tion the gentleman had given. I am myself, said he, one of the last men in the nation who would quote what comes from newspapers, because misrepresentations occur in them-often accidental, sometimes intentional. But, in our domicil, this day, the gentleman from Massachusetts, reciting what I understood as the amount of my colleague's declaration, asked me whether Virginia did not build an arsenal for the purpose of manufacturing arms, expressly to oppose the constituted authorities of the country; from which, I understood him to convey the idea that such was the statement that had been made on this floor. Mr. RANDOLPH explained. He did believe that nothing but the awfulness of the times had induced a majority of the Virginia Assembly, at that period, to have launched into so expensive an undertaking as the establishment of the armory. The fair and alleged use of that institution was to arm the militia. Who could object to it? Who would say that freemen had not a right to arm against John Adams and his provisional army, fruges consumere nati, provided they had gone on in their course of usurpation? When he had made the remarks referred to, it was on an amendment to the Constitution, going still further to narrow the limits of State rights, &c. Mr. JACKSON said, having a distinct recollection of the circumstances of the case, he should proceed with his statement. In the year 1798, said Mr. J., General Wood was the Governor of Virginia, who had been a general officer during the Revolutionary war, but always was, during his life-though standing high in the confidence of the Republican party-an unequivocal Federalist, in the usual acceptation of the term. During his administration, the Legislature authorized the purchase of arms. About that time, Mr. J. said, that he (quite a boy) had been elected to the Legislature, and then first took sides; for, anterior to that time, with the exception of a few distinguished men in Congress, and with the exception of the British Treaty question, the people were not divided into parties. The Governor had contracted with Swann, of Boston, who bad delivered at Richmond 4,000 stand of arms, et $13 each-the whole costing $52,000 annually. These arms had been found worthless, on trial, having been purchased in Europe, the refuse of armories and shops there, on speculation. The Legislature, in consequence of that state of the fact, and desiring to provide arms for the State -a measure which had always been a subject of anxiety with General WASHINGTON, without reference to the state of the times; if any such views were entertained, Mr. J. said, he was not let into them-had enacted a law authorizing the establishment of an arsenal at Richmond, in order to get good arms instead of bad. In the next year, (1800,) Mr. Monroe succeeded to the Chair of the State government. Party division was at its crisis. The ferment eventuated in the adoption, by the Legislature of Virginia, of the general ticket system, and Mr. Jefferson succeeded to the Presidency. The armory had been, ever since that day, in operation; and Mr. J. said he never H. of R. had, until he had heard the suggestion on this floor this morning, (referring to what his colleague had said on a former occasion, in the absence of Mr. J.,) heard a single individual intimate a disposition to oppose with arms the constituted authority of the Government. John Taylor, of Caroline, was a popular man, at the head of the Democratic party, in the Virginia Legislature, in the year 1798. But, if he or any other of the friends of the armory had any such intention as had been referred to, they had concealed it from the majority; and it had not, to the knowledge of Mr. J., been avowed by any person. As proof of the disposition of Virginia to acquiesce in the execution of the laws, however oppressive, of the General Government, and to resist them only by the Constitutional means of election, Mr. J. said he might refer to the fact, that during that period, the sedition law had been carried into execution in the Capital of the State. True it was that Callender had traduced the Founder of the Liberties and the Father of his Country, but his demerit did not change the character of the sedition law; and the same temper of respect for the law would, in all human probability, have existed, if the punishment of the sedition law had been inflicted on the first man of the State, instead of the vilest miscreant. Mr. RANDOLPH apologized for troubling the House again, which he should not have done, had not his name been brought into question by two gentlemen on this occasion. He saw now before him, he said, a son of one of those men, to whom he could on all occasions have appealed, who never minced his declarations-never stopped short of the extent to which he was willing to go-never looked one way and rowed another. The times, he said, had been awful at the period referred to. It was certainly true that John Taylor, of Caroline, (a name which would live when many, if not all, of this Assembly were forgotten,) was the father of that armory, which-not meaning to impeach the statement