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iVorti-Carilinz Free Press, "
BY GE0KGJ3 HOWARD,
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Mr. T" Buren. To enable our
readers to form a correct opinion re
specting the rejection by the U. S.
Senate of the nomination of Air. Van
Buren as Minister to England, we
will copy a few speeches, against and
for if, made on the occasion. We
accordingly commence with the re
marks of Mr. day:
Mr. Clay said, nftcr the most
deliberate consideration, I re
gret that I find, myself utterly
unable to reconcile with the
duty I owe to my country, a
vote in favor of this nomination.
I regret it, because in nil past
strife of party, the relations of
ordinary civility and courtesy,
were never interrupted between
the gentleman whose name is
before us, and myself. But I
regard my obligations to the
people of the United States, and
to the honor and character of
their government, as paramount
to every private consideration.
There was no necessity known
to us for the departure of this
gentleman from the U. States,
prior to the submission of his
name to the Senate. Great
Britain was represented here by
a diplomatic agent, having no
higher rank than that of a
Charge des affairs. We were
represented in England by one
of equal rank, one who had shed
lustre upon his country by his
high literary character; one
whom it may be justly said, in
no respect, was lie inferior to
the gentleman before us. Al
though I shall not controvert
the right of the President, in an
extraordinary case, to send
abroad a public minister, with
out the advice and consent of
the Senate, 1 do not admit that
it ever ought to be done with
out the existence of some spe
cial cause to be communicated
to the Senate. We have recei
ved no communication of the
existence of any such special
cause. This view of the mat
ter might not have been suffi
cient alone to justify a rejection
of this nomination; but it is suf
ficient to authorize us to exam
ine the subject with as perfect
freedom as vvc could have done
if the minister had remained in
the United States, and awaited
the decision of the Senate. 1
consider myself, therefore, not
committed by the separate and
unadvised act of the President
in despatching Mr. Van Buren,
in the vacation of the Senate,
and not a very long time before
it was to assemble.
My main objection to.tho con
firmation of his appointment,
arises out of his instructions to
the late minister of the United
States at the Court of Great
Britain. The attention of the
Senate has been already called
to parts of those instructions;
Tarborough, (Edgecombe County, X. C.) Tuesday, February 14. 183
: '
but there are other parts of,
Ilinin It! mtr nnimn.. l.l I.I I
them, in my opinion. hifhlv rp
prehensible. Speaking of the
uiuiuai question, lie says: "In
reviewing tne events which have
preceded, and more or less con
tributed to a result so much to
be regretted, there will be found
three grounds on which we are
most assailable. First, in nur
too ion: and too tenaciously re
sisting the right of Great Bri
tain to impose protecting duties
in her colonies:"
thirdly, in omitting to accept
me terms ottered bv the act of
1 arhament of Julv. 1825. afW
the subject had been brought
before Congress, and delibe
rately acted upon by our Gov
ernment. . You will there
fore see the propriety of pos
sessing yourself fully of all the
explanatory and mitigating cir
cumstances connected with
them that you may be enabled
to obviate, as far as practicable.
the unfavorable impression
which they have produced.",
And after reproaching the late
Administration with sitting un
claims for hc first time, which
tliey expUciUu abandoned, he
says, in conclusion, "I will add
nothing as to the impropriety of
suffering any feelings that find
their origin in the past preten
sions of this Government to
hove adverse influence upon the
present conduct of Great Bri
tain.
On our side, according to
Mr. Van Buren, all was wrong;
on the British side, all was
right. Wo brought forward
nothing but claims and preten
sions; the British Government
asserted oh the other hand a
clear and incontestable right.
We erred in too tenaciously
and too long insisting upon our
pretensions, and not yielding at
once to the force of their just
demands. And Mr. McLane
was commanded to avail him
self of all the circumstances in
his power to mitigate our
offence, and to dissuade the Bri
tish Government from allowing
their feelings justly incurred by
the past conduct of the party
driven from power, to have an
adverse influence towards the
American parly now in power.
