HENRY CLAY.
I'he portraits oj Liay extant are probably more tuatieroits than oj any American orOtdr.' 'Thi^ was selected for this ivork as the best of many good ones.
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HOME AND SCHOOL LIBRARY EDITION
THE
TMlorl6'6 JSest ©ratione
FROM THE
EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME
XJXJXJ
DAVID J. BREWER
EDITOR
EDWARD A. ALLEN WILLIAM SCHUYLER
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
XJXJXJ
TEN VOLUMES VOL. IV.
ST. l^OUIS
^ PHRD. P. KAISER j^
10OO
Rome ana ScDool Obrary eaition
Copyright 1899
BY
FERD. P. KAISER
All rights reserved
THE WERNER COMPANY
PRINTERS AND BINDERS . , AKRON, OHIO
THE ADVISORY COUNCIL
THE RIGHT HON. SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, Bart, Member of Parliament — Author of < Greater Britain, > etc.,
London, England.
WILLIAM DRAPER LEWIS, Ph. D., Dean of the Department of Law,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
WILLIAM P. TRENT, M.A..
Professor of English and History,
Columbia University, in the city of New York,
W. STUART SYMINGTON, Jr., Ph.D.,
Professor of the Romance Lang^ges,
Amherst College, Amherst, Mass,
ALC^E FORTIER, Lit. D.,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
TuLANE University, New Orleans, La. WILLIAM VINCENT BYARS,
Journalist, St Louis, Ma
RICHARD GOTTHEIL, Ph, D.,
Professor of Oriental Languages,
Columbia University, in the city of New York.
AUSTIN H. MERRILL, A.M.,
Professor of Elocution, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
SHELDON JACKSON, D. D., LL. D.,
Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.
A. MARSHALL ELLIOTT, Ph. D., LL. D.,
Professor of the Romance Languages,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. JOHN W. MILLION, A. M.,
President of Hardin College, Mexico, Mo,
J. RAYMOND BRACKETT, Ph. D.,
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
WILLIAM F. PEIRCE, A.M., L.H.D.,
President of Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio.
S. PLANTZ, Ph.D., D. D.,
President of Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis.
GEORGE TAYLOE WINSTON, LL.D.,
President of the University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
TABLE OF CONTENTS VOL. IV
LIVED PAGE
Clay, Henry 1777-1852 1221
Dictators in American Politics On the Expunging Resolutions On the Seminole War The Emancipation of South America «The American System* and the Home Market In Favor of a Paternal Policy of Internal Im- provements For <* Free Trade and Seamen's Rights® The Greek Revolution The Noblest Public Virtue Sixty Years of Sectionalism
Clayton, John M. 1796-1856 1283
The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and << Expansion* Justice the Supreme Law of Nations
Clemens, Jeremiah 18 14-1865 1292
Cuba and << Manifest Destiny*
Cleon (?)-422 B.C. 1298
Democracies and Subject Colonies
Cleveland, Grover 1837- 1301
First Inaugural Address
Clinton, De Witt 1769-1828 1306
Federal Power and Local Rights Against the Military Spirit
Cobb, Howell 181 5-1868 131 7
« Fifty-Four Forty or Fight I »
vi
LIVED PAGte
CoBBETT, William 1762-1835 1320
The Man on the Tower
CoBDEN, Richard 1804-1865 1325
Free Trade with All Nations Small States and Great Achievements
CocKRAN, William Bourke 1854- 1339
Answering William J. Bryan
Coke, Sir Edward 1552-1634 1347
Prosecuting Sir Walter Raleigh
Coleridge, John Duke 1820-1894 1355
The Sacredness of Matrimony
Colfax, Schuyler 1823-1885 1361
The Confiscation of Rebel Property
CONKLING, ROSCOE 1829-1888 1 365
Nominating General Grant for a Third Term The Stalwart Standpoint Against Senator Sumner
Constant, Benjamin i 767-1 830 1376
Free Speech Necessary for Good Government
Cook, Joseph 1838- 1381
Ultimate America
CoRBiN, Francis 1760-1821 1393
Answering Patrick Henry
CoRWiN, Thomas 1794-1865 1404
Against Dismembering Mexico
Cousin, Victor 1792-1867 1418
Eloquence and the Fine Arts Liberty an Inalienable Right The Foundations of Law True Politics
vn
LIVED PAGE
Cox, Samuel Sullivan i 824-1 889 1435
Against the Iron-Clad Oath The Sermon on the Mount
Stephen A. Douglas and His Place in History
Cranmer, Thomas 1489-1556 1453
His Speech at the Stake Against the Fear of Death Forgiveness of Injuries
Crawford, William Harris i 772-1 834 1461
The Issue and Control of Money under the Consti- tution
Crispi, Francesco 1819- 1466
At the Unveiling of Garibaldi's Statue Socialism and Discontent
Crittenden, John Jordan 1787-1863 1472
Henry Clay and the Nineteenth-Century Spirit Against Warring on the Weak
Crockett, David i 786-1 836 148 1
A Raccoon in a Bag
Cromwell, Oliver 1599- 1658 1484
Debating Whether or Not to Become King of Eng- land
CuLPEPER, Sir John (?)-i66o 1493
Against Monopolies
CuRRAN, John Philpot 1750-1817 1497
In the Case of Justice Johnson — Civil Liberty and
Arbitrary Arrests For Peter Finnerty and Free Speech The Diversions of a Marquis Against Pensions England and English Liberties — In the case of
Rowan The Liberties of the Indolent His Farewell to the Irish Parliament On Government by Attachment
Vlll
lived page
Curtis, Benjamin Robbins 1809-1874 1563
Presidential Criticisms of Congress
Curtis, George William 1824-1892 1569
His Sovereignty Under His Hat Wendell Phillips as a History-Maker
Cushing, Caleb 1800-1879 *576
The Primordial Rights of the Universal People England and America in China The Extermination of the Indians
1588
1594
|
Cyprian |
200-258 |
|
Unshackled Living |
|
|
Cyril |
315-386 |
|
The Infinite Artifices of Nature |
|
|
Dallas, George M. |
1792-1864 |
|
« The Pennsylvania Idea " |
|
|
Damiani, Peter |
1007-1072 |
1599
1605
The Secret of True Greatness
New Testament History as Allegory
Daniel, John W. 1842- 1608
At the Dedication of the Washington Monument Was Jefferson Davis a Traitor?
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME IV
PAGE
Henry Clay (Photogravure) Frontispiece
Cleveland and his Second Cabinet (Photogravure) 1301
Chief-Justice Coleridge on the Bench (Photogravure) 1355
George William Curtis (Photogravure) 1569
I22I
HENRY CLAY
(1777-1852)
[enry Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, April 12th, 1777. He was called the <<Mill Boy of the Slashes** by his political admirers, but he never really felt himself a mem- ber of the class at the South which produced Crockett in Tennessee and Lincoln in Kentucky. His family was poor and his early edu- cation was defective, but his reading in law and in general litera- ture gave him the remarkable grasp of fact which co-operated with some undefined power of controlling language melodiously, to give him his great reputation as an orator. It has been said that his power as an orator lay so largely in the musical tones of his voice that his speeches are <*not worth reading,** but this is a radical mis- take. A few of them are dull, and in none of them is there the sys- tematic art which marshals every idea towards a final climax. Mr. Clay's climax is as apt to come in the middle of his speech as it is anywhere else; and after it is reached, it does strain the atten- tion to go on following him through arguments on a lower plane than that to which he himself had elevated the mind. But when this is admitted, it still remains true that his best orations and hun- dreds of pages of others which are not his best easily command attention and excite warm admiration. He was greater as a states- man and political manager than he was as an orator, if oratory is to be judged by those severe classical standards of which he knew nothing. But he was eloquent by nature, a man of multitudinous ideas, of what Taine calls <Hhronging imaginations,** with a poet- ical sense of the beautiful and with a musician's ear for the har- monies of language. The same training as a linguist which gave Erskine his sense of the order in language might have made Clay the greatest orator of modern times. If, as Macaulay and Choate agree, that honor belongs to Edmund Burke, it is nevertheless cer- tain that Clay will always be studied and admired as one of the greatest of those great orators whose eloquence, if it did not give them a permanent supremacy in history, made them pre-eminent in their own generations, with an influence reaching far into the generations after them.
From the Compromise of 1850 until the close of the first two dec- ades after the Civil War, it was not possible for justice to be done the fundamental idea Clay and Webster represented in their efforts
1222 HENRY CLAY
to maintain the Union without bloodshed. Perhaps it is not possible yet, but it is no longer possible to hear Webster called a traitor to liberty in New England, or Clay denounced as a coward at the South. Both believed that there was no necessity whatever for Americans to fight each other, and that every issue it was possible to imagine could be settled better by evolution and the slow processes of intellectual and moral development than it could possibly be by force. Both held to the doctrine of nonintervention and laissez /aire, by which they meant that they were bound to trust the innate good in human nature to work out reforms and to insure continuous progress without violent attempts to accelerate it. This theory grew in popularity in England and America during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, but the Crimean War impaired its influence in England — while our own Civil War so weakened it that for nearly a generation it has been too much out of the public mind to be taken into general consideration as an explanation of the course followed by Clay and Webster in what have been denounced as their compromises of principle. In fact, compromise was with them a principle rather than a method. Those who hold that if the world is made freer it will become bet- ter; that they do most for progress who do most to keep the peace; that a policy of co-operation between neighboring States and coun- tries without the ^^ intervention *^ of one to correct the domestic abuses of the other, is the only mode of insuring evolutionary and steady development, necessarily believe in the continuous concessions which their theory forces, even when the question is not merely of the weakness but of the actual crimes of others beyond their jurisdiction.
The opponents of this idea in America asserted the jurisdiction of every man born into the world to interfere wherever wrong was per- petrated against weakness. <<Are we not our brother's keeper ? * they said, summing up their creed in the question.
The issue between two theories so antagonistic is not likely soon to be decided, but it must be understood before Clay's place in Amer- ican history can be determined. From the time of the first Missouri Compromise, of which he has been called the chief designer, to the compromise tariff of 1833, and again up to the Compromise of 1850 and his death. Clay strove always to impress on the country his own governing idea that Americans of all sections were bound to tolerate each other in their mutual sins of ignorance, of lack of development, and of slowness to improve. Webster held with him, but in New England Webster was finally denounced as a renegade, and only a short time before the death of Clay, Mr. Jefferson Davis, listening to his pleas for the postponement of the crisis, concluded that it was cowardly for one generation to unload it§ responsibilities on the next, instead of meeting them at once.
HENRY CLAY 1 2 23
It is seldom desirable to attempt a judgment of what events might have been had they been what they were not, but nothing which has occurred or is likely to occur can permanently obscure the fact that the great Americans who believed in the slow processes of growth were not mere cowards vacillating in the presence of every crisis, but were consistent followers of an ideal. Perhaps Clay was too consistent when his habit of compromising public questions led him to commit himself against himself in his presidential canvasses as he did when he lost the vote of New York and the Presidency by a partial recession from his position of resistance to war with Mexico. But it is hardly to be expected that a man who had in him so little of bitterness, so much of the genial, the tolerant, the chari- table, as Clay had, could force any issue radically.
The ideas for which he stood as a constructive statesman were the use of all the powers of the Federal Government for internal im- provements without being too strict in searching out constitutional objections; and after developing the internal trade of the country thus, to hold it against Europe, to give it commercial control of the hemisphere and, by excluding European products, to stimulate * com- petition in the home market. » This he called "the American sys- tem,» and his policy of supporting the South American countries against Europe seemed to him to be a part of it. He was, however, fundamentally opposed to coercive government where coercion could be avoided, and his denunciations of Andrew Jackson were the result of inherent intellectual tendencies, not of the mere prejudices cre- ated by rivalry. Clay believed in Republican institutions, but he believed government should be intrusted largely to those who shave regularly, bathe habitually, and do not ordinarily <' expectorate » on the floor in public places. This made him the fit leader as it made him the idol of the "gentleman's party, » and naturally enough it brought him into the strongest antagonism with Jackson who was accused by his enemies of smoking a corncob pipe, of sitting with his feet on the mantel, and of being a headstrong and violent advo- cate of the theory that "every one who did not interfere with his (Jackson's) own plans ought to be allowed the fullest liberty to inter- fere with those of other people. » There was little of laissez /aire in the policies of the man who hanged Arbuthnot and Ambruster first and considered the lawpoints involved afterwards. He came into collision with Clay as logically as he did with Calhoun and Webster. How- ever else these three remarkable men differed, they agreed in detest- ing the theory of government which Jackson represented as a leader of what it is said Miss Nelly Custis once called the "dirty Democ- racy.» It is fortunate for the reader that it is possible to see the element of humor in such antagonisms as this. Otherwise, such lives
1234
HENRY CLAY
as those of Clay and Webster, closing with the country on the verge of war and ending in what seemed complete failure, might seem sadder than they really were. For it is not yet demonstrated that they really did fail or that those who force radical issues to imme- diate settlement are more successful in improving the world than those who hold what Clay proclaimed and Webster practiced.
Clay entered national politics as United States Senator from Ken- tucky in 1806. After serving until 1807, he retired, and returned for another year of service in 18 10. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 181 1, and served, with an intermission of two years, until 1825. During twelve years of this period he was Speaker of the House. His candidacy for the Presidency in 1824 was followed by his acceptance of the Secretaryship of the State under John Quincy Adams and his long quarrel with Jackson, whose supporters accused him of a corrupt bargain with Adams, by which they al- leged that their favorite was cheated out of the Presidency. From that period until his death Mr. Clay was charged with being, and probably was, continuously a candidate for the Presidency. In 1832, and again in 1844, he was the nominee of the Whig party, defeated, as some have said, by his own disposition to compromise, rather than by the inherent weakness of his party. He died in the city of Wash- ington, June 29th, 1852, after being more enthusiastically admired in all sections of the Union than any other American had been since the time of Washington. W. V. B.
DICTATORS IN AMERICAN POLITICS
(Denouncing Andrew Jackson, Delivered in the United States Senate on the Poindexter Resolution, April 30th, 1834)
NEVER, Mr. President, have I known or read of an adminis- tration which expires with so much agony, and so little composure and resignation, as that which now unfortunately has the control of public affairs in this country. It exhibits a state of mind, feverish, fretful, and fidgety, bounding recklessly from one desperate expedient to another, without any sober or settled purpose. Ever since the dog days of last summer, it has been making a succession of the most extravagant plunges, of which the extraordinary cabinet paper, a sort of appeal from a dissenting cabinet to the people, was the first; and the protest, a direct appeal from the Senate to the people, is the last and the worst.
HENRY CLAY 1 225
A new philosophy has sprung up within a few years past, called Phrenology. There is, I believe, something in it, but not quite as much as its ardent followers proclaim. According to its doctrines, the leading passion, propensity, and characteristics of every man are developed in his physical conformation, chiefly in the structure of his head. Gall and Spurzheim, its founders, or most eminent propagators, being dead, I regret that neither of them can examine the head of our illustrious chief magistrate. But, if it could be surveyed by Dr. Caldwell, of Transylvania University, I am persuaded that he would find the organ of de- structiveness prominently developed. Except an enormous fabric of executive power for himself, the President has built up noth- ing, constructed nothing, and will leave no enduring monument of his administration. He goes for destruction, universal de- struction; and it seems to be his greatest ambition to efface and obliterate every trace of the wisdom of his predecessors. He has displayed this remarkable trait throughout his whole life, whether in private walks or in the public service. He signally and gloriously exhibited that peculiar organ when contending against the enemies of his country in the battle of New Orleans. For that brilliant exploit, no one has ever been more ready than myself to award him all due honor. At the head of our armies was his appropriate position, and most unfortunate for his fame was the day when he entered on the career of administration as the chief executive officer. He lives by excitement, perpetual, agitating excitement, and would die in a state of perfect repose and tranquillity. He has never been without some subject of attack, either in individuals, or in masses, or in institutions. I, myself, have been one of his favorites, and I do not know but that I have recently recommended myself to his special regard. During his administration this has been his constant course. The Indians and Indian policy, internal improvements, the colo- nial trade, the Supreme Court, Congress, the bank, have suc- cessively experienced the attacks of his haughty and imperious spirit. And if he tramples the bank in the dust, my word for it, we shall see him quickly in chase of some new subject of his vengeance. This is the genuine spirit of conquerors and of con- quest. It is said by the biographer of Alexander the Great, that, after he had completed his Asiatic conquests, he seemed to sigh because there were no more worlds for him to subdue; and, finding himself without further employment for his valor or his
J 2 26 HENRY CLAY
arms, he turned within himself to search the means to gratify his insatiable thirst of glory. What sort of conquest he achieved of himself, the same biographer tragically records.
Already has the President singled out and designated, in the Senate of the United States, the new object of his hostile pur- suit; and the protest, which I am now to consider, is his declara- tion of war. What has provoked it ? The Senate, a component part of the Congress of the United States, at its last adjourn- ment left the Treasury of the United States in the safe custody of the persons and places assigned by law to keep it. Upon re- assembling, it found the treasure removed; some of its guardians displaced; all, remaining, brought under the immediate control of the President's sole will; and the President having free and un- obstructed access to the public money. The Senate believes that the purse of the nation is, by the Constitution and laws, in- trusted to the exclusive legislative care of Congress. It has dared to avow and express this opinion, in a resolution adopted on the twenty-eighth of March last. That resolution was pre- ceded by a debate of three months' duration, in the progress of which the able and zealous supporters of the Executive in the Senate were attentively heard. Every argument which their ample resources, or those of the members of the Executive, could supply was listened to with respect, and duly weighed. After full deliberation, the Senate expressed its conviction that the Executive had violated the Constitution and laws. It cautiously refrained, in the resolution, from all examination into the mot- ives or intention of the Executive; it ascribed no bad ones to him; it restricted itself to a simple declaration of its solemn belief that the Constitution and laws had been violated. Thi^ is the extent of the offense of the Senate. This is what it h^^ done to excite the Executive indignation and to bring upon it the infliction of a denunciatory protest.
The President comes down upon the Senate and demands that it record upon its journal this protest. He recommends no measure — no legislation whatever. He proposes no Executive proceeding on the part of the Senate. He requests the record- ing of his protest, and he requests nothing more nor less. The Senate has abstained from putting on its own record any vindi- cation of the resolution of which the President complains. It has not asked of him to place it, where he says he has put his protest, in the archives of the Executive. He desires, therefore,
HENRY CLAY 1 227
to he done for him, on the journal of the Senate, what has not been done for itself. The Senate keeps no recording office for protests, deeds, wills, or other instruments. The Constitution enjoins that *each House shall keep a journal of its proceed- ings.** In conformity with this requirement, the Senate does keep a journal of its proceedings — not the proceedings of the Executive, or any other department of the government, except so far as they relate directly to the business of the Senate. The President sometimes professes to favor a strict construction of the Constitution, at least in regard to the powers of all the de- partments of the government other than that of which he is the chief. As to that, he is the greatest latitudinarian that has ever filled the office of President. Upon any fair construction of the Constitution, how can the Senate be called upon to record upon its journal any proceedings but its own ? It is true that the or- dinary messages of the President are usually inserted at large in the journal. Strictly speaking, it perhaps ought never to have been done; but they have been heretofore registered, because they relate to the general business of the Senate, either in its legislative or executive character, and have been the basis of subsequent proceedings. The protest stands upon totally distinct ground.
