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MARCH 14, 1836.]

measure tending to that effect.

Land Bill.

The utmost that had been done with any petition on the subject was to move its reference to the committee to which such papers have usually gone, and to desire its fair consideration. This fact had not passed unobserved in this debate of three months, for it had been often remarked on this floor, by those who had addressed the Senate, that but one opinion prevailed in Congress as to the expediency of attempting to legislate at this time, and but one opinion as to the rights secured to the States by the constitution. Not satisfied with this extraordinary unanimity, this high proof of forbearance and conciliation, this motion is pressed upon the Senate, to be sent forth as a kind of inexorable determination. In his judgment, it was voluntary, because uncalled for and unnecessary; indeed, it would fail to produce the harmony and secure the influence upon public sentiment which its friends appeared so anxiously to look for. Every man must, on questions here, be guided by his own judgment, his own sense of public duty, and obligation to the constitution and the people. He had considered this matter with anxious attention, and had observed what was passing here and elsewhere, and candor called on him to avow that he saw no where any cause for the great alarm and excitement which pervaded some minds in regard to the safety of the Union. In this he concurred with the Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY.] Neither the petition on which the debate had arisen, nor any other that he had seen, proposed directly or indirectly to disturb the Union, unless the abolition of slavery in this District, or the suppression or regulation of the slave trade within it, would have that effect. For himself, Mr. D. believed no purpose could be further than this from the minds of the petitioners. He could not determine what thoughts or motives might be in the minds of men, but he judged by what was revealed; and he could not persuade himself that these petitioners were not attached to the Union, and that they had (as had been suggested) any ulterior purpose of making this District the headquarters of future operation-the strong-hold of antislavery-the stepping-stone to an attack upon the constitutional rights of the South. pudiate these inferences as unjust, for he had seen no He was obliged to reproof to sustain them in any of the petitions that had come here. The petitioners entertained opinions coincident with their fellow-citizens as to the power of Congress to legislate in regard to slavery in this District; and being desirous that slavery should cease here, if it could be abolished upon just principles; and, if not, that the traffic carried on here from other quarters should be suppressed or regulated, they came here to ask Congress to investigate the matter. This was all; and he could see no evidence in it of a clandestine purpose to gard the constitution or to disturb the Union.

[SENATE.

or interests of his constituents should at any time be car-
ried, he felt that, in such a case, a severe responsibility
would rest upon him. He should, therefore, give his
vote in favor of the motion.

the prayer of the petition, and decided as follows:
The question was then taken on the motion to reject
YEAS-Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buchanan,
Clay, Crittenden, Cuthbert, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing of
Ohio, Goldsborough, Grundy, Hill, Hubbard, King of
Moore, Nicholas, Niles, Porter, Preston, Robbins, Rob-
Alabama, King of Georgia, Leigh, Linn, McKean,
inson, Ruggles, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlin-
son, Walker, Wall, White, Wright-34.
Swift, Webster-6.
NAYS-Messrs. Davis, Hendricks, Knight, Prentiss,

So the prayer of the petition was rejected.
he had in his hand several similar petitions, which he
After this decision, Mr. WEBSTER gave notice that
had forborne to present till this from Pennsylvania
early occasion, present them, and move to dispose of
should be disposed of, and that he should now, on an
them in the way in which it had been his opinion from
that is, to refer them to the committee for inquiry and
the first that all such petitions should have been treated;
consideration.

On motion of Mr. CLAY, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business;

After which, the Senate adjourned to Monday.

MONDAY, MARCH 14.

elected a Senator from Virginia, in the room of JoHN Mr. LEIGH presented the credentials of W. C. RIVES, TYLER, resigned.

Mr. RIVES was then qualified, and took his seat.

LAND BILL.

Mr. EWING, of Ohio, moved that the Senate proceed to consider the bill to appropriate for a limited time the proceeds of the public lands, &c.

Mr. BUCHANAN expressed a hope that the motion would not be pressed, but that the Senate would pro ceed to the consideration of executive business, which had been so long delayed.

Mr. EWING suggested that it had been considered best to postpone the executive business until the Senate should be full. Some Senators were now indisposed, and in a few days it would be more likely to be full.

Mr. WALL stated that he should be obliged to quit the city to-morrow on indispensable business.

Mr. EWING and Mr. CALHOUN advocated the disre-portance; and Mr. EWING called for the yeas and nays, taking up of the land bill, as a subject of very great imwhich were ordered, on his motion.

On the whole, he had determined to vote steadily against propositions hostile to a commitment of the petition, having indulged the hope that such a result might possibly be attained, and believing, as he did, that its effect upon the public mind would be far more efficacious and salutary than a hasty rejection of the prayer as soon as the petition enters this chamber, as proposed by my friend from Pennsylvania.

Mr. WALKER stated that he had voted for the mo. tion not to receive the petition; but as that motion, which was the strongest, had failed, he should feel himself bound to vote for that which was the next strongest proposition, which he considered to be the motion to reject the prayer of the petition. If he had felt it his duty to avoid a participation in the vote, as the Senator from South Carolina had done, he would have retired from the Senate altogether, and left it to those he rep resented to pass judgment upon his conduct. by the absence of his vote, a measure hostile to the views But if,

Mr. BENTON, and decided as follows:
The question was taken, after some opposition from

Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, Knight, Leigh, Mc-
YEAS-Messrs. Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden,
Kean, Mangum, Naudain, Porter, Prentiss, Preston,
Robbins, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Webster-20.

NAYS-Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buchanan,
Cuthbert, Ewing of Illinois, Grundy, Hill, Hubbard,
ris, Nicholas, Niles, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley,
King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, Moore, Mor-
Tallmadge, Tipton, Walker, Wall, White, Wright--26.

The Senate then receded from their amendments to the bill to provide for the payment of the volunteer and militia corps in Florida.

Mr. PRENTISS offered the following resolution; which was agreed to:

Resolved, That the Committee on Pensions be inSecretary of War to allow and pay to the heirs of Richstructed to inquire into expediency of directing the

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ardson Anderson, deceased, late a pensioner on the revolutionary invalid pension roll, the amount of the said Richardson's invalid pension, from the 3d day of March, 1826, to the 31st day of May, 1830, during which time the said pension was withheld or discontinued, in consequence of the said Richardson's taking the benefit of the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the army of the Revolution, passed May 15, 1828.

The bill for the continuation of the Cumberland road in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was read a third time and passed.

On motion of Mr. BUCHANAN, the Senate proceeded to the consideration of executive business; and, after remaining for some time with closed doors,

The Senate adjourned.

TUESDAY, MARCH 15.

LAND BILL.

Mr. EWING, of Ohio, moved the Senate to take up the bill to authorize the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, &c.

Mr. BUCHANAN expressed a hope that the Senate would proceed to the consideration of executive business.

Mr. EWING called for the yeas and nays on the ques tion; which were ordered; and, after a few words from Mr. BENTON, Mr. EWING, and Mr. BLACK, the question was taken, and decided as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Black, Calhoun, Clay, Clayton, Crittenden, Davis, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsborough, Hendricks, Kent, Knight, Leigh, McKean, Mangum, Naudain, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Southard, Swift, Tomlinson, Webster, White-24.

NAYS-Messrs. Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Cuthbert, Ewing of Illinois, Grundy, Hill, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Linn, Morris, Nicholas, Niles, Rives, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, Walker, Wall, Wright-23.

So the Senate determined to take up the bill.

[MARCH 15, 1836.

This bill, Mr. President, ought not to be looked upon as a party measure; nor should it, nor, I trust, will it, be agitated or decided as a party question. It is a great national measure; one in which the whole Union is interested deeply; one which the general good imperatively demands; and it is one which has been heretofore considered and sustained as a national measure by men of both political parties, even in times of high party excitement. In turning to the yeas and nays, as recorded in the journals of the Senate in 1832, I find in the affirmative, on the final passage of this bill, Dudley, of New York, Dickerson, of New Jersey, (now a member of the cabinet,) and Dallas and Wilkins, of Pennsylvania; all devoted friends of the President, but who, in this instance at least, if party were at all involved in the question, showed that they loved their country better than their party. But the state of things has changed since this bill was then before the Senate. The reasons for its passage, all that then existed, still remain in full vigor; all the leading objections to it have ceased to exist; and other reasons, most imperative in their nature, seem to demand of us its adoption. Those who opposed it then may, with perfect consistency, support it now. Not only so; they may, and those who view it aright will, as I think, feel constrained, by a sense of what is due to the welfare and prosperity of our common country, to sustain it, and press it onward to a successful termination. The public debt is now paid; the tariff is adjusted on terms which no one will think fit to disturb; and there has accumulated in the national treasury a very large amount of money beyond what is requisite for the wants of the Government. This amount continues and must continue rapidly to accumulate. We have for it no safe depository. It is scattered about among the banks in the several States, who give no pledge for its repayment, and pay no interest for its use. This surplus, now nominally in the treasury, but really scattered among these deposite banks, is large-very large; according to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury made to the Senate a short time since, it

Mr. EWING, of Ohio, then rose and addressed the amounted on the 1st of February last to $28,239,744 61, Chair as follows:

Mr. President: This bill, which has already several times passed this body, and which was once carried in the other branch of the national Legislature, is so familiar to all here that it is hardly necessary to present an analysis of its provisions. Some amendments, indeed, have been proposed by the Committee on Public Lands; but those amendments are not at all vital to the bill; they merely modify in some measure its provisions; they propose to strike out some matters which seem incongruous, or out of place here; but there is no one of those amendments which the committee would not be willing to yield, if the bill, in its original shape, be more acceptable to the Senate. The leading provisions which remain are these: 1st. That there be granted to each of the new States, to be applied to the purposes of internal improvement, so much land as, with that already granted for the same purpose, will make to each State at least 500,000 acres. 2d. That there be granted to each of the said new States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, ten per cent. on the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands within its limits since the 31st day of December, 1832, to be applied to the purposes of internal improve ments within the respective States; and, lastly and chiefly, that the whole residue of the nett proceeds of the sales of the public lands since that day shall be divided among all the States, according to their respective federal representative population, as ascertained by the last census, to be applied by the Legislatures of the States to such objects as they shall designate and authorize.

exclusive of considerable sums also in deposite in these banks to the credit of disbursing officers, but which had not been expended; the whole sum amounted to $30,678,879 91. This sum cannot be touched or lessened by any of the expenditures of the present year; on the contrary, it must continue to increase. There is one item, and a large one, which will soon, I presume, be added to it; I mean the stock which we held in the late Bank of the United States. That bank has ceased to exist as a national institution. Its stockholders, all except the United States, have been incorporated by one of the States as a State bank. It is now right and proper that our connexion with it should be dissolved, for the United States ought not to be a stockholder in any of the State institutions. This bank stock, amounting to $7,000,000, will, if present prices be maintained, sell for at least seven and a half-more probably eight millions; but if we estimate the receipts from it at seven and a half, it gives, added to the present sum in the treasury, $38,178,879 91 of present means on hand, or which must be on hand in the course of the summer. And this surplus must continue to increase; for the receipts of the current year will very much exceed all the expenditures which can be made beneficially to the country under the appropriations of the present session. The receipts from customs for the year 1836 may be safely estimated as equalling those of 1835. Indeed, the receipts for January of this year have very much exceeded those for the corresponding month of the last. But that I may not place it too high, I set it down at the same; that is, in round numbers, $19,000,000. The receipts from public lands will much exceed those

JAN. 12, 1836.]

The United States and France, &c.-Surplus Revenue, &c.

Mr. WEBSTER stated the character of the bill, of which the following is a copy:

A BILL for the relief of the sufferers by the fire in the city of New York.