of the gentleman over the way, (Mr. JACKSON)—was built, not so much because of the badness of the arms, as because it was proper for the State of Virginia to keep in her possession the means of arming the militia, rather than depend for her supply on contracts which the United States might stop. The persons who were active in the establishment of that Armory were long-headed and clear-sighted men. Mr. R. said, he was afraid some of the arms since made by the armory were not much better than those supplied by Swann-but that, by the way. John Taylor, Mr. R. said, was the father of the general ticket law of Virginia. He had drawn it, supported it, and had, by Divine permission, made Thomas Jefferson President of the United States. That law had passed but by five votes. At the time, said Mr. R., that I was elected against an opposition raised upon the very ground of a disposition on the part of those with whom I was politically connected, and of myself consequently, to oppose the administration of Mr. Adams by force, Patrick Henry was elected to the Assembly by that part of Charlotte H. of R. Commercial Intercourse. JANUARY, 1817. county which then supported the Administration. clearly ascertained that the armory established For, so far from knowing nothing of parties, if I on the banks of James river was intended to opwere to specify the time in this Government at pose the administration of John Adams, if it went which they run highest, I should say in 1798-'99. on in its mad career. Mr. P. said, he did not I leave you to judge, sir, who knew the man, know how that fact had been ascertained. It was what chance the general ticket law would have a certain fact, that the men who had the princistood, had Patrick Henry lived to have taken his pal agency in the establishment of that armory, seat. Five votes! Mr. R. exclaimed. Patrick had most unequivocally disavowed that intention. Henry was good for five times five votes doubled, I was then, said Mr. P., a young man, ardent and in that body. Patrick Henry, said Mr. R., ar- zealous in the cause which I then thought, and rayed himself on the side of what he called the now think, the right cause. I put more contiConstitution. I heard the last speech he made. dence then in the gentleman to whom I refer, than He told the people they had, against his voice, I would now do in any man. I was a member of made over the purse and the sword. He was a the Legislature in 1797-the first year an appropractical politician, and knew, that where these priation for arms was made-and in the four folwere given away, very little was retained. He saw lowing successive years. I perfectly well recoland depicted, in clear and vivid colors, the danger lect, in the discussion of the resolutions which of a civil war. It would not do for me to attempt made so much noise then, and have since been to say what, much less how, he spoke to the peo- frequently referred to, John Taylor of Caroline ple. I will only say, that when General WASH- was expressly charged by General Henry Lee, INGTON died-in whom all had confidence, but then a member of the House of Delegates, with we did not choose to risk our liberties on his life intending to bring on these measures and the ar-the first words that escaped the lips of [name mory, &c., together, and that the armory was in not heard by the Reporter] were, "Then is Alex- reality intended to oppose the Federal Governander Hamilton Commander-in-Chief of the ment; that, whatever other color might be put American Army!" He was of high-toned poli- upon it, this was the object. I never shall forget tics: we were afraid of him. We did not then Mr. Taylor's reply, when, as I understood, in direct know, that he who was next to Mr. Taylor in the allusion to General Lee's situation, his former Legislature, had, in the Convention, advocated a occupation, and supposed circumstances, contrastsystem as high as Alexander Hamilton's, and ed with his own situation, he turned to General perhaps a key or two higher. When this thing Lee, and asked whether he was the man who might took place, I had the honor of being charged on be expected to seek redress for present evils in a the hustings and in the court-yard with being a civil war? Were his circumstances so desperate, Frenchman. I had the honor of being thus he asked; was he the great military leader who charged by the same individual, and the same was likely to desire civil commotion, &c.? The description of persons who have since done me force of these remarks was felt; for, in addition the honor to charge me with being an English- to the circumstance that his situation was in an man, because I have acted with the same regard eminent degree prosperous and happy in private to the rights of the people and of the States in life, I never did believe Mr. Taylor was that kind opposing one Administration, as I had done in of a man, who would seek redress for political opposing their predecessors. No man in the Uni- grievances by revolution; nor do I believe that he ted States, perhaps, had been more misunderstood, ever expected the muskets manufactured