Sir, was this becoming language
from one independent nation to
another! Was it proper in the
mouth of an American minis
ter! Was it in conformity
with the high, unsullied, and
dignified character of our pre
vious diplomacy1! Was it not,
on the contrary, the language of
a humble vassal to a proud and
haughty lord! Was it not pros
trating and degroding the Ame
rican Eagle before the British
Lion!
Let us examine a little these
pretensions which the American
Government so unjustly put for
ward and so pertinaciously
maintained. The American
Government contended thpt the
produce of the United States
ought to be admitted into the
British West Indies, on the
same terms as similar produce
of the British American pos
sessions: . that, without this
equality, our produce could not
V1 IIUMlll V VM w.
maintain in ' the British West
Indies a fair competition with
the produce of Canada; and
that British preference given to
the Canadian province in the
West Indies would draw from
the western part of New-York
-.
nnd the northern oart of Ohio
American produce into Cana
da, aggrandizing Montreal and
Quebec, and giving employ
ments British shipping, to the
prejudice of the canals of New
York, the port of New-York,
and American shipping.
This was the offence of the
American Government, and we
arc this moment realizing the
evils which it foresaw. Our
produce is passing into Cana
da, enriching her capitals, and
nourishing British navigation.
Our own wheat is transported in
British ships in the form of
Canadian flour. We are thus
deprived of the privileges even
of manufacturing our own grain.
And when the produce of the
United Slates shipped from the
Atlantic ports, arrives at the
British West Indies, it is una
ble in consequence of the hea
vy duties with which most of it
is burthencd, to sustain a com
petition with British or colonial
produce, freely admitted.
The general rnle may be ad
mitted that every nation has a
right to favor its own produc
tions, by protecting duties or
other regulations; but like all
general rules, it must have its
exceptions. And the relation
in which Great Britain stands
to her Continental and West
India colonics, from which she
is separated by a Vast sea, and
the relations in which the Uni
ted States stand to those colo
nies, some of which are in iux-
ta position with them, consti
tute a fit case for such an ex
ception.
It is true that the late Admi
nistration did authorize Mr.
Gallatin to treat with Great Bri
tain upon the basis of the rule
which has been stated, but it
was with the express under
standing that some Competent
provision should be made in
the treaty to guard against the
British monopoly of the trans
portation of our own produce
passing through Oamtda. Mr.
Gallatin was informed ''that the
United States consent to irnirp.
the demand which they have the American people to vindi
heretofore made of the admis- catc their rights with all foreign
sion of their productions into powers, and to expose the in-
British colonies at the same
time, and no higher rate of du
ty, as similar productions are
chargeable with when imported
from one into another British
colony, with the exception of our
produce descending the St. Law
rence and the sorrel.
fl VW tlVV fffVV W r vm j
Thfr iv.ia no nhnmlon menr ofi
our right, no condemnation of
the previous conduct of our
government, no humiliating ad
mission that we had put forth,
and too tenaciously clung to,
unsustainable pretensions, and
that Great Britain had oil along
been in the right. We only
forbore, for the present, to as
sert a right, leaving ourselves
at liberty, subsequently, to re
sume it. What Mr. Gallatin
was authorized to do was to
make a temporary concession,
and it was proposed with this
preliminary annunciation: "But,
notwithstanding, on a full consi
nWntinn of the whole subiect.
I " - J
the President, anxious to give a
strong.proof to Great Britain of
the desire of the government of
the United States to arrange
this long contested matter of the
colonial intercourse, in a man-
ner mutually satisfactory, au
thorizes you," &c. And lr.
Gallatin was required "to en
deavor to make a lively impres
sion on the British Government.
of the conciliatory spirit of that
of the United States, which has
dictated the present liberal offer,
and of their expectation to meet,
in the progress of your negotia
tions, with a corresponding
friendly disposition."
