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BIOGRAPHY 
 
 Oi 1 
 
 MAMTIW VAN BURE5T, 
 
 VICE PRESIDENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITH A3T. 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS, INCLUDING 
 HIS SPEECHES IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
 ON THE CLAIMS OF THE SOLDIERS OF THE REVO 
 LUTION, AND IN FAVOR OF ABOLISHING IM 
 PRISONMENT FOR DEBT WITH OTHER 
 
 VALUABLE DOCUMENTS, AMON& 
 
 WHICH WILL BE FOUND THE 
 
 LATE LETTER OF 
 
 COLONEL THOS. H. BENTON, 
 
 TO THE 
 CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 COMPILED AND EDITED 
 
 BY WILLIAM EMMOXS. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 aiJTTED BT JACOB GIDEON, 3V. 
 1835. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by 
 WIJLLTAM EMMONS, in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of 
 the District of Columbia. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting to the American citizens a Biogra 
 phy of one of our distinguished DEMOCRATIC States 
 men, I feel that I need not apologize, as I do it 
 with feelings of patriotic ardour, and for the purpose 
 of vindicating a character on whom has been lavish 
 ed much personal and public abuse for a long series 
 of years, on account of his early opposition to a par 
 ty once recognized as the " ESSEX JUNTO," but more 
 recently known as the War Party in peace ! and the 
 Peace Party in war ! occasionally mantling them 
 selves beneath the imposing shelter of Washington 
 and benevolence! And for this devotion to the cause 
 of the people, he was PROSCRIBED ! by the very Senate 
 where you, my countrymen, have now placed him 
 to preside, as a merited rebuke to such as proclaim 
 ed they were no MAN S MEN! As a further proof 
 that the American PEOPLE are capable of SELF gov 
 ernment, a portion of my fellow-citizens have inform 
 ed such Senators that they are no longer their men!! 
 
 He has long been denounced as a MAGICIAN ! his 
 opponents, however, have been taught satisfacto 
 rily, I trust, that the magic he deals in has been ap 
 proved by YOU, the PEOPLE ! hence, I cannot, as an 
 independent freeman, but rejoice at the cheering 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 prospects before him, confident as I am, that the 
 same power which has sustained and propelled him 
 onward, will again cluster around, and through him, 
 carry out the principles begun by a JEFFERSON, and 
 thus far perfected by the VENERABLE JACKSON, 
 whose fame will endure " while the earth bears a 
 plant, or the sea rolls its waves." No doubt he 
 will again be opposed by a phalanx, sustained as 
 they have been, from the vaults of a gigantic BRITISH 
 institution, in the disguise of a UNITED STATES 
 BANK, which, VAMPIRE-LIKE, was fast preying on 
 the VITALS of the REPUBLIC ! Thanks to an over 
 ruling PROVIDENCE! A JACKSON, and a BENTON, 
 dared encounter, and stay the further progress of that 
 many headed MONSTER ! seconded, on all occasions^ 
 by the firm friend to DEMOCRACY, MARTIN VAN Bu- 
 REN, and nobly sustained by the American people. 
 
 For one, I do not doubt the native as well as 
 adopted FREEMEN of my country, will, at the ap 
 proaching PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, prove to the 
 surrounding nations of the earth, that American ci 
 tizens are superior to any and all combinations that 
 have been or may be entered into for the overthrow 
 of DEMOCRACY. If such an overthrow be accom 
 plished, you then indeed would have a constructive, 
 instead of a practical DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Forget not, the GOVERNMENT is your own 9 and 
 your children demand at your hands its transmission 
 
PREFACE- .v 
 
 unimpaired to them as your last best legacy. Re 
 member the Reign of Kings is hastening to decay. 
 
 The Government then of right, belongs to the 
 sovereign PEOPLE, before whom all officers must bow 
 at whose shrine I would ever be a worshipper. 
 
 Behold then, Fellow-citizens, the tree of Liber 
 ty! perched thereon is the American Eagle with his 
 broad and spreading wings, holding in his beak a 
 SCROLL, on which is inscribed VAN BUBEBT, DEMOC 
 RACY, UNION AND LIBERTY. 
 
 With these remarks I submit to my countrymen 
 the following compilation. The biographical sketch 
 was written by a gentleman intimately acquainted 
 with the public and private history of Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren, for the CABINET, a literary publication which 
 appeared in 1830. It was afterwards enlarged by 
 its author in the summer of 1832. As Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren was then in nomination for the office of Vice 
 President, special reference was made to that circum 
 stance, and a strong conviction was expressed that he 
 would be elected to that high office. 1 have prefer 
 red to retain this part of the memoir, although the 
 particular language is no longer precisely applicable 
 to the present state of things, because I have no right 
 to alter the language of another, and more especially, 
 because by the energy and virtue of the people, that 
 part of it which looked to the future, has already 
 become history. The selection I have made from 
 the speeches and writings of Mr. Van Buren, will 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 not only illustrate and verify many of the statements 
 in the biography; but will exhibit the sound, demo 
 cratic and statesman-like principles, by which his pub 
 lic conduct has been governed, and which have hith 
 erto commanded the public approbation. The 
 speech of Mr. FORSYTH, on the nomination of Mr. 
 Van Buren as minister to Great Britain, in secret ses 
 sion of the Senate in 1832, the correspondence with 
 the PRESIDENT on the same point, and the late letter 
 of COL. BENTON, being all connected with the sub 
 ject of this volume, and highly valuable in them 
 selves, will, I hope, be interesting to my readers. 
 And I trust that the cheering anticipations and patri 
 otic wishes, which have led me to prepare this com 
 pilation, will be confirmed by the sovereign People 
 of these UNITED STATES in the election of 1836. 
 To the American public, 
 
 WM. EMMONS. 
 Washington, Feb. 22, 1835, 
 
BIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN, 
 
 OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN was born at Kinder- 
 hook, in the county of Columbia, and state of New- 
 York, on the 5th of December, 1782. He is the 
 eldest son of Abraham Van Buren, an upright and 
 intelligent man, whose virtuous conduct and amiable 
 temper enabled him to pass through a long life, not 
 only without an enemy, but without ever being in 
 volved in contention or controversy. His mother, a 
 woman of excellent sense and pleasing manners, was 
 twice married, Mr. Van Buren being her second 
 husband. Both parents were exclusively of Dutch 
 decent; their ancestors being among the most re 
 spectable of those emigrants from Holland, who esta 
 blished themselves, in the earliest period of our 
 colonial .history, in the ancient settlement of Kin- 
 derhook. They died at advanced ages; the father in 
 1S14, the mother in 1818, but not until they had 
 witnessed, and, for a series of years, participated in, 
 the prosperity of their son. 
 
2 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 The subject, of this memoir displayed, in early 
 boyhood, endowments so superior, that his family 
 resolved to educate him for the bar. He was accord 
 ingly placed, at the age of fourteen, in the office of 
 Francis Sylvester, Esq., then and still a much re 
 spected resident of Kinderhook, and at the time re 
 ferred to, a practitioner of the law. Prior to the 
 conclusion of his term of study, he spent about 
 twelve months in the office of William P. Van Ness, 
 then a distinguished lawyer and politician in the city 
 of New- York.* His residence in that city afforded 
 Mr. Van Bi-iren opportunities of instruction and im 
 provement, superior to any that he had before enjoy 
 ed, and as he was both eager in persuing, and apt in 
 acquiring knowledge, he employed these advantages 
 with diligence and profit. 
 
 In November, 1S03, he was licensed as an attorney 
 of the Supreme Court, and immediately thereafter 
 commenced professional business in his native village, 
 in connexion with a half brother, considerably his 
 senior. At the next term of the county courts, he 
 
 * This gentleman having afterwards held the office of District 
 Judge of the United States for the southern distiictof New-York, 
 is some times confounded with William W. Van Ness, for many 
 years a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State a mistake 
 which happens the more readily, from their being both natives of 
 Columbia county, and both greatly distinguished by their talents 
 and their connexion with political affairs, though they belonged, 
 the former to the republican, and the latter to the federal party. 
 
MARTIN VAN NUREN. 3 
 
 was admitted as attorney and councellor, and thus en 
 rolled in the Columbia bar, then numbering among 
 its members several of the first men in the state; but 
 the field was not fairly spread before him until his 
 admission as councellor in the Supreme Court, which 
 took place in February, 1807. 
 
 He had always aspired to distinction at the bar; but 
 though he had within him not only the desire, but 
 the elements of success, he was obliged to force his 
 way through an opposition at once powerful and pe 
 culiar. The political dissensions which then agita 
 ted the Union, were carried, in Columbia county, to 
 the greatest extremities. The title to a large portion 
 of the soil was vested in a few ancient families, the 
 founders of which had been endowed, during the 
 colonial government, with a species of baronial pre 
 rogative. The members of these families were gen 
 erally federalists, and as they carried with them most 
 of the wealthy freeholders, and the great mass of 
 the merchants and professional men, they were ena 
 bled to maintain, for many years, an uninterrupted 
 ascendency in the county. Their reign was not that 
 of toleration or liberality; on the contrary, the fed 
 eralists of Columbia, partly perhaps from the spirited 
 and inflexible character of their opponents, were 
 among the most decided and thorough going parti- 
 zans in the state. Mr. Van Buren was an object, 
 with them, of peculiar hostility. He was a plebeian 
 
4 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 and a democrat; he was destitute of fortune and in 
 need of patronage; and yet he would neither wor 
 ship at the shrine of wealth, nor court the favor of 
 the powerful worse than all he possessed talents, 
 and was not afraid to exert them, in the face, and to 
 the prejudice, of his political enemies. It was there 
 fore thought to be a matter of interest if not of duty, 
 to keep him in the shade; and nothing was omitted 
 that seemed likely to produce such a result. 
 
 Undismayed by persecution, unruffled by the petty 
 arts of loquacity and slander, and over leaping the ob 
 stacles by which his progress was obstructed, Mr. Van 
 ISuren pressed forward in the race before him. t{ He 
 that seeketh to be eminent amongst able men," says 
 Lord Bacon " hath a hard task." That task, and more 
 than that Mr. Van Buren undertook, for he strove not 
 only for eminence but mastery. There was a noble 
 daring in the very attempt to cope with these formida 
 ble adversaries, which would almost have compensa 
 ted for the want of success; but by unremitted atten 
 tion to business, by diligent preparation, and by the ut 
 most exertion of his powers, such an issue was pre 
 vented. His faculties, naturally acute, were not only 
 sharpened by these conflicts, but invigorated and 
 rapidly enlarged; and it was not long before he was 
 enabled to contend on high and equal ground, with 
 the ablest of the group. This, after the promotion of 
 Judge W. W. Van Ness, was Elisha Williams, the 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 5 
 
 most celebrated jury lawyer in the state, and proba 
 bly in the Union, then in the prime of manhood, and 
 nearly at the zenith of his fame. 
 
 In 1809, Mr. Van Buren removed to the city of 
 Hudson, which was also the residence of Mr. Wil 
 liams ; and from that time they divided, and for many 
 years continued tc divide, the professional business 
 of the county. They stood also at the head of the 
 political parties to which they were respectively at 
 tached. 
 
 The writer has often witnessed, in other places, 
 displays of great forensic talent ; but he has never 
 seen causes tried with any thing like the zeal, the 
 skill, or the effect, which were always exhibited at a 
 Columbia circuit, during the period referred to. A 
 trial there was an intellectual combat of the highest 
 order ; the antagonists were stimulated, not only by 
 professional duty and the love of fame, but by a ri 
 valry political and personal, which never suffered in 
 termission or decline. This rivalry to which we 
 have alluded, continued for more than ten years ; and 
 if time and space permitted, it would be interesting, 
 at least to the professional reader, to develope more 
 fully than we can now do, the characters of the 
 parties and the history of their conflicts. 
 
 In the mean time, Mr. Van Buren had followed 
 his distinguished rival to the higher courts, and to 
 he tribunal of the last resort. He there encountered 
 1* 
 
6 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the first talents in the state, and with such success, 
 that on the republicans regaining their ascendency, he 
 was appointed, in February, 1815, Attorney-Gener 
 al of the state, in the room of Abraham Van Vechten, 
 then equally eminent for political sagacity and pro 
 fessional reputation, but now reverenced and loved 
 as the father of the New York bar. The duties of 
 this office, and the extension of his practice, induced 
 Mr. Van Buren, in the following year, to change 
 his residence from Hudson to Albany. From this 
 time until his retirement, he was deservedly ranked 
 with those distinguished civilians, to whom, in con 
 nexion with her judiciary, the state owes so large a 
 portion of her renown. Amongst such competitors, 
 it was impossible to acquire, still more to maintain, a 
 factitious reputation. Mr. Van Buren s was based 
 on materials the most durable. Gifted with a large 
 share of good sense, with a quickness of apprehen 
 sion almost intuitive, with a nice discrimination, and 
 with great accuracy of judgment, and illustrating 
 these qualities by powers of reasoning and oratory 
 rarely surpassed, he was peculiarly qualified for the 
 discussion of those varied and complicated questions 
 of law and of fact, which are so often presented for 
 decision in our higher tribunals. It was accordingly 
 in. the management of important cases in the supe 
 rior courts, that his most successful efforts as an ad 
 vocate were made. His talents and reputation soon 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 7 
 
 secured to him an extensive and lucrative business, 
 which would doubtless have increased to the highest 
 amount known to the American bar, if his labors in 
 his profession had not been frequently interrupted, 
 and at length finally suspended, by his attention to 
 political concerns. 
 
 Whether before a jury, or bar, he particularly 
 excelled in the opening of this subject. The facts 
 out of which arose the questions for discussion, the 
 nature of those questions, and the mode in which he 
 intended to treat them, were always stated with great 
 clearness and address. In the exposition of his ar 
 gument, he was usually copious and diffusive, pre 
 senting his case in all its lights, and bringing to bear 
 upon it every consideration which could tend to elu 
 cidate its merits or to cover its defects. His style 
 and manner were judiciously adapted to the character 
 of his subject, and of his hearers ; sometimes direct 
 and argumentative, and at others discursive and im 
 passioned ; but even in the management of the most 
 abstruse legal topics, he was able by the perspicuity 
 of his statements, the aptness of his illustrations, the 
 vivacity and force of his tone and gesture, and the 
 felicity of his whole manner, to excite and to retain 
 the undivided attention of all classes of his auditors. 
 
 No one was better qualified to speak with ability 
 and effect, upon little, or without any preparation ; 
 but no one could be more careful or laborious in his 
 
8 BIOGRAPHY OP 
 
 preparatory studies. We mention this for the pur 
 pose of reminding the junior members of the bar, 
 that if they would emulate and equal the successful 
 career we have delineated, they must rely not on 
 genius alone, nor on general knowledge or a diversi 
 fied experience, but on the surer aids to be derived 
 from a perfect acquaintance with their subject, and a 
 careful premeditation of what they are to say. 
 
 The public life and services of Mr. Van Buren, to 
 which we shall now direct the attention of our read 
 ers, demand a fuller notice than that bestowed on his 
 professional career. It must, however, necessarily 
 be brief; for to bring them out, in their just propor 
 tions, would require a volume, and would lead to dis 
 cussions foreign to this place. His first connexion 
 with political affairs was in the great contest wh .ch 
 preceded the civil revolution of 1801. His father, 
 a whig in the revolution, and an anti-federalist of 
 1788, was among the earliest supporters of Mr. Jef 
 ferson. The son, then a law student at Kinderhook, 
 espoused with great warmth the same principles ; but 
 his course was emphatically his own. It was the re 
 sult of a decided conviction, that the conduct and doc 
 trines of the men in power, were not only repugnant 
 to the spirit of the constitution, but subversive of the 
 rights of the people, and calculated to lead to an aris 
 tocratic government. The strength and integrity of 
 these convictions were severely tested. The gentle- 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 9 
 
 man in whose office he was a student was a high toned 
 federalist; so was a near and much loved relative, his 
 earliest patron. A majority of the inhabitants, includ 
 ing nearly all the wealthy families, and most if not all 
 his youthful associates, belonged to the same party, 
 and that party then had the ascendency, not only in his 
 own town, but in the county, the state, and the Union. 
 Aware of his superior endowments, and anxious to 
 save him from what was deemed by many of his 
 friends a fatal, if not a criminal heresy, great ex 
 ertions were made to attach him to the dominant 
 party. Every motive which could operate on the 
 mind of an ardent and ambitious young man, was 
 held out to him but without success. He persisted 
 in maintaining the principles he had espoused, and 
 he spared no pains to inculcate them upon others, es 
 pecially by animated addresses at the meetings of the 
 people. His devotion, thus early, to the popular 
 cause, though it exposed him to the implacable hos 
 tility of the federalists, secured for him the confi 
 dence and affections of the democracy of the town, 
 and soon made him so conspicuous in his county, 
 that in the latter part of 1800 or beginning of 1801, 
 when only in his eighteenth or nineteenth year, he 
 was one of her representatives in a republican con 
 vention composed of delegates from the counties of 
 Rensselaer and Columbia, and held for the purpose of 
 nominating a candidate for the house of representa- 
 
10 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 lives. On that occasion he assisted the veteran po 
 liticians, with whom he was associated, in preparing 
 an address to the electors. During the residue of 
 his minority he was in the habit of representing the 
 republicans of his town in the county conventions, 
 and of taking as active and efficient a part in the po 
 litical contests of the day, as any of his seniors. 
 
 His first appearance as an elector, was in the 
 spring of 1804, when, in common with the great mass 
 of the party in which he had been bred, he supported 
 Morgan Lewis for governor of New York in opposi 
 tion to Aaron Burr. Here again his integrity and 
 independence were strikingly exemplified. Mr. 
 Van Ness, with whom he had recently been a stu 
 dent, was the intimate friend of Col. Burr; and Mr. 
 Van Buren himself, whilst a resident in the city of 
 New York, had received many flattering attentions 
 from that gentlemen. Several of the leading repub 
 licans of Columbia county, including some of Mr. 
 Van Buren s earliest friends, were among the warm 
 est supporters of Col. Burr. Yet Mr. Van Buren 
 took a decided stand against Col. Burr, on the ground 
 that he was the candidate of the party opposed to 
 Mr. Jefferson, and to the democracy of the state. 
 His course on this occasion subjected him to some 
 temporary antipathies; but its wisdom and propriety 
 were sanctioned by the judgment of the people, and 
 at the present day, will hardly be called in question. 
 
MARTIN VAN I UREN. || 
 
 In 1807 the democratic party was again divided 
 between Lewis and Tompkins, and Mr. Van Buren 
 again acting in unison with the majority, was among 
 the most decided supporters of the latter. In 1808, 
 he was appointed Surrogate of the county, an office 
 which he held until February, 1813, when the fede 
 ral party having acquired the ascendency in that 
 branch of the legislature which controlled the ap 
 pointing power, he was promptly removed. - 
 
 From the moment when, in early youth, he es 
 poused the democratic principle, he never wavered 
 in his course. Mr. Jefferson s administration receiv 
 ed his uniform support; though in the ardor of 
 youthful patriotism, he sometimes wished for a more 
 decided policy towards the invaders of our neutral 
 rights. During the whole period of the British en 
 croachments, he was among those who labored to 
 awaken, in our councils and people, a spirit of indig 
 nation and resistance. The embargo, and other re- 
 trictive measures adopted by congress, met his de 
 cided approbation; and were frequently vindicated 
 by him in popular addresses, and on other occasions. 
 In the dark days which followed these measures, he 
 neither apostatized, nor flinched, nor doubted. His 
 support of the government was not merely active, 
 but zealous; nor was his the zeal of ordinary men. 
 It absorbed his whole soul; it led to untiring exer 
 tion; it was exhibited on all occasions, and under 
 
J2 BIOGKAPHY OF 
 
 all circumstances. Neither the contumely of inflated 
 wealth, nor the opposition of invidious talent, nor 
 the weekly revilings of a licentious press, nor a suc 
 cession of defeats in his own county, could induce 
 him to conceal or to modify his political sentiments, 
 or to temporize in his policy or conduct. 
 
 The influence of such principles, accompanied by 
 talents like those of Mr. Van Buren, was not to be 
 circumscribed within the limits of a single county. 
 It accordingly extended in the same proportion with 
 his professional reputation; and as early as 1811, we 
 find him taking the lead in a meeting held at the 
 seat of government, and composed chiefly of the de 
 mocratic members of the legislature. In 1811, he 
 took great interest in the question of the renewal of 
 the United States Bank. In connexion with the ve 
 nerable George Clinton, and other leading members 
 of the party in his state, he strenuously opposed the 
 re-chartering of that institution. After congress 
 had decided this question, a powerful association 
 was formed, for the purpose of procuring from the 
 state legislature a charter for the Bank of America, 
 to be established in the city of New York, with a 
 capital (enormous for a local bank) of $6,000,000. 
 As the democracy of the state, with but few excep 
 tions, considered this application a sort of substitute 
 for the renewal of the national bank, they took strong 
 ground against it. Mr. Van Buren was one of its most 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 13 
 
 prominent opponents. The republicans of his coun 
 ty were convened on the subject. He delivered to 
 them a powerful speech against the proposed appli 
 cation, which was denounced in a series of resolu 
 tions prepared by him and adopted by the meeting, 
 as a most dangerous and anti-republican measure. 
 His sentiments on the main question, and his belief 
 that improper means had been resorted to by the 
 agents of the bank, conspired to recommend to his 
 approbation and support, the prorogation of the legis 
 lature by Governor Tompkins, in April, 1812; and 
 he accordingly sustained that energetic measure by 
 the active exertion of his influence and talents. At 
 this juncture he was, for the first time, put in nomi 
 nation for an elective office that of state senator 
 for the then middle district;. A more violent strug 
 gle was hardly ever known in the state ; Mr. Van 
 Buren succeeded, but by a majority of less than two 
 hundred out of twenty thousand votes. 
 
 He took his seat in the senate in November, 1812, 
 at the meeting held for the choice of presidential 
 electors. The republican members of the legisla 
 ture having, in the preceding summer, nominated 
 De Witt Clinton for president, in opposition to Mr. 
 Madison, then a candidate for re-election, and that 
 nomination having been tendered to, and accepted 
 by Mr. Clinton, Mr. Van Buren thought it due to 
 consistency and good faith, to support electors friend- 
 
14 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 ly to that gentleman. He was also prompted to this 
 course by an impression, that the character and mea 
 sures of the existing administration were not suffi 
 ciently decisive and energetic ; and by a sincere and 
 confident belief that Mr. Clinton, though supported 
 by many opponents of the war, would yet, if elected, 
 prosecute that contest with more vigour and success 
 than his amiable and enlightened competitor. Be 
 sides Mr. Van Buren had been bred in the political 
 sentiments of George Clinton, and on the death of that 
 illustrious patriot, had naturally transferred much of 
 his respect for the name, principles and character of 
 the uncle, to his distinguished nephew, who, up to 
 that period had been generally regarded as a pillar of 
 the democratic party. In these views a majority of 
 the republicans in each branch of the legislature con 
 curred; and Mr. Clinton accordingly received the 
 vote of New York. Mr. Van Buren, however, 
 uniformly declared that he would abide by the de 
 cision of the majority; and that he would support to 
 the end, every measure of the government, by whom 
 soever it might be administered, which was calcula 
 ted to bring the war a measure which he had advo 
 cated in advance, and constantly defended to a suc 
 cessful result. In conformity with these principles, 
 he took a leading part in the winter of 1813, in the 
 nomination of Gov. Tompkins, whose patriotism 
 had identified him with the history of the country. 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 15 
 
 and whose re-election seemed essential to the prose 
 cution of the war if not to the existence of the gov 
 ernment. On this occasion he wrote the address to 
 the electors of the state, issued by the republican 
 members of the legislature an elaborate and elo 
 quent production, in which the duty of sustaining the 
 administration in the prosecution of the war, was 
 enforced by every motive that could reach the hearts, 
 or call out the energies of the people. The extracts 
 from this address which have recently been laid be 
 fore the public, will have enabled them to test the 
 justice of this remark It was widely circulated, and 
 produced the desired effect. 
 
 In the election of April, 1813, Mr. Clinton, and 
 many of his friends, supported the candidate of the 
 opposition; and from this point a separation ensued 
 between that distinguished statesman and Mr. Van 
 Buren, which, as to all political matters, continued 
 ever after. 
 
 The sessions of IS 13 and 14, were peculiarly try 
 ing. The federalists then had the control in the 
 assembly, and were violent and uniform in their op 
 position to the war and to its supporters. A majo 
 rity of the senators, with Mr. Van Buren and his 
 able coadjutors, Nathan Sanford and Erastus Root, at 
 their head, were equally inflexible in their support 
 of the government. They passed many bills of a 
 patriotic character, which were rejected by the other 
 
16 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 branch. This led to several public conferences, in 
 which the points in controversy involving not only 
 the particular measures in dispute, but the justice 
 and expediency of the war, and the conduct and me 
 rits of the national administration were debated at 
 large, in the presence of the two houses, by commit 
 tees chosen on the part of each, and with all the 
 energy and ardor which the spirit of the times was 
 calculated to inspire. These conferences, from the 
 nature of their subjects, the solemnity with which 
 they were conducted, and the crowded and excited 
 auditories that attended them, presented opportuni 
 ties for the display of popular eloquence, almost ri 
 valling in dignity and interest, the assemblies of 
 ancient Greece. In all of them Mr. Van Buren was 
 a principal speaker on the part of the senate, and by 
 his readiness and dexterity in debate, his powerful 
 reasoning, and his patriotic defence of the govern 
 ment and its measures, commanded great applause. 
 On one occasion in particular, he delivered a speech 
 of such eloquence and power, that immediately after 
 the termination of the debate, a committee was ap 
 pointed by the republicans of Albany who, in 
 great numbers, had attended in the galleries to pre 
 sent him the thanks of their constituents, and to pro 
 cure a copy of the speech for publication. This re 
 quest, however, could not be complied with, as the 
 speech had been delivered without even the usual 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 17 
 
 preparative of short notes; and Mr. Van Buren, 
 who was then in feeble health, had neither time nor 
 strength to write it out. 
 
 In September, 1814, the legislature was convoked 
 by the Executive, to deliberate on the alarming cri* 
 sis then existing. The republicans had then regain* 
 ed their control in both branches, and various mea 
 sures were adopted with the express view of aiding 
 the national administration, in the prosecution of the 
 war. Of these, in addition to acts making appro 
 priations of money, the most prominet were the 
 acts "to authorise the raising of troops for the de^ 
 fence of the state," and to "encourage privateering 
 associations." These bills were each supported by 
 Mr. Van Buren; but the first and most important 
 which was known among its friends as the "classifi 
 cation," arid among its enemies as the "conscrip 
 tion" bill, and which very much resembled the clas 
 sification bill subsequently reported to congress by 
 Mr. Monroe was peculiarly his measure, it having 
 been matured and introduced by him. They were 
 assailed by the opposition, both in and out of the 
 legislature, with unwonted violence. In the coun 
 cil of revision, Chancellor Kent delivered written 
 opinions, denouncing them as inconsistent with the 
 spirit of the constitution, and the public good.-^ 
 Those opinions, though overruled by the other mem* 
 
 bers of the council, were published in the newspa- 
 
 2* 
 
18 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 pers and extensively circulated ; and from the high 
 reputation of their learned and estimable author, 
 they were eminently calculated to excite doubts as 
 to the validity of the laws, and to impair public con 
 fidence in those who enacted them. 
 
 In this state of things, Col. Young, then speaker 
 of the assembly, and the principal champion in that 
 house, of the measures thus impugned, undertook 
 their defence, and especially that of the Classification 
 law, in a series of letters, written with great ability, 
 and addressed to the chancellor, under the signature 
 of Juris Consultus. They were answered by *flm- 
 icus Curise, (supposed to be the chancellor himself,) 
 who was replied to by Mr. Van Buren, in four 
 numbers under the signature of Jlmicus Juris Con 
 sultus. In the first of these papers, he took a gene 
 ral view of the several topics connected with the 
 controversy; the others were devoted to a minute 
 examination of the various objections made by the 
 Chancellor, and by rfmicus Curix, for the act en 
 couraging privateering associations. This controve- 
 sy, as conducted by all the parties, was one of the 
 ablest which grew out of the last war. Mr. Van 
 Buren s share of it, which was distinguished by great 
 ability and research, soon became known among his 
 political friends, and contributed in no small degree, 
 to his appointment as Attorney General, which took 
 place in the February following. He was soon after 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 19 
 
 appointed by the legislature, a Regent of the Uni 
 versity. 
 
 In 1816, he was re-elected to the Senate, and re 
 mained in that body until 1820, when his term of 
 service expired. From the commencement to the 
 close of his legislative career, he was found among 
 the supporters of eveiy measure connected with the 
 great interests of the state. He was particularly 
 distinguished as a leading and most efficient advocate 
 of those great plans of public improvement which 
 have since conferred, not alone on the state by which 
 they have been executed, but on the age in which we 
 live, such imperishable honor. :* 
 
 The next step in Mr. Van Buren s progress, places 
 him on higher ground than any he has yet occupied. 
 We have seen him one of the most active and con 
 spicuous politicians in his native state ; we are now 
 to regard him as the acknowledged rival, in influ 
 ence and renown, of the most celebrated of her sons 
 De Witt Clinton. In March, 1S17, that gentle 
 man was nominated by the republican convention as 
 a candidate to succeed Gov. Tompkins, who had 
 been chosen Vice-president of the United States : 
 Mr. Van Buren was one of the minority in this con 
 vention, though in accordance with the usages and 
 feelings appropriate to such occasions, he acquiesced 
 in the result. Mr. Clinton was subsequently elected, 
 almost without opposition, but whether with, or 
 
20 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 without cause, we stop not to inquire gave little 
 satisfaction to the democracy of the state. A divi 
 sion of the party soon after took place ; the great 
 mass, with Mr. Van Buren in their number, opposed 
 his re-election, and from this time until the death of 
 Governor Clinton, these distinguished citizens stood 
 at the head of the great political parties of New 
 York. Mr. Van Buren at the commencement of 
 this era was Attorney General of the state, but the 
 council of appointment, at whose pleasure the office 
 was held, was devoted to Mr. Clinton. This, how 
 ever, did not prevent him from pursuing with frank 
 ness and decision, the course which his judgment had 
 prescribed ; though he was aware that the loss of 
 office would inevitably follow ; and he was accord 
 ingly removed in July, 1819. Opposition to Mr. 
 Clinton was the only cause assigned for this measure, 
 which was to Mr. Van Buren one of the most for 
 tunate events of his public life. It commended 
 him more than ever to the confidence and affections of 
 the firm party men, who remembered his uniform 
 adherence to the republican cause, and above all. his 
 vigorous support of the government, at the most 
 gloomy period of the war. It also largely contribut 
 ed to the peculiar result of the election in 1820, 
 when the opponents of Governor Clinton, though 
 they failed in preventing his re-election, carried both 
 branches of the legislature. A restoration to the 
 
MARTIN VAN BUHEN. 21 
 
 office of Attorney General was tendered to Mr. Van 
 Buren by his political friends, but being declined by 
 him, he was appointed in February 1821, a senator 
 in the congress of the United States. 
 
 In the interval between that appointment and the 
 next congress, a convention was held to amend the 
 constitution of the state. Mr. Van Buren, who had 
 warmly advocated this measure, especially with a 
 view to the extension of the right of suffrage, was 
 unexpectedly returned to it, though a resident of Al 
 bany, by the republican electors of Otsego, as a 
 member from that county. 
 
