SENATE.] National Defence. tion. I am not disposed to consider that a thing to be done only when we have nothing else to do-a matter to spend money on, instead of a necessary duty to be performed. I would appropriate, not out of the surplus, but out of the revenue of the nation, so much as is necessary, and as can be applied and expended advantageously, from year to year, upon these objects; but, having done all that was necessary, I would not by resolution determine to expend or to set apart all the residue of our national funds to those objects, however important, after they have been fully answered. Nor am I disposed, in this matter of public defence, to thrust the Senate in advance of the Executive, or to lend my aid in enabling Congress to usurp this important function of the Chief Magistrate of the Union. [JAN. 14, 1836. It forward too rapidly. But if this large and sweeping appropriation be made, and the President take the necessary time to apply it, what is the effect? places the whole surplus revenue at once in his hands by law. It is out of the ordinary control of Congress, or, more properly, in a situation in which Congress has not generally exercised a control over it, and there it would remain for years; the unexpended balances in the hands of the Executive rising from eight millions, the present amount in hand, to twenty, thirty, or forty millions of dollars. This would be equivalent to a law that the President should deposite the public money where he pleased, and the accumulating surplus should remain, to an indefinite period, subject to his disposition and control. The President is commander-in-chief of the army and It will not soon be forgotten that the ordinary appronavy of the United States; as such, it is his duty to see priation for fortifications failed the last year in the that they are at all times well appointed, and in a situa- House of Representatives; for what reason I shall not tion to perform the services which the exigencies of the just now inquire. Yet, notwithstanding this, the baltimes may require of them. If money is necessary to ance of old appropriations was not all expended. The finish or to repair our forts, to arm, to man them, or to whole amount of unexpended appropriations on hand is erect new ones, it is from him that this information should stated by the Secretary of the Treasury at $7,595,574. come to us, and we cannot properly act upon it coming That part of this is of the appropriations for fortificafrom any other source. Nay, the constitution enjoins tions I infer from the fact that, in the report of the on him the duty of communicating such matters to Secretary of War, he states, as an excuse for the slow Congress. progress made in some of the fortifications, that me"He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress in-chanics and laborers could not be procured to perform formation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." If, then, he deems it necessary or expedient that ap. propriations of public money should be made for our fortifications or our navy, let him tell us so; and not tell us, in the language of this resolution, that he wants all we have, or all the surplus; but let him-as all his predecessors have done-let him tell us the amount wanted, and which can be expended advantageously upon these objects-the specific objects to which it ought to be applied-and I, for one, will go far, very far, in the way of appropriation, to satisfy all his requisitions. I am opposed to this resolution for another reason. Its prime object does not seem to be the defence of the country, but the expenditure of the surplus revenue. It is not offered because a fort is wanting here, or a fleet there, to guard our coast or protect our commerce. It is because we have plenty of money, and this is a good way to get rid of it. The object, then, being chiefly to spend money, and but as an incident to build fortifications, it must be expected that those who shall have the charge of it will pay special attention to their principal duty-spend it fully and effectually-spend much money, though they may build but few ships or fortresses. But it seems this resolution is not of itself an appropriation; it merely declares that the whole surplus revenue-the twenty millions of money now in the hands of the Executive, and the accruing surplus-shall be set apart for this purpose. It, then, amounts to this; that this money shall remain where it is, in the coffers of a few fa- | vorite banks, to be used by them to increase their dividends, until, some eight or ten years hence, it can be appropriated, and some four or five years thereafter expended upon our navy or our fortifications. I have said that I am prepared to go very far, as far as may be within any reasonable bounds, in voting appropriations for our fortifications and navy; but to all this, however proper and necessary, there is a limit, which it is injurious to the very object to pass. If there be an attempt to apply too much money to these objects, and hasten them overmuch, you necessarily intrust their execution, in part, to incompetent engineers or superintendents. You have to employ inferior workmen, and to use defective materials; so that the very object of our solicitude sustains injury from the effort to urge it the work. If we should now appropriate the whole surplus revenue of twenty millions, how many years would it remain on hand unexpended, swelling the fortunes of the favored capitalist, or ready for use as the convenient