THE LIBRARY 
 
 CLASS 
 BOOK
 
 JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NATIONAL 
 
 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, 
 
 HELD AT WORCESTER, 
 
 OCTOBER 11, 1839. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CONVENTION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 STIMPSON & CLAPP, 72 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 J. E. HinckUjr * Co., Prloten, 14 Water Street. 
 
 1832.
 
 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 AT a Convention of National Republican citizens from all 
 parts of the State of Massachusetts, assembled according to 
 previous notice, at Worcester, on the llth of October, 1832, . 
 
 Hon. STEPHEN WHITE, of Salem, was elected chairman 
 pro tern. 
 
 Prayers were offered by the Rev. Dr. Bancroft, of Worcester. 
 
 On motion of Mr. E. EVERETT, it was 
 
 Voted, That the Chairman nominate a Committee, to consist of 
 one from each Congressional District, whose duty it shall be to 
 report to the meeting, a list of Officers for the Convention, 
 as follows, : one President, four Vice Presidents, and three 
 Secretaries. 
 
 The following named gentlemen were accordingly nomina- 
 ted, by the Chair, and the list adopted by the meeting, as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 For Essex North District, Hon. Benj. F. Varnum. 
 
 Essex South, Stephen C. Phillips. 
 
 Suffolk, Charles P. Curtis, Esq. 
 
 Middlesex, Hon. Samuel Hoar. , 
 
 Franklin, Charles P. Phelps. 
 
 Plymouth, Seth Sprague. 
 
 Bristol, . James C. Hodges. 
 
 Barnstablc, Barker Burnell. 
 
 ^(J. Worcester North, David Wilder. 
 
 Worcester South, John W. Lincoln. 
 
 Berkshire, Samuel M. McKay. 
 
 jl _, Norfolk, Warren Lovering, Esq. 
 
 N , Prankl\n t Henry Colcman, Esq. 
 
 oc * 
 ** 
 
 -1360800
 
 Voted, To add to the above Committee, George Bliss, Esq. 
 of Hampden District. 
 
 The Coirynittee having retired, subsequently came in and 
 reported the following list of Officers for the Convention : 
 
 NATHANIEL SILSBEE of Salem, for President. 
 GEORGE BLAKE, of Boston, "^ 
 
 JOSEPH LYMAN, of Northampton, [ r?- r> -j 
 
 . rr r r ji j f rice Jr residents. 
 
 AARON TUFTS, of Dudley, and 
 
 CORNELIUS GRINNELL, of New Bedford,) 
 THOMAS KINNICUTT, of Worcester, ) 
 CHARLES BUNKER, of Nantucket, > Secretaries. 
 WILLIAM PORTER, Jr. of Lee, j 
 
 Which report was unanimously accepted by the Convention. 
 
 The following communication from the Hon. THOMAS L. 
 WINTHROP, was read, and laid on the table. 
 
 BOSTON, Oct. 8, 1832. 
 
 Sir, As one of the principal subjects to be considered at 
 the meeting of the National Republicans, from all parts of the 
 State, to be held at Worcester on the 1 1th instant, is that of se- 
 lecting candidates for Governor and Lieut. Governor, for the 
 ensuing political year, permit me to request the favor that you 
 will state to the Convention, that I beg leave most respectfully 
 to decline being again considered a candidate for the office 
 which I have now the honor to hold. I pray you, Sir, to assure 
 the Convention that I feel most truly grateful to my fellow-citi- 
 zens for the suffrages which for seven successive elections they 
 have, most kindly and liberally, bestowed upon me. Sincerely 
 and ardently wishing for the continued prosperity of the Com- 
 monwealth, I have the honor to be, with sentiments of great 
 respect. 
 
 Sir, your obedient and humble Servant, 
 
 THOMAS L. WIXTHROP. 
 
 To the Chairman of the National Republican > 
 Convention of Massachusetts. J 
 
 Voted, That the Secretaries be instructed to prepare a list of 
 th members attending upon this Convention. 
 
 INlr. AUSTIN, of Boston, submitted the following Resolutions. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to consider and 
 report whatmode shall be taken to nominate suitable persona
 
 to be supported by the National Republicans of this Common- 
 wealth, for Governor and Lieutenant Governor for the year 
 ensuing. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to consider and 
 report what mode shall be taken for the nomination of Electors 
 of President and Vice President of the United States. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare such 
 Resolutions as it may be proper for this Convention to adopt. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare an Ad- 
 dress to the People on the subjects of the approaching State 
 and National Elections. 
 
 Resolved, That these Committees consist of seven persons, 
 respectively, and that the appointments be made by the Chair. 
 
 The question having been taken upon these resolutions, they 
 were unanimously adopted. 
 
 The Chair proceeded to make the following appointments, 
 in accordance with the above Resolutions. 
 
 Upon the subject of Governor and Lieut. Governor, as in 
 the first Resolution, 
 
 Alexander H. Everett, of Boston. 
 
 John 'Reed, 
 John Davis, 
 John Howard, 
 Samuel Hoar, 
 Thomas Melville, 
 Leverett Saltonstall, 
 
 Yarmouth. 
 
 Worcester. 
 
 Springfield. 
 
 Concord. 
 
 Pittsfield. 
 
 Salem. 
 
 Under the second Resolution, in relation to Electors of Pre- 
 sident and Vice President, 
 
 Horace Mann, 
 Jonas B. Brown, 
 William W. Parrott, 
 Luther Lawrence, 
 Jared Coffin, 
 Thomas Rossetter, 
 Ira Barton, 
 
 of Dedham. 
 Boston. 
 Gloucester. 
 Lowell. 
 Nantucket. . 
 Great Barrington. 
 Oxford. 
 
 Under the third Resolution, to prepare Resolves for the 
 adoption of this Convention, 
 
 James T. Austin, 
 Thomas Conkey, 
 
 of 
 
 Boston. 
 Amherst.
 
 James C. Hodges, of Taunton. 1 
 Rufus Ghpate, Salem. 
 
 John Keyes, Concord. 
 
 Henry Chapman, Greenfield. 
 
 George J. Tucker, Lenox. 
 
 Under the fourth Resolution, to prepare an Address to the 
 people, 
 
 Edward Everett, of Charlestown. 
 
 Abbott Lawrence, Boston. 
 
 Thomas A. Gold, Pittsfield. 
 
 George Bancroft, Northampton. 
 
 Stephen Merrihew, New Bedford. 
 
 Joseph G. Kendall, Leominster. '. 
 
 Stephen C. Phillips, Salem. 
 
 Voted, That the Hon. Mr. BULLARD, member of the House of 
 Representatives of the United States, from Louisiana, be invited 
 to take a seat on the floor of this body. Adjourned to 3 
 o'clock, P. M. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 The Convention met, pursuant to adjournment. 
 
 Mr. A. H. EVERETT, of Boston, from the Committee on the 
 subject of Governor and Lieut. Governor, reported the follow- 
 ing resolution. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee of one member from each Con- 
 gressional District be appointed to select and report candidates 
 for the offices of Governor and Lieut, Governor of the Com- 
 monwealth for the ensuing year, and that this Committee shall 
 be appointed by the Chair. 
 
 Which report was accepted by a unanimous vote and the 
 Chair appointed 
 
 Samuel Hoar, of Middlesex. 
 
 Samuel M. McKay, Berkshire. 
 
 Charles P. Phelps, Franklin. 
 
 Gideon Barstow, Essex South. 
 
 Amos Spaulding, Essex North, 
 
 Henry A. S. Dearborn, Norfolk. 
 
 John S. Russell, Bristol.
 
 Bezaleel Taft, Jr. of Worcester South. 
 Nathaniel Wood, Worcester North. 
 
 John Howard, Hampden. 
 
 Charles J. Holmes, Barnstable. 
 
 Samuel T. Armstrong, Suffolk. 
 
 John Beal, Plymouth. 
 
 as the Committee recommended by the Report. 
 
 Mr. MANN, of Dedham, from the Committee appointed under 
 the second Resolution, made a report, recommending the fol- 
 lowing resolve : 
 
 Resolved, That the President of this Convention appoint a 
 Committee, consisting of one from each Congressional District: 
 that it shall be the duty of said Committee to obtain from the 
 delegates of each Congressional District, the name of one per- 
 son, selected by said delegates, as a candidate for the office of 
 Elector, and report the same o the Convention ; and that said 
 Committee shall also report one person selected by themselves, 
 to be an Elector at large. 
 
 The question having been put upon the acceptance of this 
 Report, it was unanimously accepted. 
 
 The President then appointed the following named persons, 
 as the Committee proposed in the above report, viz. 
 
 William Sullivan, of Suffolk District. 
 
 John W., Lincoln, Worcester South. 
 
 Calvin Townsley, Worcester North. 
 
 John Wyles, Hampshire. 
 
 James Richardson, Norfolk. 
 
 Israel Trask, Essex South. 
 
 John Varnum, Essex North. 
 
 John Nevers, Franklin. 
 
 John Z. Goodrich, Berkshire. 
 
 Hezekiah Battelle, Bristol. 
 
 Isaac L. Hedge, Plymouth. 
 
 William J. Whipple, Middlesex. 
 
 David Crocker, Barnstable. 
 
 Mr. AUSTIN, of Boston, from the Committee appointed 
 under the third Resolution, made a Report, recommending 
 the following Resolves as proper for the Convention to adopt :
 
 8 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of thisConvention, the present 
 Administration of the State Government has been distinguished 
 by its impartiality, independence and vigilant regard for the 
 rights, interest and honor of the Commonwealth; by its attach- 
 ment to those principles of public policy on which our prosperi- 
 ty and union essentially depend, and by an adherence to which 
 the Constitution of the United States is to be maintained and 
 perpetuated. And that it is the duty of every citizen of Mas- 
 sachusetts to show the enthusiasm which he ought to feel for 
 the free institutions of his country, by a noble disregard of all 
 local and minor interests, in a generous support of those men 
 and those measures, by which the past prosperity of the State 
 has been eminently promoted. 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention concur in the nomination of 
 HENRY CLAY, of Kentucky, to be President, and of JOHN SER- 
 GEANT, of Pennsylvania, to be Vice President of the United 
 States, for the term of four years next ensuing. 
 
 Resolved, That while we deplore the disgrace which our 
 country has sustained by the imbecility of the existing Adminis- 
 tration of the Government of the United States, and avow our 
 apprehension that the high integrity, and proud spirit of patri- 
 otism, which distinguished its earlier annals, have been sacri- 
 ficed to a miserable competition for the spoils of party victory 
 and the personal emoluments of office; we have strong confi- 
 dence in the redeeming power of the people, and an animating 
 hope that this great Nation will again be placed under the coun- 
 cils of those eminent Statesmen, by whose wisdom, under God,, 
 its power is to be maintained, its resources developed, its in- 
 dustry promoted, its union established, and the blessings of 
 free government, which eminently and almost exclusively it has 
 possessed, extended to the latest posterity. 
 
 On motion, 
 
 Voted, That the foregoing Report be for the present laid 
 upon the table. 
 
 Voted, That the Hon. SAMUEL SMITH, and Mr. PRENTICE, of 
 New Hampshire, now in this town, be invited to take a seat on 
 the floor of the Convention. 
 
 Voted, That the Convention do now adjourn to seven o'clock 
 this evening.
 
 EVENING SESSION. 
 
 ( 
 The Convention met pursuant to adjournment. 
 
 The Resolutions repprted by Mr. AUSTIN were taken up, and, 
 upon motion of Mr. WEBSTER, were made the order of the 
 day for to-morrow at ten o'clock. 
 
 Voted, To adjourn to nine o'clock to-morrow morning. 
 
 FRIDAY MORNING, OCT. 12. 
 
 Mr. SULLIVAN, of Boston, from the Committee on the sub- 
 ject of Electors, made the following Report : 
 
 Resolved, That the virtues and wisdom of illustrious citi- 
 zens, acting in the spirit of exalted patriotism, have given to 
 the people of this State, (as part of a national community,) 
 a federative Government, which has proved to be capable, 
 throughout an experiment of nearly a half century, of securing 
 prosperity, in all our land, and of commanding all the consid- 
 eration and respect, which nations may and ought to mani- 
 fest towards each other ; that we hold this National Union in 
 the highest respect and reverence ; that we. discern in its in- 
 tended operation, the best assurance, within human experience, 
 of the duration of national liberty ; and in its destruction, the 
 certainty of confusion, civil war, and despotism. 
 
 Resolved, That on the recurrence of the period for the ex- 
 ercise of Constitutional power, (in the last instance,) to elect 
 a President of the United States, a majority of electors sin- 
 cerely believed that in electing the present Chief Magistrate, 
 they were honestly performing the sacred trust enjoined on 
 them ; that they had rested the highest power, in a citizen who 
 understood the duties assigned to him ; that all Legislative 
 acts adapted to promote the public welfare, and submitted to 
 his approval, would be approved by him ; and that all laws 
 confided to his execution, would be truly and faithfully ob- 
 served in obedience to the public will, constitutionally ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, a majority 
 of this nation are now convinced, that the expectations formed 
 of this Chief Magistrate were unfounded; and that the trust con- 
 fided to him has been dangerously misused ; and that under 
 his countenance and approbation a faction has suddenly risen 
 into power, which has separated its own interests from those 
 of the People ; which substitutes its own will for the law of the 
 2
 
 10 
 
 land; and which uses power to perpetuate its own power: that 
 a majority of this nation now see, that in the midst of unexam- 
 pled prosperity, and in the absence of all foreign contention, 
 they are rapidly advancing in the melancholy path, through 
 which all free nations, that history tells of, passed from the en- 
 joyment of civil freedom to the dominion of a master. 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention rejoices to see, that these 
 truths are generally perceived, and admitted; that the evidence 
 is daily becoming stronger, that the People are, as they ever 
 should be, the watchful guardians of their own rights and liber- 
 ties ; that they are able and willing to distinguish between 
 men, and the performance of duties, which men assume ; be- 
 tween professions, and measures; between the use of power for 
 the common good, and for the good only of those who hold it; 
 and that this nation is about to see the dignified exercise of 
 that conservative, peaceful and remedial authority, which can 
 arrest the progress of misrule and usurpation. 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention see, with sorrow and alarm, 
 that some of our fellow-citizens, dwelling in the southern part 
 of our common country, entertain the opinion, that the natural 
 bond of union, which the venerated Washington devoted the 
 last days of his public life to commend to the affections of his 
 countrymen, has lost its value in their estimation ; and that 
 they openly propose resistance to the laws enacted under its 
 authority : that in the inevitable consequences of this unex- 
 pected and discouraging avowal, we discern no possible good ; 
 but only the most distressing and appalling evils among all who 
 are, or have been, friends, associates, or neighbors : that we 
 cannot forbear to express our sincere respect, and deepest sym- 
 pathy for those among them, who regard the Union, in the true 
 spirit from which it arose, and as far transcending all objects 
 which can be submitted to the authority of legislation. 
 
 Resolved, That (with the distressing exceptions just alluded 
 to,) the present prospects of this nation ought to bring gladness 
 to every heart, animated with good will, and honest hope, for 
 the preservation and perpetuity of blessings which no people 
 on earth but those of the United States, can have by merely 
 choosing to have them ; and that, with these feelings and hopes, 
 this Convention cordially concur in the nominations made by 
 the Convention of National Republicans at Baltimore. And 
 with the view, and for the purpose of securing to the people 
 of the United States an Administration worthy of the national 
 frame of Government, that the following list of citizens of this 
 State be proposed to our constituents as the candidates to be 
 supported by them for the office of Electors of President, 
 and of Vice President, for the ensuing election
 
 11 
 
 ELECTORS. 
 
 At large. 
 CHARLES JACKSON, of Boston. 
 
 Suffolk District. 
 THOMAS H. PERKINS, of Boston. 
 
 Essex South District. 
 GIDEON BARSTOW, of Salem. 
 
 Essex North District. 
 EBENEZER MOSELY, of Newburyport. 
 
 Middlesex District. 
 NATHAN BROOKS, of Concord. 
 
 Worcester South District. 
 AARON TUFTS, of Dudley. 
 
 Worcester North District. 
 SAMUEL LEE, of Barre. 
 
 Fran/din District. 
 EBENEZER MATTOON, of Amherst. 
 
 Hampden District. 
 JAMES BYERS, of Springfield. 
 
 Berkshire District. 
 HENRY SHAW, of Lanesborough. 
 
 Norfolk District. 
 JAMES RICHARDSON, of Dedharn. 
 
 Plymouth District. 
 JOTHAM LINCOLN, of Hingham. 
 
 Bristol District. 
 CORNELIUS GRINNELL, of New Bedford. 
 
 Barnstable District. 
 NYMPHAS MARSTON, of Barnstable.
 
 12 
 
 On motion of Mr. EVERETT, of Charlestown, it was Voted, 
 To postpone the further consideration of the Resolutions- 
 embraced in the foregoing Report, to 10 o'clock this morning. 
 
 Voted, unanimously, To accept that part of the Report recom- 
 mending Candidates for the office of Electors. 
 
 Voted, To reconsider the vote assigning 10 o'clock for the 
 consideration of the Resolutions embraced in the Report of Mr. 
 Austin. 
 
 Voted, unanimously, To adopt the first Resolution recom- 
 mended in said Report. 
 
 The Committee upon the subject of nominating Candidates 
 for the offices of Governor, and Lieutenant Governor of which 
 Mr. Hoar, of Concord, was chairman, made the following 
 Report : 
 
 The Committee appointed to nominate to the Convention 
 Candidates for the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor 
 of the Commonwealth, for the ensuing political year, have at- 
 tended to that duty, and respectfully report that His Excellency 
 LEVI LINCOLN be nominated to the People of this Common- 
 wealth, as the Candidate for Governor, and that SAMUEL T. 
 ARMSTRONG, of Boston, be nominated as the Candidate for Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, for the next ensuing political year. 
 By order of the Committee. 
 
 SAMUEL HOAR, Chairman. 
 
 The foregoing Report was then, on motion, accepted by 
 the Convention. 
 
 On motion of Mr. DEARBORN, of Dorchester, a Committee 
 of five was appointed by the Chairman to inform His Excel- 
 lency LEVI LINCOLN, of his nomination for the office of Gover- 
 nor, and SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG, Esq., of his nomination for 
 the office of LieutenantGovernor of this Commonwealth, and 
 to request their acceptance of said nominations. 
 
 The following gentlemen composed the Committee : 
 
 H. A. S. Dearborn, of Dorchester, Alfred D. Foster, Worcester. 
 Charles P. Curtis, Boston. James C. Alvord, Greenfield. 
 
 Asahel Huntington, Salem. 
 
 On motion of Mr. GOLD, of Pittsfield, Voted, That a 
 Committee of five be appointed by the Chair, to invite His 
 Excellency Governor LINCOLN to take a seat on the floor of 
 this House. The following gentlemen composed said Com- 
 mittee : 
 
 Thomas A. Gold, of Pittsfield. John Davis, Worcester. 
 Barker Barnwell, Nantucket. Rufus Choate, Salem. 
 