 Many venerable and distinguished men, together 
 with most of the active talent of the state, were 
 found in this convention. It is, therefore, a high 
 compliment though it be only simple truth to say, 
 that in all the deliberations of this enlightened as 
 sembly, Mr. Van Buren, if not first, was certainly 
 one of the foremost. His speeches on the various 
 questions submitted to the convention, are published 
 in the report of its proceedings, and are among the 
 ablest in the volume. They are particularly worthy 
 of note, for the clear and comprehensive manner in 
 which they discuss the great principles of govern 
 ment, and for their soundness, moderation and jus 
 tice. But it is not the mere display of talent or 
 wisdom, that illustrates this portion of Mr. Van 
 Buren s history. His conduct in the convention is 
 
22 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 entitled to the other, and we doubt not posterity will 
 deem it higher, praise the praise which belongs to 
 independence, magnanimity and virtue. He entered 
 it under circumstances most flattering to his pride 
 the acknowledged leader of a triumphant majority ; 
 he was compelled before the termination of the ses 
 sion, either to assent to a course of proceeding in re 
 lation to the judiciary establishments, which he 
 deemed uncalled for and improper, or to separate 
 from some of the oldest and most valued of his 
 friends. He chose, without hesitation or misgiving, 
 the latter alternative, and was placed, as he foresaw 
 would be the consequence, in the ranks of the mi 
 nority. His conduct, on this occasion, was so evi 
 dently the result of principle, that those of his party 
 who differed from him in opinion, honored him the 
 more for his firmness and integrity the separation 
 it produced, was therefore confined to the questions 
 which occasioned it.* 
 
 * The following extract from a speech of Mr. Van Burcn upon 
 one of the measures above referred to, will not only illustrate 
 this part of his public conduct, but give some idea of his manner 
 in debate. 
 
 " The matter therefore being clear, that the only effect of the 
 amendment would be to turn out of office the present incum 
 bents, [the Judges of the Supreme Court,] he submitted to the 
 convention whether it would be either just or wise to do so. 
 He submitted it, he said, particularly to that portion of the con 
 vention, who would be held responsible for its doings and who 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN, 23 
 
 He took his seat in the Senate of the United 
 States in December, 1821. In 1827, he was re- 
 would in a political point of view, be the chief sufferers by a 
 failure of the ratification of their proceedings by the people. 
 He warned them to reflect seriously on this most interesting 
 matter. He directed their attention to the never ending feuds 
 and bitter controversies which would inevitably grow out of a 
 loss of the amendments adopted by the convention. He knew 
 well, he said, how apt men placed in their situation heated by 
 discussions, and sometimes pressed by indiscreet friends were 
 to suffer their feelings to be excited, and to lead them into mea 
 sures which their sober judgments would condemn. It was 
 their duty to rise superior to all such feelings. He^ asked them to 
 reflect for a moment, and then answer him, whether, when 
 they left home, they had ever heard the least intimation from 
 their constituents, that instead of amending tl^e constitution upon 
 general principles, they were to descend to pulling down ob 
 noxious officers through the medium of the convention ; and he 
 asked them whether they were not sensible of the great danger 
 of surprising the public at this advanced stage of the session, 
 when the greatest uneasiness already prevailed, by a measure so 
 unexpected. There was, he said, no necessity for, or propriety 
 in, this measure. They had already thrown wide open the 
 doors of approach to unworthy incumbents. They had altered 
 the impeaching power, from two-thirds to a bare majority. 
 They had provided also that the chancellor and judges should 
 be removable by the vote of two-thirds of one branch, and a bare 
 majority of the other. The judicial officer who could not be 
 reached in either of those ways, ought not to be touched. 
 There were therefore no public reasons for the measure, and if 
 not, then why are we to adopt it ? Certainly not from personal 
 feelings. If personal feelings could or ought to influence us 
 against the individual who would probably be most affected by 
 
24 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 elected to the same station. To describe the share 
 taken by him in the proceedings of the Senate, 
 would be to copy the journals of that body for the 
 seven years during which he was a member. Before 
 the end of the first session, he had established, in an 
 assembly containing such men as Rufus King and 
 William Pinckney, a reputation of the highest grade, 
 which was successfully maintained in after years. 
 
 It has often been demonstrated, that the sarcastic 
 remark of Mr, Burke, "that lawyers are not at 
 
 the adoption of this amendment, [Judge W. W. Van Ness] Mr. 
 Van Buren supposed that he above all others, would be excused 
 for indulging them. He could with truth say, that he had 
 through his whole life been assailed from that quarter, with 
 hostility, political, professional and personal hostility which had 
 been the most keen, active and unyielding. But sir, said he, am 
 1 on that account, to avail myself of my situation as a representa 
 tive of the people, sent here to make a constitution for them and 
 their posterity, and to indulge my individual resentments in the 
 prostration of my private and political adversary ! He hoped it 
 was unnecessary for him to say, that he should forever despise 
 himself if he could be capable of such conduct. He also hoped 
 that that sentiment was not confined to himself alone, and that 
 the convention would not ruin its character and credit, by pro 
 ceeding to such extremities." [Carter and Stone s Debates of the 
 Convention, p. 535.] 
 
 The conduct of Mr. Van Buren on this occasion, and on the 
 nomination of Mr. Clay as Secretary of State, furnishes a conclu 
 sive refutation to the charge of "proscription" recently made by 
 the latter, in the United States Senate, and is strikingly con- 
 trusted with his course on the occasion referred to. 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 25 
 
 home in legislative assemblies," has no application to 
 the American bar. Of this, Mr. Van Buren fur 
 nishes a new and signal proof. In the Senate of 
 New-York, he showed himself an able and sagacious 
 legislator; in the Senate of the United States, his 
 sphere of action was not only greatly extended, but 
 the subjects of deliberation proportionably difficult 
 and complicated; yet here, also, he displayed a reach 
 and comprehension of intellect, and a degree of 
 practical wisdom and enlightened forecast which en 
 title him to the appellation and the honors of a states 
 man. As a ready and successful debater, he had no 
 superior. Several of his speeches, particularly those 
 in favor of the bill abolishing imprisonment for debt, 
 and in support of the law making provision for the 
 officers and soldiers of the revolution, have been 
 ranked among the finest specimens of eloquence ever 
 heard in the Senate. Those on the Panama mis 
 sion, on the organization of the judiciary, and on the 
 right of the Vice-President to control the freedom 
 of debate, were conspicuous for luminous discus 
 sion, and for sound views of constitutional policy. 
 Reports of some of them have been published, but 
 "though the massive trunk of sentiment remains/ 
 the " blossoms of elocution/ in each case, and the 
 fruits of genius in most of them, "have dropped 
 away." * This must be said of every attempt to per- 
 
 * Johnson. 
 3 
 
26 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 petuate his speeches, whether at the bar or in the 
 Senate. His^ utterance is so rapid, that no short 
 hand writer can follow him with accuracy; and he 
 has rarely ever submitted to the drudgery of writing 
 out a speech. Nor, indeed, is he capable, by any 
 after labor, of doing justice to his own efforts; for 
 his brilliant passages are so entirely extemporaneous, 
 that they can neither be repeated by others nor re 
 called by himself. 
 
 The course pursued by Mr. Van Buren as a sena 
 tor, both in respect to the foreign policy of the na 
 tion, and to our domestic concerns, was in perfect 
 harmony with the doctrines he had previously main 
 tained. One of his first efforts was, to revive the dis 
 tinctive principles of the party in which he had been 
 bred, and from which, as he supposed, Mr. Monroe s 
 administration, especially during its second term, 
 had considerably swerved. Although the exertions 
 made by him to effect this end, were not very suc 
 cessful, they attracted general attention, and were 
 decidedly approved by the democracy of the union. 
 
 He also took a leading part in the presidential elec 
 tion of 1824, and the canvass which preceded it. 
 Believing the election of Mr. Crawford more likely, 
 at that period, to bring back the government to the 
 Jeffersonian policy, than that of any of his competi 
 tors, he gave to that gentleman his vigorous support. 
 His perseverance, under the most adverse circum- 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 27 
 
 stances, in the support of that upright and persecu 
 ted citizen, is well known; as is also the overwhel 
 ming defeat, both in his own state, and in the union 
 which terminated the contest. 
 
 In that catastrophe, his enemies, ignorant or for 
 getful of the recuperative power of talents and in 
 tegrity vainly imagined, they saw the downfall, if 
 not the end, of his influence and success, but before 
 another year elapsed, he occupied a possition more 
 elevated than ever. The first step toward that posi 
 tion, was the wise determination to take no part in 
 the decision by the House of Representatives a re 
 solution adopted by the friends of Mr. Crawford, 
 with the double motive of retaining their usefulness 
 after the contest should be decided, and of preser 
 ving themselves from the charge of coalescing with 
 their opponents. After the election, Mr. Van Buren 
 advised his friends at home to abstain from all acts 
 of hostility towards Mr. Adams; to give him a fair 
 trial, and to judge of his administration by his acts. 
 His course in the Senate was governed by the same 
 principles; and it was not until the great question of 
 the Panama mission that he found occasion to depart 
 from it. His opposition to that measure; the inte 
 resting considerations connected with it; and the 
 judgment which the people have pronounced on the 
 conduct of those who supported and those who op 
 posed it, are well known. It was after taking this 
 
2g BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 stand, an act which drew upon him the marked hos 
 tility of Mr. Adams s Cabinet, and the open denuncia 
 tions of their supporters, that he was re-elected to the 
 Senate, by the legislature of New-York. His con 
 nexion with the great contest of 1828, and his effici 
 ent instrumentality in bringing about that triumph 
 ant result, which, to use his own language, "while 
 it infused fresh vigor into our political system, and 
 added new beauties to the republican character, once 
 more refuted the odious imputation that Republics 
 are ungrateful," need not be rehearsed. 
 
 With the electors of president and vice-president 
 for the state of New- York, a governor of the state 
 was also to be chosen, to succeed the distinguished 
 and lamented Clinton. Yielding to the pressing de 
 mand of the republicans of New-York, Mr. Van 
 Buren consented to become a candidate for the of 
 fice, and was subsequently elected. 
 
 This event made it necessary that he should retire 
 from the Senate of the United States, and he accord 
 ingly resigned his seat in that body in January, 1829. 
 
 Before we follow him to the chief magistracy of 
 his native state, it will be proper to notice two or 
 three points connected with his services in the Sen 
 ate, to which no reference has yet been made. Du 
 ring the whole period of those services, the nation 
 was agitated by discussions on bills for regulating the 
 ?tariff, and for constructing internal improvements. 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 29 
 
 As t great majority of the people of New-York, 
 were decidedly in favor of the protective system, 
 and of the bills imposing additional duties passed in 
 1824 and 1S28, Mr Van Buren s votes on these bills 
 were governed by their wishes and instructions 
 it being with him a cardinal maxim, that the repre 
 sentative is bound to express the sentiments of his 
 constituents, whenever those sentiments can be clearly 
 ascertained. But whilst he was always ready to aid 
 in the protection of the manufacturing interests, by 
 advocating the adoption of all necessary and reason 
 able measures, he was not prepared to build up that 
 interest at the expense of others equally important to 
 the well-being of the nation. Deeply sensible that 
 the union of the states could only be kept up, by the 
 constant exercise of that spirit of concession and com 
 promise in which it was formed, he earnestly incul 
 cated upon the representatives of the manufacturing 
 states, the importance of limiting their demands to 
 the lowest practicable point; the mischiefs to be ap 
 prehended, both in a pecuniary and national point 
 of view, from extravagant and oppressive duties; and 
 the benefits to be derived from a reduction of the 
 revenue to an amount barely sufficient to pay the na 
 tional debt, and carry on an economical government. 
 The wise and liberal sentiments entertained by him 
 in this respect, were made, not unfrequently, the to 
 pics of accusation in his own state. In 1827, these 
 
30 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 accusations increased to such an extent, that he avail 
 ed himself of the opportunity affored him by a pub 
 lic meeting held in Albany on the subject of the then 
 proposed Harrisburgh convention, to lay before that 
 meeting, in a speech of considerable length, his gen 
 eral views on the whole subject, as well as an expla 
 nation of the course he persued, whilst a member of 
 the senate, on the particular bills which had come 
 before that body. This speech, which was after 
 wards published, had not only the effect of satisfy 
 ing the people of New-York in regard to the course 
 of the senator who made it, but it had also a ten 
 dency to moderate the high tariff sentiments of some 
 of his constituents. The recent history of the na 
 tion, and above all the bill just passed for the re 
 duction of the duties, have fully vindicated the wis 
 dom, foresight and patriotism of Mr. Van Buren s 
 course in relation to this most important and diiiicult 
 subject. 
 
 In regard to internal improvements, Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren, had always but one opinion, viz: that it was 
 not intended by the framers of the constitution to 
 confer on Congress the power of constructing (hem: 
 and that the power, if exercised at all, ought to be 
 sacredly confined to objects of a strictly national cha 
 racter. With perhaps a single exception, his votes 
 in the Senate, were in strict accordance with these 
 views. The case alluded to, as constituting a possi- 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 31 
 
 We exception, is thus stated by himself. "Mr. 
 Van Buren is by no means certain, that in this re 
 spect he himself has been altogether without fault. 
 At the very first session after he came into the Senate, 
 the knowledge of the perpetual drain that the Cum 
 berland road was destined to prove upon the public 
 treasury, unless some means were taken to prevent it, 
 and a sincere desire to go at all times, as far as he 
 could consistently whh the constitution, to aid in the 
 improvement, and promote the prosperity, of the 
 western country, had induced him, without full exa 
 mination, to vote for a provision, authorizing the col 
 lection of toll on this road. The affair of the Cum 
 berland road, in respect to its reference to the 
 constitutional powers of this government, is a matter 
 entirely sui generis. It was authorized during the 
 administration of Mr. Jefferson, grew out of the dis 
 position of the territory of the United States, and 
 had the consent of the states through which it passed. 
 He has never heard an explanation of the subject, 
 (although it has been a matter of constant reference,) 
 that has been satisfactory to his mind. All he can 
 say, is that if the question were again presented to 
 him he would vote against it; and that his regret 
 for having done otherwise, would be greater, had not 
 Mr. Monroe, much to his credit, put his veto upon 
 the bill; and were it not the only vote, in the course 
 of a seven years service, which the most fastidious 
 
32 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 critic can torture into an inconsistency with the 
 principles which Mr. V. 13. professed to maintain, 
 and in the justice of which, he is every day more 
 and more confirmed."* 
 
 Mr. Van Buren entered upon the office of Gover 
 nor of New-York, on the first of January, 1829, and 
 administered the government until the 12th of March 
 following, when he resigned in consequence of his 
 appointment as Secretary of Slate of the United 
 States. Of the ability and uprightness with which 
 he discharged the duties of the chief magistracy, 
 there is high and honorable proof. Resolutions ex 
 pressive of the "highest respect for his virtues and 
 talents," and tendering to him the congratulations of 
 the representatives of the people, with "their earnest 
 wish that he might enjoy a full measure of happi 
 ness and prosperity in the new sphere of public duty 
 to which he was about to be removed," were unani 
 mously passed by both branches of the state legislature, 
 though a considerable portion of each house belonged 
 to the party opposed to his election. The like sen 
 timents were expressed in terms still more flattering 
 and affectionate, by the republican members, who 
 transmitted him a communication on the eve of his 
 departure for Washington, in which, after express 
 ing t( their attachment to his person, their respect for 
 
 Note C to Mr. Van Buren s speech, in relation to the right 
 tf the Vice-President to call to order, &c. delivered in 1828. 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 33 
 
 v his character, and their regret at the separation that 
 was about to take pleace," they tendered him their 
 acknowledgements, "for the numerous and impor 
 tant services which he had rendered to the state, par 
 ticularly in sustaining those political principles which 
 they believed to be most intimately blended with its 
 highest and dearest interests." These proceedings, 
 in connexion with those had since his rejection by 
 the Senate, may be taken as an index of the estimation 
 in which he is held by the people of his native state, 
 and of the character of their feelings towards him. 
 
 Immediately after his resignation as Governor of 
 New-York, he repaired to the post assigned him by 
 the President. 
 
 The qualities of his mind, temper and manners, 
 were peculiarly adapted to the duties of a cabinet 
 minister, and more especially to those of the state 
 department. Whilst he occupied this station, he 
 showed himself a safe constitutional adviser, by re 
 commending on all occasions, a strict and scrupulous 
 adherence to the terms of the constitution a liberal 
 regard to the interests of each portion of the union 
 a sincere deference to the independence and sove 
 reignty of the states, wherever those attributes re 
 mained to them an honest, vigilant and frugal ad 
 ministration at home and a watchful and provident 
 attention to our concerns with foreign nations. The 
 ;management of those concerns, so far as it devolved 
 
34 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 on him, was precisely what it should have been. 
 His demeanor towards the agents of foreign powers., 
 was on all occasions frank, conciliatory,, and digni 
 fied ; his despatches contained nothing rhetorical, 
 offensive or imprudent ; the affairs to which they 
 related were discussed in a plain business-like man 
 ner; our own views and claims were clearly stated, 
 and when founded on truth and justice, inflexibly 
 maintained; the pretentions of our opponents were 
 candidly considered; and in accordance with the 
 character and policy of the President, every effort 
 was made to conduct our diplomatic arrangements in 
 the spirit of sincerity and justice. The success 
 which attended his labors as Secretry of State, is too 
 well known to need to be repeated. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren held the office of Secretary of 
 State, until June, 1831, when he retired from that 
 important and honorable trust which he had volunta 
 rily resigned in the preceding April. The reasons 
 which induced him to take this step, were of the 
 purest and most elevated character. He believed 
 that the best interests of the republic were identified 
 with the full , and successful development of the 
 principles which led to the election of Gen. Jackson; 
 he saw that the confidence of the President, though 
 indispensable to his usefulness in the cabinet, was 
 yet made the ground of open accusation and insidious 
 attack; he was aware that envy and ambition in their 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 35 
 
 efforts to injure him, were likely to embarrass, if not 
 to thwart the measures of the government; and he 
 knew that so long as he maintained a position so pro 
 minent and commanding, the patriotic designs of the 
 Executive would be counteracted, not only by the 
 regular opposition, but bv the more dangerous hosti 
 lity of some who pretended to be his friends. Under 
 these circumstances, he resolved to abandon the ad 
 vantages of that position; and by a voluntary sacri 
 fice of the influence and prospects which belonged to 
 it, to relieve the administration from the difficulties 
 created by enmity towards him. When the mists of 
 prejudice which hang over the page of recent history, 
 shall have been cleared away, this act will stand out 
 in the lustre of personal magnanimity and public 
 virtue. 
 
 The reluctant assent of Gen. Jackson to the resier- 
 
 o 
 
 nation of Mr. Van Buren, was accompanied by a 
 warm testimonial of unlimited confidence in his abili 
 ties and integrity. A further proof was soon after 
 given of this confidence, in the appointment of Mr. 
 Van Buren as minister to Great Britain. In making 
 this appointment, the President was mainly influ 
 enced by the belief that Mr. Van Buren would be 
 more likely than any one he could select, to nego 
 tiate a satisfactory adjustment of the delicate and dan 
 gerous questions concerning blockades, impressments 
 and the right of search, which occasioned the late 
 
3(J BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 War with Great Britain, and which yet remain undis 
 posed of. The President justly thought the amica 
 ble settlement of these questions an object of deep 
 interest, not only to the two nations, but to the 
 world ; and that it, therefore, demanded the best 
 talents of the country. He also supposed that Mr. 
 Van Buren from his intimate knowledge of our rela 
 tions with the several powers of Europe, would be 
 able to render essential aid to our ministers on that 
 continent; and that he might, in various other ways, 
 promote the public interests, during his residence at 
 London; Mr. Van Buren felt the whole force of 
 these considerations, and he was, moreover, very 
 willing to withdraw, for the usual period of a foreign 
 mission, from the turmoil of party. He therefore 
 readily complied with the wishes of the President, 
 by accepting the appointment though most of his 
 political and personal friends were exceedingly averse 
 to it, on the ground that his absence from the 
 country would materially impair his political pros 
 pects at home. This being the principal motive of 
 their objections, he did not think them sufficiently 
 important to deter him from engaging in a service, 
 which promised, if successful, to be not less useful to 
 his country than honorable to himself. He landed 
 in England in September, 1831, and was soon after 
 received at court with distinguished favor. His ap 
 pointment, however, remained to be confirmed by 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREtf. 37 
 
 the senate. It was submitted to that body in De 
 cember following, and after various postponements 
 was finally negatived, by the casting vote of the vice- 
 president, on the 26th of January, 1832. In conse 
 quence of this event Mr. Van Buren was immediate 
 ly recalled, and has recently landed on his natal soil. 
 Of *he reasons assigned for his rejection, it cannot, 
 in this place, be necesssary to speak, farther than to 
 remark, that if any reliance can be placed on repeat 
 ed and spontaneous expressions of the public voice 
 and in matters of this sort the people never err 
 then were those reasons utterly insufficient. The 
 popular feeling excited by the conduct of the Senate, 
 has been further exemplified in his recent nomination 
 for the Vice-Presidency an event, which, when he 
 left the country, he neither looked for nor desired. 
 The heterogenous interests which were combined to 
 accomplish his defeat in the Senate, are again united 
 in opposing his election; but as the question now at 
 issue, is to be decided by the yeomanry of the coun 
 try, we have no fears as to the result. 
 
 We have thus presented a rapid sketch of the pro 
 fessional and public life of MARTIN VAN BURJN. 
 It illustrates in a manner the most impressive, one of 
 the happiest principles of our excellent frame of go 
 vernment its tendency to draw out and foster talent 
 and integrity, and to secure to them, in spite of eve 
 ry thing by which their progress may be impeded, 
 
38 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 the honors they deserve. We have seen that he 
 owed nothing to birth or ancestry nothing to pro 
 perty or patronage. And though like others of our 
 public men, he was greatly indebted to the press of 
 his own party, for occasional vindications of his cha 
 racter and conduct, he was not. like some of them, 
 helped along in his career, by a systematic course of 
 newspaper panegyric. On the other hand, he en 
 countered from opposing prints, an unusual degree of 
 obloquy and reproach. At an early age, they select 
 ed him as a subject of perpetual and virulent 
 abuse; and for nearly twenty years, this abuse was 
 persisted in, to a degree rarely paralleled, "and never 
 surpassed, in the history of our politics. The dis 
 paragement of his abilities, and indeed the denial that 
 he possessed any just claim to talents of any sort, was 
 one of the most common, and perhaps the most pro 
 voking, of these libels. The slander was refuted by 
 the daily exhibition of great parts, and malignity it 
 self was obliged to admit, that he was always found 
 adequate to the particular duty with which he had 
 been charged; but this acknowledgement was uni 
 formly followed by the prediction, that he had reach 
 ed the " extremest verge" which destiny had as 
 signed him; and that his next step would plunge 
 him beyond his depth, not in a "sea of glory," but 
 in a "rude stream," that should sweep away the 
 past, and overwhelm him for the future. The story 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 39 
 
 of his advancement at once the most regular and 
 rapid with which we are acquainted is the best 
 commentary on diatribes of this sort. We have 
 seen his sphere of action constantly enlarging from 
 his native village to the county capitol, from that to 
 the metropolis of the state, and from the latter to the 
 councils of the union but we have found him equal, 
 and more than equal, to every emergency, never 
 falling short of his prior reputation, and never disap 
 pointing the hopes of his friends; on the contrary, 
 each successive step in his career, whilst it has falsi 
 fied the predictions of his enemies, has furnished 
 new proofs of his capacity, and new claims to the re 
 spect and confidence of his countrymen. 
 
 In person, Mr. Van Buren is neither above nor 
 below the middle height; his figure is erect and 
 graceful his frame slender and apparently delicate, 
 but capable of sustaining severe and long continued 
 exertion the general expression of his features, ani 
 mated and agreeable his eye quick and piercing 
 his head, (which is now quite bald,) particularly his 
 forehead, of unusual size, and admirable formation. 
 The engraving by Hatch, which accompanies the 
 memoir in the CABINET, from the fine portrait re 
 cently painted by Inman for the corporation of New 
 York, is a spirited and accurate likeness. 
 
 The private character of Mr. Van Buren may be 
 commended without reserve. Enmity itself has 
 
40 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 rarely ever ventured to reproach or to suspect it. 
 In his intercourse with the world, the justice, pro 
 priety, and benevolence of his conduct, render him 
 a model for imitation; whilst the ease and frank 
 ness of his manners, and his happy talent for conver 
 sation, make him the ornament of the social circle. 
 Blessed with a disposition at once firm, amiable, and 
 forbearing; and uniting with a just self respect, ha 
 bitual self-control; he has been able amid the per 
 plexities of litigation, the cares of office, and the 
 contentions of party to preserve the serenity of his 
 temper, and to blend with a vigilant attention to his 
 own character and rights, a constant observance of 
 the courtesies of life and a sedulous regard to the 
 feelings of others. No man ever numbered among 
 his personal friends, a greater proportion of his poli 
 tical opponents. Even in times of the greatest ex 
 citement, those of them who enjoyed his acquaint 
 ance, always accorded him their respect usually 
 their confidence and esteem. 
 
 It is obvious that with such qualities and manners, 
 he could hardly fail to secure the affections of his 
 political associates. Such has accordingly been the 
 case in every stage of his progress; and it is to this, 
 combined with his admirable knowledge of men, and 
 his practical good sense, that he is indebted for his 
 success as a political leader. To this also must be 
 ascribed the charge of intrigue and artifice, which 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 41 
 
 has so often been preferred against him. If by this, 
 it be intended, that he possesses in an eminent de 
 gree the talent of harmonizing, concentrating and 
 directing the feelings and exertions of those with 
 whom he acts and that he has often exerted this 
 talent with sagacity and effect his friends must 
 plead guilty to the charge. It would be as idle to 
 deny it in respect to him, as to Hamilton or Jeffer 
 son, to Chatham or to Fox. But if by the charge be 
 intended, the pursuit of those objects which are 
 held up by our free institutions, as the incentive, 
 and the reward of honorable ambition, by trick, du 
 plicity, or cunning we may indignantly repel it, 
 as alike unsupported by evidence and unfounded in 
 fact. No man who was ever brought in contact with 
 him who was able to speak to the point, from per 
 sonal knowledge of his conduct ever ventured to 
 give to such an accusation the sanction of his name. 
 On the contrary, all such persons will acknowledge 
 they must acknowledge, if they speak the truth 
 that his course as a politician, though decided and 
 unyielding, was always open, liberal and honest. 
 This has been admitted by several of his opponents, 
 under circumstances peculiarly calculated to give 
 force and solemnity to their statements. A single 
 instance will illustrate this remark. The most vio 
 lent warfare in which he was ever engaged, was that 
 with Governor Clinton, and with his leading sup- 
 
42 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 porters, Chief Justice Spencer and the late William 
 W. Van Ness, two of the ablest men New York erer 
 produced. Indeed with the latter of these gentle 
 men, he had waged a severe contest from his first 
 connexion with political affairs. The character of 
 these contests, the consequences that resulted from 
 them, and their tendency to excite the most impla 
 cable hostility, are well known to all who are fami 
 liar with the history of New York. They may also 
 be guessed at by others, when we inform them that 
 in the course of Ihose conflicts, or some of them, 
 Governor Clinton was twice driven into retirement 
 Chief Justice Spencer removed from office, and 
 for some time kept from public employment Judge 
 Van Ness compelled to retire from the bench, and 
 Mr. Van Buren twice removed from office, and for 
 years proscribed and pursued with unrelenting se 
 verity. But each of these great men has borne tes 
 timony to the liberality, fairness and honor with 
 which he had been treated by Mr. Van Buren, and 
 to the general uprightness of his conduct as a man 
 and a politician. Judge Van Ness did it on his 
 death-bed ; Governor Clinton almost in the last mo 
 ments of his life ; and as to Chief Justice Spencer 
 with characteristic frankness, he often did if, even 
 in the midst of our most violent collisions. 
 
 On this point, the friends of Mr. Van Buren may 
 also triumphantly appeal to the whole American 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN. 43 
 
 people. Within the last two years he has been ar 
 raigned before them, on the charge of having brought 
 about, by a malign and interested agency, that diffe 
 rence between the highest officers of the government, 
 and those dissentions in the cabinet, which occupied 
 for a time, so large a share of the public attention. 
 These subjects have undergone, in the face of this 
 nation, a scrutiny, the most ample and unsparing; 
 and this too, for the most part, during his absence 
 from the country. And yet the industry of his ene 
 mies have detected no single fact on which their ma 
 lice can repose! On the other hand, we have the 
 testimony of a witness, who must know, and who is 
 incapable of disguising or extenuating the truth we 
 have the testimony of ANDREW JACKSON to the 
 falsehood of the charge in all its parts and bearings. 
 This is sufficient to put to flight a whole legion of 
 inuendoes and suspicions. 
 
 Such is the man who is noxv before the nation for 
 the second office in their gift. We anticipate, with 
 pleasure, his elevation to that honorable post, not 
 from any personal interest in his success, or in that 
 of the candidate with whom he is associated, but be 
 cause we know him to be "honest, capable and 
 faithful to the constitution;" because we believe 
 that the best interests of the country will be promo 
 ted by his election ; and above all, because that 
 election will furnish a new and most impressive il- 
 
44 BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 lustration of the great moral and political truth, that 
 integrity, though it may somestimes be beaten down 
 by unnatural coalitions, will yet ultimately receive, 
 at the hands of a free and intelligent community, a 
 full and triumphant vindication. The influence of 
 such a vindication, will not, in the present case, be 
 confined to our own country, nor to the present 
 generation. It will attract the notice of other na 
 tions; it will go down to remote posterity. With 
 the former, it will redeem us from the reproach in 
 curred by the wrong intended to be redressed; with 
 the latter, it will form a page of authentic history, 
 from which envious and aspiring men may read the 
 salutary lesson one which from the days of Haman 
 to the present hour, they have been slow to learn 
 that when truth and justice are violated to effect the 
 ruin of an adversary, the very contrivances adopted 
 to accomplish this end, are likely to become the 
 means of his advancement; and that it is therefore 
 the part, not only of duty, but of interest, to treat 
 their opponents with justice and moderaiion, and 
 "to do unto others as they would have others do 
 unto them." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Extracts from the address of the Republican mem 
 
 bers of the legislature, to their constituents, 
 
 March 9, 1813, written by MR. VAN BUREN. 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS It is not to the arbitrary man 
 
 dates of despotic power, that your submission is de 
 
 manded ; it is not to the seductive wiles and artful 
 
 blandishments of the corrupt minions of aristocracy, 
 
 that your attention is called but to an expression 
 
 and discussion of the wishes and feelings of your 
 
 representatives. 
 
 You are invited to listen with calmness and im 
 partiality, to the sentiments and opinions of men 
 who claim no right superior to yours, who claim no 
 authority to address you save that of custom ; who 
 would scorn to obtain the coincidence of your opinion 
 by force or stratagem, and who seek no influence 
 with you, except that which arises from conscious 
 rectitude, from a community of hopes and of fears, of 
 right and of interests. 
 
 In making this appeal, which is sanctioned by 
 usage, and the necessity of which is rendered impe 
 rious by the situation of our common country, we 
 feel it to be our duty, as it is our wish, to speak to 
 
46 APPENDIX. 
 
 you in the language which alone becomes freemen 
 to use the language to which alone it becomes free 
 men to listen the language of truth and sincerity ; 
 to speak to you of things as they are, and as they 
 should be, to speak to you with unrestrained free 
 dom, of your rights and your duties, and if by so 
 doing we shall be so fortunate as to convince you of 
 the correctness of the opinions we hold ; to commu 
 nicate to you the anxious solicitude we feel for our 
 country and its rights, to turn your attention from 
 the minor considerations which have hitherto divid 
 ed, distracted and disgraced, the American people, 
 and to direct it exclusively to the contemplation and 
 support of your national honor and national interests, 
 our first and only object will be effected. 
 