instrument of corruption? is But the Senator from Missouri tells us that the seaboard defenceless, that our forts are unfinished or dismantled, and our navy unfit for service. He has drawn an appalling picture of the wretched state of these our arms of defence, which clearly indicates somewhere a degree of shameful negligence or mismanagement; and where does this heavy responsibility rest? The present Chief Magistrate, and those who act with him, have held the control of this Government for now almost seven full years. At the time they received it from the hands of their predecessors, no complaint was made of the state of the defences of the country; nor do I believe there was then any reason for such complaint. They were in a state of steady and regular improvement, gradually becoming all that was necessary for the security of the country. Why are they now in the miserable condition described? Why have they been for so many years neglected by this administration, which has been all-powerful in the nation, and which has possessed a treasury full even to redundance? Has the Senate interposed to prevent appropriations for these objects? No, never-never, within my knowledge and recollection, in a single instance. No appropriation which was asked for by the Executive for these objects has, as far as I know, been withheld, diminished, or given grudgingly, by this body. Why, then, is this the state of our country at this time, if indeed it be so? Sir, here is the solution: This has been an administration whose capacities and whose powers have been fitted and directed to pulling down every thing and to building up nothing. Look around throughout the country, and see if there is a single monument, a great and important monument, raised by it, or founded by it, to rise hereafter, and extend its beneficence to future times. But it has been successful in the works of destruction. One after another the institutions of the country have been made to fall or totter before it; but nothing has been built up, nothing strengthened, save only the executive power itself. There was no time to erect fortifications; to build, to equip, or to repair our ships; our foreign defences occupied no por tion of the attention of our Executive or his Departments. And the consequence seems to be-what any one might have predicted-our seaboard is now defenceless, and subject to the mercy of the first Power that may see fit to attack us. But the Senate of the United States are charged here, upon their own floor, and by a member of their own body, with high crimes against their country, because of this unprotected state of our maritime frontier; as if we were to go in advance of the Executive, to procure for him and hunt out the objects of necessity, and offer him appropriations, and ask him to expend them. But the last session of the Senate was the one in which many and heavy crimes are said to have been committed, in the refusal of appropriations. The Senator has produced here a schedule setting out, one after another, a list of our misdemeanors; and first, is our refusal to pass, last winter, a resolution similar to that which is now under consideration. He might have spared himself the trouble of enumerating this; for, unless I am deceived, he will soon have another instance, a fresh repetition, of the same offence. Sir, anxious as I was, and as I am, that the necessary defences of the country should be duly and promptly attended to, I did not and I will not vote for this crude, unformed, and shapeless proposition, nor any other like absurdity, though it may seem to tend to the effecting of a desirable object. I require something more-not merely that the object be a good one, but that the means of effecting it be appropriate. But I let this go for what it is worth, and proceed to the next specification. The Senate is charged with having put down an amendment which the Senator from Missouri proposed last winter to the fortification bill, containing an additional appropriation of $500,000. This matter is one of which I have no recollection whatever. It appears that the proposition was made by the honorable Senator from Missouri by order of the Committee on Military Affairs; and my honorable friend from Delaware [Mr. CLAYTON] has already put that matter at rest, in the brief but forcible exposition which he gave us of it the other day. The Senator from Missouri gave up the point, and admitted, most expressly, that, though he presented the proposition, he abandoned it on a suggestion; and such I see, on inspection of the papers of that day, was the fact. It is reported shortly, thus: "Mr. BENTON moved to amend the bill by inserting an additional appropriation of $500,000. "At the suggestion of Mr. WEBSTER, the consideration of this amendment was waived by Mr. BENTON for the present." So that, on a conversation between the Senator from Missouri and the chairman of the Committee on Finance, the honorable Senator, in effect, withdrew his proposition; and he has now charged this Senate with a dereliction of duty, and a want of patriotism, because we did not adopt the measure, which he presented, it is true, but put out of our power by virtually withdrawing it. What did we know of the necessity or the propriety of his proposition? He who presented it did not explain it, did not press it, did not ask for its adoption, but expressly declared that he would not press it, which on this floor is equivalent to saying that he did not wish it to be adopted. It is most unfortunate that the