the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, to wit:

FEBRUARY, 1802.

am at no loss to perceive why this course has been pursued. The gentleman has been unwilling to rely upon the strength of his subject, and has therefore determined to make the measure a party question. He has probably secured success, but 1st. That the State Legislatures shall, from time to would it not have been more honorable and more time, divide each State into districts, equal to the whole commendable to have left the decision of a great number of Senators and Representatives from such Constitutional question to the understanding, and State in the Congress of the United States; and shall not to the prejudices of the House? It was my direct the mode of choosing an Elector of President and Vice President in each of the said districts, who shall ardent wish to discuss the subject with calmness be chosen by citizens having the qualifications requisite and deliberation, and I did intend to avoid every for Electors of the most numerous branch of the State topic which could awaken the sensibility of party. Legislature; and that the districts, so to be constituted This was my temper and design when I took my shall consist, as nearly as may be, of contiguous terri- seat yesterday. It is a course at present we are tory, and of equal proportion of population, except where no longer at liberty to pursue. The gentleman there may be any detached portion of territory, not of has wandered far, very far, from the points of the itself sufficient to form a district, which then shall be debate, and has extended his animadversions to annexed to some other portion nearest thereto; which all the prominent measures of the former Admindistricts, when so divided, shall remain unalterable un-istrations. In following him through his prelim

til a new census of the United States shall be taken.

2d. That, in all future elections of President and Vice President, the persons voted for shall be particularly designated, by declaring which is voted for as President, and which as Vice President.

Ordered, That the said motion, together with the resolutions of the Legislature of the State of New York, proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States, respecting the choice of a President and Vice President, which were read and ordered to lie on the table on the fifteenth instant, be referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union.

JUDICIARY SYSTEM.

The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole House on the bill sent from the Senate, entitled "An act to repeal certain acts respecting the organization of the Courts of the United States and for other purposes."

inary observations, I necesssarily lose sight of the bill upon your table.

The gentleman commenced his strictures with the philosophic observation, that it was the fate of mankind to hold different opinions as to the form of government which was preferable. That some were attached to the monarchal, while others thought the republican more eligible. This, as an abstract remark, is certainly true, and could have furnished no ground of offence, if it had not evidently appeared that an allusion was designed to be made to the parties in this country. Does the gentleman suppose that we have a less lively recollection than himself of the oath which we have taken to support the Constitution; that we are less sensible of the spirit of our Government. or less devoted to the wishes of our constituents? Whatever impression it might be the intention of the gentleman to make, he does not believe that there exists in the country an anti-republican Mr. BAYARD.-Mr. Chairman, I must be al-party. He will not venture to assert such an opin lowed to express my surprise at the course pur-ion on the floor of this House. That there may sued by the honorable gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. GILES,) in the remarks which he has made on the subject before us. I had expected that he would have adopted a different line of conduct. I had expected it as well from that sentiment of magnanimity which ought to have been inspired by a sense of the high ground he holds on the floor of this House, as from the professions of a desire to conciliate, which he has so repeatedly made during the session. We have been invited to bury the hatchet, and brighten the chain of peace. We were disposed to meet on middle ground. We had assurances from the gentleman that he would abstain from reflections on the past, and his only wish was that we might unite in future in promoting the welfare of our common country. We confided in the gentleman's sincerity, and cherished the hope, that if the divisions of party were not banished from the House, its spirit would be less intemperate. Such were our impressions, when the mask was suddenly thrown aside, and we saw the torch of discord lighted and blazing before our eyes. Every effort has been made to revive the animosities of the House, and inflame the passions of the nation. I

be a few individuals having a preference for monarchy is not improbable; but will the gentleman from Virginia, or any other gentleman, affirm in his place, that there is a party in the country who wish to establish monarchy? Insinuations of this sort belong not to the Legislature of the Union. Their place is an election ground or an alehouse. Within these walls they are lost; abroad, they have an effect, and I fear are still capable of abusing the popular credulity.

We were next told of the parties which have existed, divided by the opposite views of promoting Executive power and guarding the rights of the people. The gentleman did not tell us in plain language, but he wished it to be understood. that he and his friends were the guardians of the people's rights, and that we were the advocates of Executive power.

I know that this is the distinction of party which some gentlemen have been anxious to establish; but this is not the ground on which we divide. I am satisfied with the Constitutional powers of the Executive, and never wished nor attempted to increase them; and I do not believe that gentlemen on the other side of the House ever had a serious

apprehension of danger from an increase of Executive authority. No, sir, our views as to the powers which do and ought to belong to the General and State governments, are the true sources of our divisions. I co-operate with the party to which I am attached, because I believe their true object and end is an honest and efficient support of the General Government, in the exercise of the legitimate powers of the Constitution.