 That tempest of passion and of lawless violence 
 which has hitherto almost exclusively raged in the 
 countries of the old world, which has raraged the 
 fairest poriions of the earth, and caused her sons, to 
 drink deep of the cup of human misery not satiated 
 by the myriads of victims which have been sacrific 
 ed at its shrine, has reached our hitherto peaceful 
 shores. After years of forbearance, in despite of 
 concessions without number, we had almost said, 
 without limitation, that cruel and unrelenting spirit 
 of oppression and injustice which has for centuries 
 characterized the spirit of the British cabinet, over 
 whelmed nation after nation, and caused humanity 
 
APPENDIX. 47 
 
 to shed tears of blood, has involved us in a war, 
 on the termination of which are staked the present 
 honor, and the future welfare of America. 
 
 While jhus engaged in an arduous and interesting 
 struggle with the open enemies of our land from 
 without, the formation of your government requires 
 that you should exercise the elective franchise, a 
 right which in every other country has been destroy 
 ed by the ruthless hand of power, or blasted by the 
 unhallowed touch of corruption ; but which, by the 
 blessings of a munificent Providence, has as yet been 
 preserved ioyou in its purity. 
 
 The selection of your most important functiona 
 ries is at hand. In a government like ours, where 
 all power and sovereignty rests with the people, the 
 exercise of this right, and the consequent expression 
 of public interest and public feeling, is on ordinary 
 occasions, a matter of deep concern, but at a period 
 like the present, of vital importance; to satisfy you 
 of that importance, and to advise you in its exercise, 
 is the object of this address. 
 
 Fellow Citizens Your country is at war, and 
 Great Britain is her enemy. Indulge us in a brief 
 examination of the causes which have led to it ; and 
 brief as from the necessary limits of an address it 
 must be, we yet hope it will be found sufficient to 
 convince every honest man, of THE HIGH JUSTICE 
 
 AND INDISPENSJBLE NECESSITY OP THE ATTITUDE, 
 
48 APPENDIX. 
 
 WHICH OUR GOVERNMENT HAS TAKEN ; OF THE SA 
 CKED DUTY OP EVERY REAL AMERICAN TO SUPPORT 
 IT IN THAT ATTITUDE, AND OF THE PARRICIDAL 
 VIEWS OF THOSE WHO REFUSE TO DO SO. 
 
 [Here follows an eloquent summary of the causes 
 which led to the war of the preliminary efforts, the 
 embargo, non-intercourse, &c. to induce the bellige- 
 rent nations to do us justice without a resort to that 
 alternative and of the series of aggressions on the 
 part of Great Britain, which rendered it, in the lan 
 guage of the address, a measure of u high justice and 
 indispensible necessity. 7 ] 
 
 By this last act [the disavowal of the British gov 
 ernment of the arrangement of Mr. Erskine, and the 
 formal re-enactment, by that government, of the or 
 ders in council, the doors of conciliation were effec 
 tually closed.] The American people a people 
 rich in resources, possessed of a high sense of national 
 honor, the only free people on earth had resolved 
 in the face of an observing world, that those orders 
 were a direct attack upon their sovereignty ; that a 
 submission to them involved a surrender of their 
 independence and a solemn determination to ad 
 here to them, was officially declared by the ruler of 
 the British nation. Thus situated, what was your 
 government to do ? Was there room for doubt or 
 hesitation as to the hostile views of England? No. 
 Lest such doubts might prevent a rupture, to acts of 
 
APPENDIX. 49 
 
 violent injustice, were continually added acts of the 
 most opprobrious insult. While the formal rela 
 tions of amity remained yet unbroken while peace 
 was yet supposed to exist in cool blood an unpro 
 voked attack is made upon one of your national ships, 
 and several American citizens basely and cowardly 
 murdered. At the moment your feelings were at 
 the highest pitch of irritation in consequence of the 
 perfidious disavowal of Erskine s agreement, a mi 
 nister is sent, not to minister to your rights not to 
 extenuate the conduct of his predecessor but to 
 beard your Executive to add insult to injury; 
 and to fling contumely and reproach in the face of 
 the Executive of the American nation, in the pre 
 sence of the American people. 
 
 To cap the climax of her iniquity; to fill up the 
 measure of our wrongs; she resolved to persist in 
 another measure, surpassed by none in flagrant enor 
 mity a measure, which of itsel-f was adequate cause 
 of war a measure which had excited the liveliest 
 solicitude, ana 1 received the unremitting attention of 
 every administration of our government, from the 
 time of Washington to the present day; the wicked, 
 the odious and detestable practice of impressing Amer 
 ican seamen into her service; of entombing our sons 
 within the walls of her ships of war: compelling them 
 to waste their lives, and spill their blood in the ser 
 vice of a foreign government a practice which sub- 
 5 
 
50 APPENDIX. 
 
 jected every American tar, to the violence and petty 
 tyranny of a British midshipman, and many of them 
 to a life of the most galling servitude a practice 
 which never can be submitted to by a nation profess 
 ing claims to freedom; which never can be acquies 
 ced in by government without rescinding the great 
 article of our safety, the reciprocity of obedience and 
 protection between the rulers and the ruled. 
 
 Under such accumulated circumstances of insult 
 and of injury, we ask again, what was your govern 
 ment to do? We put the question not "to that 
 faction which misrepresents the government to the 
 people, and the people to the government; traduces 
 one-half of the nation to cajole the other and by 
 keeping up distrust and division, wishes to become 
 the proud arbiter ef.the fortune and fate of America," 
 not to them, but to every sound head and honest 
 heart in the nation it is that we put the question, 
 What was your government to do? Was she base 
 ly and ingloriously to abandon the rights for which 
 you and your fathers fought and bled? Was she so 
 early to cower to the nation which had sought to stran 
 gle us in our infancy, and which has never ceased to 
 retard our approach to manhood? No: we will not 
 for a moment doubt, that every man who is in truth and 
 fact an American, will say that WAR, AND WAR 
 ALONE, ivas our only refuge from national degra 
 dation, our only course to national prosperity. 
 
APPENDIX. 51 
 
 Fellow Citizens Throughout the whole period of 
 the political struggles, which if they have not abso 
 lutely disgraced, have certainly not exalted, our cha 
 racter; no remark was more common no expecta 
 tion more cheerfully indulged in than that those 
 severe and malevolent contentions would only be 
 sustained in time of peace; that when the country 
 should be involved in war, every wish, and every 
 sentiment would be exclusively American. But 
 unfortunately for our country, those reasonable ex 
 pectations have not been realized, notwithstanding 
 every one knows, that the power of declaring war, 
 and the duty of supporting it, belong to the general 
 government; notwithstanding that the constitutional 
 remedy for the removal of the men to whom this 
 power is thus delegated, has recently been afforded; 
 notwithstanding the re-election of the same Presi 
 dent by whom this war was commenced, and a ma 
 jority of representatives, whose estimate of our rights, 
 and whose views are similar to those who first de 
 clared it; men, who by the provisions of the consti 
 tution, must retain their respective stations for a 
 period of such duration, as precludes a continued op 
 position of their measures without a complete de 
 struction of our national interest an opposition at 
 once unceasing and malignant, is still continued, to 
 every measure of the administration. 
 
 Fellow Citizens, these things will not do. They 
 
52 APPENDIX. 
 
 are intrinsically wrong: your country has engaged 
 in a war in the last degree unavoidable; it is not 
 waged to the destruction of the rights of others; but 
 in defence of our own; it is, therefore, your boundcn 
 duty to support her. You should lay down the cha 
 racter of partizans, and become patriots; for, in 
 every country, " war becomes an occasional duty, 
 though it ought never to be made an occupation. 
 Every man should become a soldier in defence of his 
 rights; no man ought to continue a soldier for of 
 fending the rights of others. " In despite of truths so 
 self-evident, of incentives to a vigorous support of 
 government so pressing, we yet have to deplore the 
 existence of a faction in the bosom of our land, 
 whose perseverence and industry are exceeded only 
 by their inveteracy; who seek through every avenue 
 to mislead your judgment and to inflame your pas 
 sions. 
 
 When your government pursues a pacific policy, 
 it becomes the object of their scorn and derision; the 
 want of energy in your rulers is decried, as a matter 
 of alarming consideration; the injuries of your coun 
 try are admitted, and the fact is triumphantly alleged 
 that " the administration cannot be kicked into a 
 war." When they are impelled to a forcible vindi 
 cation of our rights, the cry of enmity to peace, of 
 a wish to war with England to serve France, is im 
 mediately resounded through the land. When war 
 
APPENDIX. 53 
 
 is declared, public opinion is sought to be prejudiced 
 against the measure, as evencing a disposition unne 
 cessarily to shed your blood, and waste your treasures. 
 When it is discovered, that that declaration is accom- 
 pained with a proposition, a just and equitable pro 
 position, to the enemy, on which hostilities may 
 cease and peace be restored, that proposition is de 
 rided as evidence of the most disgraceful pusillanimi 
 ty. No falsehood is considered too glaring, no mis 
 representation too flagitious, to impose on your cre 
 dulity, and seduce your affections from your native 
 land. 
 
 Lest general allegations might fail to effect their 
 unholy purposes, and consummate their dark designi, 
 specific charges are resorted to calumnies which 
 have again and again met the detestation of an en 
 lightened public, are periodically brought forward, 
 new dressed, and with new authorities to give them 
 credence with you. Among the most prominent of 
 those charges, is that of enmity to commerce, on the 
 part of the republican administrations. Never was 
 there a calumny more wicked. Enmity to commerce! 
 We ask, and we ask emphatically, were is the evi 
 dence of it? What is the basis on which they rest 
 their claim to public confidence? It is that the ad 
 ministration is engaged in a war which they claim to 
 be unpopular. What are the causes for which this 
 war is waged, and which have hitherto embroiled us 
 
54 APPENDIX. 
 
 with the nations of Europe? They are the violation 
 of our commercial rights, and the impressment of 
 our seamen! The administration then, are jeopard 
 ising their interest with the people; they furnish wea 
 pons of offence to their adversaries; they brave all 
 dangers, for the maintenance and support of our com 
 mercial rights; and yet they are the enemies of com 
 merce! Can such base sophistry, such contemptible 
 nonsense, impose on the credulity, or pervert the un 
 derstanding of a single honest man? 
 
 As auxiliary to this unfounded aspersion, the oft- 
 exploded, the ten-thousand-times-refuted tale of 
 French influence, is ever and anon brought upon the 
 carpet. It would be insulting to your understand 
 ings to detain you by a discussion of this odious and 
 insulting insinuation. Was it evidence of French in 
 fluence on the adoption of every measure of commer 
 cial restriction, to place both France and England on 
 the same footing? Was it evidence of French influ 
 ence to cause it to be officially notified to the court of 
 St. James, on the adoption of each of those measures, 
 that in case they rescinded their orders in council, 
 the United States would assume a hostile attitude to 
 wards France? Was it evidence of French influence 
 to embrace the earliest opportunity to conclude the 
 arrangement with Erskine leaving our affairs with 
 France in a hostile attitude? If not., where, then, is 
 the evidence to support this impudent censure? Is 
 
APPENDIX. 55 
 
 it to be found in a similarity of manners, of language, 
 or of feeling? When an Englishman visits your 
 country, is he not received with the familiarity, and 
 cherished with the hospitality of a friend? Is a 
 Frenchman ever treated by you otherwise than as a 
 stranger? Away, then, with those whining, canting 
 professions, of fears and apprehensions of the danger 
 of French influence. Intelligence must reject, and 
 integrity abhor them. 
 
 But to crown this picture of folly and of mischief, 
 they approach you under a garb which at once evin 
 ces their contempt for your understanding, and their 
 total want of confidence in your patriotism ; under a 
 garb which should receive the most distinct marks of 
 your detestation; they are "THE FRIEXDS OF PEACE!" 
 While our enemies are waging against us a cruel and 
 bloody war, they cry "Peace." While our western 
 wilds are whitening with the bones of our murder 
 ed woman and children while their blood is yet 
 trickling down the walls of their former habitations 
 while the Indian war-hoop and the British drum, 
 are in unison saluting the ears, and the British dag 
 ger and the Indian tomahawk suspended over the 
 heads of our citizens, at such a time, when the soul 
 of every man who has sensibility to feel his country s 
 wrongs, and spirit to defend her rights, should be in 
 arms it is that they cry PEACE! While the brave 
 American tar, the intrepid defender of our rights, 
 
56 APPENDIX. 
 
 and redeemer of our national character, the present 
 boast and future honor of our land is impressed by- 
 force into a service he detests, which compels a bro 
 ther to imbrue his hands in a brother s blood while 
 he is yet "tossing upon the surface of the ocean, and 
 mingling his groans with those tempests less savage 
 than his persecutors, that waft him to a returnless 
 distance from his family and his home/ it is at 
 such a period, when there is no peace, when there 
 can be no peace, without sacrificing every thing va 
 luable that our feelings are insulted, the public 
 arm paralyzed, and the public ear stunned, by the 
 dastardly and incessant cry of PEACE ! What, 
 fellow-citizens, must be the opinion which they en 
 tertain of you, who thus assail you? Can any man 
 be so stupid as not to perceive that it is an appeal to 
 your fears, to your avarice, and to all the baser pas 
 sions which actuate the human heart? That it is ap 
 proaching you in the manner in which alone those 
 puny politicians who buz about you, and thicken the 
 political atmosphere, say you are accessible, through 
 your fears and your pockets? Can any American 
 citizen be so profligate as not to spurn indignantly the 
 base libel upon his character? 
 
 Suffer yourselves not to be deceived by the pre 
 tence, that because Great Britain has been forced by 
 her subjects to make a qualified repeal of her orders, 
 our government ought to abandon her ground. That 
 
APPENDIX. 57 
 
 ground was taken to resist two great and crying 
 grievances, the destruction of our commerce, and 
 
 THE IMPRESSMENT OF OUR SEAMEN. The latter IS 
 
 the most important, in proportion as we prefer the 
 liberty and lives of our citizens to their property. 
 Distrust, therefore, the man who could advise your 
 government at any time, and more especially at this 
 time, when your brave sailors are exciting the ad 
 miration, T and forcing the respect of an astonished 
 world, when their deeds of heroic valor make old 
 Ocean smile at the humiliation of her ancient tyrant 
 at such a time, we say again, mark the man who 
 would countenance government in COMMUTING 
 OUR SAILORS RIGHTS FOR THE SAFETY 
 OF OUR MERCHANTS GOODS. 
 
 Next to the cry for peace, the most potent spell 
 which has been resorted to, to alarm your fears and 
 pervert your understandings is the alleged distres 
 ses of the country. Fellow- citizens, it has been our 
 object, it is our wish to treat you fairly, to appeal to 
 your judgments, not to your passions ; and as we 
 hope our address to you hitherto has been marked by 
 that character it is to your consciences then that 
 we appeal upon this subject. Is not this clamor most 
 unfounded, most ungrateful ? If you doubt that it is 
 so, if you hesitate to believe that it originates exclu 
 sively with the ambitious and designing spend one 
 
58 APPENDIX. 
 
 moment in comparing your situation with that of the 
 major part of the civilized world. 
 
 [Here follows a rapid and graphic sketch of the 
 condition of the several European nations ; conclu 
 ding with the following interrogation, <; Look at 
 the whole map of Europe; contrast your own situa 
 tion with theirs ; and then answer us, is it not impious 
 and wicked to repine at our enviable lot ?"] 
 
 Fellow-citizens should those political witlings, 
 who are not only ignorant themselves of the leading 
 points of controversy in our disputes with the belli 
 gerents, but who are uniformly assailing you as men 
 destitute at once of spirit and of judgment should 
 they point to the wars which agitate and have con 
 vulsed Europe, as arguments against the prosecution 
 of that just and necessary one which has been forced 
 upon us, we know that you will indignantly repel 
 the unfounded suggestion. The wars of Europe are 
 waged by monarchs, to gratify their individual ma 
 lice, their individual caprice, and to satiate their law 
 less ambition. Ours is in defence of rights which 
 must be defended, or our glory as a nation will be ex 
 tinguished the hun of our greatness will set forever. 
 As well might it have been said during the revolu 
 tion, that war should not be waged, because wars had 
 desolated Europe. The same rights you then fought 
 to obtain, you must now fight to preserve the con- 
 
APPENDIX. 59 
 
 test is the same now as it was then and the feel 
 ings which then agitated the public mind, which on 
 the one hand supported, and on the other sought to 
 destroy, the liberties of the country, will be seen 
 and felt in the conduct of the men of this day. 
 
 Fellow-citizens we are compelled to close this 
 appeal to you. The limits of an address will not 
 permit us to do justice to the various subjects which 
 should occupy your attention. We are aware that 
 this has been already unreasonably extended ; but the 
 period has arrived when mere words and idle decla 
 rations must be unavailing. We have, therefore, felt 
 it our duty to give you, as far as practicable, a clear 
 view of your true situation, of your legitimate duties. 
 Unfortunately for us, when we ought to be an uni 
 ted, we are a divided people. The divisions which 
 agitate us are not as to men only, but to principle. 
 You will be called on at the next election, to choose 
 between different candidates, not only for the two 
 great offices of state, governor and lieutenant gover 
 nor, but for every other elective office to make a 
 selection which the actual situation of your country 
 renders of infinite importance. 
 
 We are divided between the supporters and oppo- 
 sers of our government. We have witnessed the 
 distressing truth, that it is not in the power of cir 
 cumstances to destroy the virulence of party spirit. 
 The opposition offer for your support, men, who, 
 
(J0 APPENDIX. 
 
 whatever their private wishes may be, are devoted to 
 the support of a party whose views and whose con 
 duct we have attempted to delineate. In opposition 
 to them, we respectfully solicit your support for the 
 men whose nomination accompanies this addres, one 
 of whom [DANIEL D. TOMPKINS] has for six years 
 served you in the capacity which we now offer him ; 
 the other [JoHN TAYLER] has for many years served 
 you in the most responsible situations. The notorie 
 ty of their merits supersedes the necessity of our eu- 
 logium their lives are their best encomiums ; they 
 are the true friends of commerce, their views are, 
 and their conduct will be, in unison with the mea 
 sures of the general government; they are the sin 
 cere friends of an honorable peace, the firm and ener 
 getic opposers of a base surrender of our rights. 
 
 We respectfully solicit for them your undivided 
 support. We solemnly conjure every real friend to 
 his country, to reflect on the danger of abandoning 
 his government at a period so perilous ; to reflect on 
 the impropriety of even indirectly aiding the views 
 of our enemies by continuing his opposition to go 
 vernment at a period so eventful. 
 
 [Alluding to the republicans who had advocated 
 Mr. Clinton s election to the presidency, the address 
 has the following appeal:] We solicit the honest men 
 of all parties to remember that ours is the last re 
 public that all the influence of the crowned heads of 
 
APPENDIX. 61 
 
 Europe has been exerted to propagate the doctrine, 
 that a government like ours can never stand the rude 
 shock of war; to reflect that this is the first occasion 
 in which this government has been engaged in a war, 
 and that the great and interesting questions, whe 
 ther man is capable of self-government, whether our 
 republic must go the way of its predecessors, or 
 whether, supported by the hearts and arms of her free 
 citizens, she shall deride the revilings, and defeat the 
 machinations of her citizens, are now io be tried. 
 
 Fellow-citizens In the result of our elections du 
 ring the continuance of this war, these important 
 considerations are involved, the question of WHO is 
 
 FOR HIS COUNTRY OR AGAINST HIS COUNTRY, must 
 
 now be tried the eyes of Europe are directed to 
 wards us the efficacy of your mHd and wholesome 
 form of government is put to the test. To the polls, 
 then, and by a united and vigorous support of the 
 candidates we submit to you, discharge the great 
 duty you owe to your country, preserve for your 
 posterity the rich inheritance which has been left 
 you by your ancestors, that future ages may tri 
 umphantly point to the course you pursued on this 
 interesting occasion, as evidence that time had not as 
 yet extinguished that spirit which actuated the he 
 roes of JBreedshill and of Yorktown; of those who 
 fell at Camden, and of those who conquered on the 
 
 plains of Saratoga. 
 6 
 
62 APPENDIX. 
 
 PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTION 
 Prepared by Mr. VAN BuREN,/0r a meeting of the 
 Republican Members of the Legislature of New- 
 York, and other Republicans of that State, held 
 at Mbany on the M/A of April, IS 14, and adop 
 ted by that meeting. 
 
 At this interesting period of our national affairs, 
 when our government is combatting with a wily, vin 
 dictive and sanguinary foe; when domestic disaffec 
 tion and foreign partialities present their fronts at eve 
 ry corner: arid when the present hopes and future 
 prospects of the people of New- York are to be tested 
 by the exercise of the elective franchise, at a period 
 of such anxiety and solicitude, this meeting, compo 
 sed of citizens from almost every section of the state, 
 take the liberty of publicly expressing their senti 
 ments on the subject. 
 
 That " every difference of opinion is not a differ 
 ence of 4 principle" that on the various operations of 
 government with which the public welfare is connec 
 ted, an honest difference of opinion may exist that 
 when those differences are discussed and the princi 
 ples of contending parties are supported with candor, 
 fairness and moderation the very discord which is 
 thus produced, may, in a government like ours, be con 
 ducive to the public good we cheerfully admit. 
 
APPENDIX. 3 
 
 Bat when, on the other hand, the opposition 
 clearly evince that all their clamors are the result of 
 predetermined and immutable hostility when, as be 
 tween their own government, and the open enemies 
 of the land, they dare, as circumstances may require, 
 unblushingly justify, excuse or palliate the conduct of 
 the latter, and falsify, calumniate and condemn that 
 of the former when too in the means which are used 
 to effect such unhallowed purposes, they are alike 
 indifferent to the salutary provisions of the constitu 
 tion, to the requisitions of national interest and the 
 obvious dictates of national honor; that at such a 
 time it is the duty of every sound patriot to do his 
 utmost to arrest their guilty career, and to rescue from 
 their aspiring grasp his bleeding country, no good 
 man will deny. 
 
 To prove that such has been the conduct and that 
 such are and have been the views of the party in this 
 country, which styles \tse\f federal ~ that their "his 
 tory is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 
 all having for their object" either the subjection of 
 the rights and interests of their country, to her an 
 cient and unceasing foe, or a base prostitution of its 
 fair fame for selfish and ambitious purposes, " let 
 facts be submitted to an intelligent and patriotic pep- 
 .pie." 
 
 Their opposition for the last 13 years has 
 .universal, malignant and unceasing. 
 
04 APPENDIX. 
 
 Their opposition was equally virulent when our 
 country was basking in the sunshine of unparalleled 
 prosperity, as it has been, while her political horizon 
 has been obscured by the clouds of adversity. 
 
 They opposed the abolition of internal taxes, when 
 those taxes were rendered unnecessary by the general 
 prosperity of the country. 
 
 They opposed the imposition of the same taxes, 
 when the imposition became necessary to the main 
 tenance of our national honor. 
 
 They opposed the reduction of the national debt, 
 when the means of its reduction were in the power 
 of government. 
 
 They opposed the increase of the national debt, 
 when its increase or an abandonment of every attri 
 bute of a free people had become our only alterna 
 tive. 
 
 They clamored much on account of the aggressions 
 on our commerce by the belligerents, and their mer 
 chants presented petition after petition and memorial 
 after memorial to Congress, that they should vindicate 
 our commercial rights. 
 
 They have uniformly calumniated and opposed 
 every measure of the government adopted for their 
 vindication or support. 
 
 They opposed all commercial restrictions on the 
 ground of their inefficacy, contended that war and war 
 alone was the proper course for government to pursue, 
 
APPENDIX. 05 
 
 and on this subject they triumphantly declared "that 
 the administration could not be kicked into a war.* 
 
 They opposed the war when it was declared, on 
 the ground that it was impolitic, unjust and unneces 
 sary. 
 
 They have always claimed to be the friends of or 
 der and the constitution, and as such friends of order 
 and the constitution, their opposition to government 
 in the prosecution of the present just and necessary 
 war, has been characterized by acts of violence and 
 depravity without a parallel in the history of any 
 civilized government. 
 
 To enumerate the various acts by which the feel 
 ings of (he American people have been wounded and 
 insulted, this occasion will not permit let the most 
 prominent, therefore, be alone considered. While 
 the combined power of the enemy and his savage 
 allies has been directed against us, and our frontiers 
 have been drenched with the blood of unoffending 
 women and children, the undivided powers of the 
 opposition have been exerted 
 
 To destroy all confidence between the people and 
 their government 
 
 To misrepresent the latter and to deceive, distract 
 and cajole the former To deprive the government of 
 the two great sinews of war, men and money ; pre 
 venting enlistments by discountenancing and calum 
 niating both officers and soldiers defeating the nc- 
 6* 
 
6G APPENDIX. 
 
 eessary loans by attempting to shake the confidence 
 of the people in the stability of their government 
 
 To render the war odious and unpopular, by the 
 most flagrant perversions of the matter in controver 
 sy, and of the pretensions of our government ; by the 
 most criminal justification of the conduct of the ene 
 my ; and by the vilest extenuation of all their enor 
 mities 
 
 To paralyze the arm of government and frighten 
 the weak and timid from its support, by exciting in 
 surrection and rebellion in the east ; by openly threat 
 ening a dissolution of the Union, and laboring inces 
 santly to sow the seeds of jealousy and disunion be 
 tween the .Northern and Southern States ; and by ex 
 ercising in each state the same unworthy means as 
 are practiced by them throughout the Union. 
 
 For while in this state they profess great solici 
 tude for the sufferings of our citizens on the frontiers, 
 they have invariably opposed the raising a volunteer 
 corps for their defence, unless under the disgraceful 
 stipulation that they shall not annoy the enemy. 
 
 While also they seek to hide the deformity of their 
 conduct in relation to our army, by professing attach 
 ment to the naval service ; we find them opposing 
 with disgusting violence a bill to encourage privateer 
 ing which passed the Senate of this state, but was 
 negatived by the Assembly, because it had for its 
 object to harrass the enemy. 
 
APPENDIX, 67 
 
 But we forbear the enumeration of acts evincing 
 such deplorable degeneracy in a great portion of the 
 American people; acts so well calculated to continue 
 the war into which our country has been driven to 
 tarnish our national character and unless success 
 fully resisted, to drive our government to an injuri 
 ous and disgraceful peace : 
 
 Therefore Resolved, That while we congratulate 
 our fellow citizens on the happy revival of the feel 
 ings, sentiments and spirit of the Revolution, which 
 is every where manifesting itself; and our republican 
 brethren in particular, on the heart-cheering zeal and 
 unanimity which pervade their ranks, which promise 
 the total overthrow of that anti-Anlerican spirit, 
 which, disguised under the specious garb of federal 
 ism, has too long preyed upon the vitals of the nation 
 and which excite a lively hope that the councils of this 
 great and powerful state will speedily be wholly res 
 cued from the hands of those who have disgraced them 
 We warmly and earnestly conjure our republican 
 brethren, by the regard they have for their own rights 
 by the love they bear their country ; and by the 
 manes of the departed worthies of the revolution, to 
 be up and doing, and so to act, that at the termina 
 tion of the contest, each of them may triumphantly ex 
 claim " I have fought a good fight I have finished 
 my course I have kept the faith." 
 
68 APPENDIX. 
 
 Answer of the Senate of New York to the speech 
 of the Governor, at the extra session of the leg**- 
 lature held in September 1814, draughted by 
 Mr. VAN BUREN. 
 
 To his Excellency, I). D. Tompkins, Governor of New York. 
 
 SIR The Senate, at the close of their last session, 
 indulged, in common with their fellow citizens, the 
 pleasing expectation, that before this period the 
 blessings of peace upon just and honorable terms 
 would have been restored to their country. They 
 have thus far been disappointed ; and although the 
 mission to which they looked for its accomplishment 
 has not yet terminated, the delay which has taken 
 place in the commencement of negociations, and the 
 spirit of increased hostility manifested by the enemy 
 in the prosecution of the war, combine to forbid any 
 confident reliance upon the disposition professed by 
 him in the communication which led to that mission. 
 
 If, in the result, it shall appear, that in these pro 
 fessions he was originally insincere; or that, influ 
 enced by after circumstances, he delayed the nego 
 ciations proposed by himself, until he should have 
 exerted against us the additional means of annoyance 
 which recent occurrences in Europe had placed at 
 his disposal the world will not hesitate, in either 
 case, to pronounce upon his conduct the sentence of 
 strong and indignanl reprobation. 
 
APPENDIX. 69 
 
 The world have already seen, and they cannot 
 but have seen with astonishment, that when ambas 
 sadors for peace, invited by himself, had already 
 crossed the ocean, he has given a new and peculiar 
 character to the contest a character of violence and 
 outrage, not only incompatible with the feelings of 
 reconciliation, but in the highest degree disgraceful 
 to civilized nations, and repugnant to the established 
 rules of legitimate warfare. 
 
 Whether this conduct has proceeded from ancient 
 animosities now seeking their gratification, in the in 
 fliction of injuries upon those who once defied and 
 foiled his power whether from a desire of finding 
 employment for troops whom it was not thought 
 prudent to disband at home whether from hostility 
 to our civil institutions, and the vain hope of sub 
 verting the fair fabric which by the wisdom, the 
 virtue, and the valor of our fathers, has been reared 
 and secured to us or from a calculation that by carry 
 ing his arms into the heart of the country, and mark 
 ing his course with desolation and ruin, he could 
 make an impression on the government which should 
 avail him in the proposed negociations, or on the 
 people which should be remembered to his advan 
 tage in any question which should hereafter arise be 
 tween the nations whatever may have been his 
 motives, or whatever his expectations, the Senate 
 cannot but exult in common with your excellency 
 
70 APPENDIX: 
 
 and the country, that thus far "we have sustained 
 the shock with firmness and gathered laurels from 
 the strife." 
 
 Although he has succeeded in penetrating to 
 the capitol, his momentary triumph, disgraced as it 
 was by the destruction of public edifices and the sub 
 sequent plunder of a defenceless city, has before this 
 <ime been imbittered by the reflection, that by the 
 conflagration of those monuments of art which pub- 
 iic spirit and munificence had erected, and which 
 were consecrated by the name of their illustrious 
 founder, he has kindled a flame of patriotism which 
 pervades every section of the union,, which has al 
 ready lit the way to his servere discomfiture, and 
 which threatens his complete annihilation, at every 
 assailable point of the union to which his ambition or 
 bis resentment may lead him. 
 
 The Senate have witnessed with the same admi 
 ration, evinced by your excellency, the brilliant 
 achievments of our army and navy during the pre 
 sent campaign achievments, which, in their imme 
 diate effects, have been so highly and extensively 
 beneficial to our frontier citizens achievements 
 which have pierced the gloom, that for a season ob- 
 secured our political horizon and dispelled those fear 
 ful forebodings which past disasters had excited ex 
 ploits which will not suffer in a comparison with the 
 jmost heroic efforts of the veterans of the eld world, 
 
APPENDIX. 7| 
 
 which have fully maintained if not enhanced the 
 f>roud and enviable fame of our gallant seamen ex 
 ploits which have covered the actors in those bright 
 scenes with never fading laurels, and which will ? 
 until public gratitude ceases to be a public virtue, 
 call for the highest testimonials which a free people 
 can yeld to freemen unceasing reverence for the me 
 mories of those who have died on the field of honor, 
 and acts of unceasing gratitude to their heroic survivors. 
 
 The Senate have seen with great satisfaction, the 
 prompt and efficacious measures adopted by your ex 
 cellency to avert the dangers which threatened the 
 State; and believing as they do, that whatever exe 
 cutive authority may have been exercised, for which 
 no legislative provision existed, has not only beea 
 intended for ihe promotion of the public good, but 
 was rendered indispensable by the pressure of exist 
 ing circumstances; they cannot doubt that the mea 
 sures to which your excellency has referred, will be 
 found to deserve their approbation and support. 
 
