"Ours are the plans of fair deliglitfnl peace, uu war p'd by party rage, to live like brothers.'
VOL. XXXIX.
IflOIBAY, APftll 3, 1838.
NO. 2 2.
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THE GREAT DEBATE.
The controversy betwaen Messrs. Ccat and Oal.
hocw has ciciied so much interest, that we; give a
very full and faithful slietch of it below, taken from
tha Washington Correspondence of the Baltimore
Chronicle.
Rarely has the Senate chamber of the U
States presented a scene of greater and" more
exciting interest than on this very dsvy.
Mr. Calhoun gave notice yesterday, that he
should address the Senate at its next meet
ing ; and, as he had thrown down the
gauntlet to Mr. Clay, two or three weeks
before, arid as that -gauntlet was on the - in
stant taken up by, Mr; Clay, much expec
tation was excited every where throughout
the District (and even in your City it would
seem) and, at an early hour, every place,
from whence heating was at all practicable,
in and about the Chamber, was densely
packed with people of all ages, sexes and
conditions. -
At one o'clock, the House was obliged to
adjourn, not being able to keep a quorum,
even by a call of the roll members j com
ing in and answering to their names, on the
call, and immediately leaving the Hall a
gain, for the point of general attraction.
Mr. Calhoun, in commencing, said that
he had risen in fulfilment of his promise, on
a former day, to settle, in his own good
time, his account with Mr. Clay. That Se
nator's speech, he said,- had been as yemar
kable for its omissions to reply to the stron
ger, parts of his own argument, as it was
for its tissue of misstatements and .misre
presentations, from beginning to endiAnd
he went into an exposition of some of these
alleged misrepresentations in a, brieffimd
concise manner. He seemed impatient to
eome la the personal. part of his undertak
ing. , .
Arriving at that point, he deprecated per
sonality. Senators were not sent to that
chamber, he remarked, to" wrangle with each
other. They came for a different purpose
to take care of the common weal, and to
represent the interests of the States i which
sent them-.. He was always averse to, and
inever would indulge in personality, if he
ould- avoid it.
I could not help castingback my thoughts
upon that day, when, as this, very Senator
stood in the very place he now occupied,
he poured out such a tremendous phillippic
against Mr. Van -Burenby far thje most
severe and abusive piece of personality I
ever listened to, even in Congress. h And
that too, against the president of that very
body to which he was then addressing him
self. How men will forget themselves oc
casionally ? ;
Mr. Calhoun then came to the consider
ation of some of Mr. Clay's charges? against
him. And first that of having gotie over
to the enemy. AU that had been jsaid by
Mr. Clay on that subject, and in regard to
his (Mr. Calhoun's) having expected and
called for aid from his former allies, he call
ed misrepresentation. He would not de
signate it as personal abuse, because that
the high character of the Senator from Ken
tucky forbade, nor could he believe that it
was done to intimidate him ; for thtt Sena
tor and he had served long and intimately
together, and he well knew that he Mr,
Calhoun" could not be intimidated What
then was the cause ? . . : '
Mr. Calhoun expressed great abhorrence
of egotism, Yet he must necessarily speak
of himself with some particularity upon the
present occasion, in self defence. He could
find buTone plausible solution of this diffi
culty ; the cause of such an attack was, he
thought, to be attributed to the fact, that the
Senator was unable to aqswer his arguments
and so had striven to create a prejudice a.
gainst his motives and his character; by way
of lessening the effect of those arguments,
And it would be the object of. the ze marks
he was about to make, to show that the
charges against himself were groundless, as
the arguments of the Senator were feeble
and inconclusive,
If he should succeed, in the attempt to
chow that, four years before, his written,
recorded, and uttered opinions upon the
matter in hand were identically thefsame as
those he now entertained ; all the f charges
as to motive, he contended, must of neces
sity, fall to the ground, Ano! he asked the
Secretary of the Senate to read, in a clear,
loud, and distinct voice, and the Senate
to listen attentively to the extracts from his
speeches on the Removal of the Deposites.
