So
members, 23 less than at present
that, upon the very principles upen
which the opponents of the resolutions
contend, the West evidently labor un
der important grievances. Hut wealth
is sufficiently represented in the Senate
to afford itself protection. The repre
sentation of our state should be upon
the principle of free white population,
requiring certain qualifications in the
representatives, and in the electors ol
one branch of the Legislature, barely
sufficient to protect wealth.
Wealth fattens upon the necessities
of poverty ; it can bribe ; it can cor
rupt : and whenever it shall have a pre
dominant weight in our government,
we mav bid farewell to the boasted
freedom of our Republic, and igno-
miniously submit to the yoke of Aris
tocratic Slavery.
The 34 Eastern counties having a
free white population of 154,0 14, send
to the Legislature 102 members ; the
27 Western counties send 81 members,
which in the same ratio of the East
represent 122,219, leaving a balance of
131,024 free white persons, together
with all the negroes of the West ar
rayed against the negroes of the East,
and unrepresented. Add to this, Sir,
the vast extent of the West, the health
of the climate, the territory acquired
from the Indians, the vast increase of
the value of the lands and wealth of
the West, from internal improvement ;
add these to the grievances under
which we labor, and ere long they will
become intolerable, not only to patriot
ism, but to patience itself.
When I predict, under these circum
stances, a Convention will be had, can
the prophecy be doubted ?
We have now met the call of the
gentleman from Newbern. Here is
our grievance, which we wish to be at
tended to.
No man could be more unwilling,
said Mr. M. than myself to touch the
Constitution, if I did not think the oc
casion called for it, and that the time
is peculiarly favorable. The proposi
he left that task to gentlemen who
were more experienced and more able
to execute it than himself: he knew
there were such gentlemen, in their
places, who were prepared to meet
them, in due time, on that ground ; and
to oppose them with statements of an
opposite character.
?Ir. Chairman, (said Mr. B.) I beg
leave to call the attention of the com
mittee to some remarks, made by the
gentleman from Rockingham, (Mr.
Morehead,) in reply to the able ad
dress which his friend from Newbern,
('Mr. HA had delivered on the subject. I
tion before the committee ought not to
be considered in the light of a contest
for power. We do not ask from our
Eastern brethren any thing to which
we are not entitled. Nor would we
ask for a correction of this grievance,
if it were not constantly accumulating.
For, to do our Eastern brethren jus
tice, we acknowledge they have wield
ed their power with a great degree of
justice and moderation, and it is hoped
they will continue to do so.
It will be to the East, if we are ever
invaded. It may be expected your
protection will not be found in your
negroes ; it will be found in yourselves,
or m the strength of the West.
For equal rights and privileges our
fathers jointly fought, and bled, and
died, and their bones now lie hallow
ing the soil for the freedom of which
thev fell a sacrifice.
But give us these, and when the de
mon of desolation shall hover around
your borders, and the tragedy of
Hampton is to be performed on your
shores, call on your brethren of the
West, and the mountains will roll their
might to the main, carrying protection
to vour wives, your children, your
homes, and your country.
Mr. Blackledge observed, that he
had not intended to take any part in
the debate concerning the resolutions
on the table ; how important soever
their subject matter might be. He
was anxious that the discussion should
be restricted within very narrow lim
its; for he feared that our sectional
feelings ind prejudices might be arous
ed and exasperated by a protracted
discussion of this ungracious subject.
On similar occasions, it invariably
eventuated, as he believed, in harsh
and angry recrimination. He dreaded
these anti-national feelings ; he deeply
lamented their existence ; he still more
lamented, that our Western brethren
should l studiously foster their growth,
and increase their acrimony, by annu
ally thrusting upon us this invidious
contest ; when they must be sensible,
that it will prove both unprofitable and
unavailing. As he perceived, howev
er, that the debate, contrary to his
wishes, was about to take a very wide
range, he felt it due to the few gentle
men who opposed these resolutions, on
the floor, and also due to his constitu
ents, not to remain entirely silent.