Senator from Missouri did not recollect the actual state of things before he advanced this, among the other grave charges against the Senate. It is true, as I have already said, that when this special matter was commented upon by the Senator from Delaware, the gentleman from Missouri gave it up, and admitted that it was he, and not the Senate, that had disposed of that proposition. But all who understand the tactics of the party press know that his charge will be sent abroad throughout the [SENATE. whole land, so far as a newspaper circulates, but the refutation of the charge, and the admission that it was unfounded and mistaken, will never find its place in one of them—no, not one; and the honest yeomanry of the country, who read and believe, will be led thereby to suppose a state of things existed which did not in fact exist, and be led to an unjust and injurious censure of the conduct of some of their public agents. It is therefore unfortunate that the honorable Senator had not better refreshed his recollection before he made this accusation. This is the second specification in his bill of indictment against the Senate; but, lastly, and chiefly, the loss of the fortification bill of last year, the whole blame of which he very liberally and generously takes upon this body. Let us look to it; it is easy to make charges, with or without foundation; and in this case, fortunately, the proof is at hand, and is direct, clear, and conclusive. This is the history of the transaction: The fortification bill was passed in the House on the 21st day of January, and on the same day sent to the Senate. The relations of our country with France were upon that day precisely the same as they were on the 3d of March, at the close of the session. The bill at that time contained no appropriation of three millions for the general purpose of defence; and, if it had been deemed necessary, can any one doubt that it would have been inserted by a committee in the confidence of the Executive, and by a House devoted to his interests? But no such thing. The bill came to this body containing appropriations for fortifications to the amount of about $450,000; an amount evidently too small for the energetic prosecution of the works on hand. The Committee on Finance, to whom this bill was referred, detained it for some time, that information might be obtained which would enable them to supply the deficiencies of the bill, and make it what it ought to have been when it came to us from the House. I can say, sir, for I was then a member of that committee, that it appeared to be the anxious wish of the chairman, as well as of all the other members, to do every thing that could be done to supply the deficiency arising from the neglect or inaction of the other branch of Congress, and to make up to the public service what they had left deficient. The bill was reported back with various amendments, increasing the appropriations about two hundred thousand dollars. With these amendments, it was returned to the House on the 24th day of February, where it slumbered until just at the close of the session, at a late hour of the last evening. Until that hour we had supposed the amendments of the Senate had been agreed to by the House, and that the bill had become, or was about to become, a law, without any further action on our part; but on the evening of the 3d of March, after the Senate had taken its recess, and after the chamber was lighted up for the night, in the midst of multifarious and pressing business, both legislative and executive, which was then crowded upon us, this bill was returned to us from the House, with an amendment to one of the amendments of the Senate, appropriating the round sum of three millions of dollars, "to be expended in whole or in part, under the direction of the President of the United States, for the military and naval service, including fortifications, and ordnance, and increase of the navy"- -an amendment giving $3,000,000, attached to an amendment making an appropriation of perhaps $75,000-thrust in upon us here in the very last moments of the session-no time left for deliberation, none for reference, none to enable us to modify or amend; it involved, in the very nature of things, immediate acceptance or immediate rejection. Waiving for a moment the decisive objection growing out of a solemn requisition of the constitution, what was there as a matter of expediency which could permit us to accept SENATE.] National Defence. it? It was not recommended to us or asked for by the President; he had sent us no message-informed us of no public necessity that required it-expressed no wish that it should be made. It was not an ordinary appropriation; for all that was ordinary and in the usual course of the Government had been already hunted up by the committees of the Senate, and inserted in that or other bills, in place or out of place, wherever we could put them, so that the wheels of Government should not stop. This amendment was sent to us by the House, but on whose responsibility? It was first acted on there in Committee of the Whole on the 3d of March, and passed, with little examination or discussion. We had not even the authority of that body, such as it would have been had their vote passed upon deliberation, with time for discussion. Under these circumstances, I say, without hesitation, it is my firm belief that those who caused that amendment to be inserted knew that it would not pass this body, and did not intend that it should pass it. The very