with Mr. Livingston at their head-and by the unfeigned surprise which the whole country, Virginia and Kentucky included, expressed upon the first propounding of this extraordinary proposition, in 1828. The Virginia resolutions talk of the right to interpose-do they say what is to ensue upon the exercise of that right? No, sir, they thought that intelligible enough-they were asserting no more than what has been so expressively and pointedly designated as the "right to fight," and they meant, if they meant any thing, no more than a declaration of opinion, to back their declarations by 100,000 militia, as I understand the phrase of the day to have been. This is the plain English of the matter-and one ground of objection to the "Carolina doctrine," as it has been called, (though I doubt, not very accurately,) is that it is not in plain English-that the people may be led, by a fatal deception, to do what they have never seriously contemplated, and what no people ought to do, without a solemn selfexamination, and a deliberate view to consequences.

Sir, we have heard of "nursery tales of raw heads and bloody bones." I am sorry that such an expression escaped the lips of the distinguished person who uttered it, and I lament still more that he gave it to the world in print. I am sure when he comes to re-consider, he cannot approve it-unless, indeed, he means to declare that the rest of the States are too cowardly or too feeble even to attempt to enforce their construction of the compact. This may be so, but for my part, I cannot consent to act upon such a calculation. If we do what we firmly believe it is our duty to do, let us make up our minds to meet all consequences. If there is any feature of the American Revolution more admirable than another, it is that our fathers had fully counted the cost before they took a single step. The leaders of the people were at great pains to inform them of the perils and privations which they were about to encounter. They put them on their guard against precipitate determinations. They impressed it upon their minds that a period was at hand, which called for "patience and heroic martyrdom"-they had not as yet a country to save, or a government worth to be transmitted to posterity, or how much more anxious would their deliberations have been. The language of a great, popular leader at Boston, before the first overt act of resistance, has made a deep impression upon my mind, and deserves to be repeated here. "It is not the spirit that vapors within these walls, (said Mr. Quincy) that must stand us in stead. The exertions of this day will call forth events, which will make a very different spirit necessary for our salvation. Look to the end. Whoever supposes that shouts and hosannas will terminate the trials of this day entertains a childish fancy. We must be grossly ignorant of the importance and the value of the prize we are contending far-we must be equal

ly ignorant of the power of those who are contending against us--we must be blind to that malice, inveteracy, and insatiable revenge which actuate our enemies, to hope we shall end this controversy, without the sharpest conflicts-to flatter ourselves that popular resolves, popular harangues, popular acclamations and popular vapor will vanquish our foes. Let us consider the issue. Let us weigh and consider before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle this country ever saw."

To this complexion it must come at last, and the only question now submitted to the people of South-Carolina, is-Are you ready to absolve yourselves from your allegiance to the Government of the United States, and to take and maintain your station as a separate commonwealth among the nations of the earth?

I have confined myself, in the discussion of this subject, to a single point in one branch of it. I have said nothing about the extent of our grievances, so enormously exaggerated by the "Exposition." Even in regard to the proposed remedy by Nuilification, I have chosen to take up the question as it is presented by the warmest advocates of that doctrine-and I submit that I have made it plain that, even on their own showing, it is necessarily an act of war-a revolutionary measure. But, in doing so, I have conceded a great deal too much I have allowed them to treat our elaborate and peculiar polity, which we have been taught to regard as one of the master-pieces of human invention-as if it were the coarsest and loosest of those occasional expedients to preserve peace among foreign powers, leagues, offensive and defensive. If their argument is wholly inconclusive and indeed manifestly incongruous and absurd even in this point of view, what shall be said of it, when it is thoroughly and critically examined with reference to a true state of the case? Sir, I have no language to express my astonishment that such a doctrine should have found any countenance from the able and enlightened men who have given in their adhesion to it.

We have been taunted as submissionists-I am not afraid of a nickname "Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil." It would be easy-very, very easy to retort-but I prefer accepting our own denomination and putting my own interpretation upon it. I give you, Sir,

The Submission-men of South-Carolina

"They dare do all that may become a man,
Who dares do more, is none."

SPIRIT OF THE SUB-TREASURY.

SPEECH On the Bill imposing additional Duties as Depositaries, in certain cases, on public Officers, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, October, 1837. Washington, D. C.

MR. CHAIRMAN:

I do not know how I can more appropriately begin the remarks I am about to make, than in the very words with which a most able English writer, addressing himself to the causes and character of the recent crisis, concludes his: "The events, (says Mr. Samuel Jones Lloyd, in a pamphlet published last spring,) which have occurred in connection with the late pressure upon the moneyed and mercantile interests, are full of instructive illustrations of the effects, both beneficial and otherwise, of our present system; and the evil consequences of this pressure will be as nothing, compared with its benefits; if, amongst these, we shall be enabled to reckon an increased degree of intelligence upon subjects connected with currency, and a nearer approximation to sound principles in the management of our paper issues." The revulsion, it is true, has been far more disastrous on this side of the Atlantic than in England; and yet, even at its darkest period-now, as I confidently believe, passed away to give place to returning prosperity,-I found consolation in the idea that, dearly as we were buying our experience in this important matter, the price would not be too high for the benefits we should ultimately derive from our reverses. A national visitation ought to be considered as a great providential lesson. It teaches the most momentous truths, and it teaches them in the most impressive manner, and what we have recently seen and felt will dispose us--if any thing can dispose us--to look the difficulties, with which this subject is surrounded, fairly in the face.