I do not intend, (said Mr. B.) to en
ter into an examination, or attempt to
detect and expose the fallacy of the
gentleman's arithmetical and statisti
cal calculations. Though compiled
vith so much care, and deliverd with
so much confidence and complacency,
he believed thev were assailable. But
It will be recollected. Sir, that h
(Mr. Hawks) had laid down as the
proper basis of representation, a ratio
combining both population and taxa
tion and, resting upon this basis, had
called on the gentlemen in opposition
to shew that our present Constitution
is inconsistent or unequal. The gen
tleman from Rockingham has essayed
to do it. Mr. B's present object was
to examine whether he had done it
satisfactorily. That gentleman, (Mr.
Alorehead) had extracted from his sta
tistical budget, the facts, that there
were, in the Western counties of the
State, upwards of one hundred thou
sand freemen more than there are in
the Eastern counties ; and that the Eas
tern have a greater number of repre
sentatives in the Legislature than the
Western counties. From these data
he concludes that the representation is
unequal ; and that the Constitution
should hv altered to remedy the griev-
ance. i ins. surety, is nn answer to
the argument of my friend from New
hern. However correct the conclusion
mighi be, were we to assume popula
tion solely as the basis of representa
tion, he needed not now to say it was
irrelevant to the question now in issue.
But certainly when applied to tin ba
sis assumed, to the question in issue,
the conclusion shot wide of the mark ;
it was false and illogical. But if the
gentleman insisted that population,
solely, should be the basis of represen
tution, he confessed he differed from
him essentially as to the correctness ot
the principle. He did believe, that in
all governments, where the stability of
its institutions was deemed important,
it was found necessary that property,
as well as persons, should be represen
ud in the national councils. The pro
tection of property was one of the
strongest incentives to the formation
of political societies ; it was one of the
most indissoluble links which bound
us together as a society. It is proper
tv v. hich mainlv swells the State and
Nat'vnal Treasurv, bv its liberal con
tributions ; without which, indeed, both
the State and the Union would crum
ble into ruins, from their own imbecil
ity. It surely, then, should be dulv
protected ; and it could net be properly
protected without representation. Our
own colonial experience has taught us
this maxim, that nothing can be pro
perly protected, unless its due weight
is felt in the national councils ; and the
experience of all nations, who have
had any correct notions of rational lib
erty, has stamped it with the impress
of truth. Our government is not a
democracy a pure democracy; nor
did he conceive that it was the inten
tion of the framers of our Constitu
tion to mr.ke it such. It was impossi
ble that a nation, as wealthy, as popu
lous, and as widely extended as ours,
ever could exist under such a form of
government. It is, and was intended
to be, a mixed republic ; in which,
whilst the liberality and freedom of its
principles were carefully provided for,
its stability and duration were not neg
lected ; a form of government as dis
tinct from democracy, as anarchy was
from despotism. He hoped it would
remain so that the time never would
come, when the privileges of a citizen
and a freeholder, would be conferred
on every vagabond who might wander
amongst us, for he distrusted this va
grant patriotism that we might never
be reduced to the state described by a
satyrist, more prized for wit than in
genuousness ; a state, " w
here
every
blackguard rascal is a kin;r."
Mr. B. observed, that he believed
the gentleman (Mr. Morehead) him
self was not willing to go the wli le
length to which this principle of dis
organization would lead him. lie was
induced to believe so from the second
division of his argument. In this he
assumed population and taxation com
bined, as the proper basis of represen
tation ; and contended that out of our
own mouths we are condemned. He
begged leave to call the attention of
the committee to this part of the sub
ject. That gentleman (Mr. More
head) invites us to review the Comp
troller's report. He tells us that from
this it is evident, that, (excluding the
county of Wake,) the Western coun
ties pay into the State Treasury a sum
exceeding what is paid by the Eastern
counties ; though by a comparatively
small sum; in fact, by what we may,
on this subject, call a mere fraction,
and hence concludes, that the repre
sentation is unequal, even on our own
principles. Now, Mr. Chairman, said
Mr. B. admitting that the gentleman's
data are entirely correct, he asked the
committee seriously, whether, when no
real or practical evil existed, it was
prudent or wise to demolish a fabric
as venerable and as time-honoured as
our Constitution, solely for the pur
pose cf attempting to rear another,
whose symmetry or proportions might
better please the eye ? Whether it
were proper to burn that noble 41 Mag
na Charta" of rights, which our ances
tors have left us, because our selfcom
placency induces us to believe, that we
could write another which might read
more trippingly on the tongue, or look
better upon paper ? Whether, in a na
tion comprising nearly a million of
citizens, and many millions of wealth,
because a mere fraction of either mav
not be fully represented, the very
bonds of society should be dissolved i
the government itself should be rt sol
ved into its original elements ? and the
Constitution, the Law and the Gospel,
sacrificed on the altar of political ex
periment. Yet all this is demanded ;
and that, too, with no security as to
what will be the event of the convul
sion ; with n utter uncertainty as to
what may be the nature of the tk shape
less monsters," springing out of this
chaotic confusion. With a possibility,
W 1 I
nay, l may say, a string probability
that our situation will be deteriorated
by the experiment. For I fear, that
at least our w isclom and our patriot
ism would be found unequal to the
task of preserving equal rights and na
tional liberty, by throwing round them
barriers as impregnable as those which
our ancestors have erected. But to
return to the gentleman's data. He
denied that thev were entirely correct.