 The Senate cannot forego the opportunity afforded 
 them, of uniting with your excellency, in an expres 
 sion of the high satisfaction with which they have 
 witnessed the unanimity and patriotism displayed by 
 all classes of the community in the present crisis, 
 and the disposition which they have manifested to 
 combine their efforts for the maintenance of national 
 honor and common safety. 
 
72 APPENDIX. 
 
 That on questions of general policy, or the fitness 
 of individuals for particular stations, we should ever 
 be exempted from differences of opinion is not to be 
 expected. Divisions like those are inseparable 
 from the blessings of our free constitution ; and al 
 though sometimes carried to an excess which all good 
 men must deplore, they are, notwithstanding, gene 
 rally productive of much national good. But to sup 
 pose that a people jealous of their rights and proud of 
 their national character, would on a question of resist 
 ing the aggressions of an open enemy aggressions 
 which have polluted our soil, and which threaten the 
 subversion of those inestimable political institutions 
 which have been consecrated to freedom by the blood 
 and sufferings of their fathers that on a question of 
 such vital interest, so well calculated to excite all the pa 
 triotism, to arouse all the spirit, and to call into action 
 all the energies of the nation, they would waste their 
 strength in useless collision with each other would 
 be a reflection upon their discernment and their cha 
 racter, which they can never merit. 
 
 The various other subjects submitted by your ex 
 cellency to the legislature, will receive from the Sen 
 ate that prompt attention to which their importance 
 entitles them. 
 
 The important interest which the state of New 
 York has in the successful termination of the contro 
 versy in which we are involved, and the high desti- 
 
APPENDIX. 73 
 
 ny to which her local situation, the extent and variety 
 of her resources, and the valor and patriotism of her 
 citizens, aided by a just and liberal policy, may ad 
 vance her, have been duly appreciated by your ex" 
 cellency. The Senate cheerfully pledge their best 
 exertions to realize those great and well founded ex 
 pectations; and relying on the patriotism and good 
 sense of the American people, they confidently trust 
 that the rights and interests of the nation will be 
 maintained, and that at no distant period the mild reign 
 of peace will be restored to our bleeding country. 
 
 Resolutions expressive of the sentiments oj the le 
 gislature of New York in relation to the victory 
 of the Sth of January, 18 1 5, prepared by Mr, 
 VAN BUREN, February loth, 1815. 
 
 " Whereas, in all ages and in every clime, even 
 among the most uncivilised of mankind, the love of 
 country and the love of glory, the spirit of patriot 
 ism and of heroism, have never failed to excite ad 
 miration, to call forth applause, and to be crowned by 
 those grateful rewards which are ever dear to the 
 brave, the virtuous, and the wise: 
 
 "And whereas, the duty of cherishing senti 
 ments so intimately connected with the welfare, ho 
 nor and prosperity of nations, devolves in a peculiar 
 
74 APPENDIX. 
 
 manner upon the rulers of a people whose freedom 
 and independence are the bright rewards of the pa 
 triotism and the valor of their ancestors, and can 
 only be preserved by the exercise of the same inesti 
 mable and exalted virtues: 
 
 " Therefore, Resolved unanimously, as the sense 
 of this legislature, that Major General ANDREW 
 JACKSON, and the gallant officers and soldiers under 
 his command, for their noble defence of the city of 
 New Orleans, that important military post and grand 
 emporium of commerce, especially in the ever me 
 morable conflict of the 8th of January last, an event 
 surpassing the most heroic and wonderful achiev- 
 ments which adorn the annals of mankind? do 
 eminently deserve the unanimous applause, and the 
 lasting gratitude of their country. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of this 
 legislature be, and they are hereby presented to 
 Major General JACKSON, and the oflicers and sol 
 diers under his command, for that heroic and glo 
 rious achievment. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That these resolutions 
 be signed by the president of the senate and speaker 
 of the house of assembly, that his excellency the Go - 
 vernor be, and he is hereby requested to transmit a 
 copy of the same to Major General JACKSON, who is 
 
 " NOTE. The words in Italic, were stricken out after the 
 resolutions were reported to the legislature. 
 
APPENDIX. 75 
 
 requested to communicate to his brave associates in 
 arms, the grateful sense which this legislature enter* 
 tain of their signal services, in such manner as h 
 may deem consonant with the occasion. 
 
 Extracts from a report submitted to the Senate of 
 New York, on the 24th of February, 1815, by 
 Mr. VAN BUREN, recommending a loan to the 
 General Government for the payment of the mi 
 litia. 
 
 " The committee further respectfully suggest that 
 the services proposed to be rewarded, have been ren 
 dered by persons who, generally speaking, are in 
 immediate want of the sums respectively due to 
 them, and to whom further delay would be injurious 
 and distressing that in the opinion of the committee, 
 their claims to the friendly aid of this state, are not 
 confined to their wants, but are infinitely enhanced 
 by the virtue and patriotism of the objects of that 
 aid that the moneys proposed to be loaned are prin 
 cipally due to the militia of the northern and west 
 ern parts of this state, and such as were ordered 
 there from other sections of the state, to the brave 
 men who met and successfully resisted the veterans 
 of the enemy on the banks of the Saranac, to those 
 who performed tedious and laborious services at Sac* 
 
76 APPENDIX. 
 
 kets Harbor, and at various other posts on the west 
 ern frontier, and to that distinguished band of volun 
 teers, who under the gallant Porter, stamped an in 
 delible record of American valor on the shores of 
 the Niagara. 
 
 "The committee, therefore, recommend the pas 
 sage of the amended bill now reported by them, as a 
 measure, which, while it makes a beneficial provi 
 sion for a numerous and highly meritorious portion 
 of our fellow-citizens, without detriment to the state, 
 will at the same time, in no inconsiderable degree, 
 conduce to the general good, by a decisive expres 
 sion of our confidence in the credit of the nation j 
 and will moreover furnish additional evidence of that 
 derotion to the interests of the union, which it has 
 been the ambition of this state to evince, whereby she 
 has acquired a rank among her sister states, to which 
 her exertions in the late contest richly entitle her, 
 and which it should be the pride and glory of her 
 sons to maintain. 7 
 
 Extract from the answer of the Senate to the speech 
 of Governor Tompkins in 1816, prepared by 
 Mr. VAN BUREN. 
 "While the Senate sympathize with those of their 
 
 fellow-citizens on whom the sufferings and depriva- 
 
APPENDIX. 77 
 
 tions incident to a state of hostilities have fallen with 
 peculiar force, they cannot too strongly express the 
 proud satisfaction they derive from the reflection, 
 that the war in which the nation has been involved, 
 arduous and sanguinary as it has been, was not only 
 righteous in its origin, and successful in its prose 
 cution, but that our country has arisen from the 
 contest with renovated strength and increased 
 glory. 
 
 "Among the advantages which have resulted to 
 our country from the late war, your excellency has 
 justly referred to the elevation of our national charac 
 ter, and to our increased confidence in the efficacy 
 and stability of our political institutions. While the 
 former is to the nation wealth, strength, ond the 
 source of happiness, the latter is the sheet anchor of 
 their hopes, and emphatically the palladium of their 
 liberties." 
 
 Speech of Mr. VAN BUREN, in the Senate of the 
 United States, January 28, 1828, en the, bill for 
 granting pensions to the surviving officers of the 
 revolutionary army. 
 
 Mr. VAN BUREN said he approached the discus 
 sion of the bill under consideration with a degree 
 of solicitude he had seldom experienced. It arose 
 from a deep consciousness of the importance and de- 
 
78 APPENDIX. 
 
 licacy of the subject, and the difficulties which would 
 attend a satisfactory determination. He freely con 
 fessed that he did not remember a legislative question 
 in which his feelings had been more deeply engaged. 
 These feelings, sometimes too sanguine, and always 
 ardent, might now deceive him ; but he could not 
 suppress the conviction, that, upon the doubtful issue 
 of the present question, the character of our country 
 was, in no inconsiderable degree, suspended. It 
 would, indeed, have afforded him the highest grati 
 fication, could he anticipate with confidence a favor 
 able result. But when he beheld the formidable con 
 centration of talent, and numbers arrayed against the 
 petitioners and their advocates, he was but too con 
 scious of the difficulties against which they had to 
 contend. Undeterred, however, by these circum 
 stances, he would proceed to discharge the duty 
 which seemed to be required by his connexion with 
 the committee by whom the bill had been reported. 
 
 His brethren of the committee, said Mr. V. B., 
 had pronounced a merited eulogium upon the charac 
 ter and services of the petitioners. Considerations 
 which arose naturally from the subject, but upon 
 which, although far from being exhausted, he would 
 not attempt to dwell. Indeed, lie was greatly de 
 ceived, if, on this point, there was any diversity of 
 opinion. Whatever expressions might escape from 
 gentlemen in the warmth of debate, he was sure that 
 
APPENDIX. 79 
 
 the transcendent merits of the petitioners, after hav 
 ing received the attestation of impartial history, 
 were not now to be the subject of examination or of 
 doubt. Sir, if, in the mysterious dispensations of an 
 all-wise and over-ruling Providence, we, too, are 
 doomed to experience the common calamities of na 
 tions, it may become our duty to receive these dis 
 pensations with meekness, and bear them with for 
 titude. But if there be a stain from which he would 
 be most desirous of rescuing the American name, it 
 would be a stain of ingratitude to the surviving offi 
 cers of the revolution. If there be a calamity which, 
 more than any other, he would pray to have averted, 
 it would be the calamity of witnessing, in an Ameri 
 can Senate, a cold insensibility to the services of 
 those whose devotion to their country in peace, and 
 whose constancy in war, had extorted the applause 
 of an admiring world. 
 
 If, sir, gallantry in the field, and devotion to coun 
 try, ever deserved the meed of grateful remembrance, 
 the encomiums bestowed by my colleagues upon the 
 revolutionary officers will find their approval in 
 every patriot bosom. But their merits, great as 
 they were, appear to be enhanced by the cause in 
 which they were engaged. Revolutions in govern 
 ment had been witnessed before, and they have been 
 witnessed since. But if we consider the principles 
 involved, the means employed, and the results pro- 
 
8O APPENDIX. 
 
 duced, may I not be indulged in expressing the convic 
 tion that they dwindle into insignificance with this. 
 The Revolution in which they embarked, was not 
 only the most important, in civil government, that 
 oppression has produced or patriotism accomplished, 
 but must, in the nature of things, for ever remain so. 
 The materials for another equally important, do not, 
 I fear, exist ; and, perhaps, the progressive character 
 of man precludes a well-grounded hope that they will 
 ever again arise. Why, sir, said he, do I allude to 
 these high considerations? Not, I am sure, for the 
 purpose of display ; and as little with a view to in 
 dulge in self adulation. It is because the unparalleled 
 blessings, which, as a people, we enjoy ; the great 
 and successful example that has been given to the 
 world ; and the perpetual influence which that ex 
 ample must exert in its future destinies awaken in 
 every mind the most intense anxiety, lest the closing 
 scenes of that mighty conflict should be unworthy of 
 its own great character and that the page of history 
 which embalms the virtue and heroic deeds of our 
 fathers, may not at the same time record the too ear 
 ly degeneracy of their sons. The petitioners at your 
 bar are destined to be our witnesses with posterity. 
 It is in their persons that an opportunity is afforded, 
 either to repel, or in some degree, confirm the impu 
 tation cast upon Republics by the enemies of freedom, 
 that ingratitude is their inherent and inextinguisha- 
 
APPENDIX. 81 
 
 ble vice: and it was earnestly to be hoped that our 
 decision might be such as would be favorable to them, 
 to ourselves, and to the cause of liberty. 
 
 But, sir, said Mr. V. B , instead of pursuing these 
 general remarks, allow me to invite your attention 
 to the question immediately under consideration. 
 In doing go, my first attempt will be to separate that 
 which is not a subject of disputation from that which 
 is: for in this, as in other cases, time may be con 
 sumed, and arguments fruitlessly employed, in sup 
 porting positions which have never been questioned, 
 or enforcing opinions in which all are agreed. 
 
 First, then, it will be admitted, on all sides, that 
 the promise made by the Congress of the Confedera 
 tion of half pay for life to the Revolutionary officers 
 serving to the end of the war, was made by compe 
 tent authority: that the condition upon which the 
 promise was founded has been fully performed: that 
 the obligation thereby created rests upon the present 
 Government in its original force: and that if it has 
 not been fully, fairly, and justly performed, it ought 
 now to be discharged. The critical condition of the 
 country at the time the promise was made the fact 
 that this inducement to remain in service had been 
 held up to the Army from the commencement of the 
 war, by various resolves of Congress that this alone 
 prevented their abandonment of a service, in which 
 they were not bond to remain by any of those con- 
 
82 APPENDIX. 
 
 siderations which operate on the generality of man 
 kind that to their continuance in the Army, more 
 than to any other cause, under the blessings of Pro 
 vidence, the successful termination of the war was, in 
 the opinion of Gen. Washington, mainly attributable, 
 and that the sacrifices which they incurred, in conse 
 quence of their determination to remain, were almost 
 unparalleled are points upon which there can be no 
 difference of opinion, and requiring, after the able 
 comments of the Senators who had preceded him, no 
 additional illustration. 
 
 If this, sir, said Mr. V. B., has been the unques 
 tionable engagement of the Government, if the peti 
 tioners are thus entitled to its fulfilment by the per 
 formance of the sole condition on which it was made 
 to depend the question will be asked, has that en 
 gagement been satisfied? And if satisfied, how has 
 it been^one? 
 
 Those who maintain that the Government had ful 
 filled its engagement, rest their position on the ground 
 of the commutation of the five years full pay, which 
 has been given in lieu of the promised half-pay for 
 life. Whatever might be the diversity of sentiment 
 with respect to the legality or the fairness of that 
 commutation the means by which it was effected 
 and the manner of its execution and on these points 
 he acknowledged there was room for an honest differ 
 ence of opinion: there was one position, he thought 
 
APPENDIX. 8$ 
 
 sufficiently plain to challenge the acquiescence of eve 
 ry reflecting mind. It is, sir, that this commutation 
 tendered by the Government as a complete fulfilment 
 of its promise, has been any thing but a fair and just 
 equivalent. To demonstrate this, a few observations 
 only will be necessary. 
 
 The intelligent Chairman of the Committee, who 
 reported the bill, whose ability in the exhibition of 
 the claims of the petitioners would entitle him to 
 more than the humble tribute of respect, which it 
 was in his power to render, had submitted to the Sen 
 ate statements and calculations establishing the fol 
 lowing results: 
 
 1. That, according to authentic tables for the com 
 putation of annuities, the Jive, years half-pay, ought 
 to have been seve?i, at the time it was given, in order 
 to make it a fair equivalent, and that the reduction 
 of this just allowance was attributable to the necessi 
 ties of the Government, and not to a disposition to 
 elude the claims of the petitioners. 
 
 2. That, owing to the failure of the States to sup 
 ply the funds necessary to the payment of the inter 
 est, and ultimate redemption of the principal, of the 
 "commutation certificates;" these commutation cer 
 tificates for five years full pay, given as an equiva 
 lent for half-pay for life, rapidly depreciated. So 
 that, when compelled by necessity to dispose of them, 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 the} 7 in fact produced to the officers less than one 
 year s pay. 
 
 3. That when these commutation certificates were 
 funded in 1791, a deduction was made equal to one 
 third of their amount, by deferring the interest for 
 ten years, upon one-third of the principal, and allow 
 ing only three per centum on the interest which had 
 accrued since 1783. 
 
 That this deduction was made by the Govern 
 ment, on the ground (and could be justified on no 
 other,) that these certificates were in the hands of 
 speculators, who had availed themselves of the neces 
 sities of the officers, brought upon them by their sti 
 pulated continuance in service, and thus were ena 
 bled to obtain them at a reduced and almost nominal 
 price. 
 
 Mr. V. B. said he would refrain from attempting 
 to enforce the views, upon this branch of the subject, 
 presented by the Senators who had preceded him. 
 It would be time enough to do so, should these views 
 be ever contested. He candidly acknowledged, 
 however, that they did not constitute the material 
 arguments upon which he relied, for the purpose of 
 showing the gross inadequacy of the commutation 
 awarded to the petitioners: and he would therefore 
 proceed to state the grounds upon which he predica 
 ted his proposition, with all the brevity and perspi 
 cuity in his power. 
 
APPENDIX. 85 
 
 The -certificates for commutation of half pay, were 
 issued under the resolution of March, 17S3, and de 
 livered in November, 1783. They admitted, upon 
 their face, that five years full pay was due to their 
 holders, to be paid with interest at the rate of six per 
 centum per annum. These certificates were redeem 
 ed by the operation of the funding act in 1791. They 
 were, of course, for different amounts, according to 
 the respective ranks of the officers. The average pay 
 of the officers was $30 per month, and the amount 
 which would have been due to each officer for half 
 pay, allowing interest after the same was acknow 
 ledged to be due, would have amounted in 1791, 
 when the redemption took place, to $1,742 40, 
 The average amount of five years full pay for each 
 officer, amounted with interest, in 1791, to $2,664 00; 
 from this amount one-third was deducted in the re 
 demption, as he had before stated. The average 
 amount therefore received by each officer in 1791, 
 for his five 37 ears full pay, assuming that these cer 
 tificates had been retained, would have been $1,776. 
 
 From this simple statement it results that, in con 
 sequence of the delay in discharging the commuta 
 tion, and the deduction which was forcibly made in 
 doing so, the Government paid no more than would 
 have been due to the officers for their half pay alone, 
 up to the period when the commutation was actually 
 
 made. To that period, therefore, the officers gained 
 8 
 
$6 APPENDIX. 
 
 nothing by that measure. Since that time years 
 have rolled away, during which they would have re 
 ceived the promised half pay, had it not been for the 
 commutation. The sum which would have been 
 payable to the officers since that period, is the sum 
 precisely which the officers have lost, and the Gov 
 ernment has gained, by this variation by the Govern 
 ment from its original contract. 
 
 This subject, said Mr. V. B. is simple, founded 
 upon data which cannot deceive by their plausibility, 
 and is liable to no mistake, except the mere errors of 
 calculation. Those he had endeavored to avoid. 
 The average half pay of each of the petitioners from 
 the year 1791 to 1S2S, would have amounted to 
 $13,177 83. This sum, multiplied by 230, thenum-. 
 ber of Revolutionary olllcers supposed to be yet in 
 existence, would amount to $3,030,710. The effect 
 of the commutation upon the Treasury, and upon the 
 interests of deceased officers, could not be, said he, 
 distinctly stated without a particular knowledge of 
 the time of their respective deaths. But from what 
 we know upon that subject, there was a moral cer 
 tainty that the gains of the Treasury from that source 
 had not been diminished, but on the contrary greatly 
 increased. 
 
 It is, then, said he, an ascertained and incontesti- 
 ble fact, that in addition to all the injuries sustained 
 by depreciation, the officers have lost by the course 
 
APPENDIX. 87 
 
 of events, and the Government has gained a sum not 
 less than $3,030,710, in consequence of that com 
 mutation which is now set up to bar the claims of 
 the petitioners claims predicated upon a promise of 
 the Government, held out to the officers as an induce 
 ment to remain, and constituting the chief reward for 
 the most signal services ever performed by men in 
 the cause of freedom and their country. 
 
 Upon these facts, said Mr. V. B., a question arises 
 for our decision, no less important to the Govern 
 ment than to the petitioners ; because, involving the 
 character of the one, and the interests of the other. 
 What is it ? Is it confined to the legal rights and 
 obligations of the parties ? No, sir, I shall never, 
 said he, bring my mind to consider the question of 
 strict legal right, when I look at the parties. Who 
 are they ? On the one hand, the Government of the 
 United States, not liable to be impleaded, and inca 
 pable of being coerced against its will by any power 
 superior to its own rich in resources, and overflow 
 ing with redundance ; on the other a remnant of the 
 officers of the revolutionary army, borne down by 
 the infirmities incident to age with one foot in the 
 grave, and the other upon the theshold of your door, 
 supplicating the fulfilment of that promise which was 
 made them in the vigor of their days. If even they 
 have legal rights, where is their remedy to enforce 
 them They cannot in the nature of things hays 
 
$S APPENDIX. 
 
 any. But candor constrained him to acknowledge, 
 that in strictness, they have not now, whatever they 
 may once have had, any rights, except such as are 
 founded upon the immutable principles of justice. 
 As early as the year 1785, the Government found it 
 necessary to protect itself against dormant and un 
 founded claims, arising from the revolutionary con 
 test, by a statute of limitations. Various acts and 
 resolutions were passed upon the subject before the 
 year 1793, more or less comprehensive in their terms; 
 and in that year an act was passed so comprehensive 
 in its provisions, as to embrace the claims of the pe 
 titioners, and barring them, unless presented by the 
 1st day of May, 1794. The officers did not presen 
 this claim until 1810, and are therefore precluded 
 from urging their vested legal rights. Being thus 
 furnished with a general answer to all claims which 
 do not address both our consciences and judgments, 
 Congress have nevertheless relaxed, from time to 
 time, the rigor of their own act, when considering 
 claims founded on justice, and not opposed by policy. 
 But as none of these suspensions have embraced the 
 case of the petitioners, we have it in our power, if 
 we can have the heart to present this statute of limi 
 tations to the petitioners, and under its mantle, resist 
 the cry for justice, if not for bread. The question, 
 then, is not what we are bound to do by law, but 
 what we should do. What conduct on our part will 
 
APPENDIT. 89 
 
 bear the scrutiny and the judgments of impartial 
 men, when the opportunity to remedy the conse 
 quences of our decision shall have passed away ? 
 
 Let us look, for a moment, said Mr. V. B., at the 
 arguments advanced by the opponents of the bill 
 The meritorious services of the petitioners, the signal 
 advantages that have resulted from these services to 
 us and to posterity ; the losses sustained by the pe 
 titioners, and the consequent advantages derived by 
 the government from the act of commutation, are 
 unequivocally admitted. But, it is contended, we 
 have made a compromise legally binding on the par 
 ties, and exonerating the government, from further 
 liability, that in an evil and unguarded hour, they 
 have given us a release, and we stand upon our bond. 
 Now the question which he wished to address to the 
 conscience, and the judgments of this honorable body, 
 was this not whether this issue was well taken in 
 point of law not whether we might not hope for a safe 
 deliverance under it but whether the issue ought to 
 be taken at all whether it comports with the honor 
 of the Government to plead a legal exemption against 
 the claims of gratitude whether, in other words, the 
 government be bound at all times to insist upon its 
 strict legal rights. Has this been the practice of the 
 government on all former occasions? Or, is this the 
 only question on which this principle should operate? 
 Nothing, said Mr. V. B. can be easier than to show 
 8* 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 that the uniform practice of the Government has been 
 at war with the principle which is now opposed to 
 the claim of the petitioners. Not a sesssion had oc 
 curred since the commencement of this government, 
 in which Congress had not relieved the citizens from 
 hardships resulting from unforeseen contingencies 
 and foreborne an enforcement of law, when its en 
 forcement would work great and undeserved injury. 
 He might, if excusable on an occasion like this, turn 
 over the statute book, page by page, and give re 
 peated proofs of this assertion. But it is unnecessary, 
 He would content himself wi h a reference to one or 
 at most two measures of the character described. In 
 the year 1812, between the months of June and Sep 
 tember, goods to an immense amount were shipped 
 Jrom England to the United Slates, by American 
 merchants, in open violation of the acts prohibiting 
 their importation. They alleged in justification, ci 
 ther their anticipated repeal of these acts, in conse- 
 vquence of the measures of one of the belligerents ; or 
 their apprehension that in the event of a declaration 
 of war by the United States, their property would be 
 seized and condemned in the British ports. The de 
 claration, in fact, took place ; but the importers were 
 not the less liable to the fines and penalties imposed 
 by a violated law, and merchandise to the value of 
 more than twenty millions of dollars was forfeited 
 to the United States. Upon the arrival of the goods, 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 the owners were permitted to retain and use them, 
 upon giving bonds to abide the decision of their Go 
 vernment Application was made to Congress for 
 relief: and although it was well known that immense 
 profits were made upon their importation, and not a 
 doubt existed of their liability to forfeiture, Congress, 
 by an act which fills but a single page upon that sta 
 tute book, cancelled the bonds and relinquished mer 
 chandise, which, if retained, would have been equal 
 in value to one-fourth of the whole expenses of the 
 war, and which would doubtless have been retained 
 had the Government insisted upon its legal rights, 
 and acted on the principle now contended for. 
 
 The system which has been pursued in relation to 
 the purchasers of public lands, is not a less memora 
 ble example of a departure from that rigorous policy 
 now recommended to our imitation. 
 
 By the act of 10th May, 1SOO, the minimum price 
 of the public lands was fixed at $2 the acre ; one- 
 twentieth of the purchase money was required to be 
 paid at the time of the purchase, one-fourth in 40 
 days ; the balance, with interest, was payable by in 
 stalments of 2, 3, and 4 years ; and the forfeiture of 
 the land was the declared penalty of non-payment. 
 
 By the act of the 26th March, 1S04, no interest 
 .was to be charged upon instalments for future pur 
 chases, if punctually paid, and this provision, in fa 
 vor of the purchaser, was extended to those whose 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 instalments should become due before the following 
 October. 
 
 Under this liberal system, yielding to the Govern 
 ment but little more than the necessary expenses of 
 surveying the lands, supporting the various land of 
 fices, and providing for the holder a secure landed 
 title, a debt accumulated prior to the year 1820, from 
 the purchasers of the United States, amounting to 
 twenty-two millions of dollars. 
 
 Before that time repeated indulgencies had been 
 granted, extending the times of payment, preventing 
 the forfeitures which would have accrued, and in nu 
 merous instances, allowing a re-entry, or a new pur 
 chase of lands, improved, and forfeited to the Gov 
 ernment upon the terms of the original purchase. No 
 less than six acts were passed from the year 1813 
 to 1820, to suspend the forfeiture, and sale of the 
 lands thus purchased. The evil, however, had swel 
 led beyond the reach of palliatives. A debt of 22 
 millions of dollars exceeded the ability, blighted the 
 prospects, and deadened the energies of the States by 
 whom it was due. Had the law been enforced and 
 payment inflexibly exacted, nearly the whole of the 
 lands thus purchased and improved, would have been 
 forfeited to the Union, and many an honest yeoman 
 would have been compelled to relinquish to more for 
 tunate strangers those woods and lawns which he 
 vainly hoped would be the solace of his declining 
 
APPENDIX, 93 
 
 years. To prevent this calamity, the Government 
 interposed, and by an act of liberality having few pa 
 rallels in history, arrested the forfeitures; authorized 
 the relinqiiishment of lands for which the purchasers 
 were unable to pay; and the application of whatever 
 sums had been paid to the payment of so much only 
 as they thought proper to retain; cancelled the accu 
 mulated interest; extended the term of credit for that 
 portion of the lands retained; and by a subsequent 
 act passed in 1S24, consented to receive as a full pay 
 ment for these lands, less than two-thirds of the 
 amount actually due. Nor was this all: by the act of 
 1821, the price of the lands was reduced from two 
 dollars to one dollar and twenty-five cents; and he 
 who had surrendered lands purchased at the highest 
 sum was enabled to re-enter the same lands, if not 
 sold at public sale, at the reduced price. Sir, said 
 Mr. V. B., by the best estimate that I am able to 
 make on referring to the only documents within my 
 reach, this donation to the purchasers of public lands 
 could not have been less than seven millions and a 
 half and probably has not been short of ten millions 
 of dollars. But the exact amount is not material to 
 the elucidation of the principle from which it flowed; 
 and in considering its value, who, that can cast his eyes 
 upon those extensive regions where tranquillity has 
 succeeded to disquietude, and prosperity to ruin, will 
 attempt to estimate it by the scale of dollars and cents? 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 It appears, then, said Mr. V. B., that it has not 
 been the practice of the Government to act the part 
 of Shylock with its citizens ; and God forbid that it 
 should make its debut, on the present occasion, not 
 so much in the character of a merciless creditor, as a 
 reluctant, though wealthy, debtor ; withholding the 
 merited pittance from those to whose noble daring 
 and unrivalled fortitude, we are indebted for the pri 
 vilege of sitting in judgment on their claims ; and 
 manifesting more sensibility for the purchasers of our 
 lands than for those by whose bravery they were won; 
 and, but for whose achievments, these very purcha 
 sers, instead of being the proprietors of their soil, 
 and the citizens of free and sovereign States, might 
 now be the miserable vassals of some worthless favor 
 ite of arbitrary power. 
 
 If disposed to be less liberal to the Revolutionary 
 officers than to other classes of the community, Ijt us 
 at least testify our gratitude by relieving their suffer 
 ings, and returning a portion of those immense gains 
 which have been the glorious fruits of their toil, and 
 of their blood. 
 
 Such, said Mr. V. B., would in his judgment be a 
 correct view of the subject, had the Government re 
 lieved itself from all further liability by the most 
 ample and unexceptionable peformance of its stipu 
 lations. How much stronger, then, will be their 
 appeal to your justice, if it can be shown that you 
 
APPENDIX. 95 
 
 have no right to urge this act of commutation as a 
 complete fulfilment of your promise? The act of 
 commutation is impeached by the petitioners first, 
 on account of the means by which it was affected; 
 and secondly, because the stipulations of that act have 
 never been fulfilled. 
 