 Nathan Appleton, Boston.
 
 13 
 
 On motionof Mr. EMMONS, of Hinsdale, the Convention then 
 proceeded to the consideration of the remaining Resolutions 
 reported by the Committee of which Mr. AUSTIN was chairman, 
 
 When Mr. WEBSTER addressed the Convention. 
 
 On motion of Mr. DAVIS, of Worcester, the Convention then 
 adjourned to 3 o'clock, P. M. this day. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 The Convention met, pursuant to adjournment. 
 
 Mr. EVERETT, of Charlestown, chairman of the Commitee 
 appointed to prepare an Address to the People on the subjects 
 of the approaching State and National Elections, submitted a 
 report of an Address, which was, on motion of Mr. Davis, of 
 Worcester, unanimously adopted. 
 
 Voted, To adopt the remaining Resolutions reported by Mr. 
 Austin, and the Resolutions accompanying the Report of the 
 Committee on the nomination of Electors. 
 
 Mr. DEARBORN, from the Committee appointed to inform his 
 Excellency LEVI LINCOLN, and SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG, Esq., 
 of their nominations to the offices of Governor and Lieutenant 
 Governor of the Commonwealth, for the ensuing political year, 
 reported the following communications and answers: 
 
 WORCESTER, Oct. 12th, 1832. 
 To his Excellency LEVI LINCOLN, 
 
 SIR, We have the honor of being charged with the duty 
 of announcing that you have been nominated as Governor of 
 this Commonwealth for the ensuing political year, by the Na- 
 tional Republican Convention, now in session in this town, and 
 we are instructed to request the favor of your answer to this 
 nomination. 
 
 With high respect, we are your obedient servants, 
 H. A. S. DEARBORN, ~) 
 CHARLES P. CURTIS, 
 ASAHEL HUNTINGTON, > Committee. 
 A. D. FOSTER, 
 JAMES C. ALVORD, J 
 
 WORCESTER, October 12th, 1832. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I have received, with deep sensibility, the 
 communication of the pleasure of the numerous and distin- 
 guished Convention, which you represent, in proposing my re- 
 election to the office, which, by the favor of my fellow-citizens, 
 I have now the honor to sustain. The satisfaction expressed 
 with the course of the Executive Administration of the Govern-
 
 14 
 
 inent, and the confidence implied by this renewed nomination, 
 in my faithful endeavors to discharge the high trust, will remain 
 with me, the most cherished reward for well-intended efforts in 
 the public service. 
 
 On entering upon the term of office, at each successive 
 Election, I have looked only for a continuance in it, to the 
 constitutional period of its limitation, and have truly and 
 anxiously sought, from year to year, to anticipate any mani- 
 festation of public sentiment in favor of my voluntary retire- 
 ment. Conscious of being influenced by no other considera- 
 tion, than that which requires of every citizen, in a free Gov- 
 ernment, the performance of his political duties, and a respect- 
 ful deference to that expression of the popular will, which pre- 
 scribes the sphere of his public action, I have now gratefully 
 to submit myself, in the approaching canvass, to the disposal of 
 those, who will best judge how far my humble abilities may be 
 made instrumental in promoting the peace, honor, and pros- 
 perity of the State, in the administration of its affairs. With 
 the political sentiments, views, and proposed measures of the 
 Convention now assembled, as I understand them, I have the 
 honor entirely to accord. A perilous crisis, in the condi- 
 tion of our beloved country, is fearfully impending. The in- 
 stitutions of civil liberty, the charter of the Constitution, the 
 union of the States, the integrity and independence of the most 
 sacred department of the Government, the redemption of the 
 violated faith of the Nation in the treatment of the Indians, 
 the advancement of the great interests of the People in the 
 pursuits of domestic industry, the credit of the country in the 
 purity and solidity of its currency, are involved in the issue 
 now joined before the People, upon the Presidential question. 
 No individual citizen can escape his share of responsibility 
 for the consequences of the decision, and no true Patriot will 
 shrink from committing himself, personally, to the hazards, the 
 sacrifices, and the exertions, which the safety of the country 
 demands. 
 
 Be pleased to communicate to the Convention my respect- 
 ful acceptance of the nomination with which they have honor- 
 ed me, accompanied with an assurance of my sense of the 
 many obligations to my fellow-citizens, under which I am, most 
 truly, their, and your, obedient servant, 
 
 LEVI LINCOLN. 
 
 To Hon. HEKRY A. S. DEARBORN*. 
 CHARLES P. CURTIS. 
 
 ASAHEL HUNTINGTOX. 
 
 A. D. FOSTER. 
 JAMES C. ALVORD, Esqrs. 
 Committee of the National Republican Convention.
 
 15 
 
 WORCESTER, October 12, 1832. 
 
 Gentlemen, Your communication, announcing that theCon- 
 vention have nominated me for the office of Lieutenant Gover- 
 nor of this Commonwealth, is received with those sentiments of 
 gratitude which that honor is calculated to inspire. 
 
 Should my fellow-citizens confirm the doings of their dele- 
 gates, and confer on me the office to which I have been nomi- 
 nated, it will be my constant endeavor to show that this confi- 
 dence has not been misplaced. 
 
 With sincere respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 SAMUEL T. ARMSTRONG. 
 
 To GEX. H. A. S. DEARBORK. 
 
 CHARLES P. CURTIS. 
 
 ASAUEL HmfTurovpB. 
 
 A. D. FOSTER. 
 
 JAMES C. ALVORD, Esqrs. 
 
 Committee of the National Rejntbliean Convention now in session at Wor- 
 cester. 
 
 On motion of Mr. SULLIVAN, of Boston, the following Reso- 
 lutions were adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention entertain a grateful sense of 
 the hospitality and kindness of the Inhabitants of the town of 
 Worcester, on the occasion of this meeting. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of this Convention who see fit 
 so to do, deliver to the principal Secretary such sum of money 
 as they respectively think proper, and that the funds thus raised 
 be appropriated to the payment of the expense of such printing 
 as the Convention may order. And that if the Convention 
 make no special order on the subject of printing, the publications 
 to be made of the proceedings of this Convention be submitted 
 to the direction and order of the Delegates from the town of 
 Worcester. 
 
 On motion of Mr. DAVIS, of Worcester, the following 
 Resolves were adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the Address to the People be signed by the 
 President, Vice President, and Secretary of this Convention, 
 and that it be published and distributed forthwith. 
 
 Resolved, That the Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER be requested to 
 prepare a sketch of his remarks made this day to the Conven- 
 tion, to be published in connexion with the proceedings 
 thereof. 
 
 On motion of Mr. BLAKE, of Boston, 
 
 Resolved, That His Honor THOMAS L. WINTHROP is, in the 
 opinion of this Convention, entitled to the thanks of the people
 
 16 
 
 of this Commonwealth, for the able and dignified manner in 
 which he has for several successive years discharged his du- 
 ties as Lieutenant Governor of this Commonwealth ; and that 
 we have felt sincere regret that any circumstance should have 
 induced him to decline being considered a candidate for the 
 same office at the approaching election. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed by the 
 Chair, to wait upon His Honor, with a copy of the foregoing 
 Resolves. 
 
 The following gentlemen were appointed to compose the 
 Committee : 
 
 Messrs. BLAKE, ^ 
 
 MERRILL, > of Boston. 
 and SULLIVAN, ) 
 
 On motion of Mr. BURNELL, of Nantucket, 
 
 Voted, That the thanks of this Convention be presented to 
 the First Parish in Worcester, for the use of their Church during 
 the sitting of the Convention. 
 
 On motion of Mr. EVERETT, of Boston, 
 
 Voted, That the thanks of this Convention be presented to 
 the Rev. Dr. BANCROFT, for the able and impressive manner in 
 which he performed religious services upon the opening of the 
 Convention. 
 
 On motion of Mr. CARTWRIGHT, of Boston, 
 
 Voted, That 10,000 copies of the proceedings of this Con- 
 vention, accompanied by the speech of Mr. WEBSTER, be print- 
 ed for distribution, and that each member of the Convention be 
 furnished with a copy. 
 
 On motion of THOMAS H. PERKINS, of Boston, the following 
 Resolution was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be presented 
 to the Hon. NATHANIEL SILSBEE, for the able, dignified and 
 impartial manner in which he has discharged the arduous duties 
 of presiding over their deliberations. 
 
 On motion of Mr. E. EVERETT, of Charlestown, 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be presented to 
 the Vice President, and the Secretaries, for the appropriate dis- 
 charge of their respective duties of the several offices. 
 
 The Convention then adjourned sine die.
 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 THE Convention of Delegates from the several towns in the 
 State, assembled in unusual numbers at Worcester, for the 
 purpose of recommending to their Constituents of the Nation- 
 al Republican Party a list of Electors of President and Vice 
 President of the United States, and Candidates for the offices 
 of Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, beg 
 lea veto address their fellow-citizens on the subject of the ap- 
 proaching elections : 
 
 They rejoice to have it in their power to congratulate the 
 people of the Commonwealth upon the satisfactory aspect of 
 the fcttate Government. It is the peculiar privilege of the 
 citizdns of Massachusetts to have obtained for a series of years 
 the services of a Chief Magistrate, eminently devoted to the 
 principles and interests, with which the character and pros- 
 perity of the Commonwealth are blended. Called to the Ex- 
 ecutive trust by the earnest and repeated solicitations of his 
 fellow-citizens, without distinction of party, he has not failed 
 to requite their reasonable expectations. In the laborious and 
 thorough discharge of ordinary duties, he has furnished an 
 example of application and industry seldom witnessed in our 
 public servants, and altogether deserving of special commen- 
 dation. Conscientious and impartial in the exercise of the 
 appointing power, he has rilled the most important offices with 
 the best men, and in respect, at least, to the purity of his in- 
 tentions, has never afforded grounds of dissatisfaction and 
 complaint. In superintending the relations of the State to 
 the General Government, he has guarded our interests, with 
 unceasing vigilance, and asserted our rights with becoming 
 dignity and firmness. In the prosecution of public improve- 
 ments, in the advancement of useful institutions, in the more 
 convenient organization of the courts, and in the reformation 
 of the prisons, his agency has been conspicuous and effective. 
 In the suggestion of every practicable legislative expedient 
 3
 
 18 
 
 for a salutary retrenchment of expenditures, and in the ac- 
 complishment of many executive measures in the civil and 
 military departments, directly conducive to this object, he 
 has done all that could be done, through the influence of his 
 office, to subserve the purposes of a wise and just economy. 
 In short, without a more minute review of the principles and 
 measures which have distinguished the administration of 
 GOVERNOR LINCOLN, it has appeared to the Convention, 
 as they doubt not it will appear to a large portion of the citi- 
 zens of the Commonwealth, to be exceedingly desirable to 
 secure the continuance of his services for another political 
 term ; and they have the satisfaction to announce, that in 
 compliance with the unanimous invitation of the Convention, 
 he has again consented to be a candidate for re-electicn. 
 
 The present Lieutenant-Governor having declined a re-elec- 
 tion to the office which he has filled for several years, to the 
 entire satisfaction of the community, the Convention have 
 found themselves obliged to make choice of a person to be 
 recommended to the support of the people as his successor. 
 In making the selection from several respected and worthy 
 citizens, they have been guided by a comparison of opinions 
 from every part of the Commonwealth, and by the wish that 
 all its interests and feelings should be consulted. In this 
 view, they have been led to designate SAMUEL T. ARM- 
 STRONG, of Boston, as a suitable candidate for the office of 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth, for the ensuing 
 political year. Mr. Armstrong has been distinguished through 
 life, for the purity of his private character, his exemplary dili- 
 gence in the practical pursuits of life, and his discharge of the va- 
 rious social and public duties, which have devolved upon him. 
 The Convention, in selecting him as a candidate, have pro- 
 ceeded in full confidence of his qualifications for an upright 
 discharge of the duties of his office, and in the belief that his 
 nomination will be generally acceptable to the good people of 
 the Commonwealth, whom they have the honor to repre- 
 sent. 
 
 In turning their attention from the State Elections to that 
 of a Chief Magistrate of the United States, the Convention are 
 profoundly impressed with the magnitude and solemnity of the 
 subject. 
 
 They cannot but regard the approaching presidential elec- 
 tion as the most important which has been held in the United
 
 19 
 
 States, since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The 
 choice of the Chief Executive Officer is in all popular govern- 
 ments the matter of greatest difficulty, and is that in which 
 the strength of the system is most severely tried. The peri- 
 odical exercise of the right of suffrage in choosing a Presi- 
 dent is, for this reason, at all times the most important duty 
 which the People of this free country are called upon to per- 
 form. 
 
 The present election is peculiarly momentous. If the ex- 
 isting Administration is renewed, it will be considered (though 
 erroneously) as a sanction, by the People, of the encroachments 
 which it has made and attempted upon the Constitution, laws, 
 and great interests of the country. 
 
 When the present chief magistrate was seriously proposed 
 as a candidate for the first office in the gift of the People, and 
 the minds of men had recovered from the surprise, into which 
 they were thrown, by the suggestion, various benefits were 
 promised by his partizans, and various evils were foretold by 
 his opponents, as likely to result to the country from his ele- 
 vation. It is the deliberate and solemn sense of the Conven- 
 tion, that not one of these benefits has been enjoyed ; while 
 every evil anticipated has been more than realized. To sup- 
 port this proposition, the Convention believe they shall be 
 obliged to allege but little as matter of fact against the Ad 
 ministration, which is not both admitted to be true by its sup 
 porters, and even claimed as a merit. 
 
 When the President was nominated, his partizans generally 
 held forth the promise of his retirement at the close of his first 
 term. In his own first message to Congress, he himself de- 
 clared an amendment of the Constitution restricting the office 
 to one term of four or six years to be advisable. But in the 
 face of the pledge given by his friends and of his own propo- 
 sal, even to take from the People the power, in all cases, to 
 re-elect a President, he is himself a candidate for re-election. 
 Not only this, but when a proposition was introduced into 
 Congress by one of the most distinguished of those who had 
 promoted his election, for such an amendment of the Consti- 
 tution, the step was denounced as hostile to the President, by 
 the presses in his interest. 
 
 A memorable piece of advice had, in 1817, been given by 
 the President himself to Mr. Monroe, to break down "the 
 monster party," and to recall those then in the minority to a
 
 20 
 
 share in the administration of the Government. This coun- 
 sel gained for him the support of a large number of that class 
 of citizens ; and the People of the United States of all denomi- 
 nations, wearied with dissension and discord, approved the 
 sentiment as magnanimous and patriotic. But on his acces- 
 sion to power, he became himself the head of a party, the 
 most intolerant and prescriptive ever known in the country. 
 And not only this, but all who refuse to fall into it and support 
 his administration, are not merely denounced by his presses, 
 but denounced by the name of that party to which he had 
 spoken in the language of conciliation. We accordingly not 
 only behold the whole strength of the Administration press 
 put forth to revive a distinction of parties, against which the 
 President had protested, while such a protest was of service 
 to him ; but in order to give to him personally the benefit of 
 this uncandid procedure, we see men eminent as democrats, 
 (while that division of parties existed,) now denounced as fed- 
 eralists, and leading federalists supported as democrats, merely 
 because they happen to be opposers or. supporters of this Ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 It had been the main objection to the last President, that 
 having been selected from the three highest candidates by the 
 House of Representatives, he had placed in his cabinet a dis- 
 tinguished member of that body, who had voted for him.- 
 Notwithstanding the unquestioned fitness of Mr. Clay for the 
 office of Secretary of State, and the unreasonableness, not to 
 say impossibility, of holding every man disfranchised for of- 
 fice, who may have contributed in any degree to promote the 
 election of a President, the friends of the present incumbent 
 deemed this appointment so dangerous an attempt on the pu- 
 rity of Congress, as to be itself sufficient ground of opposition 
 to the administration of Mr. Adams. Gen. Jackson himself 
 considered the danger so imminent, that he pressed upon Con- 
 gress, in his first message, an amendment to the Constitution, 
 disqualifying members of Congress for all appointments ex- 
 cept the judicial. But notwithstanding this his own de- 
 clared opinion of the impropriety of these appointments, a 
 very large proportion of the most valuable offices in his gift have 
 been conferred on members of the Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives ; and some of them on no conceivable grounds, 
 but that of superior diligence and activity in promoting his 
 own election.
 
 21 
 
 It was warmly but most unjustly urged against the last Ad- 
 ministration, that it abused its patronage to effect its own contin- 
 uance in power : and in his inaugural address, the present chief 
 magistrate thought proper expressly to charge his predecessor 
 with bringing " the patronage of the federal government into 
 conflict with the freedom of elections." In violation of his 
 pledge to pursue an opposite course, the present chief magis- 
 trate has removed a great number of officers for no other 
 cause, than that of having been opposed to himself; and he 
 has appointed very many for no other reason, but having sup- 
 ported him. And in addition to this, it is a fact too well 
 known to'be disputed, that at no period since the organization 
 of the federal government has there existed even an approach 
 toward the present systematic, intense, all-pervading operation 
 of federal patronage on the freedom of election. 
 
 It is well known that, as it was objected to the late President, 
 that he had not received a plurality of popular votes ; so it 
 was charged upon him, that there was a tendency in the 
 measures of his administration against popular principles. 
 No facts were or could be quoted to prove such a tendency 1 ; 
 but the very vagueness and generality of the charge made it 
 a convenient topic of popular declamation. In the present in- 
 cumbent the people were promised that they should have a 
 President, who would rather repel than arrogate power, and 
 an administration conducted on purely republican principles. 
 In his inaugural message he himself expressed the hope that 
 he should have the " instruction," as well as " the co-opera- 
 tion " of the co-ordinate branches of the government. The 
 contrast of the measures of his administration with these pro- 
 fessions is of the most glaring and painful kind. The people 
 have been treated with the most marked indignity, in the only 
 way in which that can be done, in the action of the Execu- 
 tive Government, we mean in the person of their representa- 
 tives. The accredited organs of the press have made it one 
 leading object to vilify the two houses of Congress ; and the 
 most disrespectful insinuations against their members have 
 been authentically traced to the President himself. The 
 power of the Veto, designed for the extrernest cases, a mon- 
 archical feature of the British Constitution engrafted with 
 questionable propriety on ours, has been exercised more fre- 
 quently by him in three sessions of Congress, than by all his 
 predecessors for forty years. So far from seeking " instruc
 
 lion " of the co-ordinate branches of the government, he ha 
 in his Veto Message on the Bank declared, that the opinion 
 of the Judges has no more authority over Congress, than the 
 opinion of Congress over the Judges ; and that on that point, " the 
 President is independent of both." In the same message, he 
 assigns as one reason for rejecting the bill for re-chartering 
 the Bank, that the Executive was " not called upon to furnish 
 the project of such an institution." 
 
