might be rendered doubtful. Denmark had
only a nominal independence.
She was, in
truth, subject to his sway. We said to her,
Give us your fleet; it will otherwise be taken
possession of by your secret and our open enemy,
We will preserve it, and restore it to you when-
ever the danger shall be over. Denmark re-
fused. Copenhagen was bombarded, gallantly
defended, but the fleet was seized." Every-
where the conduct of England was censured;
and the name even of the negotiator who was
employed by her, who was subsequently the min-
ister near this government, was scarcely ever
pronounced here without coupling with it an
epithet indicating his participation in the dis-
graceful transaction. And yet we are going to
sanction acts of violence, committed by our-
selves, which but too much resemble it! What
an important difference, too, between the rela-
tive condition of England and of this country!
She, perhaps, was struggling for her existence.
She was combating, single-handed, the most
enormous military power that the world has
ever known. With whom were we contending?
With a few half-starved, half-clothed, wretched
Indians, and fugitive slaves. And while car-
rying on this inglorious war, inglorious as it re-
gards the laurels or renown won in it, we vio-
late neutral rights, which the government had
solemnly pledged itself to respect, upon the prin-
ciple of convenience, or upon the light presump-
tion that, by possibility, a post might be taken by
this miserable combination of Indians and slaves.

negroes, to occupy the fort, and declares his purpose to possess himself of it, in either of the two contingencies, of its being in their hands, or in the hands of the Spaniards. He assumed a right to judge what Spain was bound to do by her treaty, and judged very correctly; but then he also assumed the power, belonging to Congress alone, of determining what should be the effect and consequence of her breach of engagement. General Jackson generally performs what he intimates his intention to do. Accordingly, finding St. Marks yet in the hands of the Spaniards, he seized and occupied it Was ever, I ask, the just confidence of the legislative body, in the assurances of the chief magistrate, more abused? The Spanish commander intimated his willingness that the American army should take post near him, until he could have instructions from his superior officer, and promised to maintain, in the mean time, the most friendly relations. No! St. Marks was a convenient post for the American army, and delay was inadmissible. I have always understood that the Indians but rarely take or defend fortresses, because they are unskilled in the modes of attack and defence. The threat, therefore, on their part, to seize on St. Marks, must have been empty, and would probably have been impossible. At all events, when General Jackson arrived there, no danger any longer threatened the Spaniards, from the miserable fugitive Indians, who fled on all sides upon his approach. And, sir, upon what plea is this violation of orders, and this act of war upon a foreign power, attempted to be justified? Upon the grounds of the conveniency of the depot and the Indian threat. The first I will not seriously examine and expose. If the Spanish character of the fort had been totally merged in the Indian char-ject, he writes, on the 20th of April, that he acter, it might have been justifiable to seize it. But that was not the fact; and the bare possibility of its being forcibly taken by the Indians could not justify our anticipating their blow. Of all the odious transactions which occurred during the late war between France and England, none was more condemned in Europe and in this country, than her seizure of the fleet of Denmark, at Copenhagen. And I lament to be obliged to notice the analogy which exists in the defences made of the two cases.

If my recollection does not deceive me, Bonaparte had passed the Rhine and the Alps, had conquered Italy, the Netherlands, Holland, Hanover, Lubec, and Hamburg, and extended his empire as far as Altona, on the side of Denmark. A few days' march would have carried him through Holstein, over the two Belts, through Funen, and into the island of Zealand. What then was the conduct of England? It was my lot to fall into conversation with an intelligent Englishman on this subject. "We knew (said he) that we were fighting for our existence. It was absolutely necessary that we should preserve the command of the seas. the fleet of Denmark fell into the enemy's hands, combined with his other fleets, that command

If

On the 8th of April the general writes from St. Marks that he shall march for the Suwaney river; the destroying of the establishments on which will, in his opinion, bring the war to a close. Accordingly, having effected that ob

believes he may say that the war is at an end for the present. He repeats the same opinion in his letter to the Secretary of War, written six days after. The war being thus ended, it might have been hoped that no further hostilities would be committed. But on the 23d of May, on his way home, he receives a letter from the commandant of Pensacola, intimating his surprise at the invasion of the Spanish territory, and the acts of hostility performed by the American army, and his determination, if persisted in, to employ force to repel them. Let us pause and examine the proceeding of the governor, so very hostile and affrontive in the view of General Jackson. Recollect that he was governor of Florida; that he had received no orders from his superiors to allow a passage to the American army; that he had heard of the reduction of St. Marks; and that General Jackson, at the head of his army, was approaching in the direction of Pensacola. He had seen the president's message of the 25th of March, and reminded General Jackson of it, to satisfy him that the American government could not have authorized all those measures. I cannot read the allusion made by the governor to that message without feeling that the charge of insincerity