The President professes to consider himself as charged by the resolution with "the high crime of violating the laws and Constitution of my country. ** He declares that " one of the most important branches of the Government, in its official capacity, in a public manner, and by its recorded sentence, but without prec- edent, competent authority, or just cause, declares him guilty of a breach of the laws and Constitution.* The protest further alleges that such an act as the Constitution describes * consti- tutes a high crime, — one of the highest, indeed, which the Presi- dent can commit, — a crime which justly exposes him to an impeachment by the House of Representatives; and, upon due conviction, to removal from office, and to the complete and im- mutable disfranchisement prescribed by the Constitution.'* It also asserts: "The resolution, then, was an impeachment of the President, and in its passage amounts to a declaration by a majority of the Senate, that he is guilty of an impeachable offense.* The President is also of opinion that to say that the resolution does not expressly allege that the assumption of power and authority which it condemns was intentional and corrupt, is
1228 HENRY CLAY
no answer to the preceding view of its character and effect. The act thus condemned necessarily implies volition and design in the individual to whom it is imputed; and, being lawful in its char- acter, the legal conclusion is, that it was prompted by improper motives and committed with an unlawful intent. * . . . " The President of the United States, therefore, has been, by a majority of his constitutional triers, accused and found guilty of an im- peachable offense.*
Such are the deliberate views, entertained by the President, of the implications, effects, and consequences of the resolution. It is scarcely necessary to say that they are totally different from any which were entertained by the Senate, or by the mover of the resolution. The Senate carefully abstained from looking into the quo animo, from all examination into the motives or intention with which the violation of the Constitution and laws was made. No one knows those motives and intentions better than the President himself. If he chooses to supply the omission of the resolution, if he thinks proper to pronounce his own self- condemnation, his guilt does not flow from what the Senate has done, but from his own avowal. Having cautiously avoided pass- ing upon his guilt by prejudgment, so neither ought his ac- quittal to be pronounced by anticipation.
But, I would ask, in what tone, temper, and spirit does the President come to the Senate ? As a great State culprit who has been arraigned at the bar of justice, or sentenced as guilty ? Does he manifest any of those compunctious visitings of con- science which a guilty violator of the constitution and laws of the land ought to feel ? Does he address himself to a high court with the respect, to say nothing of humility, which a person ac- cused or convicted would naturally feel ? No, no. He comes as if the Senate were guilty, as if he were in the judgment seat, and the Senate stood accused before him. He arraigns the Senate; puts it upon trial; condemns it; he comes as if he felt himself elevated far above the Senate, and beyond all reach of the law, surrounded by unapproachable impunity. He who pro- fesses to be an innocent and injured man gravely accuses the Senate, and modestly asks it to put upon its own record his sen- tence of condemnation! When before did the arraigned or con- victed party demand of the court which was to try, or had condemned him, to enter upon their records a severe denunci- ation of their own conduct? The President presents himself
HENRY CLAV
Z229
before the Senate, not in the garb of suffering innocence, but in imperial and royal costume — as a dictator, to rebuke a refractory Senate; to command it to record his solemn protest; to chastise it for disobedience.
"The hearts of princes kiss obedience. So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits They swell, and grow as terrible as storms.*
We shall better comprehend the nature of the request which the President has made of the Senate, by referring to his own opinions expressed in the protest. He says that the resolution is a recorded sentence, "but without precedent, just cause, or competent authority." He "is perfectly convinced that the dis- cussion and passage of the above-mentioned resolutions were not only unauthorized by the Constitution, but in many respects re- pugnant to its provisions, and subversive of the rights secured by it to other co-ordinate departments.* We had no right, it seems, then, even to discuss, much less express any opinion, on the President's proceedings encroaching upon our constitutional powers. And what right had the President to look at all into our discussions ? What becomes of the constitutional provision which, speaking of Congress, declares, "for any speech or de- bate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place * ?
The President thinks "the resolution of the Senate is wholly unauthorized by the Constitution, and in derogation of its entire spirit.'* He proclaims that the passage, recording, and promulga- tion of the resolution affixes guilt and disgrace to the President, "in a manner unauthorized by the Constitution. '* But, says the President, if the Senate had just cause to entertain the belief that the House of Representatives would not impeach him, that cannot justify "the assumption by the Senate of powers not con- ferred by the Constitution. ** The protest continues : " It is only necessary to look at the condition in which the Senate and the President have been placed by this proceeding, to perceive its utter incompatibility with the provisions and the spirit of the Constitution, and with the plainest dictates of humanity and jus- tice.* A majority of the Senate assume the function which be- longs to the House of Representatives, and " convert themselves into accusers, witnesses, counsel, and judges, and prejudge the whole case.** If the House of Representatives shall consider
123© HENRY CLAY
that there is no cause of impeachment, and prefer none, *then will the violation of privilege as it respects that House, of justice as it regards the President, and of the Constitution as it relates to both, be more conspicuous and impressive.* The Senate is charged with the ^* unconstitutional power of arraigning and cen* suring the official conduct of the Executive.** The people, says the protest, will be compelled to adopt the conclusion, * either that the Chief Magistrate was unworthy of their respect, or that the Senate was chargeable with calumny and injustice.** There can be no doubt which branch of this alternative was intended to be applied. The President throughout the protest labors to prove himself worthy of all respect from the people. Finally, the President says: **It is due to the high trust with which I have been charged, to those who may be called to succeed me in it, to the representatives of the people whose constitutional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed, to the people and to the States, and to the Constitution they have established, that I should not permit its provisions to be broken down by such an attack on the Executive department, without at least some effort * to preserve, protect, and defend them. * **
These are the opinions which the President expresses in the protest, of the conduct of the Senate. In every form, and every variety of expression, he accuses it of violating the express lan- guage and spirit of the Constitution; of encroaching not only on his prerogatives, but those of the House of Representatives; of forgetting the sacred character and impartiality which belong to the highest court of justice in the Union; of injustice, of in- humanity, and of calumny. And we are politely requested to spread upon our own journal these opinions entertained of us by the President, that they may be perpetually preserved and handed down to posterity! The President respectfully requests it! He might as well have come to us and respectfully requested us to allow him to pull our noses, or kick us, or receive his stripes upon our backs. The degradation would not have been much more humiliating.
The President tells us, in the same protest, that any breach or violation of the Constitution and laws draws after it, and neces- sarily implies, volition and design, and that the legal conclusion is that it was prompted by improper motives and committed with an unlawful intent. He pronounces, therefore, that the Senate, in the violations of the Constitution which he deliberately
HENRY CLAY
1231
imputes to it, is guilty; that volition and design, on the part of the Senate, are necessarily implied; and that the legal conclusion is that the Senate was prompted by improper motives, and com- mitted the violation with an unlawful intent. And he most respectfully and kindly solicits the Senate to overleap the re- straint of the Constitution, which limits its journal to the record of its own proceedings, and place alongside of them his sentence of condemnation of the Senate.
That the President did not intend to make the journal of the Senate a medium of conveying his sentiments to the people is manifest. He knows perfectly well how to address to them his appeals. And the remarkable fact is established, by his private secretary, that, simultaneously with the transmission to the Sen- ate of his protest, a duplicate was transmitted to the Globe, his official paper, for publication; and it was forthwith published ac- cordingly. For what purpose, then, was it sent here ? It is pain- ful to avow the belief, but one is compelled to think it was only sent in a spirit of insult and defiance.
The President is not content with vindicating his own rights. He steps forward to 'maintain the privileges of the House of Representatives also. Why ? Was it to make the House his ally, and to excite its indignation against the offending Senate ? Is not the House perfectly competent to sustain its own privi- leges against every assault ? I should like to see, sir, a resolu- tion introduced into the House, alleging a breach of its privileges by a resolution of the Senate, which was intended to maintain unviolated the constitutional rights of both houses in regard to the public purse, and to be present at its discussion.
The President exhibits great irritation and impatience at the presumptuousness of a resolution, which, without the imputation of any bad intention or design, ventures to allege that he has violated the Constitution and Laws. His constitutional and offi- cial infallibility must not be questioned. To controvert it is an act of injustice, inhumanity, and calumny. He is treated as a criminal, and, without summons, he is prejudged, condemned, and sentenced. Is the President scrupulously careful of the memory of the dead, or the feelings of the living, in respect to Violations of the Constitution ? If a violation by him implies criminal guilt, a violation by them cannot be innocent and guiltless. And how has the President treated the memory of the immortal Father of his Country ? that great man, who, for purity of pur-
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pose and character, wisdom and moderation, unsullied virtue and unsurpassed patriotism, is without competition in past history or among living men, and whose equal we scarcely dare hope will ever be again presented as a blessing to mankind. How has he been treated by the President ? Has he not again and again pronounced that, by approving the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States, Washington violated the Constitution of his country? That violation, according to the President, included volition and design, was prompted by improper motives, and was committed with an unlawful intent. It was the more inexcusable in Washington, because he assisted and presided in the conven- tion which formed the Constitution. If it be unjust to arraign, try unheard, and condemn as guilty, a living man filling an ex- alted office, with all the splendor, power, and influence which that office possesses, how much more cruel is it to disturb the sacred and venerated ashes of the illustrious dead, who can raise no voice and make no protests against the imputation of high crime !
What has been the treatment of the President towards that other illustrious man, yet spared to us, but who is lingering upon the very verge of eternity? Has he abstained from charging the Father of the Constitution with criminal intent in violating the Constitution ? Mr. Madison, like Washington, assisted in the for- mation of the Constitution; was one of its ablest expounders and advocates; and was opposed, on constitutional ground, to the first Bank of the United States. But, yielding to the force of circumstances, and especially to the great principle, that the peace and stability of human society require that a controverted question, which has been finally settled by all the departments of Government by long acquiescence, and by the people them- selves, should not be open to perpetual dispute and disturbance, he approved the bill chartering the present Bank of the United States. Even the name of James Madison, which is but an- other for purity, patriotism, profound learning, and enlightened experience, cannot escape the imputations of his present suc- cessor.
And, lastly, how often has he charged Congress itself with open violations of the Constitution ? Times almost without num- ber. During the present session he has sent in a message, in regard to the land bill, in which he has charged it with an un- disguised violation, A violation so palpable, that it is not even
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disguised, and must, therefore, necessarily imply a criminal in- tent. Sir, the advisers of the President, whoever they are, deceive him and themselves. They have vainly supposed that, by an appeal to the people, and an exhibition of the wounds of the President, they could enlist the sympathies and the commisera- tion of the people — that the name of Andrew Jackson would bear down the Senate and all opposition. They have yet to learn, what they will soon learn, that even a good and responsi- ble name may be used so frequently, as an indorser, that its credit and the public confidence in its solidity have been seri- ously impaired. They mistake the intelligence of the people, who are not prepared to see and sanction the President putting forth indiscriminate charges of a violation of the Constitution against whomsoever he pleases, and exhibiting unmeasured rage and indignation, when his own infallibility is dared to be ques- tioned.
ON THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTIONS
(Peroration of the Speech of January i6th, 1837, Delivered in the United States Senate Against Andrew Jackson)
Mr. President: —
WHAT patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this Expung- ing resolution ? What new honor or fresh laurels will it win for our common country ? Is the power of the Sen- ate so vast that it ought to be circumscribed, and that of the President so restricted that it ought to be extended ? What power has the Senate ? None, separately. It can only act jointly with the other House, or jointly with the Executive. And although the theory of the Constitution supposes, when consulted by him, it may freely give an affirmative or negative response, according to the practice, as it now exists, it has lost the faculty of pro- nouncing the negative monosyllable. When the Senate expresses its deliberate judgment, in the form of resolution, that resolution has no compulsory force, but appeals only to the dispassionate intelligence, the calm reason, and the sober judgment, of the community. The Senate has no army, no navy, no patronage, no lucrative offices, no glittering honors, to bestow. Around us there is no swarm of greedy expectants, rendering us homage, anticipating our wishes, and ready to execute our commands. IV— ^78
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How is it with the President ? Is he powerless ? He is felt from one extremity to the other of this vast republic. By means of principles which he has introduced, and innovations which he has made in our institutions, alas! but too much countenanced by Congress and a confiding people, he exercises, uncontrolled, the power of the State. In one hand he holds the purse, and in the other brandishes the sword of the country. Myriads of de- pendants and partisans, scattered over the land, are ever ready to sing hosannas to him, and to laud to the skies whatever he does. He has swept over the Government, during the last eight years, like a tropical tornado. Every department exhibits traces of the ravages of the storm. Take as one example the Bank of the United States. No institution could have been more popular with the people, with Congress, and with State Legislatures. None ever better fulfilled the great purposes of its establish- ment. But it unfortunately incurred the displeasure of the Presi- dent; he spoke, and the bank lies prostrate. And those who were loudest in its praise are now loudest in its condemnation. What object of his ambition is unsatisfied ? When disabled from age any longer to hold the sceptre of power, he designates his successor, and transmits it to his favorite! What more does he want ? Must we blot, deface, and mutilate the records of the country, to punish the presumptuousness of expressing an opin- ion contrary to his own ?
What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this Expung- ing resolution ? Can you make that not to be which has been ? Can you eradicate from memory and from history the fact that in March 1834 a majority of the Senate of the United States passed the resolution which excites your enmity ? Is it your vain and wicked object to arrogate to yourselves that power of an- nihilating the past which has been denied to Omnipotence itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands into our hearts, and to pluck out the deeply rooted convictions which are there ? Or is it your design merely to stigmatize us? You cannot stigma- tize us.
« Ne'er yet did base dishonor blur our name.**
Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude, and bearing aloft the shield of the Constitution of our country, your puny efforts are impotent; and we defy all your power. Put the ma- jority of 1834 in one scale, and that by which this Expunging
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resolution is to be carried in the other, and let truth and justice, in heaven above and on earth below, and liberty and patriotism, decide the preponderance.
What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this Expung- ing resolution ? Is it to appease the wrath and to heal the wounded pride of the Chief Magistrate ? If he be really the hero that his friends represent him, he must despise all mean con- descension, all groveling sycophancy, all self-degradation and self-abasement. He would reject, with scorn and contempt, as unworthy of his fame, your black scratches and your baby lines in the fair records of his country. Black lines! Black lines! Sir, I hope the Secretary of the Senate will preserve the pen with which he may inscribe them, and present it to that Senator of the majority whom he may select, as a proud trophy, to be transmitted to his descendants. And hereafter, when we shall lose the forms of our free institutions, all that now remain to us, some future American monarch, in gratitude to those by whose means he has been enabled, upon the ruins of civil liberty, to erect a throne, and to commemorate especially this Expunging resolution, may institute a new order of knighthood, and confer on it the appropriate name of ** the Knights of the Black Lines. "
But why should I detain the Senate, or needlessly waste my breath in fruitless exertions? The decree has gone forth. It is one of urgency, too. The deed is to be done — that foul deed which, like the blood, staining the hands of the guilty Macbeth, all ocean's waters will never wash out. Proceed, then, to the noble work which lies before you, and, like other skillful executioners, do it quickly. And when you have perpetrated it, go home to the people, and tell them what glorious honors you have achieved for our common country. Tell them that you have extinguished one of the brightest and purest lights that ever burned at the altar of civil liberty. Tell them that you have silenced one of the noblest batteries that ever thundered in defense of the Con- stitution, and bravely spiked the cannon. Tell them that, hence- forward, no matter what daring or outrageous act any President may perform, you have forever hermetically sealed the mouth of the Senate. Tell them that he may fearlessly assume what powers he pleases, snatch from its lawful custody the public purse, command a military detachment to enter the halls of the Capitol, overawe Congress, trample down the Constitution, and raze every bulwark of freedom; but that the Senate must stand
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mute, in silent submission, and not dare to raise its opposing voice. Tell them that it must wait until a House of Representa- tives, humbled and subdued like itself, and a majority of it com- posed of the partisans of the President, shall prefer articles of impeachment. Tell them, finally, that you have restored, the glorious doctrine of passive obedience and nonresistance. And, if the people do not pour out their indignation and imprecations, I have yet to learn the character of American freemen.
ON THE SEMINOLE WAR (Prom the Speech of January 19th, 1819, in the House of Representatives)
IF MY recollection does not deceive me, Bonaparte had passed the Rhine and the Alps, had conquered Italy, the Nether- lands, Holland, Hanover, Lubec, and Hamburg, and extended his empire as far as Altona, on the side of Denmark. A few days' march would have carried him through Holstein, over the two Belts, through Funen, and into the island of Zealand. What, then, was the conduct of England? It was my lot to fall into conversation with an intelligent Englishman on this subject. «We knew [said he] that we were fighting for our existence. It was absolutely necessary that we should preserve the command of the seas. If the fleet of Denmark fell into the enemy's hands, combined with his other fleets, that command might be rendered doubtful. Denmark had only a nominal independence. She was, in truth, subject to his sway. We said to her, Give us your fleet; it will otherwise be taken possession of by your secret and our open enemy. We will preserve it and restore it to you whenever the danger shall be over. 'Denmark refused. Copenhagen was bombarded, and gallantly defended, but the fleet was seized. » Everywhere the conduct of England was censured; and the name even of the negotiator who was employed by her, who was subsequently the minister near this Government, was scarcely ever pronounced here without coupling with it an epithet indicating his participation in the disgraceful transaction. And yet we are going to sanction acts of violence, committed by our- selves, which but too much resemble it! What an important difEerence, too, between the relative condition of England and of this country! She, perhaps, was struggling for her existence. She was combating, single-handed, the most enormous military
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power that the world has ever known. With whom were we contending ? With a few half-starved, half -clothed, wretched In- dians and fugitive slaves. And while carrying on this inglorious war, inglorious as it regards the laurels or renown won in it, we violate neutral rights, which the government had solemnly pledged itself to respect, upon the principle of convenience, or upon the light presumption that, by possibility, a post might be taken by this miserable combination of Indians and slaves.
I will not trespass much longer upon the time of the com- mittee; but I trust I shall be indulged with some few reflections upon the danger of permitting the conduct on which it has been my painful duty to animadvert, to pass without the solemn ex- pression of the disapprobation of this House. Recall to your recollection the free nations which have gone before us. Where are they now ?
*Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were, A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour.*
And how have they lost their liberties ? If we could trans- port ourselves back to the ages when Greece and Rome flourished in their greatest prosperity, and, mingling in the throng, should ask a Grecian if he did not fear that some daring military chief- tain, covered with glory, some Philip or Alexander, would one day overthrow the liberties of his country, the confident and indig- nant Grecian would exclaim, No! no! we have nothing to fear from our heroes; our liberties will be eternal. If a Roman citi- zen had been asked if he did not fear that the conqueror of Gaul might establish a throne upon the ruins of public liberty, he would have instantly repelled the unjust insinuation. Yet Greece fell; Caesar passed the Rubicon, and the patriotic arm even of Brutus could not preserve the liberties of his devoted country! The celebrated Madame de Stael, in her last and perhaps her best work, has said, that in the very year, almost the very month, when the president of the Directory declared that monarchy would never more show its frightful head in France, Bonaparte, with his grenadiers, entered the palace of St. Cloud, and dispersing with the bayonet the deputies of the people deliberating on the affairs of the State, laid the foundation of that vast fabric of des- potism which overshadowed all Europe. I hope not to be misun- derstood; I *m far from intimating that General Jackson cherishes
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any designs inimical to the liberties of the country. I believe his intentions to be pure and patriotic. I thank God that he would not, but I thank him still more that he could not if he would, overturn the liberties of the Republic. But precedents, if bad, are fraught with the most dangerous consequences, Man has been described, by some of those who have treated of his nature, as a bundle of habits. The definition is much truer when applied to governments. Precedents are their habits. There is one important difference between the formation of habits by an individual and by governments. He contracts only after frequent repetition. A single instance fixes the habit and determines the direction of governments. Against the alarming doctrine of un- limited discretion in our military commanders when applied even to prisoners of war, I must enter my protest. It begins upon them; it will end on us. I hope our happy form of government is to be perpetual. But, if it is to be preserved, it must be by the practice of virtue, by justice, by moderation, by magnanimity, by greatness of soul, by keeping a watchful and steady eye on the executive; and, above all, by holding to a strict account- ability the military branch of the public force.
We are fighting a great moral battle for the benefit not only of our country, but of all mankind. The eyes of the whole world are in fixed attention upon us. One, and the largest portion of it, is gazing with contempt, with jealousy, and with envy; the other portion, with hope, with confidence, and with affection. Everywhere the black cloud of legitimacy is suspended over the world, save only one bright spot, which breaks out from the po- litical hemisphere of the west, to enlighten and animate and gladden the human heart. Obscure that by the downfall of lib- erty here, and all mankind are enshrouded in a pall of universal darkness. To you, Mr. Chairman, belongs the high privilege of transmitting, unimpaired, to posterity the fair character and lib- erty of our country. Do you expect to execute this high trust by trampling, or suffering to be trampled down, law, justice, the Constitution, and the rights of the people ? by exhibiting exam- ples of inhumanity and cruelty and ambition ? When the minions of despotism heard, in Europe, of the seizure of Pensacola, how did they chuckle, and chide the admirers of our institutions, tauntingly pointing to the demonstration of a spirit of injustice and aggrandizement made by our country, in the midst of an amicable negotiation! Behold, said they, the conduct of those
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who are constantly reproaching kings! You saw how those ad- mirers were astounded and hung their heads. You saw, too, when that illustrious man, who presides over us, adopted his pa- cific, moderate, and just course, how they once more lifted up their heads with exultation and delight beaming in their counte- nances. And you saw how those minions themselves were finally compelled to unite in the general praises bestowed upon our government. Beware how you forfeit this exalted character. Beware how you give a fatal sanction, in this infant period of our Republic, scarcely yet two-score years old, to military insub- ordination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that if we would escape the rock on which they split we must avoid their errors.
How different has been the treatment of General Jackson and that modest, but heroic young man, a native of one of the smallest States in the Union, who achieved for his country, on Lake Erie, one of the most glorious victories of the late war. In a moment of passion he forgot himself and offered an act of violence which was repented of as soon as perpetrated. He was tried, and suffered the judgment to be pronounced by his peers. Public justice was thought not even then to be satisfied. The press and Congress took up the subject. My honorable friend from Virginia, Mr. Johnson, the faithful and consistent sentinel of the law and of the Constitution, disapproved in that instance, as he does in this, and moved an inquiry. The public mind remained agitated and unappeased until the recent atonement so honorably made by the gallant commodore. And is there to be a distinction between the officers of the two branches of the pub- lic service ? Are former services, however eminent, to preclude even inquiry into recent misconduct ? Is there to be no limit, no prudential bounds to the national gratitude ? I am not disposed to censure the President for not ordering a court of inquiry, or a general court-martial. Perhaps, impelled by a sense of grati- tude, he determined, by anticipation, to extend to the general that pardon which he had the undoubted right to grant after sentence. Let us not shrink from our duty. Let us assert our constitutional powers, and vindicate the instrument from military violation.
I hope gentlemen will deliberately survey the awful isthmus on which we stand. They may bear down all opposition; they
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may even vote the general the public thanks; they may carry him triumphantly through this House. But, if they do, in my humble judgment, it will be a triumph of the principle of insub- ordination, a triumph of the military over the civil authority, a triumph over the powers of this House, a triumph over the Con- stitution of the land. And I pray most devoutly to Heaven that it may not prove, in its ultimate effects and consequences, a tri- umph over the liberties of the people.
THE EMANCIPATION OF SOUTH AMERICA (From the Speech Delivered March 24th, 1818, in the House of Representatives)
I RISE under feelings of deeper regret than I have ever ex- perienced on any former occasion, inspired principally by the
consideration that I find myself, on the proposition which I meant to submit, differing from many highly esteemed friends, in and out of this House, for whose judgment I entertained the greatest respect. A knowledge of this circumstance has induced me to pause; to subject my own convictions to the severest scrutiny, and to revolve the question over and over again. But all my reflections have conducted me to the same clear result; and, much as I value those friends, great as my deference is for their opinions, I cannot hesitate, when reduced to the distressing alternative of conforming my judgment to theirs, or pursuing the deliberate and mature dictates of my own mind. I enjoy some consolation for the want of their co-operation, from the persua- sion that, if I err on this occasion, I err on the side of the liberty and happiness of a large ' portion of the human family. Another, and, if possible, indeed a greater source of the regret to which I refer is the utter incompetency which I unfeignedly feel to do anything like adequate justice to the great cause of American independence and freedom, whose interests I wish to promote by my humble exertions in this instance. Exhausted and worn down as I am, by the fatigue, confinement, and in- cessant application incident to the arduous duties of the honor- able station I hold, during a four months' session, I shall need all that kind indulgence which has been so often extended to me by the House.
I beg, in the first place, to correct misconceptions, if any exist, in regard to my opinions. I am averse to war with Spain,
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or with any power. I would give no just cause of war to any power — not to Spain herself. I have seen enough of war, and of its calamities, even when successful. No country on earth has more interest than this in cultivating peace and avoiding war, as long as it is possible honorably to avoid it. Gaining additional strength every day; our numbers doubling in periods of twenty- five years; with an income outstripping all our estimates, and so great, as, after a war in some respects disastrous, to furnish results which carry astonishment, if not dismay, into the bosom of States jealous of our rising importance; we have every motive for the love of peace. I cannot, however, approve in all respects of the manner in which our negotiations with Spain have been conducted. If ever a favorable time existed for the demand, on the part of an injured nation, of indemnity for past wrongs from the aggressor, such is the present time. Impoverished and ex- hausted at home, by the wars which have desolated the penin- sula; with a foreign war, calling for infinitely more resources, in men and money, than she can possibly command; this is the auspicious period for insisting upon justice at her hands in a firm and decided tone. Time is precisely what Spain now wants. Yet what are we told by the President, in his message at the commencement of Congress ? That Spain has procrastinated, and we acquiesced in her procrastination. And the Secretary of State, in a late communication with Mr. Onis, after ably vindi- cating all our rights, tells the Spanish minister, with a good deal of sang-froid, that we had patiently waited thirteen years for a redress of our injuries, and that it required no great effort to wait longer. I would have abstained from thus exposing our intentions. Avoiding the use of the language of menace, I would have required, in temperate and decided terms, indemnity for all our wrongs; for the spoliations of our commerce; for the inter- ruption for the right of depot at New Orleans, guaranteed by treaty; for the insults repeatedly offered to our flag; for the Indian hostilities, which she was bound to prevent; for bellig- erent use of her ports and territories by our enemy during the late war; and the instantaneous liberation of the free citizens of the United States, now imprisoned in her jails. Contemporane- ously with that demand, without waiting for her final answer, and with a view to the favorable operation on her councils in regard to our own peculiar interests, a"^ well as in justice to the cause itself, I would recognize any established government in Spanish
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America. I would have left Spain to draw her own inferences from these proceedings as to the ultimate step which this coun- try might adopt if she longer withheld justice from us. And if she persevered in her iniquity, after we had conducted the ne- gotiation in the manner I have endeavored to describe, I would then take up and decide the solemn question of peace or war, with the advantage of all the light shed upon it, by subsequent events, and the probable conduct of Europe.
Spain has undoubtedly given us abundant and just cause for war. But it is not every cause of war that should lead to war. War is one of those dreadful scourges that so shakes the foun- dation of society, overturns or changes the character of govern- ments, interrupts or destroys the pursuits of private happiness, brings, in short, misery and wretchedness in so many forms, and at last is, in its issue, so doubtful and hazardous, that nothing but dire necessity can justify an appeal to arms. If we are to have war with Spain, I have, however, no hesitation in saying that no mode of bringing it about could be less fortunate than that of seizing, at this time, upon her adjoining province. There was a time, under certain circumstances, when we might have occupied East Florida with safety; had we then taken it, our posture in the negotiation with Spain would have been totally different from what it is. But we have permitted that time, not with my consent, to pass by unimproved. If we were now to seize upon Florida, after a great change in those circumstances, and after declaring our intention to acquiesce in the procrastina- tion desired by Spain, in what light should we be viewed by foreign powers, particularly Great Britain ? We have already been accused of inordinate ambition, and of seeking to aggran- dize ourselves by an extension, on all sides, of our limits. Should we not, by such an act of violence, give color to the accusation ? No, Mr. Chairman; if we are to be involved in a war with Spain, let us have the credit of disinterestedness. Let us put her yet more in the wrong. Let us command the respect which is never withheld from those who act a noble and generous part. I hope to communicate to the committee the conviction which I so strongly feel, that the adoption of the amendment which I intend to propose would not hazard, in the slightest degree, the peace of the country. But if that peace is to be endangered, I would infinitely rather it should be for our exerting the right appertaining to every State, of acknowledging the independence
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of another State, than for the seizure of a province, which, sooner or later, we must acquire.
In contemplating the great struggle in which Spanish America is now engaged, our attention is fixed first by the immensity and character of the country which Spain seeks again to subjugate. Stretching on the Pacific Ocean from about the fortieth degree of north latitude to about the fifty-fifth degree of south latitude, and extending from the mouth of the Rio del Norte (exclusive of East Florida), around the Gulf of Mexico and along the South Atlantic to near Cape Horn, it is about five thousand miles in length, and in some places nearly three thousand in breadth. Within this vast region we behold the most sublime and inter- esting objects of creation, the richest mines of the precious metals, and the choicest productions .of the earth. We behold there a spectacle still more interesting and sublime — the glori- ous spectacle of eighteen millions of people struggling to burst their chains and to be free. When we take a little nearer and more detailed view, we perceive that nature has, as it were, or- dained that this people and this country shall ultimately consti- tute several different nations. Leaving the United States on the north, we come to New Spain, or the viceroyalty of Mexico on the south; passing by Guatemala, we reach the viceroyalty of New Grenada, the late captain-generalship of Venezuela, and Guiana, lying on the east side of the Andes, Stepping over the Brazils, we arrive at the united provinces of La Plata, and cross- ing the Andes we find Chili on their west side, and, further north, the viceroyalty of Lima, or Peru, Each of these several parts is sufficient in itself in point of limits to constitute a pow- erful state; and, in point of population, that which has the small- est contains enough to make it respectable. Throughout all the extent of that great portion of the world which I have attempted thus hastily to describe, the spirit of revolt against the dominion of Spain has manifested itself. The revolution has been attended with various degrees of success in the several parts of Spanish America, In some it has been already crowned, as I shall en- deavor to show, with complete success, and in all I am persuaded that independence has struck such deep root, that the power of Spain can never eradicate it. What are the causes of this great movement ?
Three hundred years ago, upon the ruins of the thrones of Montezuma and the Incas of Peru, Spain erected the most
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stupendous system of colonial despotism that the world has ever seen — the most vigorous, the most exclusive. The great princi- ple and object of this system have been to render one of the largest portions of the world exclusively subservient, in all its faculties, to the interests of an inconsiderable spot in Europe. To effectuate this aim of her policy, she locked up Spanish America from all the rest of the world, and prohibited, under the severest penalties, any foreigner from entering any part of it. To keep the natives themselves ignorant of each other, and of the strength and resources of the several parts of her Ameri- can possessions, she next prohibited the inhabitants of one vice- royalty or government from visiting those of another; so that the inhabitants of Mexico, for example, were not allowed to enter the viceroyalty of New Grenada. The agriculture of those vasi regions was so regulated and restrained as to prevent all colli- sion with the agriculture of the peninsula. Where nature, by the character and composition of the soil, has commanded, the abominable system of Spain has forbidden, the growth of certain articles. Thus the olive and the vine, to which Spanish America is so well adapted, are prohibited, wherever their culture can in- terfere with the olive and the vine of the peninsula. The com- merce of the country, in the direction and objects of the exports and imports, is also subjected to the narrow and selfish views of Spain, and fettered by the odious spirit of monopoly, existing in Cadiz. She has sought, by scattering discord among the several castes of her American population, and by a debasing course of education, to perpetuate her oppression. Whatever concerns pub- lic law, or the science of government, all writings upon political economy, or that tend to give vigor and freedom and expansion to the intellect, are prohibited. Gentlemen would be astonished by the long list of distinguished authors, whom she proscribes, to be found in Depon's and other works. A main feature in her policy is that which constantly elevates the European and de- presses the American character. Out of upwards of seven hun- dred and fifty viceroys and captains-general, whom she has appointed since the conquest of America, about eighteen only have been from the body of her American population. On all occasions, she seeks to raise and promote her European subjects, and to degrade and humiliate the Creoles. Wherever in America her sway extends, everything seems to pine and wither beneath its baneful influence. The richest regions of the earth; man,
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his happiness and his education, all the fine faculties of his soul, are regulated and modified and molded to suit the execrable purposes of an inexorable despotism.
Such is the brief and imperfect picture of the state of things in Spanish America, in 1808, when the famous transactions of Bayonne occurred. The King of Spain and the Indies (for Spanish America has always constituted an integral part of the Spanish empire) abdicated his throne and became a voluntary captive. Even at this day one does not know whether he should most condemn the baseness and perfidy of the one party, or de- spise the meanness and imbecility of the other. If the obliga- tion of obedience and allegiance existed on the part of the colonies to the King of Spain, it was founded on the duty of protection which he owed them. By disqualifying himself for the performance of this duty, they became released from that obligation. The monarchy was dissolved, and each integral part had a right to seek its own happiness by the institution of any new government adapted to its wants. Joseph Bonaparte, the successor de facto of Ferdinand, recognized this right on the part of the colonies, and recommended them to establish their independence. Thus, upon the ground of strict right; upon the footing of a mere legal question, governed by forensic rules, the colonies, being absolved by the acts of the parent country from the duty of subjection to it, had an indisputable right to set up for themselves. But I take a broader and a bolder position. I maintain that an oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters. This was the great principle of the English revolution. It was the great principle of our own. Vattel, if authority were wanting, expressly supports this right. We must pass sentence of condemnation upon the founders of our liberty, say that they were rebels, traitors, and that we are at this moment legislating without competent powers, before we can condemn the cause of Spanish America. Our revolution was mainly directed against the mere theory of tyranny. We had suffered but comparatively little; we had, in some respects, been kindly treated; but our intrepid and intelligent fathers saw, in the usurpation of the power to levy an inconsiderable tax, the long train of oppressive acts that were to follow. They rose; they breasted the storm; they achieved our freedom. Spanish America for centuries has been doomed to the practical effects of an odious tyranny. If we were justified, she is more than justified.
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I am no propagandist. I would not seek to force upon other nations our principles and our liberty, if they do not want them. I would not disturb the repose even of a detestable des- potism. But, if an abused and oppressed people will their free- dom; if they seek to establish it; we have a right, as a sovereign power, to notice the fact and to act as circumstances and our interest require, I will say, in the language of the venerated father of my country, *born in a land of liberty, my anxious re- collections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are ir- resistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.*^ Whenever I think of Spanish America, the image irresistibly forces itself upon my mind, of an elder brother, whose education has been neglected, whose person has been abused and maltreated, and who has been disinherited by the unkindness of an unnatural parent. And, when I contemplate the glorious struggle which that country is now making, I think I behold that brother rising, by the power and energy of his fine native genius, to the manly rank which nature, and nature's God, intended for him. . . .
In the establishment of the independence of Spanish America, the United States have the deepest interest. I have no hesita- tion in asserting my firm belief that there is no question in the foreign policy of this country, which has ever arisen, or which I can conceive as ever occurring, in the decision of which we have had or can have so much at stake. This interest concerns our politics, our commerce, our navigation. There cannot be a doubt that Spanish America, once independent, whatever may be the form of government established in its several parts, these govern- ments will be animated by an American feeling, and guided by an American policy. They will obey the laws of the system of the new world, of which they will compose a part, in contradis- tinction to that of Europe. Without the influence of that vortex in Europe, the balance of power between its several parts, the preservation of which has so often drenched Europe in blood, America is sufficiently remote to contemplate the new wars which are to afflict that quarter of the globe, as a calm if not a cold and indifferent spectator. In relation to those wars, the several parts of America will generally stand neutral. And as, during the period when they rage, it will be important that a liberal system of neutrality should be adopted and observed, all America will be interested in maintaining and enforcing such a
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system. The independence of Spanish America, then, is an interest of primary consideration. Next to that, and highly im- portant in itself, is the consideration of the nature of their gov- ernments. That is a question, however, for themselves. They will, no doubt, adopt those kinds of governments which are best suited to their condition, best calculated for their happiness. Anxious as I am that they should be free governments, we have no right to prescribe for them. They are, and ought to be, the sole judges for themselves. I am strongly inclined to believe that they will in most, if not all parts of their country, establish free governments. We are their great example. Of us they constantly speak as of brothers, having a similar origin. They adopt our principles, copy our institutions, and, in many in- stances, employ the very language and sentiments of our revolu- tionary papers:
"Having then been thus impelled by the Spaniards and their king, we have calculated all the consequences, and have constituted our- selves independent, prepared to exercise the right of nature to de- fend ourselves against the ravages of tyranny, at the risk of our honor, our lives, and fortune. We have sworn to the only King we acknowledge, the supreme judge of the world, that we will not abandon the cause of justice ; that we will not suffer the country which he has given us, to be buried in ruins, and inundated with blood, by the hands of the executioner, etc."
But it is sometimes said that they are too ignorant and too superstitious to admit of the existence of free government. This charge of ignorance is often urged by persons themselves actu- ally ignorant of the real condition of that people. I deny the alleged fact of ignorance; I deny the inference from that fact, if it were true, that they want capacity for free government. And I refuse assent to the further conclusion if the fact were true, and the inference just, that we are to be indifferent to their fate. All the writers of the most established authority, Depons, Humboldt, and others, concur in assigning to the people of Span- ish America great quickness, genius, and particular aptitude for the acquisition of the exact sciences, and others which they have been allowed to cultivate. In astronomy, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, botany, and so forth, they are allowed to make distin- guished proficiency. They justly boast of their Abzate, Velas- ques, and Gama, and other illustrious contributors to science.
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HENRY CLAY
They have nine universities, and in the City of Mexico, it is affirmed by Humboldt, there are more solid scientific estab- lishments than in any city even of North America. I would refer to the message of the supreme director of La Plata, which I shall hereafter have occasion to use for another purpose, as a model of fine composition of a State paper, challenging a com- parison with any, the most celebrated, that ever issued from the pens of Jefferson or Madison. Gentlemen will egregiously err, if they form their opinions of the present condition of Spanish America from what it was under the debasing system of Spain. The eight years* revolution in which it has been engaged has already produced a powerful effect. Education has been attended to, and genius developed.
<<As soon as the project of the revolution arose on the shores of the La Plata, genius and talent exhibited their influence; the capac- ity of the people became manifest, and the means of acquiring knowledge were soon made the favorite pursuit of the youth. As far as the wants or the inevitable interruption of affairs were allowed, everything has been done to disseminate useful information. The liberty of the press has indeed met with some occasional checks; but in Buenos Ayres alone, as many periodical works weekly issue from the press as in Spain and Portugal put together. >>
It is not therefore true, that the imputed ignorance exists; but, if it do, I repeat, I dispute the inference. It is the doc- trine of thrones, that man is too ignorant to govern himself. Their partisans assert his incapacity, in reference to all nations; if they cannot command universal assent to the proposition, it is then demanded to particular nations; and our pride and our presumption too often make converts of us. I contend, that it is to arraign the dispositions of Providence himself, to suppose that he has created beings incapable of governing themselves, and to be trampled on by kings. Self-government is the natural gov- ernment of man, and for proof I refer to the aborigines of our own land. Were I to speculate in hypotheses unfavorable to human liberty, my speculations should be founded rather upon the vices, refinements, or density of population. Crowded to- gether in compact masses, even if they were philosophers, the contagion of the passions is communicated and caught, and the ejffect too often, I admit, is the overthrow of liberty. Dispersed over such an immense space as that on which the people of
HENRY CLAY 1 249
Spanish America are spread, their physical, and I believe also their moral condition, both favor their liberty.