 This Convention, although they propose to themselves, in 
 this Address, to abstain from argument, and confine themselves 
 to facts of indisputable notoriety, cannot but pause a moment, 
 to remark upon the doctrines just cited, at war as. they are 
 with the letter, and still more at war with the spirit of the 
 Constitution. It is, of course, unnecessary to say, that the 
 '' opinion of Congress " has no authority at all, except as ex- 
 pressed in a joint rule, relative to the form of business between 
 the two Houses. Beyond this, an "opinion of Congress," as 
 far as legal authority goes, is a nonentity. On the contrary, 
 the opinion of the Court, on all matters duly brought before 
 them, is legally binding on all concerned. The Constitution 
 provides that " the Judicial power of the United States shall 
 be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts 
 as the Congress may ordain and establish," and that judicial 
 power is to be exercised through the channel of the official 
 opinions of the Court. Those opinions bind the President 
 and Congress, who may change the law, but while it is the 
 law, may not disobey it. Any process of reasoning to show 
 that the opinions of the Court have no binding authority over 
 the President and Congress, would show the same of every 
 subordinate officer and every citizen ; that is, that the Court 
 has no authority at all. This Convention believe that such 
 a doctrine was never before avowed under any government of 
 laws. Most assuredly, language like this was never before 
 addressed to the American people. 
 
 The last Administration was accused of extravagance, and 
 among the most efficient instruments in putting it down, was 
 the far-famed Committee of Retrenchment. It is a notorious 
 fact, that, except in the year 1829, for which the appropriations 
 were made under Mr. Adams, the expenses of the gov- 
 ernment have gone on increasing every year. For 1829 
 they were $12,669,490, for 1830 $13.229,533, for 1831, 
 $14,777,991, and for 1832 the definite appropriations rise to
 
 23 
 
 $16,657,669, with a large amount not ascertained. So noto- 
 rious was the abandonment by the friends of the Administra- 
 tion, when they came into power, of the principles professed 
 by them on this point while in opposition, that the Retrench- 
 ment Committee and its report were denounced as an imposi- 
 tion, on the floor of Congress, at the last session, by a gen- 
 tleman second to no other among the opponents of the late 
 Administration. 
 
 Finally, a general process of reformation was vaguely 
 promised, as among the benefits to be effected by overturning 
 the former administration. In the inaugural message this 
 greatly abused expression was adopted, and it was declared, 
 that " the task of reform was inscribed by the recent demon- 
 stration of public sentiment, on the list of executive duties." 
 How that task was performed, in reference to the only thing 
 specified in the message, the abusive interference of the Gene- 
 ral Government in elections, we have already seen. The word 
 was soon explained, by the executive practice, to mean re- 
 moving political opponents from office. Although Congress 
 was advised by the President, for grounds stated by him, to 
 limit the duration of all offices to four years, his own among 
 the rest ; he has perceived the application of these reasons 
 neither to his own case nor that of any of his friends ; and 
 the word " Reform," and the thing, which it has been made 
 to mean, have at last become the jest and scorn of the People. 
 
 In this way have the promises, under which the present 
 Administration came into power, been fulfilled. Nor is it less 
 notorious, that those anticipations of danger and evil formed 
 and expressed by the friends of the last Administration, have 
 been more than realized. 
 
 It was foretold that the sacred authority of law, which 
 forms the great practical distinction between a free government 
 and a despotism, would cease to be the rule of the Adminis- 
 tration. On the first question, which presented itself, that of 
 our relations with the Indian tribes, a law substantially coe- 
 val with the government, and re-enacted in its present form 
 thirty years ago, was avowedly disregarded by the President. 
 In like manner, the long list of treaties, a part of the law of 
 the land, most of which were entered into by the United States 
 for a valuable consideration, were set at nought by the Ad- 
 ministration, the United States keeping the consideration, 
 while they deprive the Indians of the benefit. Since the last
 
 24 
 
 session of Congress, the President has refused to carry into 
 effect several provisions of the law, making appropriations for 
 internal improvements, on the ground that those appropriations 
 are unconstitutional ; and this, although contained in acts 
 signed by himself! so that if the appropriations are consti- 
 tutional, he violates his oath of office in not executing them ; 
 if unconstitutional, he violated that oath when he signed the 
 bill. 
 
 It was foretold, that if he were elected, the great cause of 
 internal improvement would be jeoparded, on which more than 
 any thing in the physical condition of the country, the con- 
 tinued union of its far distant parts, depends. Although it is 
 exceedingly difficult to extract from the Maysville road veto 
 the precise notion which the President entertains on this sub- 
 ject, and although it is utterly impossible, by any artifice of 
 metaphysics, to draw a line between several improvements 
 which he has sanctioned, and several which he has vetoed ; 
 yet, it is a matter of boast among his partizans at the South, 
 that no more roads and canals are to be made, and no more 
 improvements of rivers attempted, during his administration. 
 
 The support to be expected from the Chief Magistrate for 
 tlie domestic industry of the country was likewise matter of 
 doubt and alarm. Since his accession to power his influence 
 on this great interest has never been felt, but in the distraction 
 and embarrassment of its friends. The reference in the veto 
 message on the Bank is too obvious to be mistaken. It is there 
 declared that, " Most of the difficulties our Government now 
 encounters, and most of the dangers which impend over our 
 Union, have sprung from the abandonment of the legitimate 
 objects of government, by our National Legislation, and the 
 adoption of such principles as are embodied in this act. Many 
 of our rich men have not been content with equal protection 
 and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer 
 by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires, 
 we have, in the results of our legislation, arrayed section against 
 section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a 
 fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations 
 of our Union. It is time to pause in our career, to review our 
 principles, and, if possible, revive that devoted patriotism and 
 spirit of compromise which distinguished the sages of the rev- 
 olution, and the fathers of our Union. If we cannot at once, 
 in justice to interests vested under improvident legislation,
 
 25 
 
 make our Government what it ought to be, we can, at least, 
 take a stand against all new grants of monopolies and exclu- 
 sive privileges, against any prostitution of our Government to 
 the advancement of the few at the expense of the many, and 
 in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws 
 and system of political economy." No one will deny that 
 the " improvident legislation" here aimed at, is the series of 
 laws passed for the protection and encouragement of manu- 
 factures. And it may be observed, that the vote of the Pre- 
 sident is recorded in favor of the tariff of 1824, the only one 
 passed while he was a member of Congress, passed too at a 
 period when " the interests vested " under this legislation were 
 not yet important enough to require a majority of the New 
 England members of Congress to vote for the law. 
 
 It was foretold that the great institutions of the country 
 would be endangered under his administration. The con- 
 tinued existence of that institution which sends a sound cur- 
 rency to the remotest village of the Union has already en- 
 countered his veto. If he is re/elected, it is overturned. The 
 Treasury Bank which he has recommended in its stead, is 
 not known to have elicited a favorable opinion from any other 
 person in the country ; and would, if carried into effect, be an 
 engine of corruption, compared with which the scarlet venality 
 of the old world stands abashed and pale. The Supreme 
 Court of the United States is seriously menaced. An elaborate 
 essay has emanated from the Cabinet against a solemn opin- 
 ion of that tribunal. One of the missionaries was deprived 
 of the place of Postmaster, notoriously to divest him of the 
 character of an agent of the United States, and thereby to bring 
 him within the grasp of the Georgia laws. The President has 
 done nothing to rescue these missionaries from the cruel im- 
 prisonment to which they have been condemned by laws pro- 
 nounced unconstitutional by the Supreme Court ; and he per- 
 mits the State of Georgia, under the same laws to seize, and 
 parcel out by lottery, the lands of an unprotected and depend- 
 ent tribe, guaranteed to them by treaty stipulations, negotiated 
 by himself, and declared by the Court to be of unimpaired 
 validity. Of its opinions he has declared himself, in general 
 terms, independent. Thus far he has already gone. When 
 we reflect on what further steps may be reasonably expected, 
 should his administration continue in power, and on the pos- 
 sibility of the deeply deplored event, which may cause a va- 
 4
 
 26 
 
 cancy in the place of the Chief Justice of that Court, to 
 be filled by a successor who will carry on the war against 
 the Constitution, within the very citadel of its strength, this 
 Convention wants words to express its feelings of anxiety 
 and apprehension. 
 
 It was predicted that if the late Administration should be 
 prostrated, it would be succeeded by a system of personal de- 
 traction and violence, and a reign of terror. The anticipa- 
 tions on this subject have been more than fulfilled. The 
 presses called into being by the patronage, or enjoying the 
 countenance of the Government, have reached a point of fe- 
 rocity and virulence before unexampled. Individual and pri- 
 vate character is avowedly assailed as the means of political 
 annoyance; and falsehoods the most gross and infamous are 
 systematically fabricated and circulated against all persons 
 who dare to raise their voices, in Congress or out of it, against 
 the abuses of the Administration. Nor has the system of 
 intimidation stopped here. At the last session of Congress, 
 the most strenuous, persevering and substantially successful 
 efforts were made by the friends of the Administration to screen 
 from punishment the author of a violent assault upon a mem- 
 ber of the House of Representatives. The same majority re- 
 fused to take cognizance of a challenge sent to another mem- 
 ber, for having offered a question to be proposed by the House 
 to a witness at its bar ; and on the same day on which the 
 subject was contemptuously dismissed by the majority, an at- 
 tempt was made to shoot down another member upon the 
 steps of the Capitol. After all these acts of violence, it was 
 still found impossible to obtain even a Committee of Inquiry 
 into the extent of the measures of menace, violence, and blood- 
 shed, which had been resorted to, to suppress the freedom of 
 debate and overawe the two houses of Congress. Although 
 these occurrences had fully demonstrated, that it was at the 
 peril of his life that any member of Congress should boldly 
 discharge his duty as an opponent of the Administration-, not 
 a press in its interest was heard to raise its voice against the 
 system of menace and bloodshed. On the contrary, the acts 
 of violence alluded to were justified, palliated, or excused. 
 
 In a word, it was predicted that the Union itself would 
 be jeoparded in the principles and practice of the existing 
 Administration. The fulfilment of this apprehension is but 
 too visibly presented to us. At the time when the present Chief 

 
 27 
 
 Magistrate came into office, the Georgia question was at its 
 crisis. That State had unfortunately thrown itself into un- 
 constitutional and illegal opposition to the General Govern- 
 ment, in the execution of the laws and treaties in favor of 
 the Indians. But the firmness of the last Administration 
 and the presence of two or three companies of United States 
 troops (marched into the disturbed district at the request of 
 Georgia) had proved amply sufficient to protect these dependent 
 tribes. On the accession of the present Chief Magistrate, this 
 ground was abandoned the troops of the United States be- 
 fore long withdrawn. Ministers of the Gospel, sent by actual 
 permission of the Government and partly at its expense, thrown 
 into a felon's jail, and the right of Georgia to nullify the laws 
 and treaties expressly admitted. Encouraged by the success 
 of this disastrous experiment, another State has taken the 
 field against the supremacy of the laws, and pleads the exam- 
 ple of Georgia as the precedent and justification. It is true, 
 that no direct countenance has been given in words by the 
 present Administration, to the policy of South Carolina. But 
 the late Veto Message represents it as the natural consequence 
 of what it stigmatises as improvident legislation. The fatal 
 and pregnant error was committed, when the State of Georgia 
 was allow y ed to set the law at defiance ; and this Convention 
 has yet to learn to what good purpose theoretical nullification 
 is countenanced in Georgia. 
 
 But without enlarging on this point, the whole tone of the 
 Administration is against the Union. An extravagant and 
 ill-considered declamation on State rights, belonging only to a 
 low order of partizan prints, characterizes several of its state 
 papers ; all the 'institutions and principles which act as the 
 bonds and guards of the Union have been assailed ; exploded 
 doctrines and prejudices hostile to the Union have been re- 
 vived ; the Bank prostrated ; the Court disregarded and threat- 
 ened ; the Senate menaced with the reduction of its term to 
 two years ; the House of Representatives vilified ; both 
 branches set at nought by the unheard-of multiplication of 
 Vetoe ; every thing, in short, attempted, which has the effect 
 to resolve the Union into jealous and discordant elements, and 
 by destroying all the other functions of the General Govern- 
 ment, to concentrate its remaining powers in the hands of the 
 Executive. 
 
 The effects of this warfare upon the principles of the Union 

 
 28 
 
 on the part of those whose sworn and constitutional duty it is 
 to defend it, are but too evident in the daily growing despon- 
 dency of patriotic men. The permanency of our institutions, 
 which but a few years since was considered beyond the reach 
 of danger, is a topic now of contemplation, as familiar as it is 
 painful. A distressing conviction gains strength, that the 
 Government of the country is in the hands of its enemies, and 
 that great and indefinite but fatal changes are hanging over us. 
 But with all these inauspicious predictions which have been 
 but too fully verified, it was foretold that the combinations 
 which had brought the present Administration into power 
 would dissolve as speedily as they had been formed ; and that 
 the eyes of the people would eventually be opened to the delu- 
 sion under which they had labored. Although no person who 
 feels any reliance upon the intelligence and patriotism of the 
 community could doubt that such would be the result, it must 
 be admitted that, for a while, the prospect was gloomy of its 
 seasonable accomplishment. But it has been brought about 
 sooner than could have been anticipated. One entire section 
 of the party which raised the present Chief Magistrate to the 
 Chair, disgusted by personal grievances, of a character the 
 most extraordinary and offensive, was soon repelled from the 
 support of the Administration. But the changes which are to 
 prove decisive of the election are those which have taken place 
 and are going on in the great States of New York, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and Ohio. New York was but equally divided in 1828. 
 A small decrease of the strength then enlisted in support of 
 the present Chief Magistrate is all that was required to turn 
 the scale. The most extensive disaffection is known to have 
 taken place and that State will unquestionably be found in 
 opposition. The vote of Ohio was given to the present in- 
 cumbent in 1828, by a slender majority, and since that period 
 she has elected a National Republican Chief Magistrate, and a 
 large majority of members of Congress, opposed to the Ad- 
 ministration. The understanding that has been happily 
 effected between its opponents makes it all but certain that it 
 will be left in a minority. The state of Pennsylvania support- 
 ed Gen. Jackson by an overwhelming vote. It must be admit- 
 ed that a change sufficiently extensive to produce an opposite 
 result was scarcely to be expected. But the warfare waged 
 upon the cause of internal improvement, the equivocal policy 
 on the subject of manufactures, and the prostration of the Bank
 
 29 
 
 have shaken the Administration to the centre. It is confi- 
 dently believed that a cordial union between the opponents of 
 the Administration in that State, will ensure its defeat. The 
 preparatory elections amply authorize this expectation. It is 
 unnecessary to say, that the loss of these States of any two 
 of them of New York alone, is the loss of the election. 
 
 The limits of this Address do not permit the Convention to 
 go into great detail on the subject of the election, but it is be- 
 lieved that the following general statements may be received 
 with confidence : 
 
 It is well known that in the Presidential election of 1828, 
 notwithstanding the large majority of electoral votes by which 
 the chief magistrate was chosen, his majority of popular votes 
 in the aggregate, exceeded those cast for Mr. Adams in a pro- 
 portion of less than 6 to 5. It is equally well known, that 
 a change of less than twelve thousand votes in five States, 
 choosing sixty electors, would have taken those States from 
 Gen. Jackson and have given them to Mr. Adams, who, in 
 that event, would have been re-elected by a majority of twen- 
 ty-five votes. These facts are stated to correct the prevalent, 
 but very erroneous impression, that the present Chief Magis- 
 trate was the choice of an overwhelming majority of the peo- 
 ple. They also in like manner show how small a decrease of 
 strength must prevent his re-election. Whether the opponents 
 of his administration are not perfectly reasonable in saying that 
 he has lost the confidence of the People, not in a slight but in 
 a very great degree, may be fearlessly submitted to the de- 
 cision of all candid men. 
 
 When we look at the individual States, we find every thing 
 to gratify and encourage us. The auspicious result of the 
 late election in Maine authorizes a confident hope that that 
 powerful State will redeem herself from her thraldom. The 
 people of that State, as well as of Massachusetts, have reasons, 
 in some degree peculiar to themselves, for seeking a change in 
 the Administration. The extraordinary manner in which the 
 affair of the North-Eastern boundary of the Union has been 
 conducted, has brought into jeopardy a territory nearly as 
 large as the Commonwealth, the joint property of the two 
 States. But the neglect of the President to sign the bill for 
 the payment of interest on the sums of money advanced for 
 military services, in the last war, is an act of still more 
 astonishing usurpation. By this arbitrary act, the people of
 
 30 
 
 Massachusetts and Maine are deprived of half a million of 
 dollars, judged by the two Houses of Congress to be righteous- 
 ly their due ; and this without the assignment of a reason or 
 even a pretence. When to this is added that the defeat by 
 the votes of his friends in the House of Representatives, of the 
 land bill, which was carried through the Senate by the ex- 
 traordinary efforts and talents of Mr. Clay, has deprived the 
 people of the two States of an annual dividend of half the 
 above-named sum, it will be admitted that their citizens have 
 no cause to wish the continuance of his administration. The 
 fundsrof which we have been thus deprived, and partly by the 
 individual act of the President, would have carried on a ju- 
 dicious system of public works and internal improvements in 
 every part of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Should the election in Maine correspond with our antici- 
 pations, New-Hampshire will be the only State voting against 
 Gen. Jackson in 1828, and likely to vote for him in 1832. It 
 is a matter of painful reflection, that while it is necessary even 
 in Tennessee to choose the electors by general ticket rather 
 than in districts, to prevent the loss of at least one of the elec- 
 toral votes, the intelligence and patriotism of this part of New- 
 England should be mastered by the corrupting influences that 
 have been so sedulously applied to.it. Passing onward to the 
 South, it is impossible to find another electoral vote, which 
 the President is sure to obtain, till we reach Maryland, where 
 one or two of the districts may possibly still adhere to him. 
 The four remaining States of New-England, New-York, New- 
 Jersey, and Delaware, a large .majority of the votes in Mary- 
 land, and as we believe the vote of Pennsylvania, will be given 
 in opposition to the incumbent. 
 
 As far as present appearances authorize an opinion, we 
 consider it certain that the following votes will be given against 
 Gen. Jackson, viz : Massachusetts 14, Vermont 7, Rhode 
 Island 4, Connecticut 8, New- York 42, New- Jersey 8, Penn- 
 sylvania 30, Delaware 3, Maryland 7, Louisiana 5, Kentucky 
 15, Ohio 21 ; in the aggregate 164. To these we add, as 
 highly probable, Maine 10, South Carolina 11, Indiana 9, 
 which added to the former sum give 194 ; the whole number 
 of votes being 288. 
 
 It is evident, then, that after all requisite allowance is made 
 for erroneous calculations, we are still authorized to come to 
 the conclusion that if the opponents of the Administration are
 
 31 
 
 true to themselves, its doom is sealed. But it is only by un- 
 ion among themselves that this great and paramount object 
 can be accomplished. Much has been done ; much is doing ; 
 the spirit of the people is aroused ; the grievance is felt ; the 
 peril of the country has come home to the hearts of men ; but 
 one thing still is wanting, cordial and effective union. To this 
 we beg leave most earnestly to exhort our fellow-citizens, 
 warning them that nothing less than their undivided strength 
 Avill suffice for the great work to be performed, and assuring 
 them that with it the plague that is now wasting us may be 
 arrested, and the country saved. 
 
