48. THE RIGHT TO DISCUSS PRESIDENTIAL ACTS.

THE gentleman has referred to the contest to be fought between liberty and power; and I say, that if the contest did not originate here, it is made when we are not permitted tc speak of the administration in terms that we believe to be true, without being denounced for it. The President of the United States certainly demands a degree of forbearance from his political opponents; but am I to be told, that one can only allude to him in the humble language of a degraded Roman senate, speaking of the emperor with his Prætorian guards surrounding the capitol? Am I to be told, when he came into power on principles of reform, after "keeping the word of promise to our ear, and breaking it to our hope,”- -am I to be told that I must close my lips, or be denounced for want of decorum? Am I to be told, when he promised to prevent official influence from interfering with the freedom of elections, that I must not speak of the broken promise, under pain of the displeasure of his friends? Am I to be told, when he came into power as a judicious tariff man, after advocating his principles and aiding in his election,-believing at the time in his integrity, though I did not believe him possessed of intellectual qualifications, am I to be told, after pledges that have been violated, promises that have been broken, and principles that have been set at naught, that I must not speak of these things as they are, for fear of being denounced for want of courtesy to the constituted authorities? Why, to what pass are we come! Are we to be gagged-reduced to silence? If nothing else is left to us, the liberty of speech is left, and it is our duty to cry aloud and spare not, when the undenied, admitted, and declared fact before us is, that these pledges have been made, and have been violated. This administration is about to end, and if gentlemen can succeed in preventing us from complaining of being deceived-if they can reduce us to abject slavery, they will also have to expunge the history of the country, the President's written and recorded communications to congress, and the most ardent professions of his friends, when fighting his battles, before they can conceal the recorded fact, that he has made pledges which he has violated, and promises which he has repeatedly broken. If they succeed in reducing us to slavery, and closing our lips against speaking of the abuses of this administration, thank God, the voice of history, trumpet

WILLIAM B. PRESTON.-JOHN RANDOLPH.

65

tongued, will proclaim these pledges, and the manner in which they have been violated, to future generations.

Neither here nor elsewhere will I use language, with regard to any gentleman, that may be considered indecorous; and the question not easily solved is, how far shall we restrain ourselves in expressing a just and necessary indignation; and whether the expression of such indignation may be considered a departure from courtesy? That indignation, that reprobation, I shall express on all occasions. But those who have taken upon themselves the guardianship of the Grand Lama, who is surrounded by a light which no one can approach,-about whom no one is permitted to speak without censure,-have extended that guardianship to the presiding officer of this house. Gentlemen are not permitted to speak of the qualifications of that officer for the highest office in the government. Shall we, sir, because he is here as presiding officer of this body, keep silent when he is urged upon the people, who are goaded and driven to his support, lest we be guilty of an indecorum against those who are the constituted authorities of the country? Thank God, it is not my practice to "crook the pliant hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning."

This aggression of power upon our liberties, sir, and this tame submission to aggression, forebode evil to this nation. Coming events cast their shadows before them," deepening and darkening, and, as the sun sets, the shadows lengthen. It may be the going down of the great luminary of the republic, and that we all shall be enveloped in one universal political darkness!

WILLIAM B. PRESTON.*

49. BRITISH INFLUENCE.

AGAINST whom are these charges of British predilection brought? Against men who, in the war of the revolution, were in the councils of the nation, or fighting the battles of your country.

Strange, that we should have no objection to any other people or government, civilized or savage, in the whole world! The great autocrat of all the Russias receives the homage of our high consideration. The Dey of Algiers and his divan of pirates are a very civil, good sort of people, with whom we find no diff

* U. S. Senator from South Carolina.

culty in maintaining the relations of peace and amity. "Turks, Jews, and Infidels," or the barbarians and savages of every clime and color, are welcome to our arms. With chiefs of banditti, negro or mulatto, we can treat and can trade. Name, however, but England, and all our antipathies are up in arms against her. Against whom? Against those whose blood runs in our veins; in common with whom, we claim Shakspeare, and Newton, and Chatham, for our countrymen; whose government is the freest on earth, our own only excepted; from whom every valuable principle of our own institutions has been borrowed-representation, trial by jury, voting the supplies, writ of habeas corpus-our whole civil and criminal jurisprudence. In what school did the worthies of our land, the Washingtons, Henrys, Hancocks, Franklins, Rutledges, of America, learn those principles of civil liberty which were so nobly asserted by their wisdom and valor? American resistance to British usurpation has not been more warmly cherished by these great men and their compatriots-not more by Washington, Hancock, and Henry-than by Chatham and his illustrious associates in the British parliament.