which it implied had, at least, but too much the | eral Jackson to have done in attacking Pensacola appearance of truth in it. Could the governor have done less than write some such letter? We have only to reverse situations, and suppose him to have been an American governor. General Jackson says that when he received that letter he no longer hesitated. No, sir, he did no longer hesitate. He received it on the 23d, he was in Pensacola on the 24th, and immediately after set himself before the fortress of San Carlos de Barancas, which he shortly reduced. "Veni, vidi, vici." Wonderful energy! Admirable promptitude! Alas! that it had not been an energy and a promptitude within the pale of the constitution, and according to the orders of the chief magistrate. It is impossible to give any definition of war that would not comprehend these acts. It was open, undisguised, and unauthorized hostility.

for an Indian town, by attempting the defence both of the President and General Jackson. If it were right in him to seize the place, it is impossible that it should have been right in the President immediately to surrender it. We, sir, are the supporters of the President. We regret that we cannot support General Jackson also. The gentleman's liberality is more comprehensive than ours. I approve with all my heart of the restoration of Pensacola. I think St. Marks ought, perhaps, to have been also restored; but I say this with doubt and diffidence. That the President thought the seizure of the Spanish posts was an act of war, is manifest from his opening message, in which he says that, to have retained them, would have changed our relations with Spain, to do which the power of the executive was incompetent, Congress alone possessing it. The President has, in this instance, deserved well of his country. He has taken the only course which he could have pursued, consistent with the constitution of the land. And I defy the gentleman to make good both his positions, that the general was right in taking, and the President right in giving up, the posts.

Mr. Holmes explained.

The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts has endeavored to derive some authority to General Jackson from the message of the president, and the letter of the Secretary of War to Gov-| ernor Bibb. The message declares that the Spanish authorities are to be respected whereever maintained. What the president means by their being maintained is explained in the orders themselves, by the extreme case being put of the enemy seeking shelter under a Spanish fort. If even in that case he was not to attack, certainly he was not to attack in any case The gentleman from Massachusetts is truly of less strength. The letter to Governor Bibb unfortunate; fact or principle is always against admits of a similar explanation. When the him. The Spanish posts were not in the possecretary says, in that letter, that General Jack-session of the enemy. One old Indian only was son is fully empowered to bring the Seminole war to a conclusion, he means that he is so empowered by his orders, which, being now before us, must speak for themselves. It does not appear that General Jackson ever saw that letter, which was dated at this place after the capture of St Marks. I will take a momentary glance at the orders.

found in the Barancas, none in Pensacola, none in St. Marks. There was not even the color of a threat of Indian occupation as it regards Pensacola and the Barancas. Pensacola was to be restored unconditionally, and might, therefore, immediately have come into the possession of the Indians, if they had the power and the will to take it. The gentleman is in a dilemma On the 2d of December, 1817, General Gaines from which there is no escape. He gave up was forbidden to cross the Florida line. Seven General Jackson when he supported the Presidays after, the Secretary of War having arrived dent, and gave up the President when he suphere, and infused a little more energy into our ported General Jackson. I rejoice to have seen councils, he was authorized to use a sound dis- the President manifesting, by the restoration of cretion in crossing or not. On the 16th, he Pensacola, his devotedness to the constitution. he was instructed again to consider himself at When the whole country was ringing with liberty to cross the line, and pursue the enemy; plaudits for its capture, I said, and I said alone, but, if he took refuge under a Spanish fortress, in the limited circle in which I moved, that the the fact was to be reported to the Department President must surrender it; that he could not of War. These orders were transmitted to Gen- hold it. It is not my intention to inquire, eral Jackson, and constituted, or ought to have whether the army was or was not constitutionconstituted, his guide. There was then no jus- ally marched into Florida. It is not a clear tification for the occupation of Pensacola, and question, and I am inclined to think that the the attack on the Barancas, in the message of express authority of Congress ought to have the President, the letter to Governor Bibb, or been asked. The gentleman from Massachuin the orders themselves. The gentleman from setts will allow me to refer to a part of the corMassachusetts will pardon me for saying, that respondence at Ghent different from that which he has undertaken what even his talents are not he has quoted. He will find the condition of competent to the maintenance of directly con- the Indians there accurately defined. And it is tradictory propositions, that it was right in widely variant from the gentleman's ideas on General Jackson to take Pensacola, and wrong this subject. The Indians, inhabiting the United in the President to keep it. The gentleman has States, according to the statement of the Amermade a greater mistake than he supposes Gen-ican commissioners at Ghent, have a qualified