I pray to God I may be mistaken in the opinion I entertain as to the designs of gentlemen to whom I am opposed. Those designs I believe hostile to the powers of this Government. State pride extinguishes a national sentiment. Whatever is taken from this Government is given to the States.

The ruins of this Government aggrandize the States. There are States which are too proud to be controlled; whose sense of greatness and resource renders them indifferent to our protection, and induces a belief, that if no General Government existed, their influence would be more extensive, and their importance more conspicuous. There are gentlemen who make no secret of an extreme point of depression, to which the Government is to be sunk. To that point we are rapidly progressing. But I would beg gentlemen to remember, that human affairs are not to be arrested in their course, at artificial points. The impulse now given may be accelerated by causes at present out of view. And when those who now design well, wish to stop, they may find their powers unable to resist the torrent. It is not true that we ever wished to give a dangerous strength to Executive power. While the Government was in our hands, it was our duty to maintain its Constitutional balance, by preserving the energies of each branch. There never was an attempt to vary the relation of its powers. The struggle was to maintain the Constitutional powers of the Executive. The wild principles of French liberty were scattered through the country. We had our Jacobins and disorganizers. They saw no difference between a King and a President, and as the people of France had put down their King, they thought the people of America ought to put down their President. They who considered the Constitution as securing all the principles of rational and practicable liberty, who were unwilling to embark upon the tempestuous sea of revolution, in pursuit of visionary schemes, were denounced as monarchists. A line was drawn between the Government and the people, and the friends of the Government were marked as the enemies of the people. I hope, however, that the Government and the people are now the same; and I pray to God that what has been frequently remarked may not in this case be discovered to be true, that they who have the name of people the most often in their mouths, have their true interests the most seldom at their hearts.

The honorable gentleman from Virginia wandered to the very confines of the Federal Admintration, in search of materials the most inflammable and most capable of kindling the passions of his party.

H. OF R.

He represents the Government as seizing the first moment which presented itself to create a dependent moneyed interest, ever devoted to its views. What are we to understand by this remark of the gentleman? Does he mean to say that Congress did wrong in funding the public debt? Does he mean to say that the price of our liberty and independence ought not to have been paid? Is he bold enough to denounce this measure as one of the Federal victims marked for destruction? Is it the design to tell us that its day has not yet come, but is approaching; and that the funding system is to add to the pile of Federal ruins? Do I hear the gentleman say we will reduce the Army to a shadow; we will give the Navy to the worms; the Mint, which presented the people with the emblems of their liberty, and of their sovereignty, we will abolish; the revenue shall depend upon the winds and waves; the judges shall be made our creatures, and the great work shall be crowned and consecrated by relieving the country from an odious and oppressive public debt? These steps, I presume, are to be taken in progression. The gentleman will pause at each, and feel the public pulse. As the fever increases he will proceed, and the moment of delirium will be seized to finish the great work of destruction.

The assumption of the State debts has been made an article of distinct crimination. It has been ascribed to the worst motives-to a design of increasing a dependent moneyed interest. Is it not well known that those debts were part of the price of our Revolution? That they rose in the exigency of our affairs, from the efforts of the particular States, at times when the Federal arm could not be extended to their relief? Each State was entitled to the protection of the Union, the defence was a common burden, and every State had a right to expect that the expenses attending its individual exertions in the general cause, would be reimbursed from the public purse. I shall be permitted further to add, that the United States, having absorbed the sources of State revenue, except direct taxation, which was required for the support of the State governments, the assumption of these debts was necessary to save some of the States from bankruptcy.

The internal taxes are made one of the crimes of the Federal Administration. They were imposed, says the gentleman, to create a host of dependents on Executive favor. This supposes the past Administrations to have been not only very wicked, but very weak. They laid taxes in order to strengthen their influence. Who is so ignorant as not to know, that the imposition of a tax would create an hundred enemies for one friend? The name of excise was odious; the details of collection were unavoidably expensive, and it was to operate upon a part of the community least disposed to support public burdens, and most ready to complain of their weight. A little experience will give the gentleman a new idea of the patronage of this Government. He will find it not that dangerous weapon in the hands of the Administration which he has heretofore supposed it; he will probably discover that the poison is accom

H. of R.

Judiciary System.