Sir, it is surrounded with difficulties. Even in England, as you perceive from the citation 1 have just made, they are felt and acknowledged by the most able men. I have upon my desk many other proofs of the same fact. They abound, for instance, in the Minutes of Evidence, taken before the Committee of the House of Commons, on the renewal of the charter of the Bank of England, in 1832. You will find there that, while high au

thorities* agree in thinking that there should be but one bank of issue for the Capital, at least, if not for the whole country; the representatives of the great commercial and manufacturing interests, on the contrary, protest against the continuance of a mo nopoly to which they impute the most sinister influences over their immense business,f and demand a system of joint-stock banks, regulated by principles more agreeable, as they contend, to the course and policy of trade. A third party insists upon the necessity of compelling all banks of issue to give adequate security to the public, (in Government stock, &c.) for the redemption of their issues, while every stockholder or partner shall continue to be, as at present, responsible for all the debts of the company, to the whole amount of his private fortune. A fourth, (and I have just received from London a little volume in which that opinion is most plausibly maintained,) urges the most unlimited freedom in banking; and sees no more danger to society from perfect liberty in this, than in any other branch of business, the supplying, for example, the market of a great capital with the necessaries of life. In this perplexity and distraction of English opinion upon this subject, however, all parties agree in one thing, and that is, in adhering to the paper system. Nobody there thinks of any thing so extravagant as the overthrow of that system, whatever defects may be seen or supposed to exist in it, or whatever projects may have been imagined to purify, to correct, and to improve it.

But if such is the state of English opinion in regard to this subject, how must it be with us, when to all the intrinsic difficulties of the thing itself, we add those arising out of the complicated structure of our political institutions? It would be hard enough to say what ought to be done, in the present emergency, were this a simple consolidated Government, but how much harder is it to advise the administration of a federal Government as to the course it ought to pursue, where one happens to doubt its possessing all the power necessary to give complete relief, without a co-operation of others? For, sir, at the risk of being set down in that category of "tiny politicians" of whom the gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. W. Cost Johnson,) in a very amusing speech, in the course of which, however, he

* Messrs. Horsley Palmer, Tooke, Rothschild, &c.

+ Messrs. Burt, Smith, and Dyer, of Manchester. It is worthy of remark, that these remonstrances were admitted to be well-founded by the change which, in consequence of them, was made in the law, in reference to joint-stock banks beyond 65 miles from London.

Messrs. Ricardo, Maccullough, Norton, (the last in Minutes, &c. just cited). § Money and its Vicissitudes in Value, by the author of the Rationale of Political Representation, and Critical Dissertation on Value, &c. (Mr. Francis Bailey.)

VOL. I.-36

uttered some grave and important truths, spoke last night with such profound contempt, I must confess I agree with the Executive in the general principles of constitutional law involved in the Message. In the division of the attributes of sovereignty between this Government and the States, it may and must happen that we should experience sometimes a chasm, and sometimes a conflict of powers. More is taken from the States, perhaps, than has been given to the confederacy, neither can do enough, while each can do too much, for perfect harmony; defects, discrepancies, and contradictions exist in the scheme itself, detected only in a long course of practice; and which nothing but practical skill, the wisdom called forth in the management of great affairs, especially political affairs, can reconcile and rectify. Undoubtedly the task is an immensely difficult onebut it must be undertaken, and it must be done. The subject before the committee is an example of the high and difficult duties I refer to; nor can I imagine an occasion better fitted than this, to awaken the House to a lively sense of its infinite responsibilities to the country.

Judge, then, sir, with what deep disappointment and regret, I learned that the bill on the table was to be pressed upon us at this short session. It is quite enough for me that it proposes a great innovation upon the whole course of the Government, from its foundation up to the present moment, and upon all the habits of our people. They who see deeper or clearer into such matters than I do must pardon me for declaring that I cannot, conscientiously, vote for the measure in such haste. If I had no positive objections to it, it would be quite enough for me, that I have not had sufficient time to reflect on it. During this extraordinary session, (for so it has been in every sense of the word,) fatigued, harassed, exhausted, by incessant attendance, by night and by day, in this Hall, it has not been in my power to inform myself on any subject as I could have wished to be able to do. I have had absolutely no time for minute research, hardly a few hours for calm reflection. Under such circumstances, I cannot vote for the bill. I must go home to my constituents and talk with them. Many, perhaps most of them, understand these matters better than I do; but when I left them, although this subject had been discussed, and ably discussed, here and there, by an individual or two, public attention had not been awakened to it: and nothing like an opinion-certainly no opinion favorable to the principle of the bill-had been formed in regard to it.

And here, sir, I might take my seat again, if I had risen only to explain my own vote, or to influence those of others, on the proposed measure. But the true issue seems to me very far to