Mr. Chairman, my friend (and I use the term in no idle manner) from Virginia [Mr. WISE] the other day warned me that on this measure I should be left in the lurch." Sir, on a question of this kind, affecting the liberties of my country, I never stop to inquire whether I shall be "left in the lurch" or not. I never stop to inquire who may be with me, or who may be against me, on a question of that character. All I ask myself is, is it a constitutional proposition, and if it be right and correct to maintain it? I never stop to inquire who is with me or who is against me. The mere triumphs of party I disregard. I throw aside party considerations where a great question is concerned, in which the liberties and destinies of the people and the Government are involved. On such a question, sir, I subscribe to no party creed. Let me also say to those gentlemen who suppose that the tide of popularity upon which they are now floating is forever to set in one direction, that they will find the future full of bitterness and disappointment.

Let them not labor under the fatal delusion that the letter writers and newspapers of the day are to create that popularity which is to endure through time. Let them rather look to that deep-settled, abiding opinion, which is to come back to us from the enlightened and reflecting freemen of this country-come back to us upon the settled conviction of what is true, of what is constitutional, of what is for the good of the Government and the people. Let us all look to that deep and fixed public opinion, formed upon enlightened conviction and sound discretion. Allow me now to say, in the noble language of Lord Mansfield, that those who have foregone that pleasing adviser, and given up their minds to be the slave of every popular impulse, I sincerely pity. I pity them still more if their vanity leads them to mistake the shouts of a mob for the trumpet of fame. Experience might inform them that many who have received the buzzas of a crowd one day have been visited with its execrations the next. And many who, by the popularity of the times, have been held up as spotless patriots, have nevertheless appeared upon the his torian's page, where truth has triumphed over delusion, the assassins of liberty.

When Mr. PICKENS had concluded,

Mr. GARLAND, of Virginia, said he would offer an amendment to the bill under debate, when its friends had put it into the shape in which they wished it to 'pass.

Mr. CAMBRELENG said that he did not mean to offer any amendments to the bill.

Mr. GARLAND then moved to amend by striking out all the bill after the enacting clause, and inserting another bill, (heretofore indicated by him,) which he sent to the Chair.

The amendment being read, Mr. GARLAND said he did not intend to address the committee at the present time on his proposition, but would do so, unless some other gentleman wished to precede him.

Mr. PHILLIPS had not risen to debate this bill. He would suggest that the committee take up the merchants' bonds bill, laying that now before them aside for the pre

sent.

Mr. CAMBRELENG azsented to this arrangement, and moved to take up Senate bill No. 3, being that alluded to by Mr. PHILLIPS.

This proposition was sustained by the committee, by a

vote of 88 to 54.

DUTIES ON MERCHANTS' BONDS. Mr. CAMBRELENG moved to amend the bill by striking out the second section thereof, which was as follows:

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the additional credit of nine months, granted by the first section of this act, upon outstanding duty bonds, shall be upon the same terms and conditions granted upon all bonds for duties

[H. OF R.

which may be given during the period of one year from and after the first day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven."

The committee, having adopted this amendment, rose and reported the bill, thus amended, to the House; and the question arising as to the concurrence of the House with the Committee of the Whole in the proposed amendment, Mr. TITUS addressed the House in opposition to the same, and had proceeded but a little way, when The House took a recess till 4 o'clock.

EVENING SESSION.

The House met after recess. Very few members being in their seats, there was a call of the House; which, having proceeded for some time, was suspended.

The question still being on the following amendment reported by the Committee of the Whole to the bill from the Senate, further to defer the payment of duty bonds, viz:

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That a credit of three and six months shall be allowed on the duty on all merchandise which shall have been or may be imported on or before the first day of November next, upon which the duties are payable in cash, and that the bonds received for such duties shall be payable in equal instalments, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum, and shall be in the form and upon the conditions prescribed by existing laws and by this act."