 The petitioners with reason complained that with 
 out ever, having consented to be bound by the acts 
 of their brother officers, their personal rights were 
 made to depend upon the decision of the lines, and 
 not upon their own individual assent. This is ad 
 mitted tcr have been the fact. Two months were ad- 
 lowed to the officers of the lines, under the immedi 
 ate command of Gen. Washington, and six months 
 to those of the Southern army, to give their assent 
 to the compromise. It does not appear that the lines 
 of the Southern army ever gave their assent. In 
 deed it is stated by a distinguished Revolutionary of 
 ficer on this floor, (Gen. S. SMITH,) that they never 
 did. It does not appear that there ever was a meet 
 ing of the officers of the Northern army, for the pur 
 pose of deciding upon the question: and it is affirmed 
 that there was none. To assume, then, that the as 
 sent of each individual was given under circumstances 
 like these, appears to my mind harsh and unjust. 
 But it is alleged, in extenuation, that the compro 
 mise was made upon the petition of the officers them 
 selves. Let this be admitted: did the application 
 
96 APPENDIX. 
 
 for a just equivalent for the promised half pay for 
 life, confer on Congress the right to prescribe the 
 terms? Will it justify the allowance of less than 
 that to which they were entitled? Will not the cir 
 cumstances, under which this application was made, 
 present a still stronger appeal to your liberality, if 
 not your gratitude? Look, said Mr. V. B., at the 
 acts of these brave and high-minded men, in what 
 ever light you please ; examine their conduct by the 
 strictest scrutiny, and you will always find them ex 
 hibiting the purest principles and the most elevated 
 patriotism. The half pay establishment for life, was, 
 at that time, considered by the ardent advocates for 
 liberty, as leading to the formation of an aristocratic 
 body, and therefore subversive of the principles of 
 the revolution. An intimation like this, in the infan 
 cy of our institutions, however groundless in itself, 
 was sufficient to excite alarm. The dangers of the 
 past were overlooked in the apprehension for the fu 
 ture; the measure was reprobated, and these merito 
 rious officers became the objects of unfounded jeal 
 ousy. To quiet these unreasonable fears, the petition 
 ers expressed their willingness to waive the literal 
 iulfilment of the promise which had been given: to 
 remove the cause which could have a tendency to de 
 prive them of the confidence of their fellow-citizens: 
 to surrender the boon they had so dearly purchased; 
 and, in addition to all that they had done, and to all 
 
APPENDIX:. 97 
 
 that they had suffered, to offer up their future pros 
 pects upon the altar of their country. And could 
 any thing be more preposterous than to attempt to 
 found upon an act, originating in motives like these, 
 the right to prescribe the terms of commutation ? 
 But it is alleged that the officer received the com 
 mutation certificates, and, by doing so, must be pre 
 sumed to have assented to their being considered a 
 full satisfaction of their demands. This inference 
 was, in his opinion, removed by the peculiar circum 
 stances under which the certificates were given. 
 These circumstances, said Mr. V. B. are not unwor 
 thy of the deliberate attention of the Senate. Pre 
 vious to October, 1783, and subsequent to the time 
 when the signature of the preliminary articles of 
 peace was known to the army, frequent applications 
 had been made in their behalf, to Congress, for an 
 adjustment of accounts, and payment of the large ar 
 rearages which were due. These applications were 
 fruitless. The failure of the states to comply witfi 
 the requisitions of Congress, deprived that body c^the 
 meansofdiscbargingtheirengagements: andwirfiafull 
 sense of the services and privations of the army, and 
 of the injustice they were about to commit. Congress 
 were on the point of disbanding them, unpaid and 
 unrequited, and sending them pennyless and almost 
 naked to their homes. The effect of this anticipated 
 measure upon minds sensibly alive to indignity and 
 9 
 
98 APPEtfDIX. 
 
 injury may be easily imagined: At the moment 
 when passion might have triumphed over reason, the 
 army was addressed by an anonymous writer, on the 
 subject of their wrongs, with a degree of eloquence 
 calculated to redeem, if any thing could redeem, the 
 vicious tendency of his principles. He admonished 
 them of the futility of their complaints, and urged 
 them, by every motive that could be addressed to 
 their hopes and to their fears, to change the suppli 
 catory style of a memorial to language more becom 
 ing those who had the means of redress within their 
 hands. At that perilous moment, on the events of 
 which were suspended the honor of the army and the 
 future welfare of the country, their commander-in- 
 chief appeared amongst them. He conjured them to 
 give one more distinguished proof of unexampled 
 patriotism, patience and virtue; to rise superior to 
 the most complicated sufferings, and by the dignity 
 of their conduct, give posterity occasion to say, when 
 speaking of their glorious example " Had this day 
 been wanting, the world had never seen the last 
 stage of perfection, which human nature is capable of 
 attaining. 77 
 
 They listened to the voice of their beloved com 
 mander, followed his advice, surrendered their arms 
 and sunk, pennyless, into the ranks of private life. 
 In the succeeding month, the certificates of commu 
 tation were tendered, by the pay-master general, 
 
APPENDIX. 99 
 
 who requested only an acknowledgment of their re 
 ceipt, while in relation to the final settlement certi 
 ficates for their pay, he required a full discharge of 
 their demands. The certificates thus tendered, were 
 accepted and in almost every case, immediately sold, 
 for the purpose of satisfying the most urgent necessi 
 ties of nature. He asked the Senate whether it would 
 comport with the dignity and honor of a great and 
 magnanimous people to avail themselves of an accep 
 tance extorted by circumstances like these ; and to 
 urge it as sufficient to bar the claims of justice, and 
 divest their protectors in the hour of danger, of their 
 stipulated reward ? 
 
 But it has been said, that this commutation excited 
 no dissatisfaction at the time ; that the complaints up 
 on the subject, are of recent date, and now, for the 
 first time, thought of as a plausible support to an un 
 founded claim. The Senator from S. C. [Mr. SMITH,] 
 who has been impelled, by a sense of duty, to assume 
 the unpleasant task of zealously opposing the bill up 
 on your table, has enquired with much apparent tri 
 umph, whether a single individual could be pointed 
 out who had refused the commutation ? He assured 
 the worthy Senator that he had adopted an erroneous 
 impression. When tendered, it was received with uni 
 versal discontent, and by the junior officers, who were 
 most likely to be injure-d, with decided reprobation. 
 Had an opportunity for inquiry been allowed, he ha4 
 
100 APPENDIX; 
 
 no doubt of being able to designate many who had re 
 fused. At the moment he could refer the Senator to 
 Major Gadsden of his own State, w,hose petition on 
 the subject has been presented to the Senate ; and if 
 respect for the feelings of an honorable member be 
 fore him, did not render it improper to drag the name 
 of his venerable father into the debate, he could name 
 another veteran soldier of the Revolution,* the con 
 fident of Washington and the companion of Lafayette, 
 who had served his country bravely and efficiently 
 throughout the war, and who refused to receive the 
 commutation, because violating, in his opinion, the 
 leading principles of the Revolution, by subjecting 
 his property to the decision of men whom he had 
 never authorised to act in his name or stead. But, 
 sir, said, Mr. V. B., what effect did the supposed 
 injustice of his country have on this veteran soldier ? 
 Did it in the least damp his ardor in her cause ? By 
 no means. He belonged to a different school, and 
 he gave the most palpable proof of the enduring qual 
 ity of the principle of that school during the late war. 
 On learning the approach of danger he repaired to 
 this city. On the disastrous clay of Rladeusbiwgh) 
 he was found, at the advanced age of seventy, en 
 horseback in the field, stimulating to exertions, by 
 his example and exhortation. When the danger 
 pressed the hardest he waited on the military com- 
 
 * Col. McLane, of Delaware. 
 
APPENDIX. 101 
 
 mancler of the day, and solicited the responsibility 
 for the safety of the City, by being entrusted with the 
 possession of this capitol, with a reasonable force for 
 its defence. Denied in his application, mortified and 
 humiliated by the results of the day, he found his 
 way back to his home and the home of his family, 
 where he still lives, blessed with the esteem of his 
 friends, and the respect of all who know him. 
 
 But assuming, said Mr. V. B. that the act of com^ 
 mutationwas just, in its inception, was it Justin its 
 execution ? On this point, he thought there was no 
 room for contrariety of opinion. An essential differ 
 ence, he observed, existed between the claims for 
 pay and subsistence of the army, and those arising 
 from the stipulation of half-pay for life. The former 
 being payable during the war, when it was known 
 that the finances were embarrassed, were properly 
 subject to the depreciation of that period. But the 
 promised half-pay for life was expected to survive the 
 period of embarrassment, and therefore to be payable 
 in the sound currency of the country. Some of the 
 reasons which inclined the officers to accept a conir 
 mutation have already been noticed. The necessity 
 of obtaining pecuniary means to enable them to em 
 bark in other pursuits, formed a no less prevalent inr 
 dncement. To effect this object, it was obviously 
 necessary that the equivalent to be received should 
 be promptly paid or adequately secured. The act of 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 commutation did neither. It is surely not enough to 
 say that the resolution of Congress prescribed that 
 the commutation of five years full pay should be paid 
 in securities, unless it can be shown that paper, abso 
 lutely worthless, was the security intended. Can it 
 for a moment be supposed, that Congress meant to 
 deceive their brave defenders, by holding out a " pro 
 mise to the ear," only " to break it to their hopes ?" 
 No, sir, they meant what they expressed, that the 
 securities should be real, and not nominal ; their re 
 peated and earnest requisitions upon the States prove 
 their intention ; and nothing but the inherent weak 
 ness of the government, and the failure of the States 
 to comply with the requisitions of Congress an ex 
 cuse fortunately not in our power to plead prevent 
 ed that venerated body from redeeming their engage 
 ments. But though the depreciation which followed 
 was not attributable to Congress, its effects upon the 
 officers was not the less fatal. Necessity, that waits 
 not for times or seasons, compelled too many to car 
 ry their certificates into market, and the amount which 
 they produced served but to realize the destruction 
 of all their hopes. The few who retained them until 
 1791, experienced a loss not less severe than unex 
 pected. It has already been stated that, by the ope 
 rations of the funding system, one-third of the amount 
 which the commutation certificates declared to be due 
 was deducted by the government. The reason al- 
 
APPENDIX. 103 
 
 leged for a measure apparently so destructive of pub 
 lic confidence and individual rights, was the well 
 known fact, that by far the greater part were held 
 by speculators who had purchased them at an incon 
 siderable price. Mr. Madison, it is true, endeavor 
 ed to exempt the certificates in the hands of the offi 
 cers from this deduction; but having failed in his at 
 tempt, the least necessitious of the officers were doom 
 ed to experience a diminution of their already insuf 
 ficient commutation. 
 
 This act of commutation, therefore, is clearly lia 
 ble to the objection : 
 
 1st. Of not being a just equivalent for the promis 
 ed half-pay for life. 
 
 2dly. Of having been effected under circumstances, 
 and by the operation of motives, which deprive it of 
 all obligatory force, and entitle the officers to liberal 
 ity instead of rigour. 
 
 3dly. Of partial and defective execution. 
 
 If, said Mr. V. B. , no other obstacle were inter 
 posed to the claims of the petitioners than those to 
 which he had alluded, fortified as they are, by facts 
 not susceptible of misconstruction, and resting upon 
 the plain and immutable principles of justice, no doubt 
 could be entertained of your favorable decision. But 
 he was apprehensive that other considerations would 
 have their influence: that the claims of the petition 
 ers would be clouded by dangers in prospective; and, 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 that the fear of establishing a precedent by which the 
 door of your Treasury would be unlocked to a crowd 
 of applicants pleading their poverty, and urging their 
 misfortunes, may induce you, in this case, to resist 
 the strongest impulses of your hearts, if not the dic 
 tates of your judgments. Among the different grounds 
 upon which this apprehension is founded, a leading 
 one,* he said, is, That the bill did not embrace the 
 cases of private soilders, who might also have sus 
 tained injustice, and whose services were not less 
 meritorious than those of the officers themselves." 
 
 Before I proceed, said Mr. V. B. to consider this ob 
 jection, allow me to call your attention to one or two 
 incidental remarks. A variety of persons, officers of 
 the Army, who have not served to the end of the war 
 private soldiers, militia officers, and citizens who 
 had borne the privations of that period, had been suc 
 cessively brought in review before the Senate; and 
 their losses and sufferings, after having been forcibly 
 depicted, were urged as a reason for the rejection of 
 the claim of the petitioners. 
 
 If, said Mr. V. B., any thing could aggravate the 
 injustice already inflicted upon the petitioners, it 
 would be an objection like this. Had the claims of 
 the persons alluded to been similar to those of the pe 
 titioners, the argument derived from an equality of 
 riglu would be entitled to attention; but if dissimilar, 
 let them be disjoined. The allowance of the one 
 
APPENDIX. |05 
 
 can constitute ,-^p., ground for the admission of the 
 other; and by uniting them together, you throw up 
 on the petitioners the misfortunes of others, (misfor 
 tunes for which they are in no sense responsible,) in 
 addition to their own. 
 
 Now, Sir, said Mr. V. B., it is easy to demon 
 strate that no similarity exists. What is the object 
 of this bill? To repair a wrong in not having given 
 a just equivalent in satisfaction of a promise of half- 
 pay for life. Do the claims of any others rest upon 
 a basis like this? It is alleged that any such or sim 
 ilar engagement was made with the soldier? Most 
 assuredly not. If, then, no similarity exists, an at 
 tempt to connect them would be plainly unjust. 
 
 I am aware, said Mr. V. B. ; of the imposing cha 
 racter of the argument that has been urged in favor 
 of the claims of the common soldier. In a Govern 
 ment like ours, appeals in their favor cannot be made 
 without effect. They derive their force from that 
 all pervading jealousy of power, which is generally 
 supposed to be the concomitant of official station and 
 accidental elevation. Although not insensible to its 
 influence, he was not disposed to complain of its ef 
 fect ; and when properly directed or controlled, he 
 considered it necessary to the successful operation of 
 our political system. 
 
 But, sir, said Mr. V. B., instead of yielding our 
 judgments to favor on the one hand, or improper pre- 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 judice on the other; it became our duty as public men, 
 to know no distinctions but those of merit, and no rule 
 but that of justice. Was it true, then, he asked, that 
 the partiality of the Goverment had inclined to the 
 officer, in preference to the soilder? Is it not evident, 
 on the contrary, that in every case the former has 
 been treated with distrust, and the latter with indul 
 gence. Upon what can the soldiers predicate a claim 
 for additional compensation? Upon the ground of 
 the depreciation, and no other. The losses of the 
 officers, on this account, were as much greater than 
 those of the soldier, as the relative difference of their 
 pay; and yet this bill contains no provision in their 
 favor upon that subject. This, then, can form no ob 
 jection to the proposed allowance. But, sir, in re 
 lation to the relative condition of the officer and sol 
 dier when they entered the service, General Wash 
 ington informs us in his letters to the States, con 
 tained in the book which I hold in my hand, that the 
 private soldiers had this signal advantage over the 
 officers. They received at the time of enlistment, 
 from the States, by which they were raised, a bounty 
 from two to three hundred dollars, in good money, 
 or provision for their families. No such advances 
 were received by the officers. What, sir, said Mr. 
 V. B., has been the subsequent conduct of the Go 
 vernment? The average pay of the officers, calcu 
 lating from a colonel downwards, was forty dollars 
 
APPENDIX. 1O7 
 
 per month. That of the soldier was six dollars and 
 a quarter. 
 
 Now, by the pension act of IS 18, the allowance 
 to officers and soldiers, reduced to poverty, was, for 
 the officers, twenty dollars per month, and for the 
 soldiers eight dollars per month. Giving to the offi 
 cer less than half-pay, and to the soldier more than 
 full pay. So, said he, would it ever be. Whatever 
 might be the declamatory appeals upon this subject, 
 there was no danger that the partiality of Congress 
 would ever be manifested for the officer, to the exclu 
 sion of the fair claims of the soldier. To prevent 
 misapprehension, said Mr. B., I will proceed fur 
 ther. I have said, that I am not insensible to the 
 feeling which had been so strongly pressed into the 
 argument. As an evidence of the sincerity with 
 which he spoke, he expressed his willingness to 
 adopt any measure in favor of the soldier, that the 
 gentleman opposed to him, could reasonably desire. 
 Most of the soldiers, said Mr. V. B., had been pla 
 ced upon the pension list. The limited number 
 who had not, must average seventy years of age. 
 Let, said he, a section be prepared, placing all who 
 had enlisted for the war, upon the pension list, at 
 eight dollars per month, without requiring evidence 
 of poverty. For a measure like this, he would rea 
 dily vote; if even more were proposed, it should re 
 ceive his deliberate attention, and if possible, his 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 concurrence. Frauds might be practised ; but they 
 would, of necessity, be of short duration. Even 
 now, the expense would not be felt ; in a few years 
 it would cease to be remembered ; while the fame 
 that would attend it, would constitute one of the 
 most valuable legacies to posterity that can be left 
 behind us. 
 
 Instead, then, of opposing the bill because it con 
 tains no provision for the soldier, might he not with 
 some propriety ask of gentlemen to propose a reme 
 dy for this defect, and not condemn for omission 
 whilst making no effort to have that omission sup 
 plied ? 
 
 Another cause of apprehension from this bill, as a 
 precedent, arises from the supposition that if it be 
 intended to provide for losses incurred by the de 
 preciation of commutation certificates, the govern 
 ment will be bound to compensate for similar losses, 
 whether incurred by the army or the public credit 
 ors. These fears, said Mr. V. B. I consider vision 
 ary. The bill does not propose a compensation on 
 account of depreciation. This would be impractica 
 ble, because no data could be obtained by which an 
 estimate could be formed to justify a legislative act. 
 The depreciation of the commutation certificates has 
 been referred to solely for the purpose of enforcing 
 the equity of a claim originating in a contract, never 
 satisfied by the act of commutation, but from which 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 you are legally absolved by the acts of limitation. 
 Until the soldiers can plead a similar contract, and 
 the equitable considerations which the officers have 
 urged, they can have no right to place their claims 
 on an equal footing. Still, less, sir, said Mr. V. B. 
 can it be said that this bill will afford a pretext for 
 reviving the dormant claims of the public creditors. 
 Their case is widely different from that of either the 
 officers or the soldiers. While the pay of the army 
 was fixed and stationary, its actual value was re 
 duced by the depreciation of currency, which they 
 were compelled*to receive at par. But the suppliers 
 of the army, the great mass of public creditors, re 
 gulated their contracts by the fluctuations in which 
 they expected to be paid, and the prices demanded 
 bore an exact proportion to its depreciation in mar 
 ket. 
 
 It has been urged, too, as an objection, that provi 
 sion had not been made for the officers who did not 
 serve to the close of the war, and for the militia. 
 It was sufficient to say that with them the govern 
 ment had entered into no such engagement. The 
 surviving officers of the revolution, who had been 
 called from service before the end of the war, gene 
 rally by public considerations, would not, he was 
 persuaded, repine at the success of their brethren in 
 arms, or make it the basis of unfounded complaint. 
 It has been stated by the venerable and worthy Sena- 
 10 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 tor before me, [Gen. S. SMITH,] that this bill wiU 
 not embrace his case, for the reasons he has given. 
 Who would have more cause to complain than he, if 
 indeed, any cause could be found in the measure pro 
 posed ? Of his conduct and services in two wars, it 
 would be superfluous to speak. They are familiar 
 to us all ; and he wished he could add, had been as 
 well appreciated by the Union as by the State whose 
 interests he had promoted in peace, and whose safety 
 he had defended in war. The solicitude which he 
 had manifested for the friends of his youth, and his 
 companions in danger, must have awakened the sen 
 sibilities of those who witnessed it ; while his zealous 
 though disinterested support of the bill upon your 
 table, constituted a convincing proof that it would be 
 viewed by others, who might be excluded from its 
 provisions, with equal satisfaction. 
 
 The last, and to his mind, the strongest objection 
 against the passage of this bill, was its making na 
 provision for the widows and children of deceased 
 officers, who were entitled to half-pay. By whom, 
 sir, said Mr. V. B. has this objection been adduced ? 
 By the parties themselves ? No, sir ; by those who 
 have had no conference with the parties. Do they 
 advocate the claims of the heirs and widows because 
 they have heretofore been importunate for relief? 
 No, sir; from the first agitation of this question; in 
 1810, to the present moment, he was authorized, he 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 believed, to say, that not a single petition had been 
 presented in their behalf. Sir, said Mr. V. B. we 
 resist the claims of the living by exorcising the spi 
 rits of the dead. The gentleman from Georgia de 
 clares that he will not vote for the bill, because the 
 heirs and widows are not included, and that he would 
 not vote for it, if they were. It has been asked by 
 the Senator from South Carolina, whether a positive 
 debt, a vested interest, does not descend to the heir, 
 and whether a government, any more than an indivi 
 dual, is discharged by the death of its creditor ? 
 The objection thus presented is plausible in appear 
 ance, but he was persuaded easily surmounted. He 
 had already, in his opinion, given a satisfactory an 
 swer. Whatever might have been the original char 
 acter of the claim, it could no longer be regarded as 
 legally binding on the government. It was barred 
 by the statute of limitations a measure sometimes 
 harsh, but not the less founded in policy and justice. 
 This shield, interposed by the government for justi 
 fiable ends, might be removed, at the option of the 
 government only in the cases which policy and jus 
 tice might demand. It has a perfect right to permit 
 it to operate upon the officers, their widows, or their 
 heirs and neither might, in strictness, have a legal 
 ground of complaint. I have endeavored, said Mr. 
 V. B. to show that equity requires, and policy does 
 not forbid the allowance proposed for the surviving 
 
|J2 APPENDIX. 
 
 officers. The claims of the widows, stood, in his 
 opinion, on a different foundation. But he should 
 not be willing, for one, to oppose them. Their num 
 ber must be small ; not half as great, in all proba 
 bility, as that of surviving officers j say one hundred 
 at the outside. Give them a gratuity of one or two 
 thousand dollars each ; and if necessary, deduct it 
 from the sum you would otherwise give to the sur 
 viving officers. They, he was well assured, would 
 not utter a complaint. On the contrary, the value 
 of what they received, would be doubly enhanced 
 by the cause of the deduction. The supposed claims 
 of the heirs could not be presented to your attention 
 with equal force. Of the two thousand four hun 
 dred and eighty officers of the revolution, two thou 
 sand two hundred and fifty are no more. Their 
 temporal interests, whatever they were, have been 
 distributed, in some cases, among successive gene 
 rations. To ascertain and distribute the respective 
 shares, to which the heirs would be entitled, of the 
 small amount now proposed to be given, if not whol 
 ly impracticable, would involve an expense that 
 would consume the means of your bounty ; and 
 without being productive of substantial benefit, your 
 resources would be exhausted. But, said he, these 
 are considerations of an inferior character, founded 
 on expediency only. Your refusal to grant to the 
 heirs, may be placed on the highest ground of prin^ 
 
APPENDIX. 113 
 
 ciple. Whatever you now do in favor of the officer, 
 must be voluntary, proceeding from your liberality 
 and gratitude. All other obligations have been cut 
 off by time. AH your endowments springing from 
 such motives, being for the reward of personal ser 
 vices, may with propriety be confined to those by 
 whom those services were rendered. This, said he, 
 is not a new principle, in your legislation. It lies at 
 the foundation of the act of ISIS, providing, not for 
 the heirs, but certain portions of the revolutionary 
 officers and soldiers, by the operation of which, mil 
 lions have in his opinion been beneficially applied. 
 It was called indeed a pension act, but with no more 
 propriety, according to the established principles of 
 the government, than the bill upon your table. 
 
 What, according to these principles, are the grounds 
 upon which pensions have beeen granted ? They 
 were exclusively, disability produced by known 
 wounds received in the public service, and half pay 
 for a limited time, to the widow and infant children 
 of those who had fallen in action. Since the date of 
 our independence, these only have been the legal and 
 appropriate causes for being placed on the list of 
 pensioners. The annual allowance to a limited num 
 ber of the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary 
 army, by the act of ISIS, was founded on no such 
 consideration, otherwise the widows and orphans of 
 
 the deceased officers and soldiers would have been as 
 10* 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 much entitled to your bounty as they can be now. 
 They did not receive it ; and the only justifiable rea 
 son which could then have been given, was the one 
 which may now be assigned. You had a right to 
 make your donation personal. You had a right to 
 enlarge or contract the circle of your beneficence, 
 according to your own views of the state of your 
 treasury, the exigencies of society, and the claims of 
 humanity. Among the most powerful motives for 
 its adoption, was a desire to rescue the country from 
 the reproach of seeing those to whom it was indebt 
 ed for ils liberties, thrown, in the evening of their 
 days, amidst the prosperity they had been instru 
 mental in producing, upon the cold charities of an 
 unfeeling world. It was to prevent the vivid and 
 heart-rending picture of Roman ingratitude, which, 
 though the invention of modern days, has so long 
 interested the world, from being only descriptive of 
 real life in the streets of this proud capitol. 
 
 Mr. V. B. said he would say nothing as to the 
 amount. Full justice liad already been done to that 
 subject. The general object was to make up, in 
 part, the loss sustained by the officers out of the pro 
 fits made by the government, by the successful result 
 of its compromise with them. Let us, therefore, 
 said he, pass the bill upon your table. Let this body 
 have the credit of originating it. Let no narrow or 
 weak views impede our course. No matter where 
 
APPENDIX. 115 
 
 those honorable and patriotic men are from; wheth 
 er from the North or the South, the East or th 
 West ; whether from the old States or the new. In 
 every State where the blessings of a free govern 
 ment are enjoyed, there they had a name, if not a 
 local habitation, that could not fail to work its way 
 to the hearts of their fellow-citizens. It was true, 
 he said, that by the list submitted, it did not appear 
 that any of the officers resided in seven of the new 
 States, and he was not sorry for it If he were not 
 deceived in the character as well of the people of the 
 States, as of their representatives on that floor, they 
 would rejoice that an opportunity was thus presented 
 to evince their devotion to the cause of the revolu 
 tion, and their gratitude for the services of those 
 who fought our battles in that day, without even a 
 suspicion of a selfish or local object. This will be 
 the more gratifying to them, because it was not their 
 good fortune, as States, to be in a situation to take 
 part in that great struggle, out of which grew this 
 mighty empire, and all the blessings of civil and re 
 ligious liberty, that we now so preeminently enjoy, 
 He had not a doubt that all that remained for them to 
 do, they would do well. If evidence of the fact were 
 wanting, he had only to allude to the small but pa 
 triotic State of Illinois, which alone had instructed 
 her representatives on that floor, upon the subject 
 under consideration, in a spirit reflecting upon her- 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 self the highest credit, and affording the most flatter 
 ing presage of her future greatness. 
 
 Mr. V. B. said, that he was distressed by the con 
 sciousness that he had already trespassed too much 
 upon the kind indulgence of the Senate. In any 
 other case he would have considered it reprehensi 
 ble to have done so. He would therefore, (although 
 there were yet many considerations which he intend 
 ed to have urged,) draw his observations to a close. 
 There was, however, one point upon which he felt 
 too much solicitude to suffer it to pass unnoticed. 
 If by any one he had been understood as casting 
 aught of censure or reproach upon the old Congress, 
 he desired to correct so erroneous an impression. 
 He could not indeed have done so consistently with 
 his own long cherished opinions. On the contrary, 
 he did not believe that the world ever witnessed, or 
 ever again will witness a body of men more patriotic 
 or enlightened. He would not believe that it was 
 in their nature to be indifferent to the just claims of 
 the revolutionary army. The question with them 
 was not what they would, but what they could do. 
 The embarrassments under which they labored from 
 want of power, and the backwardness of the States, 
 who themselves were struggling against the exhaust 
 ing effects of a cruel, bloody and protracted war, 
 were known to all. As little did he wish to cast re 
 proach upon the councils of the nation. Every 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 thing could not be done at once. Much has been 
 done under the present Constitution, to satisfy the 
 claims of justice, and vindicate the character of the 
 republic. It is our good fortune that something still 
 remains for us to do. Fear not, that in doing it, you 
 will go beyond the wishes of your constituents 
 your feelings lag behind them. Speaking for his 
 immediate constituents and he had not the presump 
 tion to suppose that they were more just or public 
 spirited than their neighbors for them he could say, 
 with confidence, that, having some share in the na 
 tional funds, and contributing no inconsiderable part 
 of their amount, they would willingly pour them out, 
 like water, in a cause so righteous. With them, a 
 million more or less of public bebt, compared with 
 the preservation of the public faith, would be as no 
 thing. He gloried in the consciousness that he was 
 a representative of a people influenced by such ele 
 vated sentiments. Every day. said he, makes the 
 remnant of this band of worthies more dear to the 
 American people. When that period arrives which 
 a majority of the Senate may expect to see when 
 the last of the officers of the revolutionary army 
 shall be called from time into eternity, it will be the 
 cause of keen regret, and self-reproach, if, upon a 
 review of the past, it shall appear that any thing was 
 omitted that ought to have been done, to smooth 
 their passage to the tomb. 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 One word more, and he had done. The Senator 
 from Maine, [Mr. CHANDLER,] who, although he 
 had lost his father in the struggle, had felt it to be 
 his duty (and there was no man, he believed, who 
 more implicitly followed his sense of duty,) to op 
 pose the bill, had, with his characteristic shrewdness 
 and pertinency, asked did General Washington, 
 whilst at the head of government, ever recommend 
 this subject to the notice of Congress? The worthy 
 Senator well knew what the answer must be, and 
 the train of reflections it would give rise to. Gen 
 eral Washington did not but why? Before and af 
 ter the war, he spared no pains to make the States 
 sensible of what was due to the officers on this very 
 point. His letters have been read. He urged them 
 by all the considerations that belonged to the subject, 
 to act efficiently for their relief. He failed. After 
 he came into the government, the officers themselyes 
 evinced no disposition to revive their claims, and it 
 certainly would not have become him to be the first 
 to bring them forward. It is not difficult to con 
 ceive why the officers were, at that day, willing to 
 avoid all applications for pecuniary aid. New pros 
 pects opened they were probably not exempt from 
 those feelings of ambition and hope of preferment, 
 which actuate mankind. They have out-lived them, 
 and they humbly ask for justice. But, sir, what 
 was the language of the Father of his Country, when 
 
APPENDIX. 119 
 
 the subject was an open one ? In his circular of 
 June, 17S3, to the governors of the States, he said : 
 " The provision of half pay for life, as promised by 
 "the resolution of Congress, was a reasonable com- 
 " peiisation offered at a time when congress had no- 
 " thing else to give to the officers for services then 
 " to be performed ; it was the price of their blood 
 " and your independence, and as a debt of honour, it 
 " can never be cancelled until it be fairly discharg- 
 " ed." One question, said Mr. V. B. and I have 
 done. Has it been fairly discharge^? 
 
 [In reference to the rejection of Mr. Van Buren, by the Senate 
 of the United States, when nominated as Minister to Great 
 Britain, we have selected the masterly speech of Mr. FORSYTH, 
 and the correspondence between the Republican Members of 
 the legislature of New York and President JACKSOX, as abun* 
 dantly sufficient to vindicate the conduct of Mr. Van Buren, 
 and to expose the true character of that wanton, violent and 
 unjustifiable measure.] 
 
 REMARKS OF HON. JOHN FORSYTH, 
 
 In the U. S. Senate, on the nomination of Mr. Van Bur en. 
 
 [Mr. Forsyth makes no apology for the rough sketch he presents 
 of the remarks made by him in the secret sessions of the Sen 
 ate, on the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. The speeches 
 against the nomination having been, for the first time in the 
 history of this government, thrown upon the people, it is due 
 to the person assailed, that what was suggested on the other 
 side should be known. Mr. Forsyth is well aware that, in exe 
 cuting his part of this duty, he has done justice neither to the 
 subject nor to himself.] 
 
12O APPENDIX. 
 
 I regret, Mr. President, that the Senator from MIs- 
 sississippi, (Mr. Poindexter,) has been so long absent 
 from his seat, not only because he has been suffering 
 pain, but because had he been here, he could have 
 escaped the commission of numerous errors into 
 which he has been led. The friends of Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren have not obstructed inquiry into his conduct ; they 
 have challenged investigation, offered it in every and 
 any form consistent with the obligations of the Senate 
 to its own character. The Senator from Maine, (Mr. 
 Holmes) shrunk from his own resolution. It was 
 laid aside by the votes of those opposed, contrary to 
 the votes and wishes of those friendly to the nomina 
 tion. That Senator was distinctly invited by one of 
 the Senators from New York, (Mr. Marcy,) to spe 
 cify any act dishonorable to the character of Mr. 
 Van Buren, and a pledge given that inquiry into it 
 should be made in the amplest manner by a commit- 
 teehaving all the power necessary to the establishment 
 of truth. The Senator from Maine was distinctly 
 told by the Senator from South Carolina, (Mr. 
 Hayne,) on what terms he could command his vote. 
 He was told to cover the ground indicated, by proof, 
 and he would join in the condemnation of the choice 
 of the President. The Senator from Maine delibe 
 rated on this offer, and, after deliberation, abandoned 
 his resolution, leaving all to grope their way to a 
 conclusion, as accident or prejudice might direct 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 them. A promise was made, that he should have a 
 committee if he would venture upon it, and the offer 
 was deliberately and most unequivocally declined. 
 Yet, after all this, at this eleventh hour, the Senator 
 from Mississippi says, if the friends of Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren will solicit a committee, he will give what he has 
 collected, while confined to his sick chamber, and on 
 which his own opinion is formed, and if the commit 
 tee is not raised, he will, with this matter in his poc 
 ket, vote against the nomination, in order to preserve 
 the morality of the nation, endangered by the bestow 
 al of a new office on & gambling politician. 
 