Now, Sir, keeping sight of
the object which the late Secre
tary of State had in view, the
opening of the trade with the
British colonies, which was the
best mode to accomplish it! To
send our minister, to prostrate
himself, as a supplicant, before
the British throne, and to say
to the British King We have
offended your Majesty; the late
American Administration bro't
forward pretensions which we
cannot sustain, and they too
long and too tenaciously adhe
red to them. Your Majesty was
always in tiie right. But we
hope that your Majesty will be
graciously pleased to recollect,
that it was not we, who are now
in possession of the American
power, but those who have been
expelled from it, that wronged
your Majesty; and that we,
when out of power, were on the
side of your Majesty. And we
do humbly pray that your Ma
jesty, taking all mitigating cir
cumstances into consideration,
will graciously condescend to
extend to us the privileges of the
British act of Parliament of
1825, and to grant us the boon
of a trade with your Majesty's
West India colonies! Or, to
have presented himself before
the British monarch in the man
ly and dignified attitude of a
Minister of this Republic, and,
abstaining from all condemna
tion or animadversion upon the
past conduct of his own gov
ernment, to have placed the
withdrawal of our former de
mand upon the ground of con
cession in a spirit of amity and
compromise!
But the late Secretary of
-j
State, the appointed orirnn of
justice ot any unfounded de-
mands which. they might assert,
was not content with exertin
his ingenuity to put his own
country in the wrong and the
British government in the right.
He endeavored to attach to the
late administration the discredit
- - -
of bringing forward unfounded
pretensions, and, by disclaiming
them, to propitiate the favor of
the British King. He says that
the views of the present admin
istration, upon the subject of
the colonial trade, "have been
submitted to the people of the
United States; and the counsels
by which your conduct is now
directed, are the result of the
judgment expressed by the only
earthly tribunal to which the
late administration was amena
ble for its acts. It should be
sufficient that the claims set up
by them, and what caused the
interruption of the trade in ques
tion, have been explicitly aban
doned by those who first assert
ed thim, and are not revived
by their successors." The late
Secretary of State, the gentle
man under consideration, here
makes the statement that the
Vol. Flit. fro. 26.
late administration were the first
to set up the claims to which he
refers. Now, under all the high
responsibility which belongs. to
the seat which 1 occupy, I deli
berately pronounce that this
statement is untrue; and that
the late Secretary either must
have known it to be untrue, or
he was culpably negligent of his
duly in not ascertaining what
had been done under prior ad
ministrations. I repeat the
charge the statement muse
have been known to be untrue,
or there was culpable negli
gence. It it were material. I
believe it could be shown that
the claim in question- the right
to tlie admission into the British
West Indies of the produce of
the United States upon an equal
looting with similar produce of
the British continental colonies
is coeval with the existence of
our present Constitution; and
that whenever the occasion a
rose for asserting the claim, it
was asserted. But I shall go
no farther back than to Mr. Ma
dison's administration. Mr.
Monroe, the then Secretary of
State instructed our then min
ister at London, upon this sub
ject; he negotiated with Lord
Castlereagh in respect to it, and
this very claim prevented an
adjustment, at that time, of the
colonial question. It was again
brought forward under Mr.
Monroe's administration, when
Mr. Rush was our Minister at
London. He opened a long
and protracted negotiation upon
this and other topics, which was
suspended in the summer of
1824, principally because the
parlies could not agree on any
satisfactory arrangement of this
very colonial question.
Thus, at least, two adminis
trations, prior to that of Mr.
Adams, had brought forward
this identical claim or preten
sion which his was the first to
assert, according to the late Se
cretary of State.
The next charge which the
late Secretary of State, the offi
cial defender of the rights
of the American people,
preferred against his own gov
ernment, was that of "omitting
to accept the terms offered by
the act of Parliament of July,
1825, after the subject had been
brought before Congress, and
deliberately acted upon by our
government." Never was there
a more unfounded charge bro't
forward by any native against
his own government; and never
was there a more unwarranted
apology set up for a foreign go
vernment; and a plain historical
narrative will demonstrate the
truth of both these propositions.
It has been already slated
that the negotiation of Mr.
Rush, embracing the precise
colonial claim under considera
tion, was suspended in 1824,
with an understanding between
the two governments that it was
io be resumed on all points, at
some future convenient period.
Early in July, 1825, neither go
vernment having then proposed
a resumption of the negotiation,
the British Parliament passed
an act to regulate the colonial
trade with foreign powers.
This act was never, during the
late administration, either
at
Lorulon or Washington, offi
ciallv communicated bv th
o
British to the American govern