Mr. TITUS said he had hoped that some of the honorable members of this House, whose character and talents would have given weight to their opinions, would have thought proper to address the House upon the bill before it. He was aware that views similar to his own were entertained by very many upon this floor, but the disposition generally manifested, seemed to render hopeless any opposition to the amendment offered by the honorable chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. Viewing it, however, as he did, and in the absence of any discussion, he felt it to be his duty to give, very briefly, his objections to the consideration of the House.

The first section of the bill grants an extension in the time of payment on all revenue bonds of nine months. To that he had no objection. The condition of the times unquestionably requires it, on the ground that it will render the payment ultimately more certain, and it may, moreover, tend in some degree to relieve those immediately connected with the importing interest. Still, it appeared to him that the only just and tenable ground upon which an extension could be granted, was the additional safety attained by that extension.

But neither the second section of the bill nor the amendment offered, can be entertained upon the principle of increased security, or of relief to any portion of the community, except the merchants. There is no indebtedness to the Government that the amendinent proposes to secure ; on the contrary, it releases in these days of non-payment, from the custody of the Government, the merchandise held in security for cash duties, and proposes the substitution of a lengthened credit upon bonds, subject of course to the contingencies of the times.

He was opposed to this portion of the bill, as well in regard to its practical effect, as to its violating a settled principle of existing laws. He took it for granted that the laws in relation to revenue were proper and just; they had been a subject of exciting interest and profound discussion during a long period, and were finally settled in the spirit of compromise amid the convulsions of the nation. Were they to be lightly disturbed? Were they to be approached without great and apparent causes? However unimportant in that point of view the present proposition might appear to the House, it acted forcibly upon his mind. It was well known to this House and to the nation, that at the last session of Congress the Committee of Ways and

Means, with its present chairman at its head, introduced a bill to reduce the duties on imports. It bore in that character too unfavorable an aspect to meet support, and was abandoned.

The subject is now approached with more caution, and we are only presented with the first step by which the ladder is to be mounted; another is about being introduced, which, if accepted, will scatter to the winds whatever of protection, if protection it can be called, that the producing classes now receive.

The proposition, then, being to that effect, it is desirable that the Committee of Ways and Means should approach the subject directly; that they should toe the mark, and introduce a bill entitled an act to repeal the duties on imports. Its object would then be understood, and the honorable members of this House would act advisedly.

The practical operation of this bill will be to increase, and throw into market, the already excessive importations of goods, paying, by existing laws, cash duties. The means obtained by the bounty of Government will furnish forth new importations; and none can act with such dele. terious effect upon the labor and interests of the producing classes as those of this character; and an acquiescence in the demand of the commercial interest will fall with peculiar hardship upon that extensive class of the people. They suffer not only in common with all other classes of the community, but, by the provisions of this bill, they, in effect, are required to furnish forth the means to enable the importers, by further unnecessary importations, still more to injure and depress them.

Gentlemen are aware that merchandise paying cash duties, as embraced in this bill, consists of wool, woollen goods, and goods of which wool is a component part. We have been told in this hall that our manufactories are generally suspended in their business; that thousands of our citizens connected with them are out of employment, and are in a condition of want and suffering; and it is well known by those conversant in such matters that the price of goods of this description is depressed beyond all former precedent. The quantity on hand of this kind of goods, foreign and domestic, is immense; and the amount of wool in the warehouses, and remaining yet in the hands of the producers, scattered over the northern half of the Union, cannot be less in value than twenty millions of dollars.

Does not this state of things exhibit embarrassment and distress to an extent that does not require legislative enactments to increase it? Shall the command-he believed the term was not inappropriate-of the commercial interest add to the general calamity, by screening themselves from the effects of their own imprudence, and throwing it with appalling force upon the great mass of the producing classes, whom that imprudence has already so severely injured? It is true that those classes are not asking for relief; they disdain to prefer the mendicant's prayer; but, in the language of the honorable gentleman from Ohio, they pull off their coats, roll up their sleeves, and go to work.