 Let it not be forgotten for a moment, nor by any citizen, 
 that since the formation of the Constitution no period so criti- 
 cal of its fate has existed. There is too much reason to fear 
 that, in one event of the election, it is the last which will ever 
 be held in these now United States ; and we cannot but ex- 
 hort our fellow-citizens of the Commonwealth and the Union 
 at large to approach the impending crisis with the spirit be- 
 longing to the occasion. We have to contend with a party 
 lately possessing a majority in the country, organized under 
 the most skilful political tacticians, wielding unscrupulously 
 the entire patronage of the government, openly proposing the 
 highest offices in the public service as the spoils of victory, 
 inundating through the means of the post-office the remotest 
 corners of the Union with the effusions of a press of unex- 
 ampled malignity, and besieging the polls with the entire host 
 of office-holders. Against this formidable array the friends 
 of the constitution and of a government of laws have to con- 
 tend, with no other weapons but those of truth and a zealous 
 patriotism. We implore our countrymen of all names and 
 parties, opposed to the Administration, to arise, unite, and car- 
 ry on the great work so nobly begun. Already the strength 
 of the Administration is crumbling in the State of Pennsylva- 
 nia, whose support originally called it into being, and of New 
 York, whose later adhesion seemed to raise it above the fear 
 of oppositiofi. It has been found that the mad boast that the 
 popularity of the President will bear any thing, has betrayed 
 those who trusted it too far. The popularity of a gallant and 
 successful military commander (from whom the National Re- 
 publicans of Massachusetts never withheld any reasonable 
 ackowledgment) could indeed bear much ; but there is a 
 limit to endurance. The law of the land, the independence
 
 32 
 
 of both branches of the National Legislature, the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, the currency of the country, the 
 leading principles of public policy, the characters of its best 
 and purest citizens, the Constitution and the Union, all of 
 which have been assailed, trampled upon, or menaced, are 
 too costly a sacrifice to be offered up to any man. The Con- 
 vention rejoice in the belief that the time has not yet come in 
 the United States when any man's popularity will bear this. 
 Too much has been exacted of the supporters of the Admin- 
 istration. The extraordinary spectacle has been exhibited of 
 a President nominally retaining the confidence of a majority 
 of the People and of their representatives, but complaining, 
 through his recognized organ, that not one of his measures 
 can obtain the sanction of Congress. But at last the delusion 
 is broken. Press after press, district after district, State after 
 State, of those once devoted to him, is giving way ; a tre- 
 mendous reaction has taken place ; and it is at this time a 
 matter of serious doubt, whether there is a single individual in 
 the United States, unbiassed by the possession or the expec- 
 tation of office or emolument, and whose judgment is enti- 
 tled to respect, who will say that the present Administration 
 can be continued with safety to the country. 
 
 But the last struggle will no doubt be severe. It is one of 
 life or death to those who subsist on the spoils of victory. The 
 opponents of the Administration have strength enough to over- 
 turn it, but none to waste "on mutual dissensions or a warfare 
 with each other. Considerate and reflecting men must cpme 
 forward, and let their voices be heard. Hasty and indiscreet 
 partizans of no denomination must be permitted to sow dis- 
 cord between the forces united in this patriotic warfare. The 
 last hope of the Administration is in our divisions. Bereft of 
 strength in itself, it now relies on the weakness of the sepa- 
 rate sections of those opposed to it. It strives to excite dissen- 
 sions among them, and exasperate them against each other. 
 But it strives in vain, and the Convention trust that they 
 speak the voice of their constituents when they proclaim it as 
 their own sentiment, that not one vote in opposition to the pres- 
 ent Administration shall be thrown away. 
 , In discharging the duty devolved upon them of nominat- 
 ^ng a list of Electors, the Convention present to the good Peo- 
 ple of the Commonwealth the names of fourteen citizens, be- 
 lieved to be devoted, on patriotic principle, to the election of
 
 33 
 
 Henry Clay and John Sergeant, as President and Vice Presi- 
 dent of the United States. The Convention does not deem 
 it necessary to enlarge upon the merits of these distinguished 
 individuals, already adopted as their candidates by the people 
 of the Commonwealth, by whom we are ourselves delegated, 
 and by the National Republican Convention assembled at 
 Baltimore. In Mr. Clay the people of the United States be- 
 hold a statesman of the most distinguished talents, of long 
 and various experience in the public service, and of the most 
 devoted and generous patriotism. In early youth and in ma- 
 turer years, as a citizen and as a representative, at home and 
 abroad, in peace and in war, in the chair of the House of 
 Representatives, in a most important diplomatic capacity, in 
 the cabinet and in the Senate, he has been the strenuous, in- 
 defatigable, eloquent and triumphant supporter of those prin- 
 ciples of government and policy on which the union of the 
 States and prosperity of the People depend. Mr. Sergeant is 
 eminent among the first jurists and statesmen of the country. 
 His professional respectability, and public services both at 
 home and abroad, are such as to entitle him to the support of 
 the People of the United States for the high station to which 
 he has been nominated by the National Republican party. 
 
 The entire political lives of these distinguished statesmen 
 are a guaranty to the country that, beneath their auspices, the 
 reign of violence, of arbitrary discretion, of secret influence 
 and peremptory dictation will pass away, and that of civil 
 rule will return. Under their Administration, the people of 
 the United States will enjoy, what they are now deprived of, 
 the benefit of a government of law. The directory of the 
 Administration will be sought in the statute book, and the other 
 constitutional depositaries of the law, and not in a private ex- 
 ecutive construction. Offices, whose uncorrupt discharge ia 
 essential to the welfare of the people, will no longer be regard- 
 ed as spoils of victory. Appointments repeatedly negatived 
 by the constitutional advisers of the President will not be re- 
 newed, by his sole will, the moment that the Senate adjourns. 
 The execution of laws will not be suspended on the pretence 
 of their unconstitutionally. The countenance of the Admin- 
 istration will not be extended to an unprincipled press, nor 
 offices of trust and emolument bestowed as the reward of the 
 slanderer. The patronage of the Government will net yet be 
 exerted to defeat the will of the People. The great domestic 
 5
 
 34 
 
 interests of the country will be upheld, by a steady, unequiv- 
 ocal support. Its industry will be spared the shock of a dis- 
 ordered currency. The faith of treaties will be kept sacred ; 
 and the honor of the United States be sustained in their in- 
 tercourse with foreign governments ; and the union of the 
 States, the precious legacy we have inherited from our fa- 
 thers, will be preserved unimpaired for our children. 
 
 These are the objects for which we contend. If we suc- 
 ceed in the noble effort, we shall enjoy the satisfaction of 
 having contributed to rescue our beloved country in the hour 
 of her dearest peril. 
 
 If we are destined to fail and it is appointed by an all-wise 
 Providence, that our country shall be abandoned to a con- 
 tinuance of that misrule, which has brought it to the verge 
 of ruin, we shall have the consolation that we, at least, were 
 not wanting to our duty. The interests at stake are beyond 
 all power of description. Mighty battles of nations arrayed 
 against each other, may be lost or won, with no other effect 
 than to decide by what name of tyranny both shall be op- 
 pressed. But if in the great civil warfare now waged, the 
 friends of the country are defeated ; if, by the divisions of 
 those who march beneath it, the banner of the Constitution 
 is cloven down, the cause of liberty protected by law is sac- 
 rificed for all nations, and for all time. The crisis is fearful, 
 the danger impending, the responsibility tremendous ; and 
 this Convention calls upon every man, as he loves his country, 
 to come forward and do his duty. 
 
 NATHANIEL SILSBEE, President. 
 GEORGE BLAKE, ""I 
 
 JOSEPH LYM AN, \Vice Presets. 
 
 AARON 1 UFTS, 
 CORNELIUS GRINNELL,J 
 
 THOMAS KINNICUTT, ) 
 
 WM. PORTER, JR. t > Secretaries. 
 
 CHARLES BUNKER, )
 
 MR. WEBSTER'S SPEECH. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, I offer no apology for addressing the 
 meeting. Holding, by the favor of the people of this Common- 
 wealth, an important public situation, I deem it no less than a 
 part of my duty, at this interesting moment, to make my own 
 opinions on the state of public affairs known ; and, however I 
 may have performed other duties, this, at least, it is my pur- 
 pose, on the present occasion, fully to discharge. Not intend- 
 ing to comment, at length, on all the subjects which now at- 
 tract public attention, nor to discuss any thing, in detail, I 
 wish, nevertheless, before an assembly so large and respectable 
 as the present, and through them to the whole people of the 
 State, to lay open, without reserve, my own sentiments, hopes, 
 and fears, respecting the state, and the fate, of our common 
 country. 
 
 The Resolutions which have been read from the Chair ex- 
 press the opinion that the public good requires an effectual 
 change in the administration of the General Government, both 
 of measures, and of men. In this opinion, I heartily concur. 
 
 Mr. President, there is no citizen of the State, who, in prin- 
 ciple and by habitual sentiment, is less disposed than myself to 
 general opposition to Government ; or less desirous of frequent 
 changes in its administration. I entertain this feeling strongly^ 
 and at all times, towards the Government of the United Statesj 
 because I have ever regarded the Federal Constitution as a 
 frame of Government so peculiar, and so delicate in its rela* 
 tions to the State Governments, that it might be in danger of 
 overthrow, as well from an indiscriminate and wanton opposi-
 
 36 
 
 lion, as from a weak or a wicked Administration. But a case 
 may arise, in which the Government is no longer safe, in the 
 hands to which it has been entrusted. It may come to 
 be a question, not so much in what particular manner, or 
 according to what particular political opinions, the Govern- 
 ment shall be administered, as whether the Constitution 
 itself shall be preserved and maintained. Now, sir, in my 
 judgment, just such a case, ami just such a question, are at this 
 moment before the American People. Entertaining this sen- 
 timent, and thoroughly and entirely convinced of its truth, t 
 wish, as far as ray humble power extends, to awaken the People 
 to a more earnest attention to their public concerns. With the 
 People, and the People alone, lies any remedy for the past, and 
 any security for the future. No delegated power is equal to 
 the exigency of the present crisis. No public servants, how- 
 ever able or faithful, have ability to check, or to stop the fear- 
 ful tendency of things. It is a case for sovereign interposition. 
 The rescue, if it come at all, must come from that power, 
 which no other on earth can resist. I earnestly wish, there- 
 fore, unimportant as my own opinions may be, and entitled, 
 as I know they are, to no considerable regard, yet, since 
 they are honest and sincere, and since they respect nothing less 
 than dangers which appear to me to threaten the Government 
 and Constitution of the country, I fervently wish, that I could 
 now make them known, not only to this meeting, and to this 
 State, but to every man in the Union. I take the hazard of 
 the reputation of an alarmist ; I cheerfully submit to the impu- 
 tation of over-excited apprehensions ; I discard all fear of the 
 cry of false prophecy, and I declare, that, in rny judgment, not 
 only the great interests of the country, but the Constitution it- 
 self is in imminent peril, and that nothing can save, either the 
 one or the other, but that voice, which has authority to say, to 
 the evils of misrule and misgovernment, Hitherto shall ye come, 
 but no farther. 
 
 It is true, sir, that it is the natural effect of a good constitu- 
 tion to protect the people. But who shall protect the Constitu- 
 tion ? Who shall guard the guardian ? What arm but the 
 mighty- arm of the People itself, is able, in f a popular govern- 
 ment, to uphold public institutions ? The Constitution itself is 
 but the creature of the public will, and in every crisis which 
 threatens it, it must owe its security to the same power to which 
 it owes its origin.
 
 37 
 
 The appeal, therefore, is to the People. Not to party, nor 
 to partizans ; not to professed politicians j not to those who 
 have an interest in office and place, greater than their stake 
 in the country j but to the People, and the whole People ; to 
 those, who, in regard to political affairs, have no wish but for 
 a good government, and who have power to accomplish their 
 own wishes. 
 
 Mr. President, are the principles and leading measures of 
 the Administration hostile to the great interests of the country ? 
 
 Are they dangerous to the Constitution, and to the Union of 
 the States ? 
 
 Is there any prospect of a beneficial change of principles and 
 measures, without a change of men ? 
 
 Is there reasonable ground to hope for such a change of 
 men ? 
 
 On these several questions, I desire to state my own convic- 
 tions, fully, though as briefly as possible. 
 
 As government is intended to be a practical institution, if it 
 be wisely formed, the first and most natural test of its adminis- 
 tration is the effect produced by it. Let us look, then, to the 
 actual state of our affairs. Is it such as should follow a good 
 administration of a good Constitution ? 
 
 Sir, we see one State openly threatening to arrest the 
 execution of the revenue laws of the Union, by acts of 
 her own. This proceeding is threatened, not by irresponsible 
 persons, but by those who fill her chief places of power and 
 trust. 
 
 In another State, free citizens of the country are imprisoned, 
 and held in prison, in defiance of a judgment of the Supreme 
 Court, pronounced for their deliverance. Immured in a dun- 
 geon, marked and patched as subjects of penitentiary punish- 
 ment, these free citizens pass their days in counting the slow 
 revolving hours of their miserable captivity, and their nights in 
 feverish and delusive dreams of their own homes and their 
 own families ; while the Constitution stands, adjudged to be 
 violated, a law of Congress is effectually repealed by the act 
 of a State, and a judgment of deliverance, by the Supreme 
 Court, is set at nought and contemned. 
 
 Treaties, importing the most solemn and sacred obligations, 
 are denied to have binding force. 
 
 A feeling, that there is great insecurity for property, 
 and the stability of the means of living, extensively prevails.
 
 38 
 
 The whole subject of the Tariff, acted on for the moment, 
 is, at the same moment, declared, not to be at rest, but liable 
 to be again moved, and with greater effect, just so soon as pow- 
 er for that purpose shall be obtained. 
 
 The currency of the country, hitherto safe, sound, and uni- 
 versally satisfactory, is threatened with a violent change, and 
 an embarrassment in pecuniary affairs, equally distressing and 
 unnecessary, hangs over all the trading and active classes of 
 society. 
 
 A long-used, and long-approved Legislative Instrument for 
 the collection of revenue, well secured against abuse, and al- 
 ways responsible to Congress and to the laws, is denied further 
 existence ; and its place is proposed to be supplied by a new 
 branch of the Executive Department, with a money power, 
 controlled and conducted solely by Executive agency. 
 
 The power of the VETO is exercised, not as an extraordi- 
 nary, but as an ordinary power ; as a common mode of de- 
 feating Acts of Congress, not acceptable to the Executive. 
 We hear, one day, that the President needs the advice of no 
 Cabinet ; that a few Secretaries, or Clerks, are enough for 
 him. The next, we are informed, that the Supreme Court is 
 but an obstacle to the popular will, and the whole judicial de- 
 partment but an incumbrance to Government. And while, on 
 one side, the judicial power is thus derided and denounced, 
 on the other arises the cry, "cut down the Senate" ; and over 
 the whole, at the same time, prevails the loud avowal, shouted 
 with all the lungs of conscious party strength, and party triumph, 
 that the spoils of the enemy belong to the victors. This con- 
 dition of things, sir, this general and obvious aspect of affairs, 
 is the result of three years' administration, such as the country 
 has experienced. 
 
 But not resting on this general view of results, let me inquire 
 what the principles and policy of the Administration -are, on 
 the leading interests of the country, subordinate to the Consti- 
 tution itself. And first, what are its principles, and what its 
 policy, respecting the Tariff? Is this great question settled, 
 or unsettled ? And is the present Administration for, or against, 
 the Tariff? 
 
 Sir, the question is wholly unsettled, and the principles of the 
 Administration, according to its most recent avowal of those 
 principles, are adverse to the protecting policy, decidedly hostile 
 to the whole system, root and branch ; and this on permanent 
 and alleged constitutional grounds.
 
 39 
 
 In the first place, nothing has been done to settle the Tariff 
 question. The Anti-Tariff gentlemen who voted for the late 
 law have, none of them, said they would adhere to it. On the 
 contrary, they supported it, because, as far as it went, it was 
 reduction, and that was what they wished ; and if they obtained 
 this degree of reduction now, it would be easier to obtain a 
 greater degree hereafter ; and they frankly declared that their 
 intent and purpose was to insist on reduction, and to pursue re- 
 duction, unremittingly, till all duties on imports should be brought 
 down to one general and equal per centage, and that regulated 
 by the mere wants of the revenue ; or that if different rates of 
 duty should remain on different articles, still, that the whole 
 should be laid for revenue, and revenue only j and that they 
 would, to the utmost of their power, push this course, till 
 Protection, by duties, as a special object of National policy, 
 should be abandoned, altogether, in the National Councils. It 
 is a delusion, therefore, sir, to imagine that the present Tariff 
 stands, safely, on conceded ground. It covers not an inch, that 
 has not been fought for, and must not be again fought for. It 
 stands, while its friends can protect it ; and not an hour longer. 
 
 In the next place, in that compend of Executive opinions, 
 the VETO Message, the whole principle of the protecting poli- 
 cy is plainly and pointedly denounced. 
 
 Having gone through its argument against the Bank Char- 
 ter, as it now exists, and as it has existed, either under the 
 present or a former law, for near forty years, and having add- 
 ed to the well-doubted logic of that argument the still more 
 doubtful aid of a large array of opprobrious epithets, the Mes- 
 sage, in unveiled allusion to the protecting policy of the coun- 
 try, holds this language : 
 
 " Most of the difficulties our Government now encounters, 
 and most of the dangers which impend over our Union, have 
 sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of Gov- 
 ernment by our National legislation, and the adoption of such 
 principles as are embodied in this act. Many of our rich men 
 have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, 
 but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. 
 By attempting to gratify their desires, we have, in the results 
 of our legislation, arrayed section against section, interest 
 against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion 
 which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union. It is 
 time to pause in our career, to review our principles, and, if 
 possible, revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of comprom-
 
 40 
 
 ise which distinguished the sages of the revolution, and the 
 fathers of our Union. If we cannot at once, in justice to inter- 
 ests vested under improvident legislation, make our Govern- 
 ment what it ought to be, we can at least take a stand against 
 all new grants of monopolies and exclusive privileges, against 
 any prostitution of our Government to the advancement of the 
 few at the expense of the many, and in favor of compromise 
 and gradual reform in our code of laws and system of political 
 economy." 
 
 Here, then, we have the whole creed. Our National Legis- 
 lature has abandoned the legitimate objects of Government. It 
 has adopted such principles as are embodied in the Bank Char- 
 ter, and these principles are elsewhere called objectionable, 
 odious, and unconstitutional. And all this has been done because 
 rich men have besought the Government to render them richer, 
 by acts of Congress. It is time to pause in our career. It is 
 time to review these principles. And, if we cannot, at once, 
 MAKE OUR GOVERNMENT WHAT IT OUGHT TO BE, we can, at 
 least, take a stand against new grants of power and privilege. 
 
 The plain meaning of all this, is, that our protecting laws are 
 founded in an abandonment of the legitimate objects of govern- 
 ment ; that this is the great source of our difficulties ; that it is 
 time to stop in our career,to review the principles of these laws, 
 and as soon as we can, MAKE OUR GOVERNMENT WHAT IT OUGHT 
 TO BE. 
 