And Mr. Dickens tamed like an ndex in
stantly to the passage desired, the whole
wing having been arranged beforehand, with
rouch form and circumstantial particularity.
Mt
"as (inj ,, LI Il.ir 1 IJ . C
, iUl, ucuiuu ih J vv u, uiie ui
Calhoun's former deriders, but now
EDITORS
near neighbor and privy consellor, played
the part of reader to the Senator from South
Carolina. . ' , l
From these extracts he undertook to make
lout that he had never belonged to the Whig
party that he had changed no one of his
opinions, or principles that now, as then,
and then, as now, he was opposed to a Na
tional Bankthat as to the " strong box"
system, he had not altered a hair, but that!
it was the question, and the circumstances
of the case, that had changed 4hat he was
now as before, opposed to the league oftle
posite banks and said, that had his guar
dian angel whispered him, at tliat time,
(in 1834j that in four years, things would
possibly fake a very different turn that
it behooved him to b& consistent, and act
then as thereafter he would icish he had
done--he could not have acted tvith more
perfect consistency than he had I And yet
the Senator from ' Kentucky had accused
him of inconsistency.
Mr. Calhoun, elate with the clear de
monstration of his perfect consistency, then
lifted up his voice, and told Mr. Clay, that
thus he should go on, step by step, and de
molish his positions, with blows just as de
cisive and victorious as this last had proved!
Mr. Clay nodded his entire assent.
Mr. Calhoun then adverted to what Mr.
Clay had said in relation to the celebrated
Edgefield letter, in which Mr. Calhoun had
given as a reason for separating from the
opposition that the victory must " enure,
not to us the nullifiers but to our allies
the Whigs." Mr. Calhoun presumed
that the remarks of the Senator were inten
ded t4 apply to that letter and Mr. Clay
responded in the affirmative.
Mr. Calhoun went on. That letter was
written to his old friends his own imme
diate constituents and was in reply to an
invitation which he could not accept.. His
object in taking the step indicated in that
letter was not to obtain power or place.
His object was more humble, and more ho
nest because it was more humble. It was
to save, unharmed and
uncompromised,
Our principles." The suspension of
specie payments by the banks was an event
he had anticipated long before it occurred.
Before he came to Washington, at the call
ed session, he was in ignorance of what the
administration meant to do. When he saw
the Message of the President of the United
States, and that it recommended the " Di-
vorce,
he did not hesitate an instant as to
the course
he should pursue not an in-
stant ! The great body of the party with '
which he had before been acting.
in oppo-
sition, were marching under ne banner 01 ;
a National Bank. Had he, with his friends,
joined that march, what would have been
the sure and necessary result but a Nation
al Bank ? This would have been the very
first fruits of such a union. And was he to
abandon all his principles and pursue a
course which must inevitably lead to the
production of all the evils he had so stren
uously opposed ? High duties ? Illegal ap
propriations? He who had been all his life
fighting against all these things, ' as parts of
a system, to join in such an attack upon the
party in power, proposing the very end,
which had ever been also his own aim J
And it was these principles of action that
were detailed in the Edgefield letter, a pas
sage from which, in proof, jhe would be ob
liged to his friend4 Mr. Brown, to read to
the Senate for him. fAnd his friend, Mr.
a it
Brown, very cheerfully and eloquently did
so ? This being done, M. Calhoun tri
umphantly demanded with all the air of
one who stands upon the neck of a van
quished foe, " and now, what becomes of
the Senator s charges of lack 01 patriotism,
consistency and purity of motive ?"
He then went on. The Senator from
Kentucky had briefly alluded to his motives;
he had charitably left therp to time -for de-
velopment. And this to himr rto himr-who
had stood still, upon his old, long occupied
ground 5-changtng in nothing, but finding
circumstances ehanged, so as to make his
own principles applicable to that change
for him to be charged with sinister motives !
Sir, said he, such imputations, I know must
fall ; they have already fallen to the dust !
I stamp them there t I pick up the impotent
dart that has dropped . harmless at my feet,
and hurl it back at him who 4Lhrew it !