With regard to their superstition, they worship the same God with us. Their prayers are offered up in their temples to the same Redeemer whose intercession we expect to save us. Nor is there anything- in the Catholic religion unfavorable to freedom. All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All, separated from government, are compatible with liberty. If the people of Spanish America have not already gone as far in religious toleration as we have, the difference in their condition from ours should not be forgotten. Everything is progressive; and, in time, I hope to see them imitating in this respect our example. But grant that the people of Spanish America are ignorant and incompetent for free government, to whom is that ignorance to be ascribed ? Is it not to the exe- crable system of Spain, which she seeks again to establish and to perpetuate ? So far from chilling our hearts, it ought to increase our solicitude for our unfortunate brethren. It ought to animate us to desire the redemption of the minds and the bodies of un- born millions from the brutifying effects of a system whose ten- dency is to stifle the faculties of the soul and to degrade man to the level of beasts. I would invoke the spirits of our departed fathers. Was it for yourselves only that you nobly fought ? No, no! It was the chains that were forging for your posterity that made you fly to arms, and, scattering the elements of these chains to the winds, you transmitted to us the rich inheritance of liberty.
«THE AMERICAN SYSTEM » AND THE HOME MARKET
(Delivered in the United States Senate, February 2d, 1832 — Given by Benton as an Unabridged Report)
EIGHT years ago it was my painful duty to present to the House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the gen- eral distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet remember some of its frightful features. We all know that the people were then oppressed and borne down by an enormous load of debt; that the value of property was at the lowest point of depression; that ruinous sales and sacrifices were everywhere made of real estate; that stop laws and relief laws and paper IV— 79
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HENRY CLAY
money were adopted to save the people from impending destruc- tion; that a deficit in the public revenue existed, which com- pelled the Government to seize upon, and divert from its legiti- mate object, the appropriation to the sinking fund, to redeem the national debt; and that our commerce and navigation were threatened with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, if I were to select any term of seven years since the adoption of the present Constitution, which exhibited a scene of the most wide- spread dismay and desolation, it would be exactly that term of seven years which immediately preceded the establishment of the tariff of 1824.
I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting an imperfect sketch of the existing state of the unparalleled prosperity of the country. On a general survey, we behold cul- tivation extended, the arts flourishing, the face of the country improved, our people fully and profitably employed, and the public countenance exhibiting tranquillity, contentment, and hap- piness. And, if we descend into particulars, we have the agree- able contemplation of a people out of debt; land rising slowly in value, but in a secure and salutary degree; a ready, though not extravagant market for all the surplus productions of our industry; innumerable flocks and herds browsing and gamboling on ten thousand hills and plains, covered with rich and verdant grasses; our cities expanded, and whole villages springing up, as it were, by enchantment; our exports and imports increased and increasing; our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling and fully occupied; the rivers of our interior animated by the perpetual thunder and lightning of countless steamboats; the currency sound and abundant; the public debt of two wars nearly redeemed; and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, embarrassing Congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the ob- jects which shall be liberated from the impost. If the term of seven years were to be selected of the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the establishment of their present Constitution, it would be exactly that period of seven years which immediately followed the passage of the tariff of 1824.
This transformation of the condition of the country from gloom and distress to brightness and prosperity has been mainly the work of American legislation, fostering American industry, instead of allowing it to be controlled by foreign legislation, cher-
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125I
ishing foreign industry. The foes of the American system, in 1824, with great boldness and confidence, predicted: ist. The ruin of the public revenue, and the creation of a necessity to resort to direct taxation. The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Hayne], I believe, thought that the tariff of 1824 would operate a reduction of revenue to the large amount of eight millions of dollars. 2d. The destruction of our navigation. 3d. The desola- tion of commercial cities. And 4th. The augmentation of the price of objects of consumption, and further decline in that of the articles of our exports. Every prediction which they made has failed — utterly failed. Instead of the ruin of the public revenue, with which they then sought to deter us from the adop- tion of the American system, we are now threatened with its subversion, by the vast amount of the public revenue produced by that system. Every branch of our navigation has increased. As to the desolation of our cities, let us take, as an example, the condition of the largest and most commercial of all of them, the great northern capital. I have in my hands the assessed value of real estate in the city of New York, from 181 7 to 1831. This value is canvassed, contested, scrutinized, and adjudged, by the proper sworn authorities. It is, therefore, entitled to full credence. During the first term, commencing with 181 7, and ending in the year of the passage of the tariff of 1824, the amount of the value of real estate was, the first year, $57,799,- 435, and, after various fluctuations in the intermediate period, it settled down at $52,019,730, exhibiting a decrease, in seven years, of $S,779»7o5- During the year 1825, after the passage of the tariflE, it rose, and, gradually ascending throughout the whole of the latter period of seven years, it finally, in 1831, reached the astonishing height of $95,716,485! Now, if it be said that this rapid growth of the city of New York was the effect of foreign commerce, then it was not correctly predicted, in 1824, that the tariff would destroy foreign commerce and deso- late our commercial cities. If, on the contrary, it be the effect of internal trade, then internal trade cannot be justly chargeable with the evil consequences imputed to it. The truth is, it is the joint effect of both principles, the domestic industry nourishing the foreign trade, and the foreign commerce, in turn, nourishing the domestic industry. Nowhere more than in New York is the combination of both principles so completely developed. In the progress of my argument I will consider the effect upon the
12 C2 HENRY CLAY
price of commodities produced by the American system, and show that the very reverse of the prediction of its foes, in 1824, has actually happened.
Whilst thus we behold the entire failure of all that was fore- told against the system, it is a subject of just felicitation to its friends, that all their anticipations of its benefits have been ful- filled, or are in progress of fulfillment. The honorable gentleman from South Carolina has made allusion to a speech made by me, in 1824, in the other house, in support of the tariff, and to which, otherwise, I should not have particularly referred. But I would ask any one, who could now command the courage to pe- ruse that long production, what principle there laid down is not true ? what prediction then made has been falsified by practical experience ?
It is now proposed to abolish the system to which we owe so much of the public prosperity, and it is urged that the arrival of the period of the redemption of the public debt has been confi- dently looked to as presenting a suitable occasion to rid the country of the evils with which the system is alleged to be fraught. Not an inattentive observer of passing events, I have been aware that, among those who were most eagerly pressing the payment of the public debt, and, upon that ground, were op- posing appropriations to other great interests, there were some who cared less about the debt than the accomplishment of other objects. But the people of the United States have not coupled the payment of their public debt with the destruction of the protection of their industry, against foreign laws and foreign in- dustry. They have been accustomed to regard the extinction of the public debt as relief from a burden, and not as the infliction of a curse. If it is to be attended or followed by the subversion of the American system, and the exposure of our establishments and our productions to the unguarded consequences of the selfish policy of foreign powers, the payment of the public debt will be the bitterest of curses. Its fruit will be like the fruit
«Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe. With loss of Eden.»
If the system of protection be founded on principles erroneous in theory, pernicious in practice — above all, if it be unconstitu- tional, as is alleged, it ought to be forthwith abolished, and not
HENRY CLAY 12^^
a vestige of it suffered to remain. But, before we sanction this sweeping denunciation, let us look a little at this system, its mag- nitude, its ramifications, its duration, and the high authorities which have sustained it. We shall see that its foes will have accomplished comparatively nothing, after having achieved their present aim of breaking down our iron foundries, our woolen, cotton, and hemp manufactories, and our sugar plantations. The destruction of these would undoubtedly lead to the sacrifice of immense capital, the ruin of many thousands of our fellow- citizens, and incalculable loss to the whole community. But their prostration would not disfigure, nor produce greater effect upon the whole system of protection, in all its branches, than the de- struction of the beautiful domes upon the capitol would occasion to the magnificent edifice which they surmount. Why, sir, there is scarcely an interest, scarcely a vocation in society, which is not embraced by the beneficence of this system.
It comprehends our coasting tonnage and trade, from which all foreign tonnage is absolutely excluded.
It includes all our foreign tonnage, with the inconsiderable exception made by treaties of reciprocity with a few foreign powers.
It embraces our fisheries and all our hardy and enterprising fishermen.
It extends to all lower Louisiana, the delta of which might as well be submerged again in the Gulf of Mexico, from which it has been a gradual conquest, as now to be deprived of the protecting duty upon its great staple.
It affects the cotton planter himself, and the tobacco planter, both of whom enjoy protection.
Such are some of the items of this vast system of protection, which it is now proposed to abandon. We might well pause and contemplate, if human imagination could conceive the extent of mischief and ruin from its total overthrow, before we proceed to the work of destruction. Its duration is worthy, also, of serious consideration. Not to go behind the Constitution, its date is co- eval with that instrument. It began on the ever-memorable fourth day of July — the fourth day of July, 1789. The second act which stands recorded in the statute book, bearing the illus- trious signature of George Washington, laid the comer stone of the whole system. That there might be no mistake about the matter, it was then solemnly proclaimed to the American people
j2q4 HENRY CLAY
and to the world, that it was necessary, for *the encouragement and protection of manufactures,* that duties should be laid. It is in vain to urge the small amount of the measure of protec- tion then extended. The great principle was then established by the fathers of the Constitution, with the Father of his Country at their head. And it cannot now be questioned, that, if the Gov- ernment had not then been new and the subject untried, a greater measure of protection would have been applied, if it had been supposed necessary. Shortly after, the master minds of Jefferson and Hamilton were brought to act on this interesting subject. Taking views of it appertaining to the departments of Foreign Affairs and of the Treasury, which they respectively filled, they presented, severally, reports which yet remain monuments of their profound wisdom, and came to the same conclusion of protection to American industry. Mr. Jefferson argued that for- eign restrictions, foreign prohibitions, and foreign high duties, ought to be met, at home, by American restrictions, American prohibitions, and American high duties. Mr. Hamilton, survey- ing the entire ground, and looking at the inherent nature of the subject, treated it with an ability which, if ever equaled, has not been surpassed, and earnestly recommended protection.
The subject of the American system was again brought up in 1820, by the bill reported by the Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, now a member of the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the principle was successfully main- tained by the representatives of the people; but the bill which they passed was defeated in the Senate. It was received in 1824, the whole ground carefully and deliberately explored, and the bill then introduced, receiving all the sanctions of the Con- stitution, became the law of the land. An amendment of the system was proposed in 1828, to the history of which I refer with no agreeable recollections. The bill of that year, in some of its provisions, was framed on principles directly adverse to the declared wishes of the friends of the policy of protection. I have heard (without vouching for the fact) that it was so framed, upon the advice of a prominent citizen, now abroad, with the view of ultimately defeating the bill, and with assur- ances that, being altogether unacceptable to the friends _ of the American system, the bill would be lost. Be that as it may, the most exceptional features of the bill were stamped upon it, against the earnest remonstrances of the friends of the system,
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by the votes of Southern members, upon a principle, I think, as unsound in legislation as it is reprehensible in ethics. The bill was passed, notwithstanding it having been deemed better to take the bad along with the good which it contained than re- ject it altogether. Subsequent legislation has corrected very much the error then perpetrated, but still that measure is vehe- mently denounced by gentlemen who contributed to make it what it was.
Thus, sir, has this great system of protection been gradually built, stone upon stone, and step by step, from the fourth of July, 1789, down to the present period. In every stage of its progress it has received the deliberate sanction of Congress. A vast majority of the people of the United States has approved, and continues to approve it. Every Chief Magistrate of the United States, from Washington to the present, in some form or other, has given to it the authority of his name; and, however the opinions of the existing President are interpreted south of Mason and Dixon's Line, on the north they are, at least, under- stood to favor the establishment of a judicious tariff.
The question, therefore, which we are now called upon to determine is not whether we shall establish a new and doubtful system of policy, just proposed, and for the first time presented to our consideration, but whether we shall break down and de- stroy a long-established system, patiently and carefully built up, and sanctioned, during a series of years, again and again by the nation and its highest and most revered authorities. And are we not bound deliberately to consider whether we can proceed to this work of destruction without a violation of the public faith? The people of the United States have justly supposed that the policy of protecting their industry against foreign legislation and for- eign industry was fully settled, not by a single act, but by repeated and deliberate acts of government performed at distant and frequent intervals. In full confidence that the policy was firmly and unchangeably fixed, thousands upon thousands have invested their capital, purchased a vast amount of real and other estate, made permanent establishments, and accommodated their industry. Can we expose to utter and irretrievable ruin this countless multitude without justly incurring the reproach of vio- lating the national faith ?
I shall not discuss the constitutional question. Without mean- ing any disrespect to those who raise it, if it be debatable, it has
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been sufficiently debated. The gentleman from South Carolina suffered it to fall unnoticed from his budget; and it was not until after he had closed his speech and resumed his seat that it occurred to him that he had forgotten it, when he again addressed the Senate, and, by a sort of protestation against any conclusion from his silence, put forward the objection. The recent Free Trade Convention at Philadelphia, it is well known, were divided on the question; and although the topic is noticed in their ad- dress to the public, they do not avow their own belief that the American system is unconstitutional, but represent that such is the opinion of respectable portions of the American people. An- other address to the people of the United States, from a high source, during the past year, treating this subject, does not assert the opinion of the distinguished author, but states that of others to be that it is unconstitutional. From which I infer that he himself did not believe it unconstitutional.
[Here the Vice-President [Mr. Calhoun] interposed, and remarked that if the Senator from Kentucky alluded to him, he must say that his opinion was that the measure was unconstitutional.]
When, sir [said Mr. Clay] I contended with you, side by side, and with perhaps less zeal than you exhibited, in 181 6, I did not understand you then to consider the policy forbidden by the Con- stitution.
[The Vice-President again interposed, and said that the constitutional question was not debated at that time, and that he had never expressed an opinion contrary to that now intimated.]
I give way with pleasure [said Mr. Clay] to these explana- tions, which I hope will always be made when I say anything bearing on the individual opinions of the Chair. I know the delicacy of the position, and sympathize with the incumbent, whoever he may be. It is true, the question was not debated in 1 816; and why not? Because it was not debatable; it was then believed not fairly to arise. It never has been made as a dis- tinct, substantial, and leading point of objection. It never was made until the discussion of the tariff of 1824, when it was rather hinted at, as against the spirit of the Constitution, than formally announced as being contrary to the provisions of that instru- ment. What was not dreamt of before, or in 1816, and scarcely thought of in 1824, is now made by excited imaginations to as- sume the imposing form of a serious constitutional barrier.
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"57
And now, Mr. President, I have to make a few observations on a delicate subject, which I approach with all the respect that is due to its serious and grave nature. They have not, indeed, been rendered necessary by the speech of the gentleman from South Carolina, whose forbearance to notice the topic was com- mendable, as his argument throughout was characterized by an ability and dignity worthy of him and of the Senate. The gen- tleman made one declaration which might possibly be misinter- preted, and I submit to him whether an explanation of it be not proper. The declaration, as reported in his printed speech, is: ** The instinct of self-interest might have taught us an easier way of relieving ourselves from this oppression. It wanted but the will to have supplied ourselves with every article embraced in the protective system, free of duty, without any other partici- pation on our part than a simple consent to receive them.'*
[Here Mr. Hayne rose, and remarked that the passages which immediately- preceded and followed the paragraph cited, he thought, plainly indicated his meaning, which related to evasions of the system by ilUcit introduction of goods, which they were not disposed to countenance in South Carolina.]
I am happy to hear this explanation. But, sir, it is impossible to conceal from our view the facts that there is great excitement in South Carolina; that the protective system is openly and vio- lently denounced in popular meetings; and that the legislature itself has declared its purpose of resorting to counteracting meas- ures— a suspension of which has only been submitted to for the purpose of allowing Congress time to retrace its steps. With re- spect to this Union, Mr. President, the truth cannot be too gener- ally proclaimed nor too strongly inculcated, that it is necessary to the whole and to all the parts — necessary to those parts, indeed, in different degrees, but vitally necessary to each ; and that threats to disturb or dissolve it, coming from any of the parts, would be quite as indiscreet and improper as would be threats from the residue to exclude those parts from the pale of its benefits. The great principle which lies at the foundation of all free gov- ernment is that the majority must govern; from which there is or can be no appeal but to the sword. That majority ought to govern wisely, equitably, moderately, and constitutionally, but govern it must, subject only to that terrible appeal. If ever one, or several States, being a minority, can, by menacing a dis- solution of the Union, succeed in forming an abandonment of
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great measures deemed essential to the interests and prosperity of the whole, the Union from that moment is practically gone. It may linger on in form and name, but its vital spirit has fled forever! Entertaining these deliberate opinions, I would entreat the patriotic people of South Carolina — the land of Marion, Sumter, and Pickens — of Rutledge, Laurens, the Pinckneys, and Lowndes — of living and present names, which I would mention if they were not living or present — to pause, solemnly pause! and contemplate the frightful precipice which lies directly before them. To retreat may be painful and mortifying to their gal- lantry and pride, but it is to retreat to the Union, to safety, and to those brethren with whom, or with whose ancestors, they, or their ancestors, have won on fields of glory imperishable renown. To advance is to rush on certain and inevitable disgrace and destruction.
We have been told of deserted castles, of uninhabited halls, and of mansions, once the seats of opulence and hospitality, now abandoned and moldering in ruins. I never had the honor of being in South Carolina; but I have heard and read of the stories of its chivalry, and of its generous and open-hearted liberality. I have heard, too, of the struggles for power between the lower and upper country. The same causes which existed in Virginia, with which I have been acquainted, I presume, have had their influence in Carolina, In whose hands now are the once proud seats of Westover, Curies, May cocks, Shirley, and others, on James River, and in lower Virginia? Under the operation of laws abolishing the principle of primogeniture, and providing the equitable rule of an equal distribution of estates among those in equal degree of consanguinity, they have passed into other and stranger hands. Some of the descendants of illustrious families have gone to the far West, whilst others, lingering behind, have contrasted their present condition with that of their venerated ancestors. They behold themselves excluded from their fathers' houses, now in the hands of those who were once their fathers' overseers, or sinking into decay; their imaginations paint ancient renown, the fading honors of their name, glories gone by; too poor to live, too proud to ^ork, too high-minded and honorable to resort to ignoble means of acquisition, brave, daring, chival- rous, what can be the cause of their present unhappy state ? The *< accursed tariff* presents itself to their excited imagin- ations, and they blindly rush into the ranks of those who,
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1259
unfurling the banner of nullification, would place a State upon its sovereignty!
The danger to our Union does not lie on the side of persist- ence in the American system, but on that of its abandonment. If, as I have supposed and believe, the inhabitants of all north and east of the James River, and all west of the mountains, in- cluding Louisiana, are deeply interested in the preservation of that system, would they be reconciled to its overthrow ? Can it be expected that two-thirds, if not three-fourths, of the people of the United States would consent to the destruction of a policy believed to be indispensably necessary to their prosperity ? When, too, this sacrifice is made at the instance of a single inter- est which they verily believe will not be promoted by it ? In estimating the degree of peril which may be incident to two op- posite courses of human policy, the statesman would be short- sighted who should content himself with viewing only the evils, real or imaginary, which belong to that course which is in prac- tical operation. He should lift himself up to the contemplation of those greater and more certain dangers which might inevit- ably attend the adoption of the alternative course. "What would be the condition of this Union, if Pennsylvania and New York, those mammoth members of our confederacy, were firmly per suaded that their industry was paralyzed and their prosperity blighted by the enforcement of the British colonial system, un- der the delusive name of free trade ? They are now tranquil and happy and contented, conscious of their welfare, and feeling a salutary and rapid circulation of the products of home manu- factures and home industry throughout all their great arteries. But let that be checked, let them feel that a foreign system is to predominate, and the sources of their subsistence and comfort dried up; let New England and the West and the Middle States all feel that they too are the victims of a mistaken policy, and let these vast portions of our country despair of any favorable change, and then, indeed, might we tremble for the continuance and safety of this Union!