He had said that the distresses of the people were principally caused by the imprudence of the commercial inter

est.

It was generally conceded that they had proceeded mainly from over-trading; but, to his mind, a proper distinction had not been taken as regards the kind or char. acter of over-trading. So far as the individual concerned is affected, no distinction exists; but it must be borne in mind that, however severe the revulsions in business may at any time be among a great people, a vast majority of individuals are not materially affected by it-a vast majority do not incur liabilities that create embarrassment. Hence, when the balance of trade is not against us with foreign nations, our immense domestic operations are not impeded; and, although in their excesses individuals will suffer, capital is not diverted from its accustomed channels; it merely changes hands within a circle over which it is not required

[OCT. 10, 1837.

to pass. A brief view of our own condition will establish that position. Our domestic operations, including current business and general indebtedness, reach to an amount of which it is difficult even to form an opinion. We have no data to direct us but what is derived from our own knowledge of indebtedness to banks, but he thought he was more likely to be below than above the mark in placing it at two thousand millions per annum.

This immense business had at all times been transacted without difficulty, when balances abroad had not pressed too heavily upon us. No revulsions under such circumstances had taken place, and all the efforts to that end that were made by politicians and others, in 1834, were abortiye. No efforts could have been more animated, nor means more powerful applied, to create confusion and produce disaster; but the energy and resources of the people, not being crippled by foreign demands, the payment of which required the basis of our paper currency, bore up triumphantly and successfully against the storm. In illustration of this view of the subject, he would adduce a remark of an English statesman in comparing the relative condition of England and the United States in the present crisis. He said that the former, with a national debt of eight hundred millions of pounds sterling, and an annual tax of fifty millions sterling upon the people, was prosperous and unembarrassed, and its industry and trade not materially affect ed; whilst, on the contrary, the Government of the United States, with a surplus of forty millions of dollars, and the people comparatively no taxes to pay, yet the Government and the people were alike bankrupt. Without literally adopting these positions, they nevertheless went clearly to elucidate to his mind the effects of the commercial action of the two countries. England has no balances against her, and hence the comparatively partial evil she experiences; whilst the balance against us required, in its liquidation, the coin of the country-the basis of our paper currency. The step taken was inevitable. The basis of our currency would have been swept from the country but for the proper and justifiable course of those who held it in possession. Had England received her dues, she would, of course, not have felt the blow; but had we promptly paid our debts we should have been ruined.

In establishing the position that the present state of things has been produced principally by over-trading, the condition of England has been assimilated to ours, and her embarrassments ascribed to the same causes. In his judgment, however, there was a material, a radical difference: our over-trading consisted in buying too much, in buying more than we can pay for, of foreign countries. The overtrading of England, on the contrary, consists in selling more than she can obtain pay for, and the losers only feel the effect, without its pervading all branches of business. Our over-trading abroad, as before remarked, in creating balances against us, affects, in a greater or less degree, all classes of community by its operation on the currency. He hazarded little in saying that excessive importations had been the forerunner of all the severe revulsions we had felt for the last twenty years. That of 1819 must be familiar to most of the members of this House, and he thought no individual could doubt its cause. It operated with extreme severity; and, however great may be the embarrassment and suffering of the commercial interest at the present time, the general distress at that period was incomparably greater than it now is. Our numerous manufacturing establishments, with scarely a single exception, were overwhelmed in irretrievable ruin. Thousands of farms changed proprietors, and those who but yesterday thought themselves secure in a certain, though perhaps humble independence, were on the morrow tenants of their former freeholds. And it may not be unworthy of remark that they asked not, received not, any of the bounties of Government.