What that Senator had accused him of, un
justly, was applicable Ur himself. He had
" gone over" and had not left it to time
to deyelop his motivea -!"-
Here Mr. Clay asked Mr. Prentiss" for
a pinch of snuff, J
Mr. Calhoun said that the Senator from
Kentucky had formerly awarded to him the
characteristic of stern fidelity. That char
acteristic, he hoped, had not been yet for
feited, if it were Sever possessed, That it
had been so forfeited in this or in any. other
case, and if so, how, it was upon that Sen -
ator to show : and to do that, ne venturea
to assert, would prove an- Herculean task.
If he ever had exhibited that characteristic,
he had adhered to it, and strengthened his
title to it in this very instance. He could
not select another,, in the whole course of
his career, which could more fully sustain
his oharaeter for stern fidelity. He profes
sed to have foreseen all that had occurred,
in consequence of the step he had taken
he saw tlnf whole, in its length and breadth
that, he should hae arrayed agains hjrnl
a strong, perhaps the strongest party in the
country ; that in favor of banking instituti-
ons, as public depositories that he should
he exposed to the very imputations which
had, indeed, been heaped upon him and
what grieved him' yet more, that he should
estrange himself from many of that party
with which he had so long been allied men
with whom, side by side, he had been con
tending, as with brethren, for want of time
to explain his motives, so sudden was the
advent of the crisis, and so little time was
afforded for deliberate decision. But it was
the path of duty which opened itself before
him, and he boldly trod in it, tearless and
regardless of the consequences !
Having made up his mind to take this
step, he had been asked (he said) by a
friend, if he had not reflected, that perhaps
his own State would not go with him upon
this question ? He had admitted that this
was possible. But he would ask pardon of
the people of that gallant State, for thus un
derrating, even for a moment, their intelli
gence and patriotism ! . But even had their
decision been otherwise, he could not, as
their representative, have violated his Own
consciences and principles.
If (continued Mr. Calhoun) by the " fi
delity" for which' the Senator from Ken
tucky has complimented me, he means fi
delity to the party of which he himself is
so distinguished a member, my reply is, I
never belonged to that party. I owe it no
allegiance. True, we have been acting to
gether in a common cause, and he had form
ed associates and acquaintances, in whom
he had found much to admire and to esteem,
and whom he should be the last to abandon.
He then alluded to the fact that, although
acting with the opposition, he nor his State
had ever gone for their candidates and in
stanced the case of Judge White, and Mr.
Clay himself. They had acted together
only for particular ends He owed the par
ty no allegiance nor owed he allegiance to
any thing, but his God and his country ! -He
belonged to the old Republican party,
the' maxims and policy of which were well
and widely known. He would support ail
who supported these and all who opposed
them he would oppose !
Mr. Calhoun then went on to indicate the
question at issue, and to promise that in this
there was no danger, -that it would tri
umph, and would be found to work well.
The danger was on the other side, he con
tended : and the friends of this measure had
every thing to hope, and nothing to fear, as
the result of their efforts.
He then came to what he alleged Mr.
Clay had said against his intellectual facul
ties, upon which to use his precise words,
that Senator had made a general attack, and
had represented him as possessed of a judg
ment neither sound nor practical. There
was nothing, he contended, of which those
possessed of high intellect should be more
careful than of indulging in reflections upon
those less bountifully gifted. Intellect and
judgment were gifts from Providence, and
it was not for man to judge his fellow-man
harshly for the lack of either. Yet they,
who did this, provoked a reply in kind, and
critics should notcomplain, if they, in their
turn, are criticised.
Mr. Calhoun said that he could not retort
upon the Senator from Kentucky the epithet
"metaphysical," which that Senator had
preferred, as a reflection on himself. He
could not award to him the possession of
those higher qualities of mind, the power
of generalization, and, as it were, of chemi
cal analysis,. which they j .who dp not pos
sess them, and who envy those who do, are
; wont to denominate " metaphysical." It
was the absence of these very qualities (he
contended) which had, in a remarkable man-
ner. characterized the whole publir. course
of the Senator from Kentucky. That Sen
ator had ever seemed to prefer the specious
to the solid the plausible to the true. And
thus it happened that he was always mount
ed upon some favorite measure, which he
would ride till dismounted by the popular
voice : it was the fault of the Senator s
mind, his characteristic failing. Thus, in
the case of the National Bank. He was
able to see, as the consequence of that mea
sure, the advantages of a settled, and wel
regulated currency, but overlooked the fact,
that such an institution and the government
must inevitably run together, and tend to
eachr other's consolidation.
