and that the Government provide for the date, who was elected by the full Whig deficit in the treasury by the issue of vote with the aid of a few democrats treasury notes and by withholding the de- friends of Mr. Calhoun, who had for seveposit due to the States under the act then ral previous sessions been acting with the in force. The message and its recom- Whigs on several occasions. The House mendations were violently assailed both in excluding the five contested seats from the Senate and House by able and effec- New Jersey, was really Democratic; havtive speakers, notably by Messrs. Clay and ing 122 members, and the Whigs 113 memWebster, and also by Mr. Caleb Cushing, bers. The contest for the Speakership was of Massachusetts, who made a formal and long and arduous, neither party adhering elaborate reply to the whole document to its original caucus candidate. Twenty under thirty-two distinct heads, and recit-scattering votes, eleven of whom were ing therein all the points of accusation classed as Whigs, and nine as Democrats, against the democratic policy from the be- prevented a choice on the earlier ballots, ginning of the government down to that and it was really Mr. Calhoun's Democratday. The result was that the measures ic friends uniting with a solid Whig vote proposed by the Executive were in sub- on the final ballot that gained that party stance enacted; and their passage marks the election. The issue involved was a an era in our financial history-making a vital party question as involving the ortotal and complete separation of Bank and ganization of the House. The chief meaState, and firmly establishing the principle sure, of public importance, adopted at this that the government revenues should be session of Congress was an act to provide receivable in coin only. for the collection, safe-keeping, and disThe measures of consequence discussed bursing of the public money. It practiand adopted at this session, were the cally revolutionized the system previously graduation of price of public lands under in force, and was a complete and effectual the pre-emption system, which was adopt-separation of the federal treasury and the ed; the bill to create an independent Government, from the banks and moneyed Treasury, which passed the Senate, but corporations of the States. It was violentfailed in the House; and the question of the re-charter of the district banks, the proportion for reserve, and the establishment of such institutions on a specie basis. The slavery question was again agitated in consequence of petitions from citizens and societies in the Northern States, and a memorial from the General Assembly of Vermont, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and territories, and for the exclusion of future slave states from the Union. These petitions and memorials were disposed of adversely; and Mr. Calhoun, representing the ultra-Southern interest, in several able speeches, approved of the Missouri compromise, he urged and obtained of the Senate several resolutions declaring that the federal government had no power to interfere with slavery in the States; and that it would be inexpedient and impolitic to interfere, abolish or control it in the District of Columbia and the territories. These movements for and against slavery in the session of 1837-38 deserve to be noticed, as of disturbing effect at the time, and as having acquired new importance from subsequent events.

ly opposed by the Whig members, led by Mr. Clay, and supported by Mr. Cushing, but was finally passed in both Houses by a close vote.

At this time, and in the House of Representatives, was exhibited for the first time in the history of Congress, the present practice of members "pairing off," as it is called; that is to say, two members of opposite political parties, or of opposite views on any particular subject, agreeing to absent themselves from the duties of the House, for the time being. The practice was condemned on the floor of the House by Mr. John Quincy Adams, who introduced a resolution: "That the practice, first openly avowed at the present session of Congress, of pairing off, involves, on the part of the members resorting to it, the violation of the Constitution of the United States, of an express rule of this House, and of the duties of both parties in the transaction, to their immediate constituents, to this House, and to their country." This resolution was placed in the calendar to take its turn, but not being reached during the session, was not voted on. That was the first instance of this justly condemned practice, fifty years after the establishment of the Government; but since then it has become common, even inveterate, and is now carried to great lengths.