 No one can question, Mr. President, that these paragraphs, 
 from the last official publication of the President, show, that in 
 his opinion, the Tariff, as a system designed for protection, is 
 not only impolitic, but unconstitutional also. They are quite 
 incapable of any other version, or interpretation. They defy 
 all explanation, and all glosses. 
 
 Sir, however we may differ from the principles or the policy 
 of the Administration, it would, nevertheless, somewhat satisfy 
 our pride of country, if we could ascribe to it the character of 
 consistency. It would be grateful if we could contemplate the 
 President of the United States as an identical idea. But even 
 this secondary pleasure is denied to us. In looking to the pub- 
 lished records of executive opinions, sentiments favorable to pro- 
 tection, and sentiments against protection, either come confu- 
 sedly before us, at the same moment, or else follow each other 
 in rapid succession, like the shadows of a phantasmagoria. 
 
 Having read an extract from the Veto Message, containing 
 the statement of present opinions, allow me to read another
 
 extract from the annual Message of 1830. It will be perceiv- 
 ed, that in that Message, both the clear constitutionality of the 
 Tariff laws, and their indispensable policy are maintained in 
 the fullest and strongest manner. The argument, on the con- 
 stitutional point, is stated with more than common ability ; and 
 the policy of the laws is affirmed, in terms importing the deep- 
 est and most settled conviction. We hear in this Message no- 
 thing of improvident legislation ; nothing of the abandonment of 
 the legitimate objects pf Government ; nothing of the necessity 
 of pausing in our career, and reviewing our principles ; nothing 
 of the necessity of changing our Government, till it shall be 
 made what it ought to be. But let the Message speak for it- 
 self. 
 
 " The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged 
 to the several States. The right to adjust those duties with a 
 view to the encouragement of domestic branches of industry is 
 so completely incidental to that power, that it is difficult to 
 suppose the existence of the one without the other. The States 
 have delegated their whole authority over imports to the Gene- 
 ral Government, without limitation or restriction, saving the 
 very inconsiderable reservation relating to their inspection 
 laws. This authority having thus entirely passed from the 
 States, the right to exercise it for the purpose of protection 
 does not exist in them ; and, consequently, if it be not pos- 
 sessed by the General Government, it must be extinct. Our 
 political system would thus present the anomaly of a people 
 stripped of the right to foster their own industry, and to coun- 
 teract the most selfish and destructive policy which might be 
 adopted by foreign nations. This surely cannot be the case: 
 this indispensable power, thus surrendered by the States, must 
 be within the scope of the authority on the subject expressly 
 delegated to Congress. 
 
 "In this conclusion, I am confirmed as well by the opinions 
 of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, 
 who have each repeatedly recommended the exercise of this 
 right under the Constitution, as by the uniform practice of 
 Congress, the continued acquiescence of the States, and the 
 general understanding of the people." 
 
 " I am well aware that this is a subject of so much delicacy, 
 on account of the extended interests it involves, as to require 
 that it should bo touched with tho utmost caution ; and that, 
 while an abandonment of tho policy in which it originated a 
 policy coeval with our Government, pursued through succes- 
 sive administrations, is neither to be expected or desired, the 
 2
 
 10 
 
 people have a right to demand, and have demanded, that it 
 be so modified as to correct abuses and obviate injustice." 
 
 Mr. President, no one needs to point out inconsistences, 
 plain and striking like these. The Message of 1830 is a well 
 written paper ; it proceeded, probably, from the Cabinet proper. 
 Whence the Veto Message of 1832 proceeded, I know not; 
 perhaps from the Cabinet improper. 
 
 But, sir, there is an important record of an earlier date than 
 1830. If, as the President avers, we have been guilty of im- 
 provident legislation, what act of Congress is the most striking 
 instance of that improvidence ? Certainly, it is the act of 1824. 
 The principle of protection, repeatedly recognized before that 
 time, was, by that act, carried to a new and great extent ; so 
 new, and so great, that the act was considered as the founda- 
 tion of the system. Tint law it was, which conferred on the 
 distinguished citizen, whose nomination for President this meet- 
 ing has received with so much enthusiasm, the appellation of 
 "Author of the American System." Accordingly, the act of 
 1824 has been the particular object of attack, in all the warfare 
 waged against the protective policy. If Congress ever aban- 
 doned legitimate objects of legislation, in favor of protection, it 
 did it by that law. If any laws, now on the statute book, or 
 which ever were there, show, by their character, as laws of pro- 
 tection, that our Government is not what it ought to be, and 
 that it ought to be altered, and, in the language of the VETO 
 Message, made what it ought to be, the law of 1824 is the very 
 law, which more than any, and more than all others, shows 
 that. And yet, sir, the President of the United States, then 
 a Senator in Congress, voted for that law ! And, though I 
 have not recurred to the journal, my recollection is, that as to 
 some of its provisions, his support was essential to their success. 
 It will be found, I think, that some of its enactments, and those 
 now most loudly complained of, would have failed, but for his 
 own personal support of them, by his own vote. 
 
 After all this, it might have been hoped, that there would 
 be, in 1832, some tolerance of opinion toward those, who 
 cannot think, that improvidence, abandonment of all the 
 legitimate objects of legislation, a desire to gratify the rich, who 
 have besought Congress to make them still richer, and the 
 adoption of principles, unequal, oppressive, and odious, are 
 the true characteristics to be ascribed to the system of pro- 
 tection.
 
 11 
 
 But, sir, it is but a small part of my object to show inconsis- 
 tences in Executive opinions. My main purpose is different, 
 and tends to more practical ends. It is, to call the attention 
 of the meeting, and of the People, to the principles, avowed in 
 the late Message, as being the President's present opinions, and 
 proofs of his present purposes, and to the consequences, if they 
 shall be maintained by the country. These principles are 
 there expressed, in language which needs no commentary. 
 They go, with a point blank aim, against the fundamental stone 
 of the Protecting System ; that is to say, against the constitu- 
 tional power of Congress to establish and maintain it, in whole 
 or in part. The question, therefore, of the Tariff the ques- 
 tion of every Tariff the question between maintaining our 
 agricultural and manufacturing interests where they now are, 
 and breaking up the entire system, and erasing every vestige of 
 it from the statute book, is a -question materially to be affect- 
 ed by the pending election. 
 
 The President has exercised his NEGATIVE power, on the 
 law for continuing the Bank Charter. Here, too, he denies 
 both the constitutionality and the policy of an existing law of 
 Congress. It is true, that the law, or a similar one, has been 
 in operation near forty years. Previous Presidents and pre ; 
 vious Congresses have, all along, sanctioned and upheld it , 
 The highest Courts, and, indeed, all the Courts, have pro- 
 nounced it constitutional. A majority of the people, greater 
 than exists on almost any other question, agrees with all the 
 Presidents, all the Congresses, and all the Courts of law. Yet, 
 against all this weight of authority, the President puts forth his 
 own individual opinion, and has negatived the Bill for contin- 
 uing the law. Which of the members of his administration, or 
 whether any one of them, concurs in his sentiments, we know not. 
 Some of them, we know, have recently advanced precisely the 
 opposite opinions, and in the strongest manner recommended 
 to Congress the continuation of the Bank Charter. Having, 
 himself, urgently and repeatedly called the attention of Con- 
 gress to the subject, and his Secretary of the Treasury, who, 
 and all the other Secretaries, as the President's friends say, 
 are but so many pens in his hand, having, at the very session, 
 insisted, in his communication to Congress, both on the con- 
 stitutionality and necessity of ihe Bank, the President, never- 
 theless, saw fit to negative the Bill, passed, as it had been, by 
 strong majorities in both Houses, and passed, without doubt or
 
 12 
 
 question, in compliance with the wishes of a vast majority of the 
 American People. 
 
 The question respecting the constitutional power of Con- 
 gress to establish a Bank, I shall not here discuss. On that, as 
 well as on the general expediency of renewing the Charter, rny 
 sentiments have been elsewhere expressed. They are before 
 the public ; and the experience of every day confirms me in 
 their truth. All that has been said of the embarrassment and 
 distress, which will be felt from discontinuing the Bank, falls far 
 short of an adequate representation. What was prophecy only 
 two months ago, is already history. 
 
 ID this part of the country, indeed, we experience this dis- 
 tress and embarrassment only in a mitigated degree. The 
 loans of the Bank are not so highly important, or at least not so 
 absolutely necessary, to the present operations of our com- 
 merce ; yet we ourselves have .a deep interest in the subject, 
 as it is connected with the general currency of the country, and 
 with the cheapness and facility of exchange. 
 
 The country, generally speaking, was well satisfied with the 
 Bank. Why not let it alone ? No evil had been felt from it in 
 thirty-six years. Why conjure up a troop of fancied mischiefs, 
 as a pretence to put it down ? The Message struggles to ex- 
 cite prejudices, from the circumstance that foreigners are stock- 
 holders, and on this ground it raises a loud cry against a mon- 
 ied aristocracy. Can any thing, sir, be conceived, more in- 
 consistent than this? Any thing more remote from sound pol- 
 icy, and good statesmanship ? In the United States, the rale 
 of interest is high, compared with the rates abroad. In Hol- 
 land and England, the actual value of money is no more than 
 three, or perhaps three and a half, per cent. In our Atlantic 
 States it is as high as five or six, taking the whole length of the 
 sea board ; in the Northwestern States, it is eight or ten, and in 
 the Southwestern ten or twelve. If the introduction, then, of 
 foreign capital be discountenanced and discouraged, the Amer- 
 ican money lender may fix his own rate, any where from five 
 to twelve per cent, per annum. On the other hand, if the in- 
 troduction of foreign capital be countenanced, and encouraged, 
 its effect is to keep down the rate of interest, and to bring the 
 value of money in the United States so much the nearer to its 
 value in older and richer countries. Every dollar brought 
 from abroad, and put into the mass of active capital at home, 
 by so much diminishes the rate of interest ; and by so much,
 
 13 
 
 therefore, benefits all the active and trading classes of society, 
 at the expense of the American capitalist. Yet the President's 
 invention, for such it deserves to be called, that which is to 
 secure us against the possibility of being oppressed by a mon- 
 ied aristocracy is, to shut the door and bar it safely against all 
 introduction of foreign capital ! 
 
 Mr. President, what is it, that has made England a sort of 
 general banker for the civilized world ? Why is it, that capital, 
 from all quarters of the globe, accumulates at the centre of her 
 empire, and is thence again distributed ? Doubtless, sir, it is 
 because she invites it, and solicits it. She sees the advantage 
 of this. She manifests no weak or pretended jealousy of for- 
 eign influence by reason of the freest intercourse with the com- 
 mercial world ; and no British minister ever yet did a thing so 
 rash, so inconsiderate, so startling, as to exhibit a groundless 
 feeling of dissatisfaction at the introduction or employment of 
 foreign capital. 
 
 Sir, of all the classes of society, the larger stockholders of 
 the Bank are among those least likely to suffer from its discon- 
 tinuance. There are, indeed, on 'the list of stockholders, 
 many charitable institutions, many widows and orphans, holding 
 small amounts. To these and other proprietors of a like char- 
 acter, the breaking up of the Bank will, no doubt, be serious- 
 ly inconvenient. But the capitalist, he who has invested money 
 in the Bank, merely for the sake of the security, and the inter- 
 est, has nothing to fear. The refusal to renew the charter 
 will, it is true, diminish the value of the stock ; but then, the 
 same refusal will create a scarcity for money ; and this, in 
 time, will reduce the price of all other stocks ; so that the 
 stockholders*!!! the Bank, receiving, on its dissolution, their 
 portion respectively of its capital, will have opportunities of 
 new and cheap investment. 
 
 The truth is, sir, the great loss, the sore embarrassment, 
 the severe distress, arising from this VETO, will fall on the pub- 
 lic, and especially on the more active and industrious portion 
 of the public. It will inevitably create a scarcity for money ; 
 in the Western States it will most materially depress the value 
 of property ; it will greatly enhance, every where, the price of 
 domestic exchange ; it threatens, every where, fluctuations of 
 the currency ; and it drives all our well settled and safe ope- 
 rations of revenue and finance out of their accustomed chan- 
 nels. And all this, on the pretended ground of a constitutional
 
 14 
 
 scruple, which no respect for the opinions of others, no defer- 
 ence to legislative precedent, no decent regard to judicial de- 
 cision, no homage to public opinion, expressed and maintained 
 for forty years, have power to overcome. An idle apprehen- 
 sion of danger is set up against the experience of almost half 
 a century ; loose and flimsy theories are asserted, against facts 
 of general notoriety ; and arguments are urged against contin- 
 uing the charter, so superficial and frivolous, and yet so evi- 
 dently addressed to those of the community who have never 
 had occasion to be conversant with subjects of this sort, that 
 an intelligent reader, who wishes to avoid imputing obliquity of 
 motive, is obliged to content himself with ascribing to the ori- 
 gin of the Message whatever and wherever that origin may 
 have been no very distinguished share of the endowments of 
 intellect. 
 
 Mr. President, as early as December, 1829, the President 
 called the attention of Congress to the subject of the Bank, in 
 the most earnest manner. Look to his annual message of that 
 date. You will find that he then felt constrained, by an irre- 
 sistible sense of duty to the various interests concerned, not to 
 delay, beyond that moment, his urgent invitation to Congress 
 to take up the subject. He brought forward the same topic 
 again, in all his subsequent annual messages ; yet, when Con- 
 gress did act upon it, and on the fourth of July, EIGHTEEN 
 HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO, did send him a bill, he returned 
 it with his objections, and among these objections he not only 
 complained that the Executive was not consulted on the pro- 
 priety of present action, but affirmed also, in so many words, 
 that present action was deemed premature by the Executive 
 Department. 
 
 Let me ask, Mr. President, if it be possible that the same 
 President, the same Chief Magistrate, the same mind, could 
 have composed these two Messages ? Certainly they much 
 more resemble the production of two minds, holding on this 
 point precisely opposite opinions. The Message of Decem- 
 ber, 1829, asserts that the time had then come for Congress to 
 consider the Bank subject ; the Message of 1832 declares, 
 that, even then, the action of Congress on the same subject 
 was premature ; and both these Messages were sent to Congress 
 by the President of the United States. Sir, I leave these two 
 messages to be compared, and considered, by the people of the 
 United States.
 
 15 
 
 Mr. President, I will here lake notice of but one other sug- 
 gestion of the President, relative to the time and manner of 
 passing the late bill. A decent respect for the Legislature of 
 the country has hitherto been observed by all who have had 
 occasion to hold official intercourse with it, and especially by 
 all other branches of the Government. The purity of the mo- 
 tives of Congress, in regard to any measure, has never been 
 assailed, from any respectable quarter. But in the Veto Mes- 
 sage there is one expression, which, as it seems to me, no 
 American can read without some feeling. There is an expres- 
 sion, evidently not casual or accidental, but inserted with de- 
 sign, and composed with care, which does carry a direct impu- 
 tation of the possibility of the effect of private interest, and pri- 
 vate influence, on the deliberations of the two Houses of Con- 
 gress. I quote the passage, and shall leave it without a sin- 
 gle remark : " Whatever interest or influence, whether public 
 or private, has given birth to this act, it cannot be found either 
 in the wishes or necessities of the Executive Department, by 
 which present action is deemed premature." 
 
 Among the great interests of the country, Mr. President, 
 there is one, which appears to me not to have attracted, from 
 the people of this Commonwealth, a degree of attention, alto- 
 gether equal to its magnitude. 
 
 I mean the Public Lands. If we run our eye over the map 
 of the country, and view the regions, almost boundless, which 
 now constitute the public domain, and over which an active pop- 
 ulation is rapidly spreading itself, and if we recollect the amount 
 of annual revenue derived from this source, we shall hardly 
 fail to be convinced that few branches of national interest are 
 of more extensive and lasting importance. So large a territo- 
 ry, belonging to the public, forms a subject of national concern 
 of a very delicate nature, especially in popular governments. 
 We know, in the history of other countries, with what views 
 designing men have granted the public lands. 
 
 Either in the forms of gifts and largesses, or in that of reduc- 
 tion of prices, to amounts merely nominal, or as compensation 
 for services, real or imagined, the public domain, in other 
 countries, and other times, has not only been diverted from 
 its just use and destination, but has been the occasion also of 
 introducing into the State, and into the public councils, no 
 small portion, both of distraction and corruption. Happily, 
 our own system of administering this great interest has hitherto
 
 16 
 
 been both safe and successful. Nothing under the government 
 has been better devised than our land system ; and nothing, 
 thus far, more beneficially conducted. But the time seems 
 to have arrived, in the progress of our growth and prosperity, 
 when it has become necessary to reflect, not on any new mode of 
 sale, for that can hardly be improved, but on some disposition 
 of the proceeds, such as shall be just and equal to the whole 
 country, and shall insure also a constant and vigilant attention 
 to this delicate and important subject from the people of all 
 the- States. It is not to be denied or disguised, that senti- 
 ments have recently sprung up, in some places, of a very ex- 
 traordinary character, respecting the ownership, the just pro- 
 prietary interest, in these lands. The lands are well known 
 to have been obtained by the United States, either by grants 
 from individual States, or by treaties with foreign powers. 
 In both cases, and in all cases, the grants and cessions were 
 to the United States, for the interest of the whole Union ; and 
 the grants from individual States, contain express limitations 
 and conditions, binding up the whole property to the com- 
 mon use of all the States forever. Yet of late years, an idea 
 has been suggested, indeed seriously advanced, that these 
 lands, of right, belong to the States respectively, in which 
 they happen to lie. This doctrine, sir, which, I perceive, 
 strikes this assembly as being somewhat extravagant, is found- 
 ed on an argument derived from the nature of State sovereign- 
 ty. It has been openly espoused, by candidates for office, in 
 some of the new States, and, indeed, has been announced in 
 the Senate. To the credit of the country, it should be stated, 
 that up to the present moment these notions have not spread 
 widely, and they will be dispersed, undoubtedly, by the power 
 of general opinion, so soon as that opinion shall be awakened 
 and expressed. But there is another tendency more likely, 
 perhaps, to run to injurious excess ; and that is, a constant 
 effort to reduce the price of land to sums almost nominal, on 
 the ground of facilitating settlement. The sound policy of 
 the government has been, uniformly, to keep the prices of the 
 public lands low ; so low, that every actual settler might easily 
 obtain a farm ; but yet, not so low, as to tempt individual capital- 
 ists to buy up large quantities, to hold for speculation. The 
 object has been to meet, at all times, the whole actual de- 
 mand, at a cheap rate ; and this object has been obtained. 
 And it is obviously of the greatest importance to keep the
 
 17 
 
 prices of the public lands from all influences, except the single 
 one of supplying the whole actual demand, at a cheap rate. The 
 present minimum price is one dollar and a quarter per acre ; 
 and millions of acres, much of it of an excellent quality, are now 
 in the market at this rate. Yet, every year, there are pro- 
 positions to reduce the price j and propositions to graduate 
 the price ; that is to say, to provide that all lands, having 
 been offered for sale, for a certain length of time, at the es- 
 tablished rate, if not then sold, shall be offered at a less rate ; 
 and again reduced, if not sold, to one still less. I have my- 
 self thought, that in some of the older districts, some mode 
 might usefully be adopted of disposing of the remainder of the 
 unsold lands, and closing the offices : but a universal system 
 of graduation, lowering prices at short intervals, and by large 
 degrees, could have no other effect than a general depression 
 of price in regard to the whole mass, and would evidently be 
 great mismanagement of the public property. The meeting, 
 sir, will think it singular enough, that a reduction of prices of 
 the public lands should have been demanded, on the ground 
 that other impositions for revenue, such as the duty on tea and 
 coffee, have been removed ; thus considering and treating the 
 sums received for lands sold, as a tax, a burden, an imposi- 
 tion, and a great drain on the means and the industry of the 
 new States. A man goes from New-England, to one of the 
 Western States, buys a hundred acres of the best land in the 
 world for one hundred and twenty-five dollars, pays his money, 
 and receives an indisputable title ; and immediately, some one 
 stands up in Congress to call this operation the laying of a 
 tax, the imposition of a burden, and the whole of these pur- 
 chases and payments, taken together, are represented as an in- 
 tolerable drain on the money and the industry of the new 
 States. I know not, sir, which deserves to pass for the origin- 
 al, and which for the copy ; but this reasoning is not unlike 
 that, which maintains that the trading community of the West 
 will be exhausted and ruined, by the privilege of borrowing 
 money of the Bank of the United States, at six per rent, in- 
 terest ; this interest, being, as is said in the Veto Message, 
 a burden upon their industry, and a drain of their currency, 
 which no country can bear, without inconvenience, and dis- 
 tress. 
 