As to the defects of his mind, it was not
for himself, but for others, (said Mr. Cah
houn,) to dwell upon them. The divine
author of all things had endowed him with
such intellectual gifts as he had seen fit,
and such as they were,-he was well con
tent with them. He would be judged by
his Twenty-seven years of Public Ser
vice, during which he had participated in
the discussion of almost all the. prominent
qu estions of public policy that had arisen
and upon-them had expressed his opinions
1 freely, and had acted on those opinions
- ... . . . r
fAnd here he went hi to a sketchy history
of the most prominent incidents in his poli
tical career; his advocacy of the Navy, in
the time of Mr. Madison,, his opposition to
the instructive measures of a subsequent
period, and afterwards to the celebrated bank
of Mr. Dallas, his conduct in the War De
partment, whieh was better managed, he
contended, by him, than, it had been before,
or has been -since,-. his, Vice Presidency
and Presidency of the Senate, and then, his
State Rights, or Nullification, career. His
conduct in all these positions, whatever was
now said of it, he would fearlessly leave to
the
verdict that after times would render.
He trusted that hs had now fully can
celled the debt due the Senator from Ken
tucky, and which he had promised, in his
own good time, to discharge, defensive
throughout ; and thus, if this struggle were
destined to go on, he should continue to act.
He should be as ready, hereafter, as he had
now shown himself to be, to meet and to
repel anyattack, come. whence it may.
Mr. Clay rose immediately. Indisposi
tion, under which he had labored for some 1
time, would have prevented him from tak-'
: i.- i .i i . i i ,i . .i f
ing his seat to-day, (he said) but that the
interesting occasion seemed to demand his
attendance, at almost any sacrifice. But
even as it was, (he continued,) he did not
ask for two or three weeks delay, to pre
pare himself to reply to any speech which
the Senator from South Carolina, who had
just resumed his seat, might see fit to make,
for his own particular benefit, He came to
this contest, self cased and self protected,
ana leartess ot the result.
Mr. Clay was alluding to some of the
opening remarks of Mr. Calhoun as to the
omissions in his speech. Presumingjhat
the Senator referred to the printed report of
that speech, he was about to show that there i
were no such omissions, when
Mr. Qalhoun rose and said, that his alliu
sion was to the omissions of the Senator
from Kentucky, in the speech itself, as de
livered -omissions to answer parts of his
own arguments.
Mr. Clay remarked that he had given
way for orrce,for an explanation. He should
not do it again. He had refrained from in
terrupting the Senator from South Carolina,
throughout his remarks. That Senator
would have an opportunity of replying here
after, if he chose.
Such as that report was (said Mr.Clay) it was
a correct report of his remarks. He would
never deny any thing that it contained.
The Senator from f S. C.) said Mr. Clay)
had not been satisfied with alleging that I
omitted to reply to his arguments, but has
also accused me of being inexplicit in my
replies to those, I did undertake to answer.
Mr. Clay then recapitulated some por
tions of what, upon a former day he had
said, by way of disproof of these al
legations : and having shown, as before,
some of Mr. Calhoun's inconsistencies, he
borrowed from that Senator an express-
ion, which he thus happily applied:"! 'The'
e
inconsistencies arise Mr. President, out
of
'the peculiar construction of the Senator
mind," he is too apt to confound expedi-
ency witn constitutionality. Ana after
1 . a a e- 1 1 --
showing that the bill itself under consider
ation embodied the very principle, which,
as being comprised in the Deposite Bank
system of Mr. ; Rives, was repudiated by
Mr. Calhoun, as unconstitutional, Mr. Clay
remarked : "Thus his thunder ;s always
right that of others, always wrong.