sum appropriated-the time which was chosen to send it to the Senate-the necessity of passing it, if at all, out of all the rules and without the application of any of the guards which legislative bodies never can properly dispense with in the appropriation of public money-must have satisfied those who controlled this matter, and who gave it movement and direction, that it must be rejected by the Senate. But, lest there should be any doubt on the subject, lest it might have taken it with all the objections to which it was otherwise liable, it was sent to us in a form, and in substance too, violatory of the spirit of the constitution. It would have been an appropriation in form, but not in fact. It would have been voting money generally into the hands of the President, to appropriate as he might think fit, provided it were applied for the purposes of national defence. And it would have been putting it in the power of the President to raise an army, to make and to carry on war, without the further aid or interposition of Congress. I do not believe, sir, that any man who reasoned could think for a moment that that measure could or ought to pass this body; and I am yet to be convinced that the friends of the administration here would have given it their votes, if they had believed that their votes would have made it a law. They would at least have weighed well the matter, much better than they could have weighed it during the hour that it was pending here, before they would have assumed the responsibility which the passage of that measure involved. But, sir, it was rejected. I do not stand here to defend myself for the part I took in its rejection, nor to apologize for the act. I stand ready now, and at all times, to proclaim the participation which I had in itto claim it as one of the good works which I have helped to perform; and to avow that the like, come when it will, or where it will, before me as a subject for my action, will meet a like immediate and indignant rejec tion. But, sir, the bill to which this three millions is an amendment was also lost. How, sir, and where? Not in the Senate. The bill was perfectly safe, if the House chose that it should be so, after the rejection of this amendment. It was returned to them much better than when they first sent it to the Senate-with much more extensive appropriations for our national defence; and that body had nothing to do, in order to make it a law, but pass the bill when returned to them, without the amendment which the Senate had rejected. This they did not do. They asked for a conference, which was at once conceded. The conferees met, and the chairman of the Committee on Finance returned in a few moments, and reported an agreement to strike out the three millions, and appropriate $300,000 for the increase of the navy, and $500,000 additional for the repairing [JAN. 14, 1836. and arming our fortifications. The bill was still in the hands of the House of Representatives, and it was in their power still to have made it a law in a few moments' time-a law with the addition of $800,000 to the ordinary appropriations, and with a full million added to the original bill as they had sent it to the Senate. We waited until late at night, and the bill was not named in their body again. Message after message came to us, but this came not. Before the session closed, a message was sent by this body to the House, respectfully reminding them of the bill, and the agreement of the committee of conference. It was read in the House, but no answer was returned. There sleeps the bill, and there let it sleep for ever. And if any evil has happened or shall happen to the country, for the want of the appropriations which it contained, let the censure of the nation fall, I care not how heavily, on those who contrived and produced its loss. Mr. GOLDSBOROUGH, of Maryland, said, when these resolutions and inquiries were first presented to the Senate, he regarded them as matters of business, as measures designed to have a bearing upon the great national interests. But his surprise was not greater than the mortification he felt, when he found that the whole was made conducive to a vituperative and indecorous attack upon this Senate. Nor were these feelings at all allayed when he heard from the lips of the mover of the resolutions, accompanied with an air of menace, that the accusation thus made should be made known to the people. That what should be made known to the people? That the Senator from Missouri charged the Senate of the United States of faithlessness to their dutyof a total disregard of the national security and defence; and that it was owing to their opposition to the grant of three millions, sent in the last night of the session as an amendment to the fortification bill, that the United States have not now a fleet upon the ocean equal to that which he represents as about to be sent from France upon our coast to overawe the councils of the country. Now, sir, as to this unjust and gross accusation, my reply is, distinctly, that it is wholly unfaithful to the history of the proceedings in the Senate, and unfounded, in letter and in spirit. Before he made any further remark upon this accusation, and the circumstances supposed to lead fo it, he would advert to the paper on the table, containing the resolutions and inquiries, and would still continue to treat it as a matter of national concern. If the subject before the Senate is really intended for defence, he would endeavor to make it stronger; if a matter