 It was in a forced connexion with the reduction of duties of 
 impost, that the subject of the public lands was referred to the 
 o
 
 18 
 
 Committee of Manufactures in the Senate, at the late session 
 of Congress. This was a legislative movement, calculated to 
 throw on Mr. Clay, who was taking a leading part on the sub- 
 ject of the Tariff, and the reduction of duties, a new and deli- 
 cate responsibility. From this responsibility, however, Mr. 
 Clay did not shrink. He took up the subject, and his 
 report upon it, and his speech delivered afterwards, in defence 
 of the Report, are, in my opinion, among the very ablest of 
 the efforts which have distinguished his long public life. I 
 desire to commend their perusal to every citizen of Massachu- 
 setts. They will shew him the deep interest of all the States, 
 his own among the rest, in the security, and proper manage- 
 ment and disposal of the public domain. Founded on the 
 Report of the Committee, Mr. Clay introduced a Bill, provi- 
 ding for the distribution, among all the States, according to 
 numbers, of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, for 
 five years ; first making a deduction of a considerable per cent- 
 age in favor of the new States; the sums thus received by the 
 States to be disposed of by themselves, in favor of Education, 
 Internal Improvement, or Colonization, as each State might 
 choose for itself. This Bill passed the Senate. It was vigorous- 
 ly opposed in the House of Representatives, by the main body of 
 the friends of the Administration, and finally lost by a small ma- 
 jority. By the provisions of the Bill, Massachusetts would have 
 received, as her dividend, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand 
 dollars a year. 
 
 1 am free to confess, sir, that I had hoped to see some un- 
 objectionable way of disposing of this subject, with the observ- 
 ance of justice tow'ards all the States, by the Government of 
 the United States itself, without a distribution, through the 
 intervention of the State Governments. Such way, however, 
 I have not discovered. I therefore voted for the bill of the 
 last session. 
 
 Mr. President, let me remind the meeting of the great extent 
 of this public property. 
 
 Only twenty millions of acres have been, as yet, sold, from 
 the commencement of the Government. One hundred and 
 twenty millions, or about that quantity, are now cleared from the 
 Indian title, all surveyed into townships, ranges, and sections, 
 and now in the market for sale. I think, sir, the whole sur- 
 face of Massachusetts embraces about six millions of acres ; so 
 that the United States have a body of land, now surveyed, and
 
 19 
 
 in market, equal to twenty States, each of the size of Massachu- 
 setts. But this is but a very small portion of the whole do- 
 main j much the greater part being yet unsurveyed, and much, 
 too, subject to the original Indian title. The income to the reve- 
 nue from the sales of land is estimated at three millions of 
 dollars a year. The meeting will thus see, sir, how important 
 a subject this is, and how highly it becomes the country to 
 guard this vast property against perversion, and bad manage- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. President, among the Bills which failed, at the last 
 session, for want of the President's approval, was one, in 
 which this State had a great pecuniary interest. It was the 
 bill for the payment of interest to the States, on the funds ad- 
 vanced by them during the war, the principal of which had 
 been paid, or assumed, by the Government of the United 
 States. Some sessions ago, a Bill was introduced into the 
 Senate, by my worthy colleague, and passed into a law, for pay- 
 ing a large part of the principal sum, advanced by Massachu- 
 setts, for militia expenses, for defence of the country. This has 
 been paid. The residue of the claim is in the proper course 
 of examination, and such parts of it as ought to be allowed will 
 doubtless be paid hereafter, Vetoa out of the way, be it al- 
 ways understood. In the late Bill it was proposed that interest 
 should be paid to the States, on these advances, in cases where 
 it had not been already paid. It passed both Houses. I 
 recollect no opposition to it in the Senate, nor do I remember 
 to have heard of any considerable objection in the House of 
 Representatives. The argument for it lay in its own obvious 
 justice ; a justice too apparent, as it seems to me, to be denied 
 by any one. I left Congress, sir, a day or two before its 
 adjournment, and meeting some friends, in this village, on my 
 way home, we exchanged congratulations on this additional 
 act of justice, thus rendered to Massachusetts, as well as other 
 States. But 1 had hardly reached Framingham, before I 
 learned that our congratulations were premature. The Presi- 
 dent's signature had been refused, and the Bill was not a law ! 
 The only reason which I have ever heard for this refusal, is, that 
 Congress had not been in the practice of allowing interest on 
 claims. This was not true, as a universal rule ; but if it were, 
 might not Congress be trusted with the maintenance of its own 
 rules? Might it not make exceptions to then), for good cause? 
 No doubt, in regard to old and long neglected claims, it has
 
 20 
 
 been customary not to allow interest ; but the Massachusetts 
 claim was not of this character, nor the claims of other States. 
 None of them had remained unpaid, for want of presentment. 
 The Executive and Legislature of this Commonwealth had 
 never omitted to press her demand for justice, and her Dele- 
 gates in Congress have endeavored to discharge their duty 
 by supporting that demand. It has been already decided, 
 in repeated instances, as well in regard to States as to individu- 
 als, that when money has been actually borrowed, for objects 
 for which the General Government ought to provide, interest 
 paid on such borrowed money, shall be refunded by the United 
 States. Now, Sir, would it not be a distinction without a 
 difference to allow interest in such a case, and yet refuse it in 
 another, in which the State had not borrowed the money, and 
 paid interest for it, but had raised it by taxation, or, as I be- 
 lieve was the case with Massachusetts, by the sale of valuable 
 stocks, bearing interest ? Is it not apparent, that in her case, 
 as clearly as in that of a borrowing State, she has actually lost 
 the interest ? Can any man maintain that, between these two 
 cases, there is any sound distinction, in law, in equity, or in mor- 
 als? The refusal to sign this bill has deprived Massachusetts 
 and Maine of a very large sum of money, justly due to them. It 
 is now fifteen or sixteen years since the money was advanced, and 
 it was advanced for the most necessary and praiseworthy public 
 purposes. The interest on the sum aleady refunded, and on that 
 which may reasonably be expected to be hereafter refunded, is not 
 less lhanjive hundred thousand dollars. But for the President's 
 refusal, in this unusual mode, to give his approbation to a bill 
 which had passed Congress almost unanimously, these two 
 States would already have been in the receipt of a very con- 
 siderable portion of this money ; and made sure of the residue 
 in due season. 
 
 Mr. President, I do not desire to raise mere pecuniary in- 
 terests to an undue importance, in political matters. I admit, 
 there are principles and objects of paramount obligation and 
 importance. I would not oppose the President, merely because 
 he has refused to the State what I thought her entitled to. in a 
 matter of money, provided he had made known his reasons, 
 and they had appeared to be such as might fairly influence an 
 intelligent and honest mind. But where a State has so direct 
 and so heavy an interest, where the justice of the case is so 
 plain, that men agree in it who agree in hardly any thing else,
 
 21 
 
 where her claim has passed Congress, without considerable 
 opposition in either House, a refusal to approve the bill without 
 giving the slightest reason, the taking advantage of the 
 rising of Congress to give it a silent go-by, is an act that may 
 well awaken the attention of the People in the States con- 
 cerned. It is an act, calling for close examination. It 
 is an act, which calls loudly for justification by its author. 
 And now, sir, I will close what I have to say on this particular 
 subject by stating, that on the 22d of March, 1832, the Presi- 
 dent did actually approve and sign a bill, in favor of South- 
 Carolina, by which it was enacted that her claim for interest 
 upon money actually expended by her for military stores, during 
 the late war, should be settled and paid ; the money so expended 
 having been drawn by the State from a fund upon which she 
 was receiving interest. Now this, sir, was precisely the case 
 of Massachusetts. 
 
 Mr. President, I now approach an inquiry of a far more 
 deep and affecting interest. Are the principles and measures 
 of the Administration dangerous to the Constitution, and to the 
 Union of the States? Sir, I believe them to be so; and I shall 
 state the grounds of that belief. 
 
 In the first place, any Administration is dangerous to the 
 Constitution, and to the Union of the States, which denies the 
 essential powers of the Constitution, and thus strips it of the 
 capacity to do the good intended by it. 
 
 The principles embraced by the Administration, and ex- 
 pressed in the VETO Message, are evidently hostile to the 
 whole system of protection, by duties of impost, on constitu- 
 tional grounds. Here, then, is one great power struck at once 
 out of the Constitution; and one great end of its adoption de- 
 feated. And while this power is thus struck out of the Con- 
 stitution, it is clear that it exists no where else ; since the 
 Constitution expressly takes it away from all the States. 
 
 The Veto Message denies the constitutional power of cre- 
 ating or continuing such an Institution as our whole experience 
 has approved, for maintaining a sound, uniform, national cur- 
 rency, and for the safe collection of revenue. Here is another 
 jxjwer, long used, but now lopped off. And this power, too, 
 thus lopped off from the Constitution, is evidently not within 
 the power of any of the individual States. No State can 
 maintain a national currency ; no State Institution can render 
 to the revenue the services performed by a ^National Institution.
 
 22 
 
 The principles of the Administration are hostile to Internal 
 Improvements. Here is another power, heretofore exercised 
 in many instances, now denied. The Administration denies the 
 power, except with qualifications, which cast an air of ridicule 
 over the whole subject ; being founded on such distinctions as 
 between .salt water and fresh water, places above Custom 
 Houses and places below ; and others equally extraordinary. 
 
 Now, sir, in all these respects, as well as in others, I think 
 the principles of the Administration are at war with the true 
 principles of the Constitution ; and that by the zeal and indus- 
 try which it exerts lo support its own principles, it does daily 
 weaken the Constitution, and does put in doubt its long con- 
 tinuance. The inroad of to-day opens the way for an easier 
 inroad to-morrow. When any one essential part is rent away, 
 or, what is nearer the truth, when many essential parts are rent 
 away, who is there to tell us how long any other part is to re- 
 main? 
 
 'Sir, our condition is singularly paradoxical. We have an 
 Administration opposed to the Constitution ; we have an Oppo- 
 sition which is the main support of the Government and the 
 laws. We have an Administration which denies, to the very 
 Government which it administers, powers which it has exercised 
 for forty years ; it denies the protecting power, the bank power, 
 and the power of internal improvement. The great and leading 
 measures of the national legislature are all resisted by it. These, 
 strange as it may seem, depend on the Opposition for support. We 
 have in truth, an Opposition without which it would be difficult for 
 the Government to get along at all. I appeal to every member 
 of Congress present (and I am happy to see many here) to say, 
 what would now become of the Government, if all the members 
 of the Opposition were withdrawn from Congress. For myself, 
 I declare my own conviction that its continuance might proba- 
 bly be very short. Take away the Opposition from Congress, 
 and let us see what would probably be done the first session. 
 The TARIFF would be entirely repealed. Every enactment 
 having protection by duties as its main object would be struck 
 from the statute book. Every work of internal improvement 
 would be stopped. This would follow, as matter of course. 
 The bank would go clown, and a treasury money agency would 
 take its place. The Judiciary act of 1789 would be repealed, 
 so that the Supreme Court should exercise no power of re- 
 vision over State decisions. And who would resist the doc-
 
 23 
 
 trines of NULLIFICATION? Look, sir, to the votes of Congress 
 for the last three years, and you will see that each of these 
 things would, in all human probability, take place at the next 
 session, if the Opposition were to be withdrawn. The Consti- 
 tution is threatened, therefore imminently threatened, by the 
 very fact that those are entrusted with its administration who 
 are hostile to its essential powers. 
 
 But, sir, in my opinion, a yet greater danger threatens the 
 Constitution and the Government ; and that is from the attempt 
 to extend the power of the Executive at the expense of all the 
 other branches of the Government, and of the people themselves. 
 Whatever accustomed power is denied to the Constitution, what- 
 ever accustomed power is denied to Congress, or to the Judi- 
 ciary, none is denied to the Executive. Here, there is no 
 retrenchment ; here no apprehension is felt for the liberties of 
 the people ; here, it is not thought necessary to erect barriers 
 against corruption. 
 
 1 begin, sir, with the subject of removals from office Tor 
 opinion's sake, as I think, one of the most signal instances of 
 the attempt to extend executive power. This has been a 
 leading measure, a cardinal point, in the course of the Adminis- 
 tration. It has proceeded, from the first, on a settled system 
 of proscription for political opinions ; and this system it has 
 carried into operation to the full extent of its ability. The Presi- 
 dent has not only filled all vacancies with his own friends, gener- 
 ally those most distinguished as personal partizans, but he has 
 turned out political opponents, and thus created vacancies, in 
 order that he might fill them with his own friends. I think the 
 number of removals and appointments is said to be two thou- 
 sand. While the Administration and its friends have been 
 attempting to circumscribe, and to decry, the powers belonging 
 to other branches, it has thus seized into its own hands a pat- 
 ronage most pernicious and corrupting, an authority over men's 
 means of living most tyrannical and odious, and a power to 
 punish free men for political opinions altogether intolerable. 
 
 You will remember, sir, that the Constitution says not one 
 word about the President's power of removal from office. It 
 is a power, raised entirely by construction. It is a constructive 
 power, introduced, at first, to meet cases of extreme public 
 necessity. It has now become co-extensive with the Execu- 
 tive will, calling for no necessity, requiring no exigency, for its 
 exercise ; but to be exercised at all times without control,
 
 24 
 
 without question, without responsibility. When the question 
 of the President's power of removal was debated in the first 
 Congress, those who argued for it, limited it to extreme cases. 
 Cases, they said, might arise, in which it would be absolutely 
 necessary to remove an officer, before the Senate could be 
 assembled. An officer might become insane ; he might ab- 
 scond ; and from these, and other supposable cases, it was said, 
 the public service might materially suffer, if the President 
 could not remove the incumbent. And it was further said, 
 that there was little or no danger of the power's being abused, 
 for party or personal objects. No President, it was thought, 
 would ever commit such an outrage ou public opinion. Mr. 
 Madison, who thought the power ought to exist, and to be ex- 
 ercised in cases of high necessity, declared, nevertheless, that 
 if a President should exercise the power when not called for 
 by any public exigency, and merely for personal objects, he would 
 deserve to be impeached. By a very small majority. I think in 
 the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice President, Congress 
 decided in favor of the existing power, upon the grounds which 
 I have mentioned ; granting the power, in a case of clear a*nd 
 absolute necessity, and denying its existence every where 
 else. 
 
 Mr. President, we should recollect that this question was 
 discussed, and thus decided, when Washington was in the 
 Executive Chair. Men knew, that, in his hands, the power 
 would not be abused ; nor did they conceive it possible that 
 any of his successors could so far depart from his great and 
 bright example, as, by abuse of the power, and by carry- 
 ing that abuse to its utmost extent, to change the essential 
 character of the Executivefrom that of an impartial guardian 
 and executor of the laws, inio that of the chief dispenser of 
 party rewards. Three or four instances of removal occurred, 
 in the first twelve years of the Government. At the com- 
 mencement of Mr. Jefferson's administration, ho made several 
 others, not without producing much dissatisfaction ; so much 
 so, that he thought it expedient to give reasons to the people, 
 in a public paper, for even the limited extent to which he had 
 exercised the power. He placed his justification on partic- 
 ular circumstances, and peculiar grounds; which, whether 
 substantial or not, showed, at least, that he did not regard the 
 power of removal an ordinary power, still less a mere arbitrary 
 one, to be used as he pleased, for whatever ends he pleased,
 
 25 
 
 and without responsibility. As far as I remember, sir, after 
 the early part of Mr. Jefferson's administration, hardly an in- 
 stance occurred for near thirty years. If there were any 
 instances, they were few. But at the commencement of the 
 present Administration the precedent of these previous cases 
 was seized on, and a system, a regular plan of Government, a 
 well-considered scheme for the maintenance of party power, 
 by the patronage of office, and this patronage to be created by 
 general removal, was adopted, and has been carried into full 
 operation. Indeed, before Gen. Jackson's inauguration, the 
 party put the system into practice. In the last session of 
 Mr. Adams's administration, the friends of Gen. Jackson con- 
 stituted a majority in the Senate; and nominations, made by 
 him to fill vacancies, which had occurred in the ordinary way, 
 were postponed, by this majority, beyond the third of March, 
 for the purpose, openly avowed, of giving the nomination to 
 Gen. Jackson. A nomination for a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court, and many others of less magnitude, were thus disposed 
 of. 
 