 As the friend, personal and political, of Mr. Van 
 Buren, I reject the liberal offer of the Senator, in 
 defiance of his threatened negative on the nomina 
 tion. Let him unite with those who, like him, are 
 so anxious to preserve the morality of the country by 
 rejecting a man whose most odious crime is his rising 
 popularity and transcendent ability. The friends of 
 Air. Van Buren will not degrade him by asking a 
 Committee, to free him from the suspicions engender 
 ed in the Senator s mind, in his search after correct 
 information, from sources within his reach. His cha 
 racter wants no such justification. Does the gentle 
 man wish to justify his vote? Let him propose a 
 Committee; he shall have our concurrence. Does 
 he desire to convince the Senate? Let him produce 
 
 the private source information, which, I venture to 
 11 
 
APPENDIX; 
 
 say, like the only one he speaks of openly r , is worth 
 less in the eye of any man who is not so embittered 
 by prejudice that he cannot see truth. This letter, 
 by a former partizan, a paltry editor of a paltry news 
 paper, and to prove what ? that Mr. Van Buren said 
 that the late Cabinet was dissolved by the conspiracy 
 of the Vice-President, to drive Maj. Eaton from the 
 Cabinet, and that he withdrew to escape the conse 
 quences of the dissolution. Sir, Mr. Van Buren holds 
 no such conversation with persons who were once Ms 
 partisans, and now his enemies. 
 
 But supposing he had declared, or does entertain, 
 the opinion imputed to him. Is it a crime which 
 disqualifies him for a high office, that he believes the 
 charge made and sought to be established by the late 
 Secretary of War? If such be the Senator s opinion, 
 can he tell us how far the exclusion extends? The 
 Senator s letter story is contradictrd by his previous 
 ly expressed opinion. What, Sir, the most artful 
 man in the world, proclaim to a paltry editor that he 
 acted in the manner indicated, to escape the storm 
 consequent on the dissolution of the Cabinet! If it 
 had been true if such bad been his motive, he would 
 have sought to conceal it from himself. No degree 
 of confidential intimacy could have tempted an artful 
 intriguer to such a disclosure. The story if true, 
 proves a man, whose extraordinary prudence, under 
 all circumstances, through a long life in the stormy 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 politics of a vexed and turbulent State, has gained 
 him the confidence of his friends, and called down 
 upon him the charge of consummate artifice from 
 his enemies, to be a silly driveller a simpleton, 
 opening his budget of petty motives to one whose 
 trade was to thrive, by making himself important by 
 confidential and oracular disclosures in his unknown 
 journal. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren stands in a strange condition be 
 fore us ; from the beginning of this administration, 
 before he came to the post assigned him, until the 
 present hour, he is held accountable by a certain de 
 scription of political men in this country for all the 
 evil that has been done, and all the good that has been 
 omitted. Now, sir, if he is accountable for every 
 thing, if his hand is to be traced every where, let him 
 have credit for the good that has, and the evil that 
 has not, been done. Balance the account of the ad 
 mitted good and evil imputed, and the result will fill 
 the hearts of his enemies with the bitterest disap 
 pointment. But, sir, this is not the justice intended 
 for him. He is responsible for all that is complained 
 of. Let us see the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. 
 Poindexter s) catalogue. There were no Cabinet 
 Councils did the country suffer from his failure to 
 follow the example of late administrations, from this 
 adherence to the example of General Washington? 
 But there was one Cabinet Council called to sit on 
 
|24 APPENDIX. 
 
 a lady s reputation. Indeed, and this Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren is also answerable for. And is it true, sir, that 
 the honorable members of the late cabinet who re 
 mained so tranquilly at their posts enjoying all their 
 emoluments and honors with becoming gratification, 
 suffered themselves to be deprived of their accustom 
 ed rights of a seat and voice at the Council Board of 
 deliberations on great matters of vital interest to the 
 public, and yet obeyed the beck and call of Mr. 
 Van Buren, to sit upon a lady s reputation! Of what 
 stuff were they made that they did not distinctly as 
 certain if this restriction of claimed right, and this 
 insulting call upon them to step out of their appro 
 priate spheres was the work of Mr. Van Buren or 
 the act of tlie President. If the first, why did they 
 not demand his dismission, and, if refused, indig 
 nantly throw their commissions in the teeth of the 
 Chief Magistrate. The omitted Cabinet Councils, 
 and the single call, were no such dreadful offences 
 until obliged to follow Mr. Van Buren s example 
 and resign. The history of the last year establishes 
 the wisdom of the President in calling no Cabinet 
 Council to deliberate as there could have been no 
 harmony in their consultations, and on the single 
 question said to have been submitted, the Executive 
 Cabinet have shown themselves incompetent to de 
 cide. He is not competent to decide on a lady s re 
 putation, who throws out of view on the question of 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 how she should be treated, her guilt or innocence. I 
 will not condescend further to refer to the trash with 
 which the public press has been loaded and polluted 
 for months, and unless the Senator from Mississippi 
 has better evidence than the public has yet seen, the 
 hope of implicating Mr. Van Buren in the distur 
 bances that preceded the dissolution of the Cabinet, 
 is forlorn. 
 
 Let us see the next crime in the catalogue of the 
 Senator from Mississippi, (Mr. Poindexter.) Mr. 
 Van Buren intrigued the dissolution of the late CabU 
 net, taking care previously to secure a safe and pro 
 minent retreat in the mission to England. It is 
 known to every well informed man in this district 
 that Mr. Van Buren, by his admirable temper, his 
 conciliating manners and unwaried exertions, kept the 
 cabinet together long after its discordant materials 
 were so well ascertained that its dissolution sooner or 
 later was -a matter of eommon speculation. Sir, no 
 body doubted that the parties could not get on toge 
 ther, and the only surprise was, that the President 
 did not proceed to restore harmony by the removal 
 of those whose disagreements produced the discord. 
 But Mr. Van Buren had the unparalleled effrontery to 
 resign on motives of delicacy and disinterestedness, 
 and as this mode of conduct was so unusual, it has 
 excited a vast deal of surmise and wonder. The Sena* 
 tor from Mississippi, (Mr. P.) has however, 
 
 11 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 torily to himself, solved the mystery. Mr. Van Bu - 
 ren arranged himself into a prominent place, before 
 he resigned, and a new cabinet to suit his ambitious 
 views. Now, sir, as to the proof of this preconcert 
 ed arrangement for his accommodation and elevation. 
 The President told somebody, who was a late Sec 
 retary, that Mr. Van Buren was to go to England, 
 and named to him the Secretaries, who were to come 
 in ; but this was after Mr. Van Buren had resigned. 
 In the interview it is acknowledged that Mr. Van 
 Buren s letter of resignation was handed to this vo 
 lunteer repeater of conversations with the Chief Ma 
 gistrate. But the Senator says it was before the let 
 ter was published thence he concludes Mr. V. B. 
 had made a cat s paw of the President for the pro 
 motion of his own views: a most logical inference, 
 truly! And this new cabinet arranged to further 
 Mr. V. B. s unholy ambition ! Is there man, woman, 
 or child in the country, who does not know and feel 
 that the change has been beneficial to the public, that 
 there is now more strength, more virtue and more 
 harmony than there was before ? Is there any man 
 who will hazard his reputation by asserting that the 
 present secretaries are capable of being made the in 
 struments of any man s ambition, or so subject to the 
 bias of individual influence, as the late? Partizans 
 are not substituted for pure, disinterested patriots; 
 and let me say, sir, that more partizans have gone out 
 than have come in. 
 
APPENDIX. J27 
 
 But this mission to England was not sought by Mr. 
 Van Buren ; his friends know that it was pressed on 
 him by the President, and that it was reluctantly ac 
 cepted at the earnest solicitations of friends who were 
 satisfied it would promote his own reputation, and 
 redound to the honor and welfare of the nation. I 
 will not follow further the Senator s lead. Long 
 known to me as a politician and as a man, acting to- 
 .gether in the hour of political adversity, when we 
 had lost all but our honor a witness of his move 
 ments when elevated to power, and in the possession 
 of the confidence of the Chief Magistrate, and of the 
 great majority of the people, I have never witnessed 
 aught in Mr. Van Buren which requires conceal 
 ment, palliation, or coloring never any thing to les 
 sen his character as a patriot and as a man nothing 
 which he might not desire to see exposed to the 
 scrutiny of every member of this body, with the 
 calm confidence of unsullied integrity, He is called 
 an artful man a giant of artifice a wily magician. 
 From whom does he receive these opprobious names? 
 From open enemies and pretended friends. In the 
 midst of all the charges that have been brought 
 against him, in shapes more varying than those of 
 Proteus, and thick as the autumnal leaves that strew 
 the vale of Volambrosa, where is the false friend or 
 malignant enemy that has fixed upon him one dis 
 honorable or degrading act? If innocent of artifice, 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 if governed by a high sense of honor, and regulating 
 his conduct by elevated principles, this is not wonder 
 ful ; but, if the result of skill, of the ars celere artem, 
 he must be more cunning than the devil himself, to 
 have thus avoided the snares of enemies and the 
 treachery of pretended friends. 
 
 It is not possible, sir, that he should have escaped, 
 had he been otherwise than pure. Those ignorant of 
 his unrivalled knowledge of human character, his 
 power of penetrating into the designs, and defeating 
 the purposes of his adversaries, seeing his rapid ad 
 vance to public honors, and popular confidence, im 
 pute to art what is the natural result of those simple 
 causes. Extraordinary talent, untiring industry, in 
 cessant vigilance, the happiest temper, which success 
 cannot corrupt, nor disappointment sour ; these are 
 the sources of his unexampled success, the magic 
 arts the artifices of intrigue, to which only he has 
 resorted in his eventful life. Those who envy his 
 success, may learn wisdom from his example. 
 
 Having disposed of the catalogue of the Senator 
 from Mississippi, let me advert to the grounds occu 
 pied by a little army of objections on the other side 
 of this chamber: How many sacrifices of feeling to 
 duty, are we not about to witness ! the honorable 
 Senators of Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Mas 
 sachusetts, Ohio and Kentucky ; are constrained by 
 duty to vote against his nomination and a//, on pub- 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 lie grounds no private feeling; Oh no! nothing like 
 it; public duty against private feeling, is the order of 
 the day. And what is the dreadful public crime 
 Mr. Van l3uren has committed? Hear sir, hear. 
 He has degraded the country by giving instructions 
 to the late Minister to Great Britain, Mr. McLane, 
 about the West India trade. What instructions? 
 Can it be those on which the act of 1S30 passed 
 those which have been among our printed documents 
 for these twelve months, forming part of the Presi 
 dent s communication to Congress of January, 1831. 
 Have those honorable gentlemen who are now so 
 shocked at the public degradation, so eager to punish 
 the author of this national disgrace, been sleeping at 
 their posts no one to cry out, to ring the alarm, at 
 the dangers to which the public honor was exposed 
 no one to interfere to prevent the United States from 
 being placed at the foot-stool of the British throne? 
 Quietly witnessing the consummation of the crime, 
 passing an act with their knowledge of these instrua- 
 tions, to secure the boon, which they now see was 
 begged in the name of party from the British crown; 
 we are now electrified by bursts of indignation at 
 this first act of degradation in the history of Ameri 
 can Diplomacy! 
 
 What a spectacle is here! How long is it since 
 he who was the instrument to bow us down before 
 Great Britain, was unanimously confirmed to a post 
 
13O APPENDIX. 
 
 of honor and important trust? But the instrument 
 by whom he was ordered to act, is to bear the pun 
 ishment. The author of the instructions, he by 
 whom they were given, is too high to be reached at 
 present; the author of the crime, he who ordered it, 
 escapes he who commits it, by order, goes free; he 
 who conveys the order, answers for both, and upon 
 his head falls all the indignation of these incensed 
 Senators, acting upon public grounds, and reluctant 
 ly performing a PAINFUL PAINFUL duty ! 
 
 Well, sir, to this degradation. It is found in the 
 instructions to Mr. McLane; and to make out their 
 case, the honorable Senators from Massachusetts and 
 Kentucky, have given us a sketch of the history of 
 the West India negotiation. Both brought down 
 itheir narratives to the taunting reply of Mr. Canning 
 to Mr. Gallatin, given during the late administration. 
 From this point, both these honorable Senators found 
 it convenient to slide no, sir, to leap over all inter 
 vening events to the instructions to Mr. McLane. 
 With permission, I will fill up this unimportant 
 chasm. The terms of the British act of Parliament 
 not having been accepted by the United States, 
 American vessels were excluded by an order in Coun 
 cil, from the British West India ports. Why this 
 important interest was neglected, we have been just 
 told by the Senator from Kentucky: "the late admin 
 istration were ignorant of the act of Parliament until 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 it was casually seen by them." "It was not offi 
 cially communicated by the English Government to 
 our Government." " Even when we were colonies, 
 we were not bound by British acts of Parliament, 
 unless specially named in them." Indeed : is it pos 
 sible that the late administration did not know an act 
 of Parliament affecting important interests? Where 
 were all our accredited ministers and commercial 
 agents in Great Britain, that this government was 
 not informed of this measure, known to all Europe, 
 and taken advantage of by most of the powers in 
 terested in it. But it was not officially communica 
 ted to us. Well, sir, was it officially communicated 
 to any other Government interested in its contents 
 as we were? The British Government, I apprehend, 
 would have considered such a communication a gross 
 reflection upon our accredited agents. It would have 
 compelled them to say, in effect, we communicate to 
 you an act, supposing your agents are too negligent 
 of their duty to send it to you. What were our 
 ministers and agents about, how were they employ 
 ed, that they did not send to their Government this 
 important information? 
 
 But the last excuse is worse than all ; " even when 
 Colonies, we were not bound by acts of Parliament 
 in which we were not named specially." What a 
 discovery ! and it is concluded from this wise recol 
 lection, that we are not now bound to take notice of 
 acts of Parliament not specially and officially com- 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 municated to us. I imagine we are not bound by 
 them, communicated to us or not, but we are bound 
 to know all those touching our interests, and any ad 
 ministration is severely reprehensible for ignorance 
 of them, and for failing to attend to those that bear 
 injuriously upon the interests of the people. The 
 act was, however, at last known, and when Mr. 
 Gallatin presented himself to negotiate, with instruc 
 tions to waive all claims that were formerly present 
 ed, and had prevented an arrangement, he was taunt 
 ingly told, you have lost your day in court the pri 
 vilege, the boon, offered, had not been secured by 
 accepting the conditions: we have taken our course, 
 negociation is not our plan. Well, sir. what said the 
 administration of which the honorable Senator from 
 Kentucky formed a part? There was an act of Con 
 gress, requiring, on the shutting of the British West 
 India ports against us, an interdict by proclamation. 
 Smarting under this taunting refusal to negociate, 
 what was done? The execution of an act of Congress 
 positively directing the proclamation, was suspend- 
 ded by executive authority for two months before the 
 meeting of Congress and during the whole succeed 
 ing session, to see if Congress, who had been pre 
 vented the preceding session from legislating 
 the administration preferred the eclat of a negotia 
 tion could not legislate the executive out of the dif 
 ficulty into which he had placed the country by negli- 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 gence, or if the Senator from Kentucky pleases, ig 
 norance of the act of Parliament. We all know how 
 that effort terminated. The two houses disagreed 
 about the mode of effecting the purpose: both, how 
 ever, willing to take the privilege on the conditions 
 proposed by Great Britain. The Senate passed a 
 bill the House, under the influence of the Senator 
 from Massachusetts, amended, and the question was, 
 whether one or the other oblique path should be 
 trodden. The session terminated without legislative 
 enactment, and then, and not till then, the proclama 
 tion of interdiction was issued. Thus, sir, smarting 
 under the taunt of the British minister, our adminis 
 tration left the whole trade in the hands of Great 
 Britain of six or eight months sought to cover itself 
 from censure by invoking legislative interposition, and 
 then, was compelled to act on the suspended statute. 
 The interdict being proclaimed, the trade stood 
 upon the very advantageous footing, according to the 
 Senator s judgment, which we have lost by the nego 
 tiation. Notwithstanding we were enjoying such 
 eminent advantages, the late administration, in spite 
 of the taunt, directed Mr. Gallatin to try again to 
 procure what is now disparaged, by opening the 
 door of negotiation after it had been shut in his 
 face. He was again repulsed. But this humiliation 
 was not enough ; Mr. Barbour was sent to London 
 and he too had his instructions, and went, cap in hand, 
 12 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 knocked at the closed door for negotiation. Sir, he 
 knocked at the door of the British Ministry, under 
 circumstances humiliating in the extreme. If a gen 
 tleman should go a second time to a house, the pro 
 prietor of which, speaking from his window, had di 
 rected his porter to deny him to the visiter, his visit 
 would have been somewhat like Mr. Barbour s second 
 call. Yes, sir, yet the humiliation was vain the se 
 cond as fruitless as the first. 
 
 Such was the condition of this question, when 
 General Jackson was placed at the head of the coun 
 try. One of the first objects of his administration, 
 was the recovery of the British West India trade j 
 an arrangement of it upon terms of just reciprocity, 
 satisfactory to both parties, and therefore, promising 
 to be permanent. Mr. McLane was selected to go to 
 England, and these much abused instructions pre 
 pared by the late of Secretary of State. Let it be 
 remembered, sir, these are instructions from the Pre 
 sident of the United States to the American minister, 
 never intended for the eye of the British govern 
 ment, and which in no other country but ours, would 
 ever have seen the light 
 
 The opening of the negotiation was the chief dif 
 ficulty. To remove it, two grounds are taken. It 
 will be remembered that our refusal to accede to the 
 terms of the act of parliament, was made the ground 
 of refusing to treat with Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bar- 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 boar, both of whom went prepared to offer an ar 
 rangement by reciprocal legislation, taking the act 
 of parliament as the British legislation. To obviate 
 the difficulty, after a fair and full history of the trans 
 action, these suggestions are presented to Mr. Me- 
 Lane, to be pressed so far as he might deem it use 
 ful and proper so to do. If the British persist in 
 refusing to hear you, on this subject, remind them of 
 the circumstances that have occurred ; of the differ 
 ence of opinion among ourselves on it; of the aban 
 donment by the administration of those pretences 
 that had prevented an adjustment of it ; that they are 
 not to be again brought forward ; that the past ad 
 ministration was not amenable to the British Gov 
 ernment, nor to any other than the people of the 
 United States, who had passed upon all their acts. 
 Say to the British, if it makes pretensions formerly 
 advanced, the pretext for still declining to negotiate, 
 the sensibility of the American people will be deep 
 ly awakened. That the tone of public feeling by a 
 course so unwise and untenable, will be aggravated 
 by the known fact that Great Britain had opened her 
 colonial ports to Russia and France, notwithstanding 
 a similar omission to accede on their parts, to the 
 terms offered by the act of Parliament. And this, 
 sir, is represented as the language of entreaty, as the 
 begging of a boon. This menace of the public in 
 dignation : this declaration that the late administra- 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion was neither to be censured or praised by foreign 
 nations ; was amenable for their conduct to no earth 
 ly tribunal but the people of the United States, is 
 tortured into a claim of privileges, on party grounds 
 for party purposes, and as a disgraceful attempt to 
 throw upon a previous administration unmerited dis 
 grace, for the sake of currying favor with a foreign 
 power, and that power of all others, Great Britain. 
 
 Great Britain could not resist this frank and open 
 and manly appeal. Committed by their concession 
 in favor of France and Russia, and the ministry dis 
 tinctly told by Mr. McLane, that he would not re 
 main if they declined negotiation, or placed their 
 refusal upon any other ground than an open declara 
 tion that their interests could not permit them to 
 enter into a reciprocal engagement with the United 
 States, the English Cabinet reluctantly yielded ; and 
 then came the most odious feature in this transaction, 
 that which has sharpened the intellect of the oppo 
 sition, to discover dishonor in truth, and a want of 
 dignity in a frank exposition of facts, its crowning 
 success. Mr. McLane and Mr. Van Buren, under 
 Gen. Jackson, succeeded in affecting an object of 
 public solicitude, that Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay and 
 Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Barbour could not obtain. 
 The country was humiliated by the preceding admi 
 nistration without success; hence the charge against 
 Mr, Van Buren ; hence the overwhelming anxiety to 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 prove that the success of the late negotiation has been 
 purchased by humiliation. The British cabinet de 
 sired not to make the arrangement, it interfered with 
 great local interests, and if they could, without a 
 manifest and unjust distinction to our prejudice, they 
 would have declined admitting the United States lo 
 the privileges granted to the other maratime powers. 
 Not satisfied with his condemnation of Mr. Van 
 Buren s instructions, the Senator from Kentucky at 
 tempts to show us, by referring to another letter of 
 instructions, how this affair should have been con 
 ducted consistently with his ideas of national honor 
 and dignity. The letter from which he has read to 
 the Senate extracts, is, I think, signed H. Clay. 
 Will the Senator tell us who is responsible for it ? 
 If he is, then he exhibits himself in the singular po 
 sition of a man triumphantly contrasting the work of 
 his own hand, with that of a rival author. The Se 
 nator knows that there were two other instructions, 
 written by himself of a subsequent date, one to Mr. 
 Gallatin after Congress failed to legislate, and ano 
 ther to Governor Barbour ; neither of which is be 
 fore us, therefore, not to be contrasted with Mr. 
 Van Buren s work. I am content to abide by the 
 result of a contrast of the instructions he has con 
 demned, with those he has quoted. Let u see how 
 the gentleman s letter will bear the test of examina 
 tion. Mr. Gallatin, he says, was not instructed to 
 12* 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 abandon a right; we were to be at liberty at a more 
 convenient season to resume it. Mr. Gallatin was 
 to give a strong proof of our desire to conciliate by a 
 temporary concession of what we had previously 
 claimed throughout the whole negotiation. Was 
 
 o O 
 
 Mr. Gallatin instructed to say to the British Govern 
 ment, this is a temporary concession ? No, sir, he 
 was authorised to waive the claim, and make an ar 
 rangement on the British basis. Put this into plain 
 language, and what was it; stript of its diplomatic 
 drapery and verbiage, and it is neither more nor Jess 
 than an abandonment of a pretension, which, though 
 we had supported by argument, we were resolved 
 not to enforce by power. Sir, this covering up of a 
 plain truth is the common trick of diplomacy ; it de 
 ceives no one, and had Mr. Gallatin presented these 
 conciliatory concessions, they must have been re 
 ceived as a virtual and total abandonment of our pre 
 tension. The honied words of right waived from a 
 conciliatory spirit, and with the hope of correspond 
 ing friendly dispositions, would have been received 
 with a sneer, lurking in the official artificial smile 
 of a thorough bred diplomatist. The Senator, in 
 sists, however, it was a right and not a pretension. 
 If it was a right, why was it waived or surrendered ? 
 For conciliation sake? Why, sir, we were the of 
 fended party. England had taunted us. England 
 had refused once, twice, thrice to negotiate, and yet 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 to conciliate England,, we were waiving a well- 
 grounded right ? For what purpose were we thus 
 conciliating? To place the trade on its present foot 
 ing, to the great injury of the navigation and com 
 merce of the United States. Such is the view now 
 taken by several honorable senators who have favor 
 ed us with their opinion on this subject. 
 
 The present administration waived no right for 
 conciliation sake ; sacrificed no principle. It stood 
 upon the truth, and truth only ; and whatever may 
 be the custom of others, and the ordinary usages of 
 diplomacy, the administration was right. Nations 
 fold themselves in the robes of falsehood, and swell 
 and strut in vain, to preserve an air of dignity and 
 decorum. No nation ever was just to its own cha 
 racter, or preserved its dignity, that did not stand at 
 all times before the world in the sober and simple 
 garb of truth. Sir, the character of our diplomacy 
 has undergone a marked change ; we are no longer 
 pretenders to skill and artifice ; all our wiles are facts 
 and reasons all our artifice, truth and justice. The 
 honorable Senator tells us that this instruction is 
 false, or else it proves Mr. V. B. to have been crimi 
 nally ignorant of what it was his duty to know. 
 How does he make this appear ? He alleges that 
 Mr. V. B. charged the late administration with be 
 ing the first to advance the pretension it subsequent 
 ly abandoned and this he declares is untrue, the 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 pretension was set up before the late administration 
 came into power. Now, sir, as I read this paragraph, 
 Mr. V. B. does not charge the late administration 
 with being the first to advance this pretension. The 
 Senator will recollect this is a letter to Mr. McLane, 
 whose personal knowledge is appealed to, and who 
 must have understood the writer as alluding to a fact 
 of general notoriety. The words are " those who 
 first advanced" fyc. have subsequently abandoned. 
 Can any man mistake the meaning the meaning 
 perfectly in accordance with the fact ? The preten 
 sion was advanced by the use of the famous elsewhere 
 in our act of Congress, an act known to have been 
 penned by Mr. Adams, who had previously occupied 
 the ground covered by it, in his instructions to Mr. 
 Rush. It was Mr. Adams who first advanced and 
 abandoned this ground. The credit or the odium, 
 which ever term belongs injustice to the act, attaches 
 to Mr. Adams, and so Mr. McLane could only have 
 nnderstrod it, and so must the Senator from Kentuc 
 ky, if he examines with a desire to understand it in 
 the spirit of the author. 
 
 There are considerations connected with Mr. V. B. 
 if I deem it consistent with his honor, that I could 
 present to those that hear me, that would not fail to 
 make a deeper impression upon their minds. But I 
 ask no remembrance of his forbearance ; no recol 
 lection of his magnanimity ; I appeal to no one to 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 imitate his mildness and courtesy and kindness in 
 his deportment here, nor to judge him as he judged 
 his rivals for fame and power. I demand for him 
 nothing but justice harsh harsh justice. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Letter of the Republican members of the New- 
 York Legislature, to the President. 
 
 ALBANY, Feb. 9, 1832. 
 To his Excellency ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 President of the United States. 
 
 SIR The undersigned in the performance of the 
 duty with which they have been charged by the re 
 publican members of the legislature of the state of 
 New-York, have the honor to transmit herewith, 
 the proceedings of a meeting held by them in the 
 Capitol of this State, on the 3d inst. In doing so, 
 they cannot restrain the expression of the feelings of 
 indignation with which they view the act to which 
 these proceedings refer. 
 
 A great majority of the citizens of this State have 
 given repeated evidences of the high estimation in 
 which they have held your administration of the af 
 fairs of the nation. The inflexible integrity which 
 has marked every act of your public life the mere 
 than military couarge, with which the responsibili 
 ties of your high station have been assumed, and the 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 constant regard manifested by you to the purity of 
 the Constitution, have strengthened their attachment 
 to your person and your government; and they 
 have not been regardless of the manner in which the 
 splendid career of a military life, has been followed 
 by the many signal blessings which your civil admi 
 nistration, has bestowed upon our country. 
 
 This State witnessed with pride, the selection of 
 Mr. Van Buren by your excellency as Secretary of 
 State: Our citizens had given repeated evidences 
 of their confidence in him. With the watchfulness 
 becoming a free people, they had regarded his con 
 duct, in the various stations to which he had been 
 called by the constituted authorities of the State.- 
 They had witnessed his attachment under all circum 
 stances, to the principles of the democracy of the 
 country, and they had then recently evinced the ex 
 tent of their confidence by elevating him to the 
 highest office within their gift. They felt that your 
 Excellency s removal of him to a wider sphere was 
 an act of justice at once to his capacity, honesty and 
 fidelity to the constitution, and to the character of 
 this State and the feelings of its people. They cheer 
 fully acquiesced in that removal, and freely surren 
 dered their most distinguished fellow-citizen to your 
 call, because they recognized in it additional confir 
 mation of the high hopes they had imbibed of the 
 character of your administration. They saw with 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 tindissembled pleasure, his efforts to aid your Excel 
 lency in your successful attempt to restore the gov 
 ernment to its purity; and when his withdrawal from 
 the high station to which your partiality had exalted 
 him, became necessary for the preservation of your 
 peace against the attacks of those who were alike 
 enemies to your person and your principles, they 
 beheld in your continued confidence in him, irrefra 
 gable proof, that no combination could close the eyes 
 of your Excellency, to the cause of your country, 
 and no pesonal considerations arrest your efforts for 
 the common welfare. They saw, that amid the as* 
 saults made upon your principles by unfaithful ser 
 vants, the honor of our country was not lost to your 
 view, and they felt, that the same ardent patriotism, 
 which had been manifested on the walls of New 
 Orleans, had been brought into the administration of 
 the government They saw and felt this, in the ef 
 fort made by your Excellency, to acquire by frank 
 and honest negotiation, that for which we had war 
 red with Great Britain; which had been abandoned, 
 if not surrendered, by subtle diplomacy; and upon 
 which your Excellency, at least, had not been silent. 
 The people of this whole country, felt indeed that 
 their confidence in your Excellency was not mis 
 placed; for they saw and knew that no considera 
 tions of a private nature could for a moment affect 
 your ardent desire to promote the common weal 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is true they were aware that there were -citi 
 zens in this Union, who could justify and participate 
 in this surrender of "free trade and sailor s rights," 
 who could "calculate the value of the Union," and 
 who could laugh at our calamities in a period of war 
 and general distress. But they could not believe that 
 such feelings could sway any branch of our hitherto 
 unsullied government, and least of all, that they 
 would ever dare combine to impede the attempt of 
 your Excellency, to secure that for our country, for 
 which we had expended millions of our money, and 
 for which thousands of our citizens had laid down 
 their lives. 
 
 Your Excellency has ever appreciated the feelings 
 of the people of this country, and it will not now be 
 difficult for you to judge of those which pervade this 
 whole community, against an act unprecedented in the 
 annals of our country; which has impaired the hitherto 
 exalted character of our national Senate which has 
 insulted a Slate that yields to none in attachment to 
 the Union; and which has directly attacked an ad 
 ministration that is founded deep in the affections of 
 the people. 
 
 The State of New-York, sir, is capable in itself, 
 of avenging the indignity thus offered to its charac 
 ter, in the person of its favorite son. But we should 
 be unmindful of our duty, if we failed in the ex 
 pression of our sympathy with your Excellency s 
 
APPENDIX. 145 
 
 feelings of mortification, at this degradation of the 
 country you have loved so well. Yet be assured, 
 sir, that there is a redeeming spirit in the people, 
 and that those whom we have the honor to repre 
 sent, ardently desire an opportunity of expressing 
 their undiminished confidence in an administration, 
 which has exalted the character of our country, which 
 has restored the purity of the government, and has 
 shed abroad upon the whole nation the continued 
 blessings of peace and prosperity. 
 
 In the fervent hope, that your Excellency may 
 yet be spared many years to bles^ and adorn the only 
 free nation upon earth, we remain your sincere 
 friends, and Very humble servants, 
 
 N. P. TALLMADGE, THO. ARMSTRONG, 
 LEVI BEARDSLEY, JOHN F. HUBBARD 
 J. W. EDMONDS, E. LITCH FIELD, 
 
 CH. L. LIVINGSTON, WM. SEYMOUR, 
 G. OSTRANDER, AARON RKMER, 
 
 J. W. WILLIAMSON, JAS. HUGHSTON, 
 PETER WOOD, WM. H. ANGEL. 
 
 ED. POWELL, 
 
 THE PRESIDENT S REPLY. 
 
 WASHINGTON, FEB. 23, 1832. 
 Gentlemen : I have h:id the honor to receive your 
 
 letter of the 9th inst. enclosing the resolutions passed 
 13 
 
146 APPENDIX. 
 
 " at a meeting of the republican members of the Le 
 gislature of New York," on the rejection by the Se 
 nate of the United States of the nomination of Mar 
 tin Van Buren as Minister to England. 
 
 I am profoundly grateful for the approbation which 
 that distinguished body of my republican fellow-ci 
 tizens of New York have on that occasion, been 
 pleased to express of the past administration of the 
 affairs placed in my charge by the people of the 
 United States, and for their generous offers of con 
 tinued confidence and support. Conscious of the 
 rectitude of my intentions, my reliance in all the 
 vicissitudes of my public life, has been upon the vir 
 tue and patriotism of an enlightened people. 
 