Be it enacted, &c., That the collector of the port of New York be, and he is hereby, authorized, as he may deem best calculated to secure the interests of the United States, to cause to be extended (with the assent of the securities thereon) to all persons who have suffered loss of property by the conflagration at that place, on the sixteenth day of December last, by the burning of their buildings or merchandise, the time of payment of all bonds heretofore given by them for duties, to periods not exceeding three, four, and five years, in equal instalments, from and after the day of payment specified in the bonds; or to allow the said bonds to be cancelled, upon giving to said collector new bonds, with one or more sureties, to the satisfaction of the said collector, for the sums of the former bonds, respectively, payable in equal instalments, in three, four, and five years from and after the day of payment specified in the bonds to be taken and cancelled as aforesaid; and the said collector is hereby authorized and directed to give up, or cancel, all such bonds, upon the receipt of others described in this section; which last-mentioned bonds shall be proceeded with, in all respects, like other bonds which are taken by collectors for duties due to the United States, and shall have the same force and validity: Provided, That those who are within the provision of this section, but who may have paid their bonds subsequent to the late fire, shall also be entitled to the benefit of this section, and that the said bonds shall be renewed from the day when the same were paid, and said payments refunded. And provided, also, That the benefits of this section shall not be extended to any person whose loss shall not be proved, to the satisfaction of the collector, to have exceeded the sum of one thousand dollars.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the collector of the port of New York is hereby authorized and directed to extend the payment, in the manner prescribed in the first section of this act, of all other bonds given for duties at the port of New York, prior to the late fire, and not provided for in the first section, as aforesaid, for six, nine, and twelve months from and after the day of payment specified in the bonds: Provided, however, That nothing contained in this act shall extend to bonds which had fallen due before the seventeenth day of December last.

Mr. CLAY made some objection to the bill in its present shape, but wished it to lie for examination; which was assented to; and, after a few words from Mr. CALHOUN, Mr. WRIGHT, and Mr. WEBSTER, was for the present laid on the table.

THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE, &c. The resolutions offered yesterday by Mr. CLAY, calling on the Executive for information concerning our relations with France, having been taken up, as follows:

"Resolved, That the President be requested to communicate to the Senate (if it be not in his opinion incompatible with the public interest) whether, since the termination of the last Congress, any overture, formal or informal, official or unofficial, has been made by the French Government to the Executive of the United States, to accommodate the difficulties between the two Governments respecting the execution of the convention of the 4th day of July, 1831; and, particularly, whether a despatch from the Duc de Broglie, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the French chargé de affaires at Washington, was read, and the original or a copy of it furnished by him to the Secretary of State,

[SENATE.

for the purpose of indicating a mode in which those difficulties might be removed.

"Resolved, also, (under the restriction above mentioned,) in the event of any such overture having been made, That the President be requested to inform the Senate what answer was given to it; and if the original or a copy of any such despatch were received, that he be further requested to communicate a copy of it to the Senate."

Mr. LEIGH moved to amend the resolutions by adding the following:

Resolved, also, (under the restriction before mentioned,) That the President be requested to communicate to the Senate a copy of the note of M. Serurier, mentioned in his message of the 25th February, 1835, and not then communicated, for reasons stated in the report of the Secretary of State to the President, of the same date.

The amendment was adopted, and the resolutions, as amended, were agreed to.

SURPLUS REVENUE, BANK STOCK, AND NATIONAL DEFENCE.

The following resolution, submitted yesterday by Mr. BENTON, was taken up for consideration:

"Resolved, That the surplus revenue of the United States, and the dividends of stock receivable from the Bank of the United States, ought to be set apart, and applied to the general defence and permanent security of the country. That the President be requested to cause the Senate to be informed-

"1. The probable amount that would be necessary for fortifying the lake, maritime, and gulf frontier of the United States, and such points of the land frontier as may require permanent fortifications.

"2. The probable amount that would be necessary to construct an adequate number of armories and arsenals in the United States, and to supply the States with field artillery, especially brass field pieces, for their militia, and with side arms and pistols for their cavalry.

3. The probable amount that would be necessary to supply the United States with the ordnance, arms, and munitions of war, which a proper regard to selfdefence would require to be always on hand.

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4. The probable amount that would be necessary to place the naval defences of the United States (including the increase of the navy, navy yards, dock yards, and steam or floating batteries) upon the footing of strength and respectability which is due to the security and to the welfare of the Union."