of national interest, he wished to make it more national; and if it is designed to be adopted, he flattered himself that the amendment he held in his hand, and which he would read as part of his remarks, will secure it greater strength in the Senate. Strike out all of the first resolution after the word Resolved, and insert, That the general defence and permanent security of the country are principal objects of the national care, and therefore adequate and liberal specific appropriations from the public revenues ought regularly to be set apart and applied to those purposes. This amendment, it will be seen, has a decided advantage over the resolution designed to be stricken out, as it pledges the whole revenue, as far as it can be expended, to the national defence, instead of confining it to a surplus, which, although large now, may not be so ample in future; nor is it fit that the public defence should be measured by surplus revenue. One of the chief objects of appropriation ought to be for defence; this should be made with ample but proper liberality from the public income generally, and not rendered dependent upon casual surplus. Besides, as was well remarked just now by the honorable Senator from Ohio, [Mr. EwING,] We know nothing of surpluses until all the demands of the Government and country are supplied; then, when all demands are supplied as far as can be expended, it seems to be unnecessary further to apply surpluses to any of those purposes. [SENATE. prospects of peace, and in contradiction to their own Again, sir, suppose these three millions had been Besides this, sir, there are other objections to this voted on the 3d of March last at night, without specifiapplication of the surplus revenue, not only because it cation or limit, by what magic could the Senator have is, and ought to be, made useless by amply providing transmuted these millions, in the short period of nine for all national demands before a surplus is ascertained, months, into ships equal in number to Admiral Mackau's but because it interferes with (he knew not if designed) fleet, which he represents as about to be on our coast? the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Did not the Senator count that fleet at sixty sail; whilst CLAY] to appropriate the surplus revenue from the pub- the whole of our own fleet is, in commission eighteen; lic lands to the States, which he believed to be a favorite | in ordinary twenty; on the stocks thirteen; constituting object with the people in the States, and because it also an aggregate of fifty-one vessels? Yet the Senator interferes with a proposition of like import, but more would have converted three millions into sixty ships, extensive, introduced by the Senator from South Caro- with our whole navy thus situated, and in a space of lina, [Mr. CALHOUN,] time that would have rendered it a miraculous operation. We have had some evidences from the Senator that he was a second Midas, who turned all he touched into gold; and now we are to presume that he intends to amuse us with another humbug, in a miraculous augmentation of the navy of the United States. So far upon the amendment. When the Senator from Missouri, availing himself of his resolutions, commenced his attack upon the Senate, by giving us some account of a French officer who had exchanged friendly salutations with those of our own ships on the ocean, and read an extract from a French journal, stating that a French fleet was to be sent upon our coast too powerful for any that our country could furnish, he represents this fleet as sent here to menace us, and significantly asks the question, why is it that we have not a fleet arlequate to meet them? Which interrogatory he as significantly answers for himself, by ascribing it to this Senate; that it is owing to their rejection of the three millions added to the fortification bill, which was sent to the Senate, without specification, on the night of the last day of the past session; and this rejection, he insinuates, was done with a view of preventing the "clothing the nakedness of the land." In order that the world may see that there is no evidence before us that the Executive entertained such ideas as those of the Senator, I turn you to the report from the Navy Department, of the 5th December, where we find that less than half a million of dollars is required by that Department to fit out one ship of the line, six frigates, nineteen smaller vessels, and one steam frigate, for the year 1836; which last steam frigate can be completed, he says, in the course of the year. And from the Secretary of War's report on the 30th November, we learn, substantially, that new estimates are submitted, because no appropriations for fortifications had been made last year. He further states that some forts have been completed, others recommended, in continuation of the system of defence; and that a number of our important harbors are either wholly undefended or partially protected; and he then adds, as a system adapted to this condition of the defences, this suggestion, viz: "an adherence to the general plan of defence, and a gradual prosecution of the work as the national finances and other considerations may justify, seem to be demanded by a just regard to the circumstances of the country, as well as by the experience which the events of the last war forced upon us." Now, sir, according to these reports, we see no such pressing emergency, no such urgent demands as the Senator sets forth. If they had existed last session, when