in that no man more reviled-and that, Mr. R. said, was armory to be employed in a civil war. If he had a bold declaration for him to make-than Alex- thought so, I do believe he never would have ander Hamilton; unless, perhaps, the venerable used his influence to have had an appropriation member from Massachusetts, (Mr. PICKERING,) made for that object. If he had have done so, he whom, whatever may be said of him, all will would not have succeeded, had those intentions allow to be an honest man. The other day, said been avowed. He most emphatically did disMr. R., when that honorable member was speak-claim, as I do now, any such views. In regard ing of his own situation on the compensation question-when his voice faltered and his eyes filled at the mention of his poverty-I thought I would have given the riches of Dives himself for his honorable feeling-when he spoke of his poverty, (not that of excess, or of extravagance, but an honest poverty,) after a long and laborious service in the highest offices of the Government. If the gentleman would take it, said Mr. R., I Mr. LUMPKIN, of Georgia, moved that the Comwould give him what little I have, to have in-mittee now rise; not that he desired to take any scribed on my tomb, as he may on his, Here lies the man who enjoyed the confidence of WASHINGTON and the enmity of his successor ! Mr. PLEASANTS, of Virginia, said, if he recollected the statement of his colleague on a former occasion, which had been referred to to-day, it was something like this: that it was now pretty to the general ticket law, there was in that Legislature a man who had much more influence in procuring its passage than Colonel Taylor-I mean the present Chief Magistrate of the United States. I do not believe that all the united force of its advocates would then have carried the measure through that body, but for the weight of character of James Madison. part in the discussion of the bill, but in the hope that the House would to-morrow recommence the discussion of the question actually before the Committee, and have done with matters which had no sort of connexion with it. And the Committee rose accordingly, and the House adjourned. JANUARY, 1817. FRIDAY, January 31. Commercial Intercourse. A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed a bill, entitled "An act to provide for the prompt settlement of public accounts," in which they ask the concurrence of this House. The bill was read twice, and committed to the committee appointed on that part of the President's Message which relates to the office of Attorney General, and to the establishment of an additional Department. The SPEAKER laid before the House a report of the President and Directors of the Washington Canal Company, of the amount of their receipts and expenditures, from the commencement of their operations, made in obedience to a requisition of their charter; which report was read, and ordered to lie on the table. On motion ef Mr. JACKSON, the House proceeded to consider the resolution submitted by him yesterday, for the appointment of clerks to committees; and the same being again read, was rejected by the House. Mr. LOWNDES laid before the House a correspondence between himself, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and the Acting Secretary of War, in relation to the expenditures and appropriations for the Ordnance and Quartermaster General's departments; which was ordered to lie on the table. H. or R. stood he had been entirely misapprehended. He disclaimed all such authority, either from that gentleman or from his other honorable friendnow no more-to whom he had alluded. Had he been the depositary of their confidence, he humbly yet firmly trusted that he would be one of the last men in the world to abuse so sacred a trust. He did not call in question one word; he believed every syllable that his honorable colleague had uttered. He had said, truly, that he was at that time a member of the Assembly-and he might have added, with equal truth, that no man of his years was in fuller possession of the confidence of that honorable body-a confidence that had grown with each succeeding year-for it was merited. The object of this confidence, so honorable both to the giver and the receiver, was of that happy temperament which exempted its possessor from many of the sorest ills of life. Sir, said Mr. R., I do not believe that my worthy colleague has made a personal enemy in the whole course of his life. I never even heard that he had a political one. This was not the only circumstance, Mr. R. said, in which he differed, greatly to his disadvantage, from his colleague. No misrepresentation of his (Mr. P.'s) language or conduct was within the scope of probability-supposing such, however, to occur, he would never stand in need of defenders. There could be no cause of surprise, therefore, at his (Mr. R.'s) solicitude to reconcile any apparent or conceived difference of opinion with one so generally loved and respected. A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed a bill, entitled "An act to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States, within