The resolution having been read,

Mr. BENTON rose and said that the objects contemplated by it were of a general and permanent nature, and required attention, without regard to existing circumstances. To place itself in a state of defence was the duty of all countries which desired to preserve their independence or to live with honor. The United States were not in a state of defence, and it was their duty to attend to that object. The present time was the proper time. The public debt was paid, a large surplus revenue was accumulating, and the country was every way prosperous. Projects were devised to distribute these surpluses among the States; but he was in favor of setting them apart, and dedicating them to the defence of the Union. Formerly, and by a law as old as the repub lic, these surpluses were all set apart, and constituted a separate fund, called the sinking fund, and inviolably applied to the sacred purpose of extinguishing the national debt. By this means the debt has been paid. He was for reviving and continuing this policy, with a change of object, from the debt to the defences of the Union, and would wish to see all the surplus revenue take that direction, until the country was as secure from receiving, as it is averse from offering, offence. It

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would require all the surpluses, and many years of exertion, to accomplish the object.

Mr. B. repeated, his motion was for objects of a general and permanent character, and he felt it to be his duty to make it, without regard to impending events or to extrinsic circumstances. But there were events and circumstances which should give emphasis to his motion, and stimulate its immediate adoption. A French fleet of sixty vessels of war, to be followed by sixty more, now in commission, approaches our coast; and approaches it for the avowed purpose of observing our conduct in relation to France. It is styled in the French papers a squadron of observation; and we are sufficiently acquainted with the military vocabulary of France to know what that phrase means. In the days of the great Emperor, we were accustomed to see the armies which demolished empires at a blow wear that pacific title up to the moment that the blow was ready to be struck. These grand armies assembled on the frontiers of empires, gave emphasis to negotiation, and crushed what resisted. A squadron of observation, then, is a squadron of intimidation first, and of attack eventually; and nothing could be more palpable than that such was the character of the squadron in question. It leaves the French coast cotemporaneously with the departure of our diplomatic agent, and the assembling of our Congress; it arrives upon our coast at the very moment that we shall have to vote upon French affairs; and it takes a position upon our Southern border-that border, above all others, on which we are, at this time, peculiarly sensitive to hostile approach.

What have we done, continued Mr. B., to draw this squadron upon us? We have done no wrong to France; we are making no preparations against her; and not even ordinary preparations for general and permanent security. We have treaties, and are executing them, even the treaty that she does not execute? We have been executing that treaty for five years, and may say that we have paid France as much under it as we have in vain demanded from her, as the first instalment of the indemnity; not, in fact, by taking money out of our treasury and delivering to her, but, what is better for her, namely, leaving her own money in her own hands, in the shape of diminished duties upon her wines, as provided for in this same treaty, which we execute, and which she does not. In this way France has gained one or two millions of dollars from us, besides the encouragement to her wine trade. On the article of silks she is also gaining money from us in the same way, not by treaty, but by law. Our discriminating duties in favor of silks from this side the Cape of Good Hope, operate almost entirely in her favor. Our great supplies of silks are from France, England, and China. In ten years, and under the operation of this discriminating duty, our imports of French silks have risen from two milJions of dollars per annum to six millions and a half; from England, they have risen from a quarter of a million to three quarters; from China, they have sunk from three millions and a quarter to one million, and a quarter. This discriminating duty has left between one and two millions of dollars in the pockets of Frenchmen, besides the encouragement to the silk manufacture and trade. Why, then, has she sent this squadron, to observe us first, and to strike us eventually? She knows our pacific disposition towards her, not only from our own words and actions, but from the official report of her own officers; from the very officer sent out last spring, in a brig, to carry back the recalled minister. Here is his report, made to the Minister of Marine, and communicated to the Chamber of Deputies in the month of April last. Listen to it, and see how fully it estabJishes, not only our pacific dispositions towards France, but the affection of our citizens for her, and the solici

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[JAN. 12, 1836.

tude of our officers to honor her flag and gratify her feeling.

"BREST, April 4, 1835.