 And what did we witness, sir, when the Administration actu- 
 ally commenced, in the full exercise of its authority ? One 
 universal sweep, one undistinguishing blow, levelled against all, 
 who were not of the successful party. No worth, public or 
 private, no service, civil or military, was of power to resist the 
 relentless greediness of proscription. Soldiers of the late war, 
 soldiers of the Revolutionary war, the very contemporaries of 
 the liberties of the country, all lost their situations. No office 
 was too high, and none too low ; for office was the spoil, and 
 all the spoils, it is said, belong to the victors ! If a man, 
 holding an office, necessary for his daily support, had pre- 
 sented himself covered with the scars of wounds received 
 in every battle, from Bunker Hill to York Town, these would 
 not have protected him against this reckless rapacity. 
 Nay, sir, if WARREN himself had been among the living, 
 and' had possessed any office under Government, high or 
 low, he would not have been suffered to hold it a single 
 hour, unless he could show that he had strictly complied with 
 the party statutes, and had put a well-marked party collar round 
 his own neck. Look, sir, to the case of the late venerable 
 Major MELVILL. He was a spirit of 1776, one of the very 
 first to venture in the cause of Liberty. He was of the Tea 
 party ; one of the very first to expose himself to British power. 
 4s
 
 26 
 
 And his whole life was consonant with this, its beginning. 
 Always ardent in the cause of Liberty, always a zealous friend 
 to his country, always acting with the party which he supposed 
 cherished the genuine Republican Spirit most fervently, al- 
 ways estimable and respectable in private life, he seemed 
 armed against this miserable petty tyranny of party, as far 
 as man could be. But he felt its blow, and he fell. He 
 held an office in the Custom House, and had holden it for a 
 long course of years ; and he was deprived of it, as if un- 
 worthy to serve the country which he loved, and for whose 
 liberties, in the vigor of his early manhood, he had thrust him- 
 self into the very jaws of its enemies. There was no mistake 
 in the matter. His character, his standing, his Revolutionary 
 services, were all well known ; but they were known to no 
 purpose. They weighed not one feather against party pre- 
 tensions. It cost no pains to remove him ; it cost no compunc- 
 tion to wring his aged heart with this retribution from his coun- 
 try for his services, his zeal, and his fidelity. Sir, you will 
 bear witness, that when his successor was nominated to the 
 Senate, and the Senate was told who it was that had been re- 
 moved to make way for that nomination, members were struck 
 with horror. They had not conceived the Administration to 
 be capable of such a thing ; and yet, they said, what can we 
 do ? The man is removed ; we cannot recall him we can 
 only act upon the nomination before us ! Sir, you and I thought 
 otherwise ; and I rejoice that we did think otherwise. We 
 thought it our duty to resist the nomination, to a vacancy thus 
 created. We thought it our duty to oppose this proscription 
 when, and where, and as, we constitutionally could. We be- 
 sought the Senate to go with us, and to take a stand before the 
 country on this great question. We invoked them to try the 
 deliberate sense of the people ; to trust themselves before the 
 tribunal of public opinion ; to resist at first, to resist at last, 
 to resist always, the introduction of this unsocial, this mis- 
 chievous, this dangerous, this belligerent principle, into the 
 practice of the Government. 
 
 Mr. President, as far as I know, there is no civilized coun- 
 try on earth, in which, on a change of rulers, there is such an 
 inquisition for spoil, as we have witnessed in this free Repub- 
 lic. The Inaugural Address of 1829 spoke of a searching 
 operation of government. The most searching operation, sir, 
 of the present Administration has been its search for office and
 
 27 
 
 place. Whenever, sir, did any English Minister, whig or 
 lory, take such an inquest ? When did he ever go down to 
 low-water mark, to make an ousting of tide-waiters? When 
 did he ever take away the daily bread of weighers, and gaug- 
 ers, and measurers? Or when did he go into the villages, to 
 disturb the little post-offices, the mail contracts, and any thing 
 else, in the remotest degree connected with Government? Sir, 
 a British Minister, who should do this, and should afterwards 
 show his head in a British House of Commons, would be re- 
 ceived by an universal hiss. 
 
 I have little to say, of the selections made to fill vacancies, 
 thus created. It is true, however, and it is a natural con- 
 sequence of the system which has been acted on, that within 
 the last three years, more nominations have been rejected, 
 on the ground of unfitness, than in all the preceding forty years 
 of the government. And these nominations, you know, sir, 
 could not have been rejected, but by votes of the Presi- 
 dent's own friends. The causes were too strong to be resist- 
 ed. Even party attachment could not stand them. In some, 
 not a third of the Senate, in others not ten votes, and in others 
 not a single vote, could be obtained ; and this, for no particu- 
 lar reason known only to the Senate ; but on general grounds 
 of the want of character and qualifications ; on grounds, known 
 to every body else, as well as to the Senate. All this, sir, is 
 perfectly natural and consistent. The same party selfishness 
 which drives good men out of office will push bad men in. 
 Political proscription leads necessarily to the filling of offices 
 with incompetent persons, and to a consequent mal-execution 
 of official duties. In my opinion, sir, it will effectually change 
 the character of our Government, this acting upon the avowed 
 principle of claiming office by right of conquest, unless the 
 public shall rebuke and restrain it. It elevates party above 
 country; it forgets the common weal, in the pursuit of personal 
 emolument ; it tends to form, it does form, we see that it has 
 formed, political combinations, held together by no common 
 principles or opinions among its members, either upon tho 
 powers of the Government, or the true policy of the coun- 
 try; but held together simply as an association, under the 
 charm of a popular head, seeking to maintain possession of the 
 Government by a vigorous exercise of its patronage ; and for 
 this purpose agitating, and alarming, and distressing social life 
 by the exercise of a tyrannical party proscription. Sir, if this
 
 28 
 
 course of things cannot be checked, good men will grow tired 
 of the exercise of political privileges. They will have nothing 
 to do with popular elections. They will see that such elec- 
 tions are but a mere selfish contest for office ; and they will 
 abandon the Government to the scramble of the bold, the daring, 
 and the desperate. 
 
 It seems, Mr.. President, to be a peculiar and singular char- 
 acteristic of the present Administration, that it came into power 
 on a cry against abuses, which did not exist, and then, as soon 
 as it was in, as if in mockery of the perception and intelligence 
 of the People, it created those very abuses, and carried them 
 to a great length. Thus the Chief Magistrate himself, before 
 he came into the chair, in a formal public paper, denounced 
 the practice of appointing members of Congress to office. He 
 said, that if that practice continued, corruption would become 
 the order of the day; and as if to fasten, and nail down his 
 own consistency to that point, he declared that it was " due 
 to himself to practise what he recommended to others." Yet, 
 sir, as soon as he was in power, these fastenings gave way, 
 the nails all flew, and the promised consistency remains, a 
 striking proof of the manner in which political assurances are 
 sometimes fulfilled. For, sir, he has already appointed more 
 members of Congress to office than any of his predecessors, 
 in the longest period of administration. Before his time, there 
 was no reason to complain of these appointments. They had 
 not been numerous, under any Administration. Under this, 
 they have been numerous, and some of them such as may well 
 justify complaint. 
 
 Another striking instance of the exhibition of the same char- 
 acteristics, may be found in the sentiments of the Inaugural 
 Address, and in the subsequent practice, on the subject of in- 
 terfering with the freedom of elections. The Inaugural Ad- 
 dress declares, that it is necessary to reform abuses which have 
 brought the patronage of the Government into conflict with the 
 freedom of elections. And what has been the subsequent prac- 
 tice ? Look to the newspapers ; look to the published letters 
 of officers of the Government, advising, exhorting, soliciting 
 friends and partizans to greater exertions, in the cause of the 
 Party ; see all done, every where, which patronage and power 
 can do, to affect not only elections in the General Government, 
 but also in every State Government and then say, how well 
 this promise of reforming abuses has been kept. At what
 
 29 
 
 former period, under what former Administration, did public 
 officers of the United States thus interfere in elections ? Cer- 
 tainly, sir, never. In this respect, then, as well as in others, 
 that which was not true, as a charge against previous Adminis- 
 trations, would have been true, if it had assumed the form of 
 a prophecy, respecting the acts of the present. 
 
 But there is another attempt to grasp, and to wield, a power 
 over public opinion, of a still more daring character, and far 
 more dangerous effects. 
 
 In all popular governments, a FREE PRESS is the most 
 important of all agents and instruments. It not only expresses 
 public opinion, but, to a very great degree, it contributes to 
 form that opinion. It is an engine, for good or for evil, as it 
 may be directed ; but an engine, of which nothing can resist 
 the force. The conductors of the press, in popular govern- 
 ments, occupy a place, in the social and political system, of 
 the very highest consequences. They wear the character of 
 public instructors. Their daily labors bear directly on the intel- 
 ligence, the morals, the taste, and the public spirit of the 
 country. Not only are they journalists, recording political oc- 
 currences, but they discuss principles, they comment on mea- 
 sures, they canvass characters ; they hold a power over the rep- 
 utation, the feelings, the happiness of individuals. The public 
 ear is always open to their addresses, the public sympathy easily 
 made responsive to their sentiments. It is, indeed, sir, a dis- 
 tinction of high honor, that theirs is the only profession ex- 
 pressly protected and guarded by constitutional enactments. 
 Their employment soars so high, in its general consequences, 
 it is so intimately connected with the public happiness, that its 
 security is provided for by the fundamental law. While it 
 acts in a manner worthy of this distinction, the press is a foun- 
 tain of light, and a source of gladdening warmth. It instructs 
 the public mind, and animates the spirit of patriotism. Its loud 
 voice suppresses every thing, which would raise itself against 
 the public liberty ; and its blasting rebuke causes incipient des- 
 potism to perish in the bud. 
 
 But remember, sir, that these are the attributes of a FREE 
 Press, only. And is a press that is purchased or pensioned, 
 more free than a press that is fettered ? Can the People look 
 for truths to partial sources, whether rendered partial through 
 fear, or through faror ? Why shall not a manacled press be
 
 30 
 
 trusted with the maintenance and defence of popular rights ? 
 Because it is supposed to be under the influence of a power, 
 which may prove greater than the love of truth. Such a press 
 may screen abuses in Government, or be silent. It may fear to 
 speak. And may it not fear to speak, too, when its conductors, 
 if they speak in any but one way, may lose their means of 
 livelihood ? Is dependence on Government for bread no temp- 
 tation to screen its abuses? Will the Press always speak the 
 truth, though the truth, if spoken, may be the means of silencing 
 it for the future ? Is the truth in no danger, is the watchman 
 under no temptation, when he can neither proclaim the ap- 
 proach of national evils, nor seem to descry them, without the 
 loss of his place ? 
 
 Mr. President, an open attempt to secure the aid and friend- 
 ship of the public press, by bestowing the emoluments of office 
 on its active conductors, seems to me, of every thing we have 
 witnessed, to be the most reprehensible. It degrades both the 
 Government and the press. As far as its nautral effect extends, 
 it turns the palladium of liberty into an engine of party. It 
 brings the agency, activity, energy and patronage of Govern- 
 ment, all to bear, with united force, on the means of general 
 intelligence, and on the adoption or rejection of political opin- 
 ions. It so completely perverts the true object of Government, 
 it so entirely revolutionizes our whole system, that the chief 
 business of those in power is directed rather to the propagation 
 of opinions, favorable to themselves, than to the execution of 
 the laws. This propagation of opinions, through the press, 
 becomes the main Administration duty. Some fifty or sixty 
 editors of leading journals have been appointed to office by the 
 present Executive. A stand has been made against this pro- 
 ceeding, in i he Senate, with partial success; but by means of 
 appointments, which do not come before the Senate, or other 
 means, the number has been carried to the extent I have men- 
 tioned. Certainly, sir, the editors of the public journals are 
 not to be disfranchised. Certainly, they are fair candidates 
 either for popular elections, or a just participation in office. 
 Certainly, they reckon, in their number, some of the first ge- 
 niuses, the best scholars, and the most honest and well-principled 
 men, in the country. But the complaint is against the system, 
 against the practice, against the undisguised attempt to secure 
 the favor of the press, by means addressed to its pecuniary in- 
 terest; and these means, too, drawn from the public treasury,
 
 31 
 
 being no other than the appointed compensations for the per- 
 formance of official duties. Sir, the press itself should resent 
 this. Its own character for purity and independence is at stake. 
 It should resist a connexion, rendering it obnoxious to so many 
 imputations. It should point to its honorable denomination, 
 in our Constitutions of Government, and it should maintain the 
 character there ascribed to it, of a FREE PRESS. 
 
 There can, sir, be no objection to the appointment of an 
 Editor to office, if he is the fittest man. There can be no ob- 
 jection to considering the services, which, in that, or any other 
 capacity, he may have rendered his country. He may have 
 done much to maintain her rights against foreign aggression, 
 and her character against insult. He may have honored, as 
 well as defended her ; and may, therefore, be justly regarded 
 and selected, in the choice of faithful public agents. But the 
 ground of complaint is, that the* aiding, by the press, of the 
 election of an individual, is rewarded, by that same individual, 
 with the gift of monied offices. Men are turned out of office, 
 and others put in, and receive salaries from the public treasury, 
 on the ground, either openly avowed, or falsely denied, that 
 they had rendered service in the election of the very individual, 
 who makes this removal, and makes this appointment. 
 Every man, sir, must see, that this is a vital stab at the purity 
 of the press. It not only assails the independence of the 
 press, by addressing sinister motives, but it furnishes the 
 means of exciting these motives from the public treasury. It 
 extends the Executive power over the press, in a most daring 
 manner. It operates to give a direction to opinion, not favora- 
 ble to the Government, in the aggregate, not favorable to the 
 Constitution and laws, not favorable to the Legislature, but fa- 
 vorable to the Executive alone. The consequence often is, just 
 what might be looked for, that the portion of the press, thus made 
 fast to the Executive interest, denounces Cong ess, denounces 
 the Judiciary, complainsof the laws, and quarrels with the Constitu- 
 tion. This exercise of the right of appointment, to this end, is an 
 augrnentiition, and a vast one, of the Executive power, singly and 
 alone. It uses that power, strongly against all other branches 
 of the Government, and it uses it strongly, too, for any struggle 
 which it may be called on to make with general public opinion. 
 Mr. President, I will quit this topic. There is much in it, in 
 my judgment, affecting, not only the purity and independence 
 of the press, but also the character and honor, the peace and
 
 32 
 
 security of the Government. I leave it, in all its bearings, to 
 the consideration of the people. 
 
 Mr. President, among the novelties intro uced into the 
 Government, by the present Administration, is the frequent 
 use of the President's negative, on acts of Congress. Under 
 former Presidents, this power has been deemed an extraordi- 
 nary one, to be exercised only in peculiar and marked cases. 
 It was vested in the President, doubtless, as a guard against 
 hasty or inconsiderate legislation, and against any act, inad- 
 vertently passed, which might seem to encroach on the just 
 authority of other branches of the Government. I do not 
 recollect that, by all Gen. Jackson's predecessors, this power 
 was exercised more than four or five times. Not having re- 
 curred to Journals, 1 cannot, of course, be sure that I am nu- 
 merically accurate in this particular; but such is my belief. 
 I recollect no instance in the time of Mr. John Adams, Mr. 
 Jefferson, or Mr. John Quincy Adams. The only cases which 
 occur to me are, two in General Washington's administration, 
 two in Mr. Madison's, and one in Mr. Monroe's. There may be 
 some others ; but we all know that it is a power which has 
 been very sparingly and reluctantly used, from the beginning 
 of the Government. The cases, sir, to which I have now re- 
 ferred, were cases, in which the President returned the Bill 
 with objections. The silent Veto is, I believe, the exclusive 
 adoption of the present Administration. I think, indeed, that 
 some years ago, a bill, by inadvertence or accident, failed to re- 
 ceive the President's signature, and so did not become a law. 
 But I am not aware of any instance, before the present Adminis- 
 tration, in which the President has, by design, omitted to sign 
 a bill, and yet has not returned it to Congress. But since the 
 present Administration came into power, the VETO, in both 
 kinds, has been repeatedly applied. In the case of the Mays- 
 ville Road, the Montgomery Road, and the Bank, we have 
 had the VETO, with reasons. In an internal improvement bill 
 of a former session, in a similar bill at the late session, and 
 in the State interest bill, we had the silent VETO, or refusal 
 without reasons. 
 
 Now, sir, it is to be considered, that the President has the 
 power of recommending measures to Congress. Through his 
 friends, he may and does oppose, also, any legislative move- 
 ment, which he does not approve. If, in addition to this, he 
 ^ exercise a silent Veto, at his pleasure, on all the bills
 
 33 
 
 presented to him during the last ten days of the session ; if he 
 may refuse assent to them all, without being called upon to 
 assign any reasons whatever, it will certainly be a great prac- 
 tical augmentation of his power. Any one who looks at a vol- 
 ume of the statutes, will see that a great portion of the laws 
 are actually passed within the last ten days of each session. 
 If the President is at liberty to negative any, or all, of these 
 laws, at pleasure, or rather, to refuse to render the bills laws, by 
 approving them, and still may neglect to return them to Con- 
 gress, for renewed action, he will hold a very important con- 
 trol over the legislation of this country. The day of adjourn- 
 ment is usually fixed, some weeks in advance. This being 
 fixed, a little activity and perseverance may easily, in most 
 cases, and perhaps in ail, where no alarm has been excited, 
 postpone important pending measures to a period within ten 
 days of the close of the session : and this operation leaves all 
 such measures at the pleasure of the President, to sign the 
 bills or not, without being obliged to state his reasons pub- 
 licly. 
 
 A silent VETO, on the Bank Bill, would have been thi in- 
 evitable fate of that Bill, if its friends had not refused to fix 
 on any term for adjournment before the President should 
 have had the bill so long as to be required, by constitutional 
 provisions, to sign it, or to send it back with his reasons for 
 not signing it. The two Houses did not agree, and would not 
 agree, to fix a day for adjournment, until the Bill was sent to 
 the President, and then care was taken to fix on such a day 
 as should allow him the whole constitutional period. This 
 seasonable presentment rescued the bill from the power of the 
 silent negative. 
 
 This practical innovation on the mode of administering the 
 Government, so much at variance with its general principles, 
 and so capable of defeating the most useful acts, deserves public 
 consideration. Its tendency is, to disturb the harmony, which 
 ought always to exist between Congress and the Executive, 
 and to turn that, which the Constitution intended only as an 
 extraordinary remedy, for extraordinary cases, into a common 
 means of making Executive discretion paramount to the discre- 
 tion of Congress, in the enactment of laws. 
 
 Mr. President, the Executive has not only used these 
 unaccustomed means, to prevent the passage of law?, but
 
 34 
 
 it has also refused to enforce the execution of laws actually 
 passed. An eminent instance of this, is found in the course 
 adopted relative to the Indian Intercourse Law of 1802. 
 Upon being applied to, in behalf of the MISSIONARIES, to ex- 
 ecute that law, for their relief and protection, the President 
 replied, that the State of Georgia hating extended her laws 
 over the Indian territory, the laws of Congress had thereby 
 been superseded. This is the substance of his answer, as 
 communicated through the Secretary of War. He holds, then, 
 that the law of the State is paramount to the law of Con- 
 gress. The Supreme Court has adjudged this act of Georgia 
 to be void, as being repugnant to a constitutional law of the 
 United States. But the President pays no more regard to this 
 decision, than to the act of Congress itself. The MISSION- 
 ARIES remain in prison, held there by a condemnation, under 
 a law of a State, which the Supreme Judicial Tribunal has 
 pronounced to be null and void. The Supreme Court have 
 decided that the act of Congress is constitutional, that it is 
 a binding statute, that it has the same force as other laws, and 
 is as much entitled to be obeyed and executed as other laws. 
 The President, on the contrary, declares that the law of 
 Congress has been superseded, by the law of the State, and 
 therefore he will not carry its provisions into effect. Now we 
 know, sir, that the Constitution of the United States declares, 
 that that Constitution, and all acts of Congress passed in 
 pursuance of it, shall be the supreme law of the land, 
 any thing in any State law to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing. This would seem to be a plain case, then, in which the 
 law should be executed. It has been solemnly decided to be 
 in actual force, by the highest judicial authority ; its execu- 
 tion is demanded for the relief of free citizens, now suffering 
 the pains of unjust and unlawful imprisonment ; yet the Presi- 
 dent refuses to execute it. 
 