I26o HENRY CLAY
IN FAVOR OF A PATERNAL POLICY OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
(From the Speech of January i6th, 1824, in the House of Representatives on
the Cumberland Road)
IT IS said by the President that the power to regulate commerce merely authorizes the laying of imposts and duties. But
Congress has no power to lay imposts and duties on the trade among the several States. The grant must mean, there- fore, something else. What is it ? The power to regulate com- merce among the several States, if it has any meaning, implies authority to foster it, to promote it, to bestow upon it facilities similar to those which have been conceded to our foreign trade. It cannot mean only an empty authority to adopt regulations, without the capacity to give practical effect to them. All the powers of this Government should be interpreted in reference to its first, its best, its greatest object, the union of these States. And is not that union best invigorated by an intimate social and commercial connection between all the parts of the confederacy ? Can that be accomplished, that is, can the federative objects of this Government be attained but by the application of federative resources ?
Of all the powers bestowed on this Government, I think none are more clearly vested than that to regulate the distribution of the intelligence, private and official, of the country; to regulate the distribution of its commerce; and to regulate the distribution of the physical force of the Union. In the execution of the high and solemn trust which these beneficial powers imply, we must look to the great ends which the framers of our admirable Constitution had in view. We must reject as wholly incompat- ible with their enlightened and beneficent intentions that con- struction of these powers which would resuscitate all the debility and inefficiency of the ancient confederacy. In the vicissitudes of human affairs who can foresee all the possible cases in which it may be necessary to apply the public force, within or without the Union ? This Government is charged with the use of it to repel invasions, to suppress insurrections, to enforce the laws of the Union; in short for all the unknown and undefinable pur- poses of war, foreign or intestine, wherever and however it may rage. During its existence may not Government, for its effect-
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ual prosecution, order a road to be made, or a canal to be cut, to relieve, for example, an exposed point of the Union ? If, when the emergency comes, there is a power to provide for it, that power must exist in the Constitution, and not in the emergency. A wise, precautionary, and parental policy, anticipating danger, will provide beforehand for the hour of need. Roads and canals are in the nature of fortifications, since, if not the deposits of military resources, they enable you to bring into rapid action the military resources of the country, whatever they may be. They are better than any fortifications, because they serve the double purposes of peace and war. They dispense, in a great degree, wath fortifications, since they have all the effect of that concentration at which fortifications aim. I appeal from the pre- cepts of the President to the practice of the President. While he denies to Congress the power in question, he does not scruple, upon his sole authority, as numerous instances in the statute book will testify, to order at pleasure the opening of roads by the military, and then come here to ask us to pay for them.
But, Mr. Chairman, if there be any part of this Union more likely than all others to be benefited by the adoption of the gen- tleman's principle, regulating the public expenditure, it is the west. There is a perpetual drain from that embarrassed and highly distressed portion of our country, of its circulating medium to the east. There, but few and inconsiderable expenditures of the public money take place. There we have none of those pub- lic works, no magnificent edifices, forts, armories, arsenals, dock- yards, etc., which more or less are to be found in every Atlantic State. In at least seven States beyond the Alleghany, not one solitary public work of this Government is to be found. If, by one of those awful and terrible dispensations of Providence, which sometimes occur, this Government should be unhappily an- nihilated, everywhere on the seaboard traces of its former exist- ence would be found, whilst we should not have, in the west, a single monument remaining on which to pour out our affections and our regrets. Yet, sir, we do not complain. No portion of your population is more loyal to the Union than the hardy free- men of the west. Nothing can weaken or eradicate their ardent desire for its lasting preservation. None are more prompt to vindicate the interests and rights of the nation from all foreign aggression. Need I remind you of the glorious scenes in which
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they participated, during the late war — a war in which they had no peculiar or direct interest, waged for no commerce, no sea- men of theirs. But it was enough for them that it was a war demanded by the character and the honor of the nation. They did not stop to calculate its cost of blood, or of treasure. They flew to arms; they rushed down the valley of the Mississippi, with all the impetuosity of that noble river. They sought the enemy. They found him at the beach. They fought; they bled; they covered themselves and their country with immortal glory. They enthusiastically shared in all the transports occasioned by our victories, whether won on the ocean or on the land. They felt, with the keenest distress, whatever disaster befell us. No, sir, I repeat it, neglect, injury itself, cannot alienate the affec- tions of the west from this government. They cling to it, as to their best, their greatest, their last hope. You may im- poverish them, reduce them to ruin, by the mistakes of your policy, yet you cannot drive them from you. They do not com- plain of the expenditure of the public money, where the public exigencies require its disbursement. But, I put it to your can- dor, if you ought not, by a generous and national policy, to mitigate, if not prevent, the evils resulting from the perpetual transfer of the circulating medium from the west to the east. One million and a half of dollars annually is transferred for the public lands alone, and almost every dollar goes, like him who goes to death — to a bourne from which no traveler returns. In ten years it will amount to fifteen millions; in twenty to — but I will not pursue the appalling results of arithmetic. Gen- tlemen who believe that these vast sums are supplied by emi- grants from the east labor under great error. There was a time when the tide of emigration from' the east bore along with it the means to effect the purchase of the public domain. But that tide has, in a great measure, now stopped. And as population advances farther and farther west, it will entirely cease. The greatest migrating States in the Union, at this time, are Ken- tucky first, Ohio next, and Tennessee. The emigrants from those States carry with them, to the States and territories lying beyond them, the circulating medium, which, being invested in the pur- chase of the public land, is transmitted to the points where the wants of government require it. If this debilitating and ex- hausting process were inevitable, it must be borne with manly fortitude. But we think that a fit exertion of the powers of this
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Government would mitigate the evil. We believe that the Gov- ernment incontestably possesses the constitutional power to ex- ecute such internal improvements as are called for by the good of the whole. And we appeal to your equity, to your- parental regard, to your enlightened policy, to perform the high and beneficial trust thus sacredly reposed. I am sensible of the deli- cacy of the topic to which I have reluctantly adverted, in con- sequence of the observations of the honorable gentleman from Virginia. And I hope there will be no misconception of my motives in dwelling upon it. A wise and considerate govern- ment should anticipate and prevent, rather than wait for the operation of causes of discontent.
Let me ask, Mr. Chairman, What has this Government done on the great subject of internal improvements, after so many years of its existence, and with such an inviting field before it ? You have made the Cumberland road, only. Gentlemen appear to have considered that a western road. They ought to recollect that not one stone has yet been broken, not one spade of earth has yet been removed in any western State. The road begins in Maryland and it terminates at Wheeling. It passes through the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. All the direct benefit of the expenditure of the public money on that road has accrued to those three States. Not one cent in any western State. And yet We have had to beg, entreat, supplicate you, session after session, to grant the necessary appropriations to complete the road. I myself have toiled until my powers have been exhausted and prostrated, to prevail on you to make the grant. We were actuated to make these exertions for the sake of the collateral benefit only to the west; that we might have a way by which we should be able to continue and maintain an affectionate intercourse with our friends and brethren; that we might have a way to reach the capital of our country, and to bring our counsels, humble as they may be, to consult and mingle with yours in the advancement of the national pros- perity.
Yes, sir, the Cumberland road has only reached the margin of a western State; and, from some indications which have been given during this session, I should apprehend it would there pause forever, if my confidence in you were not unbounded, if I had not before witnessed that appeals were never unsuccessful to your justice, to your magnanimity, to your fraternal affection.
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But, sir, the bill on your table is no western- bill. It is em- phatically a national bill, comprehending all, looking to the inter- ests of the whole. The people of the west never thought of, never desired, never asked, for a system exclusively for their benefit. The system contemplated by this bill looks to great na- tional objects, and proposes the ultimate application to their ac- complishment of the only means by which they can be effected, the means of the nation — means which, if they be withheld from such objects, the Union, I do most solemnly believe, of these now happy and promising States, may, at some distant (I trust a far, far distant) day, be endangered and shaken at its centre.
FOR «FREE TRADE AND SEAMEN'S RIGHTS »
(From a Speech on the War of 1812. Delivered in the House of Representa- tives, January 8th, 1813)
NEXT to the notice which the opposition has found itself called upon to bestow upon the French Emperor, a distinguished citizen of Virginia, formerly President of the United States, has never for a moment failed to receive their kindest and most respectful attention. An honorable gentleman from Massachu- setts, Mr. Quincy, of whom, I am sorry to say, it becomes neces- sary for me, in the course of my remarks, to take some notice, has alluded to him in a remarkable manner. Neither his retire- ment from public office, his eminent services, nor his advanced age, can exempt this patriot from the coarse assaults of party malevolence. No, sir, in 1801 he snatched from the rude hand of usurpation the violated Constitution of his country, and that is his (Crime. He preserved that instrument in form and substance and spirit, a precious inheritance for generations to come, and for this he can never be forgiven. How vain and impotent is party rage directed against such a man! He is not more elevated by his lofty residence upon the summit of his own favorite mount- ain than he is lifted, by the serenity of his mind and the con- sciousness of a well-spent life, above the malignant passions and bitter feelings of the day. No! his own beloved Monticello is not more moved by the storms that beat against its sides than is this illustrious man by the bowlings of the whole British pack set loose from the Essex kennel! When the gentleman to whom
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I have been compelled to allude shall have mingled his dust with that of his abused ancestors; when he shall have been consigned to oblivion, or, if he lives at all, shall live only in the treasonable annals of a certain junto, the name of Jefferson will be hailed with gratitude, his memory honored and cherished as the second founder of the liberties of the people, and the period of his ad- ministration will be looked back to, as one of the happiest and brightest epochs of American history — an oasis in the midst of a sandy desert. But I beg the gentleman's pardon; he has in- deed secured to himself a more imperishable fame than I had supposed. I think it was about four years ago that he submitted to the House of Representatives an initiative proposition for an impeachment of Mr. Jefferson. The House condescended to con- sider it. The gentleman debated it with his usual temper, mod- eration, and urbanity. The House decided upon it in the most solemn manner, and, although the gentleman had somehow ob- tained a second, the final vote stood, one for, and one hundred and seventeen against the proposition! The same historic page that transmitted to posterity the virtue and the glory of Henry the Great of France, for their admiration and example, has pre- served the infamous name of the fanatic assassin of that excel- lent monarch. The same sacred pen that portrayed the sufferings and crucifixion of the Savior of mankind has recorded, for uni- versal execration, the name of him who was guilty, not of be- traying his country, but (a kindred crime!) of betraying his God. In one respect there is a remarkable difference between the administration and the opposition; it is in a sacred regard for personal liberty. When out of power my political friends con- demned the surrender of Jonathan Robbins; they opposed the violation of the freedom of the press in the Sedition Law; they opposed the more insidious attack upon the freedom of the per- son under the imposing garb of an Alien Law. The party now in opposition, then in power, advocated the sacrifice of the unhappy Robbins, and passed those two laws. True to our principles, we are now struggling for the liberty of our seamen against foreign oppression. True to theirs, they oppose a war undertaken for this object. They have, indeed, lately affected a tender solicitude for the liberties of the people, and talk of the danger of standing armies and the burden of taxes. But it must be evident to you, Mr. Chairman, that they speak in a foreign idiom. Their brogue evinces that it is not their vernacular tongue. What! the oppo- IV — 80
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sition, who, in 1798 and 1799 could raise a useless army to fight an enemy three thousand miles distant from us, alarmed at the existence of one raised for a known and specified object — the attack of the adjoining provinces of the enemy! What! the gen- tleman from Massachusetts, who assisted by his vote to raise the army of twenty-five thousand, alarmed at the danger of our liber- ties from this very army! . . .
I omitted, yesterday, sir, when speaking of a delicate and painful subject, to notice a powerful engine which the conspira- tors against the integrity of the Union employ to effect theii nefarious purposes — I mean Southern influence. The true friend to his country, knowing that our Constitution was the work of compromise, in which interests, apparently conflicting, were at- tempted to be reconciled, aims to extinguish or allay prejudices. But this patriotic exertion does not suit the views of those who are urged on by diabolical ambition. They find it convenient to imagine the existence of certain improper influences, and to propagate, with their utmost industry, a belief of them. Hence the idea of Southern preponderance; Virginia influence; the yok- ing of the respectable yeomanry of the North, with negro slaves, to the car of Southern nabobs. If Virginia really cherishes a reprehensible ambition, an aim to monopolize the chief magis- tracy of the country, how is such a purpose to be accomplished ? Virginia, alone, cannot elect a President, whose elevation depends upon a plurality of electoral votes, and a consequent concurrence of many States. Would Vermont, disinterested Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, independent Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, all consent to become the tools of inordinate ambi- tion ? But the present incumbent was designated to the office before his predecessor had retired. How? By public sentiment, — public sentiment which grew out of his known virtues, his illustrious services, and his distinguished abilities. Would the gentleman crush this public sentiment, — is he prepared to admit that he would arrest the progress of opinion ?
The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated to her- self the pretension of regulating our foreign trade, under the delusive name of retaliatory orders in council, — a pretension by which she undertook to proclaim to American enterprise, — "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther,* — orders which she refused to revoke after the alleged cause of their enactment had ceased; because she persisted in the practice of impressing American
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seamen; because she had instigated the Indians to commit hos- tilities against us; and because she refused indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce. I throw out of the question other wrongs. The war in fact was announced, on our part, to meet the war which she was waging on her part. So undeniable were the causes of the war, so powerfully did they address them- selves to the feelings of the whole American people, that when the bill was pending before this House, gentlemen in the oppo- sition, although provoked to debate, would not, or could not, utter one syllable against it. . . .
We are told by gentlemen in the opposition that Government has not done all that was incumbent on it to do to avoid just cause of complaint on the part of Great Britain; that, in particu- lar, the certificates of protection, authorized by the act of 1796, are fraudulently used. Sir, Government has done too much in granting those paper protections. I can never think of them without being shocked. They resemble the passes which the master grants to his negro slave — ^^ Let the bearer, Mungo, pass and repass without molestation.* What do they imply? That Great Britain has a right to seize all who are not provided with them. From their very nature they must be liable to abuse on both sides. If Great Britain desires a mark by which she can know her own subjects, let her give them an ear-mark. The colors that float from the masthead should be the credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule that all who sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected by the flag. It is impossible that this country should ever abandon the gallant tars who have won for us such splendid trophies. Let me suppose that the genius of Columbia should visit one of them in his oppressor's prison and attempt to reconcile him to his forlorn and wretched condition. She would say to him, in the language of gentlemen on the other side: << Great Britain intends you no harm; she did not mean to impress you, but one of her own subjects; having taken you by mistake, I will remonstrate, and try to prevail upon her by peaceable means to release you; but I cannot, my son, fight for you.'* If he did not consider this mere mockery, the poor tar would address her judgment and say : *< You owe me, my country, protection; I owe you in return obedience. I am no British subject, I am a native of old Massachusetts, where live my aged father, my wife, my children. I have faithfully
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discharged my duty. Will you refuse to do yours ? * Appealing to her passions, he would continue ; " I lost this eye in fighting under Truxton with the Insurgente ; I got this scar before Trip- oli; I broke this leg on board the Constitution when the Guer- riere struck.** If she remained still unmoved, he would break out in the accents of mingled distress and despair: —
<*Hard, hard is my fate! once I freedom enjoyed, Was as happy as happy could be! Oh! how hard is my fate, how galling these chains!"
I will not imagine the dreadful catastrophe to which he would be driven by an abandonment of him to his oppressor. It will not be, it cannot be, that his country will refuse him protec- tion. ...
An honorable peace is attainable only by an efficient war. My plan would be to call out the ample resources of the country, give them a judicious direction, prosecute the war with the ut- most vigor, strike wherever we can reach the enemy, at sea or on land, and negotiate the terms of a peace at Quebec or at Halifax.
We are told that England is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining to wait for danger, meets it half way. Haughty as she is, we once triumphed over her, and, if we do not listen to the counsels of timidity and despair, we shall again prevail. In such a cause, with the aid of Providence, we must come out crowned with success; but if we fail, let us fail like men, lash ourselves to our gallant tars, and expire together in one common struggle, fighting for free trade and seamen's rights.
THE GREEK REVOLUTION
(Prom the Speech of January 20th, 1824, in the House of Representatives, Supporting the Webster Resolution)
THERE is reason to apprehend that a tremendous storm is ready to burst upon our happy country — one which may call into action all our vigor, courage, and resources. Is it wise of prudent, in preparing to breast the storm, if it must come, to talk to this nation of its incompetency to repel European aggres- sion, to lower its spirit, to weaken its moral energy, and to qualify it for easy conquest and base submission ? If there be
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any reality in the dangers which are supposed to encompass us, should we not animate the people, and adjure them to believe, as I do, that our resources are ample; and that we can bring into the field a million of freemen, ready to exhaust their last drop of blood, and to spend the last cent in the defense of the country, its liberty, and its institutions ? Sir, are these, if united, to be conquered by all Europe combined ? All the perils to which we can possibly be exposed are much less in reality than the imagination is disposed to paint them. And they are best averted by an habitual contemplation of them, by reducing them to their true dimensions. If combined Europe is to precipitate itself upon us, we cannot too soon begin to invigorate our strength, to teach our heads to think, our hearts to conceive, and our arms to execute, the high and noble deeds which belong to the character and glory of our country. The experience of the world instructs us that conquests are already achieved, which are boldly and firmly resolved on, and that men only become slaves who have ceased to resolve to be free. If we wish to cover our- selves with the best of all armor, let us not discourage our peo- ple, let us stimulate their ardor, let us sustain their resolution, let us proclaim to them that we feel as they feel, and that, with them, we are determined to live or die like freemen.
Surely, sir, we need no long or learned lectures about the nat- ure of government and the influence of property or ranks on society. We may content ourselves with studying the true char- acter of our own people and with knowing that the interests are confided to us of a nation capable of doing and suffering all things for its liberty. Such a nation, if its rulers be faithful, must be invincible, I well remember an observation made to me by the most illustrious female* of the age, if not of her sex. All history showed, she said, that a nation was never conquered. No, sir, no united nation that resolves to be free can be con- quered. And has it come to this? Are we so humbled, so low, so debased, that we dare not express our sympathy for suffering Greece, that we dare not articulate our detestation of the brutal excesses of which she has been the bleeding victim, lest we might offend some one or more of their imperial and royal maj- esties? If gentlemen are afraid to act rashly on such a subject, suppose, Mr. Chairman, that we unite in an humble petition, ad- dressed to their majesties, beseeching them that of their gracious
* Madame de Stael,
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condescension they would allow us to express our feelings and our sympathies. How shall it run ? * We, the representatives of the free people of the United States of America, humbly ap- proach the thrones of your imperial and royal majesties, and supplicate that, of your imperial and royal clemency,* — I cannot go through the disgusting recital — my lips have not yet learned to pronounce the sycophantic language of a degraded slave! Are we so mean, so base, so despicable, that we may not attempt to express our horror — to utter our indignation, at the most brutal and atrocious war that ever stained earth or shocked high heaven; at the ferocious deeds of a savage and infuriated soldiery, stimu- lated and urged on by the clergy of a fanatical and inimical re- ligion, and rioting in all the excesses of blood and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart sickens and recoils!
If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly and coolly, whilst all this is perpetrated on a Christian people, in its own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us at least evince that one of its remote extremities is susceptible of sensi- bility to Christian wrongs, and capable of sympathy for Christian sufferings; that in this remote quarter of the world there are hearts not yet closed against compassion for human woes, that can pour out their indignant feelings at the oppression of a peo- ple endeared to us by every ancient recollection, and every mod- ern tie. . . .