the State of IndiMr. R. said that the only favor he asked at any ana;" and a bill, entitled "An act to enable the man's hands who had quoted him on that floor, people of the western part of the Mississippi Ter- was to use his very words, and to take them altoritory to form a constitution and State govern-gether. He hoped that he was not understood as ment, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States;" in which bills they ask the concurrence of this House. A Message was received from the President of the United States, transmitting to the House an application, by the Minister of France, respecting the long standing claim of the heirs of Beaumarchais; which was referred to the Committee on Pensions and Revolutionary Claims. COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. tion on the part of either of his honorable colcomplaining of any unfairness or misrepresentaleagues-far from it. He was not in the habit of using words without some definite signification attached to them, and nothing was easier than by a supposed paraphrase of one passage and the limited, utterly to distort the original meaning omission of another, by which it was qualified or and intent of the speaker. What had he said? A question being under deliberation to abridge materially the rights of the States, he had declared that, "by the timely and judicious exercise of the very right proposed to be taken away, this 'Union had been saved from incalculable mis The House went into Committee of the Whole, on the bill to prohibit commercial intercourse with ports or places into, or with which the ves-chief sels of the United States are not permitted to enter and trade; Mr. FORSYTH'S substitute being still under consideration and misery. That by throwing (as she had an undoubted right to do) her whole weight into the electoral scale, the Commonwealth of Virginia had constitutionally effected a change Mr. RANDOLPH said, that no consideration could of ministry, and checked the mad career of amhave induced him to attend in his place this day, bition and usurpation, which otherwise she might in his present condition, except to say a few words have been compelled to resist at the hazard of rather by way of explanation than reply to his the greatest of all calamities, the abject surrenworthy colleague, (Mr. PLEASANTS,) which he der of their rights excepted, that a people could had been prevented from offering yesterday by endure of a civil war-for there was no longer the motion for the Committee to rise. He was 'any cause for concealing the fact, that the grand apprehensive that he had been mistaken by his armory at Richmond was built to enable the worthy colleague, perhaps by others, as having 'State of Virginia to resist, by force, the enauthority from Mr. Taylor for the statement he croachments of the then Administration upon had made yesterday. If he had been so under-her indisputable rights-upon the plainest and 14th CoN. 2d SESS.-26 'clearest provisions of the Constitution-in case they should persevere in these outrageous proceedings." And why had he so said? Because the principles and the men of that day, such excepted whose practice belied their then professions, had been laid aside, and new principles, more convenient for men in power, and new men-men whose names, at that time, and long since, had never been pronounced out of their own parish, had come into play. Mr. R. said he hoped no invidious construction would be put upon his words. He had been of sudden growth himself, somewhat of a mushroom, when he first started up in the world of politics. He stated a fact, without drawing any inference from it. He had no doubt that Mr. TAYLOR had given a characteristic reply to General Lee on the occasion. He recognised the man in every word that his honorable colleague (Mr. PLEASANTS) had ascribed to him. It was not his (Mr. Taylor's) business to give an advantage to an artful adversary; to injure, by a premature disclosure of ultimate and contingent views, which might not be, and in fact were not, realized, a noble and a holy cause. It would not require the sagacity of a Tacitus or a Hume to divine what were the intents of the master spirits who then swayed the councils of Virginia. The historian of those days would look to their deeds-nor was there anything in the language of Mr. Taylor to mislead a sagacious mind from his true meaning. It would be enough to recollect that the Assembly held its sitting in sight of that very church on Richmond Hill where, in March 1775, Patrick Henry, with a master's hand and prophet's fire, rent the veil that shrouded from the eyes of our first statesmen (himself excepted) the true condition of affairs, and laid open for the first time the necessity of a resort to arms. Nor will it be forgotten that the great measure adopted in 1798 and 1799, was the very same proposed by him twenty-four years before, on the eve of a rupture with the governing head of the empire, viz: arming the body of the people-and who would dare to say that the people were unfit to be trusted with arms? Mr. R. asked if