He
then went on to sho-v, from the same
speech of 1834, already so often quoted,
(and read so loudly and clearly, by Messrs.
Dickens and Brown of the Senate,) that at
that time, Mr. Calhoun was decidedly op
posed to the strong box" system, which
he was now zealously advocating.
But both the arguments of the Senator,
anu mmseir, ine saiq,) were oeiore me
Senate and the world. It was vain to re
trace the arguments already gone over, so
extensively. There they were before the
world. Whatever was in his own, had been
deliberately put there, and he was willing
to abide by it,
As to the personal part of the speech of
the Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Clay
remarked, that no man was more averse
than himself to personal controversies ;
and he would refer, fearlessly, to his long
public course, in proof of this. The duty
he had felt himself called upon to perform
with resrard to the Senator from South
Carolina, was one of the most painful of
, , , A,
his life. He had served with him for many
years ; had admired his genius, and respec
ted his talents. Even after the extraordin
ary summerset he had made, at the Extra
session, he (Mr. Clay) had defended his
motives against the severe attacks of others.
But when he had seen this letter, (holding
it up) he had been compelled, very reluc
tantly, to think differently of that Senator
from what he had endeavored to think.
When he had read such avowals, such un
merited reproaches heaped upon those,
with whom that Senator had been acting so
latelv. he could not but think of those
- j 7
avowals, as he would not, in that place
speak. And he "had, in view of those re
nroaches been compelled, from a deep -and
solemn sense of duty,' to say what he did.
A man so distinguished in the public eyes
as the Senator from South Carolina, the
nrritpr nf that lpttRr. was not to hone that
he could be permitted thus to cut in and
out, to balance and chasser, among, parties
and principles, without animadversion.
And what says he, (asked Mr. Clay,) in
his celebrated letter, dated Fort Hill, Nov.
5d.i837 ? That though he had been act-
jhV'with usFor years, "in our patriotism
and wisdom he had no reason to connue :
Arui is he to expect that he will be permit
ted, to place himself . in the defensive, after
the promulgation of such opinions as these,
of ust No longer ago than when .he was
addressing the Senate upon this bill, did he
not say that it was unpatriotic not to sup
port thi measure? And yet he would
be judged of by posterity -fearless of
fain be considered as acting only on the de-
ensive I
Mr. Clay then alluded to that part of "the
Edgefield Letter, in which the Tariff Corn
promise. was attributed to "State mterposi- '
uon. mat is, (said xvir. iay,j to ryuiuh
cation. And can the Senator said he,
knowing what he knows, ;and what I know,
too, assert such an opinion as that, here
He then went on say, that in the com
mencement of thesession of 1832, he had
derided, he
ikiicrw uuu wily. cAccui main
was the American System, was threaten-
.1 :u - i .i i - . rt .
- J
ed with destruction, by the broad flood of
Jacksonism, which was then beginning to
sweep over the land ; and he saw that the
only way to save the manufacturing inter
est "of the country, was to procure an al
lowance to them of some years. He feared
no Nullification ; by no means! No more
than a regiment of grenadiers, six feet high,
might fear a mimic army of boys, armed
with their wooden guns, and decked with
tall plumes and gaudy array. And he could
not but remember, in that connection, an
anecdote, which, but for this passage in the
letter of the Senator, he would not have
alluded to. At the time of the Tariff
con?
test; when the Senator from South Carolina
was coming daily to the Capitol, with hag
garu countenance, deeply , interested m this .
BAuiuug cuiiiruversy, a menu mr, Clayton,
of Delaware,- alluding to the threatened (
consequences of an outbreak in South Caro- 1
lina, had said to him, Mr. Clay,) that "it !
would be a pity to let such a clever set of
fellows be hanged by Old Jackson !
Laugh, from all the audience but two or
three Senators.
- - '
Nulification ! continued Mr. Clay, and
this, it was probably to be presumed, was
yet another instance of the gieat discrimin-
atiori and metaphysical power of analysis, so
highly boasted by the Senator from South,
Carolina. No ! the proposition which he
(Mr. Clay,) had offered, for compromise,
was not made, for fear of Nullification : but
from a regard to the interest of Manufactures.