"I have the honor to inform you that the brig d'Assas sailed from New York on the 11th of March last, at the same time with the American packet ship Albany, in which M. Serurier and his family are returning to France, and arrived in the roads of Brest on the 14th of this month, after a passage of twenty-four days. I remained in the United States until the 11th of March, as the chargé d'affaires of France, at whose disposition your excellency placed me, did not wish to despatch me back until the rising of Congress, which took place on the 4th of that month. During my stay at New York, I found among the richest and best educated persons the greatest affection and sympathy for France; this they expressed to us by every possible attention and every delicate kindness which their hospitable dispositions could suggest. Half an hour after my leaving the East river, an American schooner of war, knowing the time at which I was to depart, got under sail; she crossed my way about a league from the place of anchorage, and when about two cables' length from us, she hoisted the French flag on her mizzen mast, and fired seven guns, which were immediately returned; she kept the tri-color flag flying as long as we were in sight. I then saw the American frigate Constitution, towed by two steamboats, on her way to New York; as soon as I crossed her, I saluted her commodore with thirteen guns, which he immediately returned, gun for gun."

Mr. B., resuming, said this was the report made to the French Government by a French officer, after the rise of the last session of Congress, and after the departure of M. Serurier; and how was it received in the Chamber of Deputies, to which it was communicated? He (Mr. B.) would show one example of the manner in which it was received, and for that purpose would read a paragraph from the speech of the deputy M. de

Rance.

"Gentlemen, we should put on one side of the tribune the twenty-five millions, on the other the sword of France. When the Americans see this good long sword, this very long sword, gentlemen, (for it struck down every thing from Lisbon to Moscow,) they will perhaps recollect what it did for the independence of their country; they will, perhaps, too, reflect upon what it could do to support and avenge the honor and dignity of France, when outraged by an ungrateful people. [Cries of, well said!] Believe me, gentlemen, they would sooner touch your money than dare to touch your sword; and for your twenty-five millions they will bring you back the satisfactory receipt, which it is your duty to exact. [Great approbation from the extremities."]

Another deputy, M. Fleury de Chabaulon, allowed himself to discourse thus:

"The insult of President Jackson comes from himself only. This is more evident, from the refusal of the American Congress to concur with him in it. The French Chamber, by interfering, would render the affair more serious, and make its arrangement more diflìcult, and even dangerous. Let us put the case to ourselves. Suppose the United States had taken part with General Jackson, we should have had to demand satisfaction not from him, but from the United States; and instead of now talking about negotiation, we should have had to make appropriations for a war, and to intrust to our heroes of Navarino and Algiers the task of teaching the Americans that France knows the way to Washington as well as England."

This was the language of the deputies, and it was thus received with applauses, and that six weeks after the rise of our Congress, which had shown itself pacific, and two weeks after the report of the captain of the brig

JAN. 12, 1836.]

Surplus Revenue, &c.

[SENATE.

All these specific appropriations, continued Mr. B., were lost in the bill which was sunk by the opposition of the Senate to the three millions, which were attached to it by the House of Representatives. He (Mr. B.) was not a member of the conference committee which had the disagreement of the two Houses committed to its charge, and could go into no detail as to what happened in that conference; he took his stand upon the palpable ground that the opposition which the Senate which denounced it, and the prolonged invectives against the President, which inflamed the passions and consumed the precious time at the last moment of the session, were the true causes of the loss of that bill; and so leaves the responsibility for the loss on the shoulders of the Senate.

d'Assas, attesting the friendship of our feelings, and the readiness of our officers to salute, with honor, the flag of France. And this language was not only received with applause in the Chamber, but it has been acted upon by the French Government. Two royal ordinances have appeared in the Moniteur, under date of the 2d of December last; and, under these ordinances, Admiral Mackau is to take command of the "squadron of observation," which was immediately to proceed to the West Indies; and the Constitutionnel, which is the demi-made to the three million appropriation, the speeches official paper of the Government, and nearly equal in authority to the Moniteur, after stating that this measure was warranted by the actual state of the difficulties with the United States, goes on to "applaud the Government for thus preparing, long beforehand, and concentrating the power in the hands of one who is firm, and capable of using it to advantage when neces sary." Thus, the language of the deputies and the conduct of the Government correspond; and the fleet must now be approaching our coast, which bears that long sword, at the sight of which our terrified hearts and faltering tongues must deliver the satisfactory answer which French chivalry exacts.