there was no case in which his colleague could justify resistance against the encroachments of Government upon the privileges of the people or the rights of the States? The question was, like every other question touching human affairs, to be governed by a sound discretion. The Assembly displayed that discretion; they acted under a high responsibility, with a dignity and firmness which had long characterized and he trusted would ever govern the proceedings of that ancient and venerable Commonwealth. They had sagacity to perceive the approaching danger, and wisdom and courage to make timely provision against it. They did not content themselves with resolutions and reports. They were statesmen, not professors in an university. They knew that logic was no match for the bayonet, and they provided bayonets; at the same time taking care to put themselves in the right by a most unanswerable and triumphant JANUARY, 1817. appeal to acknowledged facts, and to the great charter of the Confederacy. And, sir, said Mr. R., did Virginia stand alone, in this fearful, this impending conflict of authority, between the parent State governments and this bloated, pampered, overweening Federal Government-this creature of concession from the States, now spurning its creator in the intoxication of power? No, sir, the eldest daughter of Virginia, the eldest sister of the younger branch of this great political family, took the lead even of her venerable parent. John Taylor, of Caroline, had publicly announced, under his hand, that the resolutions of the preceding session of Assembly, moved by him and ascribed to his pen, were drawn by the present President of the United States, then in retirement at his seat in the county of Orange. Sir, (said Mr. R. to the chairman, Mr. BRECKENRIDGE,) I did not stand as you did in the relation of consanguinity to the mover of the Kentucky resolutions, but I was in habits of political intimacy with him, and I assert, without fear of contradiction, that the resolutions moved and carried in the Legislature of Kentucky, on that memorable occasion, sprung from that same vein of rich red land between the Rapidan and James river, which has proved so favorable to the Presidential growth. Mr. R. said, that when he spoke of the present President of the United States as "next to Mr. Taylor," in that session of the Assembly of Virginia, 1799 and 1800, he did it in reference to the activity and zeal displayed by each in procuring the passage of the General Ticket Law, the great measure of the session, on which the approaching election of President hinged. Did the gentleman recollect nothing of Mr. T.'s leaving the House and going home, which, by some, was construed into a ruse de guerre to draw away from the seat of Government members opposed to the passage of that bill, although otherwise hearty in the cause of opposition? Mr. R. had some reason to believe that Mr. T.'s absenting himself on that occasion was the effect of disgust. He returned, however, set his shoulder to the wheel, and the bill was passed. Mr. R. said, that if he felt anything like disrespect for the character of the President, this was a time when he would studiously avoid showing it. He bore testimony to the correctness of his colleague's declaration respecting Mr. Madison's great weight of character and of abilities in the Legislature of Virginia, and added that, as he (Mr. R.) had not been bred an idolator, to worship the rising sun, now that the President had no longer power or patronage to bestow-now that "his orb was sinking temperately to the West," even he would not be deterred from saying of him that he was a great man-for such he unquestionably was in some respects-and he sincerely wished him all happiness in his retirement, as sincerely as he wished it for himself. Mr. R. again adverted to the state of things in 1798 and 1800. He said that the opposition of that time was guilty of the grossest hypocrisy, if it was not alarmed at the standing army, small JANUARY, 1817. Commercial Intercourse. H. OF R. videttes, having made the expense a subject of inquiry at a subsequent session of the Legisla ture. Every appearance betokened the breaking up of the Federal compact, when the opponents of the public will, constitutionally pronounced, tardidly and ungraciously gave up their opposition, and Mr. Jefferson was installed. Mr. R. said that hostility to Virginia was the cardinal principle of the politics of a great variety of descriptions of persons, who agreed in nothing else. Having discernment to perceive that her influence in this Confederacy was owing yet more to the nature of her institutions than to her territory or population, no opportunity was let slip of attacking them. Their stability was not the least part of their value. To strike at them is to aim at the heel of Achilles. It was realizing, too, the fable of the fox who had lost his tail. Virginia must have a new constitution, arithmetical, geometrical, and metaphysicalwhat you will but common sense and habit, worth all the visions that ever floated before the imagination of moonstruck philosophers. Mr. R. entered into a refutation of some of the vulgar errors on the subject of his native State, which prevailed even on the north bank of the Potomac, and would disgrace a Virginia school-boy. The ignorance prevalent upon this subject was scarcely credible, and the mass of these vulgar errors would swell a folio equal to that of the celebrated Sir Thomas Brown. On the exemption of lands from debt, he said the law of Virginia was, with some relaxations, that of England, the greatest commercial country in the world. They had no law impairing the obligation of contracts, whereby a fraudulent debtor, become bankrupt to-day, might drive over his half-shod creditor tomorrow in a splendid equipage. Once a debt, always a debt; once a wife, always a wife, except in very severe cases, when the Legislature did sometimes, but rarely, grant divorce. These were the great outworks of our honesty and morals. And he declared that there was not a country on the face of the globe, where, in proportion to the value of the transactions, so little money was lost by bad debts, or where the standard of female purity was higher. as it was to what we had since seen with approbation. For his part, he felt the apprehension which he had not scrupled to express. He should never forget the declaration of one of the ministerial leaders, the first session that he (Mr. R.) served in that House, that the standing army (upon a motion to reduce it) was necessary to keep the partisans of France in check. Another leader, second in activity and in reputation for influence to none, ventured to hint, not in public indeed, at a partition of Virginia by the Blue Ridge, or by James River, or both. The cry was that Virginia was overgrown; that she was unmanageable, (yes, she was unmanageable, thank God!) that if the country south of James River could be detached from the rest of the State, "the friends of government, of order," that was the language, might cope successfully with the "anarchists," and the south side of James river would not be powerful enough to give much trouble to Administration. Hardly (said Mr. R.) were the designs of the Federal Government concealed. The partition of Poland was decreed, but Poland had turned upon and discomfitted the partition ers. Mr. R. appealed to public rumor at the time, and declared that he had the fact of a design to partition Virginia, and the alleged reasons for it, from his lamented predecessor in that House, (Mr. VENABLE.) Gentlemen talked of "admissions" and "confessions." He had made none-he had none to make-he had no apologies to offer-Virginia stood on her defence-the knife was at her throat-she was to be humbled in dust and ashes, and if she had not resisted, would have richly deserved the chains that were forging for her. Was the contested election, which almost immediately ensued between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, forgotten? We did not then rely upon the Richmond armory, not yet in operation, but on the United States armory at Harper's Ferry. At that day, when the Constitution itself was put to hazard, rather than relinquish the long enjoyed sweets of power; when the sun rose upon this House, balloting through the night and through successive days for a Chief Magistrate (he well remembered the scene)had we not the promise of Dark's brigade, and of the arms at Harper's Ferry, which he en- Mr. BRADBURY, of Massachusetts, said it was gaged to secure in case of an attempt to set up a with reluctance and diffidence that he attempted pageant under color of law to supersede the pub- to obtrude himself upon the notice of the Comlic will, after defeating the election by the perti-mittee; but, as the measure now under discussion nacious abuse, under the pretence of exercise of Constitutional right, to support one of the persons returned by artifice, whom they professed to abhor. General Hamilton had frowned indignantly upon this unworthy procedure, for which he paid the forfeit of his life. The conduct of this great man-for such, although Mr. R. dif- The question now pending before this Comfered with him in many points, he truly was-mittee being on the amendment proposed by the first opened his eyes to his much abused char- gentleman from Georgia, which is to substitute acter. At this period of approaching confusion a bill "supplementary to the act regulating duand general dismay, the President elect-then Governor of Virginia-had deemed it advisable to establish a line of videttes from Richmond to this place. One of his colleagues, then present, (Mr. SHEFFEY,) could tell something about these was confessedly the most important which had been, or probably would be, agitated during the present session of Congress, and as it was one in which his immediate constituents have a deep stake, he felt it to be his duty to submit a few remarks for consideration. ties on imports and tonnage," &c., in lieu of the bill referred to this Committee, entitled a bill to prohibit all commercial intercourse, &c., or, in other words, to substitute discriminating duties in lieu of a total prohibition of trade, &c., Mr. |