And that principle of protection (which in
the 'it-dgeheld letter is repudiated) Mr.Clay
showed,pervaded the whole of that very bill,
from beginning to end, which the author
of that letter had, in 1832, supported.
How, then, could the Senator, in that
letter, have , attributed the effecting of the
compromise to "State interposition ?"
Mr, Clay went on to show that, like
other prophets, Mr. Calhoun was wonder
fully accurate in describing what ft&d hap
penedand to prove the general fallacy of
the deductions, contained in the letter allu
ded too.
Mr. Clay then proceeded. But the Sena
tor from South Carolina says that he has
left no party and joined no party J No !
None ! He votes, and counsels, and asso
ciates, and allies himself, with the opposite
side from that on which he has been hither
to acung, and then taxss our credulity
by asserting that all the world has changed,
while he stood firm. And what are some
of the reasons for this change contained in
this Edgefield letter? One is that the party
he had left, were in favor of a National Bank.
And so has the Senator himself been, 24.
out of the 27 years, which he tells us, he
has been in public ! And a high tariff, too!
Now on which side is. there, he would ask
the Senator, the most danger of a high tariff?
On the side of his old allies, or on that of the
new ones: he oenator has always conten
ded for a strict adherence to the Comprom
ise Act. How often had he beenheard to say,
upon that floor, that his side in that com
promise was the weaker side, and that their
safety was in the strict and faithful observ
ance of that act ? It had so happened that,
at the last session, there had been a test
vote upon this very question when all the
opposition, (excepting Judge White, - who
was in favor of the principle, but could not
go for the resolution, for special and pecu
liar reasons,) were found to be unanimously
in favor of the Compromise, while the
Iriends ot the Administration, (the senators
new allies,) were opposed to that principle.
And he read the vote alluded to, with the
Yeas and Nays. And showed by. other
data, that Mr. Van Buren was also in favor-
of relinquishing that principle. And so
the Senator from South Carolina, friendly
to the Compromise, leaves the party which
sustains it,and goes over to a party which.he
knows, would no more hesitate to-morrow,
to lay a high tariff, if it could aid to keep
them in power, than they have ever hither
to done, in regard to any measure, calcula
ted to produce that result,
Mr. Clav then alluded to that part of the
"Edgefield letter," in which the writer had
said the victory was to enure to the benefit
of the Senator's allies and cause,-' that is,
to the Whigs, if he and fits party should
still adhere to those "allies." And this is
the Senator said Mr. Clay, who speaks
with such complaisance and satisfaction of
the imi form disinterestedness of his pubic
course! The objection is that he was ap
prehensive his party would be . absorBed by
ours!- And so he goes over to what he
had hitherto denounced 'the spoils party,'
either to absorb y or to be pbsorbedljy, that
party l Thus it would seem, that,' let the
Senator turn whieh way he might, that
absorption was his inevitable fate !
And now, continued Mr. Clay, does
the Senator from South Carolina: expect to
make such charges as thesen a published Ut-
ier, with regard to myself and to the friend'
I who act with me, without reply or ariimad
version? Sir, I choose to animadvert upon
lucou reiuarKs,ana wnue aoing so, lao it un-
der all the responsibility which suchanimad
version imposes upon me.
The letter in ques'.ion goes on to treat of.
the "entire union of the South"- phrase,
of the meaning of which Mr. Clay would
be most happy to be informed. What wai
the political, geography, he would like to
airaiu uiau 11 iainv ft5t?CTiainf?n. it wnmn
found to include only South Carolina, per
. -. r ... ..i . . r
' J - 1 " w
haps only "Fort Hill" itself, in the term
"the South."