It ought to be remembered, too, that the heart of the English people was with us. It was a selfish and corrupt ministry, and their servile tools, to whom we were not more opposed than they were. I trust that none such may ever exist among us; for tools will never be wanting to subserve the purposes, however ruinous or wicked, of kings and ministers of state. I acknowledge the influence of a Shakspeare and a Milton upon my imagination, of a Locke upon my understanding, of a Sidney upon my political principles, of a Chatham upon qualities which, would to God, I possessed in common with that illustrious man! This is a British influence which I can never shake off.

JOHN RANDOLPH.*

50. WAR WITH FRANCE.

FRANCE has been placed before the world by her rulers in the most false position ever occupied by a brave and gallant nation. She believes herself to be insulted, and what is the consequence? She refuses to pay a debt now admitted to be

* U. S. Senator from Virginia.

just by all the branches of her government. Her wounded feelings are estimated by dollars and cents; and she withholds twenty-five millions of francs, due to a foreign nation, to soothe her injured pride. How are the mighty fallen! Truly it may be said, the days of her chivalry are gone. Have the pride and the genius of Napoleon left no traces of themselves under the constitutional monarchy ? In private life, if you are insulted by an individual to whom you are indebted, what is the first impulse of a man of honor? To owe no pecuniary obligation to the man who has wounded your feelings; to pay him the debt instantly, and to demand reparation for the insult; or, at the least, to hold no friendly communication with him afterwards.

The only question with you now, is not one of substance, but merely whether these explanations are in proper form. But in regard to the United States, the question is far different. What is with you mere etiquette, is a question of life and death to them. Let the President of the United States make the apology which you have dictated-let him once admit the right of a foreign government to question his messages to congress, and to demand explanations of any language at which they may choose to take offence, and their independent existence as a government, to that extent, is virtually destroyed.

We must remember that France may yield with honor; we never can without disgrace. Will she yield? That is the question. She must still believe that the people of this country are divided in opinion in regard to the firm maintenance of their rights. In this she will find herself entirely mistaken. But should congress, at the present session, refuse to sustain the President, by adopting measures of defence,—should the precedent of the last session be followed for the present year, then I shall entertain the most gloomy forebodings. The father of his country has informed us that the best mode of preserving peace is to be prepared for war. I firmly believe, therefore, that a unanimous vote of the senate in favor of the resolutions now before them, to follow to Europe the acceptance of the mediation, would, almost to a certainty, render it successful. It would be an act of the soundest policy, as well as of the highest patriotism. It would prove, not that we intend to menace France, because such an attempt would be ridiculous, but that the American people are unanimous in the assertion of their rights, and have resolved to prepare for the worst. A French fleet is now hovering upon our coasts; and shall we sit still, with an overflowing treasury, and leave our country defenceless? This will never be said with truth of the American Congress.

If war should come, which God forbid,-if France should still persist in her efforts to degrade the American people in the person of their chief magistrate, we may appeal to heaven for the justice of our cause, and look forward with confidence to victory from that Being in whose hands is the destiny of nations. JAMES BUCHANAN.*

51. WAR WITH FRANCE.

I AGREE with the honorable senator that France owes us twenty-five millions of francs, and that she assigns an insufficient reason for withholding payment. But this is the whole head and front of her offending. We have no other complaint against her. Would it be expedient and proper for us to make war for such a cause? There is no other cause of complaint on our part. France has in no way offended against us on this occasion, except only by her failure to pay the money in question. Shall we go to war to enforce its payment?

It is needless to discuss the question. Thank God, the danger of this war has passed by, and we have, as I believe, an almost certain assurance of reconciliation and peace with France. Such an issue of this controversy cannot be regarded otherwise than as a matter of public congratulation. If war had been its result, I should have contributed all that was in my humble power to render my country successful in that war. War of itself would have been a sufficient reason for me to take my country's side, without reference to its cause. But, sir, I must confess that I should have been most loth to witness any such war as that with which we have been threatened.

A war with whom, and for what? A war with France, our first, our ancient ally-whose blood flowed for us and with our own, in the great struggle that gave us our freedom and made us a nation. A war for money! a petty, paltry sum of money! I know of no instance, certainly none among the civilized nations of modern times, of a war waged for such an object; and if it be among the legitimate causes of war, it is surely the most inglorious of them all. It can afford but little of that generous inspiration which in a noble cause gives to war its magnanimity and its glory. War for money must ever be an ignoble strife.

On its barren fields the laurel cannot flourish. In the sordid

* U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania.