improve- ment — (the message rejecting ihe bill for constructing the Mays- ville road, having been transmitted on the 27th of May,) — and having there set up certain dis- tinctions between national and lo- cal improvements, to justify his re- jection of that bill, he undertook to approve of this bill with a quali- fication. This qualification con- sisted in a reference to a message sent to the House, together with the bill, wherein he declared that as the section appropriated .$8000 for the road from Detroit to Chi- cago might be construed to au- thorize the application of the ap- propriation to continue the road beyond the territory of Michigan, he desired ' to be understood as having approved the bill with the understanding, that the road is not to be extended beyond the limits of the said territory.' This message exemplified in a striking manner the crude and un- settled notions of the President and of his constitutional advisers respecting the nature of the Gov- ernment and of the duties of the Executive. The President by the Constitution is vested with the right of returning bills, that he does not choose to sanction, with his objections to the House where ihey originated. Here the bill k reconsidered and unless it is sanctioned by a vote of two thirds of both Houses, it does not become a law. This right of the President, hovvever, is a mere naked right of approval or disap- proval. He cannot annex any conditions or qualifications to his approval.' Siill less can he undertake to give any particular construction to a law at the time of his approval. The President however seemed to think other- wise, and notwithstanding the sec- tion directed the application of this appropriation to a road ex- tending from Detroit in Michigan, to Chicago in Illinois, he under- took to limit its application to such part of the road as was within Michigan, and to imagine that that declaration of his, that he would so apply it, rendered the appropriation constitutionally within the power of Congress. No declaration of his could make such an appropriation con- stitutional, unless Congress was originally authorized to make the appropriation as made in the bill. If not so authorized, the Presi- dent should have returned the bill with his objections, and a declara- tion, that he would apply an un- constitutional appropriation upon a constitutional object, was super- adding to a legislative violation of the Constitution, a breach of his own duty as the chief executive magistrate of the Union. This difficulty was occasioned by the views expressed in his Message rejecting the Maysville and Lex- ington road bill, which will be found in the second part of this volume, page 22. This bill, which originated in the House, where it was reported INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 201 February 24th, authorized a sub- scription to the stock of the Mays- ville and Lexington road Com- j)any. It was passed in Com- mittee of the whole House, on ihe 26th of April, and on the 28th of April, it was ordered to a third reading, 96|yeas, 87 nays. The next day Mr Martin of South Carolina moved that it be laid on 5-he table, which was negatived, 85 yeas, 102 nays. The pre- vious question being then called for by Mr Crockett,the bill passed, lt)2 yeas, 85 nays, and was sent lo the Senate for concurrence. In that body Mr Forsyth moved when it came up for considera- tion (May 14th) to strike out the list section of the bill, but the motion was rejected, yeas 18, nays 25. The next day the bill was passed, yeas 24, nays 18, and on the 19th of May, it was signed jind sent to the President. The President retained the bill until tfie 27th, when he returned it to the House with his objections, as set forth at length in his mes- sage before referred to. According to this message he seems to be of opinion, that un- der the Constitution, Congress can in no case construct or pro- mote any works of internal im- provement within the limits of a State provided the jurisdiction of the territory occupied by them be necessary for their preservation and use. As to the appropriation of money in aid of such works, when undertaken by Stale au- thority surrendering the claim of jurisdiction, the message advances the opinion, that by the practical construction of the Federal Con- 17 stitution. Congress has acquired the power to appropriate money in aid of works of internal im- provement provided sucii works be ' of a general not local — na- tional not State character.' The work in question he considered of the latter class, and he there- fore returned the bill authorizing the subscription to its stock to the House where it originated. Be- sides this view of the subject, the President went into an examina- tion of the expediency of enter- ing upon a system of internal improvement and by reasons re- ferring to the liquidation of the pub- lic debt and the extravagant char- acter ot certain proposed improve- ments indicated a feeling of hos- tility to the exercise of the power by Congress. The reading of this message produced great excitements in Congress. Many of the friends of the President from Pennsyl- vania and from the west, had relied upon his adhering to his former opinions on this question, and this message first forced upon their minds a conviction as un- welcome as it was unexpected. The consideration of the sub- ject was postponed until the next day (May 28th,) when the House proceeded to the reconsideration of the bili. The question was upon the pas- • sage of the bill, notwithstanding the objections of the President. The Constitution, in such cases requires a vote of two thirds of both Houses of Congress to con- firm the bill. Mr Daniel said, he had sup- ported the measure condenined by the message, but,, as a co-or- 202 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. dinate branch of the Government has called on this body to stop their career, he, for one, was disposed to give the people of the nation an opportunity to consider, coolly and dispassionately, the objections urged by the Presi- dent against the mode of appro- priating money to objects not national. It is the first time in the history of the world that the Executive of a nation has inter- posed his authority to stop ex- travagant and ruinous appropria- tions. He was elected on the principle of economy and reform ; and if the representatives of the people refuse to him a proper support, it is impossible that the object for which he was elected can be obtained. In the dis- charge of his duty as the servant of a free and independent people, and in obedience to what he be- lieves to be their will, he has laid this subject before them. They will have to pass upon the cor- rectness of his views, and I feel disposed, out of respect to them and the President, to give them an opportunity. Mr Daniel said he was in favor of internal improvement : but the system, as it has heretofore been carried on and pursued, was bet- ter calculated to destroy than to promote it. The House had been admonished, on a former occasion, by the gentleman from New York (Mr Storrs), that the friends of the system were break- ing it down by their extravagance and folly. It was clear, from the message, that if the system was pursued as it had been at- tempted at the present session, this nation would soon be involv- ed in a large and immense na- tional debt. The members of Congress would understand each other — if not corruptly, the ef- fect would be the same ; they would vote for each other's pro- jects without regard to the public good. A host of federal officers would be created to superintend the collection of tolls, and the repairing and amending those improvements. The tax on the people would be increased, until their leaders would be as great as they are in any despotic gov- ernment on earth. Besides, it would end in corruption beyond control. The members of this House cannot now read all the documents printed and laid on the tables. This system will pro- duce a swarm of officers and ac- counts without end. The rep- resentatives of the people can never examine them — the offi- cers become irresponsible and corrupt, and it will produce con- solidation of the Government. If the system is to be persevered in, let us adopt one that will not be productive of this evil. Mr Stanberry said that, in the view he took of the matter, he considered the communication which had been just received, as the voice of the President's min- istry, rather than that of tlie President himself; or, to speak more correctly, the voice of his chief minister. The hand of the ' great magician' was visible in every line of the message. There was nothing candid, nothing open, nothing honest, in it. As one reason why the Executive re- jects the bill, he assigns the ex- travagance of this Congress as INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 203 having been so great that there will not be money enough in the Treasury to meet the small ap- propriation contained in the re- jected bill. And as an evidence of the correctness of such appre- hension, the appendix contains a list of all the bills which have been reported in the Senate and in the House, but not passed. These are relied upon in the ar- gument as if they had passed and become laws. When it is well known to all of us, that most of these bills are only evidence of the opinions of the Committees by whom they were reported ; and there is not even a probabili- ty that they will ever become laws. Among the bills of this description, contained in the ap- pendix, is the bill reported in the Senate providing for the amount of French spoliations, which, of itself, makes an item of five millions of dollars. There is also included in the appendix the bill for the relief of Susan Decatur, and that for the Beaumarchais claim and the claim of Richard W. Mead. There is added also, the bill for the Colonization So- ciety, proposing to pay twenty- five dollars for each negro in the United States. And to swell the amount, the claim of President Monroe is also added. All these amounts put together, give to the proceedings of this Congress an appearance of extravagance which does not belong to them. On the whole, I consider this document artfully contrived to bring the whole system of inter- nal improvement into disrepute, and as calculated to deceive the people. Such a document can dent. It is not characterized by that frankness which marks his character. It has every ap- pearance of a low electioneering document, not worthy of the eminent source to which it is at- tributed. But, sir, if extravagance has marked the proceedings of this Congress, it is not chargeable on the majority of this House. The appropriations which have been made have been asked for by the Executive officers themselves. And they have asked for more than we have granted. And the most extravagant project of this session, and one which will, I fear, for- ever disgrace this Congress, I mean the bill for the removal of all the Southern Indians west of the Mississippi, came recom- mended to us as the peculiar fa- vorite of the Executive. I can say, with truth, that many members of this House were in- duced, contrary to their con- sciences, to vote for the bill in consequence of their not having independence to resist what they supposed to be the wishes of the Executive. They were literally dragooned into its support. I certainly, sir, had many other reasons for my opposition to the bill ; but not the least of my rea- sons was a beHef that its passage would strike a death blow to the whole system of internal improve- ment. It received the support of all the enemies of internal im- provement, as their only means of destroying the system ; and it is accordingly relied upon in this message, and I will admit that it is the only good reason assigned in it against any further appro- never have issued from the Presi::__priations for the improvement of V 204 ANNUAL REGIJ the country. And yet we, who are the friends of this adminis- tration, but still greater friends to the honor and prosperity of the country, have been threatened with denunciations by certain jneinbers of this House ; but who liave no other claim for the sta- tion which they have assumed as our leaders than the single cir- cumstance of their coming from Tennessee, for our opposition to the Indian bill — for our contu- macy in opposing what they were pleased to represent to us as the wishes of the Executive. Sir, let them commence their denun- ciation — I fear no bravo, unless he carries the assassin's knife. Against every other species of attack I am prepared to defend myself. Mr Polk said that, while it had been understood, in conversation through the House that the friends of this measure were disposed, without further debate, to take the vote on reconsideration, on the veto of the President, accord- ing to the provisions of the Con- stitution, he thought he could speak confidently, when he said that those opposed to it had de- termined to pursue a similar course. The debate had, however, been brought on. The violent, vindic- tive and unprecedented character of the remarks which had just fallen from the member from Ohio (Mr Stanberry,) had open- ed the whole discussion. Mr Polk said, he took the liber- ty to say to the member from Ohio that this violent torrent of abuse, poured upon the head of the Chief Magistrate, was gra- TER, 1829 — 30 tuitous, and wholly unjustifiable, not sustained in a single particular by the truth, and wholly unfound- ed in fact. No man in the nation, of any party, who knows the character of the President, believed what the gentleman had charged upon him. He was glad that the member had at length thrown off the cloak, under which he had covertly acted during the present session. He had been elected to his seat here by the friends of the President. He came here professing to give to his adminis- tration a fair and an honest sup- port — professing to be enumera- ted among his political friends. Had he sustained one single measure which the President re- commended ? Not one — and it was matter of no regret that the member had at length thrown off the mask. He cannot claim this occasion or this bill as a pretext for his desertion from his former professed political attachments. What was there in this occasion to call forth such a tirade of abuse ? The President has re- turned to this House, as it was his constitutional right, and, en- tertaining the opinion he did, his duty to do, a bill which has pass- ed Congress and been presented to him for his constitutional sanc- tion. He had, in a very temper- ate, and he added, in a very able manner, assigned the reasons why he had felt himself constrained, from a high sense of public duty, to withhold his signature and sanc- tion from it. We were called upon by an imperative provision of the Constitution to reconsid- er the vote by which a ma- INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 205^ jority of this House had agreed to pass the bill? The bill and the message of the President were the fair subjects of delib- eration and discussion for this House. The message of the President, he undertook to stake, was em- phatically his own ; and the views presented for^ the rejection of this bill were the result of the honest conviction of his own de- liberate reflection. Was it an electioneering measure? No man who knows his character will be- lieve it. Such considerations are only suited to the bent of such grovelling minds as are them- selves capable of making the charge. No, sir, on the contra- ry — on the brink of a great crisis — at a period of unusual political excitement, to save his country from what he conscien- tiously believed to be a danger- our infraction of the Constitution — to avert the evils which threat- ened, in its consequences, the long continuance of the Confed- eracy, upon its original principles — he had, with a patriotism nev- er surpassed, boldly and firmly staked himself, his present and his future popularity and fame, against what seemed to be the current of public opinion. Had he signed this bill, the road on which he would have travelled would have been a broad pave- ment, and his continued elevation certain, beyond a possibility of doubt. As it was, he had plant- ed himself upon the ramparts of the Constitution, and had taken the high responsibility upon him- self to check the downward march, in which the system of 18* which this bill is part, was fast hastening us. It required just such a man, in such times, to re- store the Constitution to its origi- nal reading. He had never failed to assume responsibility when he should assume it ; and in no in- stance, in his public life, had he displayed in a more eminent de- gree, that moral courage and firmness of character, which was peculiarly characteristic of him, than in this. By this single act, he verily believed, he had done more than any man in this country, for the last thirty years, to pre- serve the Constitution and to per- petuate the liberties we enjoy. The Constitution was, he hoped, to be again considered and prac- tised upon, as it, in fact, was one of limited powers, and the States permitted to enjoy all the powers which they originally intended to reserve to themselves in that com- pact of union. The pernicious consequences, the evil tendencies, to say nothing of the corrupting influence of the exercise of a pow er over internal improvements by the Federal Government, were not fully developed until Vt^idiin a very few years last past. Mr Madison, on the last day of his term of office, put his veto on the bonus bill. In the following year Mr Monroe rejected a bill assum- ing jurisdiction and fixing tolls on the Cumberland road. The subject of the power was discuss- ed at great length, and with great ability in the next Congress. The House of Representatives, by a small majority, at that time, affirmed the power to appropriate money for objects of national im- provements, but denied, and by 20G ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. tl)e vote of the House negatived, the power to construct roads or canals of any character, whether military, commercial or for the transportation of the mail. It was not until the last administration, that the broad power to the ex- tent now claimed, limited only by the arbitrary discretion of Con- i>;ress, was asserted and attempt- ed to be maintained by the Ex- ecutive and by Congress. It was not until that period that its dan- i^ers were fully perceived. The President had manifested, in the message before us, that he had been an attentive observer of its ])rogress, and its probahle, if not its inevitable consequences. He could not shut his eyes to the con- stant collisions, the heart burn- ings, the combinations and the certain corruption to which its continual exercise would tend, both in and out of Congress. In the conscientious discharge of Constitutional duty, which he was not at liberty to decline, he had withheld his signature from this bill, and had frankly submit- ted to us his views upon this im- portant question ; and he trusted we would deliberate upon it tem- perately, as we should, and in the vote which we were about to give up J the reconsideration of this bill, according to the powers of the Constitution, express the opinions which we entertain, and not make a false issue, growing out of a personal assauh upon the character or n^otivcs of the Chief 'Miifiistrjite. By denying the power to con- struct roads and canals, by refus- ing to assume the exercise of any doubtful power, and by deeming it safest to refer die question to our common constituents for an amendment to the Constitution,- die President had deprived him- self of a powerful branch of Ex- ecutive patronage and influence, and has thereby given the most conclusive evidence of his integ- rity of purpose, and the strongest refutation of the affected and stale cant of his enemies, that, because he wt.s once a leader of the armies of his country, he w^ould be disposed in the civil government to assume more pow- ers than legitimately belonged to him. The power of interposing the Executive veto upon the le- gislation of Congress had been often exercised since the com- mencement of the Government under the present Constitution. It had generally been exercised upon Constitutional ground. But instances were to be found where the power had been exercised v^holly upon the grounds of the inexpediency of the measure. A single instance he would cite. On the 28th February, 1797, General Washington returned, with his objections, to the House in which it originated, a bill which had passed Congress, and which had been presented to him for his signature, entided ' An act to as- certain and fix the military es- tablishment of the United States.' He withheld his signature from this bill, not because of the un- constitutionality of its provisions, but because, in his opinion, it was inexpedient to pass it. Mr Madison, during his administra- tion, had put its veto upon seve- ral bills besides the bonus bill. The exercise of this constitution- INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 207 al power by the Executive, had never been received with alarm ; but, on the contrary, had been regarded, as it was intended to be, as a necessary and wholesome check upon the acts of the legis- lature. Mr P. P. Barbour rose and said, he felt impelled, by an imperious sense of justice, to say something in vindication and justification of the Chief Magistrate of the Union, against the strong animadversion ra which gentlemen had indulged towards him, because he had dared to do his duty. Was it in the contemplation of those who framed the Constitu- tion, that the President should be set up as a more pageant, with powers possessed in theory, but never to be reduced to practice ? or w^as it intended that this veto upon legislation, like every other power, should be exercised when- soever the occasion should occur to make it necessary ? Do not gentlemen perceive that they might, with as much reason, complain that the Senate had negatived one of our bills ? for ihey, too, are only a coordinate branch of the legislature, as is the Executive Magistrate. Sir, each department, and eve- ry branch of each department of Government has its appropriate functions assigned. The coun- try expects and requires every one to do its duly, w^hether it consists of one man or a plurality of men. And whosoever shall fail to do so, though he may hope to consult his safety by an avoid- ance of responsibility, will find that he has forfeited the esteem and confidence which are inva- riably awarded by public opinion to firmness and fidelity in the performance of public trusts. The Constitution proceeds up- on the idea that Congress, com- posed of the Senate and House of Representatives, is not infalli- ble. It has, therefore, erected the additional barrier of the Ex- ecutive veto against hasty or inju- dicious action. It contemplates that veto as countervailing the opinion of one third of both Houses, because its interposition makes the concur- rence of two thirds of both Houses necessary. To complain, then, of its exercise is to quarrel with the form of Government under which we live. It is the precise reverse of a complaint which we have often heard of in a Euro- pean monarchy. There, the King complained whenever the Parliament refused to register his edicts. Here, the Congress are to complain whenever the Chief Magistrate declines to register their will. I rejoice, sir, that he has so de- clined. ] congratulate my country that, in this instance, the Chief Magistrate has displayed as much of moral, as he heretofore did of physical courage. The main purpose of the gen- tleman from Ohio seems /o be to inculcate the opinion that the rejection of the bill in question w^as with a view to acquire popu- larity. Look at the circumstan- ces of the case, and tell me whether this opinion can be sus- tained. This bill w^as not only carried by a majority, as it must have been, but by a decisive majority 208 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. of both Houses of Congress. Can any man suppose that a President who set out upon an adventure in quest of popularity, would make his first experiment against a question which, by passing both Houses of Congress, seemed to carry with it the approbation of the States, and the people of the States? On the contrary, if he were going for himself rather than for his country, would he not, by approving the bill, have just floated down the current of apparent pubHc opinion, without encountering the least impedi- ment in his course? Instead of this, sir, what has he done ? Re- garding his country more than himself, looking with an eye that never wdnked to the public good, and not to his personal aggran- dizement, he has withholden his approval from this bill, which was a favorite bantling with a majori- ty of both Houses of Congress ; he has thus placed himself in a position where he has to win his way to public approbation, in this respect, under as adverse circum- stances as the mariner who has to row up stream against wind and tide. Sir, the man who is in quest of popularity and power would have taken a difl^erent course. By approving this bill and thus continuing the system of inter- nal improvement, the President would have commanded an im- mense amount of patronage, as well in the disbursement of count- less millions of money, as in ap- pointments to office. And yet, though these means of power and influence would be at his own command, though he presents the rare example of an Executive Magistrate rejecting the use of that which would contribute so much to personal aggrandizement, he is still charged with courting popularity. Sir, I hail this act of the Presi- dent as ominous of the most auspicious results. Among the many excellent doctrines which have grown out of our republican system, is this ; that the blessings of freedom can- not be enjoyed without a fre- quent recurrence to fundamental principles. In this instance we are making that recurrence. It would seem, sir, that the period of about thirty years constitutes a political cycle. Thirty years ago, at the opening of the present century, our Government was drawn back to its original princi- ples ; the vessel of state, like one at sea, had gotten upon a wrong tack, and the new pilot who was then placed at the helm, brought it again into the right course for the purpose of reaching its proper destination. In the progress of a long voyage it has again de- clined from its proper course. And I congratulate the whole crew that we have found another pilot with enough of skill in navi- gation and firmness, again to cor- rect the declination. The present Chief Magistrate, sir, ' had done the State some service' hereto- fore ; but in my estimation it was but as dust in the balance, com- pared with the good which he has now done. I not only concur with the President as far as he goes in his views, but I go farther. He de- nies the power of Congress to INTERNAL MPROVEMENT. 209 construct roads, with a claim of jurisdiction So do I. He ad- mits that, as the Constitution has been long construed, the power to appropriate money for such pur- poses as are really national, must be acquiesced in, until the diffi- culty is removed by an amend- ment. In this I differ from the President, as he has a right to difTer from me and from both Houses of Congress. But as I claim the right to follow the lights of my own judgment, so I am always ready to acknowledge that of the President to do the sanie. But I will not now go into the Constitutional question. Apart from this, let me ask whether there are not abundant reasons for the course which the Presi- dent has pursued ? He tells you the subject has been involved in doubt, and has produced much diversity of opinion. This is a part of the political history of the country. Is it not the part of wisdom, as well patriotism, to submit this question to the States, in the form of amendment, rather than press on against the known will of a large portion of them ? The States feel a deep sense of loyalty to the Union ; but they feel, too, that they have rights to demand as well as duties to per- form. Let us not place them in a situation where they may be driven to a course that would be called patriotism by some and rebellion by others, but which, by whatsoever name it might be called, would endanger the suc- cess of our great experiment, the benefits of which concern the whole human family. The course suggested by the Chief Magistrate is calculated to avert these dan- gers. When members on this floor maintain any principles, they have no weight but that which belongs to them as individuals ; but when a suggestion comes from the Executive, and espe- cially accompanying his rejection of a bill, it brings with it all the authority to which the opinion of a branch of the Government is entitled. An issue is thus made up between him and Con- gress, which will cause the people to deliberate ; and thus we may hope that it will be calmly deci- ded by them, so as to put the subject forever to rest. Sir, there are other reasons why this course, pursued by the Executive, should meet our de- cided approbation. I allude to the inequality and demoralizing tendency of this system. A distribution made upon prin- ciples of actual inequahty will produce deep disgust on the one side, and fostering corruption on the other. I mean no offence to any State or individual ; the remark applies without distinction, to all States and individuals, under all circum- stances. Sir, the history of all people, nations, tongues and lan - guages teaches us the same mel- ancholy truth, that all Govern- ments, of whatever form, have finally perished by corruption. Mr Vance said that, the course pursued by the President would not operate on his mind, either for or against that individual. He reminded the House that he had himself been always an advocate of the system of internal improve- ^10 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. m ent. He stated that, by that system the west must stand or fall. Unless it be sustained, the west can never have any partici- pation in the appropriations of the General Government. As soon as the wealth derived from emi- gration shall be exhausted, the west must be drained of every dollar unless this system be con- tinued. It is only by its contin- uance that the prosperity of those who now live in the west can be prevented from becoming hewers of wood and drawers of water to the Eastern States. He stated that the south had, during the last year, received more of the disbursements of the General Government than had been ex- pended in the whole of the west- ern country on internal improve- ment. He then defended his colleague from the attack made upon him by the gentleman from Tennessee. His colleague (Mr Stanberry) was able to sustain himself. That gentleman should have more gratitude for his col- league and for the balance of the Ohio and Kentucky and Pennsyl- vania delegation, who would now vote against him on the question. For himself, he felt no disappoint- ment, for he had foretold from the stump the course which the present administration would take. His colleagues had also, from the stump declared that they well understood the thing, and that General Jackson was the firm, steady and consistent friend of internal improvement. It was clear that he had so far succeed- ed in concealing his real feelings on the subject as to deceive those gentlemen. They had, however. gone hand in hand with the gen- tleman from Tennessee, and had gained the victory. They had attained the triumph and now they were receiving their reward. When this message came into the House it struck a damp to the feelings of those individuals, who then felt the final destruction of all their fond hopes. Mr Bell said, when the mem- ber from Ohio (Mr Stanberry), took his seat, his feelings had prompted an immediate reply, not more because of the unprece- dented manner of the attack upon the message which had been the subject of remark, than of the nature of the allusion which had been made to a bill not now be- fore the House. The member from Ohio has told the House that a majority of its members were d ragooned into the passage of the Indian bill by the Heads of Departments. I had hoped that we should hear no more upon the subject of that bill, upon this floor, in the tone which had been so finely indulg- ed by many of the gentlemen who had spoken against it, par- ticularly as the concluding argu- ment had been waived. It was not enough that, in the discussion of that bill when it was directly before the House, every epithet of reproach had been thrown out against its author : that one mem- ber should say it was perfidious ; another, that it was infamous, and a third, that open bribery had found a sanction in the officers of the Government ; and all these denunciations did pass almost un- noticed by the friends of the ad- ministration. I sat still and for- INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 211 bore reply under repeated slan- ders of this kind ; and at the in- stance of the friends of the mea- sure, and in consideration of the advanced period of the session, permitted the question to be final- ly taken, without reply. The President, in taking the ground he did upon the Indian question, knew that he was incur- ring great responsibility ; that he was shocking deeply wrought prejudices in various classes of the community ; in many sec- lions strong religious feelings ; that he was exposing himself to the arts and misrepresentations of his political enemies, yet he dared to take the course he did, be- cause he loved his country and its institutions ; that country for which he had hazarded more than mere personal popularity upon repeated occasions — for which he had offered to die. What had he gained by his course upon that question ? The Presi- dent had taken a strong interest in the success of the policy of removing the Indians, because he thought it calculated to preserve the harmony of the republic, and its reputation from a blot, which the inherent difficulties of our relations with the southern tribes, and the irritations likely to grow out of them might bring upon it. But, sir, when he had laid the proposition before Congress he felt his conscience free. He had done what duty prompted ; the rest was to be decided. [Here Mr Vance called Mr Bell to or- der, as he was discussing a bill not before the House]. Sir, I refer to this measure because it has been brought into this discus- sion. The administration has been charged with taking an im- proper interest in it ; and it has been repeatedly referred to as an instance of the extravagance of this Congress. We have been told, in this debate, that while the President scruples to appro- priate money to internal improve- ment, he has urged the adoption of another measure, and by his influence, carried it through the House, involving an expenditure of half a million of dollars, and that, too, to further a ruinous and disgraceful policy. I consider everything I have said, or shall say upon this subject, strictly in order. When this measure was directly the subject of discussion, I stated that the extravagance of an administration would never be decided merely by the amount expended — that the intelligence of the country, in making up its verdict upon such a question, would look to the propriety of the expenditure — to the neces- sity which demanded the appli- cation of the public treasure ; and that praise or censure would fol- low as the objects to be accom- plished were for good or for evil. I also then stated that, the removal of the Indians would bring more money into the Treasury by re- moving the incumbrance of the Indian tide from the public lands, than would be drawn from it ; but enough of this now. It has been said in the course of the debate, that the President has undertaken to decide against the will of the people, as ex- pressed through their representa- tives in Congress, that appropria- tions shall not be made to objects 212 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. of internal improvement. The ponstilution allows the veto of ihe President upon the will of a majority of Congress. By the course pursued in the present in- stance, the subject is recommit- ted to Congress, and an appeal will ultimately be carried before ihe people, who will, in their re- turns to the next Congress, pro- nounce upon the motives of the President, and approve or con- demn his councils, as they shall think fit. Before that tribunal he will be arraigned, and if they shall not see the evils of the pres- ent system of appropriation in the light he does, he is willing to be prostrated in their esteem. But, sir, I do not understand the Presi- dent to be opposed to internal improvement. Jt is the present unequal and distracting m^ode of appropriating the public treasure, which he has set his face against. A patriotic system of dispensing the general funds for the improve- ment of the country — a system which, while it professes to act for the general good, and to be- come a cement to the Union, shall be so, in fact ; one which shall be secured against abuses by an amendment of the Consti- tution, is decidedly approved by the message. The expediency of proceeding in the system, as at present practised, is, it is true, as decidedly denied ; but it is not proposed to dam up, forever, the stream from the Treasury for the beneficent purposes of inter- nal improvement ; this I do not believe the people will consent to ; but it is proposed to check its flow in its present wild and un- restricted channel. It is believed that the present burthens of the country may be greatly diminish- ed ; that manufactures may be duly encouraged, and still have u surplus in the Treasury, ample enough for the accomplishment of every desirable object of inter- nal improvement. The gentleman from Ohio, last up (Mr Vance), has spoken in an improper manner of the fading prospects of the west; and dep- recated the idea of diminished expenditures for its benefit. 1 claim also to be a friend to the interests of the west — that west to which I belong by birth, and I promise that gentleman to go along with him, side by side, in asserting its claim to be regarded in the distribution of the favors of this Government — its claim to a fair portion of whatever funds shall be appropriated to internal improvement ; but I differ with him as to the mode of applying them. 1 contend that the half million, which it would require to extend the Zanesville road through Kentucky, and to make it permanent, applied under the direction of the Legislature of that State, to various roads of smaller extent, leading from her interior secluded and fertile dis- tricts, to the great oudets which nature has already provided lor carrying off the productions of the whole west, would secure a great- er actual amelioration of the con- dition and prospects of the peo- ple of that State, than two millions expended upon any free great road, extending quite through the State, and belonging to any great system of national improve- ment, executed under the waste- INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, 213 ful superintendence of the Gene- ral Government. I affirm that the same increased proportion of actual advantage and ameliora- tion would attend the application of a small amount to similar ob- jects in Ohio, or in any other western State under the direc- tion of the local authorities, over a large sum administered by the General Goveruinent. Mr Sutherland said, he should vote in favor of the bill. He said Pennsylvania was the friend of internal improvements, and also the friend of General Jack- son, and she would abide by both, waiting with confidence for the slow but certain process by which the system of improvements would universally prevail. The Presi- dent had, in rejecting the bill, exercised only his constitutional power, and he (Mr Sutherland,) and his constituents, in support- ing it, were only exercising the power which the Constitution granted to them. He represent- ed a State which was friendly to both ; for in fact, Pennsylvania was the first State which had given the present Chief Magistrate an undivided support, and which was also while it had lost no con- fidence in its first object, being the general good of his country, friendly to the great principle of iaternal improvement. That such would, sooner or later, be the universal sentiment of the nation, he had no doubt the course of time and the course of human afi?airs would render apparent. Mr Isacks said, he was sin- cerely sorry to feel it a duty he owed to himself to say a few words on this subject. From !9 what had of late fallen from dif- ferent members, and other indi- cations, he scarcely knew wheth- er even he was regarded as the friend or enemy of this administra- tion. To such as might wish to monopolize the entire support of the administration he had but lit- tle to say. This he might say perhaps, without offence, that ' he was an older (not a better) sol- dier' than those who had on this day, so much to his satisfaction, pronounced their eulogies upon the President. He had been longer in the service of that cause which brought the present Ex- ecutive into power than many who were now far ahead of him, at least, in their own estimation. Mr Isacks said, when he came here some seven years ago, a col- league of the President's, if mem- bers of different Houses can be called so, the Tennessee delega- tion, with one exception, old George Kremer, and perhaps half a dozen others, were all the political friends that could then be numbered for him in Con- gress. Nothing could be more grateful to him than the multipli- cation since. He was now, and had been ever since, to this mo- ment, no less the devoted, per- sonal and political friend of the President than he was then and had been before. And in vindi- cation of his honor, his honesty, patriotism and firmness of pur- pose, he would, on any proper occasion, ' go as far as he that goes farthest,' and he trusted that his acts, in and out of this House, during the two last struggles foi the Presidency would be taken as a sufficient guarantee for that| 214 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. pledge. But on the present question he differed from the President, and what of that ? We have, said Mr Isacks, differed before. During the Congress that we were representatives of Tennessee, we often differed ; but there was then a class of sub- jects we did not differ upon. We voted together (I speak from memory, not records) on the survey bill, on the bill to subscribe stock to the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, on the bill for the construction of the road from Canton to Zanesville, in Ohio, and on the bill appropriating fifty thousand dollars to remove ob- structions in the Mississippi river. I do not say, and must not be un- derstood to mean that, by those votes, either he or I stand com- mitted for this bill : but for my- self I will say that, under the in- fluence of opinions formed during the period in which those bills were discussed, and which opin- ions have never since been chang- ed or shaken, I did, upon mature reflection, vote for this bill when it was here before ; my opinion, notwithstanding the arguments by which the President's objections are so powerfully urged, remain the same, and if I live, I will vote for it again. And do I expect by that to offend the President ? Not so. If it were to do it, it would prove that I am what I am, and he is not Andrew Jackson ! ! ! I think I know the man who now fills the Executive chair well no ugh to be convinced that if ithout a change of opinion, I should feel so strongly the influ- ence of the message as to change my vote on this bill, he would think me a villain. I am certain he ought, under such circum- stances, to despise me, as I should myself, and am sure he would. But suppose we had a Chief Magistrate capable of tak- ing offence, and feeling resent- ment for honest consistency i-n others, I would say to him, 1 can- not help it ; to you, Mr Presi- dent, I owe no responsibilities ; to none but God and my con- stituents do I acknowledge re- sponsibility, and these I vAW dis- charge as I may. My colleague (Mr Bell) anti- cipates the final settlement of the great question of internal im- provement when the people shall decide, and their will is repre- sented. I heartily join him in that appeal to the people, and so far as I can, will cheerfully stake the fate of internal improvement, yes, and my own fate politically, upon that issue. Will my col- league do likewise ? Sir Kennon observed that, be- ing perfectly satisfied in his own mind that all the arguments which could be adduced would not change a single vote upon the subject, he felt himself bound to move the previous question. The motion was agreed to by a vote of yeas 105, nays 76. So the previous question was car- ried. The main question, which w'as the passage of the bill, the ob- jections of the President notwith- standing, was then put, w^ien there appeared to be yeas 96, nays 92. Two thirds of the House not agreeing to pass the bill, it was rejected. On the 29th of May the House INTERNAL IMPROVEMET. proceeded to take up several other bills, which originated in the Senate, authorizing internal improvements ; and as if with the view of evincing its total disregard of the opinions of the President, the House passed the following bills : 1st. One authorizing a sub- scription to the Washington Turn- pike Company. The previoi>s question was demanded and the bill was ordered to a third read- ing — yeas 81, nays 47, and passed, 74 yeas, 39 nays. 3d. A bill authorizing a sub- scription to the stock of the Lou- isville and Portland Canal Com- pany. Here an attempt was made to delay the proceedings by demanding a call of the House ; but the call was refused, 43 yeas, 91 nays. The previous question was then demanded and the bill was ordered to a third reading, 83 yeas, 52 nays, and passed, 80 yeas, 37 nays. The act making appropriations for light-houses, improving har- bors and directing surveys, &ic, which had been amended in the Senate, was also called for, and various efforts were ineffectually made by the friends of the Presi- dent to prevent a vote on the bill by motions to adjourn and for a call of the House. These having failed, the previous ques- tion was ordered, yeas 95, nays 44, and the amendments proposed by the Senate were put separate- ly and passed. On the amendment relating to the improvement of the naviga- tion of Back Creek, in Maryland, the vote stood, yeas 76, nays 60. The amendments having all pass- ed, the bill was sent, together with the two other bills, to the President for his approbation. The first bill being similar to the one already rejected, was return- ed to the Senate, where it origi- nated, with a reference to the message rejecting the Maysville bill for his reasons. The Senate then proceeded to reconsider this bill, and on the question of its pas- sage, notwithstanding the objec- tions 5 the vote stood, yeas 21, nays 17, andthe bill was reject- ed. The other bills, viz. that au- thorizing a subscription to the Louisville Canal, and the bill for building light-houses were retain- ed for further consideration imti the next session of Congress. The manner in which they were finally disposed of must of course be reserved for a future volume. This determination of the Ex- ecutive against the system of in- ternal improvement gave great offence to many ol his friends and entirely alienated some from his party. Even in Congress such an in- creasing want of confidence was manifested that the decided ma- jorities which the administration possessed in both Houses at the commencement of the session had dwindled before its close into fee- ble and inefficient minorities. Nor was this the only difficulty to which the President had expos- ed himself by his decision. In seeking to temporize and to lay down a rule satisfactory to both parties, he had assumed an unsafe position, more difficult to maintain than either of the oppo- site points, which he sought to 216 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 avoid, and contradictory, not only to his votes when a federal Sena- tor, but also to bills already sanc- tioned by him as President. The Cumberland road, the Detroit and Chicago road were within the lim- its of States, while the bill for the improvement of harbors and re- moving obstructions in rivers was only another branch in the gener- al system of internal improve- ment. That bill, which was ap- proved April 23d, appropriated for removing obstructions in the Ohio and other interior rivers $85,474 ; for improving by piers and otherwise the harbors in the lakes $21,607 ; for improving harbors on the Atlantic $28,607; for piers and breakwaters on the Atlantic $185,010 ; for the pre- servation of Plymouth beach $1,850 ; for deepening an inland passage between St John's and St Mary's rivers $1,500; for improving the navigation of rivers on the Atlantic $27,688. Tlie approval of the bill au- thorizing these appropriations left it still doubtful how far the Presi- dent felt at liberty to assent to internal improvement bills, and of the exact extent and limits of the principles by which Lie intend- ed to be governed during the res- idue of his administration. Some dissatisfaction was excited by the unusual course he adopted, of re- taining bills until the next session, and the country looked forward with some curiosity for the further development of his views on this question, at the next session of Congress. CHAPTER VIII. MEXICO. Condition of Country. — -Invasion from Havana. — Defeat and Capitulation of Invaders. — Revolution. — Separation of Yuca- tan. — Abdication of Guerrero. — Bustamente chosen. The last important incident re- corded in our summary of events in Mexico, for the year ending in July, 1829, was the expedition fitted out against her in the Ha- vana, under the command of General Isidor Barradas ; a cir- cumstance which instead of in- flicting injury upon the nascent liberties of the Mexicans, was for a time productive of great and important benefits. The sanguine hopes that had been entertained of permanent tranquillity and pros- perity under the vigorous admin- istration of President Guerrero, had already began to fade away ; the seeds of disease were too deeply planted, to be eradicated so easily ; the finances of the country were inextricably en- tangled ; commerce was still de- clining, and the revenues were necessarily diminished in propor- tion. The army, strengthened in power and encouraged in pre- sumption by its agency in the late revolution, had too long in- dulged in license to yield quietly to the supremacy of civil rule, and but for the approach of dan- 19* ger from abroad to occupy its attention and employ its energies, it is probable that anarchy would soon have triumphed over the fatal weakness of the new admin- istration. The hopes of the Spanish Government and the royalist party from the invading expedition were soon to be dissipated. They had calculated largely upon the internal difficulties and dissensions of the Mexicans, and the utter impossibility of defence was strongly insisted on. The celebrated castle of St Juan D'Ulloa was said to be in a state of dilapidation ; the Mexican fleet was greatly inferior to that under the command of Commodore Laborde ; and the greatest reli- ance was placed upon the intes- tine divisions of the country, and the supposed unpopularity of the Government, arising from the ex- pulsion of the Spaniards. But if the means of resistance were feeble, those of the invaders were contemptible, and their measures the most ill-judged and unwise that ever disgraced an incompe- 218 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. tent commander. The whole number of the Spanish army was but little more than 4000 ; and with this inconsiderable force, they landed upon the shores of Mexico in August, a season of the year when pestilence taints every breeze, to attempt the con- quest of a country through which, on account of ph)sical impedi- ments, it is difficult to march a body of troops even Vv'hcn unop- posed, and in which they could rely only upon their own resources for supplies and subsistence. The Spaniards landed at Tarn- pico on the 27th of July ; and notwithstanding the alleged weak- ness of the Government and luke- warmness of the people, the most vigorous preparations were promptly made for their reception. The Congress, in the exercise of its unlimited prerogative, invested the President with extraordinary powers, to be retained until the danger should be at an end ; and General Santa Ana at the head of about two thousand men ad- vanced to Tuspacu, distant only 70 miles from the place of de- barkation. As soon as he re- ceived information of the landing of the enemy, he hastened to meet them at Tampico where he arrived on the 19th of August. Barradas in the meantime had marched with the greater part of his force, to attack General La Gargia, then occupying Altamiva with about 3000 men, who re- treated before him — but he was soon recalled from the pursuit. On the 20th of August, Santa Ana attacked the old town of Tampico, the head quarters of the Spaniards, of whom however but a few hundreds had been left by Barradas for its defence. These, with the sick, offered a stout resistance to the efforts of the Mexicans for a time j but tha disparity of numbers was too great and the remnant of the Spaniards were actually in treaty for the surrender of the place, when their General, abandoning the pursuit of La Gargia, arrived by a forced march to their assis- tance and Santa Ana was com^ pelled to retire. The rest of the month of August was passed in inaction, but every day added to the distresses and difficulties of the Spaniards. The reinforce ments which they expected from Cuba did not arrive ; the number of the sick daily increased ; and the army of Santa Ana was con- stantly receiving accessions of fresh troops and of artillery. The result could not be long de- layed ; and on the 10th of Sep- tember, General Barradas surren- dered upon favorable terms of capitulation. The Spaniards evacuated the citadel, and deliv- ered up their arms, standards and ammunitions, but the officers were permitted to retain their swords ; and it was agreed that until the arrival of transports from Havana, the invaders should remain at Vittoria, defraying their own ex- penses, and giving their parol never to return or bear arms against the Mexican republic. The success of Santa Ana was hailed by the people with the ut- most enthusiasm, and the only effect of the Spanish invasion appeared to be an increase of the power and stability of the Gov- ernment, by the distinction of a ABDICATION OF GUERRERO. 219 military triumph. But the gain was only temporary. The re- action of feeling, particularly among the military, was powerful in the extreme, and soon resulted in another revolution, less violent indeed than those which had pre- ceded it, but equally effectual and far more unaccountable. The state of Yucatan com- menced by a declaration against the Federal Government and in favor of a Central Government. The immediate cause of discon- tent appears to have been the re- luctance of Guerrero to resign the extraordinary powers with which he had been invested on the ap- proach of the Spaniards ; but it is probable that this unwillingness was only seized upon by his political opponents as a pretext for resorting to violence. Various insurrectionary movements of slight importance occurred in several of the States, of which the Vice President Bustamente is supposed to have been the prin- cipal instigator; but no serious apprehensions were entertained by Guerrero and his party until the 4th of December, 1 829, the anniversary of the Yorkino revo- lution of the preceding year. On that day Bustamente placed himself at the head of the army of reserve, stationed in the state of Vera Cruz, issued a proclama- tion denouncing the abuses and usurpations of the executive, and commenced his march upon the capital to enforce the reform which he alleged to be necessary. Santa Ana published an ener- getic proclamation promising to support Guerrero, but before he had reached Salapa, he received news of his overthrow. » Guerrero immediately resigned his extraordinary powers, con- voked the Congress, and appeal- ed to them for support. He then left the Capital with a small body of troops to meet the approach- ing enemy. His departure was the signal for the troops left in the city of Mexico to declare their adherence to the party of Bustamente, and a complete and bloodless revolution was effected on the 22d of December. Gen- eral Quintanar, at the head of the troops in the Capital, made a declaration of adherence to the plan of Bustamente, urging the assembling of a council of gov- ernment, and naming three per- sons to compose it, one of whom was the President of the Supreme Court of justice. At dawn the garrison troops peaceably occu- pied the citadel, the Acordadaj and all the other guard posts ex- cept the Palace, from which tliey were fired upon for a short timcj between one and two o'clock, and again from about half past five, A, M. to nine, when that also was taken, after the loss of only ten or twelve men. No disorder took place afterwards^ and the shops and public walks were open the same day as usuaL The council immediately as- sembled, nominated Quintanar and Alaman as associates with Sr. Velez, President of the court of justice, to exercise the Gov- ernment, and they began their duties that very evening. Guer- rero thus placed between two enemies and suspicious of the fidelity of the small number of soldiers who still adhered to him, found himself compelled to adopt the only safe course that remained 220 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30^ to him, by abdicating the Presi- dency and returning to his es- tate. His example was imme- diately followed by Santa Ana and the other leaders of his party, and the provisional Government composed of Velez, Alaman and General Quintanar, assumed the administration of affairs until the arrival of Bustamente. Perfect tranquillity was at once restored to the Capital, and General Bus- tamente was elected by the army as the temporary successor of Guerrero. This latest change in the Gov- ernment is remarkable for the number and variety of the differ- ent parties by whose united in- fluence it was effected, and the difficulty of discovering the mo- tives by which some of them can be supposed to have been actuated. Federalist and Centralist, York- inos and Escoceses seem to have forgotten all their animosities, and it is impossible to discern in the composition of the triumphant party, any distinctive principle by means of which the incongruities of their co-operation can be ex- plained. Certain it is that the popularity of Guerrero was much diminished even among his own immediate partisans, and that his measures after his elevation to the Presidency, were received with but litde favor by the people in general. The rich were displeased with his decree for the abolition of slavery, which yet was productive •of but little benefit to the slaves, whose condition was already but very slightly inferior to that of the citizens. The greatest dis- content however prevailed among the military, and as in all the other Mexican revolutions, the downfal of Guerrero is chiefly to be ascribed to their immediate agency. Its consequence upon the republic, were of no great importance. In fact the revolu- tion cannot be considered as the triumph of one party over another, and not likely to be attended with any results much more striking or permanent, than a change of administration produces in this country or in England. On the 8th of January, the fol- lowing States of the Confedera- tion had sent in their adhesion to the new order of things : — Mex- ico, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Jalis- co, Queretero, Puebla, Vera Cruz andOajaca. Bustamente had ap- pointed the Cabinet already pub- lished ; and the old ministers had returned to their homes. The manifesto published by Bustamente at Mexico on receiv- ing the Government, is very long, and promises to conduct every- thing with the utmost submission to order and the Constitution, speaking of the continued exer- cise of the extraordinary powers by Guerrero as very improper, and of various improvements in the administration as necessary and required by the public exi- gencies and the public wish. The only incident of moment which appeared to grow out of the demonstration of Bustamente, was the separation of the State or province of Yucatan from the confederacy, which was declared by a Federal Act of the Provin- cial Legislature, signed at Merida on the 9th of November, imme- diately after the issuing of the BUSTAMENTE PRESIDENT. proclamation of the Vice Presi- dent. And even this, it is not improbable, would have taken place although perhaps not so soon, had Guerrero continued to fill the presidential chair. In fact the little importance of the revolution, as it is called, consid- ered with reference to its effects upon the policy and condition of the republic, is proved by the facility with which it was accom- plished, and the remarkably short period in which perfect tranquillity was restored. It remains to be seen how long the Government of Bustamente is to continue, and whether and to what extent his administration is likely to ad- vance the interests and improve the condhion of the people. Up to the present time (August, 1830) everything has gone on well and harmoniously. No incident of im- portance has occurred since the installation of the new President, and he is represented as popular, and as being actively and suc- cessfully engaged in the arduous task of restoring the finances, and augmenting the wealth and power of the republic. CHAPTER IX. C OLOMBIA . Mosquer a elected President. — Castilloes project of a Constitution. Congress convolved, on January, 1830. — Attempt to introduce a Monarchy. — Revolt of Cordova. — Arrival of Bolivar at Bo- gota. — Resigns Ms office to Congress. — Message to Congress : Character of do. — Separation of Venezuela. — Causes of Dis- content. — Overthrow of Government. — Negotiations. — Mos- quera chosen by Congress. — Commotions at Bogota. — Constitu- tion accepted. — Sucre assassinated. — Movements in favor of Bolivar. — Dissolution of the Government. — Bolivar reassumes the Government. — Bolivar^ s Death. The history of Colombia during the period which falls within the history of this year is so interwov- en with former events, that for the purpose of a full understanding of its political relations, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate. In the last volume of the Regis- ter will be found a detailed account of the manoeuvres which resulted in the appointment of Bolivar as Supreme Chief of the republic. In this station he remained until the 4th of May, 1820, at which period the Constituent Congress having received his eighth and last renunciation, elected Senor Joachim Mosquera, President of Columbia. During this last administration of the Government by Bolivar, certain facts occurred, which as having an important bearing on the sub^quent history of the country, we will now proceed to detail. The Liberator having been in- vested with unlimhed authority, named a council of State to assist him in the administration of the public affairs, composed of the following inidviduals : Jose Maria Castillo, President of the Council, Jose Manuel Restrepo, Secretary of the Interior, Gen. Rafael Urdaneta, Secretary of War, Istanislao Vergusa, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Nicolos Fanno, Secretary of the Treasury, and Geronimo For- nes, Joachim Mosquera, Jose Felix Valdivia, the Archbishop of Bogota, Maotin Santiago of Ycusa, and Colonel Domingo Espinar, Secretaries. Mosquera unwillingly accepted CONGRESS. 223 the appointment at the urgent re- quest of Bolivar and after three months sent in his resignation and retired. During the first session of the council, Senor Castillo, submitted the project of a Constitution, which throws some additional light upon the motives and designs of the dominant party. According to this project the executive power was vested in a President without re- sponsibility and five ministers of State to be appointed by him and responsible for all the acts of the executive. The legislative power was to be composed of two chambers, one of senators, who were to be ap- pointed by the President, who could remove them at pleasure, and the lower house of representa- tives, one to be chosen by each province. There was also to be an exec- utive council of State composed of the Vice President, who was to be elected by the Provinces, and the Secretaries of State and a num- ber of deputies from the chamber of representatives. All the coun- cillors, with the exception of Mos- quera, approved of this basis. Mosquera expressed an opinion adverse to the project founded on various reasons, of which the prin- cipal ones were, that in his judg- ment, allowing that the acts of the people were the expression of their free will, still they had conferred the dictatorship upon Bolivar, only until the next assembly of the national representation, and that these words were an express re- serve of the right of constituting a Congress of Deputies of their own free choice. He also observed, that the Colombians had generally manifested their opposition to a Senate subject to the pleasure of the executive, and although it would be joined by a chamber of duputies, they v/ere few in number and utterly disproportioned to the population of the provinces. Finally he explained the causes, which induced him to believe that if such a Constitution were given to Colombia, it would produce another revolution. The Liberator then said, that although there was but one vote in opposition, the reasons advanced by Mosquera gave him great pain and he would take time to delib- erate. On the following day he de- clared to the council his opinion agreeing with Mosquera and the project was abandoned. The Supreme Chief then pub- lished the organic decree of the 27th August, 1828, which was to serve as a provisional Constitution until the second of January, 1830, for which period he offered to convoke the national representa- tion for the purpose of giving a new Constitution to the Republic. After the termination of the war with Peru, by the treaty of peace concluded in Guayaquil on the 22d September, 1829, public attention was directed to the meeting of the constituent Con- gress convoked for the 2d of Jan- uary, 1830, with the view of giving a complete and efficient reorgani- zation of the republic upon a firm and permanent basis. On arriving at this epoch, which has terminated in universal confu- sion, we will briefly review some of the most remarkable facts which. 224 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. have thus placed Colombia on the brink of ruin and shaken her po- h'tical fabric to its foundation. During the absence of Bolivar in the South, the administration of the Government was placed in the hands of his council of Ministers. It had before been suggested, that the most appropriate form of government for Colombia, was a Monarchy, and the present mo- ment wrs seized upon to effect the change. M. de Bresson and the Duke of Montebello had just arrived at Bo- gota as Commissioners of the King of France, and the project was proposed to them, with the under- standing that if France would ren- der her assistance, they would propose the coronation of a French Prince. This treasonable project was mainly supported by Gen. Rafael Urdaneta, a member of the coun- cil and Istanislao Vergusa, Secre- tary of Foreign Relations. The French Commissioners merely replied that they would inform the government of the pro- posal, as they had no authority to act in an affair of this character, and the French Government up to this period has not interfered. This affair constitutes one of those blots in the career of Bolivar, which the memory of his good deeds is scarcely sufficient to efface. That Bolivar knew of the pro- ject there is no doubt, that he dis- approved of it is equally true ; but his subsequent conduct clearly indicates that his disapproval was grounded not on his opposition to a monarchy but to a French mon- •arch. General Urdaneta wrote to Paez at Venezuela communicating to him the designs of the council of ministers, and as will presently appear, produced an excitement, which was only quieted by the separation of that ancient province from the Republic of Colombia. Meanwhile, Jose Maria Cordo- va, general of division, arrived from the South and placing himself at the head of some patriots in the province of Novita, raised the cry of liberty. The Governor of the province of Novita followed his example ; but the movement was partial and ineffectual. The council of ministers, knowing the intrepidity and patri- otism of Cordova had prepared themselves for the ^emergency. And a strong column was imme- diately despatched from Bogota against him, headed by General O'Leary, by whom he was defeat- ed, and mortally wounded, not without suspicions that his wounds were not received in battle. Bolivar, who was still in the South, and who knew full well the disposition of Cordova, receiv- ed from him a letter in which he declared with frankness and ener- gy his firm resolve to die if neces- sary in defence of the liberty of his country and the republican system. The inflammatory state of V^en- ezuela and the causes which were there preparing another revolution were equally known to him, and filled with alarm and disquietude, he set out on his march for the Capital. The precarious situation of public affairs and the increasing distrust of his own motives and designs, at length determined the MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. Liberator again and for the last time to retire from the civil com- mand, still however offering to sustain with his sword the Consti- tution which the new Congress should give to the republic. In the department of the South, the popular choice fixed upon Mosquera, who was then in Pa- payan, having withdrawn himself from public affairs since his retire- ment from the office of State Councillor. Bolivar on his march from the South visited Mosquera in Papayan and urged upon him his wish, that he would consent to become a candidate for the chair of State. It was said, that Mosquera at first declined the dangerous hon- or, pleading his ill health and his repugnance to undertake so ar- duous a charge as that of re- conciling the discordant materials of which Colombia was com- posed. It certainly was a difficult mat- ter for a single citizen to under- take to quiet the tempest then raging in the republic, and how- ever highly we think of the patri- otism and talents of Mosquera, we are disposed to question his power to have controlled the in- dependence of the immense number of military chieftains with which the country was ha- rassed, and which had in fact ren- dered it a military republic. Bolivar arrived at Bogota on the 15th of January, 1830, and on the 26th of the same month in- stalled the Constituent Congress of the republic. In his message to Congress of the same date, he makes use of these remarkable words ; 20 ' If it had not been my lot to possess the honorable advantage of calling upon you to represent the rights of the people, that in conformity with the wishes of your constituents, you might re- model our institutions, this would be the place to exhibit to you the fruit of twenty years' exertions consecrated to the service of my country. But it is not for me to point out what all the citizens have the right to demand from you. I alone am deprived of this civic privilege, because having called you together and explained your duties, it is not permitted me in any manner to influence your counsels. It would be superflu- ous to repeat to the delegates of the people what Colombia has written in characters of blood. My only duty is reduced to unre- stricted submission to the laws and the magistrates you may be- stow upon us, and my fervent as- piration is that the will of the people may be proclaimed, re- spected and fulfilled by its dele- gates.' After recommending in the strongest terms the necessity of naming another individual for the chair of State, he proceeds. ' Believe me, a new magistrate is indispensable for the republic. ' The people wish to know if I shall ever cease to command. Show yourselves, citizens, worthy of representing a free people by banishing every idea that op- poses me necessary to the repub- lic. ' A state dependent on one man ought not to exist, and will not exist. Hear my supplirat'ois Save the republic ! Preserve my 226 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. glory, which is the glory of Colombia. Dispose of the office of President, which I respect- fully resign into your hands. From this day I am no more than a citizen, armed to defend my country and ready to obey its laws. Discontinue my public employ- ments forever. I make to you a formal and solemn delivery of the supreme authority which the national suffrages have conferred upon me.' Besides the message of the Li- berator, there was presented to Congress by his order, an exposi- tion relating to the different bran- ches of administration, and the political circumstances of the Re- public. This document, signed by the President of the council, 25th of January, 1830, after pointing out the evils which had afflicted the republic, contains the following extraordinary expressions. ' During the last four years there have been discussions more or less warm, more or less impar- tial, upon the form of government suited to Colombians, and in the multitude of writings, the opinions of almost all the citizens have been expressed. ' All without exception have manifested their desire for the establishment of a government, which shall be the firmest founda- tion of liberty, which shall secure individual rights, and preserve sa- cred the inviolability of property of every kind. In regard to the executive power alone, there are differences of opinions. Some de- sire a Supreme Magistrate for life, others an Hereditary Monarch, but the greater part prefer an elective and temporal Chief Ma- gistrate.' It may be necessary with a view to a full and complete understand- ing of the important events of this year, to explain the character of the Congress to which this mes- sage was addressed. The elec- tions were undoubtedly free and regular. The different parties ex- erted themselves as customary in contested elections, in favor of their respective candidates ; and the contest terminated in the choice of a large majority of ancient and well tried patriots, and among the most illustrious in Colombia. Among the deputies at large. Bolivar had unquestionably a ma- jority, embracing therein a portion of those, w ho were in favor of a republican system of government, and who were unwilling to be- lieve the Liberator other than friendly to the system, which they themselves were pledged to sup- port. The conduct of Bolivar at this moment, when the mere ex- pression of his opinions in favor of a republic, would have prostrated the hopes of the agitators and gone far to have reconciled the feuds ex- isting throughout the country, was vacillating and temporizing. He refused to continue in office, but declined the expression of his opinion as to the form of Consti- tution they should adopt. It is certain, had it been his wish, Bo- livar might have been elected President, but the deference of that portion of his friends, who were attached to a liberal form of government and who held the bal- ance of power, would carry them CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. 227 no further,' and as he persisted in his refusal to serve, they waited on another candidate. Meanwhile the long smothered flame burst forth, and Venezuela, with Paez at her head, declared herself in- dependent of the Central Govern- ment at Bogota. We will here briefly trace the causes which led to this result. From the year 1821, when the Constitution of Colombia was first proclaimed, the municipality of Caraccas on taking the oath ob- served, that that portion of the republic had not been properly represented in the formation of that compact, and repeated mani- festations of discontent were sub- sequently evinced by the inhabit- ants of Venezuela towards the government at Bogota, which ex- cited fears, that they would think of separating from the rest of the republic. In IP26, as we have before remarked in a previous volume of this work, a revolution broke out proclaiming the federal form of government, and although the Liberator was able at that time to repress it, the fire of dis- cord Gtill burnt unnoticed. In the department of the South, and particularly in Quito (capital of the department of the Equator) they took the oath of allegiance to the Constitution in 1822, after having freed themselves from the Spanish sway, but expressed their unwillingness to be dependent on a Central Government resident at Bogota. From the first, they constantly insisted, that the Constitution had been formed without their concurrence, being at the tine of its promulgation under the yoke of Spain. The Constitution was indeed obeyed, but a jealous distrust of the government at Bogota, was evinced even in the act of render- ing it obedience. This jealousy, hke that which exists in our own country, was excited and fostered as well by local parties as by the peculiar situation of the country. The two great branches of hu- man industry. Manufactures and Agriculture, were brought into direct collision. While the de- partments of the North were en- gaged in agricultural pursuits, the labor and wealth of the South were entirely devoted to manu- factures. Instead of mutual assistance and support, dependent as they are upon each other, the same petty jealousies, that have else- where been exhibited between these important branches of do- mestic industry prevailed there to the fullest extent, and seemed to widen the breach, which was ajready almost beyond repair. The plan of the Bolivian con- federation reanimated the projects of the South and of Venezuela in favor of the federal system, and was the immediate cause of the overthrow of the Constitution. The following letter, written by General Bolivar to General Herez, who was then living at Lima as a member of the Council of State, having received his ap- pointment as such from the Libe- rator, served to encourage the hopes of the dissentients. Dec, 4, 1826. During the eight days that I have retnalned in Bogota, 1 have been solely engaged in enforcing 228 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. upon the Vice President and Se- cretaries, the necessity of adopt- ing the plan of the confederacy of the six States, and I believe that the Vice President will sup- port it with all his influence. We have agreed not to reassemble the Congress, and to convoke a Grand Convention, when it will be easy to confirm the right of that which in fact now exists. Venezuela is in truth independent, and she will enter deeply into this plan, be- cause torn to pieces by warm passions and by jarring interests, vacillating without a government, and full of misery as she is, she cannot but adopt it with pleasure. All the South anxiously desires it and New Grenada cannot remain isolated between two States em- bracing its boundaries. This let- ter, as respects its politics, is also for General Santa Cruz and his worthy ministers, to whom you will impart these suggestions, that they may be prepared when Pe- rez shall propose to Colombia the confederatioH heretofore agreed on. The Constitution being thus overthrown, various efforts were made to restore it, and the best hopes of the people tested on the Congress of 1830. These hopes however proved fallacious, the expectations from the Congress were destroyed by the plan of a monarchy before mentioned, and Venezuela, alarm- ed at the prospect, declared a separation. The 25th November, 1829, Caraccas declared her separation from New Grenada, by disown- ing the authority of Bolivar, and all the provinces of the ancient Captain Generalship of Venezue- la followed the example. The cause assigned was the attempt on the part of the heads of the government to subject Ve- nezuela to a monarch. General Pedro B. Mendez in a letter to General Bermudez published by him, makes use of this strong ex])ression. After describing in studied language the advantages of monarchy, he says, ' the principal question in New Grenada is, as to the best means of carrying it into effect.' This disclosure was followed by a burst of indignation, which resounded throughout the repub- lic, and convinced the partisans of the measure, of the difficult nature of their undertaking to de- liver over the country into the hands of a foreign monarch. A representation signed by 1500 citizens of Caraccas on the 24tli Dec. 1829, was sent to General Bolivar, informing him of their resolution, and concluding whli these words — ' The world will investigate the causes of the misfortunes, deaths, and horrors which will ensue, and will not be deceived by the pretexts, by which they are sought to be imputed to us. We would leave open the graves of the victims, that our posterity may see the blood shed by their fath- ers, and the wounds which they received from the hands of those who wished to destroy their heroic patriotism.' The news of the commotion in Venezuela and her separation from the republic, having reached Bogota, the question was at once presented to Congress : whether NEGOTIATIONS. 222 force should be employed to compel a submission to the central government, or conciliating mea- sures adopted. Bolivar proposed to Congress on the 27th of Janua- ry, 1 830, to go personally to treat with Paez, on the boundary line of Venezuela, in order to bring him over to the union ; and to make his efforts of more avail, he recommended diat Congress should by direct vote authorize him to undertake the mission. After a long debate, it was resolv- ed, to send to Venezuela commis- sioners authorized to treat with Paez, and instructed to present to him and the towns under his con- trol, the basis of the Constitution framed for Colombia, according to which, the Government was to be republican, popular, representa- tive, elective, alternative and re- sponsible. General Antonio Jose de Sucre, Jose Maria Estenes, Bishop of Santa Marta, and Francesco Aranda, members of the same Congress, were named for this commission of peace, and it was believed, that Venezuela on understanding the basis of the new Constitution, would desist from the undertaking of separa- ting herself from the republic and the formation ol an independent State. In the meantime the battalion of Boyaca raised the cry of liberty, disowned the authority of the lib- erator, and being unable to sustain itself against the forces in Magda- lena, set out for Maracaibo and put itself under the command of the nevvgovernment of Venezuela. Congress meanwhile proceeded in the discussion of the project of a Constitution, recognising the 20* central form of government. It was feared even before its adop- tion, that tiie Constitution would be shipwrecked on one of two shoals, eitlier that it would be necessary to sustain it by forc(^, in order to insure its adoption by Venezuela, and expose the coun- try to the horrors of civil war, or tiiat it would fall through from the separation of Venezuela and the consequent want of the consent of all the States, necessary to its adoption. The Government then existing at Bogota, sent a division under the command of General O'Leary to the dividing line of Venezuela and New Grenada to prevent the progress of the revolution in that part of Colombia which encamped in Pampluna, while the govern- ment of Venezuela, fearing an at tack, on their part sent another column to the frontier of New Grenada under the command of General Santiago Marino which took up its quarters in Gaudalito. On all sides, the dread of a civil war prevailed, the prospect of which was rendered the more ter- rible from the fact, that the de- partments of the South were in- clined to follow the example of Venezuela and to constitute them- selves into independent States. A confederation was proposed by some as a means of harmoniz- ing local pretensions and preserv- ing the national integrity, but men of influence in Bogota opposed if and Congress rejected the mea sures considering themselves as sembled in conformity with the fundamental law, constituting New Grenada and Venezuela into a central republic, and as therefore 230 ANNUAL REGIS invested with no other power than that of remodelling the Constitu- tion upon the basis of a central Governnrient. A project was then proposed by some of the deputies, of district assemblies of the departments, with the power of deliberating in all municipal matters and of pro- posing to the executive the Pre- fects of their respective depart- ments : which project was adopted and incorporated into the Consti- tution. But the agitation was great on all sides, and Venezuela still re- mained unmoved. New proofs of the inflexible resolution to sep- arate daily arrived at Bogota, and in nearly all the acts of its govern- ment and in the public papers, was manifested an inveterate aver- sion to Bolivar, who they suppos- ed, was to obtain the command of the republic. Among the population of New Grenada itself, there was evinced much sympathy with the Venezue- lians, and a repugnance to the em- ployment offeree to compel a sub- mission to the central government, ard petitions were presented in March to Congress from nearly all the towns of the pjovinces Pa- payan, Pasto, Buoniaventuera, Choco, Neiva and Pampluna, praying that war might not be declared against Venezuela and that the Federal system or con- federative form of government might be adopted to preserve the integrity of Colombia. In the province of , another revolution broke out on the 4th of April, disowning the general gov- ernment and placing itself under the protection of Venezuela. About the middle of April the division under the command of L'ER, 1829 — 30. General Marino approached the Tachura (the river which sepa- rates the territories ofNew Grena- da and Venezuela) and on the 21st of April the inhabhants of Cucuta proclaimed themselves indepen- dent of the central government, disavowed the authority of Boli- var, declared themselves infav or of the federal system, and asked the protection of Marino against the body of troops then in Pam- pluna. This rev^olution occurred before the eyes of the Commissioners on the part of the Congress, who were then in Cucuta, having been prohibited by an order from Paez, from entering the territories of Venezuela. On the part of Venezuela, Ma- rino, Ignacio Fernandez Peira and M. Tobar were named as commissioners for the purpose of meeting the commissioners from Congress. They met in San Jose de Cu- cuta on the line of the Tachura, on the 18th of April, and accord- ing to the protocol of the confer- ence published in the Gazette of Colombia, the official paper signed as the only result*of their meeting, the following propositions were presented by the commissioners on the part of Venezuela. 1. That it be permitted to New Grenada and the departments of the South to constitute themselves freely and independently as Vene- zuela had done. 2. That Congress decide on the proper means to promote the foreign relations of the country and to preserve the public credit, until the representatives of the different States should agree upon the understanding to be establish- ed among them for the future. CAICEDO'S MESSAGE. 231 3. That no individual who had enjoyed the executive power or had been Secretary of State should be again appointed to those offices. 4. That necessary measures should be taken for the accom- plishment of what had been es- tablished in the first proposition. 5. That the constituent con- gresses of the three States of the North, Centre and South should fix upon ties adapted to bind them together for the future. 6. That it be permitted to the officers of the army to remove to any of the three States, and that the soldiers should be at liberty to return to their houses — and 7. That no individual, civil or military be molested on account of his political opinions up to that lime. Such w^as the only result of the mission of the Congress to Vene- zuela. By this time General Bolivar had retired to his country seat in the vicinity of Bogota, and General Caicedo, who was then in charge of the Executive pow- er, anxious to avoid the horrors of a civil war and a general popu- lar commotion, in conformity with the expressed opinions of the dif- ferent provinces, sent to Congress a message, which on account of its influence on public affairs, as well as the unwarrantable inter- ference caused thereby of the British minister, whose under- standing with the partisans of Bolivar was by such interference fully confirmed — we publish en- tire. Bogota, April 13th, 1830. Most excellent President of the Constituent Congress. Sir — A great portion of the Republic being in a state of com- motion, it was easy to see that these movements would soon be communicated to the other towns and that the tranquillity of these also would soon be disturbed. The representation addressed by the Prefect of , and that of the commandant of Boyaca, which I have the honor to trans- mit to your Excellency, are the proofs of this fact. In such criti- cal circumstances, and with the present precarious condition of the Government, I cannot answer for the tranquillity of the towns nor the security of the country. For some days past the Govern- ment has entertained the opinion that the labor of the Congress towards the formation of the Con- stitution will be fruitless ; under the supposition that Venezuela is disposed to resist it with force ; and if granted for the Republic it would not be adopted by all the departments. Of what use would a Constitu- tion be that is to be in force but for a single day ? A Constitution is one of those works which should be framed only when it is expect- ed it will be obeyed. If the con- trary is the case it is better to withhold it. A grievous evil is inflicted upon the towns by ac- customing them to look upon the Constitutions framed by the Na- tional Representation as mere unmeaning pieces of paper. The Government is of opinion that the labors of Congress would be useless to the nation unless di- rected to the granting of an or- ganic decree, pointing out the attributes of the supreme Govern- ment, insuring individual and so- cial security, naming the high 232 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. functionaries in whose hands are to be placed the reins of State, and authorizing them to convoke a Convention for the purpose of deciding on the fate of these towns. Such is the general wish, such is public opinion, and such the means of remedying the evils which are" not merely feared to exist, but which are, in fact, at this moment in contact with us. The movement of a single Province may conduct us from partial revolutions to absolute dis- union and anarchy. If the union with the departments of Venezue- la is possible, the representatives of the two people will be able while tranquillity exists to fix upon the union, to setde their differ- ences and to agree upon the ties to bind them for the future. But in the midst of revolutions and disorder, the people will precipi- tate themselves to ruin. Having made this representa- tion to you, I consider it my duty to declare that the measure pointed out is as urgent as it is necessary. Please submit it to the wisdom of Congress, which, penetrated with the best desires, will un- doubtedly pursue the measures best calculated to insure the tran- quillity of the people and the well being of the Republic. Domingo Caicedo. The message having been read to Congress, was referred, with the accompanying documents, to a committee, by whom, after care- ful deliberation, a report was made, from which we extract the following : *In this state of affairs, the committee do not think that Con- gress should occupy itself with the formation of a provisional Gov- ernment for the departments of New Gi-enada, which might be rejected by a majority of the votes. The committee entertain the opin- ion that some consideration is due to the suggestions of the Execu- tive, and that a reply should be delayed until the result of the mission of peace to Venezuela is fully known. The committee therefore have agreed to the fol- lowing resolutions : '1. Resolved, That before re- plying to the message of the Gov- ernment they will wait for the re- sult of the mission of peace, with- out in the meantime suspending their deliberations for the forma- tion of a Constitution. '2. Thatthe Chief of the Gov- ernment be invited to a confer- ence with a special commission, that by means of mutual explana- tions an understanding may be effected.' Congress, in the face of the report of the committee, . ' Resolved, That they would re- ply to the acting Executive, that Congress was occupied with de- vising means to arrest the pro- gress of the threatened disturban- ces, and that on the part of Gov- ernment every effort should be made to calm the public mind, and to reestablish order by all the means in its control.' Congress having thus deter- mined on their reply to the mes- sage of the acting Executive, Mr Turner, Envoy Extraordinary of His Britannic Majesty, on the COMMOTIONS AT BOGOTA. 233 19th of April, addressed a note to the Secretary of Foreign Re- lations, in which he says that. ' He has observed with equal regret and surprise in the Government Gazette, a copy of an official message addressed to the Con- gress by the Executive power of Colombia, in which was proposed the formation of a separate Gov- ernment for New Grenada, and the consequent dissolution of the Republic' After protesting against any wish to interfere with the domestic concerns of Colom- bia, he gives notice that, ^ if such a measure is sanctioned by the Congress and carried into effect, the existing treaty between Great Britain and Colombia would become ipso facto annulled and the functions of the undersigned will cease The Secretary of Foreign Re- lations replied that, ' The message of the Government of the 15th, far from having for its object the dissolution of the Republic, was intended lo preserve it ; and that the measures proposed were to lead to a calm deliberation on the part of ancient Venezuela and New Grenada to restore the un- ion unfortunately interrupted.' On the twentysecond day of April there was much alarm in Bogota on account of a suppos- ed intention to confer anew the supreme power irpon Bolivar. This arose simply from the pro- ceedingsof Colonel Diaz,who was «ngaged in obtaining signatures in Bogota to a petition to the Con- gress, having this object in view, and oi other officers who were similarly engaged in several of the neighboring towns. But the at- tempt was received with indigna- tion by the people, and General Caicedo promptly resorted to vig- orous measures to suppress it, ap- pointing Urdaneta, who was the Governor of Bogota, to command the troops destined to oppose the agitators. On the 27th of April Bolivar sent a message to Con- gress renewing the protestations of his unwillingness to assume the chief command, and containing these expressions — * Venezuela, to effect its separation from the Republic, has accused me of am- bitious views. It will now allege that my reelection will prove an obstacle to reconciliation and that in the end the Republic must un- dergo either a dismemberment or a civil war. It is the duty of Con- gress to give to the towns of Co- lombia a new Magistrate, invested with powers adequate to the exi- gencies of the time and the vigor- ous administration of the laws.' General Caicedo had ordered General Velez to take command of the division of Pampluna but the officers of the division disobey- ed the mandate of the Govern- ment and refused submission to the order of Velez, having enter- ed into an agreement to that ef- fect on the 29th of April. This division was a source of great un- easiness to the people, as being under the control of neither of the Governments of Colombia and V^enezuela. Its refusal to obey was supposed to be concerted be- tween Montilla, who was then at Magdalena, and the other friends of Bolivar, who wished to see him resume the chief command, and this was a new motive for distrust and alarm in those whoso 234 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. desire was to see quiet and the supremacy of the laws reestablish- ed. On the 29th of April the Con- gress of Colombia ratified the Constitution of the Central Re- public, notwithstanding the oppo- sition of the towns; but to satisfy the friends of the federal system it was decreed that, in each de- partment a district Chamber should be established with the power of directing the local and municipal afFairi the depart- ments. By a decree of the 11th of May, the mode of nominating and electing the Senators and Repre- sentatives was established, and by another decree of the same date, the Province of Antiochia was erected into a Department. The most important decree, however, of this period, was that which fixed the time and manner of the publication of the Consti- tution. On the 4th of May, Congress went into an election of President and Vice President of the Re- public. There were three can- didates, Canabal, Caicedo and Mosquera. The former was the candidate of the Bolivian party, the two latter, of the liberal and moderate party. Mosquera es- pecially enjoyed the confidence of all parties, as a patriot of strict probity and one whose desires and actions were solely directed to the wfilfare of his country. Bolivar had himself expressed his prefer- ence for Mosquera, but it was un- derstood that he had absolutely refused to accept the appointment if conferred upon him ; assigning as a reason his infirm state of health and physical debility, pro- duced by a long and dangerous sickness, from which he was just recovering. Canabal was consid- ered as the candidate of the mon- archial party. On the first ballot the votes were, for Canabal 26, Mosquera 17, and Caicedo 5 — total 48. Two thirds being necessary to a choice, and neither candidates having received that number, a second balloting was gone into. The result was, for Mosquera 27, Canabal 17 and Caicedo 5 — to- tal 49. The third balloting was limited to the two highest candi- dates and the result was, for Mos- quera 34, Canabal 17 — total 51. Senor Joachim Mosquera was therefore declared duly elected President of Colombia. For Vice President the votes were, for Caicedo 33, Canabal 12, Val- larina 2 — total 47. General Domingo Caicedo was therefore declared elected Vice President. This result was mainly attribu- table to that portion of the repre- sentation who, entertaining a pre- ference for Bolivar and an ardent attachment for his services, were opposed however to the doctrines advanced by some of his partisans ; a concurrence in which had alrea- dy diminished the otherwise de- served popularity of the Liberator and placed the Republic on the verge of ruin. Bolivar, in a mes- sage to Congress, congratulated them on the result, and on having chosen for the first offices of the Republic men who had deserved- ly obtained the esteem and confi- dence of the nation; and after- wards in replying to an address made to him at Carthagena on COMMOTIONS AT BOGOTA. 235 the eve of his intended departure for Europe, by the Prefect of that Department, made use of expres- sions highly complimentary to Mosquera, describing him as a man ' adorned with all the civic virtues, whose administration would effect the re-establishment of the laws which he had studied with distinguished reputation.' The last act of the Congress was the enactment of a decree tendering the gratitude and hom- age of the Republic to Bolivar, and bestowing upon him a pen- sion of thirty thousand dollars per annum for Hfe, commencing at the period of his retirement from office. The Congress then ad- journed, and by that act took from Mosquera the power of declining the Presidency, as was his inten- tion, which by the Constitution could only be done in the pres- ence of the Congress. By a communication, dated the 1 4th of May, the President elect adverted to this fact, stating that he should have resigned had the Congress been in session to receive his re- signation, believing himself inade- quate, both physically and moral- ly, to the duties of the office. As it was, however, he thought him- self bound to undertake it in obe- ' dience to the will of the people, and promised to devote his best energies to the promotion of the public good. The time was prolific of diffi- culties and troubles ; and the very commencement of Mosque- ra's administration was signalized by commotion. The battalion which at that lime formed the garrison of Bogota, commanded by Colonels Maguerra and Cas- telli, on the 7th of May, arrested those officers, placed themselves under the orders of General Por- to Carrero and demanded of the Vice President, who was at that time Governor of the Province, their arrears of pay, amounting to seventy thousand dollars and mo- ney to defray their expenses to Venezuela, of which Province they were natives. It was said at the time and has since been repeated, that Porto Carrero was the instigator of this mutiny, and that he was actuated by a feeling of dissatisfaction because Bolivar was no longer in power ; and the assertion has been in some degree confirmed by his subsequent con- duct in uniting himself to Bolivar, with whom he continued until the death of that remarkable man. The Vice President, having no troops under his control, was obliged to temporize, and sent to Bolivar, requesting his interces- sion with Porto Carrero, who had declared that he would obey no commands but such as should emanate from him. The Libera- tor declined to interfere, and the Vice President thus left to his own resources, succeeded in rais- ing a body of about five hundred troops, which he placed under the command of General Urdaneta, and eventually quelled the insur- rection without resorting to arms, partly by the demonstration of his power to resist their demands and partly by promises and the distri- bution of some money. The mu- tineers dispersed and joined the various bodies of soldiers that were collected in different Prov- inces ; many of which gave strong manifestations of a disposition to 236 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. renew and increase the distrac- tions that had so long embarrass- ed the Government and oppressed the people. In Venezuela in par- ticular and in New Grenada, there were numerous chieftains, whose designs it was difficult to pene- trate, but whose conduct was such as to excite suspicion and unea- siness in the minds of those who desired to see order and stability restored to the Government and the people. And it was apparent that the task which Mosquera, by his acceptance of the Presiden- tial authority, had undertaken to accomplish, would prove ex- tremely arduous. On the 30th of April the Con- gress of Venezuela met in Valen- cia, and on the same day received from Paez a congratulatory mes- sage, in which he manifested the most favorable opinion of the re- establishmenf of public order and the advancement of the happi- ness of Venezuela. The progress of public opinion in favor of the federal system, was still permanent and increasing. On the 13th of May, Quito, the most populous city of Colombia, and the capital of the department of the Equator, declared itself in favor of this system, and its ex- ample was followed by Guayaquil and Azuai, the other departments of the south. General Flores, who was in command of the department of the south, lent them his assistance, and was appointed interior chief of those departments, until the meeting of Congress to constitute them into a separate state, and the formation of a federal form of government. This movement in Quito occurred before the result of the deliberations of Congress on the subject of the Constitution was known, and seems to exhibit the strong opposition existing thoughout the country to a central government. A letter from Bol- ivar announcing his intention of embarking for Europe, had a powerful influence on the conduct of Elores. Flores knew the sen- timents of the people of the south — that they were opposed to a central form of government, and that it would be impossible to ob- tain for it support, without the effusion of much blood, and a civil war with Venezuela. The letter of Bolivar, freeing him from the trammels of previous engage- ments, left him at liberty to pur- sue the course his inclination dic- tated, and he yielded to the popu- lar impulse of the country in which he was, and in which his interests were identified by marriage with a young lady of one of the most distinguished families in Quito. We come now to the conduct of Bolivar during this critical pe- riod of public affairs. After his retirement from the supreme com- mand, he had, as we have before mentioned, taken up his residence at his country seat near Carthage- na, and was understood to be pre- paring for his departure to Eu- rope. Whether this was seriously his intention must remain matter of conjecture. The letter to Flo- res seems to prove it was, and another fact confirms us in this impression. Colonel Whittle was in garrison at Papayan with the battalion of Vargas. He was a devoted friend of Bolivar, having saved his life in the conspiracy of MOSaUERA'S MESSAGE. 237 the 25th of Sept. 1829, and was considered among his warnnest partisans. This officer also re- ceived a letter from Bolivar, in- forming him of his intention to leave the country, and inviting him to accompany him, if it was his wish to leave Colombia. An understanding was immediately effected between Colonel Whittle and General Flores in regard to the popular movements, and a warm and efficient support was yielded by these officers lothe federal cause. Tt seems unlikely that Bolivar should have thus in- fluenced his friends to submit themselves to the new order of things, if it had been his intention to have remained in the country and resumed the supreme com- mand. We believe it was his own wish and serious intention to have departed, and thereby relieved his country from the distraction caused by his presence. In this intention. Bolivar was actuated by an anxious wish to preserve the glories attached to his name ; and it is to be regretted, that he should have yielded his better judgment to the desires of Mantilla and oth- er partisan chieftains, who feared, with his departure a destruction of their own undeserved power. Mosquera arrived at Bogota on the 12th of June and was receiv- ed by all parties with enthusiasm. On the next day he swore to the Constitution and entered upon the duties of his office. His first public act was a proclamation or message, explaining his views and the principles which governed him during the short period of his ad- ministration. It was in these words : — 21 * Joaquim Mosquera, President of the Republic of Colombia to his fellow countrymen — Colombians The grand drama which we represent, is not for ourselves alone, but for all South America — a favorable op- portunity is now presented to you of setting a great example of mor- ality and virtue in the regeneration of Colombia — the destruction of anarchy, and the foundation of a government of lavv's, the only rem- edy against popular passions and the sole hope of liberty. The Constituent Congress has afforded you the legal means of expressing the national will, through the medium of deputies of your ov/n free choice. The Liberator of Colombia has retired from among us, to calm the jealous friends of liberty, concealing his laurels, and remov- ing every pretext for disorder. In this important crisis, the representatives of the people have entrusted me with the provisional administration of the republic con- formably to the Constitution to wliich I have this day sworn, and this is the point of contact v^hich they have fixed on, by which we may procure a general concert for the salvation of Colombia from the dissolution which threatens her. I invoke my country and liberty to obtain your hearing. — Pure love of my country is the sacred torch which guides me, and you may ask all from a man like myself, taken suddt n!y from private life to be the sacred minis- ter of your will. Express it then, as your honor, your glory, and the national interest command, 238 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. and the good of our country will be your work. Citizens of all opinions, unite for the interest of our country. — The true friends of liberty are not those who seek for a constant necessity of change — let there be no new revolutions; and let the one already begun, be con- cluded. Colombians, we have yet time to preserve our glory and our political existence — let us give an example of order to the new states of our continent, and prove to our detractors, that we are not immoral men and not un- worthy of being free. JoAQ,UIM MoSQUERA. Bogota, 13th June, 1830. The Vice President, who had conducted the affairs of the gov- ernment until the arrival of Mos- quera, had made no change of ministry, but had retained in of- fice all those who had filled the various departments of state under Bolivar ; and Mosquera confirmed their appointments. They were Vicente Borrero, minister of for- eign affairs ; Alexandro Osoris, of the interior ; Jose Gracio Mas- quez, of finances, and General Joaqulm Paris, of war. The fol- lowing persons composed the Council of State. The archbish- op of Bogota, Don Felix Restre- po, General Jose Maria Ortega, Juan Ferdinandez, Soto Mayor, Manuel Benito Revallo, Modesto Lannea, Vicente Alvarez, Jose Joachim Almedo, Vicente Asuero, Diego Fernando Gomez, General Jose Fabrega, and Vicente Borre- ro, all sound patriots, and eminent for probity and talent. The treasury was at this time completely exhausted and the government was moreover largely indebted to individuals, who had made loans to enable it to carry on its affairs. By the Constitution the executive was prohibhed from making loans, decreeing contributions, or establishing new imposts ; and it therefore became at once a serious question, how the expenses of the state were to be provided for. The utmost that Mosquera and his ministers could do, was to watch vigilantly over the expenditures, and to take the most vigorous and prudent measures to repress and prevent abuses and misapplications of the public money, which had existed to an alarming extent, and had in fact occasioned the want of means by which the new government was so much embarrassed. The Pres- ident himself received no compen- sation for his services, and he exerted himself to the utmost to induce all the other officers of state and public functionaries, to Hmit their demands upon the finances of the republic to the smallest possible amount. In the meantime, in the de- partment of New Grenada, the Constitution was sworn to in most of the provinces, though with some opposition ; and the people of those districts which refused to adopt the Constitution, were yet willing to support the government of Mosquera. On his part, he gave the discontented to under- stand, that unless the Constitution were respected, he would not be President ; and sent commission- ers to the various districts in SUCRE ASSASSINATED. 239 which opposition was manifested, to induce the people to follow the general example ; and the efforts of his emissaries were in general crowned with success. Mosque- ra then directed his attention to the departments of Venezuela, and the South, where the dissent of the people was more resolute and more general. The province of Casanare, of the borders of Venezuela, follow- ing the impulse of the revolution, had declared in favor of Venezue- la, and had requested to be re- ceived as a component part of that state. The Congress of Ven- ezuela had refused to admit this province, from a desire to pre- serve th(; friendship of New Grenada, and had offered to the government of New Grenada its good offices, to bring back this refractory province, by persuasive and indulgent measures, manifest- ing also its hopes that its adhesion would be easily obtained, after the fears caused by its separation should have disappeared by the establishment of a Constitution. In the month of June, General Sucre was assassinated in the wood of Benuecos near Pasta, on his way to Quito from the Con- stituent Congress, of which he was a member. Pasta in 1822 had declared for old Spain. Sucre had received intimations from his friends that a plan for his assas- sination had been laid in Pasta, but he took no precautions to prevent it. His death was attrib- uted to the liberal party, but it is more probable, that the assassina- tion was the act of some of the people of Pasta, among whom he had many enemies, and whom he had deeply incensed in 1822, when he took the place by assault and delivered it up to pillage. — Suspicion also fell upon Generals Ovando and Lopez, between whom and Sucre, hostility had for some time existed ; but there is no proof of their guilt, and the act still remains a mystery. The President Mosquera made great and strenuous efforts to de- tect and punish the assassins, but without success. Symptoms of revolt, or rather of disunion, had for some time past exhibited them- selves in Venezuela and the de- partment of the Equator. In the former. General Paez held the supreme command, and General Flores in the latter ; and the movements of these officers indi- cated great reluctance on their part to the adoption of a Consti- tution and mode of government, which must necessarily have the effect of diminishing their authori- ty and restraining their influence. Flores in particular appeared strongly inclined to erect his de- partment into an independent state, of which he should be the head ; and it was, not vi/ithout reason, supposed that Paez was well disposed to imitate his exam- ple, should his undertaking prove successful. Mosquera exerted himself to the utmost to induce Flores to lay aside his design, and it is not improbable that he would have succeeded, if his administra- tion had not in the meantime been so suddenly brought to its conclusion. In Venezuela, the repugnance of the people to the central system of government was extreme ; and this feeling was very strongly displayed at the 240 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. meeting of the Congress of the department in July. The suspi- cions of the Venezuelans were also at tliis time, strongly excited against Bolivar, who was still at Carthagena, having apparently abandoned his design of visiting Europe, and who was vehemently suspected of an intention to as- sume once more, either by in- trigue or violence, \he supreme authority. Events appeared to justify their doubts of the integri- ty and intentions of the Liberator. Karly in June several insurrec- tionary movements had been made in various parts of Venezuela, in all of which Bolivar was proclaim- ed, and the intention of the insur- gents to restore him to the head of affairs was openly avowed ; but by the energetic movements of the government, these attempts were suppressed without difficul- ty. But all these alarms had the effect of increasing the repug- nance of the people to the consti- tutional or central system, which had originated with Bolivar, and of making them more than ever desirous of a separate indepen- dency. In the meantime troubles began to break out in the centre of the republic ; in Bogota, move- ments in favor of Bolivar had taken place, and the military were dissatisfied with the pacific and moderate administration of Mos- quera. But little confidence could be placed in any of the generals ; and the government, without money, and doubtful of the fidelity of its military agents, had no support except the unarm- ed people, who desired nothing more than peace, tranquillity and security. In August, symptoms of rebellion broke out in the capi- tal itself, which were with difficul- ty suppressed by the prudence and firmness of Mosquera. In August an alarming conspiracy broke out in the battalions of Boyaca and Callao, under the command of Colonels Castelli and Simenes, who approached within two leagues of the capital, where there was not at the time a force sufficient to oppose them. Mos- quera was extremely anxious to avoid bloodshed, and for that rea- son earnestly endeavored to pre- vail upon the insurgents to with- draw, and resume their duties. Negotiations were entered into tetween Urdaneta on the part of the government, and Castelli as the spokesman of the rebels, end continued through the greater part of the month ; the demands of the conspirators were principal- ly directed towards a change of the ministry ; but it was obvious that their real intentions were to subvert the government and usuip the supreme authority. J\!osque- ra and his counsellors resorted to every m.easure of conciliation that was consistent with the safety and dignity of the government, but without effect ; and at last it be- came necessary to resort to arms. On the 26th, a column of the best troops in the capital, under the command of Colonel Garcia, ad- vanced to meet the rebels, whom they encountered at a place called the Sanctuary, three leagues from the capital, where they were strongly entrenched. The attack was unfortunate in its results ; the government troops were defeated with great slaughter; and the in- surgents flushed with success. BOLIVAR'S DEATH. 241 marched upon the city with the avowed intention of taking it by storm. The number of troops remaining in the capital was but GOO, and of these nearly 400 de- serted or fled at the approach of the enemy. But two courses were left to the President ; eith- er to give up the city to the hor- rors of an assault, or to submit to necessity, and capitulate at once. He determined upon the latter, and appointed commissioners to treat with the insurgents for such terms of surrender as should se- cure to the citizens their lives and property. On the 28th, the con- querors entered the city without committing any excess, and Mosquera, looking upon their suc- cess as the triumph of a military faction, with which the civil pow- er of the state was unable to con- tend, assembled the council on the 29th and declared the govern- ment dissolved. The council earnestly advised and entreated the President to re- tain his authority, and continue to fulfill the duties of his exahed sta- tion ; and Mosquera, though with great reluctance, consented to fol- low their advice, at least, until it could be ascertained what were the wishes of the people. Urda- neta, whose military reputation gave him some influence with the conquerors, was appointed Secre- tary of War in the place of Gen- eral Paris, (who had retired on account of sickness) and was in- structed to ascertain the senti- ments of the soldiery, and their disposition to obey the existing government. On the 4th of Sep- tember Urdaneta reported that the troops had represented to him 21* their unwillingness to submit to the authority of any government but that of Bolivar, whose recall to the head of the republic, they stated to be the wish of the peo- ple as well as of themselves. The report of Urdaneta was confirmed by Simenes the leader of the pre- vailing party, and Mosquera was distinctly given to understand, that nothing short of the reassumption of supreme power by the Libera- tor, would satisfy them. On the same day, Mosquera, finding that no alternative was left to him, re- signed ; and General Urdaneta was appointed temporary Presi- dent, until the arrival of Bolivar, whose recall to power was decreed by a meeting of some of the sol- diers and citizens. On the 7th of September, Ur- daneta wrote to Bolivar, inform- ing him of what had takenplace at Bogota, and calling upon him in the strongest terms to come and take charge of the govern- ment. Bolivar consented to comply with the call of the people, and to take upon himself the office of the government, declaring, however, that it should be only until new elections could take place, when he should return once more to private life, from which nothing but the wishes of his fellow citi- zens could have induced him to remove. On the 17th December, 1830, died General Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of South America. His character and services we shall hereafter fully examine ; our present purpose is with the clos- ing scene. Had Bolivar adher- 242 ANNUAL REG ed to his original purpose of leav- ing Colombia, his life might have been spared — his fame certainly — as it was, he died th chief of 11 party, in arms against the consti- tutional government of his country. Great allowance must be made on account of the discordant ma- terials that he was obliged to bring into the government, and the char- acter' of the people by whom he was surrounded. Unused to pop- ular forms, or to the peaceful ad- ministration of equal laws, they themselves formed a great ob- stacle to the establishment of re- publican institutions to be con- trolled only by public opinion. Still, with all these allowances, there is much which needs ex- planation in his political career, and the mystery which hangs over the latter part of his life, compels history to pause, before definitively pronouncing upon his character. His death occurred at Cartha- gena at his country seat, where he had resided since his resigna- tion of the supreme command. Every respect was paid to his 5TER, 1829 — 30 memory, and funeral processions were had in almost every town in the republic. His last proclama- tion to his countrymen evinced the most noble sentiments of patriot- ism, and it is deeply to be lament- ed that with the expulsion of Spanish power, and the formation of a free constitution. Bolivar, like our own Washington, had not at once retired to the shades of pri- vate life. His will exhibits, what none ever doubted, his total disregard of fortune. Men like Bolivar are seldom governed by pecuniary mo- tives, and it would have been far better for his country, if his disin- terestedness had been equally ex- hibited, in his disregard of the temptations of power. That we may form some idea of the state of parties of Colombia, we subjoin a statistical account of the population of the different Provinces and Departments of Colombia — considering as liber- als, all who opposed themselves to the usurpation of Urdaneta, after the overthrow of the administra- tion of Mosquera. POPULATION. 243 Departments. Orinoco. Venezuela. r Sulia. Apure. Provinces. Cumana. Guayana. Barcelona. Margarita. Caraccas. Carabobo. Maracaibo. Coro. Merida. Truxillo. Varinas. Apure. These four Departments formerly com prised ancient Venezuela, and now com prise the State of Venezuela. f Pichincha. Equator. ■{ Imbubabura. Chimborazo. Guayaquil. Manabi. Cuenca. 78,000 Asuai. < Loja. 48,000 Jaen. 49,000 These three Departments are those of the South, and are now constituted as State undeiHhe name of the Equator. Population. Liberals. Under Guayaquil. Cauca, since ded to Equator. the^ r Cundinamarca. ^ I Boyaca. Ystmo. { Magdalena. ^ Popayan. Buenaventura. Pasto. Choco. Bogota. Antioquia. Mariquita. Neiva. Tunja. Socarro. Pamplona. Ciisanare. Panama. Veragua. Cartagena. Santa Marta. Mompor, Rio. 70,000^ 45,000 ! 45,000 ( 15,000 J 175,000 Urdaneta 350,000 350,000 48 700^ 30,000 I 50,000 [ 33 400 162,100 80,000 80,000 767,1 255,000 90,000 175,000 520,000 156,000 15,000 30,000 721,000 22,000 721,000 172,000^ 104,000 ' 45,000 ( 50,000 J 200,000 1 159,000 y 75,000 J 50,000 ) 40,000 5 100,000-1 62,000 ! 70,000 f 7,000 J 12,000 371,000 425,000 239,300 1,507,100 1,057,300 Under Espinar 90,000 90,000 It appears from the foregoing, that the population under the sway of Urdaneta, consisted of 1,057,300 souls. The population of the provinces which had separated fronti the cen- tral government, amounted to 1,507,100 souls. In addition is the population of the Isthmus under the administration of Espinar, which had declared itself in favor of Bolivar, and was equally opposed to Urdaneta and the liberal states, amounting to 90,000. CHAPTER XIV. BUENOS AYRES. Condition of Country. — Civil War. — Retreat of Rosas. — New Government. — Pacification. — Viamout elected Governor. — Proceedings concerning Dorrego's Execution. — Rosas elected Governor. — Neiv Disturbances. — Quiroga defeated. — Inva- sion of Cuyo. — Meeting of Legislature. — Condition of Coun- try. — Monte Video. The history of the Argentine Republics was brought down in a previous volume of this Register, to the preliminaries of peace agreed upon on ihe24th of June, in 1829, between the province of Buenos Ayres and those of the in- terior : General Lavalle being then self-constituted Provincial Governor of the former, and com- mander of its forces. The task of pacifying the interior was as- signed to General Rosas. A brief narration of the events which sub- sequently happened, during the period of time comprehended in the present volume, is necessary to the execution of its plan. A more uninteresting detail, howev- er, can scarcely be found in the annals of any nation, civilized or savage. The only historical les- son taught by it is, that a country cannot be tranquil, whose desti- nies are confided to ambitious military chiefs ; and the only re- sult of these events has been, that Buenos Ayres and the formerly confederated provinces are in but a very little better condition now, as to the sound action of the gov- ernment and laws, their social and moral improvement, and the reg- ular operations of industry, than they were at the time to which we last brought up the record. Gen- eral history will find little or no room for the particulars. We must refer back a little in point of time, to preserve the chain of the narration. General Paz was at the head of the Uni- tarian party, opposed to the fed- eralists of Cordova and Santa Fe, and had taken possession of the former city, from which Bustos retired on his approach, with about 800 men. Paz pursued him for some distance and return- ed. Bustos rallied his forces, and having joined General Quiro- ga, made his appearance again, with a force of 5000 men. Paz did not wait for a siege, but went out NEW GOVERNMENT. 245 to meet the enemy, and some se- vere fighting ensued, on the 22d and 23d of June, which ended in the total rout of the federalists ; fifteen hundred of them being either killed or captured. The news of this victory pro- duced great sensation in the city of Buenos Ayres. By the Con- vention of the 24th of June, rep- resentatives for the Provincial Congress were to be elected with all convenient speed, and that body was to organize a perma- ment Government; on the forma- tion of which, Lavalle and Rosas were to lay down their temporary authority. The hopes and pre- tensions of the Unitarians increas- ed ; and at the election held on the 26th July, Lavalle, by his in- fluence, and the bayonets he com- manded, carried everything his own way. Rosas saw, in the re- sults of the election, no security for the fulfilment of the terms on which he had insisted on the 24th June, and withdrew with his troops to the distance of twenty miles from the city. His attitude was too formidable not to be re- spected; and new negotiations were commenced. To refer to the events in the order of their dates, on the 3d of August La- valle issued a proclamation, stat- ing that Government was deter- mined to maintain the preserva- tion of peace, and assuring the citizens that a renewal of civil war was not to be dreaded. The interior provinces, were, however, at that moment in a very unset- tled state. On the 7th he an- nounced the formation of an en- tirely new Cabinet. Manuel L Garcia was appointed Secretary of the Treasury; Thomas Guido, Secretary of State and of Foreign Relations; Manuel Escalada, Sec- retary of War and Marine (which office had been held by Rosas, under Dorrego) and I. A. Gelli, Minister of Police. Another proclamation promising security and tranquillity followed. On the 8th Rosas dismissed the several bodies of Indians who had acted under him, to their respective territories. ^ The language of the new min- isters wasof an encouraging char- acter, though the Secretary of State candidly declared that, *in a field covered with ruins, it would be difficult to avoid stumb- ling.' By a new convention between Lavalle and Rosas, on the 24th, the elections of July 26th were declared void ; and by an ar- rangement unintelligible to citi- zens who live under a pure de- ' mocracy, General Juna Jose Viamout, an ancient officer of the corps of Patricios, and who had not meddled in these civil feuds, was placed provisionally at head of the Government of the Province ; in war to be assisted by a council of twentyfour, a senado consultativo, selected from the most respectable owners of real estate, merchants and eccle- siastics. Solemn Te Deim was cele- brated at the Cathedral, for the termination of civil war. Con- gratulations on the return of peace were received from every quar- ter. The French Consul return- ed from Montevideo and resumed his functions. Lavalle was ap- pointed by the new Governor 246 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. commander-in-chief of the cav- alry troops of the Hne, and accept- ed the office. He shortly after- wards retired to Montevideo. Or- ders were issued prohibiting the use of fire-arms by citizens not in the municipal service. The pris- oners who had been sent to Ba- lina Blanca in the preceding March were set at liberty, and returned to the capital. So that in Buenos Ayres Proper and in Santa Fe, to which Provinces alone the new arrangement rela- ted, quiet was considered as being fairly established. The deficit in the revenue of 1828 was ascertained • to have been more than thirteen millions, while the amount collected during the same period was less than four. The governor was induct- ed into office on the 28th August. The installation of the senado consultative took place on the 1 6th of September. Seventeen of the twenty four members chosen were considered Federalists. It was hoped that Viamout, being a moderate man, would mediate be- tween the parties ; and in his in- augural proclamation, he declared his intention to bury past political feuds in oblivion, and to punish with all the severity of the laws, those who should violate them, or raise the cry of sedition. The ministers before mention- ed, and whom he retained, were also understood to be Federalists, but moderate men in their views and feelings. Some clouds hung over the initiation of the new Government into its functions. Several of the members of the consultative Sen- ate did not attend, and others, under various pretexts resigned their places. This circumstance, together with another equally sus- picious, which was, that the sit- tings were strictly private, dimin- ished the public confidence in the stability of the new Government. The Council, however, elected a President and Vice President, and adopted measures in relation to the revenue, and the protection of the frontiers against the Indians. Their legislation had some effect in both instances, for the moment; as the value of ounces fell in the stock market from $120 to $92 ; and apprehensions from the in- roads of the Indians were quiet- ed by the organization of what was deemed a sufficient force, under General Paduco. The Secretary of State, wisely, at this period, besought the new Bishop of the Diocese of Santa Fe, to relieve the country from the in- convenience of the innumerable holidays, with which ecclesiastical shrewdness gratified constitutional laziness in Catholic South Ameri- ca, and makes idleness a work of holiness. We do not learn that the Bishop complied even nomi- nally, with the request ; and the evil still exists, and will exist, un- til the removal of the final cause. An interesting communication was received about this time from the widow of the murdered Dor- rego. The honor of representa- tives at a former period, had voted one hundred thousand dollars to him for the services he had ren- dered his country ; and the exist- ing Government honestly or from policy, being desirous of not par- ticipating in any of the stain of his execution, decreed the pay- ROSAS ELECTED GOVERNOR. 247 ment of stock to that amount, to his widow. She informed them that in the few hours between the intimation of his sentence and its being carried into effect, he had thought of his country and of the gallant army just returned from the Brazilian campaign ; and had enjoined it upon her to put one third of the amount voted to him, at the disposal of the Government. The offer^ however, was declin- ed. Acting further on this generous or politic principle, the Govern- ment passed a decree on the 29th October, directing the remains of Dorrego to be conveyed from the church of Navarro, where they had been deposited, to the ceme- tery north of the city of Buenos Ayres, where a monument was ordered to be erected to his memory. The removal and in- terment took place in December following with great pomp and ceremony, and nothing seemed wanting to the only atonement which could then be made, but the immolation of Lavalle to the manes. A treaty of friendship and alli- ance, between the Provinces of Buenos Ayres and Santa Fe was ratified in October. Rosas and Lopez, the Governor of Santa Fe, were sworn friends. The treaty bound them to mutual protection against their neighbors, provided for the reimbursement of the ex- penses of the army under Rosas and authorized the Government of Buenos Ayres to transact all foreign affairs with European and American States. The Govern- ment of Santa Fe promised to procure the consent of the two Provinces of Entre-rios and Cor- rientes, not only to obtain equal authorization in favor of the Gov- ernment of Buenos Ayres, but also that they might be allied to- gether by express compacts, and form one cause with the Province of Buenos Ayres, conforming themselves to its political and constitutional principles. The appearance of affairs thus contin- ued to grow better. Justice ob- tained some of its legitimate vic- tims, who had been guilty of as- sassinations. The foreign minis- ters resident in the city partook in festivities with those of the Government. A decree, howev- er, prohibiting, under severe pen- alties, the publication of any re- marks concerning the conventions of June 24th and August 24th, indicated a sense of insecurity. On the Gth of December, Ro- sas was elected Governor and Captain General of the province of Buenos Ayres, by the House of Representatives, receiving thir- tytwo votes ; there being only one against him. A Lieutenant Col- onel, named Smith, had made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the officers and men of his regi- ment to revolt, and join Paz in Cordova. The alarm created by the rumor of this transaction seems to have been the pretext for investing the new Governor with extraordinary powers. He was installed on the 8th of De- cember, and issued proclamations to the citizens, to the army and navy, and to the militia. He re^ tained Guido and Garcia in their respective appointments, and ap- pointed L R. Balcarce minister of war. He issued circulars to 248 ANNUAL REGISTER, 18-29 — 30. the Governors of all the provin- ces, urging the importance of reunion, by every consideration of wisdom and policy. He alluded among other things to ' the severe neutrality of the first republic of this continent ; and stated that a war of twenty years with Spain had not been sufficient to secure the political independence of the Argentine stages ; nor could it be secured without a strict federation. Rosas was considered a bigot, and the House of Representatives seemed disposed to favor his views by resolution against the extent to whicli freedom of religious opin- ion and worship had been previ- ously tolerated in Buenos Ayres. The Governor was also solicited to open a correspondence with the Pope. The Press was put under most rigid restraints ; and the ac- counts which the journals furnish of passing events, are of course raepgre and delusive. The majority of the people of Cordova, from inclination or fear, submitted to Paz, the usurping Governor, who v/ns at this time at the head of 4000 men, most of whom belonged to the militia. — The province was in a wretched condition, however, disturbed by the insurgent peasantry, with whom frequent skirmishes took place. A convention between this province and that of Buenos Ayres was published in January. A mutual co-operation against foreign invasion was agreed upon ; and an alliance offensive and de- fensive, against the Indians, was entered into. The government of Buenos Ayres was also authoriz- ed, as it had been at the conven- tion with Santa Fc, to transact the business of the province in its foreign relations. The two gov- ernments invited those of the oth- er provinces to convoke assem- blies for the organization of the nation, as soon as internal troubles should have been quieted. But this consummation was far from being at hand. Quiroga had ta- ken the field against Paz ; and the latter availed himself, perfidi- ously, as is alleged, of an improp- er opportunity, to cut up the for- ces of his antagonist. Commis- sioners from Buenos Ayres, despatched to effect a pacification of the disturbances, according to the terms of the convention above referred to, were in Quiroga's camp, on the plains of Laguna Larga. He expected of course no immediate assault. His force consisted of 2300 men. On the 25th of February Paz came upon him by surprise, with 3200, and, after six hours' engagement, 1000 men were killed or missing, and all the baggage, infantry, and ar- tillery of Quiroga, were captured. His cavalry was dispersed, and he betook himself to Buenos Ayres, where he was well received by the government party. Indigna- tion was generally felt at the con- duct of Paz, and a rupture with Cordova was anticipated. The Unitarians however ex- ulted in the success of Paz. I has been mentioned that Lavalle retired to Montevideo. He sent in his resi2;nation as commander in chief of the cavalry, m no very respectful terms. Most of his party, on the establishment of Rosas in the government, left the city in disgust. They complain- ed loudly of the weakness of the INVASION OF CUYO. admiiiistration. Instead of order- ing the election of a new legisla- ture, the government had reinsta- ted the old one, whose acts had been specially displeasing to the Unitarians. The funeral honors decreed to Dorrego, the re-estab- Jishment of intercourse with the Pope, and tlie legislative suppres- sion of all writings printed during Lavalle's continuance in power, criticising the acts of the now dominant party, w^ere all equally Oitensive to that which had been ejected from power. Many of them, in consequence, joined Paz in Cordova. Some of their complaints seem not to have been unfounded. - — Rosas certainly carried it with a high hand, in relation to them. — By a decree, dated March 13th, it was declared that ' Every person who might be publicly considered as author, abetter or accomplice of the affair of December 1st, 1828, (the date of Lavalle's usurpation) or any of the outrages committed against the laws by the intrusive government, and who had not given and should not thencefor- ward give unequivocal proof that they viewed such proceedings with abomination, should be pun- ished as guilty of rebellion.' — And the decree went on to enact, that ' All persons who either by word or writing, or in any other manner, should manifest them- selves in favor of the said meeting of December IGth, or any of the aforesaid outrages, should be equally punished.' Despotism cannot go farther than to attempt a suppression of the privilege of speech ; and despotism itself cax- not effect it. 22 In reply to a communication from Paz, giving an account of his defeating Quiroga, in which the blame was of course laid on the latter, an answer was des- patched on the 16th March by the Buenos Ayrean government. The efforts it had made to pre- vent the further effusion of blood, and the expectations it had cher- ished from the mission of the commissioners, charged to medi- ate between all parties, were set forth ; and the hope was express- ed that the affair of the 25th February might be the last, in which Argentine blood would be shed by fraternal hands. The hopes of the Unitarians generally became stronger. Sev- eral of the interior provinces were understood to be in their favor. — Santa Fe, however, remained faithful to the convention ; and Corrientes, Entre Rios and oth- ers, were relied upon by the party in power. Paz followed up his victory, by despatching a part of his forces against the province of Cuyo. Their commander, Cas- tillo, occupied the fortress of San Luis without difficulty, making its governor and garrison prisoners. He was moving on Mendoza, when he was met by a deputation of the government of the province. A treaty of peace was set on foo:, but its ratification was interrupted. The Governor retreated with the forces he had at command, amounting to 700 men. A new governor was named ; but a large number of the inhabitants not feel- ing safe in any event, attempted to escape into Chili. Many were interrupted at the pnsscs of the 350 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Cordilleras, by a detachment of troops, and made prisoners. The Chamber of Representa- tives met pursuant to adjournment in Buenos Ayres, on the 3d of May. The governor informed them, that, during their brief re- cess, the foreign relations of the country had remained in statu quo ; that though the government had vainly used every effort to prevent the effusion of blood in Cordova and Cuyo, its zeal was not diminished for the attainment of peace, nor would its exertions be relaxed. As to the revenue, it was frankly admitted, that very great sacrifices must be made to put the credit of the country on any tolerable footing. The de- preciation of the despised curren- cy paralyzed industry, and men- aced the community at large whh hopeless distress and embarrass- ment. The Chambers passed a law prohibiting the exportation of coin and bullion, which had a partial effect in lowering the difference of exchange. The actual value of the currency of the country, at this time, may be estimated from the fact, that flour of inferior qual- ity was sold at ^^70 the barrel. — Higher duties were laid on sever- al of the most important articles of importation. Trade, notwithstand- ing, continued in a most languish- ing condition, and very few Amer- ican vessels visited the port. The Governor made a tour in the inte- rior, for the purpose of inspecting the state of the country. Depu- ties were appointed by the provin- ces of Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, Corrientes and Santa Fe, to set- tle definite terms of peace and alliance between them, and strong hopes were entertained of their successful negotiation. New troubles and rumors of insurrec- tions, however, arose, which indu- ced the legislature on the 21st of July, again to invest the Governor with extraordinary powers, to con- tinue during the existence of the crisis. Corbolan, the ex-govern- or of Mendoza, made an attempt to retake that city, and his force was entirely cut up by the In- dians. He was slain, with nearly all his principal officers. But we have reached the limits assigned to the present barren record." — Since the memorable July of this year, the attention of the world has been occupied with far more important events than the com- paratively petty affairs of the Ar- gentine provinces. We cannot but hope, however, that the influ- ence of these events may be sal- utary as regards them ; and that in the general advancement of the cause of freedom, they may be- come enlightened enough, not only to understand but to act upon the principles, that in union alone there is strength, and that civil liberty cannot be enjoyed under the sway of priests and generals. In the state of Monte Video, during the period we have passed over. Rondeau the Governor, was deposed by a movement excited by his improper trafficking with ambitious men. A new constitu- tion was adopted, which was guar- antied by Buenos Ayres and Brazil, and was sworn to in July. CHAPTER XI. FRANCE. Vicissitudes in France. —PoUgnac Ministry. — Public Opinion. — La Fayette in Lyons. — Breton Association. — Parisian Cafes. — Pamphlets. — Journals. — Journalism. — Comite Di- recteur. — Jesuits. — State of the Question. — Meeting of the Chambers. — Character of Parties. It has been the destiny of France, during the last half cen- tury, to fix the attention of the world by alternate scenes of de- gradation and glory ; by astonish- ins; vicissitudes of political condi- tion ; by the connmission of the darkest public crimes, and by the exhibition of magnanimity and of enthusiasm in the pursuit of great national objects, seldom surpass- ed ; and as the theatre in short, of those events, achievements, sac- rifices, and revolutions in human affairs, whereon history delights to dwell. The incidents of 1830 have added another chapter of deep and ubsorbing interest to her already wonderful annals. Since the second Restoration, a period of comparatively long tranquillity, both internal and external, had elapsed, when the Revolution of the Three Days, and the subordi- nate events which preceded or accompanied it, came to interrupt the protracted calm and monotony of affairs, in the bosom of that people, so habituated to the con- templation of the most exciting changes, the most extreme and violent vibrations, in the combi- nations of its political condition. Tranquil the period may well be called, for France, which at home saw nothing more important than the assassination of a prince of the blood, the descent of the crown in the regular order of hereditary succession, an occasional upris- ing and consequent fusillade of the uneasy spirits among the peo- ple, the suppression or re-estab- lishment of the liberty of the Press, the disbanding of the National Guards, a contested election, the funeral of a Manuel or a Foy, stormy discussions in the Cham- ber of Deputies, or capricious shiftings of the ministerial portfolios from one to another of the unsta- ble tenants of office : and which 252 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. abroad saw nothing more impor- tant than the unopposed invasion of Spain, or the bloodless occu- ])ation of the Morea. In our own ibrtunate, peaceful, and prosper- ous land, where the stability and quiet of a happy form of govern- ment and of wise laws prevent the frequent occurrence of those pro- foundly interesting events, which electrify mankind, such things could not pass without filling a space, by no means insignificant, in our annals. But in France it is otherwise : for what is a change of ministry, compared with a change of dynasty, the abolition of a law to the abolition of a con- stitution, the dispersion of a hand- ful of turbulent students to the defeat of a noble army, the de- mise of a king to his dethrone- ment, the doating ineptitude of a Louis or a Charles to the sublime aspirations and splendid errors of Napoleon? And the inglo- rious chase of the unresisting Con- stitutionalists of^Spain — how little worth it could be To men, who had participated in the magnificent triumphs of Marengo and Jena, or the bloody reverses of Leipsic ftnd Waterloo ! But animation and vicissitude and preparation and anticipation have once more regained their sway over the course of pvblic affairs in France, and by consequence in the rest of Europe ; and in resuming our narrative, we enter apon the rec- ord of events, which do not yield in importance or interest, to those which signalized the days of the Republic or the Empire. We closed the history of France for 1829 with an account of the formation of that ministry, which. in the brief period of eleven months from its appointment, was destined to overthrow the throne they were designed to strengthen and confirm. M. de Polignac had been transferred from the court of St James to the hotel of For- eign Affairs and invested with the responsible control of the govern- ment, first, as minister merely, and afterwards as President of the Council, in order to gain a name synonymous with incapacity as a statesman, and fatuity as a man. His associates were either, like MM. de Bourmont and La Bour- donnaye, the most supremely odious individuals in France, in the estimation of the great body of the Nation; or like MM. Cour- voisier, Chabrol, and Montbel, and M. Guernon deRanville, who soon took the place of La Bour- donnaye, were chiefly distin- guished for their known or sup- posed devotion to the cause of ultra-royalty and ihe parti-pretre . Such was the Cabinet, consisting of names in part but too notorious at the present hour, whose organ- ization signalized the latter part of the year 1829; and it was re- ceived with those ominous and threatening bursts of public indig- nation, w^iich clearly indicated an approaching crisis. If the Chamber of Deputies had been at this time in session, the Opposition w^ould, of course, have chosen that as the theatre of their resistance to the new Cabinet, and the voice of France would there have been heard on this momen- tous subject. But Charles and his Camarilla had purposely se- lected this moment for a change of Ministry, in order to give the FRANCE. 253 new Ministers time to mature lie movement and impulse, was at their plans, and if possible ac- this time free, and was thus ena- quire firmness in their places, be- bled to utter the decisions of the fore they should be called upon to national will, and invoke the face the Chamber of Deputies, friends of liberty and order to If the opinions of the leading men stand fast each by the other in the of the Nation had not been long great catastrophe that seemed im- before fully made up, if the Peo- pending. In what manner the pie themselves had stood in need Press discharged this most sacred of any regular and responsible duty we shall presently see ; but concentration of public opinion for that it was not the Press, which their information or guidance in created the public excitement im- this emergency, the King would mediately consequent on the ap- have derived great advantage from poiutment of the Polignac minis- this arrangement. For it is to be try, is satisfactorily proved by the considered that France, with its reception given to La Fayette at thirty millions of inhabitants, pos- this period, in the south of France, sessed but one popular assembly. Since the Revolution of the but one body in which the great Three Days, so many personal intelligences of the times could in details and anecdotes in illustra- their own persons address the Ian- tion of that event have been spread guage of warning or persuasion to before the world in the newspa- iheir fellow citizens. Provincial pers, that all men now understand bodies, analogous to our state leg- the elevated position occupied by islatures, unfortunately it had not ; General La Fayette in his own for, by a pohtical oversight of the country. They have seen the most fatal character, the ancient extraodinary influence exercised provinces, which at the Revolu- by him, a simple Deputy, in giv- lion offered so favorable a basis for ing direction to the march of a Federal Republic, had been opinions and of action. It was the sedulously and anxiously melted accumulated result of reiterated down in the revolutionary cruci- acts of lofty patriotism at home, ble into one homogeneous mass, brightened by the reflected splen- Political meetings of an occasion- dor of his illustrious reputation in al nature, suited to the expression another hemisphere. He had re- ef opinion concerning the admin- turned to France, after the Amer- istration of public affairs, were ican war, the youthful hero of a either contrary to the laws, or un- new-born empire. With the sanctioned by the usages of the characteristic ardor of his nature, French. The Press remained, he threw himself into that Revo- and the Press alone, as the direct lution, which in its outset promis- and legitimate channel for com- ed so much for the lasting good c. municating to the People at large France. When bad men seized the views and feelings, the hopes upon the helm of state, and La and apprehensions, of the master- Fayette was compelled to fly- minds of the Nation. Happily the from a country reeling with the Press, that potent engine of pub- wild vertigo of revolutionary mad 22* 254 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. ness, he became the iiisrt} r of hberty, as the prisoner of him, v. ho worthily rules the Croats and Huns on the borders of European civihzation ; — of him, who, not content whh the infamy which at- tached to the name of Austria, as ihe kidnapper and base jailer of Richard Cceur de Lion, suffered that name to be in like manner disgraced once more, by re- peating the same petty outrage against the laws of hospitality and lionor in the person of La Fay- ette. When restored to personal freedom and to his country, he proudly and conscientiously refus- ed that homage to the victorious child of the Revolution, which ma- ny n emigre professor of ultra roy- alism had condescended to pay , but which La Fayette could not be- stow even upon the ' great Julius' when ' fiilse to Rome. ' Consistent in his untiring zeal for national lib- erty at the latter epoch of the Res- toration, he of course earned the honor of being hated by the Bour- bons in proportion as he was be- loved by France. Meantime he revisited America, and retrod, in one continued ovation, — such as never royal progress or march of oriental pomp had exhibited, — the scenes of his early usefulness and glory. Bringing back to his native country a treasureof heart- felt blessings and heaped-up to- kens of eternal gratitude, to show the world how republicans loved to honor their benefactor, he re- appeared among the children of young France as the patriarch of ilie revolution, holding in 1829 the liberal opinions of 1789, un- shaken by misfortune or change, and standing as it were the im- movable god Terminus, to indi- cate the limits between liberty and despotism. Such at this moment was the general position of La I'ayette, such his absolute popularity as an individual. His intimate connex- ion with America was inciden- tally the occasion of a considera- ble enhancement of the charm attached to his name. Col. Le Va^seur's Journal of his patron's visit to America had recently been pubHshed, and was eagerly read and greatly admired, as well for its own intrinsic merits, as onac- count of the flattering picture it gives of the political condition of the United States. We in Amer- ica, who judge of this work in the translation, and who are familiar with all the subjects it discusses, cannot fully appreciate the excel- lence and value ofit as composed for the meridian of France. The highly talented and most estima- ble author of the Journal, who courageously perilled his life in the combat of the Three Days, and bore off in honorable wounds the brave man's badge of glory, wrote the book for France, who needed the examples and infor- mation it contained, not for America, who already possessed them in all their original fullness. This publication therefore so op- portunely made, while it directly added to the celebrity of La Fay- ette, operated in the same way indirectly, by reviving the sym- pathies of enlightened Frenchmen in the prosperity of repubhcan America, and gathering those sympathies around La Fayette as the visible representative of trans- atlantic freedom. FRANCE. 255 These explanations are neces- sary to the understanding of the fact we are about to relate ; at the same time that they will serve to elucidate the deference paid to La Fayette, as we shall hereafter see, in the preparation and accom- plishment of the revolution of the Three Days. When the ordi- nances nominating the new Minis- ters appeared in the Moniteur, La Fayette was on the way to the south of France, to visit his patri- monial estates in his native prov- ince of Auvergne, which had been restored to him under the law of indemnity ; and his journey was extended to the delightful resi- dence of his grand-daughter, Mad- ame Adolphe Perrier, amid the rich valleys of Dauphiny and the Isere. Nothing, except the cir- cumstances of his welcome to America, could exceed the enthu- siasm with which La Fayette was fete by the inhabitants of the towns through which he passed. The people seized with extreme avid- ity upon this occasion for testify- ing their admiration of a great man, and their sense of the actual complexion of the political affairs of the country. The occasion was most auspicious in both res- pects. Thirtyeight years had rolled rapidly away since La Fayette was last among them ; and what a mighty mass of overpowering reflection belonged to that period in the flight of time I The bright hopes of the first constitution, the lurid splendors of the Republic, the maddening excitements of the Empire, the two Restorations with all their train of humiliating con- sequences, arose in quick succes- sion before the imagination. — Louis XIV., the rash tribunes of the Republic, Napoleon, and an- other Louis, had all passed off like a dream, and the ^contest for the secure possession of constitutional freedom, formerly waged by the people of 1791, was now, after so many bloody but fruitless sacrifi- ces, renewedly waging by the people of 1829 with untiring res- olution and pertinacity. There lived a man, bearing the name of Charles Capet, and the title of King of France, to whom the dreadful lessons of the age seem- ed as water spilled on the ground, or seed scattered on the surface of the ocean ; and who in sight of the red soil of the Place de la Revolution on the one hand, and the bronze columns of the Place Vendome on the other, was medi- tating to deprive France, as she believed, of the liberties dearly bought with her blood. La Fay- ette, the champion of freedom in 1791, reappeared among them again, the champion of freedom in 1 829 ; and he seemed as one risen from the dead, the resusci- tated memorial of a by-gone era., a revenue from among the beati- fied spirits of the early days of revolutionized France, come to encourage the zealous, to fix the wavering, to stimulate the phleg- matic, and to deliver a mission of gratulation and hope to a regener- ated race. What fitter opportu- nity could be found for speaking out the universal indignation felt by the people at the appointment of a ministry, whose very existence in office they considered as a de- clared conspiracy against the Charter ? 256 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Accordingly, every conceivable his participation in the solemnities demonstration of popular regard and rejoicings in honor of La was lavished upon La Fayette. — Fayette ; but unfortunately, when ' His reception in the great city of the appointment of a successor Lyons may be taken as an exam- came up for consideration, no in- ple ofthe enthusiasm which ani- habitant of the place, qualified by mated the friends of liberty. He law, could be found, who had not was escorted into the city in tri- committed the same unpardonable umph ; illuminations and proces- sin, which occasioned the remov- sions honored his arrival; a al of the late mayor. In short the magnificent dinner was given him, people had now acquired a vent which several distinguished patri- for their feelings, a channel for ots attended ; and the toasts and pouring out their sentiments of speeches pronounced at the din- contempt of the Bourbons, their ner, were proclaimed in every cor- indignation at the appointment of ner of France, by the thousand an anti-constitutional ministry, and tongues of the newspaper press, their devoted attachment to the and in myriads of small pamphlets Charter and the great principles purposely printed to be widely of the Revolution. And the King, circulated among the people, if possessed of the ordinary dis- La Fayette and his friend, in their cernment and understanding of a speeches, denounced the new child, when he witnessed the loud, Ministers as the enemies of their general, and spontaneous burst of country, placed in office by the inflamed feeling, which greeted King as the first act in a systema- the accession merely, of Ministers lized design for arbitrarily effect- of obnoxious political principles, ing a total change in the Charter, might have anticipated the explo- and circumscribing the rights of sion to be produced by any open the People; and the speakers violation of the Charter, boldly and confidently declared Meanwhile, a measure of oppo- that France never would and nev- sition and of anticipated security er could submit to such usurpation, against usurpation was adopted, but was ready to maintain by force which perplexed the Government the integrity of the Charter. The still m.ore than the manifestation Ministers interposed all the obsta- of regard for La Fayette, because cles they could devise in the way it was a direct attack on the march of this continual demonstration of of the Government itself Appre- public exultation, but were wholly bending, with what reason we unable to prevent its taking place, shall see hereafter, that the Min- The vexation and annoyance it isters intended to violate the occasioned them was excessive, Charter, that a part of the scheme and they displayed the most petty would be an arbitrary change of and pitiable resentment in their the Chamber of Deputies, and attempts to check, disparage, or that the taxes must of course be punish the enthusiasm of the Peo- voted by such an unconstitutional pie. They removed, for instance. Legislature, or else levied by roy- the mayor of Vizille on account of al ordinance without any pretence FRANCE. 257 of regard for the forms] of the Charter, the people nnmediately saw that the taxes afforded a point of legal and peaceful resistance to the Government, of the most ad- vantageous description. It was plainly impossible for the Minis- ters to proceed with the affairs ot ihe kingdom without pecuniary resources, either in imposts or loans ; and the latter could never be obtained unless with a prospect of repayment by means of the for- mer, or some mode of permanent- ly binding the Nation to their re- imbursement. If the constitutional represeatatives of the People were deprived of their proper influence in the Government, as regularly exercised in the grant of supplies, the People themselves had the power to redress the wrong by refusing to pay any tax unlawfully imposed on their estates. The idea was deemed a happy one for the liberal and national party, as it was a dangerous one for the Ministers ; and a plan was imme- diately arranged and put in opera- tion for the accomplishment of the desired object, which, from being first adopted by the landholders of the old province of Bretagne, be- came known by the name of the Breton Subscription or Associa- tion. This Association had a twofold object. They proposed in the first place to refuse to pay any illegal tax, and in the second place to raise by contribution a common fund for indemnifying any subscriber, whose property or person might suffer by reason of his refusal. An article of the Prospectus explains the plan in the words of the projectors. — ' The Subscription will form, a fund common to Bretagne, des- tined to indemnify the subscribers for the expenses which they may incur in consequence of a refusal to pay public contributions illegally imposed : whether without the free, regular and constitutional agreement of the King and the two Chambers, in conformity with the Charter and existing laws, or with the agreement of Chambers formed by an electoral system, which shall not have been voted according to constitutional forms.' The scheme appears to have been a perfect one, as the means of peaceable resistance to any arbitrary acts of the Govern- ment. If generally subscribed, the prospectus would have the effect of combining the whole Na- tion in a lawful confederacy to sus- tain the Charter in spite of the physical force which might be wielded by the King. For if a subscriber refused to pay his tax, the Government could but order a distraint on his property, and it was easy to foresee that this would not benefit the Treasury. The w hole of the classes industri- elles, the great capitalists and land- holders, the possessors of the moveable riches of the country, were in general ardent friends of the liberal cause. If they enroll- ed themselves as parties to the Subscription, a distraint would avail nothing, because there would be nobody to buy the property distrained ; and in such a state of things, with all the wealth and feel- ing of the Nation on one side, and nothing but a taxgatherer's war- rant on the other, M. de Polignac would be greatly puzzled, even if 258 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. aided by all the alchymy of the baron Hothschild and his brothers, 10 transmute into good current iouisd'ors that all important por- tion of the annual budget of one thousand millions of francs, which consists in direct taxes. If, there- fore, a more summary method of testing the strength of parties had not been adopted during the Three Days, it seems likely that the Ministry must have gone to ship- wreck upon the shoalsof the Bre- ton Association ; for subscriptions were extensively formed as well in the other provinces as in Bretagne. A Prospectus of the intended Subscription was published at Paris on the 11th of September, in a zealous liberal newspaper call- ed the Journal (lu Commerce, even before the formation of the Asso- ciation. The Government pro- fessed to look upon the mere im- putation of unconstitutional inten- tions, conveyed in the Prospectus, as an aggravated seditious libel and according ordered the prosecution of M. Bert, the gerant, or respon- sible conductor of the Joi/r??«/ du Commerce. The ground of the prosecution was that the publica- tion tended to provoke disobedi- ence to the laws, and to bring the King's Government into hatred and contempt, by spreading a be- lief that the Ministers had conspir- ed with him to overthrow the Charter. And although the editor was condemned, yet the princi- ples assumed by the Court in giv- ing judgment converted the defeat into a triumph. The Court de- cided that, as the acts intended to be guarded against would be un- lawful in the highest degree, it was an outrage on the Govern- ment to ascribe to it the intention of committing those acts ; thus in- directly sanctioning the objects and principles of the Association, while condemning the publication of the Prospectus. During the residue of the au- tumn, and until the announce- ment in January of the approach- ing assembly of the Chambers, no public event of such consequence transpired ; but the discussion of the great political question now pending agitated all France. It is not true, as many English writers have'supposed, that the great pro- vincial cities of France are influ- enced solely by the movements of the Parisians. Lyons, Rouen, Marseilles, Bordeaux, and the oth- er great cities, all possess their own opinions and feelings, which, in matters affecting the political condition of the country, have sometimes been in advance and sometimes in arrears of Paris. Still, as the permanent seat of the Government, as the great capital of literature and fashion, as the occasional residence of the men of wealth and influence from the provinces, and especially as the seat of an administration, which is in a remarkable de- gree centralized and organized into a regular subdivision and subordination of bureaux, and as the focus of the national intel- ligence and improvement, Pa- ris, very properly, or at least very naturally, communicates an impe- tus and a tone to public measures in the various departments, and therefore seems to be the dictator of that national sentiment, of which she is merely the visible repre- sentative, the chosen mouth-piece, FRANCE. 259 and as it were the concentra- tion and the collected essence. There, at any rate, the changes of political feeling are best ob- served and measured, and the opinions' expressed there will be those of men possessed of the largest means of information and the most competent powers of judgment. In addition to the Court, the high functionaries of Church and State, the wealthy manufacturers, proprietors and bankers, the multitude of unem- ployed officers of the army, the men of science and letters attach- ed to the various institutions of the metropolis, and the intelligent strangers attracted from abroad, are to be reckoned the large num- ber of clerks and subordinate employes of the public offices or private enterprises concentrated in Paris. Therefore, in tracing the progress of opinion and events in France at this period, it will prove to be sufficient, in general, to draw our facts and inferences from the capital, as a fit barome- ter of the sentiments of the whole country. Paris was, in fact, the place in which the Ministers them- selves chose to discuss their own purposes, through that division of the press, which acted as their organ, and where of course the opposition exerted their greatest strength in the same way. Dur- ing the last two years the Press having been free from the shac- kles of the censure, had spoken with a boldness and talent, espe- cially in Paris, which had con- verted all men into politicians, and had rendered the perusal of racy political disquisitions one of the necessaries of life. The fa- vored modes of living in Paris greatly facilitated the extensive circulation of the public journals, by spreading them before the thousands who frequented the Cafes, to which same end the establishment of numerous Cahi- nets de Lecture largely contribu- ted. The number of places of refreshment at Paris, under vari- ous names, at which the journals can be read, is well known to be very great in itself, and they are scattered over every part of the city; being, of course, especially numerous in the Palais Royal, on the Boulevards, and in other quar- ters, where amusement or business attracts the greatest concourse of persons. But places for the sole purpose of reading the newspa- pers and other light periodical publications had been multiplied at the period in question, through the growing interest felt in the subject of politics, created by the progress of free discussion. These Cabinet de Lectures are a kind of reading rooms wholly unknown among us, being well suited to the exigencies of a numerous and unsettled population like that of Paris, and admirably calculated for their wants and tastes ; but very different from the reading rooms which are found in our large towns, whether provided by editors of journals, private associ- ations, or commercial and literary bodies of various kinds. The citizens or stranger, who enters the Cabinet de Lecture, pays a sous for the perusal of any paper he may select ; and in the favorite promenades and public gardens, as in the Tuileries and elsewhere, 260 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. little pavilions are tenanted by in- dividuals, who keep a collection of the journals to be let on the same terms. In addition, there- fore to the ordinary means of circulating political disquisitions, which exist in other places, Paris possessed others peculiar to itself, which gave to the spirited and eloquent articles of the journalist a notoriety unequalled for extent and celerity of diffusion. The liberal party availed themselves of the facilities thus afforded, with consummate address and extra- ordinary zeal ; spreading before the reading public, in pamphlets, newspapers, and \aYS,ev periodicals an unremitted treat of the most appetizing ingredients ; maintain- ing, in short, a war of argument, ridicule, and denunciation against the Ministers, to which, indeed, the latter responded, but with far less efficiency and ability, and in- comparably less of influence on the minds of the People. Foremost in violence of lan- guage and pungency of matter were innumerable pamphlets of various kinds, from the argumen- tative octavo down to the little five sous brochure, which made up in extent of circulation for what it wanted in dignity of form. Vituperative histories of the lives and past conduct of the several Ministers ; sharp and bitter crit- iques on their speeches, writings, and state papers ; denunciations of their character and purposes of the severest strain ; pithy anec- dotes and hons-mots, in short, every form of attack and annoyance, which the fertile minds and busy hands in the great literary work- shop of Paris could devise and ex- ecute composed the staple of the multitude of light publications. Being printed clandestinely and anonymously in many cases, and thus free from the responsibility, ehher to the laws or to good man- ners, which checked the boldness of the periodical Press, these pam- phlets were often peculiarly daring and personal in assailing the royal family as well as the officers of Government. Such interesting works gave ample occupation to the presses of that very prolific and highly respectable firm, ' Les March^ands des Nouveautes,' whose publications might easily be found on the counters of the Palais Royal and in the Passage Colbert or Vero-Dodat, but whose printing office or study would be rather likely to elude ob- servation. It may well be supposed that in these brochures some Bussy- Rabutin would not fail to handle with little reverence the scanda- lous chronicle of the alleged ten- der interest of a certain Comte d'Artois in the Prince Polignac ; that the English connexions, known EngHsh partialities, and supposed English dependency of the new Premier were blazonea in glaring colors ; and that his want of capacity, his subserviency to the Jesuits and his hostile in- tentions towards the Charter, were held up to public scorn and indignation with all the warmth of enthusiastic but unscrupulous elo- quence. The Comte de Bour- mont presented another favorite object of attack, in which, indeed, his whole military and political life were treated with unsparing severity, but which aimed its \ keenest shafts, of course, against his traitorous abandonment of the Nation prior to the battle of Wa- terloo : — For few, very few of his countrymen could be found, who did not view that act of double fasehood considering the precise moment v/hen it was perpetrated, as treason to France rather than to Napoleon. During the few months he was in office, the Comte de La Bourdonnaye was equally loaded with obloquy for the ex- travagance and absurdity of his avowed political creed, as the preux chevalier of ultraism, the Don Quixote of the extreme droits who had opposed M. de Villele as almost a liberal, and M. de Martignac as little better than a jacobin. MM. Courvoisier, de Montbel, and Chabrol afforded fewer grounds of violent reproach than their colleagues ; but they must have been more than human to have presented no weak point to the keen scrutiny of the wits of Paris, who knew how to depreci- ate and ridicule where they could not condemn. And we ought to remark, in this connexion, that the new Prefect of Police, M. Mangin, was commemorated, in these ephemeral publications, with more than his due share of bitter- ness on account of his zealous and uncompromising Bourhonism. The productions of the graver and of the lithographic pencil might well have a place by the side of the foregoing skirmish- ers and light troops of political warfare. Indeed the lithographic press is going far towards opera- ting the same revolution in regard to the art of engraving, that the printing press has in respect of 23 NCE. JWl writing, having a similar, although not equal, comparative facility and cheapness in the multiplication of its productions. Of course, it is capable of no little efficiency as the vehicle for circulating impres- - sions and sketches, and tlius act- ing upon the popular mind. But the French are not particularly happy in the design or invention of political caricatures. In this particular they are greatly sur- passed by the English, while the latter are immeasurably behind their national rivals in the compo- sition of witty and well aimed controversial writings of a light character. If the stage had not been too directly nnder the su- pervision of the Police, the pub- lic feeling would have sought and found a ready utterance in the lesser theatres of Paris. When- ever a line occurred in Marino Faliero or the other current pieces of the day, which admitted of application to public affairs, the excitable spirits of the parterre were sure to single it out for their applause. But the Government jealously watched to prevent any- thing of a political tendency from being introduced on the stage. A trifling incident betrayed their sensitiveness on this point. The play of Paul et Virginie had been announced by one of the minor theatres, which little piece has among its dramatis personts a man of the name of La Bour^ donnaye. This was quite suffi- cient to awaken the apprehensions of the Government, who antici- pated, perhaps, that the occasion might be embraced by some mei-- ry * gentlemen about town' to ex- hibit marks of affection for the 262 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. ministerial namesake of Saint- Pierre's worthy governor ; and Paulet Virginib was accordingly withdrawn and another play sub- stituted in its place. But we are to look to the po- litical journals, as the most vig- orous and efficient combatants in the war of words which raged at this time ; and as they exercised great influence over the public sentiment during the whole period of the struggle between the two antagonist parties in the kingdom, and at the crisis of the Three Days iicquired a direct historical interest in the Revolution, it is proper to enter here into some explanation of the condition of the Newspaper Press in Paris. It is not neces- sary to examine the legal ques- tions and provisions relating to this head, any further than to state that, with the exception of certain preliminary forms attending the establishment of a newspaper, one of which was the very just one of giving responsible security to meet any claim of damages which might arise, the newspaper press was at this time substantially free in the same sense that it is in the Uni- ted States. In giving such secu- rity, the editor of a journal vvas required to choose his vocation, for the reason that a political jour- nal assumed liabilities of a differ- ent kind from those which attach- ed to a journal des modes, a lite- rary periodical, or a theatrical courier. And some of our read- ers may need to be informed that a much more complete sub- division and classification of the public journals exist in France than ia England or America. Each jtuille being small in its dimensions, compared with ours, is usually appropriated, in a great- er or less degree, to a single class of subjects, paying only incidental attention to others out of its main province, instead of presenting a comprehensive and universal epi- tome of intelligence, miscellany, and disquisition. Thus one di- vision of the Paris journals is de- voted mainly to the proceed- ings of the tribunals, another to the theatres, others to religion, to literature, to the fashions, to dis- tinct departments of science and the arts, and so forth ; and these, by the conditions of their authori- zation, abstain from entering upon the troubled sea of political dis- cussion, unless they give security for that express object. It is cus- tomary, also, to issue sheets de- voted altogether to advertise- ments, called .^^cAe^; so that un- like ours, the popular daily politi- cal journals of Paris, such as the Journal des Debats and ihc Con- stitutionnel, contain but few ad- vertisements, and a very large proportion of purely original mat- ter, on political subjects. Of course, the whole system of the me- chanical arrangements appertain- ing to the political journals in Paris is totally different from our own ; and a popular/ewiY/e of that class, instead of being made up of a heterogeneous mass of public doc- uments, laws, judicial proceed- ings, advertisements, and stale migratory extracts from other pa- pers, is a valuable original sheet of political news and discussions, enlivened by the admixture only of such a portion of other inter- esting topics as may serve to give zest to the more solid contents of FRANCE. 263 the pajier. They constitute a vehicle in which a man of standing and talent, an eminent statesman, a profound scholar, a peer of rank and lineage, may, without dero- gation from his character, com- municate his opinions and views of public affairs to the People. One of these journals, it is well known, is a sort of national fixture, a part of the machinery of the Government, which , has altered its principles a hundred times in half a century without losing its consistency, and which, although continually changing, is always the same. The Moniteur is al- ways the organ of the Govern- ment, just in the same way as the letters of the alphabet are the elements of speech ; and the Moniteur feels no more personal responsibility (so to speak) for the sentiments it utters, than the al- phabet does for the use we make of it in the intercourse of life. This journal performs a double duty, being, in the first place, the authoritative publisher of all gov- ernment acts, such as royal ordi- nances, and the like, and being employed, in the second place, to defend or explain the doings of the Ministers upon information furnished by themselves for that purpose. It is an arrangement which seems to us to possess manifold advantages in this re- spect. It is highly desirable that a single journal should constantly appear at the seat of administra- tion of a great country, for the information as well of its own citizens as of foreign nations. Great inconveniences ensue from the want of such a newspaper in those countries where the plan is imperfectly carried into efTect. In England, although the Courier was long the nearest accredit- ed organ of the Ministers, yet it never was identified with the Government like the Moniteur, and on a change of administra- tion has ceased to possess any particular authority. In the Uni- ted States, the Journal has suc- ceeded to the Intelligencer as the official paper, and the Tele- grapli to the Journal, and now again the Globe to the Telegraph, as the shifting tides of popular fa- vor ebb and flow, and one party after another gains a temporary ascendency at Washington. It would be infinitely better to imi- tate the example of the French, m order that all men, at all times and places, the citizen and the foreigner, the present generation and the future historian, might be able to recur to a single journal to obtain a sure exposition of the views of the Government itself and an authoritative record of its acts. It is no objection to this to say that the pages of the Moniteur exhibit principles of the most va- rious and opposite character, and that so it is inconsistent with it- self. So is the statute-book in- consistent ; for this year it con- tains a repeal of the law which it promulgated the last, although its name remains unchanged. It is important now, it is desirable hereafter, to know what Ministers think, as well as what they do ; and no permanent individuality of character being claimed by the Moniteur^ no consistency is for- feited by its adopting the succes- sive colors of the existing Gov- ernment. 264 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 —30. But while the Polignac Minis- try found an advocate in the Mon- itcur as a matter of course, it re- lied u[)on other journals, the pro- fessed adherents of the royalist party as a party, and by conse- quence of the leaders of that par- ty when invested with the direc- tion of public affairs. It appears from some of the curious manu- scripts found in the Tuileries since the expulsion of the Bourbons, that they very liberally employed the public money in the support of newspapers fivorable to their cause, particularly at this contin- gency. No less than five milhons of francs had been expended in the purchase of anti-national jour- nals. jLe Pilote had received four hundred and fourteen thou- sand four hundred francs ; Les Tahlettes Universelles three hun- dred and eightyfour thousand fif- lythree francs ; Le Journal de Paris nine hundred and eightyfour thousand nine hundred francs ; L^Oriflamme four hundred and twentysix thousand seven hundred ibrtyone ; La Quotidienne four hundred and fortytwo thousand three hundred sixtyfour francs ; IjC Journal des Maires four hun- dred and sixtythree thousand five Imndred francs; LaFoudre for- ty nine thousand francs; La Ga- zette de France three hundred and ninetyone thousand six hun- dred thirty diree francs. The Government was fully aware, no doubt, of the truth and justice of that principle which is laid down by Sir Francis North, who re- cords of himself that, while other advisers of the Crown had urged prosecutions against those who libelled the Ministers, he propos- ed the triumphant expedient of meeting the libellers on their own ground by means of talented wri- ters employed to defend the Min- isters. Prosecutions, he wisely remarks, only serve in such cases to give popularity and importance to obscure writers of pamphlets and riewspaper paragraphs. Let the Ministers employ the same weapons of satire and argument in beating down the Opposition which the latter directs against them and their chance of success will in general be far greater than by filing criminal informations. M. de Polignac made use of both expedients, it is true, the latter as well as the former ; and the roy- alist journals in his pay display- ed as much acrimony, if not as much sincerity and talent, as their more numerous adversaries. Among the newspapers entitled to particular consideration as tak- ing the royalist part in the great constitutional controversy awaken- ed by the appointment of the new Ministry, the Qiiotidienne and the Gazette de France should be mentioned as possessing the re- spectability of established daily journals, having a name and repu- tation in the departments as well as at Paris. These two newspa- pers participated, it will be seen^ in the pecuniary support directly afforded by Government to the ministerial section of the Press^ and are therefore open to the ex- ception of acting a mercenary part as the paid agents and advocates of the measures and the men they upheld. Still their patrons, sup- porters, and conductors were all of the royalist side from principle, or at least in principle ; and they FRANCE. 265 undoubtedly maintained the same cause they would have done with- out any golden promptings from the Government. It is perfectly notorious that vastly moreof talent, standing, and intelligence was enlisted in the liberal journals, in the same pro- portion that the French Nation, and especially the ardent young spirits of the rising generation, were in a great measure heartily attached to the liberal cause, and either zealously opposed to the Bourbons, or at any rate deter- mined to maintain the integrity of the Charter. In fact the mindo^ France viewed the contest as one between the Nation, and a single family, however the high ecclesi- astics and the emigres nobles might give seeming numbers and adherents to that single family. — When, therefore, we come to speak of the Constitutionnel, the Journal des Debats, the Globe, and other liberal papers, we have no longer to deal with mercenary clerks in the public bureaux writ- ing up the reputation of their chefs, or humble Grub-street drudges, executing so many squares of newspaper articles according to order to earn their daily bread, or unprincipled hirelings laboring on through columns ofvulgar ribaldry or blundering fatuity in support of a bad cause. It was the Con- stants, the Chateaubriands, the Jays, the Keratrys, the Gul- zots, the Broglies, and others of the great literary illustrations of France, who gave dignity and in- fluence to the sheets of the oppo- sition presses ; although younger and meaner men were their col- laborateurs and the responsible 23* editors of these journals ; for who would not have been proud to act with such associates, in the fur- therance of principles equally dear to the hearts of all ? And al- though they differed in minor ob- jects, some being for a Republic, some for the Charter as it stood, for Charles X., but with better advisers around his throne, and some for an amendment Charter, and another dynasty to wear the crown, yet all agreed in attach- ment to France, and hostility to M. de Polignac and his associates as the enemies of France. When this administration came into office, five popular daily jour- nals immediately and ardently arrayed themselves against it. — Two of these, the Constitution- nel and the Journal des Debats, had a wider circulation, and ex- ercised a greater influence, than any other papers in France. — One of these, to be sure, spoke the well known sentiments of Chateaubriand, who, through all his active opposition to the Villele ministry, and in his opposition to the Polignac ministry, retained his fidelity to the Bourbon interest, which, indeed, he has manfully acted up to since the Revolution of the Three Days. How far re- sentment against M. de Villele may have influenced M de Cha- teaubriand we pretend not to say ; nor is it material, in considering the effect of his writings upon the popularity of the Government. — But the other, the Constitution' nel, entertained no scruples to prevent its entering thoroughly in- to the cause of the Charter and the People, at whatever risk to the Bourbons. Next to these in 266 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 credit were the Journal du Com- merce, a paper conducted \ ^li p'p^at boldness as well as talc:jl, •M military posts along the coasts of Europe and Asia, Africa and America. But for that very con- sideration it is important to us, and to all other commercial na- tions, that France should extend her commerce and strengthen her marine, in order that England may never again recover that overwhelming maritime ascenden- cy, which, previous to the last war, encouraged her to such extraor- dinary abuse of power in the oppression of neutral nations. To those, who remember the nauti- cal history of England for the last forty years, and who have observed the great increase and prosperous condition of the French military marine at the present time, this will appear to be no un- important aspect of the subject. And the advantage, which all mankind are to derive from the seas being forever cleared of the lawless Barbary cruisers is too evident to require illustration or proof. But as to Africa, so long given up to the domination of roving sav- ages, — for what better are the wild x\rabs ? — so long known to us only as the officina servorum for all nations, — so long debar- red of the blessings of Christianity and of its handmaiden civilization, what may not Africa reasonably expect from the establishment of an extensive French colony upon her Mediterranean shore? She may look, in the first place, to see the renovation of a portion of the agricultural wealth, the popula- tion, and the commerce of ancient Mauritania. And when the Nu- midians have been tamed by the authority of France, the interior of Africa will become accessible to the researches of intelligence and the progress of improvement. FRANCE. 305 Hitherto the exertions of benefi- cence have been directed to the western shores of Africa ; and those exertions have been wasted in vain under the burning skies of the line, along a shore fatal to life by reason of the deleteri- ous qualities of its climate, and amid hostile tribes brulified by the effects of the slave trade. In those noxious regions, noxious both morally and physically speak- ing, European colonies either perish of disease, or, like some of the little Portuguese settlements, assume the hue of mind and al- most the hue of body, proper to the indigenous races. A broad cordon of malignant influences of every description seems to be drawn out along thi^ unhappy coast, impenetrable almost to the hopes and efforts of humanity. But place a European people in Barbary, and circumstances change. The deserts of North- ern Africa are a trifling obstacle to the approaches of civilization towards the centre of the Conti- nent, when compared with the horrors of its Atlantic border. France will have the power, from this vantage ground, to push the innumerable benefits of European refinement into the heart of Afri- ca. She will have the power, and we trust she will have the inclination, to do all this ; but whether she has the inclination or not, if she retains Algiers, the mere indirect influence of her presence cannot fail to be ser- viceable. And we should there- fore exhort her by all means to make good her footing in Al- giers, even if it were not for her own great and immediate advan- tage. And judging according to all the ordinary rules of human ac- tion, it is not to be presumed that France will voluntarily relinquish her hold on a conquest fairly ac- quired, and which it is for the general sjood of mankind she should retain, when the strongest considerations of her own indi- vidual interest are in unison with everything but the hypochondri- acal apprehensions of England. Here is a rich and fertile territo- ry, within three days' sail of Mar- seilles, fitted to produce all those vegetable treasures, which render the West Indies such a mine of wealth. France has been grad- ually stripped of one colony after another, until a few small settle- ments in America are nearly all she retains. England has robbed her of her colonial possessions m. the Indian seas, and of the Can- adas. She was compelled to sell Louisiana to us as the only means of rescuing it from a like fate. Hayti slipj^ed off her authority during one of the fever fits of the Revolution. In Algiers she may found a colony calculated in some measure to indemnify her for her manifold losses of this description. And the arrangements begun by General Bourmont, and contin- ued by his successor. General Clausel, all point to the perma- nent possession of the country. The Dey was conveyed to Italy in a French ship, and the Turkish troops were also removed ; the tributary chiefs and local govern- ors formerly subject to the Dey were notified that the French had assumed the entire authority of their late master ; and courts of justice, with all the other incidents of regular government, were es- 306 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. tablisbed in due form, analagous to the practice of the British in Hindostan. General Clausel having discovered a refractory disposition in the Bey of Titery, a valuable dependency of Algiers situated in the interior of the country at the foot of Mount At- las, very speedily brought the Turk to reason by despatching against him a body of French troops, who took possession of his capital, and sent him prisoner to France. Everything, in fine, short of an express declaration of their purpose, indicates that the Government intend to consult the wishes of the whole Nation, in the disposition to be made of their new conquest in Africa. CHAPTER XIIL FRANCE, CONTINUED. Consequences of the Fall of Algiers. — Ministerial Arrangements. — State of Parties. — The Ordinances, — Their Effect. — Pro^ test of Journalists. — State of the Question. — Protest of the Deputies. — Police Arrangements. Intelligence of the capture of Algiers was conveyed to Tou- lon in about sixty hours by a steamboat, and thence by the line of telegraphs to Paris, where it arrived on the 9th of July. The King immediately ordered Te Deum to be celebrated throughout France, and he himself attended the service in the cathedral church of J^otre Dame. A kind of ver- tiginous madness appears to have seized on the King, the Dauphin, and the Ministers, from that hour. Elated with extravagant feelings of triumph, they deemed them- selves sure of the same easy vic- tory over the People, that they had achieved over the flying Be- douins of the desert. An absurd confidence in the support of the army, an almost insane audacity of purpose, an extraordinary de- lusion as to the spirit, and temper, and power of resistance, and or- ganization of the Nation, all con- spired to hurry on the weak Prince and his headlong advisers to swift destruction. In the course of the four or five days which followed the arrival of the news from Afri- ca, the Ministers wrought up their courage to the requisite degree of strength, on the faith of their late success in war, and resolved upon those memorable infringe- ments of the Charter, which were to precipitate the King from his throne. It is said that M. Guer- non de Ranville and M. de Pey- ronnet were the last to yield their assent to the meditated coup d^etat. They had confidence in their ability as public speakers, and were long disposed to try the ef- fect of discussion in the Chambers. But M. de Polignac proved the evil genius of the Monarchy ; for he, who had originally been alone in the nefarious project of over- turning the constitution, now suc- ceeded in bringing all his asso- ciates into the views of himself, and of the irresponsible advisers, who governed the King. If they had been a revolutionary committee of old regicides, plot- ting the assassination of Charles and his family, they could not have conducted their operations with more of guilty stealth and elaborate secrecy. The compo- 308 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. sition of the Ordinances, and of the Report to the King or justifi- catory memoir by which they were to be accompanied, was not only executed by them, but even all the transcribing was performed by them, so that no clerk or amanuensis should have it in his power to divulge the portentous mystery. The Nation was amus- ed with the most earnest assur- ances that no coup d'etat was in- tended, no violation of the Char- ter, nothing like that, which was already fully decided upon and ar- ranged in all its details ; and these assurances were even extended to the foreign Ambassadors, who looked with natural anxiety on the threatening aspect of affairs. Nay, if rumor may be credited, Baron Rothschild, who, by his connexion with the public stocks, had a more direct interest in the question than any person except the Ministers and the royal fami- ly, was tranquillized by M. de Polignac with like deceptive de- clarations. Letters of convoca- tion had been despatched to the Peers and Deputies, summoning them to meet the 3d of August. In short, a system of elaborate Jesuitical duplicity and falsehood was adopted by these royal and noble felons, to conceal the con- spiracy until the appointed time arrived for exploding their * in- fernal machine.' Fortunately they cheated and deluded them- selves even more than they did the Nation, and thus became the .pitiable victims of their own folly and wickedness. In reflecting upon the events of this period, it seems difficult to understand how any Ministers could have been so ignorant of the state of public sentiment in France. The subdivisions of the Nation were by no means of the same kind with those of the Chambers. Opinions, to be sure, were in some sense repre- sented by the legislative body ; that is, individuals could be found there of each of the great classes of opinion, which divided the Nation. But the legislative rep- resentation was far from exact as a picture of the relative force of each party, and gave no suffi- cient indications of the existence or vigor of the two, which to- gether comprised a majority of the People. First there were the Ultras, the Emigres^ the Jesuits, the Church and King party, the di- vine right faction : for faction it well deserved to be called, as well in regard of its violence as the comparative smallness of its numbers. If they were few in number, they were desperate and uncalculating in policy, reckless of consequences and deaf to all argument or counsel. They had built up their project of absolut- ism with painful industry, and they clung to it with inexpressi- ble obstinacy. You might as well Forbid the sea for to obey the moon, As or by oath, remove, or counsel shake The fabric of their folly. They blindly pursued their infatu- ated course on the very brink of the precipice, over which their party could not fail to be dashed to atoms. They do not deserve to be ranked with the genuine Royalists, the sensible, clear- headed, patriotic friends of mon- archy, who sought in vain to pre- serve the integrity of the whole public system. These last were decidedly attached to the Bour- bons as a dynasty, but not the less hostile to the Ultras, who were obviously rushing headlong upon destruction, and hurrying the King, the Charter, and them- selves into one common ruin. There was a name, a form,, a memory, which, in the latter part of the reign of Charles, dwelt upon every lip, rose before every eye, held a hallowed spot in every bosom, and yet was proscribed by the Government with impotent fury in all the forms of petty per- secution. That name belonged to a usurper, — perhaps to a ty- rant, in the modern as well as the classical interpretation of the word, — and yet his form was multiplied in every work of art and taste, and his memory iden- tified with all the glories and splendors of the Revolution. Bonaparte himself was no more ; the ' Man' had perished on a desert rock in the midst of the ocean ; but the ' Son of the Man' survived ; and an ague fit seemed to seize on every fibre of a Bour- bon at the very thought. While the inane countenance of Charles Tenth and the common place ac- tions of his family were woven by authority in the brilliant threads of the Gobelin looms, or fatigued the pencil of Gerard and Gros ; while Genius, yielding to the voice of Power, was vainly striv- ing to immortalize the looks of men, who possessed an irresistible innate alacrity for sinking into oblivion ; while the poor King 27 ^CE. ' 309 was laboriously seeking for the honors of Art by the liberal use of the privy purse, — the inspired and inspiring features of Napole- on, and the achievements of his dazzling career, were indepen- dent of the sickly protection of Government patronage, and lived in the unbought guardianship of the Nation. The Press groaned with histories, memoirs, anecdotes, disquisitions, concerning him and his life ; and yet the supply seem- ed to fall far short of the insatia- ble demand. Sir Walter Scott's eulogy on his character was de- nounced as a libel, — so inade- quate did its praises appear to the craving admiration of the reading world in France. While the Government had no power to check ihe activity of the Press in thus affording exciting food to the popular enthusiasm, it was ren- dering itself ridiculous and expos- ing its imbecility by sending po- lice officers to the distilleries of eau de cologne with orders to break the bottles moulded in Napoleon's form, and persecuting the paper stainers who adorned the hangings they manufactured with such disagreeable reminiscences as the bridge of Areola, the Simplon, or the Pyramids. In short, it need- ed but a careless eye to see that for once the Government had made a correct observation of a fact. Bonaparte's was the popu- lar name, the concentration of everything, which charmed the populace of France. It would be wrong to say that young Napoleon had a visible party ; he had not ; but the name was a magical word — a potent talisman among the lower classes, a portion of the soldiery, 310 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the disbanded veterans, some men distinguished in civil affairs, and not a few of the higher mili- tary, who had grown familiar with victory under guidance of the im- perial eagles. But numerous as the Bonapartists undoubtedly were, still as a body they could not be considered the most intelligent members of the community. Men of liberal views in matters of Government knew that his policy was that of concentration, and of course adverse to freedom. It was among the Republicans that the active wisdom, talent, and en- ergy of the Nation were to be found. Here were the men of 1789, true to their first love ; the relics of the exalted spirits of 1793, untamed by adversity, clinging in old age to the flattering visions of their youth. Above all, here were the educated- and enlightened men of the present generation, the mind of young France, animated by the example of the United States, looking to that country as the pattern of all that is perfect in the theory of Govern- ment, all that is useful in its prac- tical application. They constitu- ted a party, — a powerful, nu- merous, indefatigable party, — ardently attached to republican forms, but willing to dispense with the forms if they could make sure of the substance ; temperate and prudent in their plans as they were patriotic in their feelings ; and they were gradually working the regeneration of France by preparing her to be fit for the blessings of liberty. In such a condition of parties, what were the indications, which encouraged the Ministers to in- vade the Charter ? We know not, and they cannot tell, where they discovered any ground^ of confidence whereon to proceed. A free Press had been sounding the tocsin of alarm for eleven months. The aristocracy had no power as such ; for none could it have after the abolition of the rights of primogeniture. The clergy were divided, unpopular, and without influence. A vio- lent excitation of sentiment per- vaded the whole country. The elections had proved the force of popular right, even in spite of the artificially devised system of electoral colleges. All men felt ready to act upon the maxims and motto of a patriotic society, which assumed for its title ' Aide toi^ le Ciel faidera.^ The People were conscious of their rights, confident in their power to sustain them, and ready to do all and dare all, rather than submit to any arbi- trary acts on the part of the King. It has frequently been observed that the situation and character of Charles X. of France were strikingly similar to those of James n. of England. M. de Polig- nac might have taken warning from this instructive page in the history of princes, when he saw the readiness of the people to run out the extraordinary parallel to its consummation. In England Charles I., by singular alterna- tions of weakness and obstinacy, contributed to bring on the revo- lution which led him to the scaf- fold ; and in France Louis XVI., wonderfully like Charles in his virtues and his failings, had reach- ed the same result by the same means. In France as in England FRANCE. 311 wild Utopian schemes of Govern- ment, sanctioned by various fac- tions, afterwards agitated a coun- try given up to the usurpation and tyranny of legislative assemblies. The dictatorship of Cromwell fol- lowed in England, as that of Na- poleon did in France, the military glory and personal talents of these extraordinary men having proved too powerful for the public liber- ties, while no legitimate monarch ever reigned with greater dignity, or with a truer perception of what the internal welfare of his country required. The Restoration came next ; and it needs only the same full development of the history of Louis XVIIL, to show how much the one voluptuary resembled the other in his character and the policy of his Government. To each a brother had succeeded ; and who could deny that Charles X. was the very double of James II. The same weak unreasoning obstinacy impelled each to at- tempt the overturn of the Consti- tution, which he was sworn to maintain. Charles X. was not yet dethroned, for the climax of his arbitrary attempts was to come. But everybody was following out the analogy. It was unfolded in the newspapers, discussed in con- versation, present to every mind. All the world seemed to say to the King ; If you undertake the same enterprise, you must expect the same fate ; for your kinsman of Or- leans stands ready to play the idenUcal part here, which William of Nassau enacted in England. It was in such a state of parties, in a crisis like this, when the whole Nation was expecting oc- casion for oppugnation and pre- paring to display it, that Charles undertook to assume the swelling port of absolute power. To the only faithful counsellors of his family, he seems to have held the obsolete doctrines of Leontes, forgetting that this was the age of revolutions, consthutions, and equal rights, and not that of the jus divinum ; Why need we Commune with you of this ? Nor rather follow Our forceful instigation ! Our preroga- tive Calls not your counsel ; but our natural goodness Imparts this; — which, if you, or stupe- fied. Or seeming so in skill, cannot or will not, Relish as truth, like us, — inform your- selves We need no more of your advice ; — the matter, The loss, the gain, the ord'ring on't, is all Properly ours. No reasoning, in fact, could turn back a man, who had acquir- ed the obstinacy of anility without its miitur-ity of wisdom or discre- tion of character. A brilliant levee was holden at Saint Cloud on Sunday, the 25th of July, at which the members of the Cabi- net, the corps diplomatique , and the habitues of the royal saloon, assembled for the last time to grace the Court of Charles Tenth. Those who were in the secret of the meditated coup d^etat carefully disguised their feelings under a cheerful exterior ; and the great body of courtiers felt easy amid the assurances, direct and indirect, which were holden out to them by the parties to the conspiracy. The famous Or- dinances were signed on the same 312 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. day, after the close of the levee, and carried to Paris by one of the Ministers to be inserted in the next Moniteur. The Keeper of the Seals himself, M. Chanielauze, who had drawn up the Report of which we have already spoken, sent for M. Sauvo, the conductor of the Moniteur, to receive the Ordinances for publication. M. Sauvo found M. de Montbel with M. Chantelauze, the two Minis- ters both exhibiting the greatest dejection in their manner ; and he did not disguise from them his own consternation, when he came to understand the nature of the Ordinances."^' Of these Ordinances one sus- pended the liberty of the Press, another annulled the election of the Deputies, and a third arbitra- rily changed the constitution of the future Chambers. The Or- dinance relative to the Press con- sisted of nine articles, which plac- ed all the journals, of whatever kind, under the strict surveillance of the Police, so that no periodi- cal writing should appear without authorization, to be renewed every three months', and liable at any time to be revoked or suspended. Had these provisions been consti- tutional in form, they would have been oppressive to the last degree ; but as the Charter assigns the regulation of the Press to the laws that is, the concurrent acts of the King and the two Chambers, this Ordinance was a palpable viola- tion of the Charter. The second Ordinance is brief and pithy. After setting forth as a preamble the ' Being informed of the manoeuvres, which have been practised in various parts of the Kingdom to deceive and mislead the electors during the late ope- rations of the Electoral Colleges,' it merely ordains that ' The Chamber of Deputies of Depart- ments is dissolved.^ Such are the words used, but they are alto- gether false and deceptive. No Chamber of Deputies then exist- ed. Individuals had been elect- ed to be members of a future Chamber hereafter to be organiz- ed ; but as yet there was no Chamber. The words of the Ordinance, to speak the exact truth, should have been : ' The late elections of Deputies of De- partments are annulled ;' — for this and this only was what the Ordinance did, under the jesuiti- cal pretence of exercising a con- stitutional power to dissolve the Chambers. To comprehend the remaining Ordinance it is necessary to call to mind the actual and past state of the laws for the choice of Deputies. The Charter provides that, ' The Chamber of Deputies shall be composed of Deputies elected by Electoral Colleges, the organization of which shall be de- termined by the laws' (art. 35) ; and that ' Each Department shall have the same number of Depu- ties that it has had until the present time^ (art. 36). Previous to the law of June, 1820, the number of Deputies had been 25S, all re- turned by Electoral Colleges, of which there was but one for each Department, and consisting of the whole body of qualified elec- For Ordinances, vide second pait, page 180. FRANCE. 313 tors, voting altogether, or in sec- tions, according to circumstances (Loi 5 Fevrier, J 8 17). After a few years' trial of this system, it appeared to operate too favorably for the democratic principle, and the Ministers devised the inge- nious legerdemain of the double vote, of which we have before spoken, to augment the power of the aristocracy (Loi 29 Juin, 1820). The Electoral Colleges already subsisting were suffered to remain in substance, with the right of returning the 258 old members as before, only di- vided into permanent sections, called Colleges of Arrondisse- ments. At the same time 172 new members were added, to be chosen by bodies called Depart- mental Colleges, composed, says the law, ' of the electors paying the highest tax in number equal to the fourth part of all the elec- tors in the Department' (art. 2). These 172 Deputies, be it ob- served, were created by a minis- terial manceuvre for the sole pur- pose of giving the nomination of two fifths of all the members to a select body of the aristocracy, in the hope that a small portion at least of the other three fifths would continue favorable to the court-party, so as thus permanent- ly to secure a majority to the Ministers. Of course, this addi- tion to the Chamber and the mode of electing the additional members, had always been ve- hemently censured by the liberal party, whose influence was thus greatly abridged. One thing more is to be remarked, namely, that the members of the elective Chamber are in the language of 27* the Charter styled ' Deputies of Departments' (art. 50). This expression would seem to be the true legal demomination for all the Deputies collectively ; and it is thus applied even in the Ordi- nance of July 25th, for dissolving the Chamber. We have premised these ex- planations in order that our read- ers may fully understand the mingled meanness, effrontery, and tyranny of the Ordinance relative to the elections. It begins by providing that, ' Conformably to the articles 15, 36, and 50 of the Constitutional Charter, the Cham- ber of Deputies shall consist only of Deputies of Departments' (art. 1); and that each Department shall have the number of Depu- ties allotted to it by the 36th arti- cle of the Constitutional Charter' (art. 3.) Such are the very terms of the Ordinance ; and when we come to render these cabalistical phrases into something more intelligible to us vulgar sub- lunary mortals, it will be admit- ted, we think, that M. de Peyron- net, the author of this Ordinance, had practised very diligently upon the maxim of the honest diplo- matist, who defined words to be ' instruments employed for con- cealing one's meaning.' The sig- nification of the latter article is, ' Henceforth the Chamber of Deputies shall contain but 258 members ;' thus repealing the law of June, 1820. The signification of the other article is equally ab- struse and recondite, and is veiled in a most contemptible quibble. If the sentence had been worded in the simplicity and directness of an honest purpose, it would 314 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. have been, * Henceforth the Deputies shall be chosen by the Departmental Colleges alone.' The singular phraseology actually employed was adopted in a spirit of low cunning, in order to have it seem that the Ordinance was but a restoration of the Charter. So far as regarded the number of Deputies contemplated by the Ordinance it was indeed a return to the Charter; but if the 172 new members elected under the Jaw of 1820 were all unconstitu- tional, by whom were they intro- duced and for what purpose? Were they not the creation of the Government ? Was not their cre- ation a mere trick, a device, a far-fetched expedient, to enable the Government to return mem- bers favorable to themselves, out of the ranks and by the votes of the high aristocracy alone ? But what right had M. de Peyronnet to as- sert, as he impliedly did, that the Deputies chosen by the Colleges of Arrondissements, that is, by the whole body of electors, were not Deputies of Departments within the true intent of the Charter? ' He undertakes virtually to afhrm that none, but Deputies chosen by the newly invented Colleges of June, 1820, are Deputies in any sense, and by force of this notable discovery disfranchises at once all those electors, who under the law of 1817 voted ehher in the mass or in sections, and under the law of J 820 were permanently organized into sections. The whole electoral power was thus thrown into the hands of the fa- mous ' fourth part,' — les electeurs les plus imposes, — nothing being assigned to the other three fourths but the right of nominating a list of candidates, out of whom the * fourth part' should choose half the Deputies. The Ordinance, of course, never took effect, and therefore is only important in a histori- cal point of view. It was illegal in the same way the others were, inasmuch as it did that by royal decree, which according to the Charter could only be done by enacted laws. It operated in fact a total change of the whole constitution of the Chambers. We have taken pains to give a just account of the mode in which it was devised, because this does not appear to have been well un- derstood out of France, and could not be, indeed, without careful examination of the pre-existing laws on the subject. We should add that another Ordinance con- voked the Electoral Colleges ac- cording to the new system, and appointed a meeting of the new Chambers that were to be thus imconstituiionally elected, for the 28th of September. When these ordinances appear- ed in the Moniteur, and began to be generally known, as they were read in the gardens. Cafes and Cabinets de Lecture^ nothing could exceed the consternation they universally occasioned. People in general had, perhaps, been lull- ed into comparative tranquillity, supposing that the great struggle would not take place until after the I'egular meeting of the Cham- bers. They supposed it would be so, because they presumed the King would act with some degree of discretion, and they saw the manifest advantage to him in hav- ing the crisis deferred until the Chambers should take some step PRANCE. 315 of a violent or unreasonable char- acter, so as to give a color of necessity to his arbitrary designs, and thus make sure of the sym- pathies of Europe. They sup- posed it would be so, because they saw no token of preparation, on the part of the Ministers, to encounter a popular movement. And they were astounded at the profligate audacity of the Minis- ters, in thus rooting up all the dearest bulwarks of the Charter at once, and in a manner as in- sulting to the sense of the Nation, as it was destructive of their liber- ties. But indignation, a deter- m» mination to make a stand for their rights, desire of organization, and a looking around for means of re- sisting the Government, soon took the place in the minds of all men, of the stupor and amazement of the first impression. The leading spirits saw that it was a crisis for boldness not for caution ; for ac- tion, not for deliberation. The casus belli had arrived. If a sin- gle encroachment on the Charter had come at a time, the liberals might have doubted and reasoned and calculated, and waited for the next blow, before making a de- monstration themselves ; but here was a sheet of the Moniteur, abolishing the Charter as it were in a paragraph, — here were the guarantees of the public liberty clashed out at once by a single bold sweep of the ministerial sponge : — and the emergency left no alternative to the Nation but slavery or civil war. They could not hesitate which to choose. Paris contains an extraordina- ry proportion of intelligent resi- dents, who, by education, taste, or principle, have always been zeal^ ous friends of the popular cause. Vast numbers of schools and col- leges frequented by ardent young men thrown loose from the re- straints of domesticity, have at all times furnished busy agents in the political movements of this re- markable city. A spirit of liberty was a distinguishing trait of the great scholars and writers, who gave celebrity to the literary de- partments of the seminaries of education, to which we refer. — * Cultivators of the fine arts, men of letters by profession, from the humbler writers for the daily Press or the stage, up to the great names of the Institute, a host of men connected with the professions of medicine and lawy — in short, most of those, who depended upon the culture of their understandings for subsistence or for fame, were as a matter of course opposed to the policy of the Government. It would be in- structive to inquire why it is that, in France, the intellectual classes are so generally found on the side of the public rights. An Ameri- can would feel no hesitation in saying that it was the homage of reason to the cause of liberty ; a French Ultra would be driven ai least to admit that the Bourbons must have played the game of despotism badly, to have driven from them all the enthusiastic hearts, all the brilliant geniuses, all the cultivated minds of a Na- tion, which had nearly worshipped the iron sceptre of Napoleon. But remarkable as it is that a vast majority of the classes we have described should have been found ripe for Revolution, it is more so 316 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. that the great proprietors, the ex- tensive manufacturers, the wealthy capitalists, should have embraced the same cause, with a certainty of encountering great hazards in a pecuniary point of view, and the probability of sustaining immense losses. Such, however, was un- doubtedly the fact ; and when we add to the individuals already de- signated, the commis, the disband- ed soldiers of other days, and so forth, men who are generally better informed than the ordinary bourgeois of a European city, we shall find a most imposing ag- gregate of intelligence on the side of the popular interest at this emergency, without reckoning those veteran politicians by pro- fession, who, in the Chambers or elsewhere, fixed the attention of all France. The publication of the Ordinan- ces was the signal to the trusted men of the liberal party to confer on the measures, which it behov- ed them to adopt in self-defence. Fortunately they possessed means of organization, which, if less per- fect than the catenation o^bureaux by which the Government were accustomed to act, were yet suffi- ciently complete for all the pur- poses of the occasion. Many of the Deputies were already in Paris, either because they resided there, or as having arrived in an- ticipation of the coming session. Couriers were despatched into the country to General La Fay- ette, M. Lafitte, and other influ- ential men, who were near enough to be accessible. It is said that patriotic societies facilitated the adoption of concerted measures, some of these societies being pub- lic, such as the association called * Aide toi, le Ciel I'aidera,' formed to aid the liberal party in the late elections; — others of a secret nature, which had been aiming at higher objects, and had veiled their very existence in mystery to avoid the visitation of the laws. We know not how far the events of the Three Days may have been planned and settled beforehand by the leading liberals ; but there is every reason to believe that resis- tance was deliberately decided upon, and all feasible means adopted to make that resistance effectual. If the liberals actually possessed the Comite Directeur, which afflicted the wiseacres of the Q^uotidienne so much, now certainly was the time, and here the proper sphere for calling all its en- ergies into action. We shall see hereafter that the leading mem- bers of the party did not shrink from any responsibility, which armed resistance to the Govern- ment might involve. On Monday, however, little occurred to open the eyes of the Ministers to the fatal step they had taken. The Government neither saw nor anticipated the civil war, that was to burst upon them the next day. Disturbances, groups of obstreperous students, possibly a fusillade of the mob, — they deemed this the utmost that could occur. But they strangely mis- calculated the character of the hour. Unfortunately for the Government, the enterprise and capital of the country, as we have just remarked, ranked with the liberal party. So much of that enterprise and that capital, as was embarked in newspapers or print- FRANCE. 317 ing establishments of any kind, felt the illegal acts of the Govern- ment directly. The Ordinance relative to the Press was impor- tant, as an invasion of the right of publishing opinions given by the Charter ; but it was also impor- tant, as destructive to a large and profitable branch of industry. The printers, and other workmen connected with the Journals, were at once stripped of employment by the Ordinance, and let loose upon society ready for any des- perate act. ' My friends,' said one of the great publishers, ' the Press is abolished today ; I can- not give you work any longer ; go ask it from your good King.^ But the situation of the printers, thus sent abroad into the streets upon a terrible mission of insur- rection, exhibited only a small part of the evil. Either from a just apprehension of the effect of the Ordinances, or on purpose to foment disorder, discounts at the Bank were stopped, and the great manufacturers dismissed their workmen and shut up their estab- lishments, probably giving to their workmen the same consolatory advice, which the printers had re- ceived. Now when we consider that Paris and its faubourgs con- tains a numerous manufacturing population, we shall estimate the revolutionary force, which a sud- den unforeseen cessation of all work, occasioned by an illegal act of the Government, must place in the hands of agitators ; and by such men we shall see it was that the battle of the Three Days was fought. But the unarmed mobs, which alone appeared in Paris on Monday, although they commit- ted outrages, upon the Hotel of Foreign Affairs on the Boulevards, where M. de Polignac resided, and upon the Hotel of the Minis- ter of Finance, occasioned so lit- tle serious anxiety, that the King and the Dauphin went to Ram- bouillet to hunt the next day, as if nothing peculiar had transpired. Meanwhile the editors of pub- lic journals, — on whom the hand of despotism had fallen more im- mediately, — whose property was abolutely annihilated by an arbi- trary decree of the Government, — performed an act of indepen- dence and patriotism, called for to be sure by the circumstances of the case, but still every way hon- orable to the parties. A portion of them having conferred togeth- er, agreed upon a joint Protest, against the unconstitutional Ordi- nances. This remarkable paper, which is dated July 26th, and originally made its appearance in the JVational, is not only interest- ing in respect of its effect at the time, but also as presenting a con- densed view of the legal objec- tions to the Ordinances ; and we therefore transfer it to our col- umns entire, as follows : — ' It has been repeatedly announced within the last six months, that the laws would be violated, that a coup d'dtat would be struck. The good sense of the public refused to believe it. Ministers repelled the supposition as a calumny. Nevertheless, the Moniteur has at last published those memorable Ordinances, which are the most daring violation of the laws. Legal government is there- fore interrupted, and that of force has commenced. ' In the situation wherein we are pla- ced, obedience ceases to be a duty. The citizens, who are first called upon to obey, are Editors of Journals : it devolves on them to give the first example of re- sistance to authority, which has diyesteci 318 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. itself of a legal character. The reasons , on which they rely are such, that sim- ply to state them suffices.. * The mattersj to which the Ordinan- ces promulgated this morning relate, are among those whereon the royal authority has no power, according to the Charter, to decide alone. The Charter declares (Art. 8) that the French, in affairs of the Press, shall conform themselves to the laws ; it does not say, to ordinances. — The Charter says (Art. 35) that the or- ganization of the Electoral Colleges shall be regulated by laws ; it does not say by ordinances. * Hitherto the Crown itself has recog- nised these articles: It has never thought of arming itself against them, either with a pretended constituent power, or with the power falsely attributed to Art. 14. In fact, at all times when circumstan- ces of an alleged serious nature have seemed to the Crown to demand modifi- cations either in the administration of the Press or in the electoral system, it has had recourse to the two Chambers. — When it was deemed requisite to modify the Charter, in order to establish the septennial election and integral renewal of Deputies, the Crown had recourse not to itself as the author of the Charter, but to the Chambers. ' Royalty, therefore, has of itself re- cognised and acted upon these articles 8 and 3-5, and has not arrogated, with res- pect to these, either a constituent au- thority, or a dictatorial authority which nowhere exists. The tribunals, which have a right of interpretation, have solemnly acknow- ledged the same principles. The Cour Royale of Paris condemned the publish- ers of the Breton Subscription as authors of an outrage on the Government. It considered the supposition, that Govern- ment would employ the authority of or- dinances where the authority of law only is admissible, as an outrage. ^ Thus the formal texts of the Charter, the practice hitherto followed by the Crown.and the decisions of the tribunals, all establish, that in things affecting the Press and the electoral organization, the laws alone, — that is to say, the King and the Chambers — can have power to determine. ' Today, then, the Government has violated legality. We are dispensed from yielding it obedience. We shall endeavor to publish our papers without asking the authorization required of us. We shall use all possible exertions that today at least, they shall be delivered to all France. This is what our duty as citizens requires, and we shall fulfil it. ' It is not for us to point out to the Chamber, illegally dissolved, the duties which it has to perform. But we may be permitted to supplicate the Deputies in the name of France, to rest on their evident right, and to resist with all their power the violation of the laws. Their right is as clear as that whereon we stand. The Charter declares (Art. 50) that the King may dissolve the Cham- ber of Deputies ; but that he may do this it is necessary the Chamber should have been assembled, and constituted a Cham- ber, and indeed that it should have pur- sued a line of conduct calling for its dissolution. But until it assembles, until it is constituted a Chamber, there is noth- ing but elections, nothing but returns of members elect. Now the Charter no- where says that the King has power to annul the elections ; and tne Ordinances published are therefore illegal, because they undertake to do what the Charter does not authorize. ' The Deputies elected, and convoked for the third of August, are therefore well and truly elected and convoked. — Their right today is the sarne as it was yesterday. France implores them to remember it. Whatever they can do to maintain this right, it is their duty to do. < The Government has this day lost the character of legality which commands obedience. We resist it in what con- cerns us. It rests with France to judge how far her resistance shall extend.'* * The names of the courageous and patriotic citizens, who thus placed them- selves in the front of resistance to arbitrary power, belong to history, The de-> claration is §igned by MM. Gauja, conductor of the JVational, Thiers, Mignet, Carrel, Chambolle, Peysse, Albert, Stapfer, Dubochet, Rolle, editors of the jN'aiioTiaZ. Leroux, conductor of the Globe. De Guizard. editor of the Globe. Sarrans, jun. conductor of the Courrier des Elccteur9, B. Dejean, editor of the Globe. GuyH, Moussette, editors of the Globe, FRANCE. We know not if the annals of which habitual deference, and the history contain a more noble and actual possession of power threw spirited act of temperate reclama- around the position of the King, tion against the measures of arbi- Confident in the justice of their trary power than this. For it is cause, they had the moral great- to be remembered that it is not ness to proclaim to the People, in the declaration of delegated agents the language of one of their num- in behalf of the rights of a com- her, that the body politic was dis- munity represented by them : nor solved by the voluntary act of the the manifesto of a convention, or King, and that by his attack on congress, or any other organized the Charter, France was replaced body of men. It is a dignified in the provisional situation, from exposition, made by private in- which it had been raised in 1814, dividuals, of the illegality of the by the adoption of the fundamen- administrative proceedings, by tal law of the State. The declar- whichthey are personally aggriev- ation of the editors, being widely ed ; and in thus much is entitled circulated and universally read, to signal praise. But it is also a gave a character of legalized vio- courageous exposition of the ille- lence to the movements of the gality of the Government itself ; Parisian populace. It called and in this respect demands the upon them not to violate but to gratitude of all France, and the uphold the laws ; not to levy war admiration of the friends of liber- against the Government, but to ty throughout the world. These take up arms in defence of the high-minded journalists had bold- constitutional Government, against ly lifted up the veil of illusion, the traitorous acts of those, by MM. Auguste Fabre, chief jditor of the Tribune des DSpartements. Annee, editor of the Constitutionnel. Cauchois-Lamaire, editor of the Constitutionnel. Senty, of the Temps. Haussman, of the Temps. Avennel, of the Courrier Frangais. Dussard, of the Tewp5. Levasseur, editor of the Revolution. Evariste Dumoulin, (of the Constitutionnel.) Alexis de Jussieu, editor of the Courrier Frangais. Chatelain, conductor of the Courrier Frangais. Plagnol, chief editor of the Revolution. Fazy, editor of the Revolution. Buzoni, Barbaroux, editors of the Temps. Chalas, editor of the Temps. A. Billiard, editor of the Temps. Ader, of the Tribune des Departements. F. Larreguy, editor of the Journal du Commerce. J. F. Dupont, advocate, editor of the Courrier Frangais. Ch. de Remusat, of the Globe. V. de Lapelouze, conductor of the Courrier Frangais. Bohain and Roqueplan, of the Figaro. Coste, conductor of the Temps. J.J, Baude, editor of the Temps. Bert, conductor of the Journal du Commerce. Leon I'ilet, conductor of the Journal du Paris. Vail) ant, conductor of the Sylphe. 320 'ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. whom It was administered for the time being. Whether those indi- viduals were Kings or Ministers, it mattered not ; for the time had arrived when the divine right of the People was recognised as paramount to the divine right of princes, the former being coeval and coextensive with creation and created men, the latter being secondary to, and dependent upon, the first, — less entitled to the prestige of antique, venerable- ness, less fortified by reliance on the wide spread foundations of universal application. French- men had long since ceased to be royal vassals ; they had exchang- ed that condition for the higher one of citizens governed by a Constitutional Charter. While they admitted that the Executive was authorized to compel their obedience to the laws of the land, they at the same time maintained that they had a right to compel his obedience to the laws of the land. And the declaration of the editors called upon the Nation to uphold the Charter and the laws by justifiable resistance to the usurpation of the Head of the State. It will have been seen that the editors deny that the Crown pos- sessed any constituent authority, or any general authority by the Charter, to sanction the Ordinan- ces. They allude, in these pas- sages, to the Report of the Minis- ters, of which we have spoken as accompanying the Ordinances. This document is an elaborate at- tempt to justify the Ordinances, by general reasonings on the tenor of the Charter. It concludes in the following words : * The right, as well as the duty, of assuring the maintenance of itself, is the inseparable attribute of Sovereignty. No government on earth could remain standing, if it had not the right to provide for its own security. This power exists before the laws, because it is in the nature of things. These are maxims which have in their favor the sanction of time, and the assent of all the publicists of Eu- rope. ' But these maxims have an- other sanction still more positive, that of the Charter itself. The 14th article has invested your Majesty with a sufficient power, not undoubtedly to change our institutions, but to consolidate them and render them more sta- ble. 'Circumstances of imperious necessity do not permit the exer- cise of this supreme power to be any longer deferred. The mo- ment is come to have recourse to measures, which are in the spirit of the Charter, but which are be- yond the limits of legal order, the resources of which have been ex- hausted in vain.' These extracts set forth two grounds, then, as justifying the Ordinances, namely, the text of the Charter and certain other considerations. The article re- ferred to is in these words : ' The King is the supreme chief of the State, he commands the forces by sea and land, declares war, con- cludes treaties of peace, alliance, and commerce, names to all em- ployments of public administra- tions, and makes the regulations and ordinances necessary for the execution of the laws and the FRANCE. 321 mfety of the State.^ In addition to the remarks made in the Dec- laration of the editors concerning the extraordinary power just dis- covered by the Ministers in the mystical words of this article, we may observe, that the meaning they give it, is not only contrary to the estabHshed construction practi- cally received by the Crown, and formally pronounced by the tribu- nals, but is so extravagant in itself, and so inconsistent with the whole spirit and many express clauses of the Charter, that we can hard- ly believe the Ministers were sin- cere in appealing to it for sanction. It was a mockery of common sense to do so. In fact, the Ministers themselves admit that the article gives no right ' to change the institutions' of the country, but ' to consolidate them and render them more stable.' But while the distinction asserted in this admission is altogether im- aginary, the very terms of the ad- mission go upon a false assumption of the facts. For who can be so regardless of truth as to pre- tend that, for the King to under- take the entire reorganization of the Chamber of Deputies, a co- ordinate branch of the Govern- ment, is no ' change of the insti- tutions' of France ? If, anterior to the Three Days, the Chamber of Deputies had assumed to alter the line of succession, or had even undertaken to negotiate a treaty of alliance with some insurgent nation struggling for constitutional privileges, we fancy the Chamber would hardly have escaped with the excuse, that this did not con- stitute a ' change of the institu- tions' of the country, but only a 28 consolidation of them, and a ren- dering them ' more stable.' But royal interpreters of constitutions, and royal expounders of the grounds of royal authority, have an incorrigible antipathy to the golden maxim of doing as they would be done by, and to suffer- ing others to claim the benefit of the general rules of construction, which they apply to their own case. And if anything can be certain in the interpretation of the Constitutional Charter, it is that the royal authority in making or- dinances shall keep in view the execution of the laws and the safety of the State, as coincident and inseparably associated objects. To suppose that the King, upon his own estimate of the exigency, can repeal or change the laws of the land, nay act in defiance of the Charter, is to make him at once an absolute instead of a constitution- al monarch. If there was any clause in the Charter which so placed the King above the Char- ter and the laws, that he might change both whenever he thought the safety of the State required it, the Charter itself would have been a nullity; for of what use could it be but as a fixed limita- tion of the powers and rights of the component elements of the State, including as well the King as the rest of the Nation, nay be- fore all and above all including the King? In the newspapers and other publications of the ministerial par- ty, much had been said, previous to the publication of the Ordinan- ces, of the nature of the principle on which the Charter is founded. Men bad not forgotten that when ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the imperial throne was declared vacant by the Conservative Sen- ate, it was offered to Louis XVllL upon conditions, namely, on his accepting the Constitutional Char- ter, which they proposed as the basis of the new order of things. By a series of tricks, — which in private individuals would be con- sidered highly dishonorable, but which hereditary Kings we sup- pose are privileged by blood and birth to practise, — and by the countenance of the Cossacs and sundry other congenial apostles of liberty encamped in sight of the Tuileries, — Louis was enabled to evade compliance with the conditions of his restoration to the throne of his ancestors. He found it necessary, however, to do something ; and we frankly admit that he did much for France, in the Charter of June 4th, 1814. But in the preamble to the instrument he takes care to make the most offensive reser- vations concerning his personal authority, the source of his power, and its actual extent. It is ' Louis, hy the grace of God King of France and Navarre,' that speaks. It is ' Divine Providence' that has recalled him to his States ; that is. Divine Providence acting directly and for his personal bene- fit, not through the intervention of the national will, nor for the good of the Nation. Accordingly, after suitable reflections upon the liber- al spirit of the Louises, the Philips, and the Henrys, who had gone before him, and his own disposi- tion to consult the temper of the times; and finding a precedent for free institutions in the assem- blies of tlie Champs-de-Mars and de-Mai, he proceeds : ' For these causes, we have voluntarily and in the free exercise of our royal authority granted, as we do hereby grant, make concession and octroi to our subjects, as well for us as for our successors, and forever, of the Constitutional Charter which follows.' Now many of the short- sighted subjects of absolutism were found stupid enough to con- tend that, as the Charter was a voluntary grant, concession, or octroi of royal authority, the same royal authority might reclaim and resume the whole or any part of it. They forgot that, if it was a voluntary grant, yet it was ex- pressly made forever; that his Most Christian Majesty had sol- emnly sworn to maintain it invio- late ; and that if the Crown saw fit to resume this grant thus made forever and sanctioned by oath, the Nation were of course rein- stated in the political condition of March, 1814, when they were a free People with a crown to be- stow, — with this material differ- ence, that then the deliberations of the People were overawed by the invading host of the victorious Allies, and that now France would be herself again, free in her re- solves, mighty in her purposes, and answerable only to the all just God of nations for her sovereign and irremovable decision. In truth, the Ministers, con- scious of the weakness and unten- ableness of any ground of justifi- cation for the Ordinances within the Charter, very frankly appealed for sanction to a certain transcen- dental power existing ' before the laws;' and professedly stepping ' beyond the limits of legal order, FRANCE. 323 called in aid the ' supreme power' of sovereignty, growing out of the * nature of things.' This was certainly frank and fair, whatever might be deemed of its policy, wisdom, or justice. The Minis- ters openly soared above the low- ly regions, the humble terra fir- ma of the Charter, into the clouds and darkness of the ' nature of things ' They avowedly took for their authority in issuing the Ordinances, not the powers and rights held by the Crown under the Charter, but the power and right of usurpation for the pur- pose of making his authority more stable. But in doing this they should have remembered that the power and right of revolution on the part of the People corres- ponds to the power and right of usurpation on the part of the Crown. In abandoning the Char- ter, therefore, the Ministers con- verted Charles into a King de facto instead of a King de jure ; and ceasing to be King dejure, he could expect to continue King de facto, only by hazarding the ven- ture of a civil war, and submitting the hereditary rights of the Bour- bons to the arbitrament of the sword. In voluntarily breaking his oath of fidelity to the Charter, he absolved his subjects from their correlative oath of allegiance, and each party to the social compact, the King and the nation, now stood upon their respective natural rights, or upon what the philoso- phical M. de Chantelauze denomi- nates power derived from ' the nature of things,' which we take to signify nothing more nor less, when translated from the Olympi- an dialect of these dii minores, than physical force. The People were therefore justified in saying, that the Gov^ernment had ceased to possess the character of legality, which cotnmands obedience, and that die body politic was in fact dissolved, to be reconstructed, after its elements had once more passed through the fiery trial of civil war. Thus it was impos- sible to mistake the true nature of the crisis, that was pending over the destinies of France. By their Protest against the Or- dinances, and the publication of it, the editors of the daily journals rendered themselves individually responsible for the declarations contained in the paper to which they affixed their names. It was a noble example ; and it was soon fol- lowed by the Deputies, who, with (he journalists, were the individu- als immediately affected by the Ordinances. The Protest of the Deputies, which will be found in another place (part 2d, p. 184) did not make its appearance on the same day, but it was equally clear and strong as to the unconstitution- ality of the Ordinances. However much in earnest the King and his Ministers might be, the declarations of the jour- nalists and the liberal Deputies showed that these were not less so. It only remained to see, in the appeal to force which was ap- proaching, which of the two par- ties was to be convicted of treason ; for it depended on the award of victory to decide whether the King or his People should bear the shame, and incur the forfeits, of treason. In the course of this day the Police had not been idle, although 324 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. its operations were confined with- in the sphere of its appropriate functions, and the troops were not called to its aid. The two ob- jects of the gendarmerie during the day had been to cheek the circulation of the journals, and to prevent the concentration of citi- zens in the walks. An Ordinance under the hand of M. Mangin, Prefect of Police, was promulga- ted, and posted on the walls in all parts of the city, prohibiting the circulation of any printed v/riting, which did not bear the names, and so forth, of its author and printer, and also providing that any proprietor of a reading room, cafe or the like, who furnished his customers with papers printed contrary to the Ordinance of July 25th, should be prosecuted, and his establishment closed. The Police went further ; and under pretence of suppressing disorder- ly assemblies, caused the cofFee houses and reading rooms to be cleared of visiters, and places of refreshment and amusement to be shut up, including the theatres. Gendarmes patroled all the streets and places of public resort, watching the movements of the citizens, and anxiously interpos- ing to check any tendency to popular ebullition. The general symptoms of sedition and threat- ened disturbance, together with the strong feeling of anxiety which pervaded all classes of the com- munity and men of all opinions, led to the closing of several shops and public buildings ; and the galleries of the Palais Royal u^ere shut at an early hour. Young tradesmen paraded the streets towards evening, armed with sword canes, which they flourish- ed in the air with cries of ' yive la Charter P and as night closed in, crowds of artisans and others made their appearance, bearing sv^^ord canes, bludgeons, or pis- tols. But civil war had not yet come. These incidents were on- ly indications of the more excited slate of public feeling, which the least struggle between the citizens and the authorities would infalli- bly engender. The Parisian pop- ulace were now in the situation of the baited animal in the lists, who foreseeing a desperate engage- ment about to arrive, lashes him- self into a fury by pawing the earth, tossing his head, and utter- ing muttered cries, the precursors' of a mad encounter with his tor- mentors. The tumultuary troops- of reckless young men, who, in a great city like Paris, are not apt to be slow to embrace such occasions- for the development of their super- abundant animal spirits, and who now thronged the streets with the watchwords of Liberty, Law, and the Charter upon their lips, need- ed but little added stimulus and organization to be converted into an insurrectionary civic array, ripe for deeds of courageous self-de- votion. Apprehensive that the immediate circulation of the Or- dinances, and of the comments of the journalists thereon, would have the same effect in the provinces, that it had in the capital, in wak- ing the People to a state of al- most phrenzied excitement, the Police, it is afiirmed, took steps to arrest the journals at the Post Office. But the Government had all along found the Press to be a terrible antagonist to their designs; FRANCE. 325 and their final assault upon it was the signal, as we shall presently see, for the opening of the war- fare of the Three Days. Thus ended Monday the 26th of July. During the night no events of much consequence trans- pired ; nor on the morning of Tuesday had a revolution yet ap- parently commenced. What sig- nalized the early part of that day was the procedure of the Gov- ernment in regard to those re- fractory newspapers, which per- sisted in making their appearance without the authorization required by the new Ordinance. It will be conceived that the Moniteur, the Quotidienne, the Gazette de France, and other ministerial jour- nals, readily put on the trammels which they were commanded to wear. One opposition journal, the Messager des Chambres, fol- lowed their example. ' Strong in our consciences and our principles,' say the editors, ' we have thought that an opposition journal was still necessary, not to discuss acts which we will not characterize, and which under present circum- stances we cannot discuss, but to collect facts, to give them to the public, and to rectify them if they should be disfigured by the minis- terial journals.' But the senti- ments and intentions of the great body of the liberal editors, as pro- claimed in their Protest, would not permit them to enter into com- promise with usurped authori- ty ; — and they resisted in various ways, according to the different circumstances in which they hap- pened respectively to be placed. The conductors of the Journal du Commerce, of La France JVou- 28^ velle and of the Courrier Francais were desirous to issue their pa- pers, but found that the master printers whom they employed, intimidated by the threats of the Police, refused to execute the printing. The Journal du Com- merce speedily obtained a decree of one of the Courts in the following words : — * Considering the Ordi- nance of the King of the 25th relative to the Press has not been promulgated according to the forms prescribed by the Ordi- nance of the 27th of November, 1826, and that of the 18th of January. 1817 : We order M. Selligue to proceed to the com- position and printing of the Jour- nal du Commerce, which is to ap- pear tomorrow.' A decree of the same tenor was directed to M. Plassau, printer of La France JVouvelle. The conductors of the Courrier Frangais addressed a circular to their subscribers, stat- ing the controversy with their printer as the reason why their pa- per did not appear. — ' The dis- pute,' say they, 'has been referred to the tribunals. We shall em- ploy all legal means to make our right triumph ; but we shall not apply for a license, which would seem to imply our submission to acts, which violatethe Charter a i s the laws.' Although no decision was had upon this case until the next day, we may be allowed to anticipate the strict succession of events, and to introduce here the remarkable judgment of the Tri- bunal of Commerce, as follows : ' Considering that, by an agree- ment between the parties, Gaultier Laguionie had bound himself to 326 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. print for the editors of the journal entitled the Conrrier Francois, and that all agreements lawfully made should be carried into effect, it is in vain that M. Gaul- tier Laguionie would avoid a com- pliance with his engagements, on the ground of a notice from the Prefect of Police, enjoining on him obedience to the Ordinance of the 25th, which Ordinance be- ing contrary to the Charter could not be obligatory, either upon the sacred and ifiviolable person of the King, or upon the citizens whose rights it attacks : — Con- sidering farther that, according to the forms of the Charter, ordinan- ces can only be issued for the purpose of executing, and main- taining the laws, and that the above Ordinance on the contrary would have the effect of violating the provisions of the law of July 28th, 1828: — the Tribunal or- dains and decrees that the agree- ment between the parties shall be carried into effect, and conse- quently condemns corps Gaul- tier Laguionie to print the Cour- rier Frangais within twentyfour hours, and in case of his failure so to do reserves the right of the edi- tor to sue for damages,' he. These decisions of the courts upon the Ordinance complete the singular picture of illegality pre- sented by the operations of the infatuated King. The decisions, which we have given an account of, embrace the whole question at issue ; for the ground, on which one of the Ordinances is })ro- nounced unconstitutional, applies -equally to each of the other. Here therefore we have the courts of justice directly and openly countenancing and uphold- ing the citizens in their plans of acting in open defiance of the royal authority, and thus commu- nicating the character of full and perfect legality even to violence, if it should be committed in self- defence against any violence on the part of the Crown. In fine, the tribunals had declared that a revolution would be lawful. Reverting, then, to the morn- ing of Tuesday, we find the Temps, the Figaro, and the JVational ap- pearing without a license. The JVational and the Temps, espe- cially, by means of well devised secret arrangements, were printed and published in spite of the vigi- lance of the Police. They were issued gratuitously at their respec- tive offices, and in the same way distributed in various quarters of the^city. The conductors of these two papers, who had been distinguished for their zeal and courage, professed a determination to defend themselves and their premises by force, if any violence should be offered by the agents of the Government. Crowds of people thronged their doors, to whom they threw out their pa- pers, with injunctions to every individual to take up arms in defence of his country. Young men ran through the gardens, distributing the JVational or the Temps to the eager multitude around, who formed into groups to hear read aloud the ardent ap- peals to their patriotism contained in those free-spirited journals. In this way, information concerning the Ordinances, and the views of the liberal party thereon, came to be much more universally circu- lated on Tuesday than it had PRANCE. 327 been the day before ; for that, which had been previously known only to particular classes of per- sons, was now thoroughly under- stood by all Paris. Out of these bold proceedings of the editors of the JVational and the Temps grew the first occasion for resort to actual force. Sev- eral hours elapsed after the dis- tribution of their papers, before the Ministers decided what steps to take. At length about noon a commissary of Police with a strong force of gendarmes, mounted and on foot, attacked the office of the JVational in the Rue Saint Marc. They demanded admission, but were refused, while copies of the journal were thrown out of the windows, and distributed before the eyes of the gendarmes them- selves. At length, these men broke open the doors, seized on the types and other materials, and sent the chief redacteur to prison, leaving a guard of mounted offi- cers near the spot. The same things took place at the office of the Temps. In addition to which it is said that, finding it difficult to break into the doors of the lat- ter office, the commissary sent for various smiths, who refused to aid him in picking the lock ; and he was obliged, at last, to call for one of the myrmidons of the pri- sons, whose business it was to rivet the chains of the galley- slaves. These operations took up several hours, in one of the most frequented parts of Paris, in the face of crowds of excited spectators, who cheered on the printers to stand for their interest and their rights, and who regard- ed the scene as what it really was, an outrageous invasion of private property at the mere law- less will of a tyrant. Every looker on regarded the case as his own, and left the spot full of indigna- tion against the King, the Minis- ters, and all their subordinate agents, considering their conduct as no better than robbery of housebreaking, and fully resolved to second the editors and printers in manful defence of the Charter, Already the Police were begin- ning to be satisfied that their ef- forts had now become of no avail, in opposition to an entire People ; for although they had orders to arrest the conductors and editors of newspapers for subscribing the celebrated Protest, in the disor-^ der and confusion of the time they found it wholly impracticable. Well might one of the patriotic editors say, in a circular to his subscribers : ' Between right and violence the struggle cannot be protracted, and we shall soon see our national flag unfurled.' The Press, in short, had done its duty unflinchingly, in early protesting against the illegal proceedings of the Government, in calling upon the People to maintain their rights, and in setting the first ex- ample of resistance, of self-sacri- fice, and of defiance of tyranny and usurpation. CHAPTER XVI. FRANCE, CONTINUED. 2^he Three Days. — Military Arrangements. — Marmont. — The Garrison. — Dispersion of the People. — JVight of Tuesday. — The Citizens arm on Wednesday. — Marmonfs Plans. — Depu- tation of the Citizens. — Movements of the Troops. — Conflict at the Hotel de Ville. — Retreat of the Troops. — Their Conduct. — Barricades Thursday. — The Polytechnic School. — Positions of the Garrison. — Combats. — Capture of the Louvre. — Evac- uation of the Tuileries and of Paris. — Conduct of the People. — Their Losses. It is one of the remarkable facts connected with the Revolu- tion of the Three Days, that, when the Ministers were about to undertake the overthrow of the Charter, — when they might and should have known the temper and spirit of the Nation, — no military preparations of any sort were made, but everything went on in the blind confidence of un- doubting security. Like the stu- pid ostrich, who is said to plunge her head in the sand, and imag- ine she has escaped her pursuers because she has voluntarily blind- ed herself to them, Charles the Tenth rested tranquil in the royal idleness of his nature, under the fancied shelter of his own benight- ed ignorance. Hence it was that, until Tuesday morning, two days after the Ordinances were signed, no arrangements were made by the Government to prevent a civil war, or to succeed in it if it should break upon them in spite of their preventive exertions. In the Moniteur of Wednesday, the 28th, appeared an Ordinance conferring the military command of Paris upon Marshal Marmont, Due de Raguse, dated Sunday, the 25th. But it is said the Or- dinance was antedated ; and at any rate on the morning of Tues- day, the 27th, M. de Raguse was wholly uninformed of the condi- tion of affairs ; for he was actually stepping into his carriage at St Cloud to make an excursion into the country, when his aide inform- ed him of the disturbed state of Paris the evening before, and thus prevented his departure. About noon of that day he was sent for by the King and invested with the command, which he actually en- FRANCE. 329 tered upon at the Tuileries a few hours afterwards. These facts appeared in evidence in the se- quel, when the Ministers were brought to trial before the Peers for issuing the Ordinances. The exact state of the military force at the disposal of Marmont is also well ascertained by infor- mation derived from different sources. It consisted of the Guards, troops of the Line, and others to the amount of about twelve thousand men. The Guards were composed in the outset of three Swiss regiments of infantry, having eight battalions and three thousand eight hundred men ; of two regiments of caval- ry, having eight squadrons and eight hundred men ; and of an artillery force of twelve pieces served by one hundred and fifty men. There were four regiments of the Line, with eleven battal- ions, and four thousand four hun- dred men, who almost immedi- ately professed themselves neu- tral, and who, if they did not aid the People, were certainly of little or no service to the King. There were also eleven companies of Fusiliers Sedetitaires or Veterans, consisting of one hundred men each, who gave up their arms to the citizens instead of opposing them ; and the Gendarmerie, horse and foot, one thousand three hundred strong. Of all this force, only the Guards and part of the Gendarmerie can be considered effective, amounting to about six thousand men, on whom Marmont had to depend to meet the whole population of Paris, a brave and martial people, vehemently ex- cited, many of them discharged veterans, capable at any time of affording an army of fifty thousand men at a day's notice, and dwell- ing in a city peculiarly fitted by its style of construction to be the theatre of civic warfare. And yet had the Ministers possessed any forethought for the occasion, troops were to be had in abundance at Saint Denis, Sevres, Vincennes, Versailles, and other places near Paris, sufficient in number to have balanced, if not overcomCy the extemporaneous levies of the citi- zen-multitude. When Marmont arrived in Pa- ris, the necessity for prompt measures for repressing distur- bances in various parts of the city had become urgent. Immense crowds of the laboring classes were collected in the region of the Palais Royal and of the Tuileries^ and near the hotels of some of the Ministers, wha, although arm-- ed only with bludgee!::S Zui stones, treated with utter contempt all the efforts of the Police for their dispersion. The gen-, darmes rode up and down the streets and squares to no purpose ; they were everywhere insulted and reviled. The citizens had now closed their shops, and aa overwhelming multitude of men^ all animated with the same hatred of the Government, and openly proposing the most daring acts of resistance, inundated the streets in that most frequented quarter of the city. Thus far, it is true^ they were only a mob ; but they were gradually changing their character, and their reiterated at- tacks upon the Hotel Wagram on the Boulevard des Capucines, the official residence of M, de Polig- 330 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. nac, must have taught the Pre- mier that what he saw was no transient ebullition of popular heat. Accordingly, at half past four o'clock in the afternoon, Marmont issued his orders to get the troops under arms, and bodies of infantry and cavalry were hastily marched to the Place du Carrousel.the Place Louis Quinze, and the Boulevards. The regu- lar troops were then for the first time called upon to take part in the passing events. It being now late in the after- noon, and an hour when the great thoroughfares of Paris are always full of people, the crowd continu- ed to increase by the influx of citizens into the narrow streets near the Palais Royal, until these became wholly impassable. The Police having endeavored in vain to open a communication by dis- persing the mob, demanded the SFsisiauCe of troops. In fact, one of the gendarmes had already been killed by the citizens. Here- upon small detachments of the Guard were sent to clear the streets, and preserve order in the vicinity of the Palais Royal espe- cially, as apprehensions began to be entertained that the citizens would break open the shops of the gunsmiths nnd armorers, which abound in that region, and possess themselves of arms. It appears that the pieces of the troops form- ing these detachments were not generally loaded, and that they had orders to conduct themselves with moderation and temper, and not to fire unless they were fired upon by the people. One small detachment endeavored to de- bonche by the Rue du Due de Bourdeaux, near the Tuileries,but was so closely pressed upon and pelted with stones, tiles, and other missiles, as to be held in check for a while. On the other hand the Guards endeavored to make way by riding among the people and striking them with the flat of their sabres. At this point the firing commenced, and it is singu- lar enough that the first shot was fired by an Englishman. This man, whose name is said to have been Foulkes, lodged at an Eng- lish hotel at the corner of Rue des Pyramides and Rue Saint Honore ; and as the detachment endeavored to pass he loaded a fowling piece and discharged it against them from the windows. The soldiers fired a volley in re- turn, which killed the English- man and two other persons. Meanwhile another and a stronger detachment had sought the Rue Saint Honore by the Rue de I'Echelle, who were also arrested in their progress by the mass of people accumulated in the Rue Saint Honor^ between the two detachments. Here was the first example of a barricade, which was formed on the sudden by over- turning an omnibus, one of the long coaches which ply from one part of Paris to another, and placing it across the street. Be- hind this ofl^-hand entrenchment, the citizens received the summons of the Guards to surrender, and answered it only with a shower of tiles and pavement stones. At length the troops forced the bar- ricade, and after two discharges in the air fired the third time upon the people, and finally drove them slowly along the street. Other FRANCE. 331 detachments, sent to the Palais Royal, and further up towards the Bourse, fired repeated volleys upon the people, killing a few and wounding many. Thus by reit- erated attacks on the crowds of unarmed men, and especially by charges of cavalry along the nar- row streets, encountered only by stones, glass, tiles and so forth, thrown from the houses or from among the mob, the multitude was gradually thinned off early after night-fall; and at eleven o'clock the troops returned through silent and deserted streets to their quarters. In these incipient operations of the military several things deserve separate attention. The citizens, it will be remembered, were not yet armed, in the proper sense of the word ; they had no fire-arms, or anything to resist the attack of the cavalry or other regular troops; for sticks, sword-canes, or even pocket pistols were but poor means of combating with soldiers armed to the teeth. In fact, the citizens fought with the stones and other missiles found on the spot, and with nothing else. They were therefore a mob of rioters, not a revolutionary militia. Still it seems that the usual ceremony of summoning them to disperse by the intervention of the civil magistrate, preparatory to a charge of troops, was wholly omitted. Qualis ah incepto talis ad finem. The Ministers had embarked in a desperate attempt to revolutionize the Government, and abolish all the guaranties of liberty ; and they did not trouble themselves particularly about the forms of law, in riding down the unruly badauds of Paris. The incidents of this day af- forded to each of the parties en- gaged some valuable lessons, but the insurgent citizens alone seem to have turned them to profit. What should even then, at the opening scene of civil war, have taught the King to recede, and revoke the obnoxious Ordinances, was the conduct of the troops of the Line. Surely the Ministers could not in reason hope to suc- ceed, with all the moral force of France against them, and all the physical force, also, except a few thousand men of the Garde Royale. Yet that such was the prospect before them, they might have inferred, if they had used their understandings, from the in- cidents of Tuesday. For at this time the troops of the Line plainly evinced their disposition to frater- nize with their fellow citizens against the Crown. A detach- ment of the fifth regiment of the Line, which was marched into the Place du Palais Royal, was greeted with cries of good will by the people assembled there, and thus early engaged not to fire upon them if ordered. Nor does it appear that any of the troops of the Line, on service this day, co-operated to any purpose with the Guard. Nevertheless, Marshal Mar- mont, misled by the apparent suc- cess of the first day's operations, and finding the city in a tranquil state in the evening, wrote to the King in the most encouraging language. M. de Polignac, on the contrary, although he is said 332 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. to have participated in the delu- sion of the Marshal, took a very peculiar step in view of all the circumstances. Polignac gave a dinner that evening to the mem- bers of the Cabinet, who sat down to the council table at the Hotel Wagram under the protection of a battalion and of several pieces of artillery. It was an extraordina- ry time to join in festivities, when civil war was breaking out around them in consequence of their vio- lation of the Charter ; and they must have felt like a band of conspirators, partaking of Cati- line's bloody cup, — humani cor- poris sanguinem vino permix- tum. At the close of this their last official feast, they signed an ordinance declaring Paris in a state of siege, and giving up its in- habitants to the horrors of martial law\ It needed only this final act of tyranny to fill the measure of their infamy and fatuity, thus to consign over the capital of the Kingdom to military violence, suspending the operation of all civil authority within its limits. — But as to the Parisians them- selves, such an ordinance fell harmless at their feet ; for they had already renounced the Gov- ernment from which it emanated, and no longer felt as if they could gain or lose by decrees, when they were fixed to try the issue of arms. And yet the Ministers rested content with the empty menace of an ordinance, instead of taking measures to prevent the citizens from obtaining arms and ammunition. It was represented to the Government that the scat- tered guard houses about the city. and the armorers' shops, would inevitably be plundered before the morrow ; and that the Arsen- al and the powder magazine of Deux Moulins should be properly guarded to preserve them from the same fate. But the good ge- nius of the Nation prevailed, and lulled the Commander in Chief and the Ministers into inaction as fatal to their cause as it was ex- traordinary. Some characteristic incidents on the part of the citizens termina- ted the evening of Tuesday. Desirous to expel the guard sta- tioned in the Place de la Bourse they had set fire to the guard house, a small wooden building ; and when the firemen came to extinguish the flames, they suf- fered themselves to be disarmed by the mob. During the evening the citizens exhibited in this square, and elsewhere in the city, the body of a man killed by the discharge of the guards in the Rue Saint Honore, inciting each other to vengeance by the view of their murdered compatriot. They then proceeded to destroy the lamps which lighted the city, thus signifying as it were the end of legal order. It is to be re- membered that the lamps of Paris are suspended from ropes stretched across the street, where- of such terrible use was made in the former Revolution. By the destruction of the lanterns the narrow avenues of Paris were given up to darkness and mystery, and the populace were left to the secure prosecution of their plans of preparation for the decisive movements of the ensuing day. FRANCE. 333 The citizens, as we have seen, retired on Tuesday evening, and left the streets in such apparent tranquillity, that Marshal Mar- mont was completely deceived. But everything was changed be- fore the troops left their barracks the next morning. The National Guard and the tri-colored flag reappeared together on Wednes- day, and armed partisans suc- ceeded to the mobs of the day before. Early in the morning, or during the night, the armorers' shops had been entered, the de- tached guard-houses had been plundered, the Fuseliers Seden- taires had given up their arms, the Arsenal had been captured, the theatres had made a distribu- tion of muskets and other arms, and the magazine of Deux Mou- lins had furnished the insurgents with ammunition for the weapons, which they procured from every accessible source. Add to the quantity of arms obtained by haz- ard or force, or previously pos- sessed by individuals, that forty thousand equipments had remain- ed with the soldiers of the National Guard, at their disbandmenta few years before ; and we shall then conceive by what means an abun- dance of arms and munitions of war was on the instant placed in the hands of the Parisians. All business but that of war was now completely at a stand. The shops were everywhere closely shut, and the windows fastened and barred, as if in serious preparation for actual siege. Handbillsof an inflamma- tory nature had been profusely distributed during the night, or posted up in conspicuous situa- 29 tions, where they could easily be read, so as to supply the place of the ordinary journals. The toc- sin was sounded, summoning every man to arm for his coun- try, and to aid in ejecting the odi- ous Bourbons from the power they had obtained by foreign force, and now dishonored by their ty- ranny ; and the multitude came pouring in from the faubourgs, to swell the masses furnished by the swarming streets of the city. It was not long before the trades- men of the royal family took down the royal arms from their doors to deprecate the fury of the armed citizens, and their example was followed by the notaries and other legal functionaries, whose offices exhibited the badges of royal au- thority. In fact the insignia of royalty were everywhere defaced or taken down, and when they were moveable, suspended to the lamp ropes in scorn, or publicly burnt in heaps, amid cries of J^ive la Charie i All Paris was now in open insurrection. They hailed with enthusiastic acclama- tions the appearance of the tri- colored flag, which roused all their recollections of other days of glory, and was inseparably asso- ciated in their minds with the idea of national independence. They greeted it as the 'star of the brave,' as the ' rainbow of the free ;' and they felt as if starting from a troubled sleep, when they beheld the long proscribed sym- bol of the Revolution floating once more to the breeze, the con- secrated banner of a second strug- gle with despotism, under the auspices of the citizen soldiers of the National Guard. 334 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. It is to be observed, however, that nothing like combination or the influence of responsible lead- ers was yet discernible. The assembling hosts bore every spe- cies of weapon, some rifles or proper military muskets, many of them fowling pieces, pistols, swords, pikes, and even much humbler means of offence and de- fence. It seemed to be a mere spontaneous outpouring of uni- versal enthusiasm, a sort of in- stinct of opposition to the King and all who supported his authority, which stimulated young and old alike, from the spruce bourgeois who left his counter to have a shot at the Guards, to the hardy ope- ratives of the faubourgs, who need- ed nothing but a fit occasion to convert them into brave and ready soldiers. But however de- ficient in the regular organization of war these men were, no one could doubt who saw them, that the fate of the Bourbons was seal- ed. Strong parties began to march down from the Rue Saint Antoine and the quarter above the Place de la Bastille, who oc- cupied the Quai de la Greve, and the contiguous Place de I'Hotel de Ville, the Place du Palais Royal, and the other open spaces intermediate between those points, and hoisted the tricolored flag on the towers of Notre Dame. Marshal Marmont, it seems, who had left the citizens to pro- cure arms and make their ar- rangements unmolested since mid- night, now began to take alarm, and to view the matter in its true light. At eight o'clock he wrote to the King a long letter, which miscarried, and again another of the same purport an hour after- wards, as follows : ' Wednesday, 9 A. M. ' I had the honor yesterday of making report to your Majesty of the dispersion of the groups, which disturbed the tranquillity of Paris. This morning they have again formed, more numerous and men- acing than before. It is no long- er a riot, — it is a revolution. It is of urgent necessity that your Majesty should adopt measures of pacification. The honor of the Crown may yet be saved. To- morrow, perhaps, it will be too late. I shall take today the same measures as yesterday. The troops will be ready at noon. I await with impatience your Majes- ty's orders.' This note exhibits evident marks of having been written in considerable agitation, and under the influence of some desponden- cy, or of great reluctance to pro- ceed to extremities. Marmont had dispersed an unarmed mob the day before by charges of moveable columns in various parts of the city : did he intend to ope- rate in the same way today against an armed militia, as daring as it was numerous ! Such is the in- tention expressed in his despatch. Fortunately we possess an able and authentic account of the movements of the troops from the pen of M. Bermond de Va- cheres, a stafF-oflicer of the Guards, which affords a clear insight into the military events of the Revolution, and enables us to give a faithful view of the plan of FRANCE. 335 operations adopted by Marmont. As for the delay of three hours in setting the troops in motion, the sole reason which can be assign- ed for it is the anxiety of the Marshal to prevent the effusion of blood, and to afford the King time to send back a pacific answer. No such answer came, however, and accordingly the sanguinary work of war commenced. Marmont's head-quarters were at this time at the Tuileries, where indeed they continued until the Chateau was occupied by the citizens, and the contest terminat- ed. This post was defended on the upper side towards the city, by means of six battalions of French Guards, with three squad- rons of lancers and the artillery, who formed in order of battle on the Place du Carrousel ; and on the side of the Gardens were two battalions of Swiss Guards occu- pying the Place Louis Quinze. Strong detachments were station- ed in the Champs Elysees, to keep open the communication with Saint Cloud by the avenue and barrier of Neuilly. Three regiments of the Line, the 5ih, 50th, and 53d, received orders to occupy the Place Vendome, and so to stretch along from the Rue de la Paix by the interior Boule- vards to the Bastille, thus consti- tuting a line in force, which should embrace the whole semi-circum- ference of Paris on the northerly side. The remaining regiment of the Line, the 1 5th, was com- manded to occupy the large squares of Sainte Genevieve, the Palais de Justice, and the Hotel de Ville including the Quai de la Greve. His plan it seems was, after thus securing possession of the Boulevards, Quais, and Pla- ces, to keep open a communica- tion through the great thorough- fares of the Rue Richeheu, Rue Saint Honore, and Rue Saint Denis, by detachments of cavalry or infantry charging upon the citi- zens as on Tuesday. This plan of operations has been vehemently criticised and censured since j and after an agitating crisis is over it is easy to say how things might have been done to greater advantage. In military events, especially, every body is wise when it is too late, and wonders that a multitude of things, apparently very simple, did not occur at the time to those, on whom responsibility devolved. Much of the reflection cast upon Marmont is nothing, we imagine, but this posthumous wisdom of disappointed men. And the sim- ple truth, as we gather it from the different and often contradictory opinions of conflicting parties is, that the ultimate refusal of the four regiments of the Line to co- operate with the Guards in firing upon their compatriots, was the real cause of Marmont's failure in the successful accomplishment of his purpose. One half of his force, occupying the fixed posi- tions, the points d^appui in the city, became, as we shall see, serviceable rather than otherwise to the insurgent citizens, and left the whole contest to the Guards. The first rencontre between the citizens and the troops occur- red unexpectedly at the Hotel de Ville, before the Guards were put in motion. Between nine and ten Marmont sent a lieutenant and fifteen men to the Place de 336 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 80. Greve* to ascertain whether the 15th regiment of the Line had ar- rived there. On entering the square this little detachment was immediately fired upon by the citi- zens, who killed one man and wounded several others, and would have cut off the whole body, but for the timely arrival of a battalion, which had afterwards been order- ed to make a reconnaissance in the same direction. This inci- dent has been greatly exaggerated in the accounts of the day, drawn up and published at the moment, without any knowledge of the plan marked out for the troops, and of course with a very mistaken idea of the object and direction of their movements. It is only re- markable as the opening scene of bloodshed of this day. * Noon having come without any orders from Saint Cloud, contrary to Marmont's hopes and desires, he was obliged to com- mence the line of active opera- tions, upon which he had decided. Reserving only a small force to guard the Louvre and the Tuile- ries, and having posted the regi- ments of the Line as we have already stated, he divided his remaining force into four columns of about equal strength, for the performance of separate duties. The first column, of one battalion, two guns, and two squadrons of horse grenadiers, commanded by the Vicomte de Saint Hilaire, was to move from the Champs Ely- sees to the church of La Made- leine, and after following the Boulevards to the Rue Richelieu to return to the Champs Elysees. The second column, consisting of a battalion of infantry, two guns, and three squadrons of cavalry, commanded by M. de Saint Cha- mans, was to follow the Rue Richelieu to the Boulevards, and then wheeling to the right to march by the Boulevards to the Bastille, and thence return by the Rue St Antoine to the Hotel de Ville, where it was to meet the fourth col- umn. Two battalions of guards with two guns and 30 gendarmes, under M. de Talon, were to pro- ceed to the Marche des Innocens : thence, one battalion was to di- verge to the left up the Rue Saint Denis to the Porte St Denis, and then return to the Marche des Innocens, while the other battal- ion, which in the meantime was to diverge to the right as far as the Place du Chatelet, should * In the various accounts of the Three Days, the word Place de Greve occurs frequently, but it is not strictly proper. The Hotel de Ville of Paris is situated on the long side of a large square, which opens upon the northerly bank of the Seine, and is called the Place de I'Hotel de Ville. A new suspension bridge , called Pontde la Greve, crosses the river at this point. The Quai Pelletier opens into the square on the one hand, and the Quai de la Greve on the other. Near to the entrance of the bridge, and of course at one end of the square, is the place of public executions, where the guillotine is erected on such occasions. The entire locality is popularly called the Place de Greve, from the word greve, which means a strand or flat shore ; the name, as applied to that spot, being coeval with modern Paris, and undoubtedly derived from the natural condition of the bank of the river there, and its primitive use as a landing-place. The readers of Prior will remember his allusion to the particulars for which the square is now the most notorious. ' Who has e'er been at Paris must needs know the Greve, The fatal retreat of the unfortunate brave.' FRANCE. 337 have returned to meet it ; and here they were to wait for further orders. The fourth and last col- umn, consisting of one battalion of infantry, a half squadron of lan- cers, and two pieces of cannon, commanded by M. de Quinsonas, were to proceed along the Quais to the Place de Greve, supported by the 18th regiment of light in- fantry, and, being there joined by the second column, to maintain themselves in position at the Ho- tel de Ville. The several de- tachments accordingly departed upon the services assigned them respectively ; but before giving an account of their proceedings, it is proper to relate some incidents, which soon afterwards took place at the Tuileries. Such of the Deputies elect as were in Paris, had met repeat- edly since the publication of the Ordinances, to consult on the course they should pursue. Be- tween two and three o'clock in the afternoon a deputation from these Deputies, consisting of Gen- eral Gerard, the Comte de Lo- bau, and MM. Lafitte, Casimir Perrier, and Mauguin, repaired to head-quarters to confer with the Due de Raguse, and press upon him the importance of doing something to stop the effusion of blood. M. Lafitte, who spoke in behalf of the deputation, repre- sented to the Marshal the deplor- able state of the metropolis, de- clared in a state of siege, and treated like a town taken by storm, blood flowing in all directions ; and declared that the assembled Deputies of France could not but consider him personally responsi- ble for the consequences of a con- 29* tinuance of hostilities. The Mar- shal replied that he considered obedience to the royal commands a point of honor as a soldier, and asked for the conditions of armis- tice proposed by the Deputies, that he might report them to the King. M. Lafitte replied ; ' Without judging too highly of our influ- ence, we think we can be answer- able that everything will return to order on the following conditions, namely, the revocation of the ille- gal Ordinances of the 25th of July, the dismissal of the Minis- ters, and the convocation of the Chambers on the 3d of August.' The Marshal answered, that as a citizen he might not disapprove, nay, might even participate in the opinions of the Deputies, but as a soldier he had his orders, and felt bound to carry them into execu- tion. He was willing to submit their overture to the King ; but proposed, as M. de Polignac was now in the Chateau, to go and request him to receive the depu- tation. After a short absence he returned with an altered counte- nance, and informed the Deputies that Polignac declined any con- ference, the conditions proposed rendering it wholly useless. In fact, the Ministers had fled from their respective hotels, and taken refuge at head-quarters, deter- mined to persist in their folly and madness, amid the rattle of mus- ketry, the roar of cannon, and the peal of the tocsin, with the tri- colored flag everywhere displayed before their eyes, regardless ot the sufferings they inflicted on their country in the gratification of the senseless ambuion of a tyrant. M. Lafitte, when he received the 338 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. answer of M. de Polignac, took leave with the simple but impres- sive declaration : ' Then we HAVE CIVIL WAR.' It would seem that until this time the citizens had entertained some hope of accommodation ; and it is stated, in some of the me- moirs of the Revolution, that the insurgent multitude did not feel that it was a desperate case, until the deputation of their friends left the Tuileries. Meanwhile pre- parations had been made on a large scale for resisting the troops in their progress through the nar- row streets. The paving stones were torn up, and carried to the upper rooms of the houses, to be hurled on the heads of the troops. Bullets were cast by the women in the shops and at the doors. Those who had arms of any kind stood ready to use them : those who had not, disposed themselves to employ such humble missiles as they could obtain, and to aid their brethren by their presence and acclamations in default of possessing the means of active co- operation. In these circumstan- ces the projected movements of the troops began. M. de Saint Hilaire's column performed the service allotted to them without difficulty, being marched through spacious streets not inhabited by a belligerent pop- ulation. But their movement, as it was comparatively free of dan- ger, so was it of no consequence in any point of view, — neither benefiting the King nor injuring the citizens. The second column marched up the Rue Richelieu through a dense crowd, but proceeded along the Boulevards without encoun- tering much resistance as far as the Porte Saint Denis. Here they were fired upon from the houses, and even from the top of the arch of Porte Saint Denis it- self. As the column advanced, the firing increased. "When M. de Saint Chamans reached the Porte Saint Martin he found the opposition to his further progress so earnest, that he was obliged to countermarch his cavalry behind his infantry, which, thus unmask- ed, fired upon the citizens by platoons ; and thus, with the aid of artillery, the column broke through the multitude and con- tinued its advance. Meanwhile the citizens had begun to erect > barricades in this quarter, and al- though the troops surmounted them now, yet they were con- structed so fast, that it would have been next to impossible for the troops to return the same way. — As the column proceeded, they passed the 50th regiment of the Line near the Chateau d'Eau, or large fountain of the Rue de Bon- di, where they had been stationed ever since the morning. Beyond this point, as they approached the Bastille through the Boulevard du Temple and Saint Antoine, they entered into a large mass of the workmen of the faubourgs, sur- passing, both in boldness and num- bers, the insurgents whom they had previously encountered. The troops advanced in close columns, occupying the width of the Bou- levard, preceded by a party of soldiers ranged as sharp-shooters, who fired in the air, and at the windows, their object being to prevent the latter from being se- curely occupied by the armed citizens. The large open space FRANCE. 339 of the Place de la Bastille speedi- ly became the scene of a sangui- Dary contest. M. de Saint Chamans easily drove out the multitude to make room for his troops ; but the citi- zens only withdrew to the houses and the numerous streets opening upon the square, from whence they maintained a persevering fire, which of course was return- ed by the soldiers. The column drove the people before it when- ever the attempt was made, but was prevented from marching up the Rue Saint Antoine to the Hotel de Ville as it had been or- dered to do, by the barricades erected in that street, and by the hostility of the citizens, who not only fired continually upon the troops, but poured down upon them a continual shower of stones, tiles, glass, and articles of furni- ture, from the house windows. Of course, many lives were lost in this quarter, and great injury was done to the houses, by the discharge of muskets and field- pieces. Finding it impracticable, at length, to complete the route assigned to him, M. de Saint Cha- mans crossed the river at the Pont d'Austerlitz, and as it were stole off to the Tuileries by the back way of the other side of the Seine. The citizens of the Rue Saint Antoine looked upon the movement of the troops in that di- rection as a triumph, and suppos- ed that they had been recalled in consequence of the success of the insurrection at head-quarters. — Thus nothing was accomplished by this column, which left the cit- izens in possession of the confi- dent feelings of supposed victory, and left them free to unite their strength to that of the insurgents- in the heart of the city. The operations of the third col- umn ended still more unsatisfac- torily. To reach the Marche des Innocens, they marched through the Rue Saint Honore, where they were continually exposed to a severe fire from the windows, court-yards, and narrow streets or alleys along their route, and sub- jected to showers of paving stones, and other missiles, to which, as marching in a dense body, they were necessarily much exposed^ They were received with a sharp fire at the Marche itself, but soon made good their position, and prepared to execute their orders. M. de Talon lost no time in de- taching a battalion up the Rue Saint Denis, but found it neces- sary to depart from the plan marked out for him, until the re- turn of this detachment should make him feel strong enough to proceed down the Rue Saint Denis to the Place de Chatelet. Accordingly a battalion under Colonel Pleineselve made its way up the Rue Saint Denis to the Boulevards. But in doing so, it suffered severely from the citi- zens, who, in this quarter, had always manifested a determined spirit. They had erected so many barricades in this street, amounting it is said to thirty m all, that, although the troops surmounted every obstacle, and finally gained the Porte Saint Denis, it was a work of infinite labor and much time ; and when they reached the end of their ap- pointed march, they found thaS the barricades had been renewed. - 340 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. and strengthened behind them, so that it was impossible to re- join their comrades, and at the same time the Boulevards were equally blocked up on each side of them : so that they were com- pelled to abandon the field and return to the Tuileries by the Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis and the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile the residue of the third column was left in a most perilous situation, in the Marche des Innocens, blocked up and harassed by a continually aug- menting multitude of people, who were walling up the streets with barricades. Finding that his am- munition began to run short, the commander was compelled to despatch an aide-de-camp dis- guised in the dress of a citizen, to obtain relief. In fact, the troops at this point suffered more, and the conflict waged here was more sanguinary, than at any other point except the Hotel de Ville. The messenger succeeded in reaching head quarters, and a battalion of Swiss Guards was immediately despatched to relieve the disheart- ened troops. The poor Swiss missed their way, as wiser men might easily have done, amid the blind alleys and crooked streets through which they had to pass ; and reached the Marche at last, barely in season to rescue the re- mains of the third column, and conduct them back by the Place du Chatelet and the Quais to the Louvre, where they took a posi- tion. The three columns, whose movements we have followed, were engaged in a series of skir- mishes, which ended in defeating the whole plan of operations for the day, so far as they were con- cerned. The fourth column alone sustained a genuine battle. It was not anticipated, when they started from the Tuileries, that they were strong enough to per- form alone the service on which they were sent ; for the second column was to have joined them at the Greve, which both united were to defend against ihe citi- zens. But as we have already seen, the second column was compelled to leave the fourth to its fate ; and of course, when the latter reached the Hotel de Ville it found itself alone. They pro- ceeded by the Quais as far as the Pont Neuf, and there, instead of continuing directly to the Place de Greve, they crossed the Seine, and passed along the Quai de I'Horloge to the Marche aux Fleurs, which abuts on the Pont Notre Dame, a bridge a litde to the westward of the Pont de la Greve, and opposite the Quai Pelletier, which opens into the Greve. The general decided to recross the river by the Pont Notre Dame, sending forward a detachment to make a demons- tration by the Pont de la Greve. At the Pont Neuf he had found part of the 15ih regiment of the Line, which, by virtue of orders from the Due de Raguse, he re- quired to support him in his movement on the Hotel de Ville. One battalion of these troops of the Line followed the Guards across the Pont Notre Dame, while others remained on the Marche aux Fleurs to observe that neighborhood. Early on this day the citizens FRANCE. 341 had entered the Hotel de Ville for the purpose of ringing the toc- sin and hoisting the tricolored flag. They did not attempt, however, to convert the edifice itself into a military position, but were content- ed with occupying the square and the neighboring streets. Here, in the course of the day, they had collected in great numbers, and had become in a qualified degree organized, so as to act in masses and under the direction of leaders. When they saw the troops ap- proaching, they marched forward with drums beating to occupy the bridge, by which the Guards were to cross the river. M. Bermond de Vacheres, the commanding officer, caused his cannon to be brought to the middle of the bridge, and then rode forward himself to conjure the people to retire and give him free passage. But the citizens refused to hear him ; and an adjutant having been killed at his side by their fire, he dispersed them by a discharge of grape shot, and occupied the Quai de Gevres and Quai Pelle- tier at the termination of the bridge. In the mean time the detachment, which was to cross the Pont de la Greve, and which ought to have waited for the oth- er detachment coming up by the Quai Pelletier, so that both should enter the Place de Greve together, had rushed on impetu- ously, and entered the square alone, where it was exposed to the whole fire of the people from the houses, the square, and the corners of the streets opening into it. At length the other division of the column came on to the sup- port of their comrades, and they succeeded in gaining possession of the square, and for a time silenc- ing the fire from the houses, al- though it was still continued out of one of the cross streets called Rue du Mouton, and from the opposite side of the Seine, In the Rue du Mouton the citizens had entrenched them- selves behind barricades, and se^ verely annoyed the troops on the square. '1 he Guards charged up the street, and carried the barricade, but it was soon re- taken by the citizens, who from time to time renewed their fire also from the houses. The Guards had reckoned on being supported in their position by the light infantry of the line, posted on the south side of the river. When, howev- er, the Guards in the Place de Greve began to suffer from the fire of the citizens on the oppo- site Quais, messages were sent to the officer of the Line who com- manded there, and finally he re- fused to interfere. The conse- quence was that the citizens, se^ cure behind the heavy stone para- pets, which in Paris border the Quais along the banks of theriver^ and protected in some sort by the soldiers of the 15th regiment^ soon filled the Quai de la Cite, on which the suspension bridge of the Greve abuts, and kept up a well sustained fire on the Guards., Such was the situation of things when a body of cuirassiers, which had been detached from the column commanded by M. de Saint Chamans for the purpose, came to announce to the Guards in the Place de Greve that the long expected column had been obliged to return to head-quarters.. 342 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. instead of coming to their sup- port. The cuirassiers had fought their way along through innu- merable difficulties, and only suc- ceeded in entering the Greve by means of a powerful diversion made by the column there, to as- sist them in doing it. The cuir- assiers were followed by the 50th regiment of the Line, under M. de Maussion. They had volun- tarily abandoned their position on the Boulevards to return to their barrack ; but finding it occupied by the insurgents, they had con- tinued onward to the Greve, after an express engagement with M. de Maussion not to act against the Parisians, and were now plac- ed in the interior court of the Hotel de Ville. The command- ing officer of the Guards, finding, after five hours of continual firing, that his ammunition began to fall short, now sent to the Tuileries for succor. A detachment of two hundred Swiss accordingly came to their relief ; and in the move- ments necessary for placing the Swiss in the position occupied by the Guards some confusion oc- curring, the citizens took advan- tage of it, and made a simultaneous attack on the troops from all points. Although repulsed by the murderous discharges of the Guards, the people continually returned to the attack, with the courage and perseverance of vet- eran soldiers, giving the Guards but little respite and no opportu- nity for repose, while the cavalry were perpetually exposed to the plunging fire of the citizens on the Quai de la Cite. This state of things becoming insupportable to the troops, they determined to retire into the Ho- tel de Ville, abandoning the de- fence of the square and its out- posts. M. de Bermond says that the insurgents mistaking this movement for a retreat, followed it up with another general attack. There was no mistake about it. There is no meaning in words if it was not a retreat. The ammu- nition of the Guards was wholly exhausted, and they were obliged to have recourse for a partial supply to the regiment of the Line, who were quiet spectators of the scene. The Guards were in fact compelled to take refuge in the Hotel de Ville, where they would cease to be a mark for the sharp-shooters among ihe citizens, and could themselves fire upon the people from a sheltered post, while their horses were safe in the court-yard of the Hotel. Here, therefore, the troops remained un- til towards night, when a disguis- ed messenger arrived, and an- nounced to them that they were to evacuate their position, and re- treat to the Tuileries as they best could. It was concluded to wait until midnight, when it was pre- sumed the Parisians would have retired to their homes, and then to retreat by the same route they had come, as the Conciergerie and other public buildings occu- pied a considerable space along the southern Quais, and of course the people were less likely to in- terrupt their march by firing from windows in that quarter, than from the closely inhabited tenements of the direct course by the Quai de la Megisserie. These troops were thus engag- ed for twelve hours, without any FRANCE. 343 food, or any refreshment, except a few bottles of wine much dilu- ted with water, which the soldiers bought of some wine-sellers on or near the square. The number of their killed and wounded is various- ly stated, but amounted, it would seem, to two hundred or two hun- dred and fifty in all.* The de- struction of the citizens was un- doubtedly much greater, as they exposed themselves unreflectingly, and were subject to the shot of cannon ; but it is difficult to ascer- tain the exact number that fell at this particular part of the city. Many bodies were thrown into the Seine ; and although, as we shall state hereafter, calculations were made as to the number of killed and wounded by the returns of the hospitals, and so forth, yet these calculations do not fix the extent of the destruction of life at the Hotel de Ville. But all the blood shed here was cheaply ex- pended, the result of its effu- sion being all important, because it was in fact a decided vic- tory in itself and in its conse- quences upon the royal cause. The Guards retreated at midnight, as had been arranged, and it was well for them that they did not longer delay their march, as the number of barricades was in- creasing every hour, and their re- turn would soon have been im- practicable. They found the 1 5th regiment of the Line posted very tranquilly at the Palais de Justice and on the Pont Neuf, observing a very patient neutrality in this war between Charles X. and the population of Paris. Thus terminated the military operations of Wednesday the 28th of July. They had wholly failed of their intended effect on every point. Three of the four columns had been fairly beaten, or at least beaten off, in the enterprises they had undertaken. Whatever suc- cess they may have had in a military point of view, — for the Carlists flatter themselves with the consolation that in a military point of view the troops succeed- ed, because they made good cer- tain positions for a time, — yet morally speaking they were totally and absolutely vanquished. There is no question about this in truth and in fact. They had attempted certain objects, and had been driven back to head-quarters, leaving those objects but half ac- complished at best, and the field of battle in possession of the in- surgents. This would be called victory by all rational men, what- ever the advocates of despotism, English or French, may see fit to term it. As for the first column, it did nothing, good or bad, and therefore does not vary the result. We should add that some irregu- lar skirmishing occurred in the course of the day between the citizens and the Gendarmerie, or small parties of the Guards, in the Rue Saint Honore, the Place du Palais Royal, and the Place des Victoires. Marshal Marmont * M. de Bermond says there were 50 or 60 wounded to he carried away in the retreat. M. Delaunay, another officer, says the wounded amounted to 150 or 200 men. The difference is accounted for by supposing that M. de Bermond speaks of the badly wounded only, and M. de Delaunay of all the wounded. M. de Ber- mond speaks of 40 men being hors de combat at five o'clock. 344 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. himself having occasion to visit the post at the Bank, had a nar- row escape on the way. With ihe exception of these little skir- mishes, our account of the move- ments of the four columns of the Guards exhibits all the fighting which took place on Wednesday. The fatigued and dispirited troops, who had been contending all day under a burning sun in July without any nourishment, found that no arrangements had been made for provisioning them at head-quarters. By some ex- traordinary neglect, they were left destitute of supplies, when the Government had the command of all the avenues to the city, and might have provided food in abundance. The insurgents, on the other hand, were plentifully supplied with every necessary, the whole city being anxious to suc- cor the wounded and to relieve the wants of all. In the course of the evening, detachments of Guards came in from Versailles and Rueil, about one thousand seven hundred in number ; but these, it is said, did not quite compensate for the losses, which the garrison of Paris had already sustained. Much of the loss consisted of sol- diers disarmed and dispersed at the different posts about the city before the combats began : the rest, of the killed and wounded in the various engagements. The Guards expected to have been received at the Tuileries by the King or the Dauphin, in whose behalf they had been all day fighting ; but those worthy per- sonages, we suppose, had been too busily occupied in hunting, to have time for thanking the il- merited devotion of their house- hold troops. Towards night the King was fully informed by the Due de Raguse of the exact state of things, by means of his aide M. de Komierouski, as well as by written communication. Mar- mont was anxious to impress upon Charles the necessity of some accommodation, as the only meth- od to preserve his Crown. But the only answer the King gave was an injunction to the Marshal ' to persevere, to assemble bis forces on the Place du Carrousel and the Place Louis XV., and to act with masses ;' thus impliedly censuring the conduct of Mar- mont in dividing his forces, and scattering them over Paris. We have occasionally referred to the conduct of the troops of the Line on this day as favorable to the insurgents. Their sense of discipline did not permit them to engage in the insurrection, while on the other hand their pohtical convictions prevented their aiding the household troops. So early as Tuesday a detachment of the 5th regiment, being marched into the Place du Palais Royal, enter- ed into an engagement not to fire on the citizens, and was received by the latter with loud manifesta- tions of applause. It is said that this same 5th regiment being or- dered to ' make ready' to fire on the people on the Boulevards, obeyed ; and when the word ' pre- sent' was given, turned their pieces on their Colonel, waiting for the order to fire. Whether this an- ecdote is true or not, certain it is, that the three regiments posted along the Boulevards, fraternized with the people in a very short FRANCE. 345 time, and only maintained their position, without offering any an- noyance to the armed citizens, who continually greeted them with cries of ' Vive la Ligne !' The defection of the 15th was more signal, because they were in full view of the Guards on the Place de I'Hotel de Ville, who stood in pressing need of their support. But all they did was to stand quietly where they were drawn up, gently keeping back the people when they pressed too closely, and complaining to the latter of remaining drawn up un- der a hot sun all day without meat or drink. The fact is the soldiers of the Line heartily sympathized with the insurgent citizens, and the officers generally concurred with the liberal party in their opinions of the obnoxious Ordi- nances, and were contented with keeping their men quiet, without seeking to bring them into con- flict with the Parisians. Indeed the Guards should re- ceive the credit of having perform- ed their bloody task with extreme reluctance, and a praiseworthy degree of forbearance, where this was consistent whh obedience to orders, greatly to their honor. We have seen what took place on the Pont Notre Dame, before the troops fired ; and the case was not a solitary one. We copy one of the popular accounts, in stat- ing, that when the cavalry of the Guard charged for the first time, an officer cried out to the people, with tears in his eyes, ' For the iove of God, in the name of Hea- ven, go to your homes.' When the Guards were ordered to fire from the Hotel on the Quai d'Or- 30 say, they levelled their pieces above the heads of the people, so as to intimidate without inflicting injury. In the streets, they ap- peared to feel that they Vv^ere per- forming a most painful duty, being evidently filled with gloomy anti- cipations of the future. It is also remarked of the cavalry that they displayed great forbearance on all occasions. The lancers, cui- rassiers, and mounted gendarmes were engaged everywhere, and were the special objects of popu- lar resentment, especially the lan- cers and cuirassiers, who were pertinaciously assailed in every possible way. They made fre- quent and furious charges, they were shot and bruised, and their horses killed or lamed under them, by bullets, stones, bottles, and other missiles, and they struck down many persons in return. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how few men were wounded, during the Three Days, by thrusts of the lance or sabre cuts. The caval- ry also fired their pistols and car- bines frequently, but still with lit- tle effect. The comparative in- efficiency of their operations may be partly ascribed to the diffi- culties of their situation, but more to their feelings of humanity, and unwillingness to imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow citizens. Their aversion to the service on which they were employed was not diminished by the events of the day. One of the officers of the Guard resigned his commis- sion, in a letter to M. de Polig- nac, the acting Secretary of War, which deserves to be record- ed for the manly sentiment it 346 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. speaks. It is in the following words : ' MONSEIGNEUR I ' After a day of bloodshed and disaster, undertaken against all divine and human laws, and in which I have borne a part from a respect to human authority for which I now reproach myself, my conscience forbids me to serve one moment longer. ' I have in my life given too many proofs of my devoted ness to the King, not to be permitted, without my intentions being ca- lumniated, to distinguish between what emanates from him, and atro- cities committed in his name. ' I have therefore the honor to beg you, Monseigneur, to lay be- fore the eyes of his Majesty my resignation as Captain of his Guard. ' I have the honor to be, &:c. * The Count Raoul de Latour Du Pin.' July 28, 1830. While discontent, disaffection, and the conviction of being em- barked in a bad and a losing cause paralysed the royal troops, the Parisians were busy in confi- dent preparations for renewing the contest on the ensuing day. They had seen the advantage of the barricades hastily thrown up by them during the agitation of battle, and they resolved to avail themselves to the utmost of the facilities which the city afforded, for thus obstructing the evolutions of cavalry and artillery. No sooner had the Guards begun to recede than all classes, ages, and sexes devoted themselves to the task of heaving up these ready fortifications. The pavements of Paris consist of large cubic stones broken into shape, and these were dug up and piled into thick walls stretching breast high across the streets. These heavy mounds were surmounted or strengthened with barrels full of stones, and large beams and gates, while eve- ry species of carriages, the huge diligences of the Messageries Royales or of Lafiitte and Cail- lard, the long omnibuses, fiacres, cabriolets, wagons, private coach- es, — all were indiscriminately seized, and converted into ram- parts to block up the principal thoroughfares. On the Boule- vards the fine trees, which adorn- ed that noble avenue, were sacri- ficed in the cause of patriotism, and cut down to perform their part in the grand system of barri- cades, which now rendered Paris utterly impassable for horses or any kind of vehicle. In fact, the Guards were thus effectually shut out of every part of the city, ex- cept the open spaces which they occupied about the Tuileries. We may observe that Paris presents facilities, in the style of its buildings, for being put in a state of defence, far beyond the large cities of the United States. The inhabitants of all classes are in the habit of residing in flats, so that a respectable family instead of occupying all the parts of the building as with us, often dwells on a single story, with other fam- ilies above and below it. Of course they enter from the street by a single door, which is commonly a large porte cochere, opening perhaps into a courtyard. FRANCE. 347 with the buildings in a quadran- gle surrounding it. This common entrance is generally kept closed, and is always attended by a por- ter, whose business it is to open and shut it when occasion requires, and to receive the messages, let- ters, and so forth, intended for the families within. Thus it hap- pens that the houses present to the street a solid defensible front, difficult of attack, and afford a safe shelter to marksmen, whence they may fire upon troops as they go along with hardly the least de- gree of hazard. In the narrow streets, where the buildings are lofty, and inhabited by many per- sons in the humble walks of life, the peculiarities in their construc- tion greatly favored the people, and were in the same way the source of much embarrassment to the military. Thursday the 29th of July at length arrived. The tocsin had been ringing out its melancholy peal during the night, summoning the citizens to arm for this last day of the battles of liberty. Yes- terday and the day before the in- discriminate populace of Paris, the small shopkeepers, artificers, and workmen of the faubourgs, had covered themselves with glo- ry as the unofficered, undisciplined, unorganized soldiers of the Char- ter. Call them National Guards, or call them citizens, they were at any rate mere popular assemblages, without any responsible head, or any leaders, other than such as boldness of spirit and strength of body created on the spot. But today the aspect of things was changed. La Fayette, Gerard, Dubourg, Lobau, the veteran sons of the Revolution, wise in coun- cil and brave in the field, came forth to communicate vigor and character to the heroic efforts of the Parisians. The assembled Deputies of France had assumed the insurrection, and had given it their sanction as a movement of the French Nation. The tricolor ^ the proscribed badge of regi- cides and jacobins, the sacrilegi- ous symbol of revolutionary fury, was now the livery of all in Paris, whether high or low, except the beleaguered Praetorian cohorts of the wanton violator of his oath, of the infatuated usurper of the lib- erties of his native country. Nor were subordinate leaders now wanting, to direct the mechanical operations of actual combat, inspir- iting by their zeal, and organizing by their science the brave bands of the barricades in these the closing triumphs of the glorious Three Days. The ardent young students of the Schools of Law and Medicine and the beardless boys of the Polytechnic School had appeared occasionally in the scene on Wednesday, but in small numbers and as common combat- ants. Today they came forth in a body, particularly the young men of the Polytechnic School ; and instantly gaining the confi- dence of the people by their mani- fest intrepidity and skill, they soon introduced a certain degree of regularity and of discipline among the soldiers of the Charter. The Polytechnic School (Ecole Polytechnique) is one of the no- ble institutions, to which the Rev- olution gave birth. It was found- ed by a decree of the National Convention in 1794 by the name 348 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30, of Ecole Centrale, and in the fol- lowing year took the appellation it now bears ; its great utility having secured to it the protection of ev- ery succeeding government in France from that time to the present. Its principal object is to give instruction in those branches of science, which prepare for the pursuits of the engineer and the soldier. The ordinary mathe- matical and physical sciences, together with engineering, civil, military, and naval gunnery, and other departments of the applica- tion of abstract science to the arts of peace and war allied to these, form the studies of the Polytech- nic School. A large number of excellent officers, engineers, and scientific men have received their elementary education in this cel- ebrated establishment. Pupils are admitted from the age of six- teen to twenty, and are allowed to remain two, and in some cases three years. Notwithstanding their youth, the nature of their studies and the discipline of the institution fitted them to act the part of leaders and officers among the untrained bourgeois of Paris. The numberless advantages of Paris as a place of professional education have rendered it the residence of great numbers of students of law and medicine. Although destitute of the military knowledge possessed by the stu- dents of the Polytechnic School, their general intelligence, their standing in society, and their ear- nest devotion to constitutional principles made them no mean actors in the stirring scenes of the Three Days. Obedient to the commands of the King, and taught by the ex- perience of the last two daysy Marmont concentrated his forces todaj in large masses in the neigh- borhood of his head-quarters. Whatever might have been his in- tentions if things had proceeded favorably, his actual operations were mostly of a defensive na- ture. The Guards at this time exhibited a force of eleven bat- talions of infantry and thirteen squadrons of cavalry, amounting to 4300 men. The four regi- ments of the Line still remained under the nominal orders of the Marshal, and, notwithstanding their previous conduct, were con- sidered by him in the general dis- position of his forces. To render intelligible the inci- dents of the day, we must explain the relative situation of the several positions occupied by the troops. The Seine, it will be remember- ed, flows from east to west through the heart of Paris. Three con- siderable islands are here formed by the river, the largest of which is the Lutetia of the Romans. ' Lutetiam proficlscitur,' says Cae- sar, ' id est oppidum Parisiorum posiium in insula fluminis Sequa- ni ;^ and this island is now famil- iarly termed La Cite. Upon it the Palais de Justice and the Ca- thedral of Notre Dame are situa- ted ; for it is not in the wilds of America only that a courthouse and a church form the nucleus of the future city. The Quai de I'Horloge, Marche aux Fleurs, and Quai de la Cite compose the northerly edge of the island, facing the Quai de la Megisserie, Quai de Gevres, Quai Pelletier, and the Greve, the localities so often FRANCE. 349 referred to as constituting the op- posite bank of the norlliern chan- nel of the Seine. The principal interior Boulevards desciibe a semi-circle resting upon the river, of which the island of La Ciie may be considered the centre, and which thus encloses the northern half and the most popu- lous part of Paris. Surrounding the Boulevards thus described are the northern Faubourgs, begin- ning with the Faubourg Saint An- toine in the east and contiguous to the Bastille, and ending with the Faubourg Saint Honore and the Champs Elysees in the west. The southerly half of Paris on the opposite side of the Seine is less regular than the other, but has a general correspondence to it in form and appearance. At the westei ly extremity, then, of the city, and adjacent to the northern bank of the river, are the Louvre and the Chateau of the Tuileries, which although bearing different names, are one connected mass of buildings; and in contin- uation onward from them are the Gardens of the Tuileries, the Place Louis XV., and the Champs Elysees, extending by the broad avenue of Neuilly to the gate or barrier of that name. Tlie Pal- ace of the Louvre forms a perfect quadrangle, enclosing a public court four hundred and eight feet square, which is entered by pass- ing under spacious vestibules or arcades, one on each of the four sides of the Palace. The Tuil- eries consisted for a long period of what is now only the main body of the edifice, which compri- ses a range of buildings on a single line, extending on a ground plan 30^- 1068 feet perpendicular to the Seine. Of this range or block of buildings, the extremity next the Seine is called the Pavilion de Flore, and the Pavilion Marsan forms the opposite extremity. It fronts on the Garden of the Tuileries, having its reverse, of course, towards the Louvre, with a large public vestibule or arcade passing under it, so as to consti- tute an avenue from the Garden to the Louvre. On the side of the jriver, a range of buildings stretches from the Pavilion de Flore to the Louvre, thus uniting the two Palaces, and forming the magnificent Galerie du Musee, or picture gallery, 1332 feet in length. Another range of build- ings constructed by Napoleon, and facing the Rue de Rivoli, extends from the Pavilion Marsan about half way towards the Louvre, it having been his intention to unite the two edifices on this side also, as well as on the side of the Seine. The Cour du Palais, and the Place du Carrousel, on which stands the celebrated arch, are separated only by a gilded bal- ustrade, and occupy the whole space wiihin the two galleries or wings of the Tuileries. The residue of the space between the Palaces is partly open and partly covered widi ordinary buildings. Receding a little from the riv- er and just north of the Louvre and the Tuileries, is the Palais Royal so called, the residence of the Due d'Orleans, separated from the former by a few short cross streets, and having the Rue Saint Honore between, a long street which under various names runs parallel to the Seine from 350 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. the barriere du Trone on the east to the barriere du Roule on the west. The Rue de Castigli- one crosses the Rue Saint Honore at right angles, making a commu- nication from the Garden of the Tuileries to the Place Vendome. On the other side of the Seine, leaving the Place Louis XV. by the Pont Louis XVL, you come successively to the Palais Bour- bon, occupied in part by the Chamber of Deputies, and in part as the residence of the Due de Bourbon Conde, to the Hotel des Invalides with its extensive es- planade and grounds, and to the Ecole Militaire fronting upon the Champ de Mars. It is far from our purpose to give a description of Paris, or of any of the different objects we have designated, all we intend being, to make military operations intelligible by pointing out the sit- uation of certain points with re- ference to those operations. The troops were distributed at the va- rious positions, of which we have given an account, as follows. A battalion of Guards occupied the Ecole Militaire. The grounds of the Invalides were left to the de- fence of the school for staff offi- cers. The Palais Bourbon was intrusted to the Line, who also extended to the Place Louis XV. and the Garden of the Tuileries. Three battalions of Guards also formed in the Garden. A Swiss battalion was posted in the Place du Carrousel, another in the inte- rior court of the Louvre, and a third in the colonnade and windows of the Louvre itself. Two battal- ions of Guards were distributed at different posts along the Rue Saint Honore, some in the houses, oth- ers at the Palais Royal and the Bank of France, which is near it. Two others extended from the Place Louis XV. along the Rue Royale to the church of La Mad- eleine and the Boulevard des Ca- pucines. The cavalry were chief- ly in the Champs Elysees or about the Tuileries. All these arrangements, we re- peat, were apparently defensive in their object. Marmont had, in compliance with the injunctions of the King, concentrated the troops in masses all around the Tuileries ; and in so doing he might continue to maintain that position against the people. But what then ? The Nation was now in arms ; and what could a few thousand guards accomplish against the whole of France ^ Would the Ministers counsel the King to bombard Paris ? If they intended effectually to treat it as a besieged city, the question would have come to that ; and then it would have been advisable for M. de Polignac to ascertain wheth- er he could find troops of the Line enough to invest Paris in regular siege, and carry matters to the extremity of destroying the metropolis. It is well known that no such orders would have been submitted to by any of the regu- lar troops. What then, we ask once more, could Charles hope to effect by means of his masses ? We profess that we do not see anything of a more practicable nature in the operations of Thurs- day than in those of Wednesday, notwithstanding the generosity and good sense of the Carlists, who are disposed to cavil in every way FRANCE. 351 at the proceedings of Marmont, and to throw on him the blame of a failure, which arose out of the intrinsic rottenness of the cause itself. Let even handed justice be dealt out to all parties. A blind infatuated King attempted to sup- press the liberties guarantied to the nation by the fundamental law of the land. Weak and narrow minded counsellors became the dishonorable agents of his usurpa- tion and perjury. They made no fitting preparations, in fact no preparations at all to compel obedience to the unlawful decrees of their master. When the day of trial came, and a revolution had already commenced, they called upon a Marshal of France to command the forces which garri- soned the capital, in the expecta- tion that he would achieve an easy victory over a yielding mob. He made such a disposition of his troops as the views of the time recommended to him, and he fail- ed, because his forces were inad- equate to accomplish his pur- pose, and because the despised mob proved to be a brave and warlike host. Whether the plans of Marmont were judicious or not is wholly immaterial. Whatever they had been, and however for- tune might have favored their ex- ecution, their success would but have caused greater effusion of blood : for all France, including the army itself with the exception of the Guards, was against the King, and sooner or later he must have yielded to numbers, notwith- standing any temporary advan- tage he might have enjoyed in his attack on the Parisians. The King and his Ministers should therefore bear the blame of their folly and insanity in the entire transaction, and in each and all of its parts, instead of meanly seek- ing to throw the responsibility for failure upon Marshal Marmont. His real error, in our judgment, was of a political, not a military- nature 'y it consisted in his under- taking the task of dragooning the citizens into submission, not in his failing to accomplish it. But to return to our narrative^ these arrangements of the troops having been made, the People themselves became the assailants? in the movements of this day. The armed citizens surrounded the various points of Marmont's line, and maintained an incessant discharge of musketry upon it from every quarter. Their exer- tions were particularly directed to the Louvre and the Tuileries, the centre of the royalist position^ which they endeavored to carry by repeated assaults, conducted with the bravery and pertinacity of veteran soldiers. Sheltering themselves under the parapet walls along the southern bank ^ of the river, and standing even behind the pillars of the Institute^ which is on that side of the Seine and opposite to the Louvre, they fired with comparative impunity upon the troops stationed in the latter edifice. The citizens fought ^ with equal resolution, but at great disadvantage, on the other side of the Louvre toward the Palais Royal, particularly from the square of the Church of Saint Germain I'Auxerrois. Early in the day the officer of the Line who commanded at the 352 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Palais Bourbon, entered into ne- gotiation with the citizens, which resulted in his peaceably with- drawing his troops into the gar- den of the Due de Bourbon, leav- ing the insurgents in possession of a post, which commanded the Place Louis XV, They retained it for some time, greatly to the annoyance of the Guards, on whom they could now fire from the shelter of the columns in front of the Chamber of Deputies and from other points of the edifice. The troops of the Line stationed in the Place Louis XV. soon retreated to the alleys of the Champs Elysees, without return- ing the fire, and a body of Guards was compelled to march across the Pont Louis XVL and dis- lodge the citizens from the Palais Bourbon. When they had done this, they found the regiment of the Line in the garden of the Pal- ace, keeping entirely aloof from the combat. At about the same time two regiments of the Line, sta- tioned in the Place Vendome, shouldered theli- muskets with the buts in the air, and abandoned the Marshal to his fate. When Marmont received intelligence of this additional defection, he be- came satisfied that a continuance of hostilities was perfectly idle, now that his two wings, which composed half his force, had de- serted him, leaving his centre to sustain the war alone ; and he proposed an armistice, in the hope that an accommodation might yet be made with the King that should put an end to the in- surrection. M. de Semonville, a peer of great authority and influ- ence, who held the office of grand referendary of the Chamber of Peers, — an office created for managing the pecuniary and busi- ness affairs of the Chamber, — repaired to the Tuileries this morning, to insist in the name and behalf of the Peers, that con- ditions of accommodation should be procured from the King. The wishes of Marmont, as we have repeatedly observed, were deci- dedly adverse to the course he had been required to pursue, and no man was more anxious than he to bring about peace. M. de Semonville maintained the same ground, which M. Lafitte had taken in his interview with Mar- mont the day before. But this energetic nobleman went further than to demand of the Ministers that they should resign. He pro- posed that they should be arrested on the spot if they refused to re- sign ; and his representations had so much effect, that the Ministers repaired to Saint Cloud at eleven o'clock, for the purpose of pre- senting to the King their resigna- tions. They left the Tuileries just before the defection of the troops of the Line ; and Marmont had so much confidence in their success, that he distributed a pa- cific proclamation, conjuring the citizens to lay down their arms in the prospect of immediately ob- taining all they demanded. But an unexpected and most impor- tant advantage was just then ob- tained by the citizens, which ac- complished a total change in the whole aspect of affairs, and decided the question forever against the reigning dynasty. Marshal Marmont, it will be FRANCE. 355 recollected, had posted three bat- mediately perceived that the firing talions of Swiss Guards at the from the Louvre had ceased, and Louvre, one in the colonnade and pressed their attack with renewed galleries, another in the inner zeal. Finding still that they en- court, and another in the Place countered no opposition, they at du Carrousel, that is under the length crowded in at the lower windows of the Galerie du Musee. windows, and look possession of The position of the two Palaces, the whole interior of the edifice, thus occupied, hasbeen considered first occupying the windows which impregnable by the best military overlooked the inner court, and judges, and was so pronounced then the Galerie du Musee, which on this very day by competent commanded a long space beneath persons, who examined it without as far along as the arch of the having any interest in the question Carrousel and the court of the to bias their opinions. When the Tuilerics. Suddenly the Swiss regiments of the Line deserted in the court of the Louvre found their stations in the Place Ven- themselves exposed to a deadly dome, a post so important on ac- fire from the windows of the Pal- count of the access it gave to the ace above them, and struck with Tuileries, the Marshal hastily or- a sudden panic they fled in dis- dered one of the battalions of order into the Place du Carrousel. Swiss from the Louvre to supply At the same time the Parisians the place of the revolted troops, opened their fire from the Galerie The Louvre was already garri- du Musee. Filled with conster- soned rather insufficiently, con- nation at the continuance of this sidering how hotly it was attacked unexpected fire from all the win- by the citizens ; and the battalion dows of the Louvre, the whole which occupied the building hself body of Swiss rushed precipi- was absolutely indispensable to tately into the railed court of the the defence of the position. It Tuileries among the lancers drawn happened, unfortunately for Mar- up there, followed close by the mont, that the Swiss in the Louvre fire of the Parisians. All was were commanded by the Comte now confusion. The Swiss throng- de Salis, the officer who lost his ed towards the arched vestibule way the day before in going to under the Tuileries, which leads the succor of the troops in the from the Place du Carrousel into Marche des Innocens, and who the Gardens, overturning every- seems not to have possessed a thing before them, and converting very clear understanding. By an what at first was only a retreat extraordinary error in judgment into a wild disorderly rout. But or singular mistake of his orders, here, at this very vestibule, were this officer, instead of sending the head-quarters of the army, either of the two battalions in the and here was the Marshal himself, courts, marched off the very Marmont was carried along, sur- corps, which alone defended the prised and astounded by the pre- Palace itself. cipitate retreat of his own troops, The Parisians, of course, im- and hastily made his way into 354 ANNUAL REGflSTER, 1829—30. the Garden, where the flying bat- talions again formed. But the day was now irretrievably lost. Seeing the troops waver, the citi- zens pressed on from this side, and Marmont was obliged to or- der his troops to evacuate the city, and retreat with all possible despatch upon Saint Cloud. Marmont was driven so sud- denly from the Tuileries that he had no time to remove the military chest, or to take any measures to preserve his outposts from de- struction. The detached parties of Guards in the Rue Saint Ho- nore, in the barrack of the Rue de Babylone, and elsewhere, who knew nothing of the events at the Tuileries, were overpowered, and mostly killed by the triumphant citizens, who thus gained absolute possession of all Paris. The citi- zens rushed into the Tuileries, as promptly as they had entered the Louvre, and the princely halls of the Chateau, its rich dormitories, and the secret cabinets of royalty itself, were speedily filled with the profane crowds of the populace of Paris, and the People were now in reality the Sovereigns of France, Charles had ere this recalled the illegal Ordinances, and accepted the resignation of his Ministers ; but all too late ; for while he was deliberating on the subject the reign of the Bourbons had ended, and the sceptre had passed away from their blinds. A Revolution, as glorious in its consequences as it was in its achievement, had been accom- plished in the short space of three days, and France was free. We should greatly overstep the reasonable limits assigned to our yearly chronicle of events, if we attempted to relate the individual traits of patriotism and heroism, which ennobled the Revolution of the Three Days. The newspa- pers and popular publications of the day have abounded with an- ecdotes of the self devotion of the boyish students, the common workmen, nay the women of Pa- ris, which would have done honor to the spirit of old Romans. But the course of our narrative confines us to the leading incidents and the general results of the con- test. The bravery of the citizens has been so frequently signaHzed in the preceding pages, that we need not dwell upon it here. But we should do the Parisians extreme injustice not to speak of the spirit of good order, of obedience to the laws, of deference to the rights of person and property, of courage tempered with mercy, which distinguished their conduct throughout these trying scenes. The Government did everything in its power to introduce anarchy and confusion. It wantonly vio- lated the Charter. It declared Paris in a state of siege, thus si- lencing the ordinary courts of justice, and substituting the arbi- trary will of a soldier in the place of the regular movement of the laws. But the People were more virtuous than the King. In the midst of the heats and violence of civil war, the citizens respected private property with as much sedulous care as if the laws had possessed their accustomed vigor. No private resentments were prosecuted, no booty was unjustly acquired, during a period, when unbridled license would have FRANCE. 355 seemed to be the order of the day. The citizens took posses- sion of arms wherever they could find any ; but neither the treas- ure of the Bank nor the riches of the Tuileries could tempt them to lose sight of the high and noble purpose, which animated them in the great controversy, now put to the issue of war. The meanest individual seemed to feel that he was fighting ihe battles of the Charter, and the feeling exalted him above the scope of every lowly passion, rendering him as high minded in principle as he was courageous in conduct. On the other hand, however, it is necessary that we should carefully exercise our judgment, in considering the events of this period, to avoid being misled into false views. We have no dispo- sition to detract from the merits, or to disparage the sufferings and sacrifices, of the brave Parisians during the ever memorable Three Days. Our hearty sympathy with their cause is sufficiently apparent in every page. Nor could we desire that so noble a triumph as they achieved, so grand a Revolution as they ac- complished, should have been achieved or accomplished at greater loss of human life than actually occurred. Still we must say that the exaggeration and rhodomontade of the popular ac- counts of the engagements of the Three Days pass all bounds. The whole effective force of Marmont, as we have seen, never exceeded six thousand men ; and on Wednesday the 28th, when the real battle of the Revolution was fought, this force was cut up into detached columns, which en- gaged separately with large mass- es of citizens. The conflicts in the Place de THotel de Ville were the most desperate and san- guinary of the whole day. And yet after all there were but a thousand men here of the royalist troops. But the terms of grand- iloquence applied to the dis- charges of so small a force would shame a bulletin from the field of Borodino, or any other scene of terrible carnage, where death has gathered up his victims by hun- dreds not by units. We suppose the hyperbohcal extravagance in question is to be pardoned to mere civilians, who were unused to scenes of blood, and who had really displayed as true courage and gained as imperishable glory, as if the bloodshed of the Three Days had been answerable to the horrors of a pitched batde be- tween contending empires. But while we pardon, we cannot but condemn it as an unworthy trait in itself, and as tending greatly to impair the credibility of the early accounts of the Revolution. These accounts are extremely in- accurate in many respects, as they give no complete idea of the military events of the Three Days, even where they are substantially true, and as they state many im- portant things as fact which never took place. The repeated cap- ture and recapture of the Hotel de Ville, the storming of the Lou- vre and of the Tuileries, — these are imaginary incidents, which ap- pear in bold rehef in newspaper articles of the time and in other equally authentic sources of in- formation. Some of the sketches 356 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. published would represent the loss of the troops as being greater than the whole number of troops engaged in the contest. But it is not so. In fact it has been pretty satisfactorily ascertained that the loss on both sides did ^ot exceed three thousand men in killed and wounded. Deduct- ing, however, whatever is ex- aggerated in the popular state- ments concerning the Revolu- tion, enough of glory remains to the Parisian population, and enough of consequence in the victory achieved, to render it one of the most interesting events in modern history. CHAPTER XVIL FRANCE, CONTINUED. Provisional Government of Thursday. — La Fayette. — Proposal ^'ould from the slight discussion and aheration they received in passing through the Chamber to become the fundamental law of the land. Indeed there is little to be select- ed from the debates of these two FRANCE. 385 days, which accords with the all important nature of the subjects in agitation. Except a feeling pro- testation on the part of M. de Martignac, against the application of the word ferocity to the con- duct of Charles, the most remark- able speeches in opposition to the Resolutions were those of M. de Conny and of M. Hyde de Neu- ville. M. de Conny argued at some length the claims of the Due de Bordeaux in the follow- ing manner : ' In the terrible circumstances in which we are placed, freedom of debate is more than ever a sa- cred law. I came forward at the voice of my conscience ; silence would be cowardice. Social or- der is shaken to its foundations. These tumultuous commotions, which suddenly suspend the ac- tion of the legitimate powers insti- tuted to maintain order in society, are epochs of calamity, which exercise the most fatal influence upon the destiny of nations. In- exorable history, rising above contemporary passions, will im- press upon these lamentable days the character which belongs to them, and the cry of human con- science is raised to consecrate this eternal truth, that force con- stitutes no right. * In these times of trouble, lib- erty is invoked, but the expression of thought has ceased to be free. Liberty is stifled by the sanguina- ry cries, which carry alarm in every direction. Suffer not your- selves to be subjugated by the cries which resound about you. Statesmen, remain calm in the midst of perils, and when confus- ed voices call to France the son 33* of Napoleon, invoke the Repub- lic, and proclaim the Due d'Or- leans, — unshaken in your duties, remember your oaths, and ac- knowledge the sacred rights of the royal infant, whom, after so many misfortunes Providence has given to France. Think of the judgment of posterity : — it would be terrible. You would not wish that history should say you were faithless to your oaths. The eyes of Europe are upon us. We have too long exhibited to her a spectacle of strange instability ; too long have we changed sides, as often as victory has changed colors. Brought back to truth by misfortune, let us remain calm in the midst of so many turbulent passions, and let us bestow our respect and tears upon great and royal disasters. * By continuing faithful to our duties, I wish to spare our coun- try all the calamities and crimes consequent on usurpations. View- ing with an anxious mind the destiny of France, I perceive the twofold scourge of civil and foreign war threatening our noble country, I perceive liberty disap- pearing forever,! perceive French blood flowing, and this blood would recoil upon our heads. Deference to the principle of ! — gitimacy, that principle establish- ed by the Charter, can alone pre- serve our country from this fear- ful destiny. All France is bound by oaths. The army, ever faithful, will bend their arms be- fore the young King. I call to witness our national honor. Let us not exhibit to the world the scandal of perjury. In the pres- ence of the sacred rights of the 386 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Due de Bordeaux, the act which should raise the Due d'Orleans to the throne, would be a viola- tion of all hunaan laws. ' As a Deputy, remeoibering my oaths before God, who will judge us, I have truly spoken my belief. I should have forfeited the esteem of my adversaries, if, in the perils which surround us, I had remained silent. I declare the sentiments which animate me in the face of Heaven : I would express them at the cannon's mouth. If the principle of legiti- macy be not recognised by the Charter, I must say that 1 see not what right I have to participate in these deliberations.' After M. Benjamin Constant had made some remarks in reply to M. de Conny, in the course of which he remarked that legitima- cy, in its ordinary sense could no longer be invoked ; and that the only legitimacy, which France now admitted, was derived from the People and the laws, — M. Hyde de Neuville said : — ' I judge no man. In politics, as in religion, all consciences are not subject to the same influen- ces. Men seeking what is good may follow different paths. Each of us obeys his own conscience, mine is my only guide. If you do not partake of my sentiments, you will not refuse me your esteem. I have done everything which a Frenchman could do, to prevent the calamities, which we have experienced, t have been faithful to my oaths. I did not betray that family, which false friends have precipitated into an abyss. I should contradict my life, and dishonor myself by chang- ing my sentiments, were I to as- sent to these Resolutions. With my hand upon my heart, I cannot but reject the dangerous sove- reignty, which the Committee proposes to establish. The meas- ure which you contemplate, is of the deepest import, and ought to be weighed and examined with more of deliberation, than it seems about to receive. It is dangerous to rest the future destinies of a great People upon the impres- sions of a moment. But I have not received from Heaven the power to arrest the thunderbolt. To the acts, which it is proposed to consummate, I can but oppose my wishes, in offering up the sin- cerest prayers for the repose and liberty of my country.' Nothing.^however, which could be said by the friends of the fallen dynasty, was capable of having any influence on such an occa- sion, and only served the purpose of a personal protest on the part of the speaker. But the peculiar position of La Fayette, as the pro- fessor of republican opinions and the most trusted individual of the Republican party, gave more than ordinary moment to the short speech in which he expressed his assent to the Resolutions. It was substantially as follows : ' On ascending this tribune to pronounce an opinion contested by many friends of liberty, I do not yield to any enthusiasm of the moment, nor am I seeking a popularity, which I shall never prefer to the discharge of my duties. The republican senti- ments which I have manifested in all times, and before all powers, are well known ; but these senti- FRANCE. 387 ments do not prevent my being ishing the Chamber of Peers, the defender of a constitutional were affected by some unaccoun- throne, raised by the will of the table scruples as to the violation Nation. of rights nowise more sacred ' The same sentiments animate than those of the peerage and the me at the present crisis, when it royal family. In fact, very few has been judged fitting to elevate material alterations were made in to the constitutional throne the the Resolutions, as reported by Prince Lieutenant General. And the Commission to which they I am bound to avow that the were referred ; and of these the choice coincides with my own most curious was on motion of desires the more, in proportion as M. Dupin, in the following words : I know him better. ' France resumes her colors. * But I shall differ from many For the future no cockade shall of my fellow citizens on the ques- be worn but the tricolored.' This tion of hereditary peerage. I amendment was adopted by ac- have always thought it necessary clamation. It seems at first sight that legislative bodies should be an exceedingly frivolous and rather divided into two Chambers dif- puerile matter to occupy the atten- ferently constituted; but never tion of the Chamber at such a that it was useful to have hered- time, and to be made an article of itary legislators and judges. — the new constitutional law. But Aristocracy is a bad ingredient to we suppose it was intended as a be introduced into popular insti- propitiatory offering to the popu- tutions. It is, therefore, with lar sentiment, being equivalent to great satisfaction that I find you a provision that the passions, pur- engaged in a measure conforma- poses, doctrines, and principles of ble to sentiments which I have the first Revolution were adopted all my life declared, and which I as the inheritance of the second, can now only repeat. On Saturday, August 7th, the * While my conscience forces Resolutions as amended were me to reiterate this opinion, my adopted in the Chamber of Depu- fellow citizens will do me the jus- ties by a vote of 219 to 33, the tice to acknowledge that if I affirmative votes being just four have always been the supporter more than one half the entire of liberty, I have never ceased legal number of Deputies. The to be the supporter of public question was taken at five o'clock order.' in the afternoon, and the Depu- ties immediately went on foot in An earnest attempt was made procession to the Palais Royal, by M. Mauguin to provide for a escorted by the National Guards, purification of the magistracy by to offer their Bill of Rights and some article in the conditions of the Crown to the Due d'Orleans. the contemplated Sovereignty, but M. Lafitte, the President of the without success. Men who felt Chamber, read aloud the condi- no hesitation about changing the tions on which the Sovereignty dynasty and decimating or abol- was proffered to him, and he ac- 388 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. cepted it on those conditions, pledging hinnself solemnly to the performance of the engagements imposed. Everything passed with the utmost apparent cor- diality and sincerity on both sides. Meanwhile the Chamber of Peers, which had been very little considered in all these proceed- ings, assembled at nine o'clock in the evening, after the proffer of the Crown to the Due d'Orleans and the acceptance of it by him, to discuss and act upon the Reso- lutions which had been sent up from the Deputies. An elaborate speech was made by M. de Chateaubriand, which seems to have comprised nearly all the discussion of the meeting, warmly maintaining the pretensions of the Due de Bordeaux. The Peers professed a feeling of delicacy in regard to an article of the Reso- lutions, which unpeered a portion of their House, and abstained from acting upon that, but adopted all the rest of the articles, by a vote of eighty to ten, and at half past ten o'clock repaired to the Palais Royal in imitation of the Depu- ties to signify their assent to the new constitutional act, — thus completing the formal transfer of the Crown. The Declaration of Rights thus sanctioned by the future King, comprises amendments of the Charter of Louis XVIII., partly in respect of articles that were of a temporary nature, and partly in respect of general principles. In effect, it leaves the substance of the Charter as it stood, only making alterations in some of its provisions. The Deputies sup- pressed the preamble of the Char- ter of Louis XVIII., as recognis- ing the principle of octroi or roy- al grant, and as therefore incon- sistent with the theory of national sovereignty, which ought to be the basis of a constitutional Char- ter. In place of this preamble a new one was substituted, which declared the throne to be vacant in fact and by right. The seve- ral changes in the body of the Charter concerned, 1. The Public Law of the French, as it is termed, being that part of the Charter, which in our constitutions is called the Decla- ration of Rights. The old Char- ter, while it secured the mainten- ance and protection of all de- nominations of Christianity, en- tided the Catholic the religion of the State : the new one makes no such distinction in favor of the Catholic Church, simply desig- nating it as the religion professed by the majority of the French. It also assures the freedom of the Press by providing that the cen- sorship shall never be re-estab- lished. These two changes are of course decidedly in favor of liberty, the second evidently so, and the first not less so, as it places the Catholic and Protestant persuasions on a level. That is untrue, however, which some of the books on the Revolution as- sert, namely, that every system of faith, whether Christian or not, now stands on the same footing in France. The ministers of the Catholic ' and other Christian confessions' are by the Charter to receive pay from the public treasury, and of course the Chris- tian religion, without distinction of sect, is the religion of the State. FRANCE. 389 2. The King^s Government. The new Charter omits the words of the 14th article, which Polignac alleged as justifying the Ordinances, and expressly de- clares that the King shall never suspend the laws or dispense with their execution. It also takes away the exclusive right of the King to propose laws, and com- iTiunicates the initiative to each of the Chambers in common with the King ; thus materially abridging the royal authority. 3. The Chambers, The sit- tings of the Chamber of Peers, which previously had been pri- vate, are made public. Deputies are eligible at the age of thirty, instead of forty, as in the old Charter ; and persons otherwise qualified become electors at the age of twentyfive instead of thir- ty ; while the pecuniary qualifica- tion of both Deputies and elec- tors, instead of being prescribed in the Charter, is left to be set- tled by a law. The Chamber elects its own President, instead of submitting a list of five can- didates to the King. It is ex- pressly provided that no tax can be established nor imposed, if it has not been consented to by the two Chambers and sanctioned by the King. 4. Particular Rights. Two new articles are introduced here, one of which seems to be a mere flourish of rhetoric, and the other unworthy the dignity of the in- strument. Of the latter, which regulates the color of the cockade, we have already spoken. The former is in these words : ' The present Charter, and the rights it consecrates, shall be intrusted to the patriotism and courage of the National Guard and all the citizens.' It is impossible to see any practical bearing which this article has, unless it is intended as an indirect mode of inserting a recognition of the National Guard. If so, why not do it plainly and directly ? 5. Special Provisions. These consist of an article annulling all creations of Peers during the reign of Charles X. and provid- ing that the whole subject of the peerage shall undergo revision. Whether hereditary peerage is consonant with the institutions and congenial to the spirit of the French, we do not stop now to inquire ; but supposing that the institution itself is to stand, we do not see what justice or reason there is in disqualifying the nine- tythree Peers created by Charles X. Their creation was just as lawful as that of any of their fel- lows, being by a similar exercise of royal authority under the Char- ter. Every consideration of their personal devotedness to Charles, of the want of fairness in the cir- cumstances of their exaltation, and of the injurious influence they might exert in the new order of things, applies with equal force to a great number of judicial functionaries, whom the Deputies left untouched. But in truth very little respect was paid in any part of these proceedings to the Peers, who seem to have been slighted purposely in many par- ticulars, and who were certainly injured as a body by this indi- vidual act ; for if the Deputies had power to degrade ninety- three of the Peers, they had 390 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. power to abolish the whole Cham- ber. The remaining article under this head, and the last we have to mention, consists of nine promises of laws, to be enacted with the shortest possible delay. These are the extension of the trial by- jury to offences of the Press, and political offences ; the responsibil- ity of Ministers and the secondary agents of Government; the re- election of Deputies appointed to public functions with salaries ; the annual voting of the army esti- mates ; the organization of the National Guards, with the inter- vention of the National Guards in the choice of their officers ; " pro- visions to insure in a legal manner the state of officers of every grade by land and sea; departmental ^ and municipal institutions found- ed upon an elective system ; pub- lic instruction and the freedom of education ; the abolition of the double vote, and the settling of the qualifications of electors and of eligibility. All these modifications of the Charter augmented the popular liberties, but came so far short of the wishes of the more ardent of the victors of the Barricades, that great fear was entertained of some furious ebullition of public oppo- sition to the proceedings of the Chambers. However, by the exertions of the leading republi- cans among the Deputies the effervescence was made to sub- side, and the whole went off with- out the commission of any vio- lence. To prevent the recurrence of disorder, the settlement of the Government was energetically hurried forward by the Deputies, arrangements being made for ad- ministering the oath of office to the new King on Monday next following the completion of the changes in the Charter. The Lieutenant General had greatly furthered his own popularity by the cordiality of his participation in all that was done for the secu- rity of the public liberties, and the friends of the new dynasty felt that it was desirable to sail oo the tide of flood to the point at which they aimed. The Baron Capelle, in the work which he has published on the Revolution, laments that the new King was neither anointed nor crowned, but simply installed, as they instal the presiding officer of a court of justice. It is truly la- mentable that the principles of civil liberty have made such small advances in Europe, that sensible men should consider the mumme- ry and extravagance of the forms of royal coronation used by Charles X. as alone suited to ' the advanced civilization of France.' The journals of the day dignified the ceremony with the name of enthronement ; and the phrase is well enough ; but whatever de- nomination it should bear, the act of qualifying the Due d'Orleans was sufficiently solemn and im- pressive, and attended with quite as much of state as belongs to a revolutionary monarch. It took place in the hall of the Deputies, in presence of all the parties to the late legislative acts. M. Casimir Perrier read aloud the Declara- tion of the Chamber of Deputies, and presented it to the Lieutenant General, who then requested and received of Baron Pasquier the FRANCE. 391 act of adhesion of the Peers. — The Prince then rose and said : ' I have read with great atten- tion the Declaration of the Cham- ber of Deputies and the act of adhesion of the Chamber of Peers. I have weighed and meditated all their expressions. I accept with- out restriction or reserve the con- ditions and engagements, which it contains, and the title of King of the French, which it confers upon me ; and I am ready to swear to their observance.' M. Dupont de I'Eure, acting Keeper of the seals, delivered the form of the oath to the King, who, according to the New England form of swearing practised in France, raised his hand, and pro- nounced the words ofi^the oath as follows : — ' In the presence of God I swear faithfully to observe the constitutional Charter, with the modifications expressed in the Declaration of the Chamber of Deputies ; to govern only by the laws and according to the laws ; to cause exact and impartial jus- tice to be done to every one ac- cording to his rights ; and to act in all things with a sole view to the interest, the happiness, and the glory of the French People.' The King then having subscrib- ed the three documents, sat down and pronounced the following brief speech : — ' I have performed a great act. I deeply feel the weight of the duties which it imposes upon me ; but my conscience tells me that I shall fulfil them ; and it is with the full conviction of this that I have accepted the conditions pro- posed to me. I could have wish- ed never to occupy the throne to which the national will has called me ; but I yield to this will, expressed by the Chambers in the name of the French Peo- ple, for the maintenance of the Charter and the laws. The wise modifications which we have made in the Charter guaranty the secu- rity of the future ; and France, I trust, will be happy at home and respected abroad ; and the peace of Europe more and more con- firmed.' To render the ceremony more impressive the insignia of royalty were presented to the King by four Marshals of France-. Mar- shal Macdonaid presented the crown, Marshal Oudinot the scep- tre. Marshal Mortier the sword, and Marshal Molitor the hand of justice. M. Dupont de I'Eure conclud- ed the proceedings by inviting the Deputies to meet the next day to take the oath of fidelity to the King and obedience to the constitutional Charter and the laws, and the assembly separated amid acclamationsof applause, the Due d'Orleans being now Louis Philippe, King of the French. The first care of the King was, of course, to fix tlie organization of his Cabinet on a permanent basis. The Moniteur of August 12th announced that M. Dupont de I'Eure was appointed Keeper of the Seals ; General Gerard, Minister of War ; the Due de Broglie, of Public Instruction ; M. Guizot, of the Interior; Ba- ron Louis, of Finance; Comte Mole, of Foreign Affairs ; and Comte Sebastiani, of Marine. At the same time MM. Lafitte, 392 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Casimir Perrier, Dupin, and Big- non became members of the Cabi- net without holding portfolios. These eminent individuals, most of whom we have had frequent occasion to mention in the fore- going pages, represented the moderate party among the ene- mies of the late dynasty ; and the same reasons, which had seemed to exact the hasty proceeding of the Deputies in the transfer of the Crown, namely, the danger of commotions in France and the necessity of conciliating the rest of Europe, — spoke loudly in favor of the formation of a Cabi- net of mbderate views. The Ministers immediately proceeded to reform the officers of the army and the employes in the civil departments, by substi- tuting for those, who held their offices or commissions from the late Government, men of their own political opinions. This was imdoubtedly just and proper in such a case as a change of dynas- ty, a political Revolution brought on by the usurpation of the pre- vious head of the State, and es- sential, indeed, to the stability of the new institutions. The officers of the old army now had their re- venge for the neglect to which they had been doomed during the two last reigns. To have been prominent in the days of the Republic or the Empire became a tide to reward, not a badge of disgrace. The victors of the Three Days did not manifest any indisposition to be recompensed for the toils and dangers and loss- es they had undergone during the last week of July. In the claims for official honors an(^ emolu- ments, which occupied the atten- tion of the new Ministers, those of the journalists were not the least urgent. While their fear- less conduct had certainly entided them to be well considered, yet if they were desirous thus to can- cel the merit of their professedly patriotic exertions by receiving compensation as for mercenary services performed, it may well be supposed that no Government, in the then state of France, would feel disposed to slight the preten- sions of those, who governed the movements of the newspaper Press. The next care of the new Min- isters was to place themselves in amicable communication with the various powers in Europe. As to the United States there was of course no room for doubt or difficul- ty. Mr Rives was among the earli- est of the diplomatic agents in Paris to offer his good wishes to a Gov- ernment, which, beside the advantages of having plausible grounds of right to stand upon in the sense of legidmacy, had the nobler claim to respect, in the republican sense, as being the product of the sovereign will of the People. Our Government entered, without hesitation, into the most cordial and friendly in- tercourse with that of Louis Phil- ippe. Nor could Great Britain fail to see that, in the recent events, France had but imitated the proceedings of the revolu- tion, by virtue of which alone the House of Hanover ascended the throne. Whatever sympathy the Duke of Wellington had for the fate of Charles X., it was impos- sible for him to deny that this FRANCE. 393 unhappy Prince had provoked and justly incurred his misfor- tunes. Nor would the Duke, or any other English Minister, how- ever strained the notions he might entertain of legitimacy, have pre- sumed to propose the quixotic plan of refusing to acknowledge Louis Philippe. England, there- fore, from principle, and the Netherlands, as much from fear as principle, manifested no re- luctance in renewing their amica- ble relations with France. Aus- tria, Prussia, and Spain were less prompt in doing so ; but they, like some of the minor States, did not feel bold enough, either indi- vidually or collectively, to defy the revolutionary spirit, which if duly provoked, seemed as capa- ble now, as it was thirty years before, of sending out its armed missionaries to preach a fearful doctrine of liberty and conquest in every corner of Europe. Rus- sia made a stand against the dan- gerous example of popular right taking to itself the companionship of popular might ; but the do- mestic troubles of the Czar compelled him also to temporize, and at last acknowledge the new Government when he could no longer help doing it. France herself, with the democratic vigor of a national effort, speedily arm- ed her population and assumed the attitude of defensive energy suited to her new position ; and while professing an earnest desire to preserve peace, prepared her- self to encounter the hazards of war whhout reluctance or appre- hension. All Europe now stood in fear- ful and anxious expectation, filled 34 with well founded dread lest the diffusion of the sentiment of free- dom and national independence from France to other countries should kindle up intestine com- motion and foreign war from one end of Europe to the other. It is not surprising that Sovereigns, whose whole rule was a series of usurpations such as that which had just hurled Charles X. from his throne, and who held their authority only by the tenure of conquest or successful oppression of their natural subjects, should begin to feel a terrible looking forward to judgment, when they heard the lesson of popular strength and popular vengeance, which the barricades of Paris proclaimed to every subject of misrule throughout the civilized world. They saw that France had re- opened a school af liberty for the teaching of nations. The Mar- seilles Hymn had again become classic verse, chanted by every voice and seemingly sacred to every heart, where but a few weeks before to lisp its name would have been sedition. The Reveil du Peuple rang once more through France, arousing her myriads like a trumpet call. The tricolored flag, which had waved in triumph over so many well fought and hard won fields of battle, was unfurled again, and flung abroad to the breeze as ihe standard of a martial people, full of enthusiasm and ardor, and proud to avow those forbidden tenets of national independence, which European princes would gladly keep confined to these wilds of America. What wonder 394 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. that Nicholas, or Frederick Wil- liam, or Francis of Austria, or William of Nassau should have trembled in the inmost recesses of their palaces ? For they saw- France again revolutionary, re- vived, regenerate, snapping asun- der the chains which had been fastened upon her at Waterloo like Sampson escaping from the toils of Delilah, and standing up in her strength as an armed knight ready to do battle against all challengers. It comes not within the scope and compass of our present pur- pose to follow the effects of the Revolution at home or abroad. The repetition of the barricades of Paris in Brussels, the troubles in Italy, the revolt of the heroic Poles, the discussion of constitu- tional reform in England, — these and other kindred topics belong to the history of another year. We leave the French with the form and conditions of Govern- ment which their leaders had chosen for them, entering upon the agitated career of freedom under better auspices than in the old time. The whole field of political disquisition was now open to her writers and her speakers. With them, it was no longer a dispute of ordinances or double vote, or censorships, and still less of Villele or Polig- nac, those ministerial bugbears, which had so long been used to frighten men withal. These were trivial questions which had pass- ed away forever, and yielded place to more stirring matters, as the rushing tempest clears off the mists that hover about the lower sky. It ceased to be a consid- eration simply of the now com- paratively trifling inquiry, of what dynasty should sit on the throne of Saint Louis. In the devel- opement of the principle which was now the basis of the public law of the French, that neither divine communication to a favor- ed individual or family, nor transmission by hereditary suc- cession, nor prescription, nor concession from the head of the church, nor consecration by his legates and bishops, was the le- gitimate source of power, but that it flowed only from the supreme will of the People; — and in the consideration whether the defence of their own institutions did not require them to anticipate the formation of a hostile league of crowned heads, and to propagate the faith of liberty as it were in partihus infidelium, so as to raise up beforehand an adversary league of the governed millions for their reciprocal protection against the governing few ; — in such deep and all comprehensive subjects of interest was the rife mind of France now absorbed, to the exclusion of every meaner thing. To the French there had commenced a period of daring speculation, of bold purpose, of brilliant promise : to all but the French, a period of vehement agitation and uncontrollable so- licitude. The meteor star of revolution had arisen to pour forth its stormy light upon the nations : but what presumptuous gazer could presume to calculate its orbit ? CHAPTER XIX. NETHERLANDS. Opposition of the Allies to Republican Governments. — Kingdom of the Netherlands — 2%e Creation of the Congress of Vienna. — United Provinces ^ Islands, <^c, of German Origin. — Walloons of the Gallic race. — Contests of the Fifth Century between the Salians and Saxons. — Conversion of Witikend to Christianity. — Conquest of the Country by Charlemagne. — Corporate Trades. — Charles the great grandfather of Charles Fifth. — Marriage of his daughter with Maximilian of Austria. — Connexion with Ferdinand and Isabella. — Charles Fifth. — Reformation. — In- quisition. — Philip. — William of Japan. — The obnoxious Min- ister Granville. — Gueux or Beggars, the title of the Opposers of Government. — Division between the Protestants and Catho- lics. — Union of the Seven United Provinces. — Power of the Dutch in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. — Conquests in the East and West Indies. — French Revolution. — Batavian Republic. — Kingdom of Holland. — French Province. — Bel- gium annexed to France. — Revolution of ISIS. — Restoration of House of JVassau. — Constitution. — Belgium united with Hol- land. — Assembly of JVotables. — - Amended Constitution. — Pub- lic Debt. — Situation of the JVetherlands as to Foreign Powers. — Internal Disputes from the Catholic Religion and Education. — Free Trade and Restriction. — Ordinances as to Language. — Budget. — M. de Potter. — His Trial. — Session of 1829. — Ministerial Responsibility. — Law on the Press. — Revolution of 26th August, 1830. — Demands of the Belgians. — Meeting of the States General, i2th September, 1830. — King^s Speech. — Provisional Government at Brussels. — Attack of Prince Fre- deric. — Recognition of Belgians by the Prince of Orange. — Return of M. de Potter to Brussels. — Character of King William. When in 1814, after the down- pean society, a cardinal principle, fal of the great chieftain, the by which they were actuated, was Plenipotentiaries of the primary hostility to all republics. Recol- powers met in Congress to parcel lecting what Kings and Emperors out the fruits of their victories and had suffered from the anarchists to reconstruct the fabric of Euro- and military despotsof France, they 396 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. did not enter into any minute ex- amination of the modifications of which this class of governments is susceptible. The status ante hel- ium, on the strength of which the Allies had fought and conquered, was good for the Prince but of no avail when applied to the People. It is true, the absurdity was not attempted of subjecting the hardy Swiss peasantry, who had retain- ed at least a nominal independence in the worst of times, to the sway of sovereign princes, but the an- cient renown of Venice and Ge- noa pleaded io vain for their re- newed existence as separate States; and it could hardly be expected that, in taking from France some of the most valuable additions made to her territory by the Republican and Imperial Gov- ernments, it was intended to give places in the councils of Europe to the untitled burghers of Amsterdam, or to constitute into a republic those Austrian provin- ces, which had of old preferred despotism and the inquisition to independence, accompanied by religious toleration. The well concerted plans of the adherents of the house of Or- ange had, indeed, in some degree relieved Metternich and Castle- reagh and their worthy associates from theresponsibility of proclaim- ing to the enterprising and indus- trious Hollanders that that system, under which their ancestors had immortalized themselves by an almost continued struggle of eighty years with the then most powerful Slate of Christendom, was gone forever. But the change which the Gov- ernment of Holland underwent in substituting a king for an heredi- tary stadtholder and transferring to the sovereign the whole execu- tive power, much of which had formerly been shared with the States General and the Provincial States, is far from constituting the most important matter connected with the construction of the King- dom of the Netherlands. This state is truly and em- phatically a creation of the Con- gress of Vienna, and as, from re- cent events, it is probable its two great divisions, which were dis- connected prior to 1814, for near- ly two centuries and a half, will hereafter form separate principali- ties, a brief reference to som.e of the causes which produced the marked dissimilarity between the people of Holland and Belgium may not, at this time, be without advantage. Though the history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands fully shows that the influence of religion and present interest are more in- fluential with nations than the re- collection of a common origin, it is not unworthy of notice, that the northern section of the Kingdom, constituting the old Republic of the United Provinces, as well as Flanders and the western and maritime districts, was settled by inhabitants from Germany, while only the people between the Meuse and the Scheldt, denomi- nated Walloons, belonged to the Gallic race. The territory of the latter, indeed, with a portion of France, formed one of the three parts of ancient Gaul, and is known by the name of Belgium in the Commentaries of Julius Caesar, NETHERLANDS. 397 In the contests of the fifth cen- tury between the Salians and the Saxons we have a prototype of the long wars which were to arise between France and England, and which, as has since so fre- quently happened, were then set- tled in the Low Countries. In a subsequent age, even those Districts which had been enabled to escape the Roman yoke, were compelled to submit to the combined operations of Christianity and civilization ; and when, about the commencement of the ninth century, Witikend, the last avenger of national inde- pendence, was converted to Chris- tianity and became a noble of the Court of Charlemagne, the con- quest of his country was consum- mated. The same causes were every- where attended with similar ef- fects. The origin of the Italian Republics of the middle age and the resistance which the cities of Germany offered to the neigh- boring barons present many analo- gous features. The despotism of the Franks led the Netherlanders to form those associations for mu- tual protection in the different towns, which are the foundation of many of their most valuable municipal rights, and which, under almost the same name of Guild or Guilder, are to be recognised as the basis of the English corpo- rate Trades. Within a century from the death of Charlemagne these corporations had extended themselves over the whole of Flanders ; and after the crusades had diminished the power of the Nobles and increased that of the People, we trace many examples 34* of the successful efforts of the burghers against the influence of feudality. The Courts of the Provinces, also, though acknow- ledging a nominal dependence on the Emperor, ruled without refer- ence to the superior lord. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Government of the Netherlands was in a great meas- ure concentrated in the houses of Burgundy and Bavaria, which were closely connected by inter- marriages. Charjes, the great grandfather of the illustrious mon- arch of that name, having under his domination an extent of terri- tory, exceeding that of the late Kingdom of the Netherlands, con- ceived the idea of assuming the royal diadem, — a project that, according to the views of those times, required the sanction of the Emperor, but in obtaining which he was defeated by his own arro- gance. The daughter and heiress of Charles married Maximilian of Austria. His son and daughter formed matrimonial connexions with the daughter and son of Fer- dinand and Isabella of Castile and Arragon, — an alliance which led to the connexion with Spain, — • a connexion which cost the Dutch two thirds of a century of protract- ed war and suffering, before their deliverance from all foreign sway was gloriously achieved. The fruit of this marriage was the Emperor Charles Fifth, who was inaugurated Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders and Hol- land, and became, by other titles and acquisitions, Sovereign of all the Netherlands almost at the same epoch that the principles of 3:98 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 80. the reformation were adopted and promulgated in the Low Coun- tries by the Bishops of Utrecht, the learned Erasmus of Rotter- dam, and other distinguished indi- viduals. It is from this date that we may trace those distinctions between the Northern and Southern prov- inces, which, fostered by national institutions leading to the pursuit of different branches of industry, overcame all ties of primitive ori- gin and common language, and led to those frequent altercations, for which, the deliberations of the Netherlands Legislature during the whole period of its short-lived existence, was conspicuous. Charles, who, while on the throne, had never discovered what his simple effort to make two watches go alike taught him while in retirement, the absolute impos- sibility of bringing about a con- formity in the sentiments of man- kind, laid, in his reign, the foun- dation of the persecution of the Protestants. The Inquisition, in a modified form, was introduced into the Netherlands, but it was Philip who drove his subjects to an armed resistance against edicts, aimed not less at their civil liberty than at their religious faith. This monarch, who left behind him, in his wide dominions, a most unenviable reputation for cru- elty and bigotry, was wholly de- void of sympathy for the people of the Low Countries, of w^iose language and customs he was en- tirely ignorant. The States of the Provinces still possessed many of the rights usually exercised by the nobles and deputies of towns in the feudal monarchies of the middle ages. The most insidious attempts were made to wrest the liberties of the People from them, but they were effectually thwarted by William of Nassau, who com- menced in the States General in 1559, a constitutional resistance, to which subsequent events com- pelled him to give a totally differ- ent aspect. In the early discus- sions, the removal of an obnox- ious minister was the ostensible ground of opposition, and the name of Granville figures as much in the annals of 1560, as that of Vanmaanen in those of 1830 ; but the stress laid on those compara- tively insignificant individuals, in the one and the other case, only proves how much easier it is to interest the feelings of the people against obnoxious rulers than to induce them to embark in the support of an abstract proposition. In this hostility, however, to the unconstitutional servants of the Crown, principles were distinctly embodied, and despotism was at- tacked in the persons of its min- isters. The defenders of the People's rights were stigmatized as gueux or beggars ; a term w^hich, like that of Democrats or Workingmen among us, soon became a title of triumph instead of reproach. At first, it was a general resist- ance to illegal edicts that united all good patriots, and the South- ern Provinces co-operated with their countrymen. The city of Antwerp, indeed, was the central point of Union. But the special grievances under which the Pro- testants labored by the attempt to NETHERLANDS. 399 put into vigorous execution the iurious decrees of the Council of Trent against heresy, and the es- tablishment, in its fullest rigor, of the Inquisition, gave to this perse- cuted sect peculiar grounds of resistance ; while their deep-root- ed bigotry led the Walloons Prov- inces, in 1578, to abandon all as- sociation with their heretical breth- ren, and desert the patriot cause. This proceeding was followed by a union of the northern section of the country, the foundation of the Republic of the seven United Provinces, embracing Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, Overryssel and Guild- erland. The new government was remarkably wanting in ener- gy, having many of the defects, and in a still greater degree, of our old confederacy. Each prov- ince was independent, and though Holland, from its preponderating strength, possessed great influ- ence, yet the assent of each mem- ber of the confederacy was in all cases necessary, — a provision which frequently occasioned the most ruinous delays in foreign ne- gotiations and other matters of paramount importance. Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and other com- mercial towns had likewise, at first, sided with the cause of lib- erty and protestanism. They were, however, subsequently com- pelled by superior force to leave the association and to adopt as their exclusive faith, the religion of their Spanish rulers, which, in time eradicated Protestantism from the Provinces, that continued sub- ject to foreign domination. The plan of our labors only allows us to describe by way of rapid retrospect the occurrences of those remote times. We must, therefore, pass over the cruelties of Alva the treachery of Anjou, the judgment and moderation of William of Nassau and the many interesting incidents of the civii war. From the treaty of Munster, the history of the United Provin- ces is blended with that of the great European world. Con- nected with the primary states in all the important wars and nego- tiations oi the 17th and 18th centuries, they not only became the commercial rivals of England, but contended with her for the supremacy of the ocean. The influence of the Dutch was not confined to their own continent. They were successful in laying the foundation of colonies in the East and West Indies and many of the inhabitants of the middle section of our Union, boast a de- scent from the natives of Holland, In our own revolution, the United Provinces were appealed to by the infant Republic of America, and strongly urged to aid in furtherance of a contest for those principles of national independence, of which their own annals presented so glorious a precedent. Crippled in her naval strength, by the unequal struggles, which in the last wars she had carried on with her formidable rival, and weakened by the attempt in 1787 to diminish the power of the Stadtholder and which had been terminated by the interposition of foreign troops, Holland could of- fer no resistance to the overwhelm- ing current of the French Revo- lution. Following the example 400 ANNUAL REGESTER, 1829 — 30. of the ' great nation'' the Stadt- holderate was aboHshed, the States General were transmuted into a National Assembly, the name of the United Provinces was lost in that of the Batavian republic ; and when Bonaparte subsequently as- sumed the imperial crown, this country was granted to his bro- ther Louis, from whom it was in a few years wrested and annexed to the empire on the extraordinary pretext that the Provinces of Holland were an alluvion of the French rivers. Before, however, her nominal independence was annihilated, England had put an end to all those formidable means of annoyance, which the country- men of De Ruyter and Von Tromp, had once possessed. At the battle of Camperdown (17th Oct. 1797) the principal part of the Navy of Holland was utterly destroyed, and the Colonies fell, of course, into the hands of the mistress of the ocean. Belgium, which was one of the first conquests of the republican arms, had been long previously annexed to France ; and of its history subsequent to the inde- pendence of the Northern provin- ces, it may suffice to observe that, in the partition of the Spanish successions, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the possessions of the Catholic King in the Low Countries were ceded to the Em- peror, as a compensation for his consenting to the accession of the grandson of Louis XIV., to the crown of Spain and the Indies. While, indeed, the United Prov- inces for two centuries, command- ed the respect and admiration of mankind, the Southern Nether- lands were only accounted of importance among nations, when it became necessary to settle a question of conflicting indemni- ties. Before the Austrian sway was withdrawn from these coun- tries, it was manifested, by the result of the reforms proposed by the Emperor Joseph, that, how- ever much influence the writings of the French philosophers might elsewhere have produced, the Provinces of the Low Countries had escaped the infection. The Catholic religion had nigh effect- ed in the southern section of the Netherlands, in behalf of super- stition, what Protestantism had for- merly accomplished for more en- lightened doctrines in the regions of the north. The Belgian clergy vehemently resisted all attempts to interfere with the absolute control which the usages of that religion give to the priests, over the minds and actions of their parishioners. The revolution of Holland, of 1813, was one of those national movements,not unusual in the times in which it was accomplished. The people seemed disposed to rise in the majesty of their strength and redeem their country from the bondage of foreign oppressors. It was not, as has often been re- marked, the Princes but the Peo- ple, who overturned Napoleon's widely extended empire ; and assuredly, if any part of Europe suffered from the French sove- reignty, it was Holland. Not only was one half of the youth carried away to fight battles in which they had no interest, not only was the whole population burthened with the heaviest taxes, but the cojiti- nental system was fatal to Am- NETHERLANDS. 401 sterdam and the other great towns, which had been enriched by for- eign trade and were dependent on commerce for a continuance of their prosperity. When, there- fore, some of the partisans of the Prince of Orange, in the latter part of IS 13, took advantage of the dechning fortunes of Bona- parte, and collecting a trifling force of two or three hundred men, proclaimed the House of Nassau, they were seconded by the Nation at large without refer- ence to those minor distinctions, by which they had anciently been distracted. William I. was ev- ery where proclaimed sovereign prince, and thus by the happy arrangements of his friends, he was freed from all embarrassments respecting the disputed functions of a Stadtholder ; on assuming the Government, he published an address, in which he thus express- ed himself with regard to the au- thority with which he was about to be invested. ' You desire, Netherlanders, that I should be intrusted with a greater share of power than I should have possess- ed but for my absence. Your confidence, your affection offer me the sovereignty, and I am call- ed upon to accept h, since the state of my country, and the situ- ation of Europe require it.' The preliminary acts were followed by more formal arrangements. A convention of notables to the num- ber of six hundred, selected by the householders without distinc- tion of religion or other considera- tions, from twelve hundred names submitted to them by a special commission, met at Amsterdam on the 26th of March, I8I43 and adopted a political code as the basis of the new Constitution. Immediately thereafter the Prince of Orange took the requisite oath and was solemnly inaugurated in the sovereignty. While these proceedings were occurring in the northern Provin- ces, Belgium was undergoing the same political transition as the other States of Europe. Though from the extended markets which Napoleon's empire shut out from all English supplies afforded for her manufactures, there was less reason for discontent there, than in the other portions of the Neth- erlands, it was not consistent with the views of the Allies that those rich provinces should continue an- nexed to the dominions of France, a final incorporation with the country, to which they had been united for several years, would unquestionably have been gratify- ing to the mass of the Nation^ while the old nobility and privi- leged orders sighed for the return of the Austrian sway, under which alone their ancestral rights could be rendered of any avail. Oc- cupied by the forces of the coal- esced powers, some indication of the future disposition of the south- ern Provinces was given by the treaty of Paris, but it was by the treaty of London of June, 1814, that the nature of the increased territory intended for Holland, was distinctly indicated. It was then determined without consult- ing the component parts of the new State, that the old Republic of the United Provinces and Bel- gium should together constitute a Kingdom, and besides covenant- ing for this Union, the Allied t 402 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Powers were parties to the treaty, which required that religious hb- erty, and the equal right of citi- zens of every persuasion to fill all public employments should be maintained — that the Belgians should be fairly represented in the States General — that all com- mercial privileges should be open to the citizens at large — that the Dutch Colonies, some of which England had restored, should be deemed to belong equally to the whole Kingdom, and that the debt of the two countries should be a joint charge. The Duchy of Luxembourg, the only Province remaining of those which before the 16th century, had formed the Spanish Netherlands, was like- wise placed under the sovereignty of the new King, but without be- ing incorporated with the mon- arch. Being given as an indem- nity for his hereditary dominions, it was made to constitute a part of the Germanic confederacy. The Constitution formed for Holland, and to which we have al- luded, was extended to the whole country. It had been framed, as we have seen, without reference to Belgium, but to give to this part of the Kingdom the appearance of concurring in the establishment of the fundamental code, on the promulgation of the decisions of the Sovereign Powers from Vien- na, in February, 1815, a mixed commission was appointed to pro- pose the modifications rendered necessary by the enlargement of the new State; and on the 16th of March the title of King of the Netherlands was assumed. Be- fore the commission was prepared £0 report, its business was inter- rupted by the events which were concluded by the battle of Water- loo on the 17th of June, 1815, and which affords another instance of bringing to issue the affairs of Europe in the rich and luxuriant provinces of the Netherlands. On the 13th of July following, the labors of the commission were terminated. The Constitution gives the ex- ecutive power to the Sovereign, and the legislative to him in con- currence with the States General ; one House of which is elected by the Provincial Estates, who are chosen by the People, and the members of the other are named for life by the King. The inde- pendence of the Judiciary was provided for. The usual guaran- tees are inserted for personal lib- erty and private rights, though that of trial by jury generally deemed an essential provision, was not introduced. It was de- clared that the liberty of the press should have no other restraint than the responsibility of the wri- ters, printers, and publishers. The Provincial States were to be continued for administrative pur- poses, and they also were to regu- late the local budgets. The num- ber of Deputies of the Lower House was not determined by population ; but though the South- ern Provinces contained more than three fifths of the whole number of inhabitants, the same amount of representation was giv- en to each of the two portions of the Kingdom. This apparent inequality was, it was said, com- pensated by the fact that Batavia, Surinam, Curacoa, and St Eus- tatia, which were restored by NETHERLANDS. 403 Great Britain, were peculiarly the colonies of Holland, as well as by the greater wealth of that coun- try. Instead of deriving the benefits anticipated from the for- eign possessions, we may here remark en passant, they were even literally sources of weakness. Though by an advantageous ex- change made with the British Government in 1824, Bencoolen and all the islands of Sumatra were obtained for Malacca and the Dutch setllements on the In- dian Continent, a war in Java, which broke out in 1821, was protracted through several years and only declared by the King to be terminated, in his message, de- livered to the States General in the session subsequent to the se- cession of Belgium. Equality of religion was specially stipulated in the Constitution. As in France, the projects of laws came from the Government, and the Heads of Departments, whether members or not, had the right of explain- ing in either House, the views of the administration. The nature of the union can- not be understood without a full knowledge of the amount and character of the debt assumed on the general account of the new Kingdom. This burden, imposed on the State at its organization, including twentyfive million florins for a Russian loan contracted at Amsterdam, and the debt an- ciently hypothecated by Austria on her Provinces in the Low Countries, amounted, in 1826, to 3,800,000,000 florins. In this aggregate, however, is estimated the old debt, which was not all paying an interest ; but two thirds of which having been struck ofFby Napoleon was still deferred and only admitted by instalments of four millions annually to the favored class. The sum at the time re- ferred to, absolutely a charge on the yearly resources of the coun- try, was 1,664,669,000 florins; the greater part of which was originally contracted for purposes altogether alien to the interests of Belgium. The taxes levied in 1826 are stated at 104,542,413 florins, and the average for the eleven preceding years had been 88,044,152 florins, or about £7,337,012. On the 27th of August, 1815, the King published his decree announcing his adoption of the fundamental law. It had been approved in the Northern Prov- inces by the States General, con- vened in double the ordinary number. In the Southern Prov- inces, recourse was had to the same means of getting together an assembly, as had been employed in Holland on the first return of the Prince. A number of nota- bles from each Arrondissement, were convened in proportion to the population ; but as appears from the royal proclamation itself, the expectations of the King were not answered, and it was only by putting on the acts of the meeting, a forced construction, that the Constitution could be said to have been approved by his Southern subjects. Of the persons called together, one sixth did not attend ; and of the remainder, only five hundred and twenty supported the project, while seven hundred and ninetysix opposed it. But as one hundred and twentysix of those 404 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. who voted against the Constitution formally declared that their hos- fflity was occasioned by the arti- cles respecting religion, and as these were conformable to the legislation which had long existed, were founded on treaties, and were in harmony with the principles which the most pious sovereigns had introduced in the system of Europe ; they could not be omit- ted in the Constitution of the Netherlands without jeoparding the existence of the monarchy and without weakening the guarantee of the rights of those very persons, whom these stipulations had most alarmed. In this state paper, it may be added, little respect was paid to the Catholic Clergy, who it was pretty clearly intimated, had been wanting in that evangelical charity and toleration which were to be expected from the ministers of religion. The Kingdom of the Nether- lands, as organized by the Allied Powers, was two hundred and twenty miles in length by one hundred and twenty in breadth ; but though of extremely limited extent, yet, as it was the most densely populated country in Eu- rope and possessed resources commensurate with hs fertility, it might have presented the aspect of a formidable state, were there not other sources of weakness in- separable from its very existence. It was accessible to the attacks of powerful neighbors, to whom its resources afforded it no means of offering an adequate resistance. The events that preceded the battle of Waterloo, proved that its independent sovereignty was no barrier against the inroads of its southern neighbor, nor could nluch reliance in future be repos- ed in the extensive fortifications which formed the subject of spe- cial regulation at Vienna, but which would be found a very in- adequate resistance to the arms of France supported by the sym- pathies of the Belgic population. Not only are the ports of the Netherlands within a few hours' sail of the English coasts, but their northern frontiers touch his Britannic Majesty's Kingdom of Hanover. On the side of Prus- sia, there is no natural boundary, and what was effected in favor of the Stadtholder in 1787 might be again repeated in furtherance of the interests which that State might hereafter espouse. The Netherlands was brought still more intimately into the vor- tex of European politics by the alliances contracted beiween the families of the new Sovereign and of the neighboring potentates. The Queen is a sister of the King of Prussia. The eldest son of the King, to whom the title of Prince of Orange was given, married the sister of the late and present Emperor of Russia, after the Princess Charlotte of Eng- land refused his hand. The Prince Frederick and the Prin- cess Marianne were assigned to members of the royal family of Prussia. But the apprehension of for- eign aggression was of little con- sequence compared with the ir- reconcileable internal dissensions which prevailed throughout the whole period of the existence of this ephemeral kingdom. The most important of these were to NETHERLANDS. be attributed to the discussions growing out of the pretensions of the Catholic Clergy, to the diver- sity of views between the North- ern and Southern Provinces re- specting the principles of com- mercial restriction, and to the un- due preponderance given to the Dutch, both in the Legislative Councils and in the Executive Offices. Religion was supported by the State, as in France, by payments out of the public treasury to Min- isters of every sect ; but though there then were five millions four hundred thousand Catholics and only one million three hundred thousand Protestants, it was men- tioned in 1818 as an instance of the unfairness of the Legislative provisions, that the former re- ceived but one million eight hun- dred thousand florins, while one million three hundred thousand were paid to the latter. The King required, from the beginning of his reign, that no ap- plication should be made to the See of Rome for briefs without his permission, and various other steps were taken to repress the power of the Belgian Priests. In 1823 the Catholic Societies at Brussels and Utrecht were sup- pressed as dangerous to the pub- lic tranquillity. In 1825 the young men were prohibited from studying out of the Kingdom, and a College of Philosophy was es- tablished at Louvain for those destined to the Church. Against this measure of the Government continued protests were made, similar to those which had been offered to the General Seminary formed at the same place by Jo- 35 seph Second, and when, in 1827, the King made an arrangement with the Pope, he was obliged to abandon the regulation, rendering it imperative on the students of theology to attend the public schools. By the treaty in ques- tion, the concordat of 1801 with the French Government, was re- newed, and soon after the vacan- cies in the Bishoprics were sup- plied. We find, however, down to the date of the revolution, complaints of the monopoly of public instruc- tion, of the suppression of the minor seminaries and of the ne- cessity imposed on fathers o families to send their children to the colleges, and it seems most certain that with the mass of the people, the danger apprehended for the church was far more co- gent in inducing resistance to the oppression of the Government than any infraction of civil rights could have been. The cry was excited that the Government wished to protestant- ize Belgium, and that it was ne- cessary to take measures to pre- serve the free exercise of the Catholic rites. The religious feelings of their countrymen were taken advantage of by the popular leaders and M. de Potter, who was more than suspected of infi- delity, published, in 1829, a pamphlet under the title of ' Un- ion des Catholiques and des Pro- testans,' in which the two most opposite factions, the parti pretre and parti democrat radical were called on to act in concert — a scheme which was fully accom- plished, and thus the Romish Church became, what it was in % 406 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. Ireland, the ally of the true friends of the people. The annals of the Netherlands are almost as re- plete as those of our own country with discussions on free trade and the restrictive system. Unfortu- nately, however, for the cause of sound philosophy, the questions there as here, were generally de- cided, though in a different way, on sectional grounds, without leav- ing much opportunity for dispas- sionate investigation. The agri- culturists and manufacturers of Belgium, deprived of the exten- sive home market which their in- corporation with France had af- forded, called loudly on the Gov- ernment to prohibit the introduc- tion of all corn from abroad as well as the importation of all for- eign manufactures. With Hol- land on the other hand, commerce was hardly more a means of sub- sistence than a ruling passion, and no shackles on trade could there- fore be acceptable to the coun- trymen of the King. In even the minutest details, the clashing of opposite interests was made appa- rent. While on the one side the system of transit adopted for the Northern Provinces excited the complaints of the Belgic manu- facturers, on the other, the taxes imposed at their solicitation, on the importation of English goods, removed from the ports of Hol- land and diverted them to Ham- burg, from whence they flowed into Germany. The use of the language of the Netherlands was likewise a fruit- ful theme of dispute between the Government and its southern sub- jects. All Belgians, who had re- ceved the most ordinary educa- tion, were capable of speaking French with more ease and flu- ency than the original language of the country, which differed mate- rially, even from the dialect em- ployed in Holland. Assimilated to tlie French by a hundred ties, it was with the greatest reluctance that they could be induced to abandon the language in which was to be found the literature in which they delighted, for a tongue which they deemed barbarous and which constantly reminded them of an incorporation with a people from whom they were completely estranged by feeling and interest. With the King, however, the establishment of a national char- acter was a favorite measure. He even attempted to confound the names of Holland and Belgium into that of the Netherlands. In 1819 a royal ordinance ap- peared, requiring the use of the peculiar language of the country, viz., the Dutch or Flemish, in all public proceedings and by the employes of the Government. This decree, besides having in view a conformity of no impor- tance, was aimed at the French functionaries, who had become naturalized at the organization of the new government but whose supposed partiality rendered them objects of suspicion to the Dutch. To all the inhabitants of the Southern Provinces, the proposed change was, for the reasons al- ready given, an extremely un- popular measure. This law was at first only attempted to be par- tially put in force ; but in the lat- ter part of 1822 a new ordinance was published, confirming the previous one and declaring that it NETHERLANDS. should have its complete execu- tion from 1st of January, 1823. It was found necessary subse- quently further to modify the pro- ject by various decrees ; but it was not till after the revolution had been commenced that the King ceased his harassing efforts to change the language of a ma- jority of his people. By an ordi- nance of 4ih June, 1830, all the previous policy was altered, and every one authorized to use the language he thought proper. It had then, however, become too late for concession to be of any avail. The budget, in all constitutional countries, the topic on which to concentrate the opposition, was in the Netherlands the foundation, at every session, of many animated debates. It was not so much the amount of the taxes, as the sources from whence they were derived, and the origin of the debt by which they were occasioned, that bore heavily on the population of the Southern Provinces. A large proportion of this debt, as we have seen, was the peculiar charge of Holland and of the several Governments which had prevailed in that coun- try. Tliis was place'] to the joint charge of the whole State, but as the inhabitants of the Southern were twice as numerous as those of the Northern Provinces, two thirds of the debts of the latter were defrayed by the former; and this inequality was but slight- ly counterbalanced by the debt which had been specially placed on her Provinces in the Low Countries by Austria, and which 407 she exacted from the new King- dom at its establishment. In the nature of the taxation, also, the agricultural and manufac- turing Belgians had no means of competing with the Dutch. The equal representation from the North, with the functionaries who of course voted according to the views of the Court, by whom the members of the first Chamber were also appointed, placed mill- ions at the disposition of Van Maanen and his associates. The financial system of the Netherlands was somewhat pecu- liar. Instead of submitting all the appropriations to the annual con- sideration of the Chambers, the mass of them were voted for ten years ; thus by the decennial budget presented in 1830, sixty millions seven hundred and fifty thousand florins (twenty millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars) were demanded, while the annual budget of that year was only seventeen millions fifty thousand florins (five millions six hundred and eightythree thousand three hundred and thirtythree dol- lars) ; and as in the very first discussions after the establishment of the Government, the opposition of the Southern Provinces was brought to bear on this subject, the efforts of the administration were directed to placing as many articles as possible be- yond the reach of the contingen- cy of the Ministry, being in the minority, while the arrangements as to the debt were so extremely artificial and intricate as to elude all ordinary investigations. But as representatives will generally 403 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. grant for a short period what they would withhold if asked for an indefinite time, whenever these debates did take place they from their very infrequency, caused comparatively greater excitement ; and in 1830 the legislature did really exert a constitutional pov/- er, which is generally considered a mere matter 2w terrorem, and at one time refused the ordinary supplies. It was therefore deemed ne- cessary to employ the whole pa- tronage of Government to carry on its measures. In effecting this, the King resorted to acts, which however familiar they may be to the citizens of the United States, accustomed, as we are, to see public functionaries servilely submissive to the will of their of- icial superiors, could not be en- dured by the subjects of this mon- archical State. Several of the members of the second Chamber happened to hold offices under the Government ; but deeming- their obligation to their country paramount to those which they owed their party, they voted in one of the last sessions, against the administration and were forth- with, by the advice of Van Maanen and his associates, re- moved from the public employ. This was deemed an assault on the chartered rights of the people ; and such was the indignation of their fellow citizens, that the proposition of M. de Potter to raise a fund to idemnify those who had suffered for the assertion of their principles, was received with enthusiasm. M. de Potter, to whom we have just referred, and who was des- tined to become so celebrated in the revolutionary history of his country, had been previously dis- tinguished for his literary reputa- tion and by his publications against the Dutch administration. At the lime when the proposition, of which we have spoken, was made, Mr Potter was in confine- ment, having been sentenced, for a former libel on the Government, to eighteen months' imprisonment and to the payment of one thou- sand florins. Though he wrote from his dungeon, his situation did not relieve him from any re- sponsibility, but was arraigned in the spring of 1830, with Mr Tielmans, a public functionary in the department of Foreign Affairs and the publisher *^of Courrier des Pays-Bas, on the charge of an attempt to destroy the Gov- ernment : his trial was profractrd though the greater part of tlje month of April. The evidence on which these persons were con- victed, was principally written documents. Though all the pre- liminary examinations were in se- cret, such was the popular senti- ment in their favor, that it is not probable any conviction would have taken place, had juries in criminal cases been retained in the jurisprudence of the Nether- lands. The sentence, however, of the tribunals condemned M. de Potter to eight and M. de Tielmans to seven years' banish- ment. It had, indeed, been at first intended to proceed against them for a capital offence. The law on which the first pro- secution against M. de Potter was carried on was adopted for spe- cial purposes, about the epoch of NETHERLANDS. 409 Napoleon's return from Elba, and was never intended for times of ordinary tranquillity. It was only by implication applicable to libels. This was admitted by the Min- istry, who, indirectly censuring the existing enactments, proposed, early in the session of 1 829, a new law on the press. But noth- ing was done towards remitting the sentences of those who had been convicted under the old sys- tem, including M. de Potter. This individual, against whom the Min- isterial vengeance was principally directed, soon had, however, am- ple occasion to triumph over his former enemies, as will abundant- ly appear in the sequel. Before the period of revenge, he, with Mr Tielmans and his other associates, were obliged, having appealed in vain to the Court of Cassation, to repair, in consequence of the sentence of April, 1830, to the mountains of Switzerland. From the territo- ries of most of the Sovereigns of Europe, they were kept, by the fear, which generally prevailed, of the contagious effect of their revo- lutionary principles. At the session of 1829, the King introduced into his annual message, the discussion of a ques- tion which had Ions; been mooted between him and his legislature. We refer to Ministerial responsi- bility. Sensible that the very moment it is recognised as a constitutional doctrine, that the King can do no wrong, he becomes a mere pa- geant. The Sovereign of the Neth- erlands had ever contended against the admission of the principle, and had, in violation of what in Eng- 35* land and France would be deem- ed the sacred rights of the legisla- ture, repeatedly urged his Min- isters to declare to the Chambers, that the measures under consid- eration had received the express approval of his Majesty. In the message alluded to, the King says : ' If we examine what is called ministerial responsibility, of which it is more difficult to deter- mine the true sense than the real object ; if we consider the prin- ciples of the fundamental law, which not only submits exclusive- ly to our judgment and our decis- ion all the regulations of the ad- ministration, but which likewise abandons to us the nature of the obligations which it pleases us to impose on the chiefs of the De- partments, and which binds them to us by oaths, we think for the preservation of our political insti tutions, for the maintenance of the power which has been con- fided to us, for the lasting protec- tion of the interests of our well beloved subjects, that we cannot listen to any other responsibility of our Ministers than to that which, besides their duty to us, has been determined for them by the fun- damental and other existing laws ; and in the constitutional existence of the council of State according to the principle, that it, and not the single chief of a ministerial department ought to be heard, we find not only the exclusion of the idea of ministerial responsibility, but we see in it, moreover, for the people of the Netherlands a still greater guarantee that their interests shall be suitably examin- ed before anything is decided on. ' The introduction of the con- 410 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 templated ministerial responsibili- ty, before the two Chambers of which the States General are composed and before the judicial power would transfer, contrary to the fundamental law, the exercise of the royal power into other hands without giving to the liber- ties of the people a new guaran- tee — a real guarantee ; for what- ever description of persons may be called on to judge the acts of the Ministers, salutary fruits cannot be collected from such a judgment, unless those to whom an account is to be render- ed are placed without the ranks of the society, and consequently above the passions of the vulgar. The Netherlands do not in this respect resemble other countries, where it has been possible to in- troduce ministerial responsibility without inconvenience, and as an attendant on circumstances alto- gether foreign to those of this Kingdom.' It was in accordance with these principles, th^t by a decn^e ren- dered on 23d January, 1830, the Ministers were directed to take part in all the discussions of the central committees of the two Chambers, to give their views to them either verbally or in writing, and to report to the King in order that he might make such changes in the projects of laws, before they were decided on, as he might under the circumstances, deem expedient. In the session of 1830, Minis- ters were defeated on all points. Besides the financial discussions in which they were unsuccessful, ihey were obliged to withdraw the law on public instruction. The ^proDOsition of a new sedition act as to the King and royal family, as well as the application of M. de Potter and his associates re- specting the publication of their private correspondence, which had, on their trial, been placed in the custody of the courts of jus- tice, brought up the subject of the hberty of the press. A new law on this agitating topic was pressed, though not till the Ministers were obliged to nr<\ke many alterations in it. The King in his conclud- ing message observed that, ' By the maintenance of the liberty of the press your high mightinesses have united yourselves to the Government for the suppression of injustice and calumny, the im- pure union of which degrades and debases this constitutional means of propagating knowledge and fa- voring the difiusion of intellgence. The decennial budget was ulti- mately passed, and the States General closed their ordinary ses- sion on the second of June. The ensuing month, as is else- where recorded, was distinguish- ed by a Revolution in France, leading lo the expulsion of the el- der branch of the Bourbon family from the throne of that Kingdom. On the 26th August, the ex- ample of the working-men of Pa- ris was followed by the same class of persons at Brussels. The old Brabant flag was hoisted, and the people evinced their feelings by sacking the hotel of M. de Van Maanen and of others who had rendered themselves obnoxious to their indignation. The demands of the Belgians, as first announced at Brussels, were the frank and sincere execu- tion of the fundamental law, with- out restriction or interpretation in NETHERLANDS. 411 favor of power, the removal of M. Van Maanen, a new electoral system established by law, or the more direct election by the people, the establishment of the jury, a new law respecting the organiza- tion of the judiciary, the penal re- sponsibility of the Ministers to be established by law, a law to be enacted fixing the seat of the high court (which had been plac- ed at the Hague) in the South- ern Provinces, the cessation of the prosecutions against the hber- al writers, the abrogation of all condemnations for political offen- ces. These reclamations were, how- ever, soon followed by a propo- sition for the separation of Belgi- um from Holland. The Com- mittee of Public Safety, formed 11th September, were specially charged — 1st, with securing the maintenance ol the dynasty : 2d, maintaining the principle of the separation of the North from the South : 3d, to take the necessary measures for the interests of com- merce, industry, and public order. The States General met on 12th September : the King, in his address to them, thus noticed the recent revolutionary move- ments : ' in the midst of the great- est tranquillity and prosperity a revolt suddenly breaks out at Brussels, and this example is imi- tated in some other places. Con- flagrations and pillage marked these disorders, too afflicting for my heart, the nation, and humani- ty, for me to present the mournful picture of them to this assembly. The measures, so far as they depended on the Government to arrest the progress of the evil, to protect the good citizens against the evil disposed and to avert from the Kingdom the scourge of civil war, have been adopted without delay.' He then inti- mates that a separation of the Provinces, which the constitution and fundamental law had united, might become necessary, and on the 13th the King proposed for the discussion of the Chambers the two following questions : first., whether experience has ii"t,dicated the necessity of modifying the na- tional institutions : Second, wheth- er it is consistent with the general good to change what is established by treaties and the fundamental law between the two great divis- ions of the Kingdom. The Deputies from Belgium, at first, appeared in the assembly^; but they were insulted by the people of the Hague and ultimate- ly withdrew. The King determined to use force towards his refractory sub- jects ; and on 2 1st of September a proclamation was issued from Antwerp by Prince Frederick for the occupation of Brussels, where a Provisional Government had been organized, consisting of Messrs Vanderlinden, d'Hoog- voorst, Ch. Rogier, Felix de Merode, Juan Van Halen, a native of Spain, who had been distinguished for his remarkable escape from the Spanish Inquisi- tion, and had served in the army of Russia, was placed at the head of the military force. On the 22d September, Prince Frederick marched on Brussels. On the 24th, 25th, and 26th there was most terrible carnage in the streets; the houses, &£c, were 112 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30 several times taken and retaken. The Dutch army evacuated the Belgic capital on the 27th, having sustained a loss of 3000 out of the 9,500 men, who had taken part in the expedition. On the 16th October, the Prince of Orange, who had been made Governor General of the Southern Provinces, acknowledg- ed the independence of Belgium by a proclamation from Antwerp, in which he authorizes, even in those places where he still retain- ed the ascendency, the election of members to the national Congress. This attempt, however, of the heir apparent to put himself at the head of the revolution and thus retain in the royal family the most important portion of the Netherlands, the loss of which was menaced by the events then oc- curring, was without result. The King, in his message, opening the States General of the Northern Provinces, on the 19th, expresses his surprise at the course pursued by his son, of which he seems not to have been apprized. Duringthe attack of the Prince Frederick, M. de Potter returned to Brussels, where he was receiv- ed with triumphant marks of con- fidence. He was subsequently installed chief of the Provisional Government. The further events in relation to the separation of Holland and Belgium, including the decision of the representatives at London of the Powers, who were parties to the organization of the King- dom of the Netherlands, will properly fall within the scope of our next volume, in which it will also be our duty to detail the measures connected with the es- tablishment of Belgium as an in- dependent sovereignty. In closing our notice of the Netherlands, to which we shall never again be permitted to allude, as a united power, it may not be improper to mak'^ a few remarks respecting tlie King, who was destined to be the first and last Sovereign of this creation of the Holy Alliance. William is propably the most virtuous Sovereign in Europe. His honesty is quite proverbial, and though he never gained the affection of the Belgians, they never refused to admit his integrity and the goodness of his intentions. That he possessed a high order of intellect, or was equal to the arduous task of reconciling the opposite interests of the two divis- ions of his Kingdom, no one will pretend. His great faults were those of his nation, whose preju- dices he seemed to have imbibed. A manifest preference was given to the Dutch in the public employ- ments, and there was too evident an indisposition to countenance the Catholic religion, which was embraced by at least two thirds of the people. As an adminis- trator, the King, even if he did not recognise the principle of the irresponsibility of the Sovereign, should have confined his attention to a general superintendence. In- stead, however, of following that system, he entered into the minu- test inquiries on the most unim- portant matters : and it was said that no question occurring at a Custom House could be settled until the King had personally ex- amined the point. The Sove- NETHERLANDS. 413 reign of the Netherlands was dis- tinguished for the readiness by which all classes of his subjects gained access to him ; but so likewise is the Emperor of Aus- tria ; and in a constitutional King such qualities are perhaps rather defects than virtues. In his com- mercial operations the King seem- ed actuated by that love of trade in which the burghers of Amster- dam so much delight ; and he was actually a partner in several joint stock companies, of which he was the originator. In the recent decision of the controversy on the North eastern boundary, referred to him by the United States and Great Britain, his Netherlands Majesty has, it is certain, fulfilled the expectations of neither party, but literally adopted the course which the en- lightened negotiator, to whom the subject of a reference was once confided, feared might be adopt- ed to our prejudice. He seems really, instead of taking strict principles of law for his guide, to have tried ' to split the difference.' To suppose, however, that even in this matter, open as it justly is to severe animadversion, the King was actuated by the circumstances which had arisen subsequently to the reference, and which so sen- sibly affected the independence of his position, would be to dis- regard the reputation universally enjoyed by the unfortunate mon- arch. A knowledge of the char- acter of the royal umpire would induce us to ascribe the error of his decision rather to the head than to the heart. But it is certain that we owe no special gratitude to the King of the Netherlands. To say nothing of that monarch's refusal to accede to the commercial reci- procity, proffered by us to all na- tions, we cannot forget that our claims, growing out of the arbi- trary measures dictated by Napo- leon to the former Government of Holland, and which were clearly presented to view in the able cor- respondence of Mr A. H. Everett with Baron Nagele, never receiv- ed that attention which they pre- eminently merited from a Sove- reign, who of all others had reap- ed, though indirectly, the greatest advantages from the French usur- pation. CHAPTER XX. THE PENINSULA. Spain. — Rumors. — Queen'' s Death. — Public Expectations. —-Ar- rival of the new Qiieen. — Law of Succession. — Portugal. There is no country, whose domestic condition or its internal affairs are more misrepresented than those of Spain. It is not merely that all the information, "which we derive from the jour- nals of Spain itself, is of a suspi- cious nature, as having heen sub- jected to the examination of the local authorities before publication, and having been so qualified as to meet their views, or at any rate prepared and printed by the journalist with the terrors of the police continually before his eyes. This cause of distrust attaches to intelligence derived from the Spanish gazettes, in common with those of other nations, which en- joy the blessing of an absolute government and a shackled press. Nor is it owing entirely to the jealous policy of the Spanish monarchy, which is so little dis- posed to court the scrutiny of foreigners, or even to admit of much examination on the part of its subjects themselves. Ourcur- rent intelligence in regard to the affairs of Spain is generally deriv- ed from the French newspapers, and consists of letters written, or purporting to be written, from persons in the Peninsula. These accounts are incorrect, exagger- ated, and mendacious, to a degree of which those unacquainted with the fact can have no conception. The strange absurdities concern- ing the state of things in Spain, which made their appearance soon after the French revolution of July, were a tissue of such down- right falsehoods, affording a fair example of the fact to which we refer, and illustrating the difficulty of obtaining authentic information as to passing events in that coun- try. However, the period of time, which our historical record em- braces, was one of great tranquilli- ty ; and such periods are barren of matter for the pen of the annal- ist. It was not the less fruitful of rumors, got up for the amusement of the cafes of Paris, or for some other less innocent purpose. The earthquake, which filled with misery the district of Orihuela in the Kingdom of Murcia, was suf- ficiently appalling in itself, without SPAIN. 415 the aid of any artificial amplifi- cation. But when the news reached us filtered through the newspapers of Paris, it appeared that all Cadiz had been submerg- ed, although pains were taken, it was added, to conceal the dread- ful calamity, by which so many families in the Kingdom and so many abroad would incur loss and suffering, through the merchants collected from various regions in that rich commercial city. Not much more credit is due to the statements, so often repeated, of troubles in Catalonia, the standing theatre of insurrection for the manufacturers of the newest news. Indeed, if we except the ac- knowledgment of Don Miguel by Spain in October, 1829, hardly any political event has occurred to invite attention, except what relates to changes in the royal family. The King of Spain lost his third consort on the 17th of May, 1829. Like her two predecessors she died suddenly, in the flower of her age, without children. A treaty of marriage was very soon after entered into between Ferdi- nand, and his niece Maria Cristi- na de Borbon, daughter of Fran- cis, King of Naples, and half sis- ter of the Duchesse de Berri, and at this time twentythree years of age. The large number of Span- iards, who are exiles in foreign lands, or, if not banished, yet are languishing at home as impurifica- dos, or men laboring under civil disabilities on account of their opinions or conduct in political affairs, looked forward to the in- tended espousals as affording them a hope of restoration to their country, of pardon, and of readmission to the career of dis- tinction in public service. They anticipated an act of grace and indulgence as highly likely to ac- company so auspicious an event, and as being, in fact, a natural in- gredient of the rejoicings and pub- lic hilarity of the nation. They conceived, also, that they had some reason to expect this from the lively and amiable character of the new Queen, and her sup- posed indisposition to submit to the influence of the priesthood to the same extent with her prede- cessor, whose life was wholly given up to rigid ascetic observ- ances. In another important point of view, the anticipated marriage was connected with political sub- jects. The Infante Don Carlos, the eldest brother of Ferdinand and presumptive heir of the Crown, was, either in reality or in suppo- sition, the rallying point of the apostolical party. Whatever de- fects of character Ferdinand may possess they are traits of weakness rather than of cruelty. The bit- terness of political hostility has diffused very erroneous impres- sions in regard to this prince. In- stead of being the fierce, bigoted, brutal tyrant, which some publi- cations have represented him to be, he is unquestionably disposed to pursue as gentle a policy, in the management of his Kingdom, as the maintenance of his authori- ty will admit. Nothing but the opposition of the Sovereign him- self has prevented the re-estab- lishment of the Holy Office in Spain. Since the occupation of the country by the French armies 416 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. in the reign of Louis XVIII., more disturbances and insurrec- tions have arisen from the abso- lutists, eager to push the Govern- ment on to greater violence and intolerance, than from the perse- cuted friends of the Constitution. At the present time, it can hardly be affirmed that any liberal party exists among the Spaniards. The sword, the scaffold, exile, the dungeon, have done their work upon the unhappy Constitution- alists, until few remain upon their native soil, bold enough to move in any scheme of reform or liberty. T heir bravest and best have per- ished, or now waste their energies in the obscure sufferings of pro- tracted banishment, in the heart- sickness of hope deferred ; and what can be hoped from the dis- heartened and persecuted men, who have just escaped the worst punishment of unsuccessful re- bellion ? In Spain, therefore, there is no question except be- tween more or less liberal mem- bers of the absolutist party, and it is to the former rather than the latter division that the wishes of the King are believed to lean, while Don Carlos favors the apos- tolical or ulti a section of the ene- mies of free institutions . Of course, that portion of the Spanish nation, which deprecates the blind vio- lence of the apostolicals, looks to the continuance of the sceptre, in the hands of Ferdinand as prefer- able to its transfer to Carlos, and has anxiously desired the birth of a Prince of the Asturias to give succession to the elder line. In addition to these circum- stances, so much calculated to attach interest to the arrival of Maria Cristina in Spain, it is to be observed that her parents, the King and Queen of the Two Si- cilies, the latter herself an Infanta of Spain, were to accompany the new Queen to Madrid. They came from Naples by the South of France, and crossing the Py- renees proceeded through Bar- celona and Valencia to Madrid. Catalonia was ruled at this time with a rod of iron by the Conde de Espana, Captain General ofthe province, and one of the sternest agents of absolutism in Spain. The numerous individuals in Bar- celona, who suffered on account of opinions, crowded around the path of the young Queen, to swell her welcome with their acclama- tions, promising themselves her aid in making their peace with the king. Similar gratulation attended her in other parts of her progress on- wards, and on her arrival in the court of Madrid itself, — her en- tire journey being one long unin- terrupted ovation. The impuri- ficados continued to the last to hope and expect the most agreea- ble results from the marriage, although without any very specific grounds of encouragement. The Queen reached Aranjuez on the 8th of December. She was received there by the Infan- tes, Don Carlos and Don Fran- cisco, the former of whom had authority to enter into the con- tract of marriage as proxy for the King. On the 11th she entered Madrid, amid all the rejoicings so peculiar to the Spanish people. The King and Queen of Naples and their daughter were attended by a brilliant cortege of the pub- lic authorities and troops from the SPAIN. 417 gate of Atocha, by which they entered Madrid, to the Palace at the other extremity of the city. Ferdinand and his two brothers rode on horseback by the side of the coach which contained the young Queen, with the manolos of Madrid dancing the fantastic mogiganga before them through the principal streets, every house being ornamented with brilliant hangings suspended from the bal- conies, and every avenue and window full of the multitudes of admiring spectators. The con- tract of marriage was subscribed by the royal parties in person that evening, and the next day the religious ceremony of the?;e/«cto/i was solemnized in the convent of Atocha. Splendid illuminations, with bull fights and theatrical rep- resentations prepared for the oc- casion, completed the rejoicings of the inhabitants of Madrid. Meanwhile no act of amnesty made its appearance. The Duque de Frias and some other principal grandees, who had been living under a kind of general dis- trust on account of their liberal opinions, embraced this occasion to offer their congratulations, and to propitiate the good will of the King, It was whispered that Ferdinand himself proposed that the healing measure, which the popular sentiment called for, should be frankly accorded. He countenanced the public expecta- tions by some unequivocal acts emanating from himself. Thus he invited the venerable and ami- able Don ManuelJosef Quintana, who, like every other ardent friend of letters, had favored the cause of the Constitution and had been 36 since frowned upon by the Court, to write an epithalamium, and liberally recompensed the poet for his performance. But the rep- resentations of Senor Calomarde, the Minister of Grace and Jus- tice and all powerful delegate of the apostolical party in the Cabinet, overcame the better in- tentions of the King, and prevent- ed his recovering the forfeited tide of amado Fernando^ which the war of independence had con- secrated. Only a few scanty fa- vors were dealt out to individuals, who like the Conde de Cartage- na, Don Pablo Morillo, bore the stigma of royal reprobation after having served their country but too faithfully and zealously. The King and Queen of Na- ples continued in Spain during part of the winter of 1 829 and 1830, partaking of the festivities of the court of Madrid, after which they returned home again by the way of France. If the treasure expended in this costly royal progress had been appro- priated towards the payment of certain of the just debts of Na- ples, which she has so long plead- ed poverty as an excuse for not discharging, it would have spoken better for the justice and honesty of King Francis. The promise of offspring by his Queen was hailed by Ferdinand with peculiar joy, in consideration of the long disappointment of his wishes in this respect. He took occasion from this circumstance to revive the ancient constitution of the Spanish monarchy in re-- gard to succession. When Phil- ip of Anjou became King of Spain, among other violent chang- 418 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. es in the institutions of the coun- try, he saw fit to introduce the Salic law of his own family, in derogation of the rules of descent which had elevated himself to the throne, and which had always obtained in the States of Castille. In anticipation of the possibility that the unborn infant might prove a daughter, and that no male off- spring might be granted to his prayers, Ferdinand, in the plen- itude of the legislative authority of absolutism, repealed the Salic law of Philip V. and restored the rules of succession of the Gothic and Austrian lines, which de- volve the descent upon female, in default of male heirs. The result justified the forethought of the King, as the child proved to be a daughter, who now therefore has claims to the Crown adverse to those of Don Carlos. We defer to another year the history of events in Portugal. They chiefly consist of the tyran- nical vagaries of the usurper Mi- guel, who, although acknowledg- ed during the year by Spain and the United States, did not obtain the countenance of the great pow- ers generally. Mnch speculation was occasioned abroad by the fact of the recognition of Don Miguel by the United States. These things depend so entirely in Europe upon selfish considerations of family, or artificial combinations to preserve the balance of power, or d blind submission of all other questions to the single one of le- gitimacy or constitutionalism, that no stable or consistent principle of recognition there prevails. Hence it is that Europeans are slow to comprehend the principle, which ies at the foundation of our for- eign intercourse, of holding friend- ly relations with every other es- tablished government, without scrutinizing the casuistical points of right, which the government may put forward to justify its own existence. It is sufficient for us as a government, to know that the sceptre of Miguel is received by the Portuguese themselves. As men and Christians, we trust no European will exceed us in rep- robation of his character and con - duct, or in solicitude that better rulers and better days may be given for unhappy Portugal. CHAPTER XXI. ENGLAND. Retrospective View of the Settlement of the Catholic question in 1829. — Its Consequences. — Its essential connexion with other projects of Reform, especially of the Representation in the House of Com- mons. — Meeting of Parliament, February, 1830. — Debates on the Addresses in answer to the Speech from the Throne. — Uni- versal Distress of the Country. — Amendments to the Addresses proposed ; rejected. — Amendment moved by Lord King. — Re- duction and Substitution of Taxes. — Parliamentary Reform. — Affairs of India. — Foreign Affairs. — Greece. •— Portugal. — Death of George IV. — Notices of his Life and Character. — Accession of William IV. — Notices of his previous Life. — Dis- solution of Parliament. — Meeting of the new Parliament. — Declaration oj the DuJce of Wellington against Parliamentary Reform. — ■ Threatened Riots in London. — Postponement of tlie Royal Banquet on Lord Mayor's Day. — Civil List. — Motion for Inquiry carried against the Ministers. — They resign. — New Ministry. — Earl Grey Premier. — Reform. — Riots and Disturbances in the Country. The most prominent event of the year 1829 in the history of Great Britain was the Revolution, for so it might justly be denomi- nated, in the religious establish- ment of the country. By the Revolution of 1688, and the sub- sequent acts of Parliament for the settlement of the Crown, the Protestant Religion had been in- corporated into the political con- stitution of the Slate. Not only and even Christianity itself in any other than these privileged forms of worship were not only excluded from all countenance and support, but prohibited by penalties, per- secuted by disabilities, or at best partially exempted from proscrip- tions by an oppressive and inso- lent toleration. Since their civil wars of the 17th century, the Brit- ish nation, mistaking the expulsion of tyrants for the establishment of the succession to the Crown, but liberty, had fancied themselves the enjoyment of almost all politi- cal rights by individuals was ex- clusively confined to sectarians of the Church of England, or of the Kirk of Scotland ; and while the whole people were heavily taxed for the support of ecclesi- astical institutions of those de- nominations, all other religions. free, and had accustomed them- selves to the pride of freedom. They had cast off the spiritual do- minion of the Church of Rome, and the hereditary misrule of the Stuarts. But in breaking their own fetters they had riveted them upon others. For a tyrannical Church of Rome they had only 420 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30; substituted a tyrannical Churcli of England. The Protestant refor- mation had so far prevailed among the people in the island of Great Britain, that the adherents to the Romish faith were there left in a small minority ; but the combined rigor of Church and State weigh- ed with equal severity upon large bodies of dissenters from the legal establishment: and in Ireland, where a great majority of the people had retained their allegi- ance to the Pope, and their devo- tion to the Catholic creeds, the British laws for the establishment of the Protestant faith and the maintenance of \he Protestant succession, were engines not of freedom but of the most odious oppression. During a long series of years there had been a succession of struggles by the sufferers under this tyranny, assisted by the more tdisinterested efforts of the friends of civil and religious liberty, to cast off this galling yoke, and to recover the natural right of wor- shipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. The greatest of all the obstacles in their way was that the mainte- nance exclusively of the Church of England and of the Kirk of Scot- land had been incorporated in the coronation oath of the British King. In the deeply conscien- tious mind of George the Third, the question of Catholic emanci- pation was not a question of po- litical expediency, nor of tolera- tion, nor of justice, but of fidelity to his oath. He did not permit himself to examine or investigate argument from any other consid- eration. He adhered inflexibly to what he had sworn — and how - ever erroneous we may deem the principle to be, which had thus made religious intolerance a fun- damental law of the realm, we cannot withhold the tribute of re- spect from the motive of the scruple which never ceased to sway the determination of the King. At the time when the separate political existence of Ire- land was merged in her union with Great Britain, when Mr Pitt, who had been nearly twenty years at the head of a successful adminis- tration, and had enjoyed during that long period the most un- bounded royal favor, had pledged himself to obtain from Parlia- ment the revocation of the Catho- lic disabilities, this impracticability of the King, not only disabled Mr- Pitt from tiie performance of his engagement, but brought his ad- ministration itself to a sudden and unexpected close. Several years after, and subsequent to the de- cease of Mr Pitt, the same King had abruptly dismissed another administration for merely propos- ing to bring forward the project of Catholic emancipation in Par- liament, and in the formation of a Ministry to supply their places had made it an express condition that they should never bring for- ward this obnoxious measure in Parliament, nor even make mention of it to him. His suc- cessor, George the Fourth, inher- ited the scruples of his father, but not his stubbornness of adherence to them. Until the last year of his life, he had resisted by all the influence that he possessed, the- introduction and progress of any plan for admitting the Catholics to the equal enjoyment of civil and political rights. Even so late aa ENGLAND. 431 1825, the Duke of York, then heir presumptive to the Crown, had in a solemn asseveration be- fore God, declared that he never would give his assent to any such measure, and had attributed the heaviest of the calamities which had befallen his father to the dis- tress of mind occasioned by the importunities with which he had been pressed on this subject. The Duke of Wellington, Prime Minister, and Mr Peel, the leader of the administration in the House of Commons, had been among the most strenuous opposers of concession to the Catholics, and their services in the cause of ex- clusion as applied to the charac- ter, had been among the most conspicuous means by which they had risen to power. To the great surprise of all distant ob- servers, to the utter indignation and dismay of all the Tories of Great Britain, it was under the auspices of the Duke of Welling- ton and Mr Peel that the emanci- pation of the Catholics was to obtain the sanction of Parliament and of the King. It was remarked in the last volume of this work that this inno- vation upon the constitution of the British Islands could scarcely fail to be speedily followed by others of more intrinsic importance, at least to that of Great Britian. The sinecures of the Church of England, taxation by tythes, and the invidious privileges of the aristocracy connected with them, were believed to be the defects in the political institutions of that nation, the first to feel the conse- quences of that introduction to reform which consisted in the ad- 36* mission of other modes of faith to a participation in the privileges, till then exclusively reserved to the religion of the State. The march of public opinion however took a different and more decisive direction. It struck at once at the root of all the public abuses and inveterate diseases of the Government, and applied all its energies invigorated by the long contested and hardly won victory over religious prejudices, to the reform of the national represen- tation in the House of Commons. The House of Commons was an imperfect representation of the people, — imperfect even in its original constitution, — still more imperfect by the abuses which in a succession of ages had crept in- to its composition. In former ages it had sometimes effectually controlled the arbitrary authority of the Kings, and had once abol- ished the monarchy itself, and the aristocracy by which it was supported. Since the accession of the Hanoverian dynasty, and the virtual extinction of the Stu- arts, the House of Commons had been gradually rendered subservi- ent to the royal authority by means of influence upon the indi- vidual interests of the members. This form of Government had been worked up into a system, chiefly by Sir Robert Walpole. It was in its origin accommodated to the government of a party ; the septennial act, the principal foundation of the system, having been emphatically and exclusive- ly a Whig measure. In process of time, as the dangerof a second restoration of the Stuarts gradually subsided and the nation had time 422 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30, to reflect upon the practical sys- tem of the Whigs, they became discontented with tlie resuh. They saw that corruption had been sub- stituted for divine right, as the mainspring of the Government ; and tracing the evil to its source, they perceived that it originated in the House of Commons itself. This dissatisfaction first began to be manifested in the early part of the reign of George the Third. It was denounced in Burgh's po- litical disquisitions, in which de- tailed statements were exhibited of the two classes of boroughs de- nominated close and open : in the first of which the elective franchise had degenerated into mere personal property ; and in the second was confined to a very small number of dependent or indigent individuals who notori- ously were in the practice of sell- ing their suffrages to the highest bidder. Still, however, the House of Commons was a representation of the people — it was endeared to the nation, as the body by whose asiency the liberties of the people had been redeemed, maintained and preserved. The call for re- form in the composition of the House was identified with the opposition, to the measures which had produced the American Revolution. It was afterwards identified with the principles of the French Revolution ; and as that movement of national reno- vation declined from the popular features of its origin, back to the hideous alliance of military des- potism with hereditary monarchy, the theories of reform in the House of Commons declined with it. The most distinguished lead- ers of the British nation, in the Cabinet and in the field, against the conquering career of Napoleon were at the same time the chief defenders of the Constitution as it was, and the most determined antagonists of innovation. Par- liamentary reform became sy- nonymous with Jacobinism, and the system of rotten boroughs and virtual representation became in- terwoven with all the victories of Wellington, and with all the elo- quence of Canning. Among the grotesque figures of a masquerade we remember to have once seen a mask dressed on one side in a full suit of em- broidered court clothes, with bag wig, side curls, point lace ruffles, sword, buckles and white silk stockings and on the other with cropped head, frock coat, panta- loons and boots. It was a perfect image of the political character of George Canning. His birth, education, temper and genius were all of this heterogeneous character, half legitimate and half spurious; ultra-royalist on one side, ultra-jacobin on the other. From the semi-democra- cy of Eton School, he had been transferred to the half jacobitism of Oxford University, and at each of those seminaries had imbibed a large portion of the spirit be- longing to each of them, and the composition had formed in his mind a substance combustible and explosive hke the mixture of nitre and sulphur. A disciple in polit- ical philosophy of Edmund Burke, and in practical politics of Wil- liam Pitt, he was not gifted with the all-comprehensive intellect of ENGLAND. 423 the former, nor with the lofty in- dependence or instinctive good sense of the latter. The tenden- cies of all his negotiations were always to hostile issues. He had no spirit for compromise — no temper for conciliation. The summit of his ambition — the very empyreum of his imagina- tion, as he himself declared, was to pass with the world and with posterity for a British Minister ; and when the fancy took him, as it once did, of creating worlds, it was merely to lay them at the feet of the fast-anchored Isle. This mixture of motives and principles in the mind of Mr Can- ning produced corresponding in- congruities in his political system. Thus as a disciple of William Pitt he was a warm partisan for the emancipation of the Catholics, while as a full charged anti-jaco- bin he was an inveterate and de- termined antagonist of Parliamen- tary reform. William Pitt was not chargeable with this glaring inconsistency. He was for Catho^ lie emancipation ; he was for a reform in the House of Commons ; and he had the sagacity to per- ceive, and the candor to acknow- ledge that these two measures flowed from one great elementary article of the rights of man, and that it was impossible upon any coherent theory of political mor- als to be at the same time in favor of one of those measures, and in opposition to the other. They were both measures al- ways before the tribunal of public opinion, and often debated vehe- mently in Parliament during the whole politicallife of Mr Canning. He had often borne hispartin ma- turing the successful progress of the one and in arresting that of the other. Neither of them was destined however to be brought to its final issue in his lifetime. He was scarcely cold in his grave when the Catholic question was setded, in conformity with his opinions, by the very men who had contested it against him to the last hour of his life. The Duke of Wellington and Mr Peel had at least been consistent in their policy. They had inflexi- bly resisted all idea of concession to the Catholics. They had been equally tenacious in their adhe- sion to the ancient Constitution of the House of Commons. They were averse to reform in all its shapes. But no sooner was Mr Canning dead — no sooner were they placed in stations where all the responsibilities of persevering in the rigors of superannuated in- tolerance rested* entirely upon themselves, than they veered about like the change of wind from north to soulh in the midst of a hurricane, and swept away at a single brush all the Catholic disabilities, which it had been the labor of their lives to sustain. The removal of these disabili- ties was perfectly just and proper in itself, but it opened a deadly breach in the Tory system of poli- cy. All the strongest arguments against the admission of Catholics to the enjoyment of political rights, were also arguments against Par- liamentary reform. By yielding to the Catholics the right of rep- resentation, the same right was virtually conceded to all others debarred from the exercise of the same franchise by other causes 424 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. inconsistent, with the principle of equal rights. The Duke of Wellington and Mr Peel, by sur- rendering the argument against Catholic emancipation, virtually surrendered the argument against reform. They took from the Tories the very citadel of their system, and by yielding to the Cathohc claims and still holding out against reform, they totally lost the confidence of one party, without acquiring that of the other. They were destined to feel the consequences of this half-faced fellowship in deep hu- miliation. At the meeting of Parliament on the 4th of February, 1830, in- dications of the loss of popularity b} the administration were very soon disclosed. The speech from the throne announced the termin- ation of the war between Russia and the Ottoman Porte. It lament- ed the continued differences be- tween the family of the Braganza, and the inability of the British Government to renew its diplo- matic relations with Portugal. It announced a considerable reduc- tion in the public expenditure and a diminution of the revenue. It declared the King's intention to submit to Parliament some mea- sures calculated to facilitate and expedite the course of justice in the different parts of the United Kingdom, and others preliminary to a revision of the practice and proceedings of the superior courts. It stated that the export of Brit- ish produce and manufactures in the preceding year had exceeded that of any year before ; but la- mented that notwithstanding this indication of active commerce, distress should prevail among the agricultural and manufacturing classes in some parts of the United Kingdom. The principal debates which ensued in both Houses of Par- liament turned on the discussion of questions whether distress, which the speech acknowledged as prevailing in some parts of the Kingdom, was or was not in fact prevalent in all parts, as was con- tended by the opposition. The representatives of the agricultural, commercial, navigating and manu- facturing interests concurred but in one general voice of complaint. The farmers had no market for their produce, and consequently no means for the paying of their rents- Whatever profits they might have realized even where a market was found, were absorbed by oppressive poor's rates. Com- mercial business had fallen off proportionably — capital could find no employment — profits dwindled to nothing ; and bank- ruptcies multiplied. Pressed from all quarters of England, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer claimed an exception where no one would have dreamt to look for it, in Ireland, which the Irish members by no means confirmed. The Minister had perhaps flattered himself that the concession of po- litical enfranchisement to the Catholics had served them as a substitute for bread ; but his er- ror was quickly rectified by Mr O'Connell, who exemplified the prosperity of Ireland by the state- ment, that in the city of Dublin alone not less than seven thousand registered paupers subsisted npon the luxuriant charitable contribu- » tion of three half-pence each, a day, and that the condition of the farmers and laborers in the prov- inces, corresponded accurately with this state of destitution. That the rents were often paid from the capital of the farmer in place of profits ; and not unfre- quently by the blanket and pota- to-pot, the solitary remnants of capital unconsumed. An amendment was proposed in both Houses to the echoing ad- dress in answer to the speech — but without success in either. The fact of universal distress was sufficiently demonstrated ; but with regard to its causes, and the remedies to be provided for it, there was no concert of opinions. There is in truth but one cause always operating in Great Britain to produce distress, and that is the enormous burden of the national debt. Tythes and Poor Laws are but aggravations of the same. There is a condition of existence in all human societies, embracing the great mass of the population of men, whose industry barely but effectively enables them to subsist and maintain their families above absolute want, but without amassing property. Levy upon this class of men, heavy contribu- tions by taxation, and you dimin- ish their means of subsistence be- low the standard of absolute ne- cessity. The laws of England., then require that the deficiency should be supplied by taxation of their neighbors. They come upon the parish. The class immedi- ately above them descend to the lowest ranks of independent self- supporters, and these in turn are crowded down into the condition AND. 425 of paupers. This process has been constantly and very regu- larly going on for nearly a cen- tury ; that is, from the time when the taxation to defray the interest of the national debt first became excessive. The increase of the debt and the multiplication of pau- pers have advanced with equal acceleration, hand in hand, till the proportion of poor, supported by the parish has become about one sixth of the whole population. This is about the same proportion as that of slaves to the whole population of these United States. The amendment of the Ad- dress, which pledged Parliament to an inquiry into the state of the country, was moved in the House of Peers by Lord King, and in a few of its first sentences evidently proved that the cause of the na- tional distress was not unknown to him. It said, ' That after fifteen years of uninterrupted peace, this House laments that the general condition of the people is not ma- terially improved, nor the pros- perity of the country perceptibly increased. That on the contra- ry, the landed and manufacturing interests as well as the traders and the laboring classes of every de- scription, have frequently been afflicted, and still continue to be weighed down by severe distress. That it is the duty of Parliament to examine into the causes which have produced these distresses, and to remove if possible the im- pediments which retard the pro- gress of the national prosperity. ' That the necessaries of life, and the materials of agriculture are made dear by taxation and regulation. By these means too 426 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. much is taken from the industri- ous classes, and in many instances too much is given to the privi- leged classes of society. ' That it is a grievous aggrava- tion of the public burdens, in ad- dition to near fifty millions of tax- es, deemed necessary for the public service, still further to suf- fer enormous sums to be extorted from the people by the intolerable monopolies of corn, beer, sugar and teas, and of other articles es- tablished for the private benefit of powerful and favored classes at the expense of the great body of consumers and of the public good. ^ By these monopolies, the cost of the first necessaries of life is enhanced, the rate of profit in all trades is diminished, capital is driven abroad to seek a more profitable employment, and the productive powers of the national industry greatly reduced.' The amendment then proceed- ed into more detailed observations upon the several monopolies of corn, beer and mah, sugar and tea, all in the present condition of the world and all in various modes subjected to the heavy load of taxation to pay the inter- est of the debt. The monopolies being all the effect of taxation, and by increasing the prices of the articles monopolized, redoub- ling taxation again. It conclud- ed thus : ' That it appears that these gigantic monopolies super- added to the heavy load of taxa- tion, have impoverished the coun- try, and produced the public dis- tress. That all prohibitions and restrictions imposed for the bene- fit of particular classes or compa- nies, for the purpose of producing artificial high pwces are no less impolitic than unjust. That our own exclusion from the great market of the world, and the ces- sation of the demand at home are the necessary consequences of our own measures ; because it is the nature of things that a nation, which refuses to buy the produc- tions of other countries, cannot sell its own. ' That we can only expect to derive permanent relief from our distresses and impoverishment in our condition from the strictest economy in every branch of the public expenditure ; from the abolition of all exclusive privi- leges and monopolies; from an un- restricted supply of the first neces- saries of life, and of the materials of manufacture ; and from a real free trade, by which the whole community as consumers will be greatly benefited, — the laboring classes enabled to procure a fair reward, — the capitalists to aug- ment those funds by which all labor is supported, — and the ef- ficiency of the British industry fully permitted to produce its natural result in enriching the country, and thus to restore and secure the public prosperity.' Tiiis motion for a Parliamen- tary inquiry as well as one of a corresponding character in the House of Commons failed by overwhelming majorities. The subject of the national ^distress however could not be excluded from the Halls of Parliament by ministerial votes. It was repro- duced by 'numerous petitions from every part of the Kingdom, pic- turing in all the varieties of forms ENGLAND. 427 the wretchedness of the people. More than fifty of those petitions came from the single county of Kent, which, adjoining upon the immense metropolis of the island, has advantages from its proximity to that focus of population, which cannot be enjoyed by the remoter counties. Yet so intense was the misery which they exhibited in open day, that it was scarcely more visibly disclosed by the glare of the midnight conflagra- tions, which soon afterwards illu- minated the same county. From Bedfordshire there came state- ments that the wages of the labor- ers gave them barely the means of protracting a cheerless exist- ence, deprived of all the comforts and almost all the necessaries of life ; and that there were parishes in the county, purely agricultural, with from fifty to ninety able- bodied men, destitute of other work, employed by the parishes and receiving four shillings a week. From Berkshire the same complaints, with allegations that the wages of persons were in some places as low as two shillings and eight pence a week. From Buckinghamshire it was averred that many persons committed depredations and misdemeanors to get into prison ; thus to preserve themselves from lingering starva- tion. That many had contracted disorders by eating the flesh of animals that died naturally, and other unhealthy food ; that their health sufl?ers for want of fuel ; and that when they apply to the parish they are charged with inso- lence, because they cannot starve and be contented. The repre- sentation from Cambridgeshire was, that the laborers cast upon the parish funds, congregated on roads, in gravel-pits, with their spirits broken, constantly repining at their hard condition, and incit- ing each other to vicious courses, while their employers are regard- ed as task-masters, and the ties of attachment to the land of their birth became gradually torn asun- der. From Cumberland that the distress with equal pressure weighs down, the landholder and manufacturer, the ship-owner and the miner, the employer and the laborer. From the county of Derby the magistrates, land-hold- ers and clergy represented its state as deplorable. Rents re- duced and in arrear — tenants ruined ; laborers unemployed and farms thrown out of cuhivation. From Lincoln a petition, signed by ten thousand five hundred names declared that, ' Unless the present urgent distress be speedi- ly relieved it must produce dis- astrous consequences, hazardous to the peace and safety of the na- tion at large.' A petition from the parish of Renham, in Suf- folk, stated that the poor rates have been progressively increasing for some years, and that the peti- tioners are seriously afraid that sufferings so severe, although they have been hitherto borne with exemplary patience, will end in general riot and confusion. A petition from the freeholders farmers and others of Croydon, in Surrey, avows that the pe- titioners ' can no longer endure to see their fellow-countrymen, who are born to the lot of laborers, starving under their eyes; that they shudder under the reflection 428 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. that without some timely aid, such will soon be their lot.' In presenting a petition from Frome in Somersetshire, the Bishop of Bath and Wells said, ' I have been a witness to the most afflict- ing distress, and which I could not if I would describe. I have seen with my own eyes, multi- tudes who could obtain no work and were starving ; others, yoked together like oxen, drawing coals from the pits in the neighborhood.' From Essex, from Norfolk, from Hampshire, from Herefordshire, in short from every county of England, the same melancholy note oi desperation was re-echoed, foreboding the disasters which af- terwards ensued, while the Peers and Commoners of Britain were debating whether this complicated and universal scene of human misery was caused by an imper- fect system of banking, by the restoration of payments in gold and silver in the place of depre- ciated paper, by the improve- ments of machinery, by the redun- dancy of population, or by the unequal distribution of wealth. The Duke of Wellington thought the distress of the manufacturers was owing to an excessive produc- tion of articles beyond what the country could consume, or for- eigners purchase. That the suc- cessful application of machinery and steam to increase the efficiency of labor had enabled the manu- facturer to dispense with hand labor, and not only glutted the market with goods, but deprived the workmen of their employ- ment. That the manufactures of England exported to foreign markets came there into compe- tition with the productions of cheap labor, and must be govern- ed by their prices. There was one statement by the Premier which accounts for distresses and discontents far beyond the bounds of the British Islands. He show- ed that raw cotton sold in 1814 at two shillings and sixpence per pound, and in 1829 for sixpence. This fact, and not the American system or the tariffis the parent of the whole nullification doctrines of South Carolina. Here is a depreci- ation of four fifths of the value of the staple article of agricultural produce in South Carolina. This is the magician which has con- verted the definition of an impost duty into a tax upon exports, and rendered unconstitutional the very purpose for which the Constitution was framed by the Convention of 1787, and adopted by the people. But in the operation of this fact upon the condition of the United States, as in that of the national debt in Great Britain, there is a single primary cause of all the distresses which spread over the agricukural and all other interests. In Britain it is taxation to pay the public debt. In America it is slavery. In countries where the operative tillers of the ground are freemen, depreciation of the raw material for manufacture rather increases than diminishes the amount of home consumption. The laborer obtains less for the article which he produces — he has more of it for his own ^use. But in the tillage of the ground where the labor of the slave is the property of the master, the slave must be maintained at the charge of the master. Depreciation of ENGLAND. 429 the product leaves the burden of maintaining the produce little if at all diminished. The slave him- self becomes an insupportable charge, and the plantation goes to ruin. But as prejudice and pas- sion seldom attribute their disas- ters to their true causes, they are ever on the search for such as flatter them ; and thus the planter works himself up into the faith, that an impost upon iron in Ame- rica knocks down the price of his short staple cotton at Liverpool, and that a road in Illinois, or a canal at Louisville, make the charge of maintaining his negroes consume four times over all the profits of his plantation, as the British statesman seeks for the cause of famine stalking over the land, in the power of steam, the multiplication of manufacturing machinery, and the restoration of cash payments by the bank. After the consumption of ma- ny weeks in these unprofitable debates, the motions for parlia- mentary inquiry were rejected in both houses by ministerial majori- ties of four or five to one. The administration, however, lound it indispensable to propose measures tending to relieve the distress proved to be so universal and so severe. Their most essen- tial proposal was a reduction of the duties upon beer, leather and cider. That upon beer alone amounted to three millions ster- ling, a sum equal to more than half the annual revenue of the United States ; but an alleviation scarcely perceptible to the taxa- tion of the people of Great Bri- tain. Gfthe other measures discuss- S7 ed in Parliament during this ses- sion, the bill introduced by Mr Brougham for the establishment of County Courts was preceded by an elaborate and celebrated speech, but the consideration of the bill was postponed to another session. Sir Robert Peel intro- duced a bill to consolidate and mitigate the statutes of forgery, in which an attempt was made to reduce this from a capital crime to an offence punishable by trans- portation. An amendment con- formable to this principle was suc- cessful in the House of Commons,' but was rejected by the Lords. The sanguinary character of the criminal law in England, has long been a theme of just and se- vere reproach upon the govern- ment of that island. There is no part of the code of public mo- rals which has been so much improved within the last century, as that which graduates the pro- portions between crimes and pun- ishments. 'It is a melancholy truth,' says Blackstone in his Commentaries, ' that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no less than one hundred and sixty have been declared by act of Parliament to be felonies without benefit of clergy ; or in other words, to be worthy of instant death.' This list has been since the publication of the Commentaries much reduced ; but forgery has been one of the crimes which has the longest withstood the progress of reformation. — It is, indeed, a crime of deep malig- nity — a'crime of deliberation — a crime requiring for its commis- sion ingenuity and skill. Against the commission of this crime, so 430 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. ciety cannot be guarded so effect- ually as against many others ; — it is perpetrated in secrecy, screen- ing it from detection, and its con- sequences are more extensively felt than those of most other out- rages upon the rights of persons or of property. George III. had been educated in the behef that it was the most atrocious of crimes, and although in several cases he extended his royal mercy to cri- minals guilty of murder, not a single instance occurred through- out his long reign of his granting a pardon for forgery. This rigor was not stimulated by anything of an unrelenting propensity in his nature ; but, by an erroneous esti- mate of the comparative atrocious- ness and danger of the crime. In this opinion he was sustained by that of the public, which is now no longer the same. This is suf- ficiently indicated by the vote in the House of Commons for re- pealing, as applicable to this crime, the punishment of death. The revolution in the public opinion favorable to parliamentary reform, which had been silently taking place since the settlement of the Catholic question, was so far from having penetrated into Parliament, that the reformers were at this session unable to procure for Birmingham, or any other large town, the franchise which the borough of East Redford had forfeited, and that after two years of discussion, it was only extended into the hundred to which the borough belonged. — Far other principles were soon to prevail. In the parliamentary discussions npon the foreign affairs of Great Britain, the same results were dis- played of measures dictated by incongruity of political system — the point of the political epigrams of George Canning. — In Spain he had suffered the revolutionists and constituon-makers to be put down by a French army, under the Duke d'Angouleme; in Por- tugal, he had patronized a consti- tutional government, and sent an English army to Lisbon to main- tain it — though, at the same time , the army were under positive or- ders to take no part in the internal dissensions of Portugal. Don Miguel, who for a conspiracy against his father's crown and life, had passed several years in exile at Vienna, returned to Lisbon under the protection and patron- age of Great Britain. She was a party to the treaty by virtue of which he leturned. — He had taken England on his way ; and there had been treated by the British government with the high- est distinction. He was escorted to the Tagus by an English squadron ; was received at Lisbon by the English ambassador; swore to the charter at the suggestion of the English government ; and was protected in his capital by English troops. The constitutional party could not doubt that they would be guarantied against any design of usurpation on his part ; yet within a very few days after his arrival, he threw off the mask, put down the Charter and the Cortes, and instead of the regency to which he had been sworn, ascended tlie throne as of his own right ; convoked an assembly of his own partisans, proclaimed his absolute right to the crown, and reigned ENGLAND. 431 as legitimate a tyrant as any one of his brethren in Europe. — To all this the cold-blooded policy of Mr Canning manifest- ed a perfect indifference. The counter-revolution was in truth ef- fected with the countenance of the British army. Don Miguel was not formally acknowledged as king of Portugal ; but his blockades were recognised as legal, and the fugitives from the proscriptions of the usurper were treated by the British government with every possible indignity. Tlieir pohcy with regard to the affairs of Greece was equally self- ish, contracted, and absurd. In the communities of civilized chris- tian nations, no truly great states- man can adopt, without pernicious consequences and gross injustice, the principle of adapting all his measures to the exclusive benefit and advantage of his own country. This was the elementary error of Mr Canning and of Mr Huskisson, his ablest associate. One of the greatest blessings to mankind de- rived from the substitution of the Christian for the Mosaic dispensa- tion, was the extension by Chris- tianity to all mankind of the bless- ings conferred by the Mosaic law^to one peculiar people. The char- acteristic of the Hebrew Law was the exclusive enjoyment of the favor of heaven by one family of men, and to such a perversion of excess had tMs principle been carried about the time when all the avenues of divine beneficence had been opened to the Gentiles by the Gospel, that the great Ro- man moral satirist of the age de- clares, that a Jew in his time would not show an inquiring tra- veller his way, or help him to a cup of cold water, unless he was circumcised. Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti : Quaesitum ad fontein solos deducere verpoa. Juvenal Sat. ]4. v. 103. It was by the same contraction of elementary principle that Mr Canning proclaimed the object of his ambition to be the acquisition of the renown of being a British statesman, and that Mr Huskisson repeatedly avowed in parliament the object of his policy to consist in promoting the prosperity of Great Britain, and in counteracting that of her commercial rivals. For the personal popularity of the minister at home this system may be more effective than one of more liberal expansion ; but it will al- ways lead to injustice, and often to defeat and disappointment. Thus in the affairs of Greece, as in those of Portugal, the Duke of Wellington, like Mr Canning and Mr Huskisson, must be nothing but a British statesman. The result of which in Portugal was as we have seen. What was it in Greece } The attempt to impose upon a people who had passed through a furnace more fiery than that of Nebuchadnezzar, to estab- lish their freedom, a king igno- rant of their language, a heretic to their religion, a total stranger to their country, never having shared in their afflictions, never having rendered them an hour of service, — a king from the principality of Saxe Coburg in Germany to rule over the inhabitants upon the field of Marathon, and perchance to defend again the passes of Thermo- pylae ; and this king was to be thus imposed upon this people 432 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. because he had been the husband of the princess Charlotte, and re- ceived from the British treasury a pension of fifty thousand pounds sterling a year. There was noth- ing, absolutely nothing else in the character or circumstances of the Prince to recommend him to the Greek nation for their soverign. Under the same impulse to signali'::e himself as a British statesman, the Duke of Welling- ton, who had denominated the victory at Navarino an untoward event when the battle for Greece was fought — when by their own unparelleled exertions, sufferings and sacrifices, aided by the victo- ries and subsidies of Russia, and even by the ostensible demonstra- tions of a French array upon their territories, they had wrought out their salvation, and had their in- dependence secured by the treaty of Adrianople — interposed to curtail the dimensions of the Greek territories by excluding from them the island of Candia, and by narrowing to its smallest extent their northeVn boundary line. The Prince of Coburg him- self had^^«//?/ the good sense to perceive that be was not the per- son suited to be king of Greece, and he would have saved himself some mortification, to say nothing worse, if he bad availed himself of that discovery to inquire more criucally into his qualifications for king of Belgium, to which the British statesmen have at last promoted him. V In the midst of this session of Parliament, and while they were wasting much time in debates upon all these subjects, at three o'clock in the morning of Satur- day the 26ih of June, died, the King, George the Fourth, in the tenth year of his reign. As Re- gent however he had been for a nearly equal period of time, the executive head of the kingdom, before his accession to the throne. Never in the history of the Brit- ish Islands has there been a time when their people were more prosperous as the world estimates prosperity : never a time w'hen their Government performed so commanding a part in the afiairs of Europe ; and never a time when the personal character and ac- tive operation of their king were so absolute and unqualified a nul- lity, as while the whole political movement of the nation was pro- pelled and directed by his sign- manual. His health had been de- clining from the beginning of the year. About the 15th of April the first of a series of bulletins was issued, announcing that he had stif- fered a bilious attack with an em- barrassment in breathing. About the middle of May he became unable to affix bis si2;nature to the iKiblic papers, and an act of Parliament was passed appointing a Commission to affix it by stamp to all acts requiring the signman- ual. Had such an act passed on his first accession to the royal au- thority, the history of England, save in that single incident, would have been precisely what it is. His disorder continued to increase in aggravation till a violent cough with expectoration supervened. The day before his decease it oc- casioned the rupture of a blood vessel, which brought the scene to a close. His primary disease was an ossification of the vessels of the heart, complicated at last with a dropsy. It was attended for some ENGLAND. 433 time with agonizing pain, which lie bore with exemplary patience. In the question between the hereditary and the elective prin- ciple for determining the person to be invested with the chief ex- ecutive authority of powerful na- tions, which had heretofore di- vided the opinions of mankind, but which has been in constant issue since the declaration of American independence, the per- son_al and individual characters of the men who by the operation of the two systems, have respective- ly been brought upon the scene of action, have had a great though silent and slowly self-unfolding ef- fect upon the still uncompleted verdict of mankind. The result of the hereditary principle acting upon the manners and prevailing opinions of the age, is to place up- on the throne men of vicious hab- its, of corrupted morals, of cold hearts, of frivolous tastes, of lux- urious and effeminate lives ; and of insignificant characters. Such was preeminently the character of George the Fourth. He was born heir apparent to the throne of the British realms. The fourth king hilt of the fifth generation in the Hanoverian dynasty. His first and second progenitor of that family upon whom the crown im- perial of the realm had been set- tled on the final expulsion of the Stuarts, were natives of Germany, had received a German education, and were imbued with the arbitra- ry principles of feudal sovereign- ty, chastised and controled by the gleams of purer light elicited from the collisions which had raised therntothe throne. They had supplanted the rightful heirs of 37* hereditary descent, by a revolu- tion founded on a departure from that principle. Bred themselves in the rankest hot bed of feudali- ty, but foreigners to the British Islands by birth, speaking scarce- ly at all their language, aliens to their manners and endowed with no faculties, such as command the veneration or win upon the affections of men, with contested titles to the crown and the hered- itary principle of right incontesta- bly with their antagonist, they were necessarily compelled to rely upon the principle of liberty for their support in the elevation to which it had raised them, and to vest their confidence exclusive- ly in that portion of the states- men and people of Britain, by whose principles and assistance the sceptre had been transferred to them. But at the accession of George the Third, seventy years after the revolution which had displaced the Stuarts, their hopes if not their pretensions were extinguish- ed. The old hereditary princi- ple had resumed its sway and the son of Frederick Prince of Wales, whom George the Second his father had survived, though born in England and in a life of four score years never out of the Island had a German princess for his mother, the sum of whose po- litical instructions to him was ^ George^ be King.'' Though in his first speech to Parliament he had the sagacity to declare that he gloried in being a Briton born ; this was a mere flourish, to claim a hold upon the affections of the people which his ancestors and pre ecessors of his family had n 434 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. possessed. From the outset of his reign the principles of the Revolution were discountenanced; his favors were chiefly shared by Scottish Jacobites and Tories, and the spirit of freedom was out- raged by the attempt to introduce taxation by Act of Parliament into the North American Colonies. The abortion of this effort, and the involvement of the nation in unextinguishabledebt in the strug- gle to accomplish its purpose, constitute one half the history of his reign of half a century. The other half was a struggle equally desperate against the French Revolution, and against the' pro- gress of liberal principles through- out the world. It was reserved to be the fortune of his son and successor, to enjoy the apparent credit of accomplishing this ob- ject. His regency was signal- ized by the triumph of the Euro- pean Alliance, as it seemed to themselves and to the world, over the long agony of the French Revolution. How fallacious and short lived that triumph was des- tined to be, George the Fourth did not live fully to realize ; but in the achievement of the triumph he had as little personal agency as in the reverse which hap- pened so soon after his remains were consigned to the tomb. In the days of Edward the Third, his son when Prince of Wales was the first warrior of the age. Ed- ucation to the art of war was the discipline of youth for British princes, down even to the acces- sion of the House of Hanover. James the Second, WiUiam the Third, George the First and Se- cond, had all been military chief- tains personally exposed to the dangers of the field or of the deck ; but in the space of seventy years from the accession of George the Third to the demise of George the Fourth, although their country was during more th^n half that period, involved in the most for- midable and bloody wars, and the country over which they ruled contending for her very existence, neither of them ever heard the whistling of a musket ball upon the field. Even at the time when the cannon ball which brought Mo- reau to the earth, by the mere chances of the day, might have struck instead of him the imperial head of Alexander, then at his side, even when Francis of Aus- tria, and Frederick William of Prussia were upon the tented field, contending with Napoleon and all his legions, George the Fourth, who, had sent thousands and tens of thousands of his gallant country- men, to mingle in the strife of battle, and to die for their king and country, was himself reclin- ing upon beds of down, and gorg- ing upon the marrow of the land in his pavilion at Brighton, or if the thought of martial glory ever entered his soul, it never stimula- ted him beyond the achievement of devising embroidery for the uniform of his guards. There were virtues in the heart and mind of George the Third ; and in spite of all his weaknesses and all his errors they have em- balmed his memory. He was honest ; which in the days of Shakspeare and of Hamlet, as the world went, was to be one man in ten thousand. In the days of George the Third the proportion ENGLAND 435 had not much varied. He was sincere. He was religious with- out superstition, without fanati- cism — a virtue of the first order in every station of human life, of transcendent excellence in a king, inasmuch as it keeps him constantly in mind, that however uncontrolable his actions may be upon earth there is a tribunal be- fore which he will one day be called to answer for them with tremendous responsibility. There were none of these barriers to vice in the soul of his eldest son. ' The king-becoming graces, _ As justice,verity, temperance,stableness5 Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, He bad no relish of them.' He was not honest — he was false ; false to man — as Charles Fox and Sheridan could testify to the last hour of their lives — false to wo- man — as his secret and his public, his Catholic and his Protestant wife, and many a forsaken mis- tress, from Mrs Robinson to Lady Jersey, could testify. False to his country, to whom he gave in her Parliament through Charles Fox, the solemn pledge of his hon- or that he was not married to Mrs Fitzherbert. — The private life of George the Third was irre- proachable. The example of so- cial and domestic life set by him and his queen had a great and salutary influence upon the morals of the land. What Briton can ever look without a blush, at the example of private life set by George the Fourth ? His heart was radically bad ; no education could have made it good ; as no original native purity could have preserved itself from the pollutions of such an education as he had re- ceived. He was born on the 12th of August, 1762, the anniversary of the accession of his family to the British throne. When four days old he was created by letters patent Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; on the 18th of August he was baptized by the name of George Augustus Frederick : when three years old, was invested with the order of the garter, and received from the society of Ancient Britons a formal address, which he answered, probably with about as much expense of his own intellect as he ever afterwards be- stowed upon his people. At four years of age, he was appoint- ed Captain General of the Artille- ry Company of the City of Lon- don, a post which he held till his death, and in which the military renown which he acquired was not inferior to that of the train- band captain in the same service, immortalized in the verses of Cowper. In 1771, Lord Hol- derness was appointed governor to him and his next brother, the Duke of York, and Dr Markham, afterwards Archbishop of York, and Dr Cyril Jackson, their pre- ceptors. Five years afterwards these officers were exchanged for the Duke of Montague and Bish- op Hurd. Under the guidance and tuition of these respectable persons, he was kept totally se- cluded from the world, confined to a rigorous course of study, till he became an accomplisned clas- sical scholar, well versed in the Latin language, with a sufficient smattering of Greek and familiar with the modern French, German, 436 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. and Italian. His instruction in natural and experimental philoso- phy was adapted to the prevailing standard of the time, and he ac- quired a gentlemanly taste for literature, and a fashionable relish for the fine arts, especially for Painting and Music. These are all elegant, and may be made eminently useful accom- plishments. In him they were set off by others, more superficial, but more dazzling to the superfi- cial observers of mankind. In person he was remarkably handsome. In manners, grace- ful and fascinating. With all the internal hardness he had the external polish of marble. But with all this care and cultiva- tion of the surface he was educa- ted for sensual enjoyments and not for toilsome action. He was brought up in the established re- ligion of the state, but among his studies we hear nothing of moral philosophy, nothing of the school of ethics to which he was formed. At the age of twenty one he was adniitted to the House of Lords, by the title of Duke of Cornwall. In the theory of the British con- stitution, the peers of the reahn are the hereditary counsellors of the king, and form, in their cor- porate capacity, one branch of the Legislature. This theory neces- sarily supposes that the individuals thus honored by their birth, shall receive education suitable to the stations which they are thus privi- leged to occupy. — That they shall be instructed in the elements of political science, and made acquainted with the wants and interests of their country, — fa- vored by the confidence of that country in advance, — placed in a post of honor and of power, — free from all dependence either upon the crown or upon the peo- ple ; — a duty of the sternest obligations rests upon them to qua- lify themselves for the high and responsible trust committed to their charge, — a trust embracing all the transcendent powers of government, legislative, judicial, and executive. These obligations weigh with accumulated gravity upon the heir apparent to the throne, to whom his appropriate functions, as a peer of tlie realm, should be the most effective prac- tical school to fit him for the higher and all-embracing duties of the kingly crown, to which, in course of nature, he is to be called. This theory is founded upon a superficial observation, and a too generous estimate of human nature. The experience of all ages shows that the proper- ty of all independent hereditary power is to degenerate either into morbid energy, or more frequent- 1} into torbid inaction. The spark of ethereal flame imparted by the divine intelligence to every indi- vidual of the human race for pur- poses w^ise and good, but inscru- table to us, communicated in por- tions so unequal that in its extremes on the one bandit is scarcely dis- cernible from the mere animal brute creation, while on the other it raises man to a standard little lower than the angels. In this, as in the other phenomena of mind and matter, w^e perceive that the creative power acts by general laws ; but the limited ca- pacity of man is unable to dis- cover by what laws this distribu- tion so unequal is made. We only know that it is independent ENGLAND 437 of all human agency and control ; and that it is not transmissible by descent. Genius, the attribute which of all others most approx- imates the human to the divine nature, to human observation ap- pears to be the gift of chance. — It strikes, like the bolt of heaven, where it listeth. --- It enters at once the British House of Peers, and the hovel of a Scottish pea- sant, to transform the ploughman and the peer into the two most splendid poets of the age ; but not a particle of that flame, which in them is destined to illuminate or to consume, shall descend on one individual of their posterity. The son of king Edward 111., when Prince of Wales, was one of the most illustrious warriors that his native island had produ- ced. — The son of George III., in- vested with the same dignity, was a mere gaudy trifler and fashion- able rake — a Bond-street loun- ger in pall-mall, and a nerveless sybarite at Brighton. During the middle ages of Europe, France was afflicted by a succession of monarchs, known in history under the denomination of the do-noth- ing kings — Les Roi Faineans. — This epithet would be perfectly characteristic of the life and reign of George IV. — ^^From his first ap- pearance in the world, his youth was marked only by the most unbridled licentiousness and ex- travagance. — From the time when he came of age, he receiv- ed a grant from Parliament of sixty thousand pounds sterling for outfit, and fifty thousand pounds a year as income ; his friends, that is to say, his parasites, affect- ed to consider this establishment as mean and niggardly, demanded for him double that amount of income, and stimulated him to resentment against the king his father for refusing to countenance this claim of boundless profusion. — He connected himself in inti- macy with the leaders of opposi- tion to the administration, wlio ultimately found in his treachery to themselves, and his desertion of their cause, the reward of their attachment to him, and of their subserviency to his profligate ha- bits of life. — Handsome in per- son, graceful in deportment, fas- cinating in manners, and profuse in expenses, he was called the most accomplished gentleman in Europe, because he had been duly drilled by the dancing, fenc- ing and riding masters, and as ministering to sensual enjoyment had cultivated a taste for the ele- gant arts of music, painting, sculp- ture and architecture ; endowed by nature with a lively wit, his education and habits gave it the direction of satirical severity, and he indulged it in cutting sarcasms and coarse jokes upon his menials and dependants, from whom he could be in no danger of retort. This sparkling vivacity, with the splendor of his entertainments, the magnificence of his palace, the brilliancy of his equipages, and the wasteful riot of his ex- penditures, gave for years a daz- zling gloss to his reputation, which to the vulgar observation of his countrymen, passed for indications of an accomplished prince. As if to set at defiance the moral de- cency of his father's court, he commenced his career with giving affected publicity to his licentious 438 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. connexion with a married woman whomhe had seduced, with whom he paraded about the streets of London in an open Phaeton, and whom, two years after, he desert- ed, and suffered to die in shame, wretchedness and want. His next irregular and unlawful connexion was with Mrs Fitzher- bert, an Irish widow, then ten years older than himself. — A connexion sanctioned by the forms of marriage, and in which the di- vine law was complied with by a double violation of the law of the land. Mrs Fitzherbert was a Roman Catholic, and a British subject, with whom a marriage by the heir apparent was prohibi- ted by at least two acts of Par- liament. By one of them, the marriage was absolutely null and void — by the other, the Prince had incurred the forfeiture of his right of succession to the crown, which the lady well knew : so that of the subsequent treachery or dereliction of her royal lover she could have less cause to com- plain than if their union had been disavowed by religion as well as by human laws. She is yet liv- ing at the age of little less than four score, and if her influence over the mind and conduct of her paramour was in nothing more ex- ceptionable than in preparing his conscience for giving his royal assent to the Catholic emancipa- tion bill, she cannot, at least, be chargeable with having abused it for evil purposes. That she was instrumental in effecting a re- conciliation of courtesy between him and the last relicts of the Stuart pretenders, and with the Roman Pontiff, has been ru- mored, but without formal au- thentication. However this might be, the influence of Mrs Fitzherbert was never effective, and probably ne- ver exerted to reclaim him from his habits of extravagance and dissipation, aggravated by the ru- inous vice of gaming. By this his affairs soon became so much involved in debt and disorder that he was reduced to the humiliation of applying to his father for relief from his embarrassments, and suffered from him the mortifica- tion of a refusal. Then for the purpose of shaming his father into compliance, he made a the- atrical display of self-sacrifice, broke up his establishment, sold his race horses, surrendered four fifths of his income for the gradual liquidation of his debts, and did penance upon ten thousand pounds sterling a year. By the baseness of these devices to briag upon his father the obloquy of miserly meanness towards his son, he alienated the affections of the king, till he discarded him from , all intercourse with him public or private. Soon growing w^eary of his own performance in this farce of penury and persecution, he transferred his application for relief from the king to Parlia- ment, from whom he obtained a sum of one hundred and sixty thousand pounds to pay his debts, and of twenty thousand pounds to repair his palace, on a condition of amendment and future econo- my, to which he assented only to afford another proof how utterly regardless of his word he was. It was in the debate upon this act, that the fact of his secret ENGLAND. 439 marriage with Mrs Fitzherbert was solemnly denied and treated as an infamous calumny by Mr Fox in the confidence of his reli- ance upon the word of honor of the heir apparent secretly pledged. Mr Fox afterwards discovered that in this transaction his royal highness had made him at once his instrument and his dupe, for which, it is said, he never forgave him. Not long afterwards appeared the first decisive indications of the malady, which afflicted the last years of the king's life. Its access then was temporary, but brought on the necessary discus- sion in Parliament of the estab- lishment of a regency. An act of Parliament for this purpose, vesting the regency in the prince of Wales, but under considerable restrictions upon the exercise by the regent of the royal power, was presented by the minister, adoptedby the House of Com- mons, and had reached its last stages in the House of Peers, when all further proceedings on the subject were superseded by the recovery of the king. The agitation of the question to which this occasion gave rise, produced little less than a convulsion throughout the kingdom. The dissolute and unprincipled habits and conduct of the prince, his connexions with the leaders of the opposition to the administration, whose private morals were scarce- ly less exceptionable than those of the prince himself, and the dissensions between him and his father which had prevailed im- mediately before the occurrence of the king's disease, had so stag- gered the confidence of the nation in his personal dispositions, that Mr Pitt found it necessary to provide by law, that the re- gency of the kingdom should be separated from the custody of the king's person, from the disposal of his property, from the manage- ment of his household, and even from the exercise of some of the highest powers of the royal pre- rogative, particularly in the crea- tion of Peers. The regency, thus manacled, the prince had been under the necessity of con- senting to accept, though not with- out ungracious complaints at the distrust which he had deserved, and the restraints to which he was obliged to submit. The king, however, recovered, and the French revolution which soon followed, while it broke up into fragments the opposition to Mr Pitt's administration, dissolved also the prince's connexion with them. — He had the sagacity to perceive that a revolution, which then announced itself as founded upon the principle of subverting all royal governments, held forth banners under which a prince of Wales, and heir apparent of Eng- land, could not conveniently serve and in 1792, he made a speech in the House of Lords against the doctrines then adopted by his old friends the new Whigs, of whom he thus took leave, and henceforward voted with the min- istry. The prince of Wales, without very profound penetration, might have discovered that a reforma- tion of his own manners, and the devotion of his faculties to the service of his country, would have 440 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. afforded a stronger argument against the doctrines of the repub- lican revolutionists than his seces- sion from the standard of the Whigs in Parliament. But he made no discovery which could reclaim him from his vices. — A very few years again involved him in debt inextricable, and after failing in an attempt to negotiate a loan in Holland, he at last bar- gained himself away by a marriage with his cousin, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick, upon condition that his debts should be paid, and a larger provision should be made for his household establishment. A parliamentary grant of six hun- dred thousand pounds was made for the first of these objects and an annuity of one hundred and twentyfive thousand pounds a year for the last, besides a hand- some outfit. The marriage took place on the 8th of April, 1795, and on the next day he deserted his conjugal duties forever, treat- ed his wife with constant and gross indignity, compelled her to live in a separate establishment, harassed her with delicate inves- tigations of her own conduct, drove her into a wandering exile upon the continent of Europe, denied her upon his own accession to the throne the right of re- cognition as his Queen, and final- ly aimed at once at her honor and her life by a bill of pains and penalties, before the House of Peers, for adultery w^ith an ob- scure Itahan by the name of Ber- gami. Of this charge she was acquitted, and immediately after died of a broken heart. In 1810, the last and incurable return of his father's disease, re- vived the necessity for a regency, which was conferred upon him under the restrictions contempla^ ted twentytwo years before by Mr Pitt, some of which were, however, afterwards removed. — r The custody of the king's person remaining, until bis death in 1 820, in the queen, and a committee of Privy-counsellors and Peers. Ascending the throne at the age of little less than three score, the reign of George IV. could not in the course of nature be long. — Its duration was of about ten years : for his constitution, natu- rally strong and vigorous, though impaired by the vicious excesses of a licentious life, yet lasted nearly out the average term of years allotted to man. His days were nearly three score years and ten ; and so completely will he stand before the tribunal of pos- terity as a do-nothing king, that were his existence blotted out of the history of England, there is not a solitary law or institution, or word or deed worthy of preser- vation, which would pass into ob- livion with him. His next brother, the Duke of York, having died before him, he was immediately succeeded upon the throne by the third son of George III., William Henry, Duke of Clarence. It was re- marked by a philosophical Roman historian, that of thirteen Roman Emperors who had reigned at the time when he wrote, one only had improved his reputation by the exercise of supreme power. To judge of the character of King William IV. at this time, would be obviously, rash and pre- ENGLAND. 441 mature, but thus far he appears entitled to the commendation bestowed by Tacitus upon Ves- pasian. His reputation as a Prince of the blood royal of Eng- land was not enviable. — He had indeed, from early youth been destined in active life to the ser- vice of his country, on the thea- tre of her renown, and of her power. He had risen in regular gradation from the ranks of a midshipman and lieutenant in her navy ; and before the age of man- hood, had breasted the battle and the breeze during the American revolutionary war. But there his services had ceased. When the age of manhood came, he had retired from its useful and honor- able toils. When he became Duke of Clarence, with a par- liamentary establishment of six- teen thousand pounds sterling a year, he slunk away from his proper stand, the quarter deck of a man of war, to the inglorious retirement of Bushy Park, where living in shameless notoriety with an accomplished actress of the stage, and after making her the mother of a spurious breed of children now mingling their mon- grel blood with that of the proud- est nobles of the kingdom, he turn- ed her off to perish with want in a foreign land, and to be indebted for decent obsequies to the char- ity of strangers. And while thus he lived, Howe, and Hood, and Duncan, and Jarvis, and Colling- wood, and Exmouth, and Nelson, were twining wreaths of laurel round the colossal form of their country, multiplying from year to year her mural crowns, extending her fame over every ocean, and 38 bearing her thunder to every land. Of these heroic warriors, the Duke of Clarence was a brother admi- ral ; — with them and before them he rose in rank and promotion till he reached the summit of the profession forbidden to them, — the dignity of Lord High Ad- miral of the United Kingdom. He shared, he more than shared the rewards of glorious achieve- ment ; but of its labors, its toils, its dangers, its anxieties, its pri- vations, its energies, what thought or memory could there be in the luxurious and dissolute purlieus of Brushy Park ? But the rising sun will never be destitute of worshippers. — George IV. departed without be- ing desired. The accession of William IV. was welcomed with joyous acclamations. His early life had brought him into famihar intercourse with the laborious and common classes of men ; from which the heir apparent had al- ways been preposterously seclud- ed. The midshipman of a man of war had been under the com- mand of plebeian superiors — the messmate of simple commoners — the companion of rude and hardy tars, and there had taken lessons of language more ener- getic than dignified, and formed a taste for manners more popular than refined. A sailor king was a novelty in the British Islands,, and gave to the person uniting the characters, a double hold at once upon the affections and the reve- rence of the people. It had, in- deed, once before been combined in the person of an unfortunate Prince, the last of the Stuart line ;• and if James II. had not sacrificed 442 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. three kingdoms for a mass, his naval exploits would perhaps have atoned for all his other follies, and have left him to die in possession of the throne. The career of William IV. had not been signal- ized by any brilliant achievement, but it had given him the glossary of the seaman's language, and the rude but hearty and hardy man- ners of the gun-deck. It has been said that his instruction as Lord High Admiral of Great Britain to Admiral Codrington, which produced the victory of Navarino, was conveyed in the significant words ' Go it, Ned,' in a postscript to an official despatch, — and when on a recent occasion he was suddenly called to go to the House of Peers to dissolve the Parliament, the royal state coach not being in a state of pre- paration, he ordered his servants if the yacht could not be got rea- dy, to send him the yawl. These anecdotes may be apo- cryphal, but whether real sayings from the royal lips, or probable fictions of courtiers around him, they indicate the character of the man. A Commodore Trunnion upon the throne, and they seized hold at once upon the imagination and the heart of the British peo- ple. He was withal afTable in his manners, cordial in his deport- ment, and in the establishment of his household, descended from the stiff and scornful dignity of the old courts, approximating to the domestic arrangements of private families in the middle ranks of society. His reign com- menced, therefore, under auspices of great popularity. During the wars of the French Revolution, the Duke of Clarence had steadi- ly adhered to the Tory Adminis- trations of his country ; and Mr Canning, w hen at the head of the ministry, after the death of the Earl of Liverpool, seeking from every quarter support in his struggle against an overbearing aristocracy, had brought the Duke himself in as Lord High Admiral of the kingdom, an office which had been laid up in ordinary since the decease of George, Prince of Denmark, the husband of Queen Ann. This experi- ment had not proved remarkably successful. The Lord High Ad- miral was said to have been over- liberal in the use of funds without waiting for parliamentary appro- priations. He had found it ad- visable during the administration of the Duke of Wellington, to resign his office, which was again vested in a board of commission- ers, as it had been for more than a century before his appointment. But notwithstanding this, and not- withstanding recent family con- nexions had been formed between the Fitz-Clarences, and certain distinguished members of the Whig opposition, William IV. on his first accession to the throne, retained all the ministers in office at the decease of his predecessor. In commanding them to continue their services, he gave them an assurance of hisperfeot confidence in their zeal and ability, and a declaration that no change would be made in the principles upon which the government had been conducted by them. Disappoint- ed in their expectations from the change in the person of the mo- narch, the opposition adapted ENGLAND. 443 their course of hostility against the ministry to the new circumstances of the time, and brought forward, even after a message from the crown announcing a speedy dis- solution of Parliament, and re- commending a speedy despatch of the necessary business of the session, a motion for an immediate settlement of a Regency and tiie civil list. This proposition was defeated by a large majority, and Parliament was dissolved under a general expectation, soon to be signally disappointed, that the power of the Duke of Wellington and his ministry was consolidated upon an immovable foundation. The new Parliament met on the second of November. In the interval between the dissolution . and that day, events of transcen- dent importance had occurred in other countries, which had totally changed the face of continental Europe, and had prepared times of trouble and of convulsion in the British islands. The Revo- lution of the three days of Barri- cades, at the close of the month of July — the expulsion of Charles X. and of his family from France — the elevation of the Duke of Orleans to the vacant throne — the dismemberment of the king- dom of the Netherlands — and the insurrection of the Poles a2;ainst the Russian autocrasy at Warsaw, the former related in other chapters of this volume, had all occurred. All Europe was in combustion. The revolutionary flame was already burning fiercely in Ireland, upon the agitation of a proposal for a repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain ; and even in the larger island, the pro- gress of popular revolutions in tlie adjoining lands, had stirred up all the elements of public discon- tent, and revived with redoubled fury the clamors for retrenchment and reform. The progress of the elections had disclosed, unex- pectedly to all, the decline of the Duke of Wellington's popularity — very recently before so unri- valled, that some of his enemies made no scruple of insinuating that the crown itself was not safe from the grasp of his ambition. He was himself far from perceiving the height from which he had fall- en. He had not dared to refuse the recognition of the new govern- ment of France ; but with regard to the Revolution in the Nether- lands, he had manifested a dis- position to take part against the people, which the spirit of the age could no longer endure. The king opened the session of Parliament by a speech in per- son. He stated that since the dissolution of the late Parliament events of deep interest and im- portance had occurred on the continent of Europe. That the elder branch of the House of Bourbon no longer reigned in France, and that the Duke of Orleans had been called to the throne by the title of King of the French. — That having received from the new sovereign a declaration of his earnest desire to cultivate the good understand- ing, and to maintain inviol ate all the engagements subsisting with Great Britain, he did not hesitate, to Continue his diplomatic rela- tions and friendly intercourse with the French Court. That he had witnessed with 444 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. deep regret the state of affairs in the Low Countries. He lament- ed that the enlightened adminis- tration of the king should not have preserved his dominions from REVOLT, and that the wise and prudent measure of submitting the desires and complaints of his people to the deliberations of an extraordinary meeting of the States General, should have led to no satisfactory result. — That he was endeavoring, in concert with his allies, to devise such means of restoring tranquillity as might be compatible with the welfare and good government of the Netherlands, and with the future security of other states. That notwithstanding the ap- pearances of tumult and disorder in different parts of Europe, he hoped to preserve to his people the blessings of peace, — and that the determination to maintain, in conjunction with his Allies, those general treaties by which the political system of Europe has been estahlished, would offer the best security for the repose of the world. That he had not yet accredited his ambassador at the court of Lisbon ; but that a? Don Miguel had determined to grant a general act of amnesty, he thought the time might shortly arrive for re- newing the relations which had so long existed between the two countries. He recommended an immedi- ate consideration of an act for the establishment of a Regency in the event of his decease, before his successor should arrive at years of maturity ; and the establishment of a civil list, upon which he said he placed without reserve, at the disposal of parliament, his interest in the hereditary revenues, and in the funds derivable from droits of admiralty, the West India duties, or other casual revenue. He deeply lamented that in some districts of the country the property of his subjects had been endangered by combinations for the destruction of machinery, and that serious losses had been sus- tained through the acts of wick- ed incendiaries. He could not view without grief and indignation, the efforts industriously made to excite among the people a spirit of dis- content and disaffection, and to disturb the concord prevailing be- tween those parts of his domi- nions, the union of which was es- sential to their common strength, and common happiness. He was determined to exert to the utmost of his power, all the means which the law and the constitution hnd placed at his disposal, for the punishment of sedition, and for the prompt suppression of outrage and disorder. Amidst all the difficulties of the present conjuncture, he reflected with the highest satisfaction on the loyalty and affectionate at- tachment of the great body of the people. — He was confident that they justly appreciated the full advantages of the happy form of government, under which, through the favor of Divine Providence, the country had enjoyed for a long succession of years, a great- er share of internal peace, of com- mercial prosperity, of true liberty, ENGLAND. 