mmkir 'srm . PSSfer) ITF7IGCi'
HALIFAX, JV: CL FRIDAY, APRIL 9, i'ss.
F0. J.
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JYl Carolina Legislature.
SPEECH OP
MR. WILLIS ALSTON,
On the Caucus Resolutions, intro
duced by Mr. Fisher.
Mr. Alston had hoped, that
the Preamble and Resolutions
now before the House, would
have taken a different course; he
wished the motion to postpone
them indefinitely had not been
made, and that they might have
been permitted to have been re
ferred to a committee of the
whole House, where their me
rits and demerits would have
undergone a full and fair inves
tigation; but as the motion to
postpone indefinitely precluded
him from any attempt to shape
them as he wished, he should
vote against it, with a view,
should the motion not prevail,
to propose such amendments or
modifications, as would make
them acceptable to himself, and
perhaps to others situated as he
was.
He did not believe with gen
tlemen who had preceded him
in this debate, that Caucuses ei
ther violated , the letter or spirit
of the Constitution; for although
there was a clause in the Consti
tution of the United States, that
said no member of the Senate or
House of Representatives should
be an Elector, it could not be
construed in such manner as to
prevent them from expressing
an opinion, as individuals, who
they might prefer as President
and Vice-President of the Uni
ted States. He himself had
been in several Caucuses, and
never thought lie had violated
the letter or spirit of that Con
stitution we had all so solemnly
sworn to support. When the
contention of parties in this
country was at as high a pitch
as they ever had been before or
since, he well knew, that both
sides had Caucused: he alluded
to the celebrated contest be
tween Jefferson and Adams,
when Jefferson succeeded to the
Presidency of the United States.
He would mention a circum
stance which tended to show
what he said was true. At the
preceding election, Charles Co
tesworth Pinckney was run
with Mr. Adams, who, at a
Caucus, was withdrawn, and
Maj. Thos. Pinckney substitu
ted in his place. He never con
sidered the minority absolutely
bound in a Caucus to surrender
their opinions to the majority,
for he well remembered that a
Resolution was once submitted
in Caucus so to bind them, and
being objected to, it was with
drawn. Generally speaking,
the will of the majority had
been acquiesced in. In fact, he
never knew an instance to the
rnn trarv: for the obicct of a
, j , u
Caucus was to harmonize and
unite the party, so that a divi
sion should not take place, and
o-ive their opponents an oppor
tunity of taking advantage of
their divisions, and place a man
in the Presidential chair against
the will of the predominant par
ty. But, said Mr. A. is there
in the present contest for a Pre
sident of the United States any
thing like that state of things
which heretofore existed? Cer
tainly not, there is no contest a
hout party, nothing like princi
ple involved in the question.
All the candidates who have
been brought before the public
arc of the same politics, and all
of them had distinguished them
selves as honorable and patriotic
men, and which ever of theni
should fairly be elected, he
should cheerfully support the
administration of, provided he
did not violate the example and
principles which his great pre
decessors had set before him.
Mr. A. further observed, that if
gentlemen would take a survey
of the United States, they would
find, if he might be allowed the
expression, that the most high
toned of each of the old contend
ing parties, were divided about
who shall be our next President,
and was there any thing strange
111 11113. -1 A O UUIlll,llUt.U HI ell, Illy
best, wisest, and most patriotic
men in our country, perfectly
uniting in principle, may honest
ly differ about men. He said,
that the present was a contest
about men, and not about mea
sures. He therefore did think,
that any measure calculated to
prejudge or bias the intelligent
jand enlightened people of the
American Republic, in the exer
cise of their free choice, at this
time, and under existing cir
cumstances, useless, unnecessa
ry and improper. Leave the!
people to exercise their own in
dependent will, and they sel
dom err. He had no objection
to declare this as a legislator or
an individual; at the same time,
he expressed his decided disap
probation of the Preamble and
Resolutions as they now stand;
but reject the motion to post
pone, and you have them per-
' fectly at command, you can al
ter, change, or modify them as
you please. It does not follow
at all, if you reject the present
motion to postpone indefinitely
that these resolutions are to be
adopted : for he should vote him-
I self against passing them, unless
modified to suit his views. Arc
gentlemen afraid to meet the
question fairly, openly and man
ly? He hoped not; why then
not let us have an opportunity
of placing the question before
the enlightened and intelligent; a few large States combining to
public, in the best possible gether, taking with them a few
shape of which it is susceptible?
Mr. A. further observed, that
his great objection to the elec
tion's finally going into the
House of Representatives had
very much diminished, when
he took a view of the late
Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States. Before
this Amendment took place, a
choice had to be made from the
five highest upon the list of
those voted for as President and
Vice-President of the United
States; by the amendment, the
House of Representatives are to
make an election out of the
three highest voted for as Presi
dent. Could gentlemen see no
difference here? As the Consti
tution formerly stood, one large
state might bring its candidate
within the five highest, and pre
vent an election by the people;
but now, it would take a com
bination of three of the largest
states to accomplish that which
one might have done before the
amendment. Again, in the e
vent of no election being made
by the House of Representa
tives, the Amendment provides
that the Vice-President shall be
come President You will,
therefore, be sure of a President,
whether the House of Repre-j
sentatives make an election or
not. This provision he consi
dered of vast importance; for
he well knew that an opinion
prevailed among "the best and
wisest men in the nation, that
in the event of no election be
ing made, as the Constitution
stood prior to the , Amendment',
that the Union was dissolved;
that we should have been left
without guide or compass to
steer the National Ship.