the three millions were asked for, why are they not included in the estimates now, when nothing more is said to be required than the usual appropriations? It is the duty of the Departments, acting under the authority and direction of the President, to make known to Congress full estimates for every specific object which the national interest may demand; and to such applications alone can Congress pay attention. Now, sir, if such could have have been the design of the Senate, they must have had some motive for this act of treachery, and there must have been some grounds to expect a condition of things when such a design could have been made to be felt, as in case of a war. Let us see how the Senator and his positions agree with each other in sustaining such an accusation. By reference to the proceedings of the Senate of last session, we shall find that, upon due consideration, the Senate unani. mously resolved that it was "inexpedient to adopt any legislative measure in regard to the state of affairs with France." By looking at the history of the proceedings of the other branch of Congress, as now upon record, we find that the House, so late as the 2d of March, after a full view of all the despatches sent by the Executive, unanimously decided that the "treaty with France should be maintained, and its execution insisted on," and said no more; and we see also that a resolution, "That a contingent preparation ought to be made to meet any emergency growing out of our relations with France," introduced by the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in that House, was by that chairman, on the same day, the 2d of March, laid But, sir, there is another document to which he must upon the table, where it quietly reposed during the call the attention of the Senate-it is the late executive short remnant of the session. Stronger proof than this message, which speaks a language that he was scarcely we cannot have as to the unanimous sense of Congress able to comprehend; or, if he did comprehend it, he against the probability of any hostile change in our French regretted it. After stating that loss and inconvenience relations. This, it will be observed, was no party votehad been experienced from the failure of the bill conno vote of the administration's friends-no vote of the taining the ordinary appropriations for fortifications, the opposition--but a unanimous vote of every member in message goes on: "This failure was the more regretted, each House. By the Senator's own showing, too, the not only because it necessarily interrupted and delayed other day, from his French authorities, all was peaceful the progress of a system of national defence, projected and harmonious in France-no manifestation of a change, immediately after the last war, and since steadily or of an intent to change, our peaceful relationships; and pursued, but also because it contained a contingent apthis state of things he dates as late as the month of Aprilpropriation, inserted in accordance with the views of the past, some four weeks at least after the adjournment of Congress. How, then, in the midst of all these fair Executive, in aid of this important object." And why were these executive views not made known? Am I to SENATE.] National Defenc. [JAN. 12, 1836. understand that they were entertained, and, being enter- been procured from him, if it had been his pleasure to tained, that they were to be obeyed, without even the have sent it, in five or ten minutes; nay, if you had but condescension of being made known? It is a pity that opened the door, he might, if he had thought proper, such views were kept locked up in the executive have diffused among us all the light that was necessary bosom, which were to have come in aid of so important an for the "important object so much in accordance with object. It is to be lamented that they did not burst the executive will;" yet that light was withheld, though so bars that confined them, that they might have shed their much and so often requested; the information, so easy light here. Such intelligence was wanted; it was asked to be given, was not imparted, that might have ensured for. He distinctly remembered that the venerable the appropriation. And it is for this that we are to be Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. WHITE,] and the Senator branded by the Senator from Missouri as faithless to our from Massachusetts, [Mr. WEBSTER,] and probably duty, and regardless of the nation's security? Yes, sir, others, but those two he well remembered, said, each if we could have been beguiled and drawn off under in his place, that if the President would inform the such circumstances, and made unfaithful to our duty, Senate that three millions were wanting for the public we might have merited the reproach of traitors. [A service, and would cause to be specified the sums for call to order by the Chair.] Mr. G. proceeded. With the respective objects, they were ready to give it; and our convictions, of constitutional duty, I mean, sir; parthey went further, and said, if the heads of Departments don me, I design no imputation on others. Yes, sir, we would say that amount was wanted, and state the sum should have been justly subject to imputation, if, with that was to be applied to each, they were ready to vote our convictions, and under the circumstances we were it-but the intelligence came not at all; it was too close-placed, we had taken a different course. ly penned up in the executive bosom to escape, and the