445 of all that constitutes social hap- piness, than has fallen to the lot of any other country in the world. He concluded by affirming it to be the object of his life to pre- serve these blessings to this peo- ple, and to transmit them unim- paired to posterity ; and that he was animated in the discharge of the sacred duty committed to him by the firmest reliance on the wisdom of Parliament, and on the cordial support of his faith- ful and loyal subjects. There is always a glaring in- congruity between the form and the substance of the speeches of the kings of Great Britain to their Parliament. In form, they speak in the first person, and descant at large upon their own virtues and graces. In substance, they per- form the part of school boys recit- ing their lessons ; or in the more courtly and sarcastic language of Junius, they give graceful utter- ance to the sentiments of the mi- nister. The king of England WTites not one line of the speech that he delivers from the throne. He is responsible for not one word that he speaks. His ministers are responsible for it all with their heads, and it is of course always written by them. The personal dispositions of the king are there- fore of no account, and paragraphs of self-encomium and gratulation in their speeches, are merely modes of flattery, really address- ed by the minister to the king, though apparently delivered by the king to his people. The speech is always reechoed by ad- dresses from both houses of Par- liament, and the debates upon these addresses are at once the 38* severest criticisms upon the speech, and the most decisive trials of strength between the ad ministration and their opponents. To this ordeal the first parlia- mentary speech of William IV". was immediately brought. — And first a gross inconsistency of first principles was charged upon its different parts. It declared that the king did not hesitate to con- tinue his diplomatic relations and friendly intercourse with the court of France, although the elder branch of the House of Bourbon had ceased to reign in that king- dom, and the Duke of Orleans had been called to the throne. The only reason assigned for his recognition of the total overthrow of legitimacy by a popular insur- rection, and this acknowledgment, without hesitation, of a govern- ment, without title, monarchical or republican, hereditary or elec- tive, was that the new king of the French had declared his earnest desire to cultivate the good un- derstanding, and to maintain the engagements subsisting with Great Britain. Here was the system of non-intervention in all its puri- ty. But when he came to speak of the Belgian Revolution, how altered was the tone ! It was styled a revolt against an enlight- ened government, aggravated by the rejection of wise and prudent measures of the Dutch king, which his royal brother of Eng- land lamented ; and it stated that he was with his allies devising means to restore tranquillity, com- patible not only with the security of other states, but with the wel fare and good government of tli Netherlands. Here was the 446 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. principle of intervention in its rankest and most offensive form. The king of England, after pro- nouncing the revolutionary move- ment in Belgium a wanton revolt against an enlightened government was devising means for restoring good government ; — and it was impossible to read the whole par- agraph without inferring that in his majesty's perception and judg- ment the enlightened government and the good government were tlie same. Then^again with regard to Por- tugal the principle of non-inter- vention was resumed for the ben- efit of a tyrant and usurper. Mr Canning had sent a British army into Portugal to put him down. He had accomplished his purposes directly in their face ; and, indeed, with their countenance, if not their support. The troops had then been withdrawn ; all the supporters both of a free consti- tutional government and of the ancient monarchy had been aban- doned to the merciless vengeance of the usurper, which, after he had glutted by bloody executions, imprisonments, banishments and confiscations, king William was about to recognise Don Miguel as a legitimate sovereign, upon his issuing a general act of amnesty, of his faithful performance of which, he had given a foretaste by the violation of all the engage- ments and treaties which he had so recently subscribed for the set- tlement of the crown upon the daughter of his brother, then Emperor of Brazil. These inconsistencies were seized upon with great eagerness by the opposition in both houses of Parliament, headed in the House of Peers by Earl Grey, and in the Commons by Henry Brougham, then first returned as a member from the populous county of York. They were inconsistencies of the most dangerous kind : for they tended to deprive the Duke of Wellington of that reputation which, till then, had constituted his principal power — the repu- tation of firmness and energy. — Compared together, his course of proceeding towards France, and towards the Netherlands, indicat- ed a feeble, timid, and vacillating policy ? * Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,' — overawed by the giant form of revolutionary France ; but bold and daring in the attempt to put down the same spirit upon the small and contract- ed theatre of Belgium. The paragraph of the speech respecting the tumults and disor- ders prevailing in various parts of the kingdom, seemed to have a special reference to the state of Ireland, and was thought to bear peculiarly upon one member of the House of Commons, O'Con- nell, the Irishman. He, after sharing in the triumph of Catholic emancipation, had taken his seat without opposition, after a fruidess attempt to take it before the Catholic bill had passed. — That question setded, he had raised another, by stimulating the people of Ireland to demand the repeal of the Act of Union between that island and Great Britain. The proposal had been received in Ireland with great favor, and had been made the signal for re- union of the two great parties into which that country had been ENGLAND. 447 so long divided. The royal speech alluded to these efforts in a tone which left no reason to doubt that the whole power of the government would be exerted to suppress this attempt if it should be made. There was another point upon which the speech presented itself with awkwardness from a want of precision in the language of its composition. It made a show of placing at the disposal of Parlia- ment all the king's personal and individual property; but upon in- quiry it was found that the reve- nues of the Dutchies of Cornwall and Lancaster were tacitly ex- cepted. A warm and angry de- bate upon this question followed upon the discovery, the result of which was to leave on the public mind the impression of a mean and ungracious act on the part of the king, in that which was bla- zoned forth in the speech as a sacrifice of splended munificence. From the time of the settle- ment of the Catholic question un- til the demise of George IV., the Duke of Wellington's adminis- tration had appeared by disarming the opposition of the Whigs, to have gained in support from that party more of popularity than it had lost in the favor of the To- ries. We have seen that in the last session of the preceding Par- liament, every motion for parlia- mentary inquiry into the state of the country, though at a period of deep and universal distress, had been voted down by over- whelming majorities in both Houses, and the reformers had been unable to obtain even a transfer of the right of represen- tation, from the borough of East Redford, disfranchised for cor- ruption, to the populous and un- represented towns of Birmingham or Manchester. William IV. at his accession, had given his entire and unqualified confidence to the ministers left in office by his bro- ther, and a new Parliament had assembled, without any interven- ing act of the administration, which could have affected seri- ously their popularity. The Duke of Wellington must have known that his ascendency in this Par- liament would not be as entire as it had been in the last, but he ap- pears to have been altogether un- aware of the extent of the dis- affection he was to experience. It was a singular but surely not an uninstructive spectacle to see his fame and power, colossal as they were, fall before the touch of an invisible hand — and that hand was the re-expulsion of the ^ elder branch of the House of Bourbon.' From the day when they no longer reigned in France, he no longer reigned in England, Such is the great and tremendous lesson of the French Revolution, — In all its vicissitudes, the great primitive principles upon which it is founded have proved unextin- guishable. The Duke of Wel- lington with all Europe at his back had vanquished Napoleon upon the theatre of his glory ; the field of batde. — He had been ' Le Vainqueur du Vainqueur de la Terre.'— He had led the Bourbons back in triumph to their throne, and delivered his moral lectures in Paris to the people of France after ' the long agony was over.' It was now the 448 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. turn of the people of France to moralize with him, — to teach him that if Salamanca and Vit- toria, and Talavera, and La belle Alliance, could suffice to break the sceptre of Napoleon, and strip from his brow the imperial diadem won at Lodi, and Arcole, and Marengo, the field of battle was not the scene upon which the French Revolution was to close. Three days of the barricades of Paris had rolled down the stone of Sysiphus, which all the monarchies of Europe had been five and twenty years in heaving up. The long agony was to re- commence, and the fame of the Duke of Wellington was gone. The armed head of Napoleon might have risen before him like Samuel raised by the Witch of Endor before Saul ; and have said, ' tomorrow thou shalt be with me.' His antagonists, especially Hen- ry Brougham, had seized at a glance the condition to which he was coming, and as he was tow- ering in his pride of state, had sped the shaft to transfix him in his flight. On the hustings at York, at public meetings and po- litical dinners, during the canvass for the new Parliament, and by various publications through the medium of the press, he had prepared the way for the attack upon him at the meeting of Par- liament. This he made in a splendid speech, exposing the weakness and inconsistency of that which had been delivered from the throne, and laying down as a principle never to be depart- ed from, the universal rule of non- interference in the internal affairs of neighboring states 5 — a rule which, however occasionally suited to the purposes of oppo- sition never can be an inflexible rule to any administration of the British government. In this speech he declared that the exist- ing administration was composed of the feeblest ministers, into whose hands, by a strange com- bination of accidents, the govern- ment of the country ever fell — hardly sufficient to manage the routine of official business in the calmest times — unable to man- age the business of the House of Commons in ordinary times — yet deeming themselves sufficient to manage the business of a great and complicated war. In the House of Peers, Earl Grey, with more dig- nity and decorum, without insult- ing personalities, repeated the censure upon the intention indi- cated in the royal speech of in- terfering in the internal affairs of the Netherlands ; and upon the qualification of the Belgian Re- volution, as a revolt, against an enlightened and paternal govern- ment ; and he took an early oc- casion to remark, that in his belief, * if the government did not yield to measures of temperate reform, they must make up their minds to witness the destruction of the constitution ; and that ministers might now pursue with safety measures for improving the repre- sentation, which would be uhi- mately forced upon them at a season of greater difficulty and danger. To this, the Duke of Wellington replied, that so far from being prepared with any measure of reform, he was con- vinced that no reform was neces- sary ; that in his opinion the re- presentation of the country was ENGLAND. 449 perfect, and that any attempt at reforming it would be an impolitic interference with the best legisla- tive system that ever existed. — ' For my own part,' said he, ' I will say that I never heard that any country ever had a more im- proved, or more satisfactory re- presentation than this country enjoys at this moment. I do say that this country has now a le- gislature more calculated to an- swer all the purposes of n good legislature than any other that can ivell be devised ; that it possesses, and deservedly possesses the con- fidence of the country, and that its discussions have a powerful influence in the country. And I will say further, that if I had to form a legislature, 1 would cre- ate one, — not equal in excel- lence to the present, for that I could not expect to be able to do, but something as nearly of the same description as possible. I should form it of men possessed of a very large portion of the property of the country, in which the landlords should have a great preponderance. I therefore am not prepared with any measure of parliamentary reform, nor shall any measure of the kind be pro- posed by the government so long as I hold my present position.' This declaration, not less feeble in argument than military and dictatorial in form, sealed the ofiicial doom of the Duke of Wellington. The panegyric upon the existing system of parliamen- tary representation, might have been cheered by the Whigs them- selves immediately after the battle of Waterloo, but it was now no more in season. It was in sub- stance what George Canning had said much more smartly over his wine, at every canvassing dinner which had been given him to the day of his death. It was very little more than Earl Grey, who was now taunting him with a challenge of reform, had said at a public dinner, when in 1818 his loyalty had been refreshed by the issue of the same battle of Wa- terloo. Twenty five years before, Mr Charles Grey, in the first in- flammatory stage of the French Revolution, had come into the House of Commons in the fever- heat of reform. He had com- menced his parliamentary career by joining in the clamor for re- form to embarrass the administra- tion of Mr Pitt. His father, however, had shortly afterwards been raised to the peerage for sundry achievements of pillage upon neutral American commerce in the West Indies, for which the British nation were afterwards compelled to pay, and the zeal for reform of Mr Charles Grey cooled down to the freezing point. At the decease of his father, he became himself a peer, and was afterwards raised to an earldom ; and for a short time during the administration of all the talents, was the secretary of state for foreign affairs by the name of Lord Howick. In 1812, when the House of Commons and the Prince Regent were searching for an efficient ministry, like Dio- genes with the lantern in his hand looking out for a man. Earl Grey received the Prince's commands to form such a ministry, of which he was to be the premier, but very indignantly threw up the 450 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. commission upon the Prince's re- fusal to turn out four of his do- mestic servants dignified with the title of Lords : thereby as his friend Sheridan reproached him, abandoning the welfare of his country and the destinies of Eu- rope to the imbecility of Liver- pool and Castlereagh, ' for the sake of four white sticks.' Earl Grey lost also thereby the opportunity of bringing the war to that glorious and trium- phant close — the conquest of France, and the restoration of the Bourbons. Unable from his own overbearing arrogance and obstinacy to form a firm and effi- cient ministry, he continued the head of a weak and inefficient opposition ; and in 1818, at some public dinner, not only recanted all his old partialities for parlia- mentary reform, but went out of his way to draw an invidious and offensive parallel between the British mode of representation and that of the U^iited States of America — declaring his decided preference of the former. On the score of consistency, therefore, the Duke of Wellington had greatly the advantage in this debate over Earl Grey. In the domineering tone of their tem- pers, there was little to choose between them. But the Earl had caught ere she changed, the Cynthia of the minute, parliamen- tary reform, and he returned to the standard from which he had deserted. It is hoped he has discovered that the represen- tative system of the United States ot America is not quite so bad as that which gave old Sarum and East Redford two members each, and Birmingham and Manchester none at all. The Duke of Wellington dis- covered very soon, and in a very feeling manner, that the most perfect system of representation ' that could well be devised' no longer reigned in England. He could not show himself in the streets of London without being pelted with stones. — He was covered with odium ; and pre- cisely at that moment occurred an incident, very trifling in itself, but which covered him and his ad- ministration with ridicule. We have seen that the king's speech to Parliament was deliv- ered on the second of November. The ninth of that month was the annual festival, known by the name of Lord Mayor's day. It had been usual for the kings of England who affected popularity, to accept, shortly after their ac- cession to the throne, an invitation to go in procession with the Queen to Guildhall, and there to partake of a banquet with the Lord May- or, and the Corporation of Lon- don. Such an invitation had been given to King William, and accepted by him, and the Lord Mayor's day had been fixed upon for the festivity. The prepara- tions for it were accordingly mag- nificent. The precedents of roy- al conviviality in the city had been drawn out from long years of ob- livion, and consulted for repetition. A committee of arrangements had been appointed, and the loyal and the curious were all on the tiptoe of expectation. Orders had been given for a general illumina- tion of the streets along the whole line of the procession. The ENGLAND. 451 lamps were displaying their vari- egated colors in advance, and the inventive genius of the city was upon the rack for designs to re- present in elegant and classical devices the happiness of the land under the paternal government of the sailor king. The prudent and thrifty shopkeepers had let their front windows for ^the day at prices nearly equivalent to their rent for the year, and strangers had flocked from all parts of the United Kingdom to tell their grand children hereafter that they had seen King William feasting with the Lord Mayor of London. All the invitations had been issued, and large sums had been offered and refused for tickets of admis- sion. Wise precautions had also been taken to prevent tumults and preserve order among the multitudes of people who were expected to be assembled. Six thousand citizens of the livery of London were to line the streets, and nearly two thousand special constables had been qualified by oath in aid of the police. In the midst of all this excite- ment and apparatus of prepara- tion a project of personal violence at least upon the Duke of Wel- lington was formed, or was ap- prehended by some of the city authorities. It was threatened in multitudes of inflammatory hand- bills posted on the walls through- out the city. The Lord Mayor elect was so alarmed by these and by other indications reported to him, that he wrote a letter to the Duke apprising him of the danger to which there was reason to fear he might be exposed, and advised him to come to the banquet under the protection of an armed escort. In consequence of this information two successive cabinet councils were held, one of which lasted till midnight. Communications were opened, and continued through a whole day between the home department and the govern- ment of the city, and late in the evening of the seventh of Novem- ber, the committee of arrange- ments for the banquet deemed it their duty to give publicity to a letter received at nine o'clock of the same evening by the Lord Mayor from the secretary of state, Mr Peel, of which the following is a copy. Whitehall, Nov. 7, ' My Lord, — I am command- ed by the king to inform your lordship, that his majesty's confi- dential servants have felt it to be their duty to advise the king to postpone the visit which their majesties intended to pay to the city of London on Tuesday next. From information which has been recently received, there is reason to apprehend, that not- withstanding the devoted loyalty and affection borne to his majesty by the citizens of London, ad- vantage would be taken of an occasion which must necessarily assemble a vast number of per- sons by night to create tumult and confusion, and thereby to endan- ger the properties and the lives of his majesty's subjects. It would be a source of deep and lasting concern to their ma- jesties were any calamity to occur on the occasion of their visit to the city of London, and their majesties have therefore resolved, though not without the greatest reluctance 452 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. and regret, to forego, for the pre- sent, the satisfaction which that visit would have afforded to their majesties. 1 have the honor to be, My Lord, your ob't. serv't Robert Peel. The Right Hon., the Lord Mayor. This letter, it will be perceived, takes no notice whatever, of the real danger, of which the Lord Mayor elect had apprized the Duke of Wellington — an attack upon his own person. It cannot reasonably be doubted, that this danger was real. But it was probably not of a general charac- ter, nor menacing so much to the properties and hves of his Majes- ty's subjects, as to the person of the Duke. The exasperation of the populace was at that precise moment so great against him, on account of his recent peremptory declaration against reform, that it is not unlikely if he had gone un- protected in the royal procession, he would not have returned alive. That the hero of so many bloody days, the conqueror who had re- ceived thirteen times the thanks of both Houses of Parliament for vanquishing the enemies of his country, should shrink from at- tendance at a royal banquet in the metropolis of the realm from the terror of being torn to pieces by an infuriated rabble, is among the phenomena of the times which for the credit of human nature we would readily disbelieve, but that nothing less than an immi- nent danger of life would have in- duce d him to endure this unpar- alleled mortification of consent- ing to the postponement of the royal visit to the city, to save him from the brutality of the mob, car- ries its evidence in the nature of the transaction itself. But as the real dangerwhich had been notified by the letter of the Lord Mayor elect, to the Duke, was masked in the letter from Sir Robert Peel to the Lord Mayor, by the substitution of another and a very different danger, the panic of the Ministry, thus communica- ted to the public mind, assumed yet another form, and nothing less than a Guy Fawkes gun-pow^der plot, to blow up King, Lords, and Commons at a blast, was suppos- ed for a moment to have been detected, and alarm and terror took possession of the whole city. — Not only was the royal banquet postponed, but the ordinary and immemorial celebration of the Lord Mayor's Day, with its pom- pous procession, and its festive dinner were pretermitted — the public funds fell four per cent in one day. The people of London were disappointed of their holi- day — the shopkeepers of the profits of their front windows ; the tradesmen of their quickened circulation of sales, and all were in a fearful looking for, of some tremendous explosion. The next morning occasion was taken from it for a spirited assault upon the ministry in both Houses of Parliament. They were call- ed upon to assign the causes of this great and sudden manifesta- tion of royal alarm. No evidence of a plot or conspiracy threaten- ing the properties or the lives of his Majesty's subjects, nor yet against his Majesty's Government ENGLAND. 453 or person, could b a, Juced — the only document of terrific im- por they could bring forward was the private letter of Alderman Key the Lord Mayor elect to the Duke of Wellington, advising him of the danger to which his per- son might be exposed if he should come without an armed escort, in the procession with the King. That the victor of Assai's bloody plain, and the vanquisher of Na- poleon at Waterloo should flinch from the exposure of his person amid the multitudes of his own countrymen, following his king to the joyous gratulations of the peo- ple upon his accession to the throne was an attitude, mortifying enough to the hero — and porten- tous of downfal to the Prime Minister of State. Meetings were immediately convened of the corporate city authorities, the Common Council and Court of Aldermen, at which a vigorous inquiry and examination was in- stituted into the causes of this extraordinary ministerial fit of vapors. The fears of Alder- man Key, who acknowledged he had written the letter, were derided as visionary, and he and the Duke of Wellington were jointly and severally turned over to the Pie-powder court of cari- caturists and ballad-singers. On that same day it was the .ortune of the Ministers to bring forward the first of the measures which could test their strength in the new parliament. The plan for the settlement of the civil list — that is, of annual public income to be settled upon the King. It was presented by the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, Mr 39 Goulburn. The civil list is, in plain English, the salary, or as in this country we should call it, the annual compensation of the king. It has usually, since the accession ©f the Hanoverian family, been settled by parliament upon each king for life, immediately after his accession to the crow^n. It is a provision not merely for the personal and household expense of the king ; but includes many items of a character altogether na- tional. Such for example as the salaries and support of ambassa- dors and ministers to foreign pow- ers. The establishment of the civil list distinct from the other charges of the state was created by the first of Queen Anne, chap. 7, March, 1701. But neither the amount of the sum thus granted, nor the modes of levying the money, nor the objects of expen- diture provided for by them have been uniform. There had been sometimes grants of hereditary revenues to the crown, ind there were revenues of like character accruing from rents of crown land, and also from the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, and from the county palatine of Ches- ter. These were dignities held separately from that of the royal crown, and produced an income usually considered as the private property of the King. The an- nual amount of the grants which constituted the civil list, had at first been from six to seven hun- dred thousand pounds sterling, but it had been gradually increas- ing at the accession of every kin2;, and found encumbered with a considerable debt, at the close of every reign. 454 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. During the long reign of George the Third there had been at different times, different par- liamentary dispositions of the civil list. It had been fixed at first at an average of about eight hun- dred thousand pounds, but con- stantly contracting debts for which supplementary provisions had been found necessary. In pre- senting his bill the Chancellor of the Exchequer had estimated the civil list as settled upon George the Fourth at 1,221,600 pounds sterling — from which a deduction was to be made of charges for which he proposed to provide, leaving one million and fiftysix thousand pounds, as the object for comparison with that which he was to propose. This was an annuity of 970,000 pounds ; and thus a reduction of eightyfive thousand pounds, upon the civil list of the preceding reign. The first entanglement in which the ministry became involved, upon this statement was by the disclosure elicited in debate, that the surrender of the hereditary resources so emphatically an- nounced in the royal speech was not intended to include the hered- itary revenues of the Duchies — and when this explanation was extorted from the minister, a la- boring and learned argument to prove that the revenues of the Duke of Lancaster and Corn- wall were not the revenues of the Crown of England, did not satisfactorily answer the charge that the ministers had put into the mouth of his majesty a promise of disinterested generosity more extensive than he was ready or Willi -^g to perform. The distinc- tion between the royal and du" cal tides in the same person, had fifty years before been consign- ed to ridicule by the imper- ishable eloquence of Edmund Burke in his speech upon eco- nomical reform, and the revival of it now in grave debate to cur- tail the ostentatious generosity of the king, gave it an air at once of craftiness and ill faith, bargaining by an ostensible gratuity for a profusion of allowance in the civil list. The statements of the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer were all presented in the fairest points of view to induce the belief that a great reduction of expenditure would be the result of his plans, and he expressly alleged the surrender of the hereditary rev- enues, as imposing upon Parlia- ment the obligation of liberality in the grant to the crown. But the statements were controverted. The whole amount of the hered- itary duties surrendered, was proved by Mr Hume not to ex- ceed twentyfour thousand pounds. The classifications of expenditure on the ministerial plan were de- nounced as incorrect and the plan itself as unintelligible, fallacious, and extravagant. The debate was adjourned over to Monday, the 1 5th of November, and then renewed with invigorated opposi- tion. Amotion was finally made by Sir Henry Parnell for the ap- pointment of a committee of in- quiry, not to examine witnesses, or to call for persons and papers, but to verrify the statements of the minister. The result of this mo- tion, which succeeded, though in form amounting merely to a com- ENGLAND. 455 niiitee of inquiry to verify a state- ment of estimates, was in sub- stance equivalent to a declaration that the ministry had lost the con- fidence of the House of Commons and was so understood by the Duke of Wellington and his col- leagues. It was carried by a ma- jority of 233 against 204 — a ma- jority in a very full house of 29 against the ministers. The next morning, the Duke of Wellington in the House of Peers, and Mr Peel, the ministerial leader in the Commons, announced that they had tendered to the king the re- signation of their offices, which had been accepted. All impor- tant parliamentary business was of course suspended till the new administration should be com- pleted. In the interval between the commencement of the debate up- on the civil list, and its termina- tion, Mr Herries introduced in the House of Commons the new schedule of duties upon the trade between the United States of America and the British Colo- nies in America. Upon which occasion he took credit to the ministry for their exemplification in this case, of the principle which Mr Huskisson had avowed, as fundamental to the commercial policy of Great Britain — not only of promoting her interest, but of depressing that of her rival. Up- on one of the items, that of one shilling and tv/o pence, on every tjuarter of corn imported from the United States to the West Indies, a division took place of 136 in favor of the duty to 36 against it. The bill was intro- duced to secure for British navi- gation in this intercourse the whole benefit of carrying the ar- ticle imported from the United States into the West Indies ; an advantage which the minister ex- pected to derive from the arrange- ment recently made on that sub ject with the American Govern- ment. On the 15th of Novem- ber, the day of the vote against the ministry upon the civil list in the House of Commons, the Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst brought in- to the House of Peers the bill for the contingent establishment of a Regency, in the event of the ac- cession to the throne of the Prin- cess Victoria, daughter of the deceased Duke of Kent, presump- tive heiress to the crown, before she should attain the age of 18 years. And thus terminated the ad- ministration of the Duke of Wel- lington, after a turbulent existence of little less than three years — among the singularities of which is that the only act which will sig- nalize it for the approbation of posterity, is an act of political apostacy from his own principles. The experience of all ages and of every region of the globe has proved that the principle of grav- itation in physical nature is not more universal, than that of mili- tary achievement and renown to the government of the state . Le premier qui fut Roi, fut un Soldat heureux — many of the most important qual- ifications for a commander of ar' raies, are equally necessary fo the ruler of nations, and the com- mon judgment of mankind which always moves in masses, never fails to conclude that victory in 456 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. the field, is the infallible test of wisdom in council. This infer- ence has not always been confirm- ed by subsequent events, and mil- itary chieftains have not always proved the wisest or the best of civil governors. The Duke of Wellington, bred from childhood a soldier, and having passed through a military career of un- rivalled splendor, or at least, success, had himself declared the consciousness of his own incom- petency to the chief management of the affairs of the nation, within one short year before he had im- dertaken it. The opinion of his incompetency was not confined to himself. It was shared by all the distinguished statesmen of the realm, of all parties, but not by the great body of the people. — He had received a liberal educa- tion at Eton school ; had held many important civil offices ; had conducted for a series of years the most important negotiations, and as a member of preceding administrations, and of both Hous- es of Parliament had the most fa- miliar acquaintance with all the great concerns of the country, with all the forms of proceeding in the national councils, and all the principles upon which the government had for a long series ofyears been administered. The people could not believe that such a man w^as incompetent to hold the reins of Empire. He re- ceived them from the hands of Lord Goderich, voluntarily sur- rendered by him, as unmanagea- ble by mere plain good sense and honest intentions. The quality which had appeared to be most deficient in his administration was energy, and of that the Juke o Wellington had a Benjamin's por- tion. In the conduct of public affairs, this quality is as indispens- able in peace as in war. In both it may sometimes for a considera- ble period supply the place of dis- cretion, but whoever at the head of the nation, relies upon it entire- ly will, as was said by his broth- er the Marquis of Wellesley of Napoleon, prepare for himself great reverses. Military command, essentially consists in the unobstructed exer- cise of the will, over the action of others. The tendency of suc- cessful command, is to inspire disproportionate self confidence, and impatience of control. It produces a disposition to under- rate the value of council, and^ sometimes an indisposition to re- ceive it. Frederick the Great laid it down as a maxim, that a General who wishes to do nothii g has only to call a council of war. Decision is the most efficient qual- ity for the gain of battles, and when it has often been exerted with great success, it leads to an under estimate of deliberation, and an irksomeness at receiving advice. In the selection of his associates for the discharge of civil trusts, a military commander will, therefore, be apt to prefer subaltern to pre-eminent talents, and subserviency to his will, rath- er than a bold spirit and indepen- dent judgment. Such was the character of the Duke of Welling- ton's administration. The scan- tiness of talent among his col- leagues was a subject of general remark, and their submission to his will was not less conspicuous ENGLAND. 457 than their inability by the process of their understandings to form and sustain one of their own. — This domineering temper was manifested throughout his whole ministerial career, and never more emphatically than in the peremp- tory declaration against parliamen- tary reform, which brought it to a close. To the general deficiency of talents in the Duke's administra- tion, an exception must be made in behalf of Sir Robert Peel, de- finitively its leader in the House of Commons, a man far more competent for the head of a min- istry than the Duke himself. — There was for some time another exception in the person of Mr Huskisson, of whom, probably for that very reason, the Duke disem- barrassed himself with as little of ceremony in point of form, as of delicacy in substance. In the correspondence which accompa- nied his expulsion from the minis- try, the trampling of a more res- olute purpose upon a more intel- ligent mind was exhibited in glar- ing light. The melancholy death of Mr Huskisson preceded only by a few months the Duke's min- isterial downfal ; and if his spirit could then retain any portion of earthly resentment, and had any consciousness of the latter event, it might be soothed by the recol- lection that it was his vote upon the disfranchisement of East-Ret- ford, involving the question of parliamentary reform, which the Duke's political intolerance had punished by driving him from the highest councils of his country. On receiving the resignations of the Duke of Wellington and of 39* Sir Robert Peel, the king asked them separately to whom he should apply to form a new ministry, and they both recommended Earl Grey. He was accordingly sent for at 5 o'clock on the 16th and received the royal command to form a cabinet — the king de- claring that the Duke of Welling- ton had his undivided confidence when minister, and that it would equally without reserve be trans- ferred to his successor. This declaration was well received by the public, and contributed large- ly to increase the personal popu- larity of the king. As an exem- plification of the individual nullity of a king of England in the ad ministration of public affairs it is remarkable. A transfer of un- qualified confidence from a tory to a whig ministry, produced by a single vote for inquiry of the House of Commons upon a bill for the establishment of the civil list, if the king were in any case responsible for his political prin- ciples would indicate little stead- fastness of character. The king as Duke of Clarence had been an uncompromising tory, from the first explosion of the French Rev- olution. So sudden ;md total a change of principle, not merely with regard to a single measure like that of Catholic emancipa- tion, but to a whole system of pol- icy for the management of the af- fairs of the kingdom at home and abroad, would not have been tol- erated in any responsible individ- ual. In the king it was general- ly approved as an act of signal homage to the principles of the Constitution. The new Ministry was an- 458 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. nounced on the 23d of Novem- ber, composed as follows : fivBt Lord of the Treasury, Earl Grey. Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Brougham and Vaux. Secretary of State Foreign Department, Viscount Palmerston. Secretary of State Home Department, Viscount Melbourne. Secretary of State Colonial Department, Viscount Goderich. President of the Council, Marquis of Lansdownc. Lord Privy Seal, Baron Durham. President of the Board of Control, Charles Grant. President of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint, Lord Aucland. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Al- thorpe. First Lord ot the Admiralty, Sir James Graham. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Holland. Postmaster General, Duke of Richmond. SUBORDINATE APPOINTMENTS, Lord Chamberlain, Duke of Devonshire. Secretary of War, C. W. Wynne. Commander in Chief of the Army, Lord Hill. Chief Commissioner of Woods and For- ests, Agar Ellis. Master General of the Ordnance, Lieut. General Sir Edward Paget. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Marquis of Anglesey. Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr Stanley. Attorney General, Sir Thomas Denman. jHdge Adv^ocate General, R. Grant. Solicitor General, Sir W. Home. Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Plun- kett, Vice President of the Board of Trade, Poulet Thompson. Attorney General of Ireland, Mr Pen- nefather. Paymaster of the Forces, Lord John Russel. Surveyor General to the Board of Ord- nance, Sir Robert Spencer, In this list we find Mr Hen- ry Broughan, transformed into Lord Brougham and Vanx, Lord (Jhancellor of England. The metamorphosis was not effected without some difficulty. He had come into the new Parliament, with highly augmented consider- ation, as a member for Yorkshire. His warfare during the interval between the two Parliaments against the ministry had been in- cessant, and he had come full charged with projects of parlia- mentary reform, and for the ab- olition of slavery in the British Colonies. His attack upon the administration, in the first debate on the address in answer to the royal speech, had been vigorous and impressive, and the overthrow of the ministry had been attribut- ed more to him than to any other man. It was foreseen that while he remained in the House of Commons, no administration could be safe without his aid, and it had been supposed that this could be obtained upon more moderate terms than it was found his own estimate of his importance requir- ed. Before the change of minis- try had taken place, he had giv- en notice of an intended motion for Reform of Parliament, and when the resignation of the min- isters was announced by Sir Rob- ert Peel in the House of Com- mons, upon the postponement, with other business, of his motion, Mr Brougham said that as no change of ministry could affect HIM, he should certainly call up his motion, on the 25th. On the 23d he took his seat upon the Woolsack as Lord Chancellor, much to the surprise of the new opposition, and of the public, and not without severe animadversion. It was understood that Earl Grey would have preferred to retain him as the ministerial leader in the House of Commons, but that Mr Brougham could not be re- tained. The peerage and the Woolsack, were a sine qua non ENGLAND. 459 to bim, and he received all ap- proaches of the new Premier with a lofty indilFerence, intimating sig- nificantly that he might not with- out hesitation accept the Peerage and the Chancery as equivalent for the representation of York- shire. These scruples were how- ever not of long continuance ; for on the 22d a patent of Peerage was made out, and the next day he presided in the House of Lords. Earl Grey, upon presenting himself to that House as the head of the new administration, made a speech in which he declared that the principles of his government should be economy and retrench- ment at home ; non-intercourse with the internal affairs of other nations ; and a Reform of Parlia- ment in the House of Commons. These were now the popw/ar doc- trines of the British nation. Thenceforward, a new system of a,overnment was to direct the fortunes and regulate the affairs of the British Empire. — But retrenchment and economy had been the avowed purpose of the preceding and indeed of all preceding administrations ; even of the most extravagant and pro- fuse. At one of the most waste- ful periods of British history, when the annual provision for fifty millions sterling of expenditure was called for, from Parliament, a member of the ministerial board solemnly declared to the House of Commons that the Government never spent a shilling without look- ing at both sides of it. A stand- ing theme and hackneyed boast of the royal speeches to Parlia- ment was economy ; and the common effort of the ministers, from time immemorial, has been to find out some paltry superflui- ty to curtail, and to blazon it forth as a sinking fund to the na- tional debt. The retrenchments of Earl Grey will not materially differ from those of his predecessors, and as economy is always a rela- tive term, resting not upon the amount of expenses but upon the circumstances and means of the expending party upon the collat- eral condition of others and upon the manners, fashions and customs of the times, he like others has found it more easy to promise in Parliament than to introduce it into the complex machinery of the Executive Government. The disclaimer of all interference in the internal affairs of other States is also a principle subject to much qualification. If by speaking of the king's endeavors to restore good government in the Nether- lands the Duke of Wellington had intended to announce the 'deter- mination to restore the dominion of the House of Orange in the Belgian Provinces, it was certain that object v/ould not be further pursued under the Administration of Earl Grey — but the protocols of the five powers at London have too often and too imperiously dictated to the people of Belgium their own destinies to be rigor- ously reconcilable with the prin- ciple of non-intervention. The undoubted desire both of the Bel- gian and of the French people was the re-annexation of Belgium to France. It was also the un- questionable interest of both. — Belgium is geographically part of France as much as the Depart- 460 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. menl of the Seine. The lan- guage, the religion, the manners and customs of Belgium are French. Every political and moral consideration, that can in- fluence the minds of the people points to their re-union with France, and they have felt and acted accordingly. They at first frankly solicited that re-union, but the Protocol of the five powers fulminated an interdict upon that. They next chose the Duke de Nemours for their king, and Louis Philippe under the rescript of the five Powers pronounces a pro- liibition upon that. Lastly, by dint of mere overbearing importu- nity, the five Powers prescribe Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, whose only earthly qualifications for the office were that he had been the husband of the Princess Charlotte, and was a British pen- sioner, to the Belgian People for their King. This Prince whom the five Powers appear to have considered as a Passe-partout of a kingdom — a standing Raffler for royal crowns, had acquired some reputation for good sense, by perceiving that he was utterly unfit for the office of King of Greece ; but he lost it all again by accepting the crown of Belgium, by the election of the five Pow- ers through the constrained suf- frages of the Belgian Congress. He accepted the Crown and took the command of the Belgian ar- my, who, as might have been ex- pected under such a leader, at the first sight of the enemy fled for their lives ; and then, as if to cap the climax of absurdity in the proceedings of the dictatorial pro- tocols, a French army step in to rescue the fruits of his victory from the King of Holland, and the Belgians from his impending vengeance. All this has been done under the auspices of Earl Grey, and since his proclamation of the prin- ciple of non-inter\^ention for a governing maxim of his adminis- tration. His project of parliamentary reform remains. This was now for the first time declared to be the deliberate purpose of the gov- ernment itself. And this maybe considered as a new era in the history of the British Islands. It must be obvious to every one that a reform of the popular represen- tation in the House of Commons, and an abridged duration of Par- liaments, are of little importance in themselves, compared with the consequences to which they tend. Its first effect must undoubtedly be a great accession of relative strength to the democratic branch of the Government, and a re- doubled impetus to the power of public opinion. Whether this advantage will be purchased by the loss of stability in the contin- ued agency of the ruling power — whether the spirit of reform once firmly seated in Saint Ste- phen's chapel, will submit to the restraints upon its own action hitherto deemed salutary, or re- strain itself within the bounds of moderation, is to be disclosed hereafter. A reformed House of Commons adds not one kernel of wheat to the harvests of the land — it feeds no paupers — it pays no tithes — it leaves the national debt with its intolerable burdens as it was before. Burdens under ENGLAND. 461 which a represented people will not be silent. The elevation of the new min- istry to power was so sudden, and the principles declared by Earl Grey to be the basis of his administration were so widely dif- ferent from those w^hich until then had prevailed, that time was ob- viously necessary for preparing and maturino- his plans, as well of retrenchment and economy as of reform. Those of the minis- ters who were selected from the House of Commons, by accept- ing offices from the crown, vacat- ed their seats ; and although re- eligible, were necessarily absent from the House until returned again. Nothing of importance was transacted except the pass- age of the Regency Bill before the Christmas holidays, and on the 2.3d of December Parliament adjourned over to the 3d of Jan- uary of the ensuing year. In the meantime the condition of the kingdom afforded but a sorry commentary upon the boast in the royal speech at the open- ing of the session, that the Eng- lish people ' enjoyed more of all that constitutes social happiness, than has fallen to the lot of any other country in the world.' At the very moment when these words were spoken, organized bands of famished farmers were ranging round twenty counties of England, and almost within hear- ing of the royal voice, breaking all the agricultural machinery they could lay their hands on, and consuming cornricks, hay- stacks, barns and dwelling hous- es with fire. The distress, which has been depicted as we have seen in such glowing colors in the numerous petitions to the former Parliament, continued with increasing aggravation ; and the disorders, fore-announced in some of those petitions, had brok-' en out with great fury. The constant and regular operation of the national debt, and its oppres- sive taxation, aggravated by that of the tithes, had, as we have ob- served, divided the nation into three great masses of population ; one with overgrown wealth — - one of paupers unable to obtain sub- sistence by their labor ; and an intermediate class just above in- digence, but gradually sinking in- to and swelling the number of the totally destitute division. The landed property of the kingdom has at the same time, and by the operation of the same causes un- dergone a corresponding mutation. The small farmers have been ob- liged to sell their estates, to hold them as tenants upon rent. Time was in England, says Goldsmith, when ' every rood of ground maintained its man.' There are now no small freeholders in Eng- land. The race is as completely extinct, as that of the Squire Wes- terns of Fielding. The landed estates are principalities — leased at heavy rents and cultivated by poor laborers at wages barely suf- ficient for their subsistence. The invention of labor-saving ma- chinery throws vast numbers of these out of employment, and then they fall upon the parish. The burden of the poor rates in- creases with the number of the poor. The quantum of allowance 462 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. to these being discretionary with the overseers, was reduced to the very borders of famine, and the result was to gather in every parish multitudes of able bodied men almost starving, idle for want of employment, associating to- gether under the pressure of com- mon wants, instigated to violence by a sense of injustice in the opu- lent landholders around them, and stimulated to fury against the ma- chinery, which by removing the necessity for their labor took the bread from their mouths. In the County of Kent, great bodies of them had assembled to break ag- ricultural machinery, and to com- pel the farmers, proprietors and magistrates to raise the rate of wages, while incendiaries had set fire to stack-yards and farm- houses. A general combination seems to have been formed among them, the objects of which were : 1. To destroy the labor-saving machinery. 2. To force the farmers to give them constant em- ployment. 3. To raise their wages — and for the attainment of their objects, there was a double system of operations, partly pub- lic and partly secret. The com- binations for the destruction of machinery, and forcing employ- ment, were open and undisguised. The incendiary practices were secret. On the 29th of August, at Hardres in Kent, four hundred agricultural laborers destroyed all the threshing machines in that neighborhood. Towards the mid- dle of September, two meetings of magistrates, and one of farm- ers, were held, at which reso- lutions were passed for suppress- ing these disorders, and a reward of five hundred pounds was offer- ed for the conviction of the ring- leaders in these transactions. The rioters committed no other depre- dations of property ; but broke up the machinery, or compelled the owners to break it up them- selves . Where they failed of this they burnt the barns and wheat slacks. Individuals received by post letters signed by the signal word Swing, threatening the de- struction of their houses and barns by fire, and the execution failed not to follow upon the threat. The same portentous word ap- jjeared written in chalk on all the walls of Dover, and for several miles on the road to Canterbury. Nine of the machine breakers were tried, and six of them were convicted at the Sessions of East Kent; they were sentenced to three days' confinement and hard labor, after which the burnings and destruction only became more extensive and more frequent. At Lenham, two hundred of the rioters, assembled for the avowed purpose of destroying machinery, met and parleyed with the Earl of Winchelsea. They heard him patiently, and declared that want of work was the sole cause of their straying from their homes, and that they had not the means of procuring food for themselves or their starving families. At Guestling, near Hastings, the paupers held a meeting and gave notice to the heads of the parish to attend. About a hun- dred and twenty laborers were assembled ; their demand was a rise of wages to 2s. 3c?. a day in winter, and 2s. 6d. in summer. The clergyman, whose demand ENGLAND. 463 upon the parish had been raised to 800/. a year, was required im- mediately to give up 500/. a year to their employers in order to enable them to comply with their demands ; a requisition to which he immediately agreed. From Kent the work of de- struction rapidly spread into the adjoining Counties, and nightly fires were seen blazing in Sussex, Surry. Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Bucking- ham, Hertford, Bedford, North- ampton, Huntingdon. Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, and even in some of the northern counties. The exertions of the magistrates to discover the incen- diaries were unavailing. Several persons were arrested upon sus- picion and discharged for want of evidence to convict them. The destruction of the machinery was effected in broad day, by parish paupers, who assembled in bands ; visited the dwelling houses of the farmers, and sometimes formally sent deputations to demand the keys of the corn houses in which the obnoxious threshing machines were kept. But their movements were regulated by hands unseen, of higher intellectual powers. The letters signed ' Swing,' were conveyed with impenetrable se- crecy to the persons addressed, and the inevitable destruction by which they were followed gave them almost the inexpressible ter- ror of a supernatural visitation. In some cases an explosion re- sembling the report of a gun im- mediately preceded the bursting out into flames of the stacks and barns. The fires therefore could be accounted for only by the sup- position that they were kindled by chemical preparations, thrown into them by persons in concert with the laborers — of these the usual mode of proceeding was to call a meeting of farmers, and meet them, in numbers from two to six hundred, and sometimes many more — and dien they pre- sented their list of grievances, and demanded employment and wages at the rates above mentioned. In some instances they were success- fully resisted, but in general the farmers were obliged to comply with their demands. At Aving- ton House, the seat of the Duke of Buckingham, the inhabitants of three villages came in a mass were sworn in as special consta- bles, and kept watch round the house for three successive nights. The same thing was done near Winchester, and in the neighbor- hood of Hanburg. The inhabi- tants of Brompton, led by their clergyman, met the rioters and overpowered them, taking their ringleader and ten of his com- panions into custody. Military aid was in several cases called in. A conflict between the Hindon troop of cavalry and a body of more than 500 rioters in Wilt- shire, terminated by a charge in which several were wounded, and one man was killed. At Ring- mer, Chichester, Eastbourne, Lamborhurst and numerous other places, the farmers saved their families and their property only by complying, or by compound- ing with the demands for em- ployment and increased wages. Of these fires there were, in the space of four months, upwards of one hundred and twenty, at 464 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829—30. each of which the destruction and loss of property cannot be es- timated at less than an average of one thousand pounds sterling to each fire ; the destruction of ma- chinery included. There was no political principle connected with these disorders ; no demand for Reform of Parliament ; no cla- mor against the aristocracy, nor even against the payment of tithes, was heard among them. It was the cry of famine for bread. The onset of hunger, breaking down stone walls. It was the last re- sult of extreme taxation ; of which an enormously disproportionate national debt is the cause, and no mathematical proposition can be more clearly demonstrated than, that until the cause is re- moved there can be no permanent pacification of these disorders. Under the influence of the panic excited by these assem- blages and of the outrages com- mitted by them, the magistrates upon whom they called to meet and confer with them, gave in several of the counties, their sanc- tion to the engagements which they extorted from the farmers of increased wages, constant em- ployment, and the discontinuance of the use of machinery. This momentary remedy served only to aggravate the disease. The Mar- quis of Lansdowne, Secretary of State for the home department, issued on the 8th of December a circular, explaining to the county magistrates their legal inability to make such arrangements and pointing out the pernicious ten- dency of acts grounded upon such principles. — ' The magistrates,' he observed, ' had no power to fix the amount of wages ; and any interference in such a matter could only have the effect of ex- citing expectations which must be disappointed and of ultimately producing, in an aggravated de- gree, a renewed spirit of discon- tent and insubordination.' It requires no argument to prove that in a land of freedom, the ma- gistrates of a county can as little possess the authority to compel individual farmers to employ more workmen than they need, or to pay them higher wages, than by voluntary consent they stipulate, or to abstain from the use of labor saving machinery, as a riotous as- semblage of starving laborers. The moment the freedom of the will is taken away from opera- tions such as these, the relations of society are changed, and the community becomes an associa- tion not of freemen governed by equal laws, but of masters and slaves under the dominiou of ar- bitrary power. But the oppres- sion upon the farmer under such compulsion may be further illus- trated by its necessary consequen- ces. He holds the farm upon a lease for which he is to pay rent to his landlord. The amount of that rent must be calculated upon the prospective product of the land, deducting all the necessary charges of cultivation and leaving a profit to the farmer sufiicient for his own subsistence, and that of his family. The use of ma- chinery, reduces the charge of expense for labor. The rate of wages serves him as a rate to cal- culate the expense of tillage and the amount of rent that he can afford to pay. Deprive him of ENGLAND 465 i^is machinery, force him to em- ploy double the number of work- men that he needs, and to pay them double the amount of wages to the rates which the market would command, and you rob him of all the profits of his labor, you deprive him of the ability to fulfil his engagement with his landlord. The rent day comes with a distress. The farmer is ruined, and the landlord remains unpaid. He too has his engage- ments, which the loss of his rents disable him from fulfilling, and among them are the grinding taxes payable to the government ; these press him down into insolv- ency, and react again to depress the value of land. Thus ruin spreads over the whole country, and the people become prepared for any revolution. On the other hand, a system of policy, the re- sult of which is to congregate in great numbers, a mass of popula- tion in idleness and want, without occupation and without subsist- ence must be essentially vicious ; no external air of prosperity can disguise the essential wretched- ness of a nation in such a condi- tion, no reform of Parhament can reach this evil. It is susceptible only of one remedy and that is, relief from excessive taxation. Besides the employment of military force to suppress these disorders, and the admonition to the magistrates of their incapacity to establish a compulsive rate of wages between the farmers and laborers, the government ap- pointed two special commissions, one on the western and another on the midland circuit, for the trial of the numerous prisoners appre- 40 hended in the commission of these daring outrages. One of these commissions was opened at Win- chester on the 20th and the other at Reading on the 27th of De- cember. Three hundred pris- oners were tried by the commis- sion at Winchester, six of whom were sentenced to death and eightyeight to transportation for life or for terms of years, after which the commission proceeded to the trial of nearly an equal number of offenders at Salisbury. At Reading one hundred and thirty eight of the rioters were tried and all sentenced to trans- portation except two, who were caphally convicted. Thence the same commission proceeded to Aylesbury for the trial of the prisoners apprehended in the county of Bucks. The immediate effect of these commissions was to shorten the imprisonment of the offenders, who must otherwise have waited for their trial, at the assizes in the following spring; this abridgment, besides relieving the prisoners themselves from the anxieties and agitatiops of a long term of im- prisonment, had a tendency to quiet the alarm and terror of their families and relatives, and to tran- quillize the parishes and villages to which they belonged. They afforded the opportunity for a solemn and public exposition of the law, by the judges ; of con- vincing the laboring classes that their condition could not be bet- tered by such tumultuous and riotous proceedings, and the ma- gistrates that no compliances on their part, with the dictation of a lawless multitude was within the 466 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. compass of their authority or could become obligatory by their sanction. A more important re- sult of the trials was the collec- tion and exhibition of a mass of evidence on the moral condition and physical sufferings of the agricultural laborers and work- ing classes connected with the cultivation of the soil, more im- pressive than could be obtained by petitions to Parliament or re- ports of committees of inquiry upon the operation of the poor laws and the corn laws. The intellectual condition of the classes of people reduced to such ex- tremities had never formed a sub- ject of parliamentary inquiry. — It was displayed in the evidence upon these trials, by demonstra- tion which could not be mistaken. The greater part of the prisoners were so utterly ignorant of the law, that they had no conception they were infringing it by break- ing up threshing machines, by in- sisting upon constant employment from the farmers, or by exacting from them wages adequate to the comfortable subsistence of them- selves and their families.* The distinction which they made be- tween the destruction and the rob- bery of property had, perhaps, some foundation in the law of nature; and even the nightly lires which spread terror and des- olation over a whole region of country, were kindled by a sem- blance of public spirit, which seemed in their eyes to be patriot- ism. The instances of depredation or plunder were rare — those of deliberate personal injury still more so. There was nothing ferocious, nothing cruel, in the most desperate of their proceed- ings ; and even in kindling the fires w hich consumed the fruits of the harvests and the dwellings of their owners, they appear to have been impelled by no stimulant of malice or animosity against indi- viduals. By what system of reasoning they had been brought to the practical exercise of such a theory with regard to the rights of pro- perty, perhaps it might not be possible to discover, but the pro- ceedings of the special commLs- sions could not fail to undeceive them. In the conflicts between the rioters and the military forces brought out against them, it does not appear that more than one of them lost his life, but the execu- tion of a small number of incen- diaries and the transportation of several hundreds of the frame breakers, soon brought their asso- ciates to a juster sense both of the substance and the power of the laws and in the course of a few weeks tranquillity and peace, at least ap- parent and temporary, was restor- ed to the disordered districts. The sessions of the commis- sions continued into the year suc- ceeding that of which w-e now close the account. Here for the present we rest. The year 1 830 will long be memorable in the annals of England, of Europe, of Christendom, memorable for the recoil of freedom upon her op- pressors — memorable for the tri- umph of the revolutionary princi- ple, not less over the sanguinary spirit of anarchy, than over the iron yoke of military power and renown. Three days of sponta- neous and unorganized popular ENGLAND. 467 resistance ' toppled down head- long,' for the third and it is to be hoped last tintie, the ' elder Branch of the House of Bourbon.' Blood was shed to achieve the victory, but none in the triumph. The first example of moderation and mercy, has been exhibited in the conflict between kings and people, on the popular side. Charles X., detected in the very act of complicated perjury to his royal oath, and of usurpa- tion upon the rights of his people, has been expelled, but suffered to live ; the Ministers by whom he was counselled, more culpable even than himself, have been saved from vindictive fury, monu- ments of magnanimous forbear- ance in an exasperated people. In England, the revolution has been entirely bloodless. There- suit not of popular commotion, but of public opinion matured by the irresistible progress of reason against thrones, dominations, princedoms and powers. The changes in England have yet as- sumed only the mild and placid as- pectof reform. Butby many, even of the benevolent and the wise, re- form is dreaded as the herald and precursor of revolution ; of san- guinary revolution, subversive of all social order, and destructive to all religion. Let us hope better things. When the feudal mon- archy of France fell in 1789 be- fore the republican spirit of the age and the principles of North American Independence, it was soon discovered that it could not fall alone. It sounded the hour of all the feudal insthutions of Eu- rope. But what the spirit of evil is competent to destroy, the spirit of good alone can create. After twentyfive years of exterminating wars, and the overthrow of almost all the ancient institutions in Eu- rope, all the wisdom and all the power of the European many could accomplish no more than to patch up the tatters of old feudal monarchy with the modern rags of popular representation. And in restoring Louis XVIII. to the throne the only compromise which they could effect between ancient prejudice and new principle was, to allow him to date the com- mencement of his reign twenty years in arrear, and to oblige him to grant by a charter to his peo- ple, a semblance of popular rep- resentation in the legislature. Twentyfive years of bloody ex- perience had taught the rulers of the old monarchies of Europe nothing but a tenfold horror of in- novation. The Inquisition and the Jesuits were restored with the monarchies, and the charters were yielded to the necessities of the time, only to be undermined or overthrown as the favorable op- portunity might occur. Candor constrains us to acknowledge that for the reconstruction of the social edifice the reformers have been as feeble and inefficient as the adherents to the dilapidated insti- tutions of antiquity have been stubborn and unteachable. Of all the constitutions fabricated during the revolutionary period in France, in Spain, in Portugal, not one has proved able to sustain itself for a term of seven years. The events of the last half century have form- ed multitudes of consummate mil- itary chieftains — multitudes of eloquent orators, multitudes of ANNUAL REGISTER, 1829 — 30. eminent statemen. A legislator has not yet been found. The only man of legislativ^e mind, which Europe has produced in the age now departing, was Edmund Burke, and his genius took the direction of sustaining ancient in- stitutions, and rejected that of devising and maturing new ones. Whether it was even equal to this may be doubted — certain it is, that neither his age nor his coun- try were prepared to receive that ^"h'^h ho m"ght pcrhups have been competent to produce and to com- bine. Now, far more than when he lived is the time, when the Island of Albion needs a legisla- tor, a mind not of the modern stamp, but a Solon, a Lycurgus, a Numa, A legislator for herself, disencumj^ercd of her sister Isl- and, which also needs a legislator of her own. In closing with this reflection we cast our eyes over the catalogue of the Whig and Tory statesmen now figuring upon her political theatre, and all is desolate and barren. Instead of a Solon, a Lycurgus or a Numa, we see nothing but men of dimin- utive intellertunl stature, the sum- mit of whose ambition it is to pass with their own and after ages, for British Statemen. I UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 905 AMA C002 v. 5 American annual register or View of