He had no doubt of the existence of the difficulties complained of by the commercial interest. Public fame, as well as the documents before us on that subject, establish that fact; and he should hope, for the honor of humanity, that that distress must be deep indeed, that could bring before us, begging alins, that class of our citizens who, in their own estimation, and, as it would appear, in the estimation of this House, were first in importance as they were in wealth.

He trusted the provisions of the first section of this bill would afford them great relief; at all events, it was their proportion of the bounties of Government. He considered the second section, as well as the amendment offered, went to increase, by the aid of the Government, an evil which bad, to a great extent, been checked by its own excesses. Importations, embraced in the amendment, being principally from the west of Europe, had in general been ordered since the commencement of the present embarrassments. The importers were consequently aware of their inability, if that inability exists, to comply with the requirements of *the revenue laws. If, then, they have knowingly and purposely plunged in beyond their depth, they should be left, as the great mass of their fellow citizens are, to get out of their difficulties, without the special bounties of the Government. He would say no more except to express the hope, though apparently a vain one, that those who had contributed to the establishment of the present revenue laws, would feel and see the propriety of rendering them permanent.

Mr. EVERETT inquired of Mr. CAMBRELENG whether the amendment was intended to cover goods now in the custom-house, as well as those which should be bonded between now and the 1st of November?

Mr. CAMBRELENG replied in the affirmative. Mr. E. then said there was one view in which the bill would operate rather favorably to the manufacturers. The merchants would be reduced to the alternative of either selling their goods at auction, or reshipping them; and no doubt many would prefer to reship, which would operate favorably to our own manufacturers. He was in favor of the amendment as being, in this view, preferable to the original bill.

Mr. CAMBRELENG made a verbal modification of the amendment, to remove all doubt as to its applying to goods now in store: instead of "shall be" imported, to insert "shall have been, or may be;" which was agreed to.

Mr. MENEFEE, after a few remarks, not heard by the reporter, moved to amend the committee's amendment by adding the following proviso:

"Provided, further, That all others in anywise indebted to the United States, except for public moneys received, shall be entitled to the benefits of this act on the terms and conditions hereinbefore prescribed."

The amendment was not agreed to.

Mr. ADAMS moved the reference of the bill to the Cominittee on Manufactures. This motion he made, although himself personally rather favorable to the bill, from a sense of duty as chairman of that committee which was charged with the guardianship of the manufacturing interest., The motion was negatived.

Mr. DUNN, of Indiana, moved that the following be added as a new section to the bill:

"And be it further enacted, That all persons indebted on such extended bonds may pay the same, or any part thereof."

Mr. D. supported the amendment by a speech of considerable length, in which he insisted on the justice and good policy of such a nieasure.

After some explanations between him and Mr. CAMBRELENG, the amendment was rejected.

The question then recurring on the engrossment of the oill, and on ordering it to a third reading, it was carried without a count; whereupon the bill was read a third time as amended, and passed.

[H. of R.

CLAIMS UPON DEPOSITE BANKS. The House then went into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. F. O. J. SMITH, of Maine, in the chair,) and took up the bill from the Senate to adjust the remaining claims against the late deposite banks. The bill having been read

Mr. RICE GARLAND, of Louisiana, moved to amend it by striking out all the bill after the enacting clause and inserting a substitute, the object of which is to extend the proposed indulgence to the banks from three, six, and nine months to nine, twelve, and eighteen months.

After a brief explanation of the points in which his amendment differed from the Senate's bill, he proposed to fill the blank by inserting the word "five," so as to read "five per cent."

Mr. JOHNSON, of Louisiana, supported the amendment, and went into a statement of the present condition of the banks of Louisiana, whence he argued the propriety and necessity of granting them further time; but, in consideration of the losses they had sustained, he contended that they ought to be relieved from all payment of interest.

Mr. LYON, of Alabama, said, as one of the late deposite banks embraced by the provisions of the bill under consideration was situated in the district he represented, he would explain the transactions between that bank and the Government, by way of showing that the indulgence proposed by the amendment of the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. GARLAND] ought to be allowed.