But, sir, it is not for Greece alone that I desire to see this measure adopted. It will give to her but little support, and that purely of a moral kind. It is principally for America, for the credit and character of our common country, for our own un- sullied name, that I hope to see it pass. Mr. Chairman, what appearance on the page of history would a record like this ex- hibit? "In the month of January, in the year of our Lord and Savior 1824, while all European Christendom beheld, with cold and unfeeling indifference, the unexampled wrongs and inex- pressible misery of Christian Greece, a proposition was made in the Congress of the United States, almost the sole, the last, the greatest depository of human hope and human freedom, the rep- resentatives of a gallant nation, containing a million of freemen ready to fly to arms, while the people of that nation were spon- taneously expressing its deep-toned feeling, and the whole conti- nent, by one simultaneous emotion, was rising, and solemnly and anxiously supplicating and invoking high heaven to spare and
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succor Greece, and to invigorate her arms, in her glorious cause, while temples and senate houses were alike resounding with one burst of generous and holy sympathy; — in the year of our Lord and Savior, that Savior of Greece and of us — a proposition was offered in the American Congress to send a messenger to Greece to inquire into her state and condition, with a kind expression of our good wishes and our sympathies — and it was rejected!'* Go home, if you can, go home, if you dare, to your constituents, and tell them that you voted it down; meet, if you can, the appall- ing countenances of those who sent you here, and tell them that you shrank from the declaration of your own sentiments — that you cannot tell how, but that some unknown dread, some in- describable apprehension, some indefinable danger, drove you from your purpose — that the spectres of scimeters and crowns and crescents gleamed before you and alarmed you; and that you suppressed all the noble feelings prompted by religion, by liberty, by national independence, and by humanity. I cannot bring myself to believe that such will be the feeling of a ma- jority of the committee. But, for myself, though every friend of the cause should desert it, and I be left to stand alone with the gentleman from Massachusetts, I will give to his resolution the poor sanction of my unqualified approbation.
THE NOBLEST PUBLIC VIRTUE
(Replying to Mr. Rives in the United States Senate, August 19th, 1841. Once Described by Mr. Clay Himself as His Most Effective Passage)
I ROSE not to say one word which should wound the feelings of President Tyler. The Senate says that, if placed in like cir- cumstances, I would have been the last man to avoid putting a direct veto upon the bill, had it met my disapprobation; and he does me the honor to attribute to me high qualities of stern and unbending intrepidity. I hope that in all that relates to personal firmness, all that concerns a just appreciation of the insignificance of human life — whatever may be attempted to threaten or alarm a soul not easily swayed by opposition, or awed or intimidated by menace — a stout heart and a steady eye, that can survey, unmoved and undaunted, any mere personal perils that assail this poor, transient, perishing frame, I may, without disparagement, compare with other men. But there is a
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sort of courage, which, I frankly confess it, I do not possess, a boldness to which I dare not aspire, a valor which I cannot covet. I cannot lay myself down in the way of the welfare and happiness of my country. That I cannot, I have not the cour- age to do. I cannot interpose the power with which I may be invested, a power conferred not for my personal benefit, nor for my aggrandizement, but for my country's good, to check her onward march to greatness and glory. I have not courage enough, I am too cowardly for that. I would not, I dare not, in the exercise of such a trust, lie down and place my body across the path that leads my country to prosperity and happiness. This is a sort of courage widely different from that which a man may display in his private conduct and personal relations. Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that higher and nobler courage which prompts the patriot to offer himself a voluntary sacrifice to his country's good.
Nor did I say, as the Senator represents, that the President should have resigned. I intimated no personal wish or desire that he should resign. I referred to the fact of a memorable resignation in his public life. And what I did say was, that there were other alternatives before him besides vetoing the bill, and that it was worthy of his consideration whether consistency did not require that the example which he had set when he had a constituency of one State should not be followed when he had a constituency commensurate with the whole Union. An- other alternative was to suffer the bill, without his signature, to pass into a law under the provisions of the Constitution. And I must confess, I see, in this, no such escaping by the back door, no such jumping out of the window, as the Senator talks about.
Apprehensions of the imputation of the want of firmness some- times impel us to perform rash and inconsiderate acts. It is the greatest courage to be able to bear the imputation of the want of courage. But pride, vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offen- sive in private life, are vices which partake of the character of crimes in the conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate victim of these passions cannot see beyond the little, petty, contemptible circle of his own personal interests. All his thoughts are with- drawn from his country and concentrated on his consistency, his firmness, himself. The high, the exalted, the sublime emotions of a patriotism, which, soaring toward heaven, rises far above all mean, low, or selfish things, and is absorbed by one soul-
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transporting thought of the good and the glory of one's country, are never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That patriotism, which, catching its inspirations from the immortal God, and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, groveling, personal interests and feelings, animates and prompts to deeds of self- sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and of death itself — that is public virtue; that is the noblest, the sublimest of all oublic virtues!
SIXTY YEARS OF SECTIONALISM
(Closing Argument in Support of the Compromise of 1850, United States Senate, February 6th, 1850)
Mr, Mangum having offered to make a motion to adjourn, Mr. Clay said: «No, sir; no, sir; if the Senate will bear with me, I think I can go through with it better to-day than I could to-morrow. >>
Mr. President: —
THIS Union is threatened with subversion. I desire to take a very rapid glance at the course of public measures in this Union presently. I wanted, however, before I did that, to ask the Senate to look back upon the career which this country has run from the adoption of the Constitution down to the present day. Was there ever a nation upon which the sun of heaven has shone which has exhibited so much of prosperity as our own ? At the commencement of this Government, our population amounted to about four millions. It has now reached upwards of twenty millions. Our territory was limited chiefly and principally to that bordering upon the Atlantic Ocean, and that which includes the southern shores of the interior lakes of our country. Our territory now extends from the northern prov- inces of Great Britain to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mex- ico; from the Atlantic Ocean on the one side to the Pacific on the other — the largest extent of territory under one government existing upon earth, with only two solitary exceptions. Our ton- nage, from being nothing, has risen to a magnitude and amount to rival that of the nation which has been proudly called the mistress of the ocean. We have gone through many wars; one with that very nation from whom in 1776, we broke off, as weak and feeble colonies, when we asserted our independence as a member of the family of nations. And, sir, we came out of that
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Struggle — unequal as it was, armed as she was at all points in consequence of the long struggles of Europe, and unarmed as we were at all points, in consequence of the habits and nature of our country and its institutions — we came out of that war without the loss of any honor whatever; we emerged from it gloriously. In every Indian war — we have been engaged in many of them — our arms have been triumphant. And without speaking at all as to the causes of the recent war with Mexico, whether they were right or wrong, and abstaining from the ex- pression of any opinion as to the justice or propriety of the war when it commenced, all must unite in respect to the gallantry of our arms and the glory of our triumphs. There is no page — there are no pages of history which record more brilliant suc- cesses. With respect to the one in command of an important portion of our army, I need say nothing in praise of him who has been borne by the voice of his country to the highest station in it, mainly on account of his glorious military career. But of another military commander, less fortunate in other respects, I must take the opportunity of saying that for skill, for science, for strategy, for bold and daring fighting, for chivalry of indi- viduals and of masses, that portion of the Mexican War which was conducted by the gallant Scott, as chief commander, stands unrivaled either by the deeds of Cortes himself or by those of any other commander in ancient or modern times.
Our prosperity is unbounded. Nay, Mr. President, I some- times fear that it is the very wantonness of our prosperity that leads us to these threatening ills of the moment, that restlessness and these erratic schemes throughout the whole country, some of which have even found their way into legislative halls. We want, I fear, the chastising wand of Heaven to bring us back to a sense of the immeasurable benefits and blessings which have been bestowed upon us by Providence. At this moment, with the exception of here and there a particular department in the manufacturing business of the country, all is prosperous and happy — both the rich and poor. Our nation has grown to a magnitude in power and in greatness to command the respect, if it does not call for the apprehensions, of all the powers of the earth with which we can come in contact. Sir, do I depict with colors too lively the prosperity which has resulted to us from the operation of the Constitution under which we live? Have I exaggerated in any degree ?
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Now, let me go a little into detail as to the sway in the councils of the nation, whether of the North or of the South, during the sixty years of unparalleled prosperity that we enjoy. During the first twelve years of the administration of the gov- ernment Northern councils rather prevailed, and out of them sprung the Bank of the United States; the assumption of the State debts; bounties to the fisheries; protection to the domestic manu- factures— I allude to the Act of 1789; neutrality in the wars with Europe; Jay's Treaty; Alien and Sedition Laws; and a quasi war with France. I do not say, sir, that those leading and promi- nent measures which were adopted during the administration of Washington and the elder Adams were carried exclusively by Northern councils. They could not have been, but were carried mainly by the sway which Northern councils had obtained in the affairs of the country.
So, also, with the latter party for the last fifty years. I do not mean to say that Southern counsels alone have carried the measures which I am about to enumerate. I know they could not exclusively have carried them; but I say they have been carried by their preponderating influence, with co-operation, it is true, and large co-operation, in some instances, from the North- em section of the Union.
And what are those measures during the fifty years that Southern counsels have preponderated ? The Embargo and other commercial restrictions of nonintercourse and nonimportation; war with Great Britain; the Bank of the United States over- thrown; protection to domestic manufactures enlarged and ex- tended (I allude to the passage of the Act of 181 5 or 18 16); the Bank of the United States re-established; the same bank put down; re-established by Southern counsels and put down by Southern counsels; Louisiana acquired; Florida bought; Texas annexed; war with Mexico; California and other Territories ac- quired from Mexico by conquest and purchase; protection super- seded and free trade established; Indians removed west of the Missouri; fifteen new States admitted into the Union. I may very possibly have omitted some of the important measures which have been adopted during the latter period or time to which I have referred — the last fifty years; but these, I believe, are the most prominent.
I do not deduce from the enumeration of the acts of the one §ide or the other any just cause of reproach to the one side or
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the other, although one side or the other has predominated in the two periods to which I have referred. It has been at least the work of both, and neither need justly reproach the other; but I must say in all candor and sincerity that least of all ought the South to reproach the North, when we look at the long list of measures we have had under our sway in the coun- cils of the nation, and which have been adopted as the policy of the Government, when we reflect that even opposite doctrines have been prominently advanced by the South and carried at different times. A Bank of the United States was established under the administration of Mr. Madison, with the co-operation of the South. I do not, when I speak of the South or North, speak of the entire South or North — I speak of the prominent and larger proportions of the South or North. It was during Mr. Madison's administration that the Bank of the United States was established. The friend [Mr. Calhoun] whose sickness I again deplore, as it prevents us from having his attendance here upon this occasion, was the chairman of the committee of the House of Representatives, and carried the measure through Con- gress. I voted for it with all my heart, although I had been in- strumental in putting down the old Bank of the United States. I had changed my mind; and I co-operated in the establishment of the bank of 181 6. The same bank was again put down by Southern counsels, with General Jackson at their head, at a later period. Then, with respect to the policy of protection, the South, in 1 81 5 — I mean the prominent and leading men of the South, Lowndes, Calhoun, and others — united in . extending a certain measure of protection to the domestic manufacturers of the South, as well as of the North. You find, a few years afterwards, that the South opposes the most serious objection to this policy, at least one member of the Union staking upon that objection the dissolution of the Union.
Let us take another view; and of these several views no one is brought forward in any spirit of reproach, but in a spirit of conciliation — not to provoke or exasperate, but to quiet and produce harmony and repose, if possible. What have been the territorial acquisitions made by this country, and to what in- terests have they conduced ? Florida, where slavery exists, has been introduced. All the most valuable parts of Louisiana have also added to the extent and consideration of the slaveholding portion of the Union; for although there is a large extent of
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that territory north of 36° 30', yet, in point of intrinsic value and importance, I would not give the single State of Louisiana for the whole of it. All Louisiana, with the exception of what lies north of 36° 30', including Oregon, to which we have ob- tained title mainly upon the ground of its being a part of the acquisition of Louisiana — all Texas, all the territories which have been acquired by the Government of the United States during the past sixty years of the operation of that Government, have been slave territories — theatres of slavery — with the excep- tion I have mentioned lying north of the line of 36° 30', But how was it in the case of a war made essentially by the South, growing out of the annexation of Texas, which was a measure pressed by the South upon the councils of the country, and which led to the war with Mexico ? I do not say of the whole South ; but a major portion of the South pressed the annexation of Texas upon the country, and that led to a war with Mexico, and to the ultimate acquisition of these territories which now constitute the bone of contention between the members of the confederacy. And now, when, for the first time, any free terri- tory,— after these great acquisitions in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas had been made and redounded to the benefit of the South, — now, when, for the first time, free territories are attempted to be introduced, — territories without the institution of slavery, — I put it to the hearts of my countrymen of the South, if it is right to press matters to the disastrous consequences that have been intimated no longer ago than this very morning, upon the pre- sentation of the resolutions from North Carolina.
[A Senator here offered to move an adjournment.]
Mr. President, I hope the Senate will only have the goodness, if I don't tire out their patience, to permit me to go on. I would prefer concluding to-day. I begin to see land. I shall pretty soon arrive at the end. I had much rather occupy half an hour now than leave what I have to say for to-morrow — to tres- pass upon the patience of the Senate another day.
Such is the Union, and such are its glorious fruits. We are told now, and it is rung throughout this entire country, that the Union is threatened with subversion and destruction. Well, the first question which naturally arises is, supposing the Union to be dissolved, — having all the causes of grievance which are complained of, — How far will a dissolution furnish a remedy
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for those grievances? If the Union is to be dissolved for any- existing causes, it will be dissolved because slavery is interdicted or not allowed to be introduced into the ceded territories; be- cause slavery is threatened to be abolished in the District of Columbia, and because fugitive slaves are not returned, as in my opinion they ought to be, and restored to their masters. These, I believe, will be the causes, if there be any causes, which can lead to the direful event to which I have referred.
Well, now, let us suppose that the Union has been dissolved. What remedy does it furnish for the grievances complained of in its united condition ? Will you be able to push slavery into the ceded Territories? How are you to do it, supposing the North — all the States north of the Potomac, and which are opposed to it — in possession of the navy and army of the United States? Can you expect, if there is a dissolution of the Union, that you can carry slavery into California and New Mexico ? You cannot dream of such a purpose. If it were abolished in the District of Columbia, and the Union were dissolved, would the dissolution of the Union restore slavery in the District of Columbia? Are you safer in the recovery of your fugitive slaves, in a state of disso- lution or of severance of the Union, than you are in the Union itself? Why, what is the state of the fact in the Union? You lose some slaves. You recover some others. Let me advert to a fact which I ought to have introduced before, because it is highly creditable to the courts and juries of the free States. In every case, so far as my information extends, where an appeal has been made to the courts of justice for the recovery of fugi- tives, or for the recovery of penalties inflicted upon persons who have assisted in decoying slaves from their masters and aiding them in escaping from their masters — as far as I am informed, the courts have asserted the rights of the owner, and the juries have promptly returned adequate verdicts in favor of the owner. Well, this is some remedy. What would you have if the Union were dissevered? Why, sir, then the severed parts would be independent of each other — foreign countries! Slaves taken from the one into the other would be then like slaves now escap- ing from the United States into Canada. There would be no right of extradition; no right to demand your slaves; no right to appeal to the courts of justice to demand your slaves which escape, or the penalties for decoying them. Where one slave escapes now, by running away from his owner, hundreds and
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thousands would escape if the Union were severed in parts — I care not where nor how you run the line, if independent sover- eignties were established.
Well, finally, will you, in a state of dissolution of the Union, be safer with your slaves within the bosom of the States than you are now ? Mr. President, that they will escape much more frequently from the border States, no one will doubt.
But, I must take the occasion to say that, in my opinion, there is no right on the part of one or more of the States to secede from the Union. War and the dissolution of the Union are identical and inseparable. There can be no dissolution of the Union, except by consent or by war. No one can expect, in the existing state of things, that that consent would be given, and war is the only alternative by which a dissolution could be accomplished. And, Mr. President, if consent were given — if possibly we were to separate by mutual agreement and by a given line, in less than sixty days after such an agreement had been executed, war would break out between the free and slave- holding portions of this Union — between the two independent portions into which it would be erected in virtue of the act of separation. Yes, sir, sixty days — in less than sixty days, I be- lieve, our slaves from Kentucky would be fleeing over in num- bers to the other side of the river, would be pursued by their owners, and the excitable and ardent spirits who would engage in the pursuit would be restrained by no sense of the rights which appertain to the independence of the other side of the river, supposing it, then, to be the line of separation. They would pursue their slaves; they would be repelled, and war would break out. In less than sixty days war would be blazing forth in every part of this now happy and peaceable land.
But how are you going to separate them ? In my humble opinion, Mr. President, we should begin at least with three con- federacies— the Confederacy of the North, the Confederacy of the Atlantic Southern States (the slaveholding States), and the Confederacy of the Valley of the Mississippi. My life upon it, sir, that vast population that has already concentrated, and will concentrate, upon the headwaters and tributaries of the Missis- sippi, will never consent that the mouth of that river shall be held subject to the power of any foreign State whatever. Such, I believe, would be the consequences of a dissolution of the Union. But other confederacies would spring up, from time to
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time, as dissatisfaction and discontent were disseminated over the country. There would be the Confederacy of the Lakes — perhaps the Confederacy of New England and of the Middle States.
But, sir, the veil which covers these sad and disastrous events that lie beyond a possible rupture of this Union is too thick to be penetrated or lifted by any mortal eye or hand.
Mr. President, I am directly opposed to any purpose of seces- sion, of separation. I am for staying within the Union, and de- fying any portion of this Union to expel or drive me out of the Union. I am for staying within the Union, and fighting for my rights — if necessary, with the sword — within the bounds and under the safeguard of the Union. I am for vindicating these rights; but not by being driven out of the Union rashly and un- ceremoniously by any portion of this confederacy. Here I am within it, and here I mean to stand and die; as far as my indi- vidual purposes or wishes can go — within it to protect myself, and to defy all power upon earth to expel me or drive me from the situation in which I am placed. Will there not be more safety in fighting within the Union than without it ?
Suppose your rights to be violated; suppose wrongs to be done you, aggressions to be perpetrated upon you; cannot you better fight and vindicate them, if you have occasion to resort to that last necessity of the sword, within the Union, and with the sympathies of a large portion of the population of the Union of these States diflEerently constituted from you, than you can fight and vindicate your rights, expelled from the Union, and driven from it without ceremony and without authority?
I said that I thought that there was no right on the part of one or more of the States to secede from this Union. I think that the Constitution of the thirteen States was made, not merely for the generation which then existed, but for posterity, undefined, unlimited, permanent, and perpetual — for their posterity, and for every subsequent State which might come into the Union, binding themselves by that indissoluble bond. It is to remain for that posterity now and forever. Like another of the great relations of private life, it was a marriage that no human authority can dissolve or divorce the parties from; and, if I may be allowed to refer to this same example in private life, let us say what man and wife say to each other : ^* We have mutual faults ; noth- ing in the form of human beings can be perfect. Let us then be
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kind to ea(,h other, forbearing, conceding; let us live in happiness and peace.*
Mr. President, I have said what I solemnly believe — that the dissolution of the Union and war are identical and inseparable; that they are convertible terms.
Such a war, too, as that would be, following the dissolution of the Union! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so furious, so bloody, so implacable, so exterminating, from the wars of Greece down, including those of the Commonwealth of Eng- land, and the Revolution of France — none, none of them raged with such violence, or was ever conducted with such bloodshed and enormities, as will that war which shall follow that disastrous event — if that event ever happens — of dissolution.