 In the case of the Chicago Road, some sessions ago, the 
 President approved the Bill, but accompanied his approval by 
 a Message, saying how far he deemed it a proper law, and 
 how far, therefore, it ought to be carried into execution. 
 
 In the case of the Harbor Bill of the late session, being ap- 
 plied to. by a member of Congress for directions for carrying 
 parts of the law into effect, he declined giving them, and 
 made a distinction between such parts of the law as he
 
 3-5 
 
 should cause to be executed, and suc/t as he should not; 
 and his right to make this distinction has been openly main- 
 tained, by those who habitually defend his measures. Indeed, 
 sir, these, and other instances of liberties taken with plain 
 statute laws, flow, naturally, from the principles expressly 
 avowed by the President, under his own hand. In that im- 
 portant document, sir, upon which it seems to be his fate to 
 stand, or to fall, before the American People, the VETO Mes- 
 sage, he holds the following language : " Each public officer, 
 who takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears 
 that he will support it as he understands it, and not 
 as it is understood by others." Mr. President, the gener- 
 al adoption of the sentiments, expressed in this sentence, 
 would dissolve our Government. It would raise every man's 
 private opinions into a standard for his own conduct; and 
 there certainly is, there can be, no government, where every 
 man is to jud'ge, for himself, of his own rights, and his own 
 obligations. Where every one is his own arbiter, force, and 
 not law, is the governing power. He who may judge for him- 
 self, and decide for himself, must execute his own decisions ; 
 and this is the law of force. I confess, sir, it strikes me with 
 astonishment, that so wild, so disorganizing a sentiment should 
 be uttered by a President of the United States. I should think 
 it must have escaped from its author, through want of reflec- 
 tion, or from the habit of little reflection, on such subjects, if 
 I could suppose it possible, that on a question exciting so 
 much public attention, and of so much national importance, 
 any such extraordinary doctrine could find its way through 
 inadvertence, into a formal and solemn public act. Standing 
 as it does, it affirms a proposition which would effectually re- 
 peal all Constitutional and all legal obligations. The Consti- 
 tution declares, that every public officer, in the State Govern- 
 ment, as well as in the General Government, shall take an 
 oath to support the Constitution of the United States. This 
 is all. Would it not have cast an air of ridicule on the whole 
 provision, if the Constitution had gone on to add the words, 
 " eu he understands it ? " What could come nearer to a sol- 
 emn farce, than to bind a man, by oath, and still leave him 
 to be his own interpreter of his own obligation ? Sir, those 
 who are to execute the laws have no more a license to construe 
 them, for themselves, than those whose only duty is to obey
 
 36 
 
 them. Public officers are bound to support the Constitution ; 
 private citizens are bound to obey it ; and there is no more in- 
 dulgence granted to the public officer, to support the Constitu- 
 tion only a* he understands it, than to a private citizen to 
 obey it only as he understands it ; and what is true of the 
 Constitution, in this respect, is equally true of any law. Laws 
 are to be executed, and to be obeyed, not as individuals may 
 interpret them, but according to public, authoritative interpreta- 
 tion and adjudication. The sentiment of the message would 
 abrogate the obligation of the whole criminal code. If every 
 man is to judge of the Constitution and the laws for himself, 
 if he is to obey, and support them, only as he may say he 
 understands them, a revolution, I think, would take place in 
 the administration of justice ; and discussions about the law 
 of treason, murder and arson, should be addressed, not to the 
 judicial bench, but to those who might stand charged with 
 such offences. The object of discussion should be, if we run 
 out this notion to its natural extent, to convince the culprit 
 himself how he ought to understand the law. 
 
 Mr. President, how is it possible, that a sentiment so wild, 
 and so dangerous, so encouraging to all who feel a desire to 
 oppose the laws, and to impair the Constitution, should 
 have been uttered by the President of the United States, at this 
 eventful and critical moment? Are we not threatened with 
 dissolution of the Union ? Are we not told that the laws of 
 the Government shall be openly and directly resisted ? Is not 
 the whole country looking, with the utmost anxiety, to what 
 may be the result of these threatened courses? And, at this 
 very moment, so full of peril to the Stale, the Chief Magistrate 
 puts forth opinions and sentiments as truly subversive of all 
 Government, as absolutely in conflict with the authority of the 
 Constitution, as the wildest theories of Nullification. Mr. Pre- 
 sident, I have very little regard for the law, or the logic, of 
 Nullification. But there is not an individual in its ranks, ca- 
 pable of putting two ideas together, who, if you will grant him 
 the principles of the Veto Message, cannot defend all that 
 Nullification has ever threatened. To make this assertion 
 good, sir, let us see how the case stands. The Legislature of 
 South-Carolina, it is said, will nullify the late Revenue, or 
 Tariff law, because, they say, it is not warranted by the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, as they understand the Con- 
 stitution. They, as well as the President of the United
 
 37 
 
 States, have sworn to support the Constitution. Both he and 
 they have taken the same oath, in the same words. 
 
 Now, sir, since he claims the right to interpret the Consti- 
 tution as he pleases, how can he deny the same right to them ? 
 Is his oath less stringent than theirs ? Has he a prerogative 
 of dispensation, which they do not possess ? How can he 
 answer them, when they tell him, that the Revenue laws are 
 unconstitutional, as they understand the Constitution, and that, 
 therefore, they will nullify them ? Will he reply to them, 
 according to the doctrines of his annual Message in 1830, 
 that precedent has settled the question, if it was ever doubtful ? 
 ;They will answer him in his own words, in the Veto Mes- 
 sage, that in such a case precedent is not binding. Will he 
 say to them, that the Revenue law is a law of Congress, which 
 must be executed, until it shall be declared void ? They will 
 answer him, that, in other cases, he has himself refused to 
 execute laws of Congress which had not been declared void, 
 but which had been, on the contrary, declared valid. Will 
 he urge the force of judicial decision ? They will answer, 
 that he himself does not admit the binding obligation of such 
 decisions. Sir, the President of the United States is of 
 opinion, that an individual, called on to execute a law, may, 
 himself, judge of its constitutional validity. Has Nulli6cation 
 any thing more revolutionary than that ? The President is 
 of opinion that judicial interpretations of the Constitution and 
 the laws, do not bind the consciences, and ought not to bind 
 the conduct, of men. Has Nullification any thing more dis- 
 organizing than that ? The President is of opinion, that every 
 officer is bound to support the Constitution only according to 
 what ought to be, in his private opinion, its construction. 
 Has Nullification, in its widest flight, ever reached to an ex- 
 travagance like that ? No, sir, never. The doctrine of Nul- 
 lification, in my judgment a most false, dangerous, and revo- 
 lutionary doctrine, is this; that the State, or a State, may 
 declare the extent of the obligations which its citizens are under 
 to the United States; in other words, that a State, by State 
 laws, and State judicatures, may conclusively construe the 
 Constitution, for its own citizens. But that every individual 
 may construe it for himself, is a refinement on the theory of 
 resistance to constitutional power, a sublimation of the right of 
 being disloyal to the Union, a free charter for the elevation 
 of private opinion above the authority of the fundamental law
 
 38 
 
 of the Slate, such as was never presented to the public view, 
 and the public astonishment, even by Nullification itself. 
 Its first appearance is in the VETO Message. Melancholy, 
 lamentable, indeed, sir, is our condition, when at a moment 
 of serious danger and wide-spread alarm, such sentiments are 
 found to proceed from the Chief Magistrate of the Govern- 
 ment. Sir, 1 cannot feel that the Constitution is safe in such 
 hands. I cannot feel that the present Administration is its fit 
 and proper guardian. 
 
 But let me ask, sir, what evidence there is, that the Presi- 
 dent is himself opposed to the doctrines of Nullification? I 
 do not say to the political party, which now pushes these 
 doctrines, but to the doctrines themselves. Has he any where 
 rebuked them ? Has he any where discouraged them ? Has 
 his influence been exerted to inspire respect for the Constitu- 
 tion, and to produce obedience to the laws? Has he followed 
 the bright example of his predecessors, has he held fast by the 
 institutions of the country, has he summoned the good and 
 the wise around him, has he admonished the country that 
 the Union is in danger, and called on all the patriotic to come 
 out in its support ? Alas ! sir, we have seen nothing, no- 
 thing, of all this. 
 
 Mr. President, I shall not discuss the doctrine of Nullifica- 
 tion. I am sure it can have no friends here. Gloss it and 
 disguise it as we ma}', it is a pretence incompatible with the 
 authority of the Constitution. If direct separation be not 
 its only mode of operation, separation is, nevertheless, ils di- 
 rect consequence. That a Stale may nullify a law of the 
 Union, and still remain in the Union ; that she may have 
 Senators and Representatives in the Government, and yet be 
 at liberty to disobey and resist the Government; that she 
 may partake in the common councils, and yet not be bound 
 by their results ; lhat she may control a law of Congress, so 
 that it shall be one thing, with her, while it is another thing 
 with the rest of the States ; all these propositions seem lo be 
 so absolutely at war with common sense and reason, that I 
 do not understand how any intelligent person can yield the 
 slighest assent to them. Nullification, it is in vain to attempt 
 to conceal it, is dissolution ; it is dismemberment ; it is the 
 breaking up of the Union. If it shall practically succeed, in 
 any one State, from lhat moment there are twenty-four States 
 in the Union nolonger. Now. sir, I think it exceedingly proba-
 
 39 
 
 ble that the President may come to an open rupture with that 
 portion of his original party, which now constitutes what is 
 called the Nullification party. I think it likely he will oppose 
 the proceedings of that party, if they shall adopt measures, 
 coming directly in conflict with the laws of the United States. 
 But how will he oppose ? What will be his course of rem- 
 edy'? Sir, I wish to call the attention of the meeting, and of 
 the People, earnestly to this question, How will the President 
 attempt to put down Nullification, if he shall attempt it at 
 all'? 
 
 Sir, for one, I protest in advance against such remedies as 
 I have heard hinted. The Administration itself keeps a pro- 
 found silence, but its friends have spoken for it. We are told, 
 sir, that the President will immediately employ the military 
 force, and at once blockade Charleston ! A military remedy, 
 a remedy by direct belligerent operation, has been thus sug- 
 gested, and nothing else has been suggested, as the intended 
 means of preserving the Union. Sir, there is no little reason 
 to think, that this suggestion is true. We cannot be altogether 
 unmindful of the past ; and therefore we cannot be altogether 
 unapprehensive for the future. For one, sir, I raise my voice 
 beforehand, against the unauthorized employment of military 
 power, and against superseding the authority of the laws, by 
 an armed force, under pretence of putting down Nullification. 
 The President has no authority to blockade Charleston; the 
 President has no authority to employ military force, till he 
 shall be duly required so to do, by law, and by the civil authori- 
 ties. His duty is, to cause the laws to be executed. His duty is 
 to support the civil authority. His duty is, if the laws be re- 
 sisted, to employ the military force of the country, if neces- 
 sary, for their support and execution ; but to do all this in 
 compliance only with law, and with decisions of the tribunals. 
 If, by any ingenious devices, those who resist the laws escape 
 from the reach of judicial authority, as it is now provided to 
 be exercised, it is entirely competent to Congress to make such 
 new provisions as the exigency of the case may demand. 
 These provisions undoubtedly would be made. With a constitu- 
 tional and efficient head of the Government, with an Administra- 
 tion really and truly in favor of the Constitution the country 
 can grapple with Nullification. By the force of reason, by 
 the progress of enlightened opinion, by the natural, genuine 
 patriotism of the country, and by the steady and well-sustained
 
 40 
 
 operations of law, the progress of disorganization may be suc- 
 cessfully checked, and the Union maintained. Let it be re- 
 membered, that where Nullification is most powerful, it is not 
 unopposed. Let it be remembered, that they who would break 
 up the Union by force, have to march toward that object through 
 thick ranks of as brave and good men as the country can show; 
 men, strong in character, strong in intelligence, strong in the 
 purity of their own motives, and ready, always ready, to sacri- 
 fice their fortunes and their lives to the preservation of the 
 Constitutional Union of the States. If we can relieve the coun- 
 try from an Administration, which denies to the Constitution 
 those powers which are the breath of its life, if we can place 
 the Government in the hands of its friends, if we can secure it 
 against the dangers of irregular and unlawful military force, 
 if it can be under the lead of an Administration, whose moder- 
 tion, firmness, and wisdom shall inspire confidence and com- 
 mand respect, we may yet surmount the dangers, numerous 
 and formidable as they are, which surround us. 
 
 And, sir, I see little prospect of overcoming these dangers, 
 without a change of men. After all that has passed, the re-elec- 
 tion of the present Executive will give the national sanction to 
 sentiments, and to measures, which will effectually change the 
 government ; which, in short, must destroy the government. If 
 the President be re-elected, with concurrent and co-operating 
 majorities in both Houses of Congress, I do not see, that in 
 four years more, all the power, which is suffered to remain in 
 the Government, will not be holden by the Executive hand. 
 Nullification will proceed, or will be put down by a power as un- 
 constitutional as itself. The revenues will be managed by a 
 Treasury Bank. The use of the VETO will be considered as 
 sanctioned by the public voice. The Senate, if not " cut 
 down," will be bound down ; and the President, commanding 
 the Army and the Navy, and holding all places of trust to be 
 party property, what will then be left, sir, for Constitutional 
 reliance ? 
 
 Sir, we have been accustomed to venerate the Judiciary, 
 and to repose hopes of safety on that branch of the Govern- 
 ment. But let us not deceive ourselves. The Judicial power 
 cannot stand, for a long time, against the Executive power. 
 The Judges, it is true, hold their places by an independent 
 tenure ; but they are mortal. That, which is the common
 
 41 
 
 lot of humanity, must make it necessary to renew the benches 
 of justice. And how will they be filled '! Doubtless, sir, they 
 will be filled by incumbents, agreeing with the President, in 
 his constitutional opinions. If the Court is felt as an obstacle, 
 doubtless the first opportunity, and every opportunity, will be 
 embraced, to give it less and less the character of an obstacle. 
 Sir, without pursuing these suggestion?, I only say that the 
 country must prepare itself for any change in the Judicial 
 Department, such as it shall deliberately sanction, in other 
 departments. 
 
 But, sir, what is the prospect of change? Is there any 
 hope, that the national sentiment will recover its accustomed 
 tone, and restore to the Government a just and efficient ad- 
 ministration 1 
 
 Sir, if there be something of doubt on this point, there is 
 also something, perhaps much, of hope. The popularity of 
 the present Chief Magistrate, springing from causes not con- 
 nected with his administration of the Government, has been 
 great. Public gratitude for military service has remained fast to 
 him, in defiance of many things, in his civil administration, 
 calculated to weaken its hold. At length, there are indications, 
 not to be denied, of new sentiments, and new impressions. 
 At length, a conviction of danger to important interests, and 
 to the security of the Government, has made its lodgement, 
 in the public mind. At length, public sentiment begins to 
 have its free course, and to produce its just effects. I fully 
 believe, sir, that a great majority of the nation desire a change 
 in the administration ; and that it will be difficult for party 
 organization, or party denunciation to suppress the effective 
 utterance of that general wish. There are unhappy differ- 
 ences, it is true, about the fit person to be successor to the 
 present incumbent, in the Chief Magistracy ; and it is pos- 
 sible, that this disunion, may, in the end, defeat the will of 
 the majority. But so far as we agree together, let us act to- 
 gether. Wherever our sentiments concur, let our hands co- 
 operate. If we cannot, at present, agree, who should be 
 President, we are at least agreed who bught not to be. I ful- 
 ly believe, sir, that gratifying intelligence is already on the 
 wing. While we are yet deliberating, in Massachusetts, 
 Pennsylvania is voting. This week, she elects her members 
 to the next Congress. I doubt not, the result of that election 
 will show An important change in public sentiment, in- that 
 G
 
 State ; nor can I doubt that the great States adjoining her, 
 holding similar constitutional principles, and having similar 
 interests, will feel the impulse of the same causes which affect 
 her. The people of the United States, by a vast and count- 
 less majority, are attached to the Constitution. If they shall be 
 convinced that it is in danger, they will come to its rescue, 
 and will save it. It cannot be destroyed, even now, if THEY 
 will undertake its guardianship and protection. 
 
 But suppose, sir, there was less hope than there is, would 
 that consideration weaken the force of our obligations ? Are 
 we at a post, which we are at liherty to desert, when it 
 becomes difficult to hold it? May vie fly at the approach of 
 danger 7 Poes our fidelity to the Constitution require no more 
 of us than to enjoy its blessings, to bask in the prosperity which 
 it has shed around us, and our fathers, and are we at liberty 
 to abandon it, in the hour of its peril, or to make for it but a 
 faint and heartless struggle, for the want of encouragement, 
 and the want of hope 7 Sir, if no State come to our succor, if 
 every where else the contest should be given up, here let it be 
 protracted, to the last moment. Here, where the first blood of 
 the Revolution was shed, let the last effort for that which is the 
 greatest blessing obtained by the Revolution, a free and united 
 Government, be made. Sir, in our endeavors to maintain our 
 existing forms of Government, we are acting not for ourselves 
 alone, but for the great cause of Constitutional liberty all over 
 the globe. We are trustees, holding a sacred treasure, in which 
 all the lovers of freedom have a stake. Not only in Revolu- 
 tionized France, where there are no longer subjects, where 
 the monarch can no longer say, he is the Stale, noi only in 
 reformed England, where our principles, our institutions, our 
 practice of free Government are now daily quoted and com- 
 mended ; but n the depths of Germany, also, and among the 
 desolated fields, and the still smoking ashes of Poland, prayers 
 are uttered for the preservation of our Union and happiness. 
 We are surrounded, sir, by a cloud of witnesses. The gaze 
 of the sons of liberty, every where, is upon us, anxiously, 
 intently, upon us. They may see us fall in the struggle for 
 our Constitution and Government, but Heaven forbid that they 
 should see us recreant. 
 
 At least, sir, let the Star of Massachusetts be the last which 
 shall be seen to fall from heaven, and to plunge into the utter 
 darkness of disunion. Let her shrink back, let her hold
 
 others back, if she can; at any rate, let her keep herself back, 
 from this gulf, full, at once, of fire, and of blackness; yes, sir, 
 as far as human foresight can scan, or human imagination faih- 
 om, full of the fire, and the blood, of civil war, and of the 
 thick darkness of general political disgrace, ignominy, and 
 ruin. Though the worst may happen that can happen, and 
 though she may not be able to prevent the catastrophe, yet, 
 let her maintain her own integrity, her own high honor, her 
 own unwavering fidelity, so that with respect and decency, 
 though with a broken and a bleeding heart, she may pay the 
 last tribute to a glorious, departed, free Constitution.
 
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