 Their generous support has been my shield and 
 my stay, when, in times past, the zealous perfor 
 mance of the arduous military duties allotted to 
 me, though crowned with success, tvas sought to be 
 made a ground of reproach ; and this manifesta 
 tion on the part of my fellow -citizens of the great 
 State of New York, assures me that services not 
 less faithful in the civil administration will not 
 be less successfully defended. 
 
 When such reliance fails the public servant, public 
 liberty will be in danger: for if the people become 
 insensible to indignities offered to those, who, with 
 pure intentions devote themselves to the advance 
 ment of the safety and happiness of the country, 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 public virtue will cease to be respected, and public 
 trusts will be sought for other rewards than those of 
 patriotism. 
 
 I CANNOT WITHHOLD MY ENTIRE CONCURRENCE 
 WITH THE REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLA 
 TURE IN THEIR HIGH ESTIMATION OP THEIR EMI 
 NENT FELLOW CITIZEN", WHOM THEY HAVE SO GE 
 NEROUSLY COME FORWARD TO SUSTAIN. To THIS I 
 WILL ADD THE ASSURANCE OF MY UNDIMINSHED RE 
 SPECT FOR HIS GREAT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WORTH, 
 AND MY FULL CONFIDENCE IN THE INTEGRITY OF 
 HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 In calling him to the department of state from the 
 exalted station he then occupied by the suffrages of 
 the people of his native state, I was not, influenced 
 more by his ocknowledged talents and public ser 
 vices, than by the general wish and expectation of 
 the Republican Party throughout the Union. The 
 signal ability and success which distinguished his ad 
 ministration of the duties of that department, have 
 fully justified the selection. 
 
 I owe it to the lale Secretary of State, to myself, 
 and to the American people on this occasion to 
 state, that as far as is known to me, he had no 
 participation whatever in the occurrences relative, 
 to myself and the second officer of the government, 
 or in the dissolution of the late cabinet ; and that 
 there is no ground for imputing to him the having 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 desired those removals from office which, in the 
 discharge of my constitutional Junctions, if was 
 deemed proper to make. JDuring his continuance 
 in the cabinet, his exertions were directed to pro 
 duce harmony among its members; and he UNI 
 FORMLY ENDEAVORED TO SUSTAIN HIS COLLEAGUES. 
 HlS FINAL RESIGNATION WAS A SACRIFICE OF OFFI 
 CIAL STATION TO WHAT HE DEEMED THE BEST INTE 
 RESTS OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 Mr. McLane, our then minister at London, hav 
 ing previously asked permission to return, it was my 
 anxious desire to commit all the important points re 
 maining open in our relations with Great Britain, to 
 9 successor in whose peculiar fitness and capacity I 
 had equal confidence: and to my selection Mr. Van 
 Buren yielded a reluctant assent. In urging upon 
 him that sacrifice, I did not doubt that I was doing 
 the best for the country, and acting in coincidence 
 with the public wish ; and it certainly couid not 
 have been anticipated that, in the manner of suc 
 cessfully conducting and terminating an important 
 complex negotiation, which had previously receiv 
 ed the sanction of both houses of congress, there 
 would have been found motives for embarrassing the 
 executive action, and for interrupting an important 
 foreign negotiation. 
 
 I can never be led to doubt , that in the instruc 
 tions under which that negotiation relative to the 
 
APPENDIX. 149 
 
 trade with the British West Indies, was conducted 
 and successfully concluded, the people of the Uni 
 ted States will find nothing either derogatory to 
 the national dignity and honor, or improper for 
 such an occasion. 
 
 Those parts of the instructions which have been 
 used to justify the rejection of Mr. Van JBureri s 
 nomination by the Senate of the United States, 
 proceeded from my own suggestion ; were the re 
 sult of my own deliberate investigation and reflec 
 tion ; and now, as when they were dictated, ap 
 pear to me to be entirely proper and consonant to 
 my public duty. 
 
 / feel, gentlemen, that I am incapable of tar 
 nishing the, pride, or dignity of that country , ivhose 
 glory, both in the field and in the civil administra 
 tion it has been my object to elevate : and I feel 
 assured that the exalted attitude which the Ameri 
 can people maintain abroad, and the prosperity 
 with which they are blessed at home, fully attest 
 that their honor and happiness have been unsullied 
 in my hands. 
 
 A participation in the trade with the British West 
 India Islands, upon terms mutually satisfactory to the 
 United States and Great Britain, had been an object 
 of constant solicitude with our government from its 
 origin. During the long and vexatious history of 
 this subject, various propositions had been made with 
 
15O APPENDIX. 
 
 but partial success; and in the administration of my 
 immediate predecessor, more than one attempt to 
 adjust it had ended in a total interruption of the trade. 
 
 The acknowledged importance of this branch of 
 trade, the influence it was believed to have had in 
 the elections which terminated in the change of the 
 administration, and the general expectation on the part 
 of the people, that renewed efforts, on frank and 
 decisive grounds, might be successfully made to re 
 cover it, imposed upon me the duty of undertaking 
 the task. 
 
 Recently, however, Great Britain had more than 
 once declined renewing the negotiation, and placed 
 her refusal upon the objections which she thought 
 proper to take to the manner of our previous nego 
 tiation, and to the claims which had at various limes 
 been made upon the part of our government. 
 
 The American government, notwithstanding, con 
 tinued its efforts to obtain a participation in the trade. 
 It waived the claims at first insisted upon, as well as 
 the objection to the imposition by Great Britain of 
 higher duties upon the produce of the United States 
 when imported into the West Indies, than upon the 
 produce of her own possessions, which objection had 
 been taken in 1819 in a despatch of the then Secre 
 tary of State. 
 
 A participation in the trade with the British West 
 India Islands could not have been, at any time, de- 
 
APPENDIX. J51 
 
 manded as a right any more than in that to the Bri 
 tish European ports. In the posture of affairs already 
 adverted to, therefore, the Executive could ask no 
 thing more than to be permitted to engage in it upon 
 the terms assented to by his predecessor, and which 
 were the same as those previously offered by Great 
 Britain herself. Even these had been denied to the 
 late administration, and for reasons arising from the 
 views entertained by the British government of our 
 conduct in the past negotiation. 
 
 It was foreseen that this refusjl might be repeated 
 and on the same grounds. When it became the duty 
 of the Executive, rather than disappoint the expecta 
 tions of the people and wholly abandon the trade, to 
 continue the application, it was proper to meet the 
 objection to the past acts of the American adminis 
 tration, which objection, as had been foreseen, was 
 actually made and for some time insisted upon. 
 
 It is undoubtedly the duty of all to sustain, by an 
 undivided and patriotic front, the action of the con 
 stituted authorities towards foreign nations : and this 
 duty requires, that during the continuance of an ad 
 ministration in office, nothing should be done to em 
 barrass the Executive intercourse in its foreign poli 
 cy, unless upon a conviction that it is erroneous. A 
 thorough change in the administration, however, 
 raises up other authorities of equal dignity, and 
 equally entitled to respect : and an open adoption of 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 a different course implies ric separation of the diffe 
 rent parts of the government : nor does an admission 
 of the inexpediency or impracticability of previous 
 demands imply any want of respect for those who 
 may have maintained them. 
 
 To defend the claims, or pretensions, as ihey 
 had been indiscriminately called, on either side, in 
 the previous correspondence, which had been for a 
 time urged by the late administration, would have 
 been to defend, what that administration by waiv 
 ing them, had admitted to be untenable, and if 
 that which had been by them conceded to be inex 
 pedient, could not be sustained as proper, I perceive 
 nothing derogatory, and surely nothing turong, in 
 conducting the negotiation upon the common and 
 established principle, that in a change of adminis 
 tration there may be a corresponding change in the 
 policy and counsels of the government. This prin 
 ciple exists and is acted upon, in the diplomatic and 
 public transactions of all nations. The fact of its 
 existence in the recent change of the administration 
 of the American government, was as notorious as the 
 circulation of the American press could make it ; 
 and while its influence upon the policy of foreign na 
 tions was both natural and reasonable, it was proper, 
 according to my sense of duty, frankly to avow it, if 
 the interests of the people of the United States should 
 so require. 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 Such was the motive, and such and nothing more, 
 is the true import of the instructions, taken as a whole, 
 which I directedd to be given to our minister at Lon 
 don, and which neither expressed nor implied con 
 demnation of the government of the United States, 
 nor of the late administration, further than had been 
 implied by their own acts of admission. 
 
 I could not reconcile it to my sense of public duty, 
 or of the national dignity, that the United States 
 should suffer continued injury or injustice, because a 
 former administration had insisted upon terms which 
 it had subsequently waived, or had failed seasonably 
 to accept an offer which it had afterwards been wil 
 ling to embrace. The conduct of previous adminis 
 trations was not to be discussed either for censure or 
 defence ; and only in case Cl the omissions of this 
 government to accept of the terms proposed when 
 heretofore offered," should <fc be urged as an objec 
 tion now," it was made the duty of the minister * to 
 make the British government sensible of the injus 
 tice and inexpediency of such a course." 
 
 Both the right and the propriety of setting up the 
 past acts of previous administrations to justify the 
 exclusion of the United States from a trade allowed 
 to all other nations, was distinctly denied, and the 
 instructions authorised the minister to state that such 
 a course towards the United States " under existing 
 circumstances, would be unjust in itself, and could 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 not fail to excite the deepest sensibility the tone of 
 feeling which a course so unwise and untenable is 
 calculated to produce, would doubtless be greatly ag 
 gravated by the consciousness that Great Britain has, 
 by orders in council, opened her colonial ports to 
 Russia and France, notwithstanding a similar omis 
 sion on their part to accept the terms offered by the 
 act of the 5th July, 1825 ;" he was told that " he 
 could not press this view of the subject too earnestly 
 upon the consideration of the British ministry ;" and 
 the prejudicial influence of a course on the part of the 
 British Government so unwise and unjust upon the 
 future relations of the two countries, was clearly an 
 nounced in the declaration that "it has bearings and 
 relations that reach beyond the immediate question 
 under discussion." 
 
 If the British government should decline an ar 
 rangement "on the ground of a change of opinion, 
 or in order to promote her own interests." a prompt 
 avowal of that purpose was demanded ; but if they 
 should not be prepared to take that ground, " but 
 suffer themselves to desire that the United States 
 should, in expiation of supposed past encroachments, 
 be driven to the necessity of retracing their legisla 
 tive steps, without knowledge of its effect, and whol 
 ly dependent upon the indulgence of Great Britain ;" 
 they were to be made sensible of the impracticability 
 of that course, and to be taught to expect such mea- 
 
APPENDIX. |55 
 
 sures on our part as would vindicate our national in 
 terest and honor. To announce distinctly to Great 
 Britain that we would not submit to a continued in 
 justice, on the ground of any objection to the past 
 conduct of the American government, whether it 
 were right or wrong, was the obvious import of the 
 whole instructions. 
 
 If the Executive had caused it to be stated to 
 Great Britain, that finding his predecessors to have 
 been in error, as was implied by subsequently waiv 
 ing the terms they had advocated, and had, in expia 
 tion of those errors, abandoned the trade to the plea 
 sure of the British Government, the interests of the 
 United States would have suffered, and their honor 
 been reproached ; but in excluding such considera 
 tions, as inappropriate and unjust, and in clearly 
 avowing his purprse not to submit to that treatment, 
 he hoped to promote the interests of his fellow-citi 
 zens, and sustain the honor and dignity of the coun 
 try. 
 
 In all this, gentlemen, I have the approbation of 
 my judgment and conscience. Acting upon the 
 principle, early announced, of asking nothing but 
 what is right, and submitting to nothing that is 
 wrong, I asked that only of which the justice could 
 not be denied. I asked a participation in the trade, 
 upon terms just to the United States, and mutually 
 advantageous to both countries. I directed a simple 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 and distinct proposition in conformity with these 
 principles, to be submitted to the British govern 
 ment, and, resolving to be contented with nothing 
 less, I ultimately arranged the trade upon the basis 
 of that proposition, without retraction, modification, 
 or change. If the national honor had not been 
 thought tarnished by retracing our steps, by claim 
 ing more and ultimately consenting to take less, 
 and in J act obtaining nothing ; I feel assured, that 
 in requiring that which my predecessors had con 
 ceded to be enough; and obtaining all that was de 
 manded, my countrymen will see no stain upon their 
 dignity, their pride, or their honor. 
 
 If I required greater satisfaction than I derive from 
 a review of this subject, I shall find it in the grati 
 tude I feel for the success which has crowned my 
 efforts. I shall always possess the gratifying recol 
 lection, that J have not disappointed the expecta 
 tions of my countrymen, who, under an arrange 
 ment depending for its permanence upon our own 
 wisdom, are participating in a valuable trade upon 
 terms more advantageous than those which the illus 
 trious Father of his Country was willing to accept ; 
 upon terms as favorable as those which regulate the 
 trade under our conventions with Graat Britain, and 
 which have been sought without success from the 
 earliest periods of our history. 
 
 I pray you, gentlemen, to present to the republi- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 can members of the legislature of New York, and to 
 accept for yourselves individually, the assurance of 
 my highest regard and consideration. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 Massrs. N. P. Tallmadge, Thomas Arm 
 strong 1 , I.evi Beardslcy, John F Hub- 
 bard, J. W. Edmonds, Chas. L. Li 
 vingston, Gideon Ostrander, John M. 
 Williamson, Peter Wood, E Howell, 
 Elisha Litchfield, Willi.im Seymour, 
 Aaron Remer, Jas. Hugliston, VVm. 
 H. Anarel. 
 
 Address of Mr. VAN BFJREN, Vice President q/ 
 the United Slates, on taking the Chair of the 
 Senate, as its presiding officer, on Monday, De 
 cember 16, 1833. 
 
 SENATORS: On entering on the duliesofthe sta 
 tion to which I have been called by the People, de 
 ference to you and justice to myself require that I 
 should forestall expectations which might otherwise 
 be disappointed. Although for many years hereto 
 fore a member of the Senate, I regret that I should 
 not have acquired that knowledge of the particular 
 order of its proceedings which might naturally be ex 
 pected. Unfortunately for me, in respect to my pre 
 sent condition, 1 ever found those at hand who had 
 more correctly appreciated this important branch of 
 their duties, and on whose opinions, as to points of 
 14 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 order, I could at all times safely rely. This remiss- 
 ness will, doubtless, for a season, cause me no small 
 degree of embarrassment. So far, however, as un 
 remitting exertions on my part, and proper respect 
 for the advice of those who ;ire better informed than 
 myself, can avail, this deficiency will be remedied as 
 speedily as possible; and I feel persuaded that the 
 Senate, in the mean time, will extend to me a con 
 siderate indulgence. 
 
 But however wanting I may be, for the time, in a 
 thorough knowledge of the technical duties of the 
 Chair, I entertain, I humbly hope, a deep and so 
 lemn conviction of its high moral obligations. I am 
 well aware that he who occupies it, is hound to cher 
 ish towards the membeis of the body over which 
 he presides, no other feeling than those of justice 
 and courtesy to regard them all as standing upon 
 an honorable equality to apply the rules establish 
 ed by themselves, for their own government, with 
 strict impartiality and to use whatever authority 
 he possesses in the manner best calculated to protect 
 the rights, to respect the feelings, and to guard the 
 reputations of all who may be affected by its ex 
 ercise. 
 
 It is no disparagement to any other branch of the 
 Government to say, that there is none on which the 
 Constitution devolves such extensive powers as it 
 does upon the Senate. There is scarcely an exercise 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 of constitutional authority in which it does not me 
 diately or immediately participate ; it forms an im 
 portant and, in some respects, an indispensible part 
 of each of the three great departments, Executive, 
 Legislative, and Judicial; and is moreover, the body 
 in which is made effectual, that share of power in 
 the Federal organization so wisely allowed to the re 
 spective State sovereignties. 
 
 Invested with such august powers, so judiciously 
 restricted, and so sagely adapted to the purposes of 
 good government, it is no wonder that the Senate is 
 regarded by the people of the United States, as one 
 of the best features, in what they at least consider to 
 be the the wisest, the freest, and happiest political 
 system in the world. In fervent wishes that it may 
 long continue to be so regarded, and in a conviction, 
 of the importance of order, propriety, and regularity 
 in its proceedings, we must all concur. It shall be 
 an object of my highest ambition, Senators, to join 
 with you, as far as in me lies, in effecting those de 
 sirable objects; and in endeavoring to realize the ex 
 pectation formed of this body at the adoption of the 
 Constitution, and ever since confidently cherished, 
 that it would exercise the most efficient influence in 
 upholding the Federal system, and in perpetuating 
 what is at once the foundation and the safeguard of 
 our country s welfare, the Union of the States. 
 
1(30 APPENDIX. 
 
 MR. BENTON S LETTER. 
 
 To Maj. Gen. Davis,, of the State of Mississippi, 
 declining ike nomination of the Convention of 
 that State for the Vice Presidency ; defending the 
 nomination of Mr. Van .Burenfor the Presiden 
 cy ; and recommending harmony r , concert, and 
 union, to the democratic party of the U. States. 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, January 1st, 1835. 
 DEAR SIR, We have learned that you have de 
 clined permitting your name to be used as a candi 
 date for the Vice-Presidency of the United Stales, 
 and that you have addressed a letter to that effect, 
 some time since, to the Committee of the State Con 
 vention of Mississippi, by whom you were nomi 
 nated for that high office. It will be a considerable 
 time before your determination, - communicated 
 through that channel, can be known to the people of 
 the United States; we therefore request the favor of 
 a cop} 7 of your letter, if you retained one, for pub 
 lication at this place, in older that your friends else 
 where, as well as in Mississippi, may have an early 
 opportunity of turning their attention to some other 
 suitable person. Yours, with great respect, 
 ROHT. T. LYTLE, (of Ohio,) 
 HENRY I-IUHHARD, (of New Hampshire,) 
 RATL1FF HOUiN, (of Indiana,) 
 H. A. MUHLENBERG, (of Pennsylvania.) 
 Honorable Tuos. H. BENTON. 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, January 2d, 1835. 
 GENTLEMEN, I herewith send you a copy of my 
 letter, declining the nomination of the Mississippi 
 State Convention, for the Vice-Presidency of the 
 United States. Fairness towards my political friends 
 in every part of the Union, required me to let them 
 know at once what my determination was; and this 
 I have done in many private letters, and in all the 
 conversations which I have held upon the subject. 
 The nomination in Mississippi was the first one 
 which came from a State Convention, and therefore 
 the first one which seemed to me to justify a public 
 letter, and to present the question in such a form as 
 would save me from the ridicule of declining what no 
 State had offered. The letter to Mississippi was in 
 tended for publication, to save my friends any fur 
 ther trouble on my account. It was expected to 
 reach, in its circuit, my friends in every quarter ; 
 and as you suggest that it might be a considerable 
 time before it could return from the State of Missis 
 sippi through the newspapers, and that in the mean 
 time, my friends elsewhere, might wish earlier in 
 formation, that they might turn their attention to 
 some other person, I cheerfully comply with your 
 request, and furnish the copy for publication here. 
 Yours, respectfully, 
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 
 Messrs. R. T. Lytle, H. Hubbard, R. Boon, 
 and H. J2. Muhlenberg. 14* 
 
1(52 APPENDIX. 
 
 MR. BENTON S LETTER. 
 WASHINGTON CITY, Dec. 16th, 1834. 
 
 DEAR SIR : Your kind letter of the 8th ultimo has 
 been duly received, and I take great pleasure in re 
 turning you my thanks for the friendship you have 
 shown me, and which I shall he happy to acknow 
 ledge by acts, rather than words, whenever an op 
 portunity shall occur. * 
 
 The recommendation for the Vice-Presidency of 
 the United States, which the Democratic Convention 
 of your State has done me the honor to make, is, in 
 the highest degree, flattering and honorable to me, 
 and commands the expression of my deepest grati 
 tude ; but, justice to myself, and to our political 
 friends, requires me to say at once, and with the can 
 dor and decision which rejects all disguise, and pal 
 ters with no retraction, that I cannot consent to go 
 upon the list of candidates for the eminent office for 
 which I have been proposed. 
 
 I consider the ensuing election for President, and 
 Vice-President, as one among the most important 
 that ever took place in our country ; ranking with 
 that of 1SOO, when the democratic principle first 
 triumphed in the person of Mr. Jefferson, and with 
 the two elections of 1828, and 1832, when the same 
 principle again triumphed in the person of General 
 Jackson ; and I should look upon all the advantages 
 recovered for the constitution, and the people, in 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 these two last triumphs, as lost and gone, unless the 
 democracy of the Union shall again triumph in the 
 election of 1836. To succeed in that election, will 
 require the most perfect harmony and union among 
 ourselves. To secure this union and harmony, we 
 must have as few aspirants for the offices of President, 
 and Vice President, as possible ; and to diminish the 
 number of these aspirants, I, for one, shall refuse to 
 go upon the list : and will remain in the ranks of the 
 voters, ready to support the cause of democracy, by 
 supporting the election of the candidates which shall 
 be selected by a general convention of the democra 
 tic party. 
 
 But, while respectfully declining, for myself, the 
 highly honorable and flattering recommendation of 
 your convention, I take a particular pleasure in ex 
 pressing the gratification which I feel, at seeing the 
 nomination which you have made in favor of Mr. 
 Van Buren. I have known that gentleman long, 
 and intimately. We entered the Senate of the 
 United States together, thirteen years ago, sat six 
 years in seats next to each other, were always per 
 sonally friendly, generally acted together on leading 
 subjects, and always interchanged communications, 
 and reciprocated confidence ; and thus, occupying a 
 position to give me an opportunity of becoming tho 
 roughly acquainted with his principles, and charac 
 ter, the result of the whole has been, that I have long 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 since considered him, and so indicated him to my 
 friends, as the most fit, and suitable person to fill the 
 presidential chair after the expiration of President 
 Jackson s second term. In political principles he is 
 thoroughly democratic, and comes as near the Jeffer- 
 sonian standard as any statesman now on the stage of 
 public life. In abilities, experience, and business 
 habits, he is beyond the reach of cavil or dispute.-*- 
 Personally, he is inattackable ; for the whole volume 
 of his private life contains not a single act which re 
 quires explanation, or defence. In constitutional 
 temperament he is peculiarly adapted to the station, 
 and the times; for no human being could be more 
 free from every taint of envy, malignity, or revenge, 
 r, could possess, in a more eminent degree, that 
 happy conjunction of firmness of purpose, with sua 
 vity of manners, which contributes so much to the 
 successful administration of public affairs, and is so 
 essential, and becoming, in a high public functionary. 
 The State from which he comes, and of which, suc 
 cessive elections for two and twenty years prove him 
 to be the favorite son, is also to be taken into the ac 
 count in the list of his recommendations ; that great 
 State which, in the eventful struggle of 1SOO, turned 
 the scales of the presidential election in favor of 
 Mr. Jefferson, which has supported every demo 
 cratic administration from that day to this; a State 
 which now numbers two millions of inhabitants, 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 gives forty-two votes in the presidential election, 
 and never saw one of her own sons exalted to the pre 
 sidential office. 
 
 But what has he done? What has Mr. Van Buren 
 done, that he should be elected President ? This is 
 the inquiry, as flippantly, as ignorantly put by those 
 who would veil, or disparage the merits of this 
 gentleman ; when it would be much more regular 
 and pertinent to ask, what has such a man as this 
 done, that he should not be made President? But, 
 to answer the inquiry as put: It might perhaps be 
 sufficient, so far at least as the comparative merits of 
 competitors are concerned, to point to his course in 
 the Senate of the United States during the eight 
 years that he sat in that body ; and to his conduct 
 since in the high offices to which he has been call 
 ed by his native State, by President Jackson, and by 
 the American people. This might be sufficient be 
 tween Mr. Van Buren and others ; but it would not 
 be sufficient for himself. Justice to him would re 
 quire an answer to go further back, to the war of 
 1S12, when he was a member of the New York Se 
 nate ; when the fate of Mr. Madison s administra 
 tion, and of the Union itself, depended upon the 
 conduct of that great State great in men and means, 
 and greater in position, a frontier to New England, 
 and to Canada to Briti:>h arms and Hartford Con 
 vention treason ; and when that conduct, to the dis- 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 may of every patiotic bosom, was seen to bang,, for 
 nearly two years, in the doubtful scales of sixpence. 
 The federalists had the majority in the House of 
 Representatives ; the democracy had the Senate and 
 the Governor; and for two success! v ? e sessions no 
 measure could be adopted in support of the war. 
 Every aid proposed by the Governor and Senate, 
 was rejected by the House of Representatives 
 Every State paper issued by one, was answered by 
 the oiher. Continual disagreements took place ; in 
 numerable conferences were had ; the Ha!l of the 
 House of Representatives was the scene of contesta 
 tion ; and every conference was a public exhibition 
 of parliamentary conflict a public trial of intellec 
 tual digladiation. in which each side, represented by 
 committees of its ablest men, and in the presence of 
 both houses, and of assembled multitudes, exerted 
 itself to Die utmost to justify itself, and to put the 
 other in the wrong, to operate upon public opinion, 
 govern the impending elections, and acquire the as 
 cendency in the ensuing legislature. Mr. Van Bu- 
 ren, then a young man, had just entered the Senate 
 at the commencement of this extraordinary struggle. 
 He entered it, November 1S12 ; and had just dis 
 tinguished himself in the opposition of his county to 
 the first national bank charter in the support of 
 Vi^e President Clinton for giving the casting vote 
 against it and in his noble support of Governor 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Tompkins, for his Roman energy in proroguing the 
 General Assembly, (April, 1812,) which could not 
 otherwise be prevented from receiving and embody 
 ing the transmigratory soul of that defunct institu 
 tion, and giving it a new existence, in a new place, 
 under an altered name and modified form. He was 
 politically born out of this conflict, and came into the 
 legislature against the bank, and for the war. He 
 was the man which the occasion required ; the ready 
 writer prompt debater judicious counsellor ; cour 
 teous in manners firm in purpose inflexible in 
 principles. He contrived tbe measures brought 
 forward the bills and reports delivered the speeches 
 and drew the State papers, (especially the power 
 ful address to the republican voters of the State,) 
 which eventually vanquished the federal party, turn 
 ed the doubtful scales, and gave the elections of 
 April, 1S14, to the friends and supporters of Madi 
 son and the war; an event, the intelligence of which 
 was received at Washington with an exultation only 
 inferior to that with which was received the news of 
 the victory of New Orleans. The new legislature, 
 now democratic in both branches, was quickly con 
 vened by Governor Tompkins ; and Mr. Van Buren 
 had the honor to bring forward, and carry through, 
 amidst the applauses of patriots, and the denunciation 
 of the anti-war party, the most energetic war mea 
 sure ever adopted in our America the classification 
 
1G8 APPENDIX, 
 
 bill, as he called it, the conscription bill, as they 
 called it. By this bill, the provisions of which, by 
 a new and summary process, were so contrived as to 
 act upon property, as \ve!l as upon persons, an army 
 of twelve thousand state troops were immediately to 
 be raised ; to serve for two years, and to be placed 
 at the disposition of the General Government, The 
 peace which was signed in the last days of Deeeml er, 
 1814, rendered this great measure of New York in 
 operative ; but its merit was acknowledged by all 
 patriots at the time ; the principle of it was adopted 
 by Mr. Madison s administration ; recommended by 
 the Secretary at War, Mr. Monroe, to the Congress 
 of the United States, and found by that body too 
 energetic to be passed. To complete his course in 
 support of the war, and to crown his meritorious la 
 bors to bring it to a happy close, it became Mr. Van 
 Buren s fortune to draw up the vote of thanks of the 
 greatest State of the Union, to the greatest General 
 which the war had produced " I. he thanks of 
 the New York legislature to Major General JACK 
 SON, his gallant officers and troops, for tlie n won 
 derful > and heroic victory , in defence of the grand 
 emporium of the West" Such was the appropriate 
 conclusion to his patriotic services in support of the 
 war: services, to be sure, not rivalling in splendor 
 the heroic achievements of victorious arms; but ser 
 vices, nevertheless, both honorable, and meritorious 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 in their place ; and without which battles cannot be 
 fought, victories cannot be won, nor countries be 
 saved. Martial renown, it is true, he did not ac 
 quire, nor attempt ; but the want of that fascination 
 to his name can hardly be objected to him, in these 
 days, when the political ascendency of military 
 chieftains is so pathetically deplored, and when the 
 entire perils of the republic are supposed to be com 
 pressed into the single danger of a military despotism. 
 
 Such is the answer, in brief, and in part, to the 
 flippant inquiry, What has he done? 
 
 The vote in the Senate, for the tariff of 182S, has 
 sometimes been objected to Mr. Van Buren; but 
 with how much ignorance of the truth, let facts at 
 test. 
 
 He was the first eminent member of Congress, 
 north of the Potomac, to open the war, at the right 
 point, upon that tariff of 182S, then undergoing the 
 process of incubation through the instrumentality of 
 a Convention to sit a Harrisburg. His speech at 
 Albany, in July, 1827, openly characterized that 
 measure as a political manosuvre to influence the im 
 pending presidential election; and the graphic expres 
 sion, "a measure proceeding more from the CLOSET 
 of the POLITICIAN than from the WORKSHOP of the 
 MANUFACTURER," so opportunely and felicitously 
 used in that speech, soon became the opinion of the 
 public, and subsequentlyreceived the impress of veri- 
 
 15 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 fication from the abandonment, and the manner of 
 abandoning, of the whole fabric of the high tariff 
 policy. Failing to carry any body into the Presi 
 dential chair, its doom pronounced by the election 
 of Jackson and Van Buren,* it was abandoned, as it 
 had been created, upon a political calculation; and 
 expired under a fiat emanating, not from the viork- 
 shop of the manufacturer, but from the closet of 
 the politician. True, that Mr. Van Buren voted 
 for the tariff of 1828, notwithstanding his speech of 
 1827; but, equally true, that he voted under instruc 
 tions from his State Legislature, and in obedience to 
 the great democratic principle (demon, the people, 
 krateo, to govern) which has always formed a distin 
 guished feature, and a dividing land-mark, between 
 the two great political parties which, under whatso 
 ever name, have always existed, and still exist, in 
 our country. Sitting in the chair next to him at the 
 time of that vote, voting as he did, and upon the 
 same principle; interchanging opinions without re 
 serve, or disguise, it comes within the perception of 
 my own senses to know that he felt great repugnance 
 to the provisions of that tariff act of 2S, and voted 
 for it, as I did, in obedience to a principle which we 
 both hold sacred. 
 
 No public man, since the days of Mr. Jefferson 
 has been pursued with more bitterness than Mr. Van 
 
 * Over the high tariff champions, Clay and Sergeant. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Buren; none, not excepting Mr. Jefferson himself, 
 has ever had to withstand the combined assaults 
 of so many, and such formidable powers. His prom 
 inent position, in relation to the next Presidency, 
 has drawn upon him the general attack of other can 
 didates, themselves as well as their friends; for in 
 these days, (how different from former times!) candi 
 dates for the Presidency are seen to take the field for 
 themselves, banging away at their competitors, 
 sounding the notes of their own applause, and deal 
 ing in the tricks, and cant, of veteran cross-road, or 
 alehouse, electioneerers. His old opposition, and 
 early declaration (1826) against the Bank of the 
 United States, has brought upon him the pervading 
 vengeance of that powerful institution; and subjected 
 him to the vicarious vituperation of subaltern assail 
 ants, inflamed with a wrath, not their own, in what 
 soever spot that terrific institution maintains a branch, 
 or a press, retains an adherent, or holds a debtor. 
 (It was under the stimulus, and predictions of the 
 Bank press, that Mr. Van Buren was rejected by 
 the Senate in 1832.) Yet in all this combination of 
 powers against him, and in all these unrelenting at 
 tacks, there is no specification of misconduct. All 
 is vague, general, indefinite, mysterious. Mr. Craw 
 ford, the most open, direct, and palpable of public 
 men, was run down upon the empty cry of "giant 
 at, intrigue!" a second edition of that cry, now 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 stereotyped for harder use, is expected to perform 
 the same service upon Mr. Van Buren; while the 
 originators and repeaters of the cry, in both instan 
 ces, have found it equally impossible to specify a 
 case of intrigue in the life of one, or the other, of 
 these gentlemen. 
 