The branch of the State Bank of Alabama, at Mobile, had, since it was made a depository of the public money, less than four years ago, received to the credit of the Treasury upwards of seven millions of dollars, and had, without expense or loss to the Government, faithfully disbursed and paid over this large sum, with the exception of a bulance of about nine hundred thousand dollars, the amount now due from the bank. More than three millions of the sum received on deposite at Mob le had, as Mr. LYON was informed, been transferred by the bank to the Northern and Eastern cities, by order of the Secretary of the Treasury, when funds at the North were, in Mobile, worth from 1 to 2 per cent. more than par. The bank, he said, had made, as it was supposed, ample provision to transfer the balance due the Government to the North, where it was understood payment of the amount would be preferred by the Treasury Department. They had purchased exchange on New York and Liverpool to a large amount, drawn upon the authority of letters of credit supposed to be perfectly good, and drawn, too, in execution of orders for the purchase of cotton. A very large amount of these bills, upwards of three millions, as he had been informed, had been dishonored and returned to the bank, without even the payment of the nett proceeds of the cotton actually shipped. The bank had been compelled to look to the drawers and endorsers of these bills for payment, and to give time to the parties.

In addition to the delay in collecting the money, which must necessarily result from such a state of things, Mr. L. said it was but reasonable to suppose that some loss would ensue to the bank. He thought the Government should extend to the bank such indulgence as that institution found it necessary and proper, under the circumstances stated, to allow to its debtors.

He said the failure of this bank to pay punctually the balance due the Government had resulted from no want of good faith in its dealings. It might have discounted too liberally upon the public, deposites, and he believed had done so, but the bank would, at all times, have been ready to have discharged the drafts of the Treasury, but for the sudden embarrassments which had fallen upor. the whole country, and prevented the debtors of the bank from meeting punctually their engagements with it. He had before had occasion to state to the House that the amount

admitted that they had performed their duty faithfully, so far as they went, and laid before the House information which, to use his own expression, had made the blood tingle in his veins. They will doubtless lay the whole proceedings before the House at the next session of Congress. In relation to the causes of delays and failures of the campaigns, it will be recollected that an inquiry was instituted by the President at Frederick, at which all the officers engaged in the first campaign (Scott, Gaines, and Clinch) were fully examined, and the court came to the conclusion that the failures and delays of the campaigns were in consequence of the insalubrity of the climate, the impregnability of the swamps, and the absence of all knowledge of the topography of the country by the commanding generals, and the difficulty in transporting supplies for the army from one point to another. Here, then, at this tribunal, all the causes of the failures of the campaigns conducted by Generals Gaines and Scott were examined into; and it certainly could not be designed by the House to institute an inquiry in relation to the conduct of the present commander in Florida, (General Jesup,) at a time when he was just preparing and organizing his forces for another campaign. It would certainly be improper for the House to interfere with this campaign before there was an opportunity of doing any thing with it. It would be interfering with the legitimate duties of the Executive to send an investigating committee, with power to send for persons and papers, into Florida; and, by so doing, the whole of the benefits to be derived from the approaching campaign might be set aside. Mr. McK. next referred to the remarks of the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. BELL,] who had stated that the probable causes of failures of the campaigns in Florida had arisen from the deficiency in the number of officers connected with the army in Florida. He admitted that there might be some justice in this remark, but said the subject had already attracted the attention of the President of the United States, and referred to an order issued as early as October last, directing all officers of the army on detached service to join their regiments and companies, in which order the President had said that this state of things must no longer exist. If any notice was to be taken of this matter, however, by this House, it was the legitimate business of the Committee on Military Affairs to take charge of it, and he hoped they would take the matter under consideration. In relation to the subject of expenditures, he admitted that they had been very large, amounting, he believed, to about seven millions: but he could see no necessity of appointing a select committee to take charge of this subject, when we have committees appointed under the rules whose special business it was to take charge of these subjects. He alluded to the Committees on the Expenditures of the Executive Departments, all of which committees he believed were composed of majorities opposed to the administration. The Committee on the Expenditures of the War Department should take this subject into consideration, and report upon it. Mr. McK. concluded by moving to postpone the further consideration of the resolution until the first Monday in December next.

Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, opposed the motion. If there was to be any investigation at all, it was as necessary and as practicable now as it could be ever. He hoped the committee would be at once appointed, and pursue the inquiries during the recess, so as to report, in whole, or in part, at the next session. He was opposed to the reference of investigations of alleged extraordinary abuses to standing committees, and replied to the remarks of Mr. HOWARD, of Maryland, who had made the pending motion to refer the subject under consideration to the Committee on Military Affairs.

Mr. ADAMS. The question is an entire new question. It is not now a question as to what committee it shall be referred to, but whether it shall now have the go-by altogeth

[H. OF R.

er. The whole of the argument of the gentleman went to the point that it is unnecessary for this House to trouble itself at all about the matter, and would be just as strong an argument against the investigation in December as now. Mr. A. alluded again to the investigation made under the direction of Congress by the late Executive, and said that the horrible disclosures of that report convinced him still more strongly than ever of the necessity of the proposed inquiry. He replied to the sugge tions of Mr. McKay, with regard to the propositions of various committees, as the proper referees of the subject before the House. Among the rest, the Committee on the Expenditures of the War Department had been recommended by that gentleman. Mr. A. reminded the House that the committees on expenditures were sinecures, without pay, and without duty also. A chairman of one of them [Mr. HAWES] had told the House that he had never called the committee together, and did not even know his colleagues! Mr. A. had intended to offer a resolution to rescind the rule requiring that those committees should be appointed.

Mr. A. replied, further, to the argument of Mr. MCKAY, that the constitution of the Committee on Military Affairs was the same in previous administrations as now. That was no good reason why it should still continue to be so, Mr. A. contended.

In allusion to there being on this committee eight members from the South, and only one from the Northern section of the country, Mr. A. said that the reason must be that the people of the North had no interest in the subjects referrible to it. As to the interest of all the New England States, as well as of those of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in the benefit that would result to them from the enormous expenditures of public money in the prosecution of the Florida campaigns, Mr. A. ad-. mitted it was very little indeed. But they had a very deep interest in the amount of those expenditures, at all events. Were the army disbanded to-morrow, it would be money in their pockets; and he looked upon this fact as another exemplification of that profound philosophical theory of his friend from South Carolina, [Mr. THOMPSON,] who had said that the money of this Government flowed naturally towards the North. Since he had made these remarks, that gentleman had published his speech, and he had now turned the globe half round. The stream now flowed to the East, and not the North. Well, sir, be it then "the East!"

Mr. CAMBRELENG rose and interrupted Mr. ADAMS here; remarking that the gentleman seemed to be concluding to no point; and, calling for the orders of the day, Mr. ADAMS said he was ready to yield the floor, and did so.

BILL REGULATING FEES ON BONDS. The District Attorneys' fee bill on bonds had three readings, as it came from the Senate, and was passed. SUB-TREASURY BILL.

On motion of Mr. CAMBRELENG, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, (Mr. SMITH, of Maine, being in the chair.)

The bill as to the settlement of the deposite bank accounts being the first bill announced as before the committee,

Mr. PICKENS said that he considered himself bound, by the deep interest he felt in the sub-Treasury bill, to move that it be taken up at that time. And on that motion he demanded a count by tellers, which being sustained, (after some conversation as to the regularity of the proceeding,) the motion prevailed: Yeas 105, nays 35.

Mr. JAMES GARLAND'S amendment to the bill being read, by request of a member,

Mr. HOFFMAN rose and said, he would not offer an apology to the House for addressing it upon a subject so fraught with the highest good or the deepest evil to his own