With the greatest respect for the gen
tleman from Rockingham, he must be
permitted to observe, that though he
had scrupulously told us the truth, he
had cautiously abstained from disclo
sing to us the whole truth. It will be
remarked, that up to this period of the
debate, no mention has been made, by
that gentleman or any other, of the
vast sums of revenue which are pour
ed into the lap of the general govern
ment, by the Eastern section of this
St ate. But without a reference to
these, we could never arrive at a cor
rect conclusion : for without them the
premises were incomplete. He would
submit a few remarks to the commit
tee on this subject, with a view of elu
cidating the question. lie believed
he might safely assert, that the indi
vidual towns ot Ncwbern, Wilming
ton, Washington and Edenton, paid in
to the national coffrrs more money
than was derived from all the wealtlu
and widely extended regions of the
West. He had no documents to which
he could refer, for the establishment
of this or any other facts of the same
nature. He had taken no pains to
procure them, for he did not expect to
have shared in the debate. But he be
lieved he hazarded nothing in assert
ing, that the excess which the Eastern
counties paid into the general treasury,
over and above what the Western
counties paid into the same fund.
equalled, if it did not exceed, the or
dinary revenue of the State of North-
Carolina. He insisted that the com
mittee ought to take this fct into view,
and to give it much weight, as bearing
on the present question. Our relative
representation in Congress is not af
fected by this excess of taxation ; and
it ought to be felt somewhere ; it ought
to be felt in this legislature. It is this
sum paid into the treasury, which in
creases our navy, supports our army,
and enables the administration of the
union to carry all its functions into due
onernt;nn ? inr the hrrirhr hnth nt thp
i- . - t- t . . .
V&t and the TSast ; for the general ine hCSO Urs ne tabIe ;
rrnnrL flivlnrr. tW, rirrnmctr, i rCSPCCled hlSOWU Lastdn f 1 1
Practical perfection, Mr. Chairman, is
not to be expected from fore-sighted hu
manity ; least of all, is it to be expected in
political combinations. It can cMst no
where but in the fanciful visions of polit
ical theorists. On any practical system
of representation, there will always he a
fraction of population or wealth, not as
well represented in some places as m oth
ers. But if no practical evil result there
from, or the disproportion is not enor
mous, it is unnecessary, nay dangerous,
to call into action the rude and unsteady
hand of reform. Both population and
wealth are necessarily very fluctuating in a
country so new as ours : where such great
temptations arc held out to cnterprize .
where industry is daily discovering new
channels, into which it can be more prof
itably directed ; and where those local at
tachments exist, in so slight a degree,
which, in older countries, bind their in
habitants, though poor and enslaved, with
indissoluble ties, to the hearth-stone of
their ancestors. From the operation of
one, or of all these circumstances com
bined, a section of country, which now
boasted of its population and wealth,
might, the next year, be drained of both ;
and the ratio of representation, which one
year was precisely just, would the next
year in theory, at least, be odious ana un
equal. From the operations of the same
causes, it sometimes happened, that in
sections of the country where entcrpiize
and industry had, for a long time, lan
guished and slumbered in inaction, and
wealth and population were at a dead
stand ; that a new impetus was given to
both, from the discovery of some new-
source of employment. He believed that
this was about to be the cube in the Eas
tern counties ; and that it would eventu
ate in equalizing the population of ihe
Eastern and Western divisions of the
State. It is well known, that there arc
immense bodies of wilderness in the Eas
tern part of the State, some of u hich have
never been trodden by the foot of civili
zation. hey afford the m'st fertile soils
in the Slate, though now uncultivated,
lie believed thev would not long remain
so. The piercing eve of cupidity, was
i already attracted tow ards them ; and gloa
ted on the i promised land' with rapture
and delight. The genius of enterprise
and labor, wearied witii repose, had al
ready aroused from inaction, and was pre
paring, with renewed vigor, to address
himself to the greateful labor. Experi
ments had been made ; and these lands
had been found, to render an ample and
abundant reward to the agriculturists.