FEBRUARY, 1802.

panied by its antidote, and that an appointment of The honorable gentleman proceeded to inform the Government, while it gives to the Adminis- the Committee, that the Government, availing ittration one lazy friend, will raise up against it ten self of the depredations of the Algerines, created active enemies. No! The motive ascribed for a navy. Did the gentleman mean to insinuate, the imposition of the internal taxes is as unfounded that this war was invited by the United States? as it is uncharitable. The Federal Administra- Has he any documents or proof to render the sustion, in creating burdens to support the credit of picion colorable? No, sir, he has none. He well the nation, and to supply the means of its protec-knows that the Algerine aggressions were extion, knew that they risked the favor of those up-tremely embarrassing to the Government. When on whom their power depended. They were willing to be the victims when the public good required.

they commenced, we had no marine force to oppose to them. We had no harbors or places of shelter in the Mediterranean. A war with these pirates could be attended with neither honor nor profit. It might cost a great deal of blood, and in the end it might be feared that a contest so íar from home, subject to numberless hazards and difficulties, could not be maintained. What would gentlemen have had the Government to do? I know there are those who are ready to answer: abandon the Mediterranean trade. But would this have done? The corsairs threatened to pass the Straits, and were expected in the Atlantic. Nay, sir, it was thought that our very coasts would not have been secure.

The duties on imports and tonnage furnished a precarious revenue-a revenue at all times exposed to deficiency, from causes beyond our reach. The internal taxes offered a fund less liable to be impaired by accident-a fund which did not rob the mouth of labor, but was derived from the gratification of luxury. These taxes are an equitable distribution of the public burdens. Through this medium the Western country is enabled to contribute something to the expenses of a Government which has expended and daily expends such large sums for its defence. When these taxes were laid they were indispensable. With the aid of them it has been difficult to prevent an increase of the public debt. And notwithstand-It ing the fairy prospects which now dazzle our eyes, I undertake to say, if you abolish them this session, you will be obliged to restore them or supply their place by a direct tax before the end of two years. Will the gentleman say, that the direct tax was laid in order to enlarge the bounds of patronage? Will he deny that this was a measure to which we had been urged for years by our adversaries, because they foresaw in it the ruin of Federal power? My word for it, no Administration will ever be strengthened by a patronage united with taxes which the people are sensible of paying.

you

Will gentlemen go further, and say that the United States ought to relinquish their commerce. has been said that we ought to be cultivators of the earth, and make the nations of Europe our carriers. This is not an occasion to examine the solidity of this opinion; but I will only ask, admitting the Administration were disposed to turn the pursuits of the people of this country from the ocean to the land, whether there is a power in the Government, or whether there would be if we were as strong as the Government of Turkey, or even of France, to accomplish the object? With a seacoast of seventeen hundred miles, with innumerable harbors and inlets, with a people enterprising beyond example, is it possible to say. will have no ships or sailors, nor merchants? We were next told, that to get an army an In- The people of this country will never consent to dian war was necessary. The remark was ex-give up their navigation, and every Administratremely bald, as the honorable gentleman did not tion will find themselves constrained to provide allege a single reason for the position. He did means to protect their commerce. not undertake to state that it was a wanton war, or provoked by the Government. He did not even venture to deny, that it was a war of defence, and entered into in order to protect our brethren on the frontiers from the bloody scalpingknife and murderous tomahawk of the savage. What ought the Government to have done? Ought they to have estimated the value of the blood which probably would be shed, and the amount of the devastation likely to be committed before they determined on resistance? They raised an army, and after great expense and various fortune, they have secured the peace and safety of the frontiers. But why was the Army mentioned on this occasion, unless to forewarn us of the fate which awaits them, and to tell us that their days are numbered? I cannot suppose that the gentleman mentioned this little army, distributed on a line of three thousand miles, for the purpose of giving alarm to three hundred thousand free and brave yeomanry, ever ready to defend the liberties of the country.

In respect to the Algerines, the late Administration were singularly unfortunate. They were obliged to fight or pay them. The true policy was to hold a purse in one hand and a sword in the other. This was the policy of the Government. Every commercial nation in Europe was tributary to these petty barbarians. It was not esteemed disgraceful. It was an affair of calculation, and the Administration made the best bargain in their power. They have heretofore been scandalized for paying tribute to a pirate, and now they are criminated for preparing a few frigates to protect our citizens from slavery and chains! Sir, I believe on this and many other occasions, if the finger of Heaven had pointed out a course, and the Government had pursued it, yet that they would not have escaped the censure and reproaches of their enemies.

We were told that the disturbances in Europe were made a pretext for augmenting the Army and Navy. I will not, Mr. Chairman, at present go into a detailed view of the events which com

FEBRUARY, 1802.

Judiciary System.

H. of R.

dare publicly to deny what is attested by the hand and seal of Mr. Gerry.

worth nothing,) and we will receive your Ministers, and negotiate for peace.

It was only left to the Government to choose between an unconditional surrender of the honor and independence of the country, or a manly resistance. Can you blame, sir, the Administration for a line of conduct which has reflected on the nation so much honor, and to which, under God, it owes its present prosperity?

pelled the Government to put on the armor of defence, and to resist by force the French aggressions. All the world know the efforts which The truth of these despatches admitted, what were made to accomplish an amicable adjustment was your Government to do? Give us, say the of differences with that Power. It is enough to Directory, 1.200.000 livres for our own purse, and state, that Ambassadors of peace were twice re-purchase $15,000,000 of Dutch debt, (which was pelled from the shores of France with ignominy and contempt. It is enough to say, that it was not till after we had drunk the cup of humiliation to the dregs, that the national spirit was roused to a manly resolution, to depend only on their God and their own courage for protection. What, sir, did it grieve the gentleman that we did not crouch under the rod of the Mighty Nation, and, like the petty Powers of Europe, tamely surrender our independence? Would he have had the people of the United States relinquish without a struggle those liberties which had cost so much blood and treasure? We had not, sir, recourse to arms, till the mouths of our rivers were choked with French corsairs; till our shores, and every harbor, were insulted and violated; till half our commercial capital had been seized, and no safety existed for the remainder but the protection of force. At this moment a noble enthusiasm electrized the country; the national pulse beat high, and we were prepared to submit to every sacrifice, determined only that our independence should be the last. At that time an American was a proud name in Europe; but I fear, much I fear, that in the course we are now likely to pursue, the time will soon arrive when our citizens abroad will be ashamed to acknowledge their country.

The measures of 1798 grew out of the public feelings; they were loudly demanded by the public voice. It was the people who drove the Government to arms, and not (as the gentleman expressed it) the Government which pushed the people to the X, Y, Z, of the political designs before they understood the A, B, C, of their political principles.

But what, sir, did the gentleman mean by his X, Y, Z? I must look for something very sig nificant something more than a quaintness of expression, or a play upon words-in what falls from a gentleman of his learning and ability. Did he mean that the despatches which contained those letters were impostures, designed to deceive and mislead the people of America-intended to rouse a false spirit not justified by events? Though the gentleman had no respect for some of the characters of that embassy; though he felt no respect for the Chief Justice, or the gentleman appointed from South Carolina-two characters as pure, as honorable, and exalted, as any the country can boast of-yet I should have expected that he would have felt some tenderness for Mr. Gerry, in whom his party had since given proofs of undiminished confidence. Does the gentleman believe that Mr. Gerry would have joined in the deception, and assisted in fabricating a tale, which was to blind his countrymen, and to enable the Government to destroy their liberties? Sir, I will not avail myself of the equivocations or confessions of Talleyrand himself: I say these gentlemen will not 7th CON.-20

These are the events of the General Government which the gentleman has reviewed, in succession, and endeavored to render odious or suspicious. For all this I could have forgiven him, but there is one thing for which I will not, I cannot, forgive him-I mean his attempt to disturb the ashes of the dead; to disturb the ashes of the great and good WASHINGTON! Sir, I might degrade by attempting to eulogize this illustrious character. The work is infinitely beyond my powers. I will only say that, as long as exalted talents and virtues confer honor among men, the name of WASHINGTON will be held in veneration.

After, Mr. Chairman, the honorable member had exhausted one quiver of arrows against the late Executive, he opened another, equally poisoned, against the Judiciary. He has told us, sir, that when the power of the Government was rapidly passing from Federal hands-after we had heard the thundering voice of the people which dismissed us from their service-we erected a Judiciary, which we expected would afford us the shelter of an inviolable sanctuary. The gentleman is deceived. We knew better, sir, the characters who were to succeed us, and we knew that nothing was sacred in the eyes of infidels. No, sir, I never had a thought that anything belonging to the Federal Government was holy in the eyes of those gentlemen. I could never, therefore, imagine that a sanctuary could be built up which would not be violated. I believe these gentlemen regard public opinion, because their power depends upon it; but I believe they respect no existing establishment of the Government; and if public opinion could be brought to support them, I have no doubt they would annihilate the whole. I shall at present only say further, on this head, that we thought the reorganization of the Judicial system a useful measure, and we considered it as a duty to employ the remnant of our power to the best advantage of our country.

The honorable gentleman expressed his joy that the Constitution had at last become sacred in our eyes: that we formerly held that it meant everything or nothing. I believe, sir, that the Constitution formerly appeared different in our eyes from what it appears in the eyes of the dominant party. We formerly saw in it the principles of a fair and goodly creation. We looked upon it as a source of peace, of safety, of honor, and of prosperity, to the country. But now the view is changed; it is

the instrument of wild and dark destruction; it is a weapon which is to prostrate every establishment to which the nation owes the unexampled blessings which it enjoys.