"Gone glimmering through the dream of things that and with envy; the other portion, with hope,

Mr. Johnson, the faithful and consistent sentinel

pointing to the demonstration of a spirit of in- of the law and of the constitution, disapproved justice and aggrandizement made by our country, in the midst of an amicable negotiation! | in that instance, as he does in this, and moved Behold, said they, the conduct of those who are an inquiry. The public mind remained agitated constantly reproaching kings! You saw how and unappeased, until the recent atonement so those admirers were astounded and hung their honorably made by the gallant commodore. heads. You saw, too, when that illustrious And is there to be a distinction between the man, who presides over us, adopted his pacific, officers of the two branches of the public sermoderate, and just course, how they once more vice? Are former services, however eminent, lifted up their heads with exultation and delight to preclude even inquiry into recent misconbeaming in their countenances. And you saw duct? Is there to be no limit, no prudential how those minions themselves were finally com- bounds to the national gratitude? I am not pelled to unite in the general praises bestowed disposed to censure the President for not orderupon our government. Beware how you forfeiting a court of inquiry, or a general court-marthis exalted character. Beware how you give tial. Perhaps, impelled by a sense of gratitude, a fatal sanction, in this infant period of our re- he determined, by anticipation, to extend to the public, scarcely yet two-score years old, to mili- general that pardon which he had the undoubted tary insubordination. Remember that Greece right to grant after sentence. Let us not shrink had her Alexander, Rome her Cæsar, England from our duty. Let us assert our constitutional her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that powers, and vindicate the instrument from miliif we would escape the rock on which they split, tary violation. we must avoid their errors.

I hope gentleman will deliberately survey the How different has been the treatment of awful isthmus on which we stand. They may General Jackson and that modest, but heroic bear down all opposition; they may even vote young man, a native of one of the smallest the general the public thanks; they may carry States in the Union, who achieved for his coun- him triumphantly through this House. But, if try, on Lake Erie, one of the most glorious they do, in my humble judgment, it will be a victories of the late war. In a moment of triumph of the principle of insubordination, a passion, he forgot himself, and offered an act triumph of the military over the civil authority, of violence which was repented of as soon as a triumph over the powers of this House, a perpetrated. He was tried, and suffered the triumph over the constitution of the land. And judgment to be pronounced by his peers. Pub-I pray most devoutly to Heaven, that it may lic justice was thought not even then to be not prove, in its ultimate effects and consesatisfied. The press and Congress took up the quences, a triumph over the liberties of the subject. My honorable friend from Virginia, people.

SPEECH ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.

Mr. Clay delivered this speech, in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the sixteenth of January, 1824; on "a bill authorizing the President of the United States to cause certain surveys and estimates to be made on the subject of roads and canals:"

MR. CHAIRMAN: I cannot enter on the discussion of the subject before us, without first asking leave to express my thanks for the kindness of the committee, in so far accommodating me as to agree, unanimously, to adjourn its sitting to the present time, in order to afford me the opportunity of exhibiting my views; which, however, I fear I shall do very unacceptably. As a requital for this kindness, I will endeavor, as far as is practicable, to abbreviate what I have to present to your consideration. Yet, on a question of this extent and moment, there are so many topics which demand a deliberate examination, that, from the nature of the case, it will be impossible, I am afraid, to

reduce the argument to any thing that the committee will consider a reasonable compass.

It is known to all who hear me, that there has now existed for several years a difference of opinion between the executive and legislative branches of this government, as to the nature and extent of certain powers conferred upon it by the constitution. Two successive Presidents have returned to Congress bills which had previously passed both Houses of that body, with a communication of the opinion, that Congress, under the constitution, possessed no power to enact such laws. High respect, personal and official, must be felt by all, as it is due, to those distinguished officers, and to their opinions, thus solemnly announced; and the most profound consideration belongs to our present chief magistrate, who has favored this House with a written argument, of great length and labor, consisting of not less than sixty or seventy pages, in support of his exposition of the constitution. From the magnitude of the interests involved in the question, all will readily concur