The first session of the twenty-sixth Congress opened December, 1839. The organization of the House was delayed by a closely and earnestly contested election from the State of New Jersey Five De- The last session of the twenty-sixth Conmocrats claiming seats as against an equal gress was barren of measures, and neces number of Whigs. Neither set was admit- sarily so, as being the last of our administed until after the election of Speaker, tration superseded by the popular voice, which resulted in the choice of Robert M. and soon to expire; and therefore restricT. Hunter, of Virginia, the Whig candi-ted by a sense of propriety, during the

brief remainder of its existence, to the de- | ballots, and report the result of the same

tails of business and the routine of service. to their several delegations, together with The cause of this was the result of the such facts as may bear upon the nominapresidential election of 1840. The same tion; and said delegation shall forthwith candidates who fought the battle of 1836 re-assemble and ballot again for candidates were again in the field. Mr. Van Buren for the above offices, and again commit was the Democratic candidate. His ad- the result to the above committees, and if ministration had been satisfactory to his it shall appear that a majority of the balparty, and his nomination for a second lots are for any one man for candidate for term was commended by the party in the President, said committee shall report the different States in appointing their dele- result to the convention for its consideragates; so that the proceedings of the con- tion; but if there shall be no such majorivention which nominated him were en-ty, then the delegation shall repeat the tirely harmonious and formal in their nature. Mr. Richard M. Johnson, the actual Vice-President, was also nominated for Vice-President.

defeated candidates and all their friends bound to join in his support. And in this way the election of 1840 was effected-a process certainly not within the purview of those framers of the constitution who supposed they were giving to the nation the choice of its own chief magistrate.

balloting until such a majority shall be obtained, and then report the same to the convention for its consideration. That the vote of a majority of each delegation shall On the Whig ticket, General William be reported as the vote of that State; and Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was the candi- each State represented here shall vote its date for President, and Mr. John Tyler, of full electoral vote by such delegation in Virginia, for Vice-President. The lead- the committee." This was a sum in poliing statesmen of the Whig party were tical algebra, whose quotient was known, again put aside, to make way for a milita- but the quantity unknown except to those ry man, prompted by the example in the who planned it; and the result was-for nomination of General Jackson, the men General Scott, 16 votes; for Mr. Clay, 90 who managed presidential elections be- votes; for General Harrison, 148 votes. lieving then as now that military renown And as the law of the convention impliedwas a passport to popularity and rendered ly requires the absorption of all minorities, a candidate more sure of election. Availa- the 106 votes were swallowed up by the bility for the purpose-was the only abili- 148 votes and made to count for General ty asked for. Mr. Clay, the most promi- Harrison, presenting him as the unaninent Whig in the country, and the ac-mity candidate of the convention, and the knowledged head of the party, was not deemed available; and though Mr. Clay was a candidate before the convention, the proceedings were so regulated that his nomination was referred to a committee, ingeniously devised and directed for the afterwards avowed purpose of preventing his nomination and securing that of Gene- The contest before the people was a ral Harrison; and of producing the intend- long and bitter one, the severest ever ed result without showing the design, and known in the country, up to that time, and without leaving a trace behind to show scarcely equalled since. The whole Whig what was done. The scheme (a modifica- party and the large league of suspended tion of which has since been applied to banks, headed by the Bank of the United subsequent national conventions, and out | States making its last struggle for a new of which many bitter dissensions have again national charter in the effort to elect a and again arisen) is embodied and was President friendly to it, were arrayed executed in and by means of the following against the Democrats, whose hard-money resolution adopted by the convention policy and independent treasury schemes, "Ordered, That the delegates from each met with little favor in the then depressed State be requested to assemble as a delega- condition of the country. Meetings were tion, and appoint a committee, not exceed-held in every State, county and town; the ing three in number, to receive the views people thoroughly aroused; and every and opinions of such delegation, and com- argument made in favor of the respective municate the same to the assembled com- candidates and parties, which could posmittes of all the delegations, to be by them sibly have any effect upon the voters. The respectively reported to their principals; canvass was a thorough one, and the elec and that thereupon the delegates from tion was carried for the Whig candidates, each State be requested to assemble as a who received 234 electoral votes coming delegation, and ballot for candidates for from 19 States. The remaining 60 electothe offices of President and Vice-Presi-ral votes of the other 9 States, were given dent, and having done so, to commit the to the Democratic candidate; though the ballot designating the votes of each candi- popular vote was not so unevenly divided; date, and by whom given, to its commit- the actual figures being 1,275,611 for the tee, and thereupon all the committees Whig ticket, against 1,135,761 for the shall assemble and compare the several Democratic ticket. It was a complete rout

of the Democratic party, but without the moral effect of victory.

short one.

These creditors, becoming uneasy, wished the federal government to assume their On March 4, 1841, was inaugurated as debts. The suggestion was made as early President, Gen'l Wm. H. Harrison, the as 1838, renewed in 1839, and in 1840 befirst Chief Magistrate elected by the Whig came a regular question mixed up with the party, and the first President who was not Presidential election of that year, and a Democrat, since the installation of Gen'l openly engaging the active exertions of Jackson, March 4, 1829. His term was a foreigners. Direct assumption was not He issued a call for a special urged; indirect by giving the public land session of Congress to convene the 31st of revenue to the States was the mode purMay following, to consider the condition sued, and the one recommended in the of the revenue and finances of the country, message of President Tyler. Mr. Calhoun but did not live to meet it. Taken ill spoke against the measure with more than with a fatal malady during the last days of usual force and clearness, claiming that it March, he died on the 4th of April follow-was unconstitutional and without warrant. ing, having been in office just one month. He was succeeded by the Vice-President, John Tyler. Then, for the first time in our history as a government, the person elected to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, by the happening of a contingency provided for in the constitution, had devolved upon him the Presidential

office.

Mr. Benton on the same side called it a
squandering of the public patrimony, and
pointed out its inexpediency in the de-
pleted state of the treasury, apart from its
other objectionable features. It passed by
a party vote.

This session is remarkable for the institution of the hour rule in the House of Representatives-a very great limitation The twenty-seventh Congress opened in upon the freedom of debate. It was a extra session at the call of the late Presi- Whig measure, adopted to prevent delay dent, May 31, 1841. A Whig member-in the enactment of pending bills. It was Mr. White of Kentucky-was elected a rigorous limitation, frequently acting as Speaker of the House of Representatives. a bar to profitable debate and checking The Whigs had a majority of forty-seven members in speeches which really impart in the House and of seven in the Senate, information valuable to the House and the and with the President and Cabinet of the country No doubt the license of debate same political party presented a harmony has been frequently abused in Congress, as of aspect frequently wanting during the in all other deliberative assemblies, but the three previous administrations. The first incessant use of the previous question, measure of the new dominant party was which cuts off all debate, added to the the repeal of the independent treasury act hour rule which limits a speech to sixty passed at the previous session; and the minutes (constantly reduced by interrupnext in order were bills to establish a sys- tions) frequently results in the transaction tem of bankruptcy, and for distribution of of business in ignorance of what they are public land revenue. The former was about by those who are doing it. more than a bankrupt law; it was practically an insolvent law for the abolition of debts at the will of the debtor. It applied to all persons in debt, allowed them to institute the proceedings in the district where the petitioner resided, allowed constructive notices to creditors in newspapers -declared the abolition of the debt where effects were surrendered and fraud not proved; and gave exclusive jurisdiction to Much discussion took place at this sesthe federal courts, at the will of the debtor.sion, over the bill offered in the House of It was framed upon the model of the English insolvent debtors' act of George the Fourth, and embodied most of the provisions of that act, but substituting a release from the debt instead of a release from imprisonment. The bill passed by a close vote in both Houses.

The rule worked so well in the House, for the purpose for which it was devisedmade the majority absolute master of the body-that Mr. Clay undertook to have the same rule adopted in the Senate; but the determined opposition to it, both by his political opponents and friends, led to the abandonment of the attempt in that chamber.

Representatives, for the relief of the widow of the late President-General Harrisonappropriating one year's salary. It was strenuously opposed by the Democratic members, as unconstitutional, on account of its principle, as creating a private pension list, and as a dangerous precedent. The land revenue distribution bill of Many able speeches were made against the this session had its origin in the fact that bill, both in the Senate and House; among the States and corporations owed about two others, the following extract from the hundred millions to creditors in Europe. speech of an able Senator contains some These debts were in stocks, much depre-interesting facts. He said: "Look at the ciated by the failure in many instances to case of Mr. Jefferson, a man than whom pay the accruing interest-in some in- no one that ever existed on God's earth stances failure to provide for the principal. were the human family more indebted to.