The present state of the country is an unanswerable commentary upon our construction of the Constitution. It is true that we made it mean much; and hope, sir, we shall not be taught by the present Administration that it can mean even worse than nothing.

The gentleman has not confined his animadversions to the individual establishment, but has gone so far as to make the judges the subject of personal invective. They have been charged with having transgressed the bounds of Judicial duty, and become the apostles of a political sect. We have heard of their travelling about the country for little other purpose than to preach the Federal doctrines to the people.

Sir, I think a judge should never be a partisan. No man would be more ready to condemn a judge who carried his political prejudices or antipathies on the bench. But I have still to learn that such a charge can be sustained against the judges of

the United States.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. and they have taken pains, in their charges to grand juries, to unfold and explain its principles. Upon similar occasions, they have enumerated the laws which compose our criminal code, and when some of those laws have been denounced by the enemies of the Administration as unconstitutional, the judges may have felt themselves called upon to express their judgments upon that point, and the reasons of their opinions.

So far, but no farther, I believe, the judges have gone. In going thus far, they have done nothing more than faithfully discharge their duty.

But if, sir, they have offended against the Constitution or laws of the country, why are they not impeached? The gentleman now holds the sword of justice. The judges are not a privileged order; they have no shelter but their innocence. But, in any view, are the sins of the former judges to be fastened upon the new Judicial system? Would you annihilate a system because some men under part of it had acted wrong? The Constitution has pointed out a mode of punishing and removing the men, and does not leave this miserable pretext for the wanton exercise of powers which is now contemplated.

FEBRUARY, 1802.

lenting power. It is here, sir, we see the soldier who fought the battles of the Revolution; who spilt his blood and wasted his strength to establish the independence of his country, deprived of the reward of his services, and left to pine in penury and wretchedness. It is along this path that you may see helpless children crying for bread, and gray hairs sinking in sorrow to the grave! It is here that no innocence, no merit, no truth, no services, can save the unhappy sectary who does not believe in the creed of those in power. I have been forced upon this subject, and before I leave it, allow me to remark, that without inquiring into the right of the President to make vacancies in office, during the recess of the Senate, but admitting the power to exist, yet that it never was given by the Constitution to enable the Chief Magistrate to punish the insults, to revenge the wrongs, or to indulge the antipathies of the man. If the discretion exists, I have no hesitation in saying that it is abused when exercised from any other motives than the public good. And when I see the will of a President precipitating from office men of probity, knowledge, and talents, against whom the community has no complaint. I consider it as a wanton and dangerous abuse of power. And when I see men who have been the victims of this abuse of power, I view them as the proper objects of national sympathy and commiseration.

Among the causes of impeachment against the judges, is their attempt to force the sovereignties of the States to bow before them. We have heard them called an ambitious body politic; and the fact I allude to has been considered as full proof of the inordinate ambition of the body.

Allow me to say, sir, the gentleman knows too much not to know that the judges are not a body politic. He supposed, perhaps, there was an odium attached to the appellation, which it might serve his purposes to connect with the judges. But, sir, how do you derive any evidence of the ambition of the judges from their decision that the States under our Federal compact were compellable to do justice? Can it be shown, or even said, that the judgment of the court was a false construction of the Constitution? The policy of later times on this point has altered the Constitution, and, in my opinion, has obliterated its fairest features. I am taught by my principles, that no power ought to be superior to justice. It is not The honorable member has thought himself that I wish to see the States humbled in dust and justified in making a charge of a serious and ashes; it is not that I wish to see the pride of any frightful nature against the judges. They have man flattered by their degradation; but it is that been represented going about searching out vic-I wish to see the great and the small, the sovereign tins of the Sedition law. But no fact has been and the subject, bow at the altar of justice, and stated; no proof has been adduced, and the gen-submit to those obligations from which the Deity tleman must excuse me for refusing my belief to the charge till it is sustained by stronger and better ground than assertion.

himself is not exempt. What was the effect of this provision in the Constitution? It prevented the States being the judges in their own cause, If, however, Mr. Chairman, the eyes of the and deprived them of the power of denying jusgentleman are delighted with victims, if objects tice. Is there a principle of ethics more clear of misery are grateful to his feelings, let me turn than that a man ought not to be a judge in his own his view from the walks of the judges to the track cause, and is not the principle equally strong when of the present Executive. It is in this path we applied not to one man, but to a collective body? see the real victims of stern, uncharitable, unre- | It was the happiness of our situation which ena