And what would be its termination ? Standing armies and navies, to an extent draining the revenues of each portion of the dissevered empire, would be created; exterminating wars would follow — not a war of two nor three years, but of interminable duration — an exterminating war would follow, until some Philip or Alexander, some Caesar or Napoleon, would rise to cut the Gordian knot, and solve the problem of the capacity of man for self-government, and crush the liberties of both the dissevered portions of this Union. Can you doubt it? Look at history — consult the pages of all history, ancient or modem; look at human nature — look at the character of the contest in which you would be engaged in the supposition of a war following the dissolution of the Union, such as I have suggested — and I ask you if it is possible for you to doubt that the final but perhaps distant termination of the whole will be some despot treading down the liberties of the people ? — that the final result will be the extinction of this last and glorious light, which is leading all mankind, who are gazing upon it, to cherish hope and anx- ious expectation that the liberty which prevails here will sooner or later be advanced throughout the civilized world ? Can you, Mr. President, lightly contemplate the consequences? Can you yield yourself to a torrent of passion, amidst dangers which I have depicted in colors far short of what would be the reality, if the event should ever happen ? I conjure gentlemen — whether from the South or the North, by all they hold dear in this world — by all their love of liberty — by all their veneration for their ancestors — by all their regard for posterity — by all their grati- tude to him who has bestowed upon them such unnumbered IV— Si
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blessings — by all the duties which they owe to mankind, and all the duties they owe to themselves — by all these considerations I implore them to pause — solemnly to pause — at the edge of the precipice before the fearful and disastrous leap is taken in the yawning abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain and irretrievable destruction.
And, finally, Mr. President, I implore, as the best blessing which heaven can bestow upon me on earth, that if the dire- ful and sad event of the dissolution of the Union shall happen, I may not survive to behold the sad and heart-rending spectacle.
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JOHN M. CLAYTON
(1796-1856)
|oHN MiDDLETON CLAYTON, remembered chiefly because of his connection with the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, was a jurist and statesman whose leadership among the Whigs of his time was a concession to his talents rather than to the political impor- tance of his State. Born in Sussex County, Delaware, July 24th, 1796, he was elected a United States Senator from Delaware as early as 1829 and remained in the Senate until he resigned in 1837 to serve as Chief-Justice of his State. After serving again in the Senate (1845-49) he became Secretary of State in President Taylor's cabinet in 1849. He held that office till he had concluded the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and was then returned to the Senate (185 1) where he zealously defended the treaty and continued to be prominent in the debates until his death at Dover, Delaware, Novem- ber 9th, 1856.
THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY AND « EXPANSION » (From a Speech in the United States Senate, March i8th, 1853)
ALL the objections of the Senator [Douglas] dwindle down at last, as I have said, to a single point — that the treaty ought to have been a treaty for the exclusive right of way across the isthmus; that the error of the treaty of 1850 is, that while it obtains protection from all nations, it makes a navigable highway for all nations on the same terms; and we see that if he had negotiated the treaty, he would have obtained an exclu- sive right; and he stood up here in defense of the treaty of Mr, Hise, which would have secured to this Government (if it had been ratified by Nicaragua and the United States) an exclusive right. What sort of an exclusive right is it that he demands? He thinks that the Government of the United States should have obtained the grant — the right to make a canal, and an exclusive right to navigate it; that forts should be built at both ends to protect it; and of course that we should protect it by every other means necessary. When the Government shall have made it,
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and when the Government shall have established the forts, the canal, he says, will be open to everybody on the same terms; and thus he seeks the exclusive grant of a right of way! What does he want with it ? Why does he prefer it to the plan adopted, of opening the canal to all nations on the same terms ? The Senator says he would hold it as a rod — yes, a rod, to com- pel other nations to keep the peace! He would have no more settling of islands on the coast of Central America! If any gov- ernment attempted it, he would shut his canal to them! He would also compel all foreign nations to treat us with all respect and regard, by means of the tremendous rod which he would hold in his hands! Let us look a little into the justice of this thing, as regards our own country.
It has been supposed that the construction of this great work will cost fifty or a hundred millions of dollars. I suppose we could not build a proper fortification at each end under less than a million of dollars for each fort. We would be compelled to maintain a garrison there; and, in the event of a war, to maintain a large navy, such a one as could resist the naval powers of the earth. If we were to go to war with France, or England, or any other great naval power, that, of course, would be one of the first points of attack. How convenient would it be for us to defend it at a distance of two thousand miles, and send troops to the different forts, and ships to protect our vessels that pass through the canal! We build it, and everybody is to have the benefit of the canal on the same terms, in time of peace! In war we alone are to defend it! The interest on a hundred millions would be six millions a year. The expenses of protecting and taking care of the canal and keeping it in good order would probably, when added to the interest, make an annual outlay from the Treasury of the United States, in that distant country, of not less than ten millions of dollars. Now, why should we make such an ex- penditure ? Because we want a rod — a rod ! Sir, I think it would prove to be a rod to inflict injuries upon ourselves. We want nothing but the right of way there. We proposed that no nation should go through that canal, unless she agreed to protect it. In case they agreed to protect it, we should want no forts, no garrisons, and no naval force to guard what none could at- tack. But, on the other hand, if we were to adopt the plan of the Senator, we should have to keep a standing army in that country to protect it, in the event of a war between us and for-
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eign nations. What would be thought of a man who should purchase a farm, and then, after he had gone to the expense of putting it in order, invite everybody to come and till it, but should direct them to take care that they should pay no part of the expense of keeping up the repairs, nor any part of the taxes upon the land ? I do not know that this or any other illustra- tion can make his proposition seem more preposterous than it does on its own mere statement. . . .
The Senator from Illinois said ^' that treaties could not fetter or confine the limbs of this giant Republic* I do not know pre- cisely the extent to which he meant to be understood"; but the language and the manner in which the Senator applied it seemed to me to go to this extent: that we had a country exempt from the obligations of treaties, and that our limbs cannot be circum- scribed by treaties. We were to disregard obligations of that description, being, like a *^ young giant, *^ rising in power beyond anything that had been known in the history of the world be- fore. The Senator made the same remark in reference to the treaty with Mexico. There is a clause in the treaty of Guada- lupe Hidalgo to which the Senator made great objection at the time of its ratification, in effect, that without the consent of the governments of both countries, the line established by that treaty as the boundary between them, should be the ultima thule — the utmost limit of our territory. Yes, sir, we plighted our faith and honor in that treaty, confirmed as it was by more than two- thirds of the American Senate, that beyond that limit we would never go. Yet the Senator from Illinois says that the day is coming when we shall be compelled to violate the treaty — that treaties cannot fetter our limbs or restrict our limits. Sir, I re- gretted to hear it, because of the influence of that Senator in his party, as one of their standing candidates for the presidency. I should have regretted to have heard it from any Senator. We form the body that is to ratify all the treaties of the United States. We are the constitutional advisers of the President. We are a part of the treaty-making power.
Mr. Douglas — If it gives the Senator any regret that I stated that, I will explain to him what I did state, and thereby, I im- agine, relieve him from all his regret. What I said was, that the steady, regular growth and expansion of this country would, in all probability, go ahead in the future as it has done in the past; that you might make as many treaties as you please, and
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Still they would not check our growth, and because they could not, it was useless to make treaties which must, of necessity, be violated; hence I argued against the making of treaties pledging our faith not to do that which inevitably would be done in the future. It was an argument in favor of the fidelity and observ- ance of treaty stipulations, and that we should not, therefore, be so profuse in our pledges in cases where we could not fulfill them.
Mr. Clayton — An argument in favor of fidelity and observance of treaty stipulations, indeed! The idea is that we are incapable, from the nature of our institutions or our character as a people, of maintaining and observing treaties.
Mr. Douglas — No, sir,
Mr. Clayton (laughing) — We must grow, says the Senator. Our ** manifest destiny,* he means, is to extend our limits.
Mr, Douglas — The idea is, that some men are incapable of comprehending the growth of this nation. A few years ago, it was supposed that we could never extend beyond the Alleghan- ies. There were those who thought that —
Mr, Clayton — I have heard all that a dozen times.
Mr, Douglas — Then the Mississippi, then the Pacific was the boundary, I said that the same laws which have carried us for- ward must inevitably carry us further in the process of time, and that that growth will go on; and consequently it is unwise to make a treaty stipulation pledging ourselves not to do that which our interest may require us to do,
Mr. Clayton — I have given the Senator so many opportunities for explaining himself to me, as he terms it, that now I must be permitted to explain him to himself, . . . He insists upon it, that by some irresistible influence we are driven on in our course to such a degree of greatness that we shall be compelled to vio- late the treaties which we may make with foreign nations in re- gard to boundaries. We ought, he said, to nullify the treaty of 1850 at once. He now says that some men cannot comprehend the growth of this giant Republic. I do not know that there is any man of ordinary intelligence who does not comprehend it. There is no diflficulty in understanding it. We have grown to such an extent already that we have a country greater than Rome possessed in her palmiest days. We cover a contiguous territory greater, perhaps, than ever was enjoyed by any civilized nation on earth. And yet we are told that we are not capable
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of binding ourselves even by treaty stipulations to observe our plighted faith, and fulfill our solemn engagement of honor. I remonstrate against the declaration of such a principle, or rather of such a want of all principle. It is nothing more nor less than this, — let there be as many explanations on the part of the Senator from Illinois as he may choose to make, — that we are incapable of controlling our impulses and passions when our in- terests may lead us to violate our engagements, ** Treaties can- not fetter us,* says he. Sir, the plighted faith of every man of honor binds him at all times, no matter what his interest may be, and the plighted faith of nations equally binds them; and the last place from which a contrary principle should be promul- gated is the Senate of the United States. Here, I repeat, we sit as the constitutional advisers of the President of the United States; and if foreign nations come to understand that the posi- tion is taken by members holding a prominent party position here, that treaties cannot be any restraint upon us, what foreign nation will ever make another treaty with us ? If there be a country on earth that owes more than any other to treaties, it is ours. We owe our national existence to the old French treaties of 1778. Sir, within the limits of that great State which you in part represent on this floor [Mr. Cooper in the chair], Washing- ton, in the darkest period of the Revolution, at Valley Forge, wintered with his suffering soldiers, when the intelligence reached them that France had entered into an alliance with us, and had guaranteed our independence. The glorious news ran through all the ranks of the American army, and the great " Father of his Country* stood up and waved his hat, and shouted for joy, in concert with his troops! Our destiny from that moment became fixed. Every American saw that we were free, whatever doubt he might have entertained about it before. We owe, I repeat, our national independence to treaties. And now, when we are becom- ing strong, shall we forget it? Shall not an American statesman adhere to treaties with as much fidelity as an Englishman, or a Frenchman, or one of any other nation ? Shall he not rejoice that his country does stand by her honor ? I trust that no idea of our growing importance, or of the necessity of our enlarge- ment, will ever sink into the heart of any other American Sena- tor, to induce him to abandon that principle without which our country would become a byword and a hissing among the na- tions.
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If we must gain more territory, let us gain it honorably. The Senator from Illinois boasts that he opposed the treaty with Mexico. I recollect it very well, and I recollect the reason he gave for voting against it. It was the very reason which he as- signed in the debate here for desiring to annul the treaty of 1850. He opposed that clause in the Mexican treaty which fixed the limits beyond which we could not go, and he cannot explain away his position, or shift it any longer. He then said the time would come when Mexico would become indispensable to our progress and our happiness. I would recall to the recollection of gentlemen who were present on the ninth day of February, 1847, the speech made by Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, on this very subject. In thrilling tones he gave utterance to views which seemed to carry conviction to the hearts of nine-tenths of those who heard him, and told us that Mexico was to us forbid- den fruit. Whenever the day shall come that, in defiance of treaty limits" or otherwise, we set about the business of annexing nine or ten millions of Mexicans to the United States, the days of our Republic will be numbered. The Mexican people are educated in the belief that no greater curse can befall a nation than that of slavery, and are said to be bound by treaty to abol- ish it. Could we permit them to take a part in the election of our Representatives and Senators in Congress ? Could we admit them to assist in governing us? Sir, without any reference to that dangerous question to which I have barely alluded, there are many other questions on which they would have a powerful influence and an interest in deciding against us. I am utterly opposed to annexing them, and I do not hesitate to express that opposition now and at all times. The true policy of this Govern- ment is to build up Mexico as a republic, to sustain and cheer her by kind offices, and to teach her, by our example, the science of self-government. If we could annex other countries as Eng- land does, or as Rome did when she was triumphing over the world, the whole subject might receive another consideration. Whenever we annex, we make citizens of the people whom we unite to us. We do not enslave them. Other countries may make slaves of those whom they subdue, and never permit them to take any part in the government of their conquerors. If we annex Mexico, we are compelled, in obedience to the principles of our own Declaration of Independence, to receive her people as citizens. Yes! A?tecs, Creoles, Half-Breeds, Quadroons, Samboes,
JOHN M. CLAYTON ugg
and I know not what else, — "ring-streaked and speckled,*^ — all will come in, and, instead of our governing them, they, by their votes, will govern us. Why do we want them or their territory ? Are we cramped ? Are we crowded ? Have we more population than is necessary to fill the land which we already own ? There is not a more sparsely populated country on earth which is in- habited by civilized men. We have hundreds of millions of acres of land upon which the foot of a white man never trod. When, in the lapse of time, all this shall be covered, then if we find men of our own race and class capable of sustaining our insti- tutions and of self-government, in any contiguous territory which can be acquired without the violation of any principle of justice or humanity, I am not one that would stay the honorable prog- ress of my country.
The day, however, will never come when an American Sena- tor will be justified in the declaration that we intend to disobey treaties. No, sir; we have been, and mean to remain, faithful to treaties. We have often been accused of having violated them; but the honor of our country is yet dear to us, and it is worth more to the true American than all the land that Mexico and Central America contain.
The Senator objects to the treaty of 1850, because, under its provisions, we cannot annex the Central American States. Were there no such treaty, he could not annex them till he had first overrun Mexico, and broken the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Nay, he must first annex the West India Islands, and British Honduras, too. After "swallowing Mexico,*^ he must take in all the other intermediate countries; and as Great Britain owns many of the islands and dependencies to be devoured, he must include the British Lion — a matter not quite so easy of digestion. What an intimation is it for us to make to the world, that we may some day annex these weak little sister Republics, thou- sands of miles away from us, with a population so different from ours, especially in laws, institutions, and usages! I would much rather other nations should know the fact that San Salvador, one of these very Central American States, once applied for ad- mission into our Union, and that our Government not only de- clined to receive them, but treated the application as one not worthy of a moment's serious regard.
I heard with pleasure and admiration that passage in the in- augural address of the President which declared that his admin-
1290 JOHN M. CLAYTON
istration should leave no blot upon his country's record, and that no act within his constitutional control would be tolerated which could not challenge a ready justification before the tribunal of the civilized world. How great the difference between that and the sentiments of the Senator from Illinois! Let the President adhere to these principles, and he will thereby disarm opposition; he will make of those who have heretofore been strong political opponents some of the warmest friends he has in the world. I put this declaration in contrast with all these gigantic ideas [laughter] of breaking treaties, and going beyond the limits of the country in defiance of them. But if the President should, in opposition to all our hopes and belief, be induced to disregard the faith of treaties, he will hardly progress through half the pe- riod of his constitutional term before he will find the great heart of the American people, which is honest to the core, opposed to him, and the most sincere of his present friends will vindicate the justice of the sentence against him, while they sorrow for his fall.
JUSTICE THE SUPREME LAW OF NATIONS
(From a Speech on the Mexican War. United States Senate, January nth and 12th, 1848)
I NEVER have been, and I am not now, willing to acquire one acre of ground from Mexico, or any other nation under heaven, by conquest or robbery. I hold that, in all our transactions with the other nations of the world, the great prin- ciple ought to be maintained by us that ** Honesty is the best policy,'* and that an honorable reputation is of more value to a country than land or money. I hold that any attempt on our part, merely because we happen to possess superior strength, to compel a weaker nation to cede to us all that we choose to de- mand as indemnity, while we at the same time admit that we ask for more than she owes us, is nothing else but robbery. If a man owe me a sum of money, and I meet him on the high- way, and insist, with a pistol pointed at his breast, that he shall deliver to me a deed of his farm, at the estimate which I choose to put upon it, I think there could not be much difference of opinion as to the nature of that transaction. I should like to know how my friend from Maryland, who is an able lawyer,
JOHN M. CLAYTON 12^1
would defend the man guilty of such conduct. Would it be any palliation, or excuse, or justification of the conduct of an offender in such a case, that some money was justly due him ? Could there be found in Christendom a court and jury that would hesi- tate as to the verdict in such a case ? And what, let me ask, — as a friend near me [Mr. Webster] suggests, — what would be the value of the deed obtained under such circumstances? If the possessor of it should even go "unwhipt of justice,'* would he not be the object to which the scornful finger of every honest man would be pointed, so long as he lived upon earth ? I hold — and, however old-fashioned the notion may be, I shall maintain it so long as I have a seat here — that character is as valuable to a nation as it is to an individual; and inasmuch as I would scorn as a private citizen to despoil my neighbor of his property in these circumstances and with these avowals, so, as a public man, I never can sanction, in the slightest degree, such a course of conduct on the part of the government of the country.
We are one of the strongest nations of the earth. We have been amongst the weakest. In times gone by, we have suffered from the cruelty, the tyranny, and injustice of other nations, and have uttered loud complaints. We have now waxed strong and can put our foot upon the neck of a sister republic, and compel her to yield to the terms we ourselves dictate. The question now comes up, and it addresses itself to every genuine lover of his country, whether the acquisition of all this territory, under these circumstances, would compensate us for the loss of the reputation — that high national character which we have hitherto sustained ?
1293
JEREMIAH CLEMENS
(1814-1865)
I HEN the issues of sectional supremacy were so joined between the North and South as to make civil war or further con- cessions on both sides inevitable, it was believed by some that all inconvenient issues at home could be indefinitely postponed by forcing foreign war. In that connection, the annexation of Cuba, Porto Rico, the Central American States, Mexico, and Canada, were discussed as a part of what was called <<the manifest destiny* of the Anglo-Saxon race in America. It was charged that this policy « ori- ginated with the Southern slave-owners,* but one of the most effective protests ever made against it was the speech delivered in the United States Senate, February 7th, 1853, by Jeremiah Clemens, of Alabama. Mr. Clemens has not generally been classed among the greatest statesmen of his time, but no one will read a dozen of his sentences without seeing that he has the oratorical faculty highly developed. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, December 28th, 18 14. Educated at La Grange College and the University of Alabama, he studied law at the University of Transylvania, in Kentucky. Entering public life in 1838 as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ala. bama, he served afterwards in the State Legislature, and in the Mex- ican War as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Returning in 1843, he was re-elected to the Legislature. From 1849 till 1853 he represented Alabama in the United States Senate. He died May 21st, 1865.
CUBA AND «MANIFEST DESTINY* (From a Speech in the United States Senate, February 7th, 1853)
DANGER does not threaten us from abroad. In that quarter the skies are clear and bright. It is at home that the symptoms of an approaching hurricane are manifest. These symptoms are everywhere about us and around us. They may be found in the restless and disturbed state of the public mind; in the speeches of dinner orators, dignifying war with the name of * progress,* and clothing wholesale robbery with the mantle of patriotism. They might have been seen in the fren- zied enthusiasm which followed the footsteps of that sturdy
JEREMTAH CLEMENS 1293
beggar, Louis Kossuth and in the wild and reckless attempts of American citizens to take possession of the island of Cuba. Sir, I deplore their fate as much as any man can, and condemn as strongly the cruel and barbarous conduct of the Spanish gover- nor. I but refer to them as evidence of a state of things to which all eyes ought to be directed. And last, sir, though not least, the signs of this danger may be found in the ill-regulated, but fierce and strenuous, efforts of * Young America ^^ to bring about a war with anybody or upon any pretext.
All these things indicate that a spirit of change is abroad in the land. I may be told that word is written on every earthly thing. Perhaps it may be so; but justice, honor, mercy, are the children of God, and know no change. In the sublime morality of the Christian's creed we may find a guide for our footsteps which cannot lead to error : " Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you." It is not in the Book of Revelations that we are taught to covet the goods of our neighbors. It is not there we are encouraged to indulge a lawless spirit of war and conquest. We do not learn from thence the duty of progressing backward from a peaceful age to a period of barbarism, when the strong hand was the only law, and the steel blade the only arbiter of disputed questions.