unsanctioned call was rejected. He would now take a brief review of the history of this transaction, not wishing to consume unnecessarily the time of the Senate, that the world, to whom it is to be made known, may more accurately understand it. The fortification bill, as it is called, came first from the House to the Senate at an advanced period of the session, after being duly deliberated on in the House of Repre sentatives, as we are bound to presume. Much addition was made to the bill by the Committee on Finance here, for defence, which passed the Senate on the 24th February, and was returned to the House. Nothing more was heard of it here until the night of the last day of the session, on the 3d of March, when the bill came back to us, containing an additional appropriation of three millions of dollars, as a contingent fund, without any specification. This was so large and so extraordinary a demand upon the public treasury, so suddenly and so unexpectedly made, at the very heel of the session, that it met with a powerful and effective opposition; and, after rejection in the Senate, and being insisted on in the House, a conference was had, the bill being then in the House, and on conference it was determined that an additional half million should be granted for increasing the navy, and three hundred thousand dollars more for equipping fortifications, amounting in all to eight hundred thousand dollars. The Senate's committee returned from the conference, and reported the result to the Senate, who waited to the end of the session in vain to hear from the House of Representatives; but the committee of the House, which had the bill in possession, did not report the result of the conference to the House, and there the bill died. It is for this, sir, that the Senator from Missouri has taken occasion to frame his unfounded accusation against the Senate for a dereliction of duty little short of treason. It is somewhat inexplicable, after all the estimates for expenditure for the year had been sent in, and more than gratified, that, at almost the last hour of the session, a call should be made upon them for three millions of dollars, without a particle of information to show why or wherefore, without the slightest intimation from the head of the Government, or from any of the executive officers, that the money was wanting or would be useful. And why, he asked again, if the money was really wanting for the public service, was the necessary information not given? Was the source of authority so difficult of access that it could not be got at? Nothing was more easy. The President himself, accompanied by the heads of Departments, was under the same roof with ourselves; he was in an adjoining room in this Capitol all the time; a message might have A sense of duty was imperious; with it there was no compromise. When time was sufficient throughout the whole session to make known every want of the Government, either immediate or contingent, and no call was made but those which were fully supplied; when both Houses of Congress had unanimously concurred in opinion that no further legislative act was necessary in consequence of the state of our relations with France, the only Power with which we had any involvement at the time, it did seem strange that, at the last moments of the session, a requisition should have been made for so unusual an amount of money, without any explanation or message, or information that could lead to an understanding of the sudden cause of the requisition, or any specification of the objects to which it was to be applied. The information was requested, yet it was not given; it was at hand, but we could not reach it; it was under such circumstances we felt that we could not grant away the public money, and we refused to do so. He Mr. BENTON observed that the Senator from Maryland, [Mr. GOLDSBOROUGH,] who had just resumed his seat, and himself, had some words at the last session, which had placed him in a situation, with respect to that gentleman, of the most scrupulous reserve. believed it to be the instinct of gentlemen, whenever any thing had happened between them of an unpleasant nature, to behave afterwards to each other with the most punctilious and scrupulous politeness. He believed it to be the instinct of gentlemen to feel that, from such a time, they must stand upon a footing towards each other, in which they could no longer give and take. Now, sir, (said Mr. B.,) the Senator from Maryland has repeated what he did at the last session; he has made a premeditated attack on me. He felt (Mr. B. said) no malice, nor any degree of irritation, for what was passed; for if he was quick, he was at least free from malice. The gentleman at that time (Mr. B. said) drew a picture which a thousand persons present believed to be drawn for him; which he (Mr. B.) felt to be drawn for him; and had been informed that the gentleman had then rehearsed the part he was about to perform,* the first part, but not the concluding part; for the gentleman denied that his picture was intended for him. From that time to the present, (said Mr. B.,) the gentleman has no right to make a personal allusion to If the gentleman chooses to wait a year, and then come forward to settle an account in which he may me. * When Mr. BENTON said, in his remarks, "he had been informed that the gentleman had then rehearsed the part he was about to perform," Mr. G. responded audibly from his seat, "you have then been misinfurmed," (or words to that effect.)-Nat. Intell. |