 Safety fund banks, is another of those cries raised 
 against him; as if there was any thing in the system 
 of those banks to make the banking system worse; 
 or, as if the money, and politics of these safety fund 
 banks, were at the service of Mr. Van Buren. On 
 the contrary, it is not even pretended by his ene 
 mies that he owns a single dollar of stock in any 
 one of these banks! and I have been frequently in 
 formed, from sources entitled to my confidence, that 
 he does not own a dollar of interest in any bank in 
 the world! that he has wholly abstained from becom 
 ing the owner of any bank stock, or taking an in 
 terest in any company, incorporated by the Legisla 
 ture, since he first became a member of that body, 
 above two-and-twenty years ago. And as for the 
 politics of the safety fund banks, it has been recent 
 ly and authentically shown that a vast majority of 
 them are under the control of his most determined 
 and active political opponents. 
 
 No public man has been more opposed to the ex 
 tension of the banking system than Mr. Van Buren. 
 The journals of the New-York Legislature show 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 that the many years during which he was a promi 
 nent member of that body, he exerted himself in a 
 continued and zealous opposition to the increase of 
 banks; and, upon his elevation to the Chief Magis 
 tracy of the State, finding the system of banks so 
 incorporated with the business and interests of the 
 People, as to render its abolishment impossible, he 
 turned his attention to its improvement, and to the es 
 tablishment of such guards against fraudulent, or even 
 unfortunate bankruptcy, as would, under all circum 
 stances, protect the holders of notes against loss. The 
 safety fund system was the result of views of this kind; 
 and if its complete success hitherto (for no bank has 
 failed under it,) and the continued support and con 
 fidence of the representatives of two millions of 
 people, are not sufficient to attest its efficacy, there 
 is one consideration at least, which should operate 
 so far in its favor as to save it from the sneers of 
 those who cannot tell what the safety fund system is; 
 and that is, the perfect ease and composure with 
 which the whole of these banks rode out the storm 
 of Senatorial and United States Bank assault, panic, 
 and pressure, upon them last winter! This consid 
 eration- should save Mr. Van Buren from the censure 
 of some people, if it cannot attract their applause. 
 For the rest, he is a real hard money man; opposed 
 to the paper system in favor of a national currency 
 
 of gold in favor of an adequate silver currency for 
 15* 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 common use against the small note currency and 
 in favor of confining bank notes to their appropriate 
 sphere and original function, that of large notes for 
 large transactions, and mercantile operations. 
 
 Non-committal, is another of the flippant phrases, 
 got by rote, and parroted against Mr. Van Buren. 
 He never commits himself, say these veracious ob 
 servers! he never shows his hand, till he sees which 
 way the game is going! Is this true? Is their any 
 foundation for it? On the contray, is it not contra 
 dicted by public and notorious facts? by the uniform 
 tenor of his entire public life for near a quarter of a 
 century? To repeat nothing of what has been said of 
 his opposition to the first Bank of the United States, 
 his support of Vice President Clinton for giving the 
 casting vote against the recharter of that institution, 
 his support of Governor Tompkins, in the extraordi 
 nary measure of proroguing the New- York Legisla 
 ture, to prevent the metempsychosis of the Bank, 
 and its revivification, in the City of New-York; to 
 repeat nothing of all this, and of his undaunted and 
 brilliant support of the war, from its beginning to its 
 end, I shall refer only to what has happened in my 
 own time, and under my own eyes. His firm, and 
 devoted, support of Mr. Crawford, in the contest of 
 1824, when that eminent citizen, prostrate with dis 
 ease, and inhumanly assailed, seemed to be doomed 
 to inevitable defeat; was that non-committal? His 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 early espousal of General Jackson s cause, after the 
 election in the House of Representatives, in Februa 
 ry, 1825, and his steadfast opposition to Mr. Adams s 
 administration; was that non-committal? His prom 
 inent stand against the Panama Mission, when that 
 mission was believed to be irresistibly popular, and 
 was pressed upon the Senate to crush the opposition 
 members; was that also a wily piece of non-commit 
 tal policy? His declaration against the Bank of the 
 United States in the year 1S26; was that the conduct 
 of a man waiting to see the issue before he could 
 take his side? The removal of the deposits, and the 
 panic scene of last winter, in which so many gave 
 way, and so many others folded their arms until the 
 struggle was over, while Mr. Van Buren, both by his 
 own conduct, and that of his friends, gave an undaun 
 ted support to that masterly stroke of the President; 
 is this also to be called a non-committal line of con 
 duct, and the evidence of a temper that sees the issue 
 before it decides? The fact is, this ridculous and 
 nonsensical charge, is so unfounded and absurd, so 
 easily refuted, and not only refuted, but turned to the 
 honor and advantage of Mr. Van Buren, that his friends 
 might have run the risk of being suspected of having 
 invented it themselves, and put it into circulation, just 
 to give some others of his friends a brilliant opportuni 
 ty of emblazoning his merits! were it not that the blind 
 enmity of his competitors has put the accusation upon 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 record, and enabled his friends to exculpate them 
 selves, and to prove home the original charge against 
 his undisputed opponents. 
 
 For one thing Mr. Van Buren has reason to be 
 thankful to his enemies; it is, for having began the 
 war upon him so soon! There is time enough yet for 
 truth and justice to do their office, and to dispel 
 every cloud of prejudice which the jealously of ri 
 vals, the vengeance of the Bank, and the ignorance 
 of dupes, has hung over his name. 
 
 Union, harmony, self-denial, concession every 
 thing for the cause, nothing for men should be the 
 watchword, and motto of the democratic party. 
 
 Disconnected from the election a voter, and not 
 a candidate having no object in view but to preserve 
 the union of the democratic party, and to prevent 
 the administration of the public affairs from relapsing 
 into hands that would undo every thing ; hands that 
 would destroy every limit to the constitution, by 
 latitudinous constructions which would replunge 
 the country into debt and taxes, by the reckless, wil 
 ful, systematic, ungovernable, headlong, stubborn, 
 support of every wasteful and extravagant expendi 
 ture that would re-deliver the country into the 
 hands of an institution which has proved the scourge 
 of the people and which would instantly revive the 
 dominion of paper money, by arresting the progress 
 of the gold and silver currency : having no object in 
 
APPENDIX. 177 
 
 view but to prevent these calamities, I may be per 
 mitted to say a word, without incurring the imputa 
 tion of speaking from interested motives, on the vital 
 point of union in the democratic party. 
 
 The obligation upon good men to unite, when bad 
 men combine, is as clear in politics as it is in morals. 
 Fidelity to this obligation has, heretofore, saved the 
 republic, and was never more indispensable to its 
 safety than at the present moment. The efforts made 
 urnler the elder Adams, above thirty years ago, to 
 subvert the principles of our Government, produced 
 a union of the productive and burthen-bearing 
 classes, in every quarter of the republic. Planters, 
 farmers, laborers, mechanics, (with a slight infusion 
 from the commercial and professional interests,) 
 whether on this side or that of the Potomac, whether 
 east or west of the Alleghany mountains, stood to 
 gether upon the principle of common right, and the 
 serjse of common danger, and effected that first great 
 union of the democratic party which achieved the 
 civil revolution of 1800, arrested the downward 
 course of the Government, and turned back the na 
 tional administration to its republican principles, and 
 economical habits. 
 
 The sagacious mind of Mr. Jefferson well discern 
 ed, in the homogeneous elements of which this united 
 party was composed, the appropriate materials for a 
 republican government; and to the permanent con^ 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 junction of these elements, he constantly looked for 
 the only insurmountable barrier to the approaches 
 of oligarchy and aristocracy. Actuated by a zeal 
 which has never been excelled, for the success and 
 perpetuity of the democratic cause, he labored assi 
 duously in his high oftice, and subsequent retirement, 
 in his conversations and letters, to cement, sustain, 
 and perpetuate a party, on the union and indivisi 
 bility of which he solely relied for the preservation 
 of our republic. It was the political power result 
 ing from this auspicious union, (to say nothing of 
 several other occasions,) which carried us safely and 
 triumphantly through the late war ; enabling the 
 Government to withstand, on one hand, the paraliz- 
 ing machinations of a disaffected aristocracy, and to 
 repel on the other, the hostile attacks of a great na 
 tion. 
 
 The first relaxation of the ties which bound to 
 gether the democracy of the North and South, EJast 
 and West, was followed by the restoration to power 
 of federal men, and the re-appearance in the admini 
 stration of federal doctrines, and federal measures. 
 The younger Mr. Adams crept into power through 
 the first breach that was made in the democratic 
 ranks ; and immediately proclaimed the fundamental 
 principles which lie at the bottom of ancient federa 
 lism, and modern whiggism " the representative 
 not to be palsied by the will of his constituents;"- 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 "constitutional scruples to be solved in practical 
 blessings;" two doctrines, one of which would 
 leave the people without representatives, and the 
 other would leave the Government without a consti 
 tution. The ultra federalism of this gentleman s ad 
 ministration, fortunately for the country, led to the 
 re-union of those homogeneous elements, by the first 
 union of which the elder Mr. Adams had been eject 
 ed from power ; and this re-union immediately pro 
 duced a second civil revolution not less vital to the 
 republic than the first one, of 1800; a revolution to 
 which we are indebted for the election of a President 
 who has turned back the Government, so far as in 
 his power lies, to the principles of the constitution, 
 and to the practice of economy who has directed 
 the action of the Government to patriotic objects 
 saved the people from the cruel dominion of a heart 
 less moneyed power withstood the combined as 
 saults of the bank, and its allied Statesmen and 
 frustrated a conspiracy against the liberty and the 
 property of the people, but little less atrocious in its 
 design, and little less disastrous in its intended ef 
 fects, than that conspiracy from which Cicero deli 
 vered the Roman people, and for the frustration of 
 which he was hailed by Cato, in the assembled pre 
 sence of all Rome, with the glorious appellation of 
 Pater Patrix Father of his country. 
 
 The democracy of the four quarters of the union, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 now united, victorious, happy and secure, under the 
 administration of President Jackson ; shall it disband, 
 and fall to pieces the instant that great man retires ? 
 This is what federalism hopes, foretels, promotes, 
 intrigues, prays, and pants for. Shall this be and 
 through whose fault ? Shall sectional prejudices, 
 lust of power, contention for office, (that bane of 
 freedom;) shall personal preferences, so amiable in 
 private life, so weak in politics ; shall these small 
 causes these Lilliputian tactics be suffered to work 
 the disruption of the democratic union ; to separate 
 the republican of the South and West, from his bro 
 ther of the North and East? and, in that separation, 
 to make a new opening for the second restoration 
 of federalism, (under its alius dictus of whiggism;) 
 and the permanent enslavement of the producing, 
 and bur I hen-bearing classes of the community ? 
 
 Bear with me if I speak without disguise, and say, 
 if these things happen, it must be through the fault 
 of the South and West. 
 
 Here are the facts : 
 
 It has so happened that, although every Southern 
 President (four in number) and the only Western 
 one (through his two terms) has received the warm 
 support of Northern democracy, yet no Northern 
 President has ever yet received the support of the 
 South and West Hitherto this peculiar, and one 
 sided result, has left no sting created no heart 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 burnings, in the bosom of Northern democracy, be 
 cause it was the result, not of sectional bigotry, but 
 of facts, and principles. The administrations of the 
 two Northern Presidents were alike offensive to 
 republicans of all quarters, and were put down by 
 the joint voices of a united Democracy. 
 
 But suppose this state of things now to be changed, 
 and a democratic candidate to be presented from the 
 North ; ought that candidate to be opposed by the 
 democracy of the South and West ? Suppose that 
 candidate to be one coming as near to the Jeffer- 
 sonian standard, (to say more might seem invidious; 
 to say that much is enough for the argument,) sup 
 pose such a candidate to be presented ; ought the de 
 mocracy of the South and West to reject him ? 
 Could they do it, without showing a disposition to 
 monopolize the Presidential office? and to go on for 
 an indefinite succession, after having already possess 
 ed the office for forty years, out of forty-eight ? 
 What would be the effect of such a stand, taken by, 
 the South and West, on the harmony of the demo 
 cratic party ? Certainly to destroy it! What would 
 be its effect on the harmony of the States? Cer 
 tainly to array them against each other ! What 
 would be its effect on the formation of parties ? Cer 
 tainly to change it from the ground of principle, to 
 
 the ground of territory ! to substitute a geographical 
 16 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 basis, for the political basis, on which parties now rest! 
 Could these things be desirable to any friend of pop 
 ular government ? to any considerate and reflecting 
 man in the South or West ? On the contrary, should 
 not the democracy of the South and West, rejoice at 
 an opportunity to show themselves superior to sec 
 tional bigotry, devoted to principle, intent upon the 
 general harmony, inaccessible to intrigue, or to 
 weakness; and ready to support the cause of de 
 mocracy, whether, the representative of the cause 
 eomes from this, or that side, of a river, or a moun 
 tain ? A Southern and a Western man myself, this 
 is the State of my own feelings, and I rejoice to see 
 that your convention has acted upon them. And if, 
 what I have here written, (and which I could not 
 have written if I had accepted the most honorable 
 and gratifying nomination of your convention,) if this 
 letter, too long for the occasion, but too short for my 
 feelings ! if it shall contribute to prevent the disrup 
 tion of the republican party, and the consequent loss 
 of all the advantages recovered for the constitution 
 and the people, under the administration of President 
 Jackson, then shall I feel the consolation of having 
 done a better service to the republic by refusing to 
 take, than I can ever do, by taking office. 
 
 Hoping then, my dear sir, that the nomination of 
 your convention may have its full effect in favor of 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren, and that it may be entirely forgot 
 ten, so far as it regards myself, except in the grateful 
 recollections of my own bosom, I remain most truly 
 and sincerely, yours, 
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 
 Maj, Gen. DAVIS, Manchester, Mississippi. 
 
 Substance of Mr. VAN BUREN s Speech, in 1824, 
 in the Senate of the United States, in favor of 
 the bill abolishing imprisonment for debt. 
 
 [One of the first measures proposed by Mr. Van Buren as a 
 member of the Legislature of New-York, was a bill to abolish im 
 prisonment for debt, except in cases of fraud, malicious injury, 
 and groos breach of trust. For several years in succession he in 
 troduced and warmly urged bills to this effect, in the State Sen 
 ate, and at length suceeded in obtaining the concurrence of that 
 body; but as the bill failed in the Assembly, this great improve 
 ment in jurisprudence, was not ultimately adopted in New- York, 
 until some years after he had been transferred to the Senate of 
 the United States. In that body he also distinguished himself, 
 along with Col. JOHNSON and others, in endeavouring to efface 
 this relic of barbarism from our national system. The following 
 is a brief outline of one of his speeches on the subject. The 
 sketch is quite imperfect, but will repay an attentive perusal.] 
 
 Mr. VAN BUREN, said that his preference for the 
 bill was founded on an entire conviction, that whilst 
 it secured to the creditor means for the collection of 
 his debt, of far greater efficacy than those now al 
 lowed by law, it would, in all the cases which are 
 
184 APPENDIX. 
 
 subject to its operation, effectually remove that foul 
 stain upon our jurisprudence the power of a cred 
 itor to deprive his debtor of his liberty, on account 
 of his inability to pay the debt he ows; a power 
 which confounds the distinction between virtue and 
 vice, and which, contrary to the. fitness of things, 
 awards the same measure of punishment for misfor 
 tune as for fraud, but in its practical operation inflicts 
 that punishment upon the unfortunate only, whilst 
 the really guilty laugh at its impotent and unavail 
 ing provisions. 
 
 Mr. V. B. would first consider the effect of the 
 bill, upon the ability of the creditor to collect his 
 debt On this point it is to be observed that the 
 debt can only be paid by property. To reach that, 
 then, is the only object. Beyond that, it is conced 
 ed by all, that imprisonment is not only useless but 
 indefensible. 
 
 By the existing law, bail is allowed on mesne pro 
 cess, and jail limits on an execution against the body. 
 Those who have the property you are in pursuit of, 
 will get bail for both these objects. This we know. 
 Now w r hat is the character of such imprisonment and 
 what are its effects? In this respect, the state laws 
 govern. In their legislatures, the same disposition 
 has been manifested, which is every where evinced, 
 when the subject is acted upon that is to say an 
 entire willingness to surrender the substance, ac- 
 
APPENDIX. 185 
 
 companied by a mysterious adherence to the form. 
 The jail limits are in some places parts of the town 
 or city where the jail is situated; in others, the 
 whole town or city; and in many cases the whole 
 county. What can the debtor do who has property 
 to pay his debts but is destitute of the inclination and 
 the honesty to apply it? He can take a house with 
 in the limits, partake of the domestic comforts of 
 his family, and live in such style as his inclination 
 suggests and his means allow of. 
 
 On this point other Senators will speak from their 
 own observation : according to his experience and 
 observation, Mr. Van Buren thought that in the 
 great mass of cases, the existing remedy was wholly 
 inefficacious, to wrest the property of an unwilling 
 debtor from his grasp. Let us now look to the ef 
 fect of the substitute proposed. What is that sub 
 stitute ? It is the reverse of the present system. It 
 makes imprisonment what it should be a harsh 
 means to secure a justifiable end. If the debtor con 
 templates a fraud upon his creditor if he intends to 
 betray the trust reposed in him by withdrawing his 
 person from the process necessary to arrive at his 
 property, he may, on the oath of the creditor, be 
 arrested, and subjected to close custody, unless he 
 gives bail that he will be forthcoming. If a debtor 
 has practiced a fraud upon his creditor, by concealing 
 or transferring his property, to evade the payment 
 16* 
 
1SQ APPENDIX. 
 
 of his debts, or even by so investing it as to exempt 
 it from execution, the creditor, on an affidavit of his 
 suspicion only, may arrest him ; may subject the 
 fact to judicial examination, and hold him to bail for 
 his appearance, to abide the result of such examina 
 tion. He may, by the amendment of the gentleman 
 from Delaware, examine the debtor on oath, and 
 confront him with his trustees and confederates, and 
 if the fact is found against him, by a jury of his 
 country, his condition is changed, and from the 
 mere delinquency of a debtor, his situation becomes 
 assimilated, in a great degree, to that of the felon. 
 And the treatment he thereafter receives, is as it 
 ought to be, of a similar character. 
 
 Instead of residing in the bosom of his family, riot 
 ing on the fruits of his fraud, whilst his more honest 
 creditor and his family are deprived of their bread 
 by their misplaced confidence, he will be stripped of 
 these indulgences; he will be torn from the parental 
 board which he contaminates, and from a society 
 which he corrupts, and placed where he ought to be, 
 in the walls of a prison, under the restraints of grates 
 and bars. The character of fair dealing between 
 man and man, is promoted, when the guilty are pu 
 nished. Mr. V. B. appealed to every man of reflec 
 tion to tell him whether he was not satisfied that 
 means like these will go further to secure the real 
 
APPENDIX. 187 
 
 interests of the creditor, than the pitiful and intricate 
 machinery of the present system ? 
 
 In addition to this is the right given by the pro 
 posed bill to imprison, on evidence of the conceal 
 ment of the fraudulent debtor. This feature is desi 
 rable not only because it secures the punishment 
 of the guilty, but because it markes the distinc 
 tion between fraud and misfortune, the great point 
 which has always been desired by the friends of 
 humanity. It is not the privations of the fraudu 
 lent, which have so constantly excited the disciples 
 of philanthropy. It never has been any where dis 
 puted, that the fraudulent debtor deserved all, and 
 more than all, the stipulated rigor of the present law. 
 But it has been because what he deserved, had been 
 heaped upon the head of the innocent and the un 
 fortunate, that so much sympathy had been excited. 
 That distinction, if the bill passes, will be made, so 
 far as the courts of the United States are concerned. 
 Those high grades of fraud which add to the breach 
 of moral obligation ; the violation of public trust, 
 (being the cases of public officers embezzling public 
 monies,) those of a second grade, which consists in 
 the violation of trusts reposed by those who have 
 gone to their long account, ^and which are practised 
 to the injury of the widow and orphan, (the case of 
 embezzlement by executors, administrators, and guar 
 dians) and the simple frauds practiced by man upon 
 
|88 APPENDIX. 
 
 his fellow man, when dealing at arms length, all 
 when duly ascertained and proved will be punished 
 by the provisions of this bill as they deserve. In 
 such imprisonment all will acquiesce ; by it the 
 claims of justice will be satisfied, and no moral feel 
 ing violated. On a man imprisoned for such cause, 
 the community would look with feelings of indiffer 
 ence. They might pity the depravity, and despise 
 the meanness of spirit, which had brought him to that 
 condition; but real sympathy would, in such cases, be 
 strangers to their bosoms. But imprisonment of the 
 unfortunate debtor, whether it consists of many or 
 a few, ought every where to be regarded as an 
 outrage upon the moral sense of a civilized and Chris 
 tian community. Such are the provisions of the 
 bill on the table ; and such the additional remedies 
 given to the creditor. 
 
 Now what are the rights of the creditor surren 
 dered? they consist 
 
 1st. In the privilege of arbitrary arrest or mesne 
 process. 
 
 2d. In arbitrary imprisonment on execution. 
 
 As to the first. By the law as it will stand if the 
 bill passes, the creditor, on his own affidavit, of the 
 existence of the debt, and apprehension of departure, 
 may arrest. By the law, as it now stands, in most of 
 the states, the creditor may, without proof of the 
 debt, hold thej>erson whom he chooses to coosider 
 
APPENDIX. 189 
 
 his debtor, to bail, in any amount he pleases, and 
 imprison him at least for a season, unless he obtains 
 bail. Is this right ? Contrast it with proceedings 
 for crime. No man can be arrested for any crime, 
 not even for the lowest, without previous affidavit of 
 crime committed, and suspicion, at least, as to the 
 author, and after arrest, he cannot be committed 
 without previous and full examination of the circum 
 stances upon which that suspicion rests. But in a 
 civil case, a man may be arrested and committed for 
 trial, at the will and pleasure of his fellow citizens 
 Is there not a repugnance in these provisions as re 
 volting to our feeling, as it is destructive of sound 
 policy ? Will any man believe, that if any legisla 
 ture of any country were to sit down to form a sys 
 tem combining both subjects, one involving such 
 discrepancy would be adopted ? They surely would 
 not. Mr. V. B. put the question to honorable Sena 
 tors, if the whole matter was before you, and you 
 were now, for the first time, to act upon it, would 
 you do so? Every honorable member will at once 
 answer that he would not, and still we are content to 
 acquiesce in what is, because it has been, and to con 
 tinue the toleration of abuses plain and manifest as 
 the meridian sun, rather than give ourselves the trou 
 ble to break the fetters by which sturdy habit has 
 bound us. 
 
 As to the second. The right of arbitrary impri* 
 
190 APPENDIX. 
 
 sonment on the execution, without fraud or conceal- 
 ment proved. Upon whom does it fall? Mr. V. B. 
 had already shown that those who have property will 
 get bail. It is therefore the poor and friendless only 
 who feel its rigor. Its inhumanity and its injustice 
 as it bears upon them, are too manifest to need eluci 
 dation. All acquiesce, or, at least, seem to do so, in 
 this view of the case. In a word, it is punishment 
 without guilt, which no man will approve. It is 
 punishment without expiation punishment at which 
 the best feelings of our nature revolt. In criminal 
 cases, by the lapse of time, the measure of personal 
 suffering becomes full, and the claims of public jus 
 tice are satisfied. Not so with the imprisoned debtor. 
 The sun rises and the sun sets ; but his condition re 
 mains the same, and if death sets his spirit free, the 
 creditor not only succeeds to his deod body, but to 
 whatever estate accident may have devolved upon 
 him. Imprisonment is not only of such character 
 and consequence to the unfortunate debtor himself, 
 but its injurious consequences, without benefitting the 
 creditor, embrace the still more innocent family of 
 the debtor, by depriving them of all means of sup 
 port. More and worse than this operate as a pub 
 lic injury, by preparing its subject for the commis 
 sion of crime, by destroying his pride of character, 
 and by corrupting his principles; so that when he in 
 Again let loose upon society, by the humanity of the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 insolvent laws, or the relenting disposition of the 
 creditor, he comes forth a confirmed misanthropist, 
 if not a ready depredator on the property of others. 
 Viewed therefore in whatever light it may be, the 
 imprisonment of the unfortunate debtor is a matter 
 of unmixed mischief, which ought no where to be 
 tolerated, which is no where justified in terms, 
 though it is supported in substance. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren said he would now consider the 
 character and effect of the imprisonment now allow 
 ed. What are its advantages? It is justified as a 
 means to compel the debtor to disgorge concealed 
 property. Mr. V. B. had already shown that as to 
 him who has property to disgorge, and can therefore 
 secure the privilege of the limits, the measure is 
 wholly inoperative. 
 
 Upon those who have no property, it is not only 
 wholly ineffectual, but very oppressive. It is pun 
 ishing first and enquiring afterwards. It is inflict 
 ing severe chastisement for a supposed injury to an 
 individual, constituting the injured party both judge 
 and jury. It partakes of the character of the rack, 
 putting its victim to the torture, without knowing 
 whether he has any thing to confess or not. It is 
 said that to repeal the old law, would deprive the 
 creditor of one of his securities. As the bill now 
 stands, with its operation confined to contracts which 
 
192 APPENDIX. 
 
 are made after the fourth of July next, it cannot be 
 said to deprive the creditor of any security which 
 he possessed, at the time of entering into the con 
 tract. It can therefore only be objectionable, if ob 
 jectionable at all, because it will prevent the taking 
 of future securities of that character. Mr. V. B. 
 said, that with him the greatest merit of the bill was 
 that it produces that effect. Mr. V. B. agreed fully 
 with a distinguished writer, who says, that he who 
 trusts, with a design to sue, is criminal by the act. 
 What is it? Strip the transaction of the drapery of 
 courts, officers, and forms of proceeding, which are 
 but the instruments of the law, to give effect to the 
 contract as made between the parties, and suppose 
 the contract to express all that by the law, as it stands, 
 it implies. It would then provide that if the debtor 
 failed on the appointed day to pay the debt he had 
 contracted, it should be lawful for the creditor to tear 
 him from his family, and to restrain him of his liber 
 ty, by confining him within prison walls, whether 
 his inability to pay arose from misfortune or fault, and 
 whilst so confined to leave him to be sustained by his 
 own resources, or if he had none by the charity of his 
 fellow-citizens, until lie should be discharged by 
 their humanity, or the humanity of the laws of his 
 country. Suppose a contract thus actually written 
 ou t what would a Christian community say to such 
 
APPENDIX. 193 
 
 a bargain ? In what portion of this country would 
 the man who had dared to enter into it, venture to 
 expose his person to the hisses of his fellow-citizens? 
 And still this is but the unvarnished statement of a 
 transaction which, when disguised by the interven 
 tion of courts, and consecrated by immemorial usage, 
 receives the vigorous support of some of the best and 
 wisest men that our country produces. Sir, said 
 Mr. V. B. I am for breaking up contracts of this 
 character. I would dissolve this alliance which is 
 supposed to exist between the counting house and the 
 jail. I would compel men to conduct their dealings 
 on higher and better principles, and to look to better 
 grounds of reliance, than to bailiffs and turnkeys. 
 I would have them depend upon the character or 
 property of those with whom they deal ; and rest as 
 sured the best results would flow from the establish 
 ment of such a system. It cannot be necessary to 
 state, that in all dealings upon credit, the terms of the 
 contract will be greatly controlled by the nature of 
 the security. What must be the terms of those bar 
 gains which mainly depend upon a security of this 
 description ? Can they be otherwise than the opera 
 tions of griping avarice upon helpless poverty, or of 
 cupidity and cunning upon improvident and danger 
 ous speculations ? They must, in the nature of 
 things be of this character. If this system be abo- 
 17 
 
194 APPENDIX. 
 
 lished, those who desire credit will pursue a diffe 
 rent course to obtain it. They will seek to inspire 
 confidence by industry, probity, and punctuality. 
 By this course they will be sure to obtain it, and the 
 credit they thus obtain will elevate their character, 
 increase their happiness, and benefit the community. 
 
 It is further objected that the alteration of the sys 
 tem will impair credit. Mr. V. B. had already 
 stated what species of credit it must necessarily be, 
 which would be thus impaired, and how little objec 
 tion exists against putting a check upon such credit. 
 But what reason is there to believe that this appre 
 hended effect upon credit, would be produced. In 
 this, as in all other cases, speculation must yield to 
 fact, or you are led into error. 
 
 The suggestions of experience must be listened to. 
 How stands the fact ? What is the condition of the 
 credit most prevalent in the country ; that on which 
 nine-tenths of the every day business of the country 
 rests ? It is bank paper. And what security does 
 the holder of a bank note ask or receive, when he 
 takes it ? The right to imprison the drawer ? No ! 
 he never thinks of it. He will sell his estate, and 
 take in payment the notes of associated individuals., 
 without its ever occurring to him, that the right to 
 imprison the drawer, is not secured to him; but if he 
 sells a horse, or a cow, and takes the note of a single 
 
APPENDIX. 95 
 
 individual, he deems it a matter of vital importance, 
 that his lien upon the body of debtors should be pro 
 tected by the strongest statutes. When you pay an 
 annual premium to secure your houses against the 
 flames, or your vessels against winds and waves, do 
 you think of the right to imprison ? No. But when 
 we dole out a miserable pittance of their cargo, this 
 hankering after corporeal security posseses us. Such 
 are the miserable contradictions into which we are 
 led by the blind force of habit. But suppose a 
 check is put to credit. Is it certain that such a re 
 sult would be an evil? Mr. V. B. thought not. 
 He thought, on the contrary, that much of the dis 
 tress which has prevailed, and in some places conti 
 nues to prevail, arose from the unrestrained credit 
 which has been given in this country. It has led to 
 extravagancies in every form. In the manner of 
 living, in buildings, in equipages, in dress and orna 
 ments, in every thing, you have seen its pernicious 
 influence. The frugal habits of our ancestors who 
 dealt in the property they actually had, have given 
 way to the prodigality of those who deal in the ideal 
 capital which credit has given them, and the conse 
 quence has been that we hare lost that independence 
 our ancestors possessed. Without enlarging upon the 
 subject, Mr. V. B. was satisfied, that a check to cre 
 dit, so far from being objectionable, was desirable. 
 
198 APPENDIX. 
 
 We have seen that we cannot check the improvi 
 dence of the debtor ; let us therefore endeavor to re 
 strain the cupidity of the creditor. In every point 
 of view, therefore, in which he had been able to 
 consider the subject, Mr. V. B. was decidedly in fa 
 vor of the bill; and he trusted it would receive the 
 approbation of Congress, and of the country. 
 
 A CARD, 
 
 Democratic friends in all parts of the 
 Union disposed to circulate this work, are 
 informed, that all orders directed to the pub- 
 lisjier for copies either in sheets or bound, 
 (postpaid,) will be promptly attended to. 
 
 WM. EMMONS. 
 Washington, Feb. 1835. 
 
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