1

ciples and policy, but here the two parties divided upon an abuse which no one could deny or defend. A navy pension fund had been established under the act of 1832, which was a just and proper law, but on the 3d of March, 1837, an act was passed entitled "An act for the more equitable distribution of the Navy Pension Fund." That act provided: I. That Invalid naval

to the time of receiving the inability, instead of completing the proof. II. It extended the pensions for death to all cases of death, whether incurred in the line of duty or not. III. It extended the widow's pensions for life, when five years had been the law both in the army and navy. IV It adopted the English system of pensioning children of deceased marines, until they attained their majority.

His furniture and his estate were sold to | A difference about a navy-on the point satisfy his creditors. His posterity was of how much and what kind-had always driven from house and home, and his bones been a point of difference between the two now lay in soil owned by a stranger. His great political parties of the Union, which, family are scattered: some of his descend-under whatsoever names, are always the ants are married in foreign lands. Look same, each preserving its identity in prinat Monroe-the able, the patriotic Monroe, whose services were revolutionary, whose blood was spilt in the war of Independence, whose life was worn out in civil service, and whose estate has been sold for debt, his family scattered, and his daughter buried in a foreign land. Look at Madison, the model of every virtue, public or private, and he would only mention in connection with this subject, his love of pensions should commence and date back order, his economy, and his systematic regularity in all his habits of business. He, when his term of eight years had expired, sent a letter to a gentleman (a son of whom is now on this floor) [Mr. Preston], enclosing a note of five thousand dollars, which he requested him to endorse, and raise the money in Virginia, so as to enable him to leave this city, and return to his modest retreat-his patrimonial inheritance-in that State. General Jackson drew upon the consignee of his cotton crop in New Orleans for six thousand dollars to enable him to leave the seat of government without leaving creditors behind him. These were honored leaders of the republican party. They had all been Presidents. They had made great sacrifices, and left the presidency deeply embarrassed; and yet the republican party who had the power and the strongest disposition to relieve their necessities, felt they had no right to do so by appropriating money from the public Treasury Democracy would not do this. It was left for the era of federal rule and federal supremacy-who are now rushing the country with steam power into all the abuses and corruptions of a monarchy, with its pensioned aristocracy-and to entail upon the country a civil pension list." There was an impatient majority in the House in favor of the passage of the bill. The circumstances were averse to deliberation-a victorious party, come into power after a heated election, seeing their elected candidate dying on the threshold of his administration, poor and beloved: it was a case for feeling more than of judgment, especially with the political friends of the deceased-but few of whom could follow the counsels of the head against the impul

sions of the heart.

The bill passed, and was approved; and as predicted, it established a precedent which has since been followed in every

The effect of this law was to absorb and bankrupt the navy pension fund, a meritorious fund created out of the government share of prize money, relinquished for that purpose, and to throw the pensions, arrears as well as current and future, upon the public treasury, where it was never intended they were to be. It was to repeal this act, that an amendment was introduced at this session on the bringing forward of the annual appropriation bill for navy pensions, and long and earnest were the debates upon it. The amendment was lost, the Senate dividing on party lines, the Whigs against and the Democrats for the amendment. The subject is instructive, as then was practically ratified and reenacted the pernicious practice authorized by the act of 1837, of granting pensions to date from the time of injury and not from the time of proof; and has grown up to such proportions in recent years that the last act of Congress appropriating money for arrears of pensions, provided for the payment of such an enormous sum of money that it would have appalled the original projectors of the act of 1837 could they have seen to what their system has led.