Now, Sir, when under these auspices,
our widely extended swamps and poco
sons shall have been reclaimed by the
hand of cultivation ; when our deserts
shall smile, and our wilderness blossom
as the rose ; (and ere long, I trust they
will,) then Sir, I believe, that the scale
even of population will preponderate in
the East.
But wc arc told, Mr. Chairman, (said
Mr. H.) that now is the accepted time to
examine and amend our rottei Constitu
tion that in this interval of peace; this
xra of good J'erli ng.s , when no party excite
ment exists, we should address ourselves
seriously to the task cf altering the rot
ten pi tch work of our ancestors : wc arc
told also, that wc are as wise and as patri
otic, perhaps wiser and more patriotic
than they were ; and consequently, per
fectly compete nt to perform that necessa
ry, hut irreverent duty. On this occa
sion. Sir, (with my friend from Newbern,)
I cannot but advert with pain to the bold
and peremptory language with which the
gentlemen from the West denounce the
Constitution ; and I had almost said, men
aced its supporters. Wc arc plainly told,
th.t if w c do not consent peaceably to the
alteration of the Constitution, tuu will i
had thereby, in some degree, enervated
and corrupted genuine republican princi
ples. Mr. B. asserted that it was unwise and
dangerous to tamper vith old Institutions,
on any occasions but those of the most
emergency ; it was most unwise to sacri
fice a positive good, for the existence of
mere visionary evils. Constitutions ought
net to be destroyed for trivial reasons, ov
imaginary grievances. They were in
tended as a solemn record of principles:
they should be fixed, lasting, durable, per
manent. Not like municipal laws, which
being applicable to the changeful transac
tions of ordinary life, should change as
they do; and which the same power that
breathed them into existence one year,
might annihilate the next. They should
notbe placed in the power of the lord
lings of faction nor treated as the toys
or playthings of ambition. He repeated
it, they should not be altered or destroyed
for aught but real and serious grievances.
None such existed. He called on the
Gentlemen from the West to point them
out if there were any. Though the pre
ponderance of power is in the East, 1 ask
them if it has ever been ungraciously ex
ercised ? Can the West complain of any
unbrotherly sentiment which we have ev
er fostered"? Any unkind, illiberal or un
fraternal act, that we have sanctioned to
wards them? The Gentlemen from the
West admit they cannot. They well
know, that we ure always ready to do their
talents and merit ample justice, by the
promptitude with which we confer upon
them the offices of Government in the
improvement of roads and livers, the
public purse has been devoted almost ex
clusively to the West ; its contents have
been cheerfully distributed among them,
with the most liberal hand, and the most:
lavish profusion.
To conclude, Mr. Chairman, (said Mr.
though mv reason were not fully con
vinccd of the utter impolicy of the reso
lutions cn the table ; w hich it most certain
ly is ; the strong feeling of respect and
veneration with which I have always re
garded that gloiious instrument; would
induce me to hesitate long, ere, under any
circumstances, I would assent to its de
struction. When he called to mind, that
it was the mantle, which was thrown a
round the nrst born of the Revolution, on
its natal day ; that it is the handy-work of
the patriots and heroes who achieved cur
independence the rich reward of their
toils, or the sacred price of their b'ood
and that it has protected us from our rev
olutionary cradle to a vigorous maturity,
he confessed that he felt for it the deep
est veneration. When he recollected,
that it had resisted the encroachments of
power, and the turbulence of faction ; that
it shielded us through the storms and
troubles cf a second glorious and bloody
war, and still afforded its ample protec
tion, whilst peace, and plenty, and happi
ness, smiled on all our borders, the strong
est confidence in its excellence was add
ed to his veneration. Feeling these sen
timents, and feeling them deeply, he trust
ed that he should never stretch out an un
hallowed hand to assist in its destruction.