The gentleman from Beaufort,
(Mr. Blackledge) has cmjDhati
cally told us, that we are, by
this motion, to test, whether we
rmnrnvn nr nisnnnrnvp nf th
rr ri ' -
Preamble and Resolutions as
they now stand. Jtiau it not
been for this remark, he (Mr.
A.) might have been spared
from troubling the House with
any observations. Now, Mr.
Speaker, continued he, can this
motion try the question, when
so many of us declare that we
are opposed to the Preamble
and Resolutions as they now
stand, but have no objection of
; expressing our opinion as to the
propriety or impropriety 01 a
. . 1
Congressional nomination? If
a Congressional nomination a
mounts to an election, as gentle
men I have no doubt Believe it
will, or why so solicitous for it,
he, lor one, would preler, at the
present time, when all partylpense of each man in service
distinctions were lost, that the j nearly one half. He asked gen
election should go into the j tlemen to recollect what had re
House of Representatives, ra-,ccntly taken place far up the
ther than to be thus made. He! Missouri river: American citi
feared nothing from a combina-j zens had been butchered, plun
tion of small States. Let any dered, and deprived of their
gentleman cast his eye around,: hard earnings; the ground had
and take a survey over the Uni-' been stained by the blood of
ted States, he would find the 1 white men, by the savage toma
small States scattered over this -hawk and scalping knife, and
wide-extended continent and in -
termixed between the large
States possessing totally differ
ent interests and views; an uni
on, therefore, of small States, to
j the prejudice of . the Union, is
'next to impossible; neither had
he any tear that corruption
would or could find its way in
to the House of Representatives.
But, on the contrary, in Caucus,
I small States, could make an e
lection. For instance, let New
York, Pennsylvania and Virgi
nia combine, and they will fix
on you whom they please. And
is it at all unlikely that one or
n u uwuavuta 111 catu ui uiuac
States may sway the balance?!
Here, then, you can haveaPre-
Isident palmed upon you by a
fewer number of members of
Congress, than you would be
likely to have, if the election
should finally go into the House
of Representatives? hy,then
shall we be deprived, by the
present motion, of expressing
our opinion in that shape that
best suits our views? If the Re
solutions cannot be made satis
factory to the majority of the
House, they can still be reject
ed, or even then postponed, it it
be the wish of a majority.
Mr. A. said, he did not in
tend to follow the example of
some gentlemen, by making re
marks to the prejudice of any
narticular candidate: he would,
th liberty of
statingtothe House, what would
be recollected by every member
in it, that some two or three
sessions of Congress past, a cer
tain set of motion-makers had
started up in Congress, for their
motions had been printed
in
every part of the United States.
calling for information, as he
verily believed, to create a pre
judice against the present admi
nistration. They soon found
themselves mistaken, and Ihey
changed their mode of attack.
If his memory served him, their
next attack, Mr. A. said, was
directed at the heai of the State
Department; but when the doors
of his bureau were thrown wide
open to the call, and every thing
they called for given, clamour
on that head was soon hushed
into silence. Their next at
tack vas directed against the
War jDcpartment, , and if one
hundrcth part of what was said
and insinuated, had been true,
he was quite certain that the of
ficer who presides over that de
partment, would not, in this As
sembly, find a man to raise his
voice in his favor; but what was
the result? that officer, with a
promptness that always charac
terizes his conduct, gave all that
was called for, and completely
put to shame those who had
made the call. He shewed to
them and the nation, that instead
of extravagance and waste, he
had brought chaos to system,
and had actually, by his arrange
ment, saved millions to the na
tion; He had reduced the ex-
; many thousand dollars worth of
property lost, all of which was
owing to this party, who pre
vented by their motions in Con
gress, a force from marching in
time to take post high enough
up the river, so as to have saved
harmless, such of our enterpri-
zing
citizcns who
might have
ventured in pursuit of came. It
would
seem as though the se
crctary of War had foreseen the
events which have followed; for
he had actually given orders to
i march an armed force, and to
erect a fort high enough up the
river, to have prevented what
j has occurred, but was prevented
by an interference, improper and
UUWlScj iu mo iccisl ui iu
He should, therefore, unless
gentlemen permitted him a fair
opportunity of amending the
Resolutions, be compelled to
vote against the motion to post
pone indefinitely.
Connecticut forever By
the existing laws of the state of
Connccticut,all persons between
the ages of 4 and 16, are enti
tled to a share of the public
school money, and are to be
numbered annually in the month
of July or August for that pur
pose. We have the authority
of the School Commissioner,
(says the New-Haven Register)
that there was in the last enume
ration a mother and her daugh
ter in the north-west part of the
state who were both entitled to
school money! Beat this who
can!!
Vermont. It is said that
there is one justice of the peace
to every 177 souls in this
state.