Mr. B. said he had never spoken unkindly of the
French nation, neither in his place here as a Senator, nor
in his private capacity elsewhere. Born since the Amer-
ican Revolution, bred up in habitual affection for the
French name, coming upon the stage of life when the
glories of the republic and of the empire were filling
the world and dazzling the imagination, politically con-
nected with the party which, a few years ago, was called
French, his bosom had glowed with admiration for that
people, and youthful affection had ripened into manly
friendship. He would not now permit himself to speak
unkindly, much less to use epithets; but he could not
avoid fixing his attention upon the reason assigned in the
Constitutionnel for the present advance of the French
squadron upon us. That reason is this: "America will
have no force capable of being opposed to it." This is
the reason. Our nakedness, our destitution, has drawn
upon us the honor of this visit; and we are now to
speak, and vote, and so to demean ourselves, as men
standing in the presence of a force which they cannot re-
sist, and which had taught the lesson of submission to
the Turk and the Arab? And here I change the theme;
I turn from French intimidation to American legislation;
and I ask how it comes that we have no force to oppose
to this squadron which comes here to take a position
upon our borders, and to show us that it knows the way
to Washington as well as the English? This is my fu-
ture theme; and I have to present the American Senate
as the responsible party for leaving our country in this
wretched condition. First, there is the three million
appropriation which was lost by the opposition of the
Senate, and which carried down with it the whole forti-
fication bill, to which it was attached. That bill, be-
sides the three millions, contained thirteen specific appro-
priations for works of defence, part originating in the
House of Representatives, and part in the Senate, and
the particulars of which he would read:
For the fort on George's island,

For the repairs of Fort Independence,
For Fort Adams,

For the fort at Throg's neck,

Repairing Fort Columbus,

Rebuilding Fort Delaware,

For fortifications in Charleston harbor,

Fort at Cockspur island,

Fort at Pensacola,

Fort on Foster's bank,

Repairs of Fort Mifflin,

Armament of fortifications,
Contingencies,

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Of this three million appropriation, Mr. B. said, the country had heard much; but there was another material appropriation lost in the Senate, of which nothing had been said: he alluded to the sum of $500,000, which originated in the Senate's Committee on Military Affairs, and which, as the chairman of that committee, and under its direction, he had recommended in a report, and proposed as an amendment to the same fortification bill, which was afterwards sunk under the three millions. The report was made on the 18th of February, and he would read it.

"The Senate's Committee on Military Affairs, which has had the subject under consideration, report: "That it is expedient to increase the appropriations heretofore made for the national defence; and that, in addition to the sums now contained in that bill for fortifications, and in addition to the two sums of $100,000, each heretofore recommended by this committee to be inserted in the said bill for fortifications, and the armament thereof, the further sum of five hundred thousand dollars be recommended to be inserted therein, for the repair, completion, and construction, of fortifications, and to provide the necessary armament therefor. And the committee have directed their chairman to move an amendment accordingly, at the proper time, to the fortification appropriation bill."

The motion was made in the Senate to insert this appropriation of $500,000. The sense of the Senate was so clearly against it, that he (Mr. B.) did not press it, nor call for a division. It was rejected when offered; and thus the Senate, some days before they objected to the three millions as being too large and general, had rejected a much smaller appropriation, and one that was specific.

The third act of the Senate which Mr. B. brought forward to establish the responsibility of the Senate for the present condition of the country, and the consequent visit of the French fleet, was the fact of laying on the table, and refusing even to consider, a resolution which he brought forward about the middle of February, calling on the President for plans and estimates for the general and permanent defence of the country by sea and land. It was a call for plans and estimates and probable amounts of surplus revenue, with the sole view to the defence of the country; yet it was laid upon the table 8,000 by the vote of the majority, and upon the motion of an 100,000 opposition Senator; and, of all the acts of the Senate, it 30,000 seemed to him to be the one which went farthest in 13,000 showing the indisposition of this body to provide for the 150,000 defence of the country. It was not merely a refusal to 20,000 apply money, but a refusal to have information by which 82,000 money could be applied, and that while making it a 26,000 standing topic of reproach that the President had not 65,000 furnished plans and estimates.

- $15,000

75,000 The fourth circumstance on which Mr. B. relied to - 100,000 show that the Senate was responsible for the present 10,000 naked and defenceless condition of the country, and for

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