Mr. Clay then came to the imputation
thrown out by Mr, Calhoun, as to his hav
ing gone over, and not Tiaving left hit
motives to time to disclose, kc. If that
Senator meant to revive the exploded slan
deF of George Krenier,about a bargain with
Mr. Adams if he could find in that rent
banner any thing with which to cover-up
his own nakedness, in this argument, he
was welcome to all the use he could make
of it. (And here, .MraClay ably con
futed (by an appeal to facts, before, at that
time, and since,) this shallow allusion of
JVIr. Ualhoun.J
The Senator, (Mr. Calhoun. thinlca it
to be my misfortune, (said Mr, Clay, that
7 -
l am ever riding a hobby. That Senator
Fault is Mr President, that he does not
stick long enough to any one hobby, but it
always chanffinsr them, as Dost-bovs do rov
t J X J
lay horses, without riding either any very
great distance.. For himself, Mr. Clay
could say, that he never changed his senti
ments upon any public measure, but one :
and that, was 22 years a 20. as to the bow-
; er of Congress, constitutionally, to estab-
ilish. a Bartkof theUnited States. He chanV-
eu nis views on mat point, at the same
time with Mr. Madison, when the necessitr
of the cause, as well as its constitutionality,
were perfectly demonstrated.
But the Senator from South. Caroling
does not stick long to his hobby . Hp wai
a friend of a Bank of the United" States in
1815, nay, the author of one! And never
' expressing, all the time, a doiibt of its Con
i sfitutionality. And so again, in 1834, when
he was in favor of the extension of its char,
ter for years. No matter with how many
qualifications the Senator might surrouncj
his advocacy of such an institution he-had
advocated it, nd strenuously,
No Vir ? He changes his hobby too
often ! He wag ifji favor of the Protective
system iri 181$-b.ut, mounting his favor
ite "hobby" pf Nulification, he discovered
that the system is altogether unconstitution
al ! And thus, in former dafys, he has been
a main advocate of Internal Improvement,
and projected, as it Well known, a splendid
line of such improvements, to pervade the
whole country. Where is he now, upon,
this point ?
But the Senator does notnde his hobbies'
long enough ! We are anxious to reduce
Executive patronage. That Senator, judg
ing from his speeches, here, was as strenu
ously bent upon this result as any Senator,
if not more so. And now we find him
going over to the ery party he had thus
been so long condemning: and was sus-
itaining the very measure by which, it was
now conceded, that party must sink or
swim! A measure which, if adopted,
would give to the Administration a vast ar
cession of Executive power, and would
place the whole money power of the coons
try at the feet of the Executive,
Mr. President, continued Mr. Clay, whea
the Senator from South Carolina under
takes to prove himself consistent, he does
indeed assume a Herculean task, vast and -stupendous
as his intellectual abilities are.
The Secretary of the Senate might read,
"in a loud and clear voice,' and the Senate ,
might "listen carefully and attentively," to
all the speeches of that Senator from 1816
to the present day, and yet that .task will re
main unperformed, The Senator would
never be consistent, he hoped to be excus
ed for saying, until he should profess to
be inconsistent
The Senator had allowed himself to use
epithetjs which were not very usual in !de
liberatiye bodies, lie would not repeat
those epithets ; but would content himself
with ex pressing to that Senator Kis most
pefect reciprocity, as to . tni application .6f
any of. all of them'. v'--"' ? -' v -
The Senator has undertaken, to'fsfly his;
party upon the Bill under consideration-
and had promised theirf tha0its adoption
would, settle the whole question, ind pr
duce quiet and prosperity, once more.
But let not the Senator "lay that flattering
unction to his soul." The,-people of this
country were too enlightened to sanction the
attainment of such ends, by such means'
and by such majorities.;? The Iprincjpla
upon wh ch the Bill would be passed.lf pass-?
ed' at all, would.be iri spite of the peoph
wili,-theit declared will,tht tubttitur
Hon of the will of the Senate for that .of
the people rand this would be most cleprfy
demonstrated when these unfaithful. ser
vant shall return to their; constituents tq
receive the award at, their; hands which
their public actions, had won for them
I have thus given; you a 1 rapid but tolet
ably faithful sketch of this combat between
the Sorjtli Carolinian and Kentuckian.
have done it&astily, because I was desirouf
to lay jt speedily before your readers.-.