good. Giving, then, this circumstance
its due weight, taking this view of the
subject, we perceive, that though their
forcibly alter it : if w e do not vote for the
resolutions on the table thty will have a
Convention : they will destroy the Consti
tution. I have heard (said Mr. B.j this
language held out of doors ; even there I
heard it with surprise. But he was
grieved and dismayed, that in the face of
the people in this hall, such sentiments
and such language, should be boldly ut
tered and seriously defended. Does this
language bespeak that cool and temper
ate spirit, that total absence of party feel
ing, or that noble disinterestedness, which
submits to partial evil for the general
good ; which we ought to expect in a Con
vention ? Or did these sentiments encour
age us in believing, that in a Convention
in these days, we could hope to assemble
legislators as cautious and as wise, or
patriots as pure and as single-hearted, as
were they, whose names are subscribed
to our present Constitution ? lie feared
not. Much as he resnccted thr fi ?fMidi nf
much as he
iends, lie
confessed, he respected the patriots of 76
more : he had not sufficient self-compla-cenev,
to believe that wr nrf .i; wis
i i " as gallium- us nicy were ; iar less cutl P.c
one hundred thousand, vet we pay a believe, that wc arc wiser or more natri-
double or triple quantum of taxation, i otic. And, on this score, the sentiments,
And hence we may fairly conclude,
that on the proposed basis of popula
tion and taxation combined, the pres
ent representation is equally propor
tioned between the Western and Eas
tern counties; at least as rqudly so
as is to be desired for any practical
purposes.
I -i . i
;m uciaiiuft; uy me genuemen in opposi
tion, had perfected his belief-they had
exalted it to faith. He feared, that the
rapid increase of luxury and wealth ; the
wide-spread influence of Banks and other
corporations ; the prevalence of a spirit
of action in some places, and of aristocra
cy in others, had tended to sap the foun
dations of public spirit every where ; and
PROPHECY AND HISTORY.
The 44th and 45th verses of the 11th chapter
cf the book cf Daniel, contain the following
predictions :
4-1. Rut tidings out cf the East and out of the
J'orth shall trouble him ; therefore lie slia.ll gi
forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to
make away many.
45. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his
palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy
mountain ; yet he shall come to his end, and none
shall help him.
On this passage Mr. Scott, an eminent commen
tator, offers the following remarkable exposition .-
All the attempts of commentators to apply
this to Anticchus have proved fruitless ; for
though he went forth with great indignation to
. subdue some revolted provinces in the east and
in the north ; yet he never returned into Judea,
which land alone can be intended by "the glo
rious holy mountain It is more probably con
cluded, that tliis part of the prophecy relates to
events yet future. " Some conjecture that ths Per
sians, iv ho larder on the Turkish dominions to the
East, and the Russians, who lie S'orth of then, vi!'
7ini te against the Turks,- that in the laud of Ca
naan the latter vill Jijr their camp with great osten
tation, as wed as wage the war with great furij
and that there they shall receive such a defeat, "a
shall end in the utter subversion of their ?nonarchj.,y
Scott's Dible, 4th American from the
2d London edition Vol. 3.
The reader need not be told how exactly the
above passage applies to the late news from Eu
rope, of an expected alliance between the Hus
sians and Persians against the Turks. If Mr.
Scott had written his commentary after reading
a modern newspaper, he could not have adapted
it more exactly to the events of the day. The
character of the warfare wag-ed by the Turks
is accurately described by the terms "great os
tentation" and "great furv." We will only add,
that should the whole prediction contained in
the text be found to apply to these events, we
shall hear of no alliances between the Turks
and other nations ; for "he shall come to Ids end,
and none shall helt am." Such a coincidence is
very remarkable, and we are surprised it has
net sooner been discovered.
AVz'-T6rl' States:?!a i.
THE ART OF FLYING.
N-Ev-Toiirc, march 9. A Philadelphia paper
announces, that an ingenious and adventurous
gentleman of that city has constructed a pair of
immense wings, which are nearly ready for use.
This xronaut is so confident of success, that lu
promises to perform a voyage to New-York, ..
three hours Such a project surpasses the philos ,
ophy of Symmes. This would be a very con
venient mode of travelling during the muddy
state of the roads ; but let the adventurer recol lect
the fate of Icarius, and of the luckless theo
rist, whose experiments are recorded in Uassclas.