Again, at this session, the object of the tariff occupied the attention of Congress. The compromise act, as it was called, of 1833, which was composed of two partsone to last nine years, for the benefit of manufactures; the other to last for ever, for the benefit of the planting and consuming interest-was passed, as herein-* The subject of naval pensions received before stated, in pursuance of an agree more than usual consideration at this ses- ment between Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun sion. The question arose on the discussion and their respective friends, at the time of the appropriation bill for that purpose. the former was urging the necessity for a

similar case.

continuance of high tariff for protection | tions very different from what they occuand revenue, and the latter was presenting pied when the compromise act was passed and justifying before Congress the_nullifi--then united, now divided-then concur cation ordinance adopted by the Legisla- rent, now antagonistic, and the antagoture of South Carolina. To Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun it was a political necessity, one to get rid of a stumbling-block (which protective tariff had become); the other to escape a personal peril which his nullifying ordinance had brought upon him, and with both, it was a piece of policy, to enable them to combine against Mr. Van Buren, by postponing their own contention; and a device on the part of its author (Mr. Clayton, of Delaware) and Mr. Clay to preserve the protective system. It provided for a reduction of a certain per centage each year, on the duties for the ensuing nine years, until the revenue was reduced to 20 per cent. ad valorem on all articles imported into the country. In consequence the revenue was so reduced that in the last year, there was little more than half what the exigencies of the govornment required, and different modes, by loans and otherwise, were suggested to meet the deficiency. The Secretary of the Treasury had declared the necessity of loans and taxes to carry on the government; a loan bill for twelve millions had been passed; a tariff bill to raise fourteen millions was depending; and the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. Millard Fillmore, defended its necessity in an able speech. His bill proposed twenty per cent. additional to the existing duty on certain specified articles, sufficient to make up the amount wanted. This encroachment on a measure SO much vaunted when passed, and which had been kept inviolate while operating in favor of one of the parties to it, naturally excited complaint and opposition from the other, and Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, in a speech against the new bill, said: "In referring to the compromise act, the true characteristics of that act which recommended it strongly to him, were that it contemplated that duties were to be levied for revenue only, and in the next place to the amount only necessary to the supply of the economical wants of the government. He begged leave to call the attention of the committee to the principle recognized as the language of the compromise, a principle which ought to be recognized in all time to come by every department of the government. It is, that duties to be raised for revenue are to be raised to such an amount only as is necessary for an economical administration of the government. Some incidental protection must necessarily be given, and he, for one, coming from an anti-tariff portion of the country, would not object to it."

nism general, upon all measures, was to be special upon this one. Their connection with the subject made it their function to lead off in its consideration; and their antagonist positions promised sharp encounters, which did not fail to come. Mr. Clay said that he "observed that the Senator from South Carolina based his abstractions on the theories of books on English authorities, and on the arguments urged in favor of free trade by a certain party in the British Parliament. Now he, (Mr. Clay,) and his friends would not admit of these authorities being entitled to as much weight as the universal practice of nations, which in all parts of the world was found to be in favor of protecting home manufactures to an extent sufficient to keep them in a flourishing condition. This was the whole difference. The Senator was in favor of book theory and abstractions: he (Mr. Clay) and his friends, were in favor of the universal practice of nations, and the wholesome and necessary protection of domestic manufactures."

The bill went to the Senate where it found Mr Clay and Mr. Calhoun in posi

Mr. Calhoun in reply, referring to his allusion to the success in the late election of the tory party in England, said: "The interests, objects, and aims of the tory party there and the whig party here, are identical. The identity of the two parties is remarkable. The tory party are the patrons of corporate monopolies; and are not you? They are advocates of a high tariff; and are not you? They are supporters of a national bank; and are not you? They are for corn-laws-laws oppressive to the masses of the people, and favorable to their own power; and are not you? Witness this bill. * * The success. of that party in England, and of the whig party here, is the success of the great money power, which concentrates the interests of the two parties, and identifies their principles."

*

The bill was passed by a large majority, upon the general ground that the government must have revenue.

The chief measure of the session, and the great object of the whig party-the one for which it had labored for ten years-was for the re-charter of a national bank. Without this all other measures would be deemed to be incomplete, and the victorious election itself but little better than a defeat. The President, while a member of the Democratic party, had been opposed to the United States Bank; and to overcome any objections he might have the bill was carefully prepared, and studiously contrived to avoid the President's objections, and save his consistency-a point upon which he was exceedingly sensitive.