Sir, I have heard much of this thing called progress. In the eyes of some gentlemen it covers all defects and makes atone- ment for every error. I am not its enemy, but I wish to know exactly what it means, and in what direction I am to progress. If it means that glorious spirit which sweeps abroad upon the wings of peace, shedding life and light and happiness on the land and on the sea; which sends the missionary among the hea- then, and gathers the infidel and the unbeliever beneath the Gos- pel's ample shield; which doubles the productions of earth, and lays bare the treasures of ocean; which plants the church of God in the wilderness of the West, and substitutes the Sabbath bell for the howl of the panther; which carries literature and science to the log cabin of the pioneer, and connects every part of this wide Republic by links so strong, so close, that the traveler feels every spot he treads is home, and every hand he grasps a brother's hand, — if this be the progress which is meant, most gladly do I enlist under its banner.
But, sir, I am not permitted so to understand it. I under- stand progress, as interpreted by modern politicians, to be quite
I204 JEREMIAH CLEMENS
a different thing. The first lesson they inculcate is a sort of general defiance to all mankind; an imitation of the worst prac- tice of olden chivalry — the practice of hanging a glove in some public place as a challenge to every passer-by to engage in mor- tal combat — a practice, in no degree based upon wrongs to be redressed, or injuries to be avenged, but upon a pure, unmiti- gated love of blood and strife. They have borrowed also from the crusaders another vicious and indefensible habit — that of im- poverishing themselves at home to raise the means of transpor- tation to other lands to erect altars and inculcate principles by the edge of the sword. They propose to grasp the territory of an old and faithful ally, not only without the shadow of a claim, but without even the robber's plea of necessity; to hush the busy hum of commerce; to withdraw the artisan from his work- shop, the laborer from his field, the man of science and the man of letters from their high pursuits; to convert the whole land into one vast camp, and impress upon the people the wild and fierce character of the followers of King Clovis,
Sir, I wish to indulge in no exaggerated statements, but let us, in the cant phraseology of the day, * establish a foreign policy." Let us set about convincing the world that we are in- deed *a power upon earth." Let us rob Spain of Cuba, Eng- land of Canada, and Mexico of her remaining possessions, and this continent will be too small a theatre upon which to enact the bloody drama of American progress! Like the Prophet of the East, who carried the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, American armies will be sent forth to proclaim freedom to the serf; but if he happen to love the land in which he was born, and exhibit some manly attachment to the institu- tions with which he is familiar, his own lifeblood will saturate the soil, and his wife and children be driven forth as houseless wanderers, in proof of our tender consideration for the rights of humanity. Sir, this is a species of progress with which Satan himself might fall in love.
Mr. President, there are in this connection still other lights in which the question before us may be presented. Look at America as she now is, prosperous in all things, splendid, mag- nificent, rich in her agriculture, rich in her commerce, rich in arts and sciences, rich in learning, rich in individual freedom, richer still in the proud prerogative of bending the knee to none but the God who made us, and of worshiping even in his tern-
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pies according to the forms which conscience, not the law, has prescribed. Gaze upon that picture until your soul has drunk in all its beauty, all its glory, and then let me paint for you that which is offered as a substitute. Look upon a land where war has become a passion, and blood a welcome visitant; where every avenue to genius is closed save that which leads through a field of strife; where the widow and the orphan mingle un- availing tears for the husband and the father; where literature has become a mockery and religion a reproach; upon a people, strong indeed, but terrible in their strength, with the tiger's out- ward beauty and the tiger's inward fierceness; upon a people correctly described by the poet when he said: —
"Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires, And unawares morality expires; Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine, Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine. Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos, is restored, Light dies before thy uncreating word; Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall, And universal darkness buries all.**
Let no one tell me that these are imaginary dangers. At the commencement of the French Revolution, if any one pre- dicted the excesses to which it gave birth, he would have been regarded as a madman. What security have we against the occurrence of similar scenes ? We are human, as they were. Our law of being is the same; and if we once depart from the plain path of prudence and of rectitude, no human wisdom can foresee the result.
The present acquisition of Cuba, in my opinion, in any way, is of questionable propriety; but if it is to come to us as the result of war and violence, instead of a blessing it will prove a deadly ill. When Caractacus was carried to Rome to grace the triumph of his conqueror, he gazed with wonder and awe upon the splendor and magnificence with which he was surrounded. Then, turning to the Emperor, he expressed his simple wonder that one so rich, so powerful, so blessed with the possession of everything that earth could bestow, should have envied him his humble cottage home in the forests of Britain. . . .
Mr. President, I need not say that I do not intend to vote for these resolutions. The one which announces our purpose not to
j2g6 JEREMIAH CLEMENS
take possession of Cuba by fraud or violence is certainly, that far, in accordance with my own feelings; but I do not see the necessity of making the declaration. It seems to me to be both undignified and unmanly to be making constant protestations of our honesty. Let us show the world by our acts that we are honest, and leave all such declarations to those whose doubtful character requires some such bolstering. Nor do I think the re- affirmation of the Monroe Doctrine would add to its importance. Our policy has long ago been announced to the world, and this restless desire to reiterate it upon all occasions looks to me somewhat as if we doubted our own resolution, and required a few legislative resolves to keep up our courage.
The Senator from Michigan has expressed considerable sur- prise at what he terms our shrinking from meeting the ques- tions raised by his resolutions. Sir, there may be other causes than fear which render us reluctant to vote for them. When a boy I read a story of the civil wars of England, which taught me a lesson not yet forgotten. An adherent of the Parliament had been cruelly treated by one of the opposite party. His houses had been burned down, and his fields made desolate. Some time afterwards he met an acquaintance to whom he told the story of his wrongs. It was done simply and plainly, with- out a single threat or execration. When he had finished, his friend asked him with surprise, ^*And did you not vow revenge ? '^ *No," was the reply; * those who take the trouble to make vows are very certain that a time will come when they will need a vow to steady their purposes. I never doubted what I would do, and I made no vows.* Sir, there was more danger in one such man than a whole regiment of noisy babblers. Silence is almost invariably the concomitant of determined resolution; and the world will be quite as likely to believe us in earnest, and will respect us as much for refusing to pass, year after year, a series of threatening resolutions.
Mr. President, I find that I am taxing my strength too much, and I must soon close. The pilgrim who, in obedience to a vision oftentimes repeated, seized his staff and set out in search of a land in which he had been promised all the joys of Para- dise, after traversing many lands, steadily pursuing his danger- ous way through forests, deserts, and jungles, reached at last the only mountain which shut out from his gaze the promised land. Slowly he commenced the ascent; then paused, overcome by con-
JEREMIAH CLEMENS 1 297
tending emotions. If from that mountain top he should indeed look upon a valley, such as had appeared to him in his dreams, beautiful and glorious, where the flower had lost its thorn, where the sweetest melodies were continually poured into the ear, and the very air was redolent with perfume, how cheaply would it be purchased even by all the toils and dangers he had encoun- tered. But then came the fear that his dream had deceived him; that he might find a barren waste of thorns and brambles, desert, cheerless, and inhospitable. Anxious to know the truth, yet dreading to have it revealed, he stood upon the mountain side unable to advance or to recede. Even such emotions, Mr. President, might now well swell the American bosom. We have reached the hillside from whose top the future of America may be viewed. But who can ascend it without a feeling of doubt and terror ? Is it to be the America which all of us loved to paint in our boyish days — free, happy, and prosperous, inculcat- ing by its precepts, and enforcing by its example, a deep love of law and order; offering a refuge and asylum to the fugitive from oppression; cultivating with assiduous care the arts of peace, and illustrating all the mild beauties of Christianity ? Or is it to be that America which ^' progress,*^ ** manifest destiny,* and "over- ruling necessity,* are now seeking to make it, where freedom will be lost amid the clash of arms, and the wail of every good spirit will rise above the crushed and broken hope of man's capacity to govern himself? Sir, it is in our action that the answer must be found. Our country is at stake, and he who loves it as he ought should pause and ponder long and well be- fore tampering, in any way, with so high and holy a trust.
IV— 82
1298
CLEON
(?)-422 B. C.
■^^^^LEON has been called <<the scorn and terror of all good men at Athens.* Cicero characterizes him as turbulent, but elo- quent, and he is generally classed as a typical Athenian demagogue. Perhaps much of his evil reputation is due to the come- dies of Aristophanes, in which he was violently attacked. It is said that the poet had a private grudge against him, because of a com- plaint made to the Athenian Senate that the * Babylonians " held Athenian institutions up to ridicule. However this may be, Cleon, though the son of a tanner, and rude enough in his methods, was certainly not wholly a demagogue in the modern sense, for in his speech against the Mityleneans, reported by Thucydides, he begins by boldly questioning the fitness of the turbulent Athenian democ- racy to rule subject colonies. The date of Cleon's birth is uncertain. He became noted at Athens after the death of Pericles as the leader of the Athenian Democrats against the Aristocratic party under Nicias. In 425 B. C. he carrried on a successful campaign against the Spartans, but in 422 B, C, when put at the head of the expedition against Brasidas, the Lacedaemonian commander, he was defeated and killed at Amphipolis.
DEMOCRACIES AND SUBJECT COLONIES
(From the Speech Against Mitylene as Reported by Thucydides in the Third Book of the Peloponnesian War)
UPON many other occasions my own experience hath convinced me that a democracy is incapable of ruling over others, but I see it with the highest certainty now in this your present repentance concerning the Mityleneans. In security so void of terror, in safety so exempt from treachery, you pass your days within the walls of Athens, that you are gfrown quite safe and secure about your dependants. Whenever, soothed by their specious entreaties, you betray your judgment or relent in pity, not a soul amongst you reflects that you are acting the dastardly part, not in truth to confer obligations upon those dependants, but to endanger your own welfare and safety. It is then quite
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remote from your thoughts, that your rule over them is in fact a tyranny, that they are ever intent on prospects to shake off your yoke — that yoke, to which they ever reluctantly submitted. It is not forgiveness on your part, after injuries received, that can keep them fast in their obedience, since this must be ever the consequence of your own superior power, and not of grati- tude in them.
Above all, I dread that extremity of danger to which we are exposed, if not one of your decrees must ever be carried into act and we remain forever ignorant that the community which uniformly abides by a worse set of laws hath the advantage over another which is finely modeled in every respect except in practice; that modest ignorance is a much surer support than genius which scorns to be controlled, and that the duller part of mankind in general administer public affairs much better than your men of vivacity and wit. The last assume a pride in ap- pearing wiser than the laws; in every debate about the public good they aim merely at victory, as if there were no other points sufficiently important wherein to display their superior talents; and by such conduct they generally subvert the public wel- fare; the former, who are diffident of their own abilities, who regard themselves as less wise than the laws of their country — though unable to detect the specious orator, yet being better judges of equity than champions in debate, for the most part enforce rational conduct. This beyond denial is our duty at present; we should scorn competitions in eloquence and wit, nor willfully and contrary to our own opinion mislead the judgment of this full assembly.
For my part, I persist in my former declarations, and I am surprised at the men who propose to have the affair of Mitylene again debated, who endeavor to protract the execution of justice, in the interest of the guilty more than of the injured. For by this means the sufferer proceeds to take vengeance on the crimi- nal with the edge of his resentment blunted; when revenge, the opposite of wrong, the more nearly it treads upon the heels of injury, generally inflicts the more condign punishment. But I am more surprised at him, whoever he be, that shall dare to contra- dict, and pretend to demonstrate, that the injuries done by the Mityleneans are really for our service, and that our calamities are hardships on our dependants. He certainly must either pre- sume upon his own eloquence, if he contends to prove that what was plainly decreed was never decreed; or, instigated by lucre,
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will endeavor to seduce you by the elaborate and plausible artifice of words. In such contentions, the State, indeed, awards the vic- tory to whom she pleaseth, but she sustains all the damage her- self. You are answerable for this, Athenians — you, who fondly dote on these wordy competitions — you, who are accustomed to be spectators of speeches and hearers of actions. You measure the possibility of future effects by the present eloquence of your orators; you judge of actions already past, not by the certain con- viction of your own eyes, but the fallible suggestions of your ears, w^hen soothed by the inveigling, insinuating flow of words. You are the best in the world to be deceived by novelty of wit, and to refuse to follow the dictates of the approved judicious speaker, — slaves as you are to whatever trifles happen always to be in vogue, and looking down with contempt on tried and ex- perienced methods. The most earnest wish that the heart of any of your body ever conceived is to become a speaker; if that be unattainable, you range yourselves in opposition against all who are so, for fear you should seem in judgment their inferiors. When anything is acutely uttered, you are ready even to go be- fore it with applause, and intimate your own preconception of the point, at the same time dull at discerning whither it will tend. Your whole passion, in a word, is for things that are not in reality and common life; but of what passeth directly before your eyes you have no proper perception. And, frankly, you are quite infatuated by the lust of hearing, and resemble more the idle spectators of contending sophists than men who meet to de- liberate upon public affairs. From such vain amusements, en- deavoring to divert you, I boldly affirm that no one city in the world hath injured you so much as Mitylene. . . .
It is the usual effect of prosperity, especially when felt on a sudden, and beyond their hope, to puff up a people into insolence of manners. The successes of mankind, when attained by the" rational course, are generally of much longer continuance than when they anticipate pursuit. And in a word, men are much more expert at repelling adversity than preserving prosperity. By this ought we long ago to have adjusted our conduct towards the Mityleneans, never distinguishing them above others with peculiar regard; and then they never would have been that inso- lent people we have found them now. For so remarkably per- verse is the temper of man, as ever to contemn whoever courts him, and admire whoever will not bend before him. Let condign punishments therefore be awarded to their demerits. . , .
CLEVELAND AND HIS SECOND CABINET.
Photogravure after a Photograph by Bell. Copyright by C. M. Bell.
jN THE rear, on Mr. Cleveland's right, are John G. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury; Judson Harmon, Attorney-General; Hilary A. Herbert, Secretary of the Navy; J. Sterling Morton, Secretaiy of Agriculture; and Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior. The three cabinet members in the immediate foreground are Richard Olney, Secretary' of State (next to Mr. Cleveland); Daniel S. Lamont, Secretary of War; and William I.. Wilson, Postmaster-General.
I30T
GROVER CLEVELAND
[rover Cleveland was born at Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey, March i8th, 1837. He was educated at the common schools, and admitted to the bar in 1859. His first public position was that of Assistant District Attorney in Erie County, New York, from 1863 till 1866. After being defeated as a candidate for District Attorney in 1865, he remained in private life until 1870, when he was elected Sheriff. In 1881 he was elected Ma^'or of Buffalo on the Democratic ticket, and the prominence he gained as a reformer during his administration resulted in his election as Governor of New York. Serving as Governor from 1883 till 1884, he was nominated by the Democrats for the Presidency and elected President in 1884. Defeated for a second term in 1888, he was renominated and re- elected in 1892. After the expiration of his term, in 1897 he retired to Princeton, New Jersey.
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS (Delivered March 4th, 1885)
Fellow- Citizens: —
IN THE presence of this vast assemblag-e of my countrymen, I am about to supplement and seal by the oath which I shall take
the manifestation of the will of a great and free people. In the exercise of their power and right of self-government they have committed to one of their fellow-citizens a supreme and sacred trust, and he here consecrates himself to their service.
This impressive ceremony adds little to the solemn sense of responsibility with which I contemplate the duty I owe to all the people of the land. Nothing can relieve me from anxiety lest by any act of mine their interests may suffer, and nothing is needed to strengthen my resolution to engage every faculty and effort in the promotion of their welfare.
Amid the din of party strife the people's choice was made, but its attendant circumstances have demonstrated anew the
t^oj GROViEk CLEVELAND
strength and safety of a government by the people. In each succeeding year it more clearly appears that our democratic principle needs no apology, and that in its fearless and faithful application is to be found the surest guaranty of good govern- ment.
But the best results in the operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen.
To-day the executive branch of the Government is transferred to new keeping. But this is still the Government of all the peo- ple, and it should be none the less an object of their affectionate solicitude. At this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of partisan defeat, and the exultation of partisan tri- umph should be supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will and a sober, conscientious concern for the gen- eral weal. Moreover, if from this hour we cheerfully and hon- estly abandon all sectional prejudice and distrust, and determine, with manly confidence in one another, to work out harmoniously the achievement of our national destiny, we shall deserve to realize all the benefits which our happy form of government can bestow.
On this auspicious occasion we may well renew the pledge of our devotion to the Constitution, which, launched by the founders of the Republic and consecrated by their prayers and patriotic devotion, has for almost a century borne the hopes and the aspi- rations of a great people through prosperity and peace and through the shock of foreign conflicts and the perils of domestic strife and vicissitudes.
By the Father of his Country our Constitution was com- mended for adoption as <*the result of a spirit of amity and mu- tual concession.* In that same spirit it should be administered, in order to promote the lasting welfare of the country and to secure the full measure of its priceless benefits to us and to those who will succeed to the blessings of our national life. The large variety of diverse and competing interests subject to Fed- eral control, persistently seeking the recognition of their claims, need give us no fear that "the greatest good to the greatest number® will fail to be accomplished if in the halls of national legislation that spirit of amity and mutual concession shall pre
GROVER CLEVELAND
1303
vail in which the Constitution had its birth. If this involves the surrender or postponement of private interests and the abandon- ment of local advantages, compensation will be found in the assurance that the common interest is subserved and the general welfare advanced.
In the discharge of my official duty I shall endeavor to be guided by a just and unstrained construction of the Constitu- tion, a careful observance of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people, and by a cautious appreciation of those functions which by the Constitution and laws have been espe- cially assigned to the executive branch of the Government.
But he who takes the oath to-day to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen — on the farm, in the workshop, in the busy marts of trade, and everywhere — should share with him. The Constitution which prescribes his oath, my countrymen, is yours; the Government you have chosen him to administer for a time is yours; the suffrage which exe- cutes the will of freemen is yours; the laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State capitals and the national capital, is yours. Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust. Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil polity — municipal. State, and Federal; and this is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the Republic.
It is the duty of those serving the people in public place to closely limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the Gov- ernment economically administered, because this bounds the right of the Government to exact tribute from the earnings of labor or the property of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and prudential economies which are best suited to the operation of a republican form of government and most compatible with the mission of the American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to manage public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by their example
1304 GROVER CLEVELAND
to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their official func- tions, that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity.
The genius of our institutions, the needs of our people in their home life, and the attention which is demanded for the set- tlement and development of the resources of our vast territory, dictate the scrupulous avoidance of any departure from that for- eign policy commended by the history, the traditions, and the prosperity of our Republic. It is the policy of independence, favored by our position and defended by our known love of jus- tice and by our own power. It is the policy of peace suitable to our interests. It is the policy of neutrality, rejecting any share in foreign broils and ambitions upon other continents and repelling their intrusion here. It is the policy of Monroe, and of Washington, and of Jefferson — ** Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliance with none.'^
A due regard for the interests and prosperity of all the peo- ple demands that our finances shall be established upon such a sound and sensible basis as shall secure the safety and confidence of business interests and make the wages of labor sure and steady, and that our system of revenue shall be so adjusted as to relieve the people of unnecessary taxation, having a due re- gard to the interests of capital invested and workingmen em- ployed in American industries, and preventing the accumulation of a surplus in the treasury to tempt extravagance and waste.
Care for the property of the nation and for the needs of fut- ure settlers requires that the public domain should be protected from purloining schemes and unlawful occupation.
The conscience of the people demands that the Indians within our boundaries shall be fairly and honestly treated as wards of the Government and their education and civilization promoted with a view to their ultimate citizenship, and that polygamy in the Territories, destructive of the family relation and offensive to the moral sense of the civilized world, shall be repressed.
The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immi- gration of a servile class to compete