Volume 1 — SPEECHES, &c. (continued 12)

‘GENUINE REPUBLICANS, of every faith, who, true to the cause of liberty, would guard it against all pernicious examples.’

ON THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES DURING J. Q. ADAMS’S ADMINISTRATION.

DELIVERED AT CINCINNATI, AUGUST 23, 1828.

[ON Friday, (twenty-second August,) Mr. Clay arrived in Cincinnati. During the day he was visited by a large number of the citizens. On Saturday, at two o’clock, he met his fellow-citizens at Mr. Ruffner’s, where a collation was prepared. A vast concourse of persons were present. The general impression was, that the number exceeded five thousand. Mr. Clay was introduced to the company by a short address from the chairman of the administration committee, S. W. Davies, Esq., to which he replied in the following words.]

MR. CHAIRMAN,

Although it is not entirely compatible with the precautions which are enjoined by the delicate state of my health, to which you have so obligingly alluded, to present myself in this attitude, I cannot refrain from making a public expression to you, and to my fellow-citizens here assembled, of my profound acknowledgments for the hearty welcome and the cordial, spontaneous, and enthusiastic manifestation of respect and attachment with which my present visit to your city has been attended. It has been frequently, but not less truly said, that the highest reward for public service, is the approbation of the public. The support of public opinion is the greatest incentive to the faithful and beneficial discharge of official duty. If, as you have truly suggested, it has been my misfortune for several years, to have been abused and assailed without example, I have nevertheless had the satisfaction to have been cheered and sustained, in all parts of the union, by some of the best and most virtuous men in it. And I seize with pleasure this occasion to say, that, even among my political opponents, many of the most moderate and intelligent have done me the justice to discredit and discountenance the calumnies of which I have been the object. But nowhere have I found more constant, ardent, and effective friends than in this city. I thank them most heartily for all their friendly sentiments and exertions.

Whatever may be the issue of the contest which at present unhappily divides and distracts our country, I trust that the beneficial system, to which you have referred, will survive the struggle, and continue to engage the affections, and to cheer and animate the industry of the people of the United States. It has indeed been recently attacked in another quarter of the union, by some of our fellow-citizens, with a harshness and intemperance which must every where excite the patriot’s regret. It has been denounced as if it were a new system, that sprung into existence but yesterday, or at least with the present administration, if not during the last session of congress. But it owes its origin to a much earlier date. The present administration, though sincerely attached to it, and most anxious for its preservation, has not the merit of having first proposed or first established it. The manufacturing system was quickened into existence by the commercial restrictions which preceded the late war with Great Britain, and by that greatest of them all, the war itself. Our wants, no longer supplied from abroad, must have been supplied at home, or we must have been deprived of the necessaries and comforts of civilization, if we had not relapsed into a state of barbarism. The policy of Jefferson and Madison fostered, if it did not create, the manufactures of our country. The peace brought with it a glut of foreign fabrics, which would have prostrated our establishments, if government had been capable of unjustly witnessing such a spectacle, without interposing its protective power. Protection, therefore, was not merely called for by the substantial independence of our country, but it was a parental duty of government to those citizens who had been tempted by its restrictive policy to embark all their hopes and fortunes in the business of manufacturing. Twelve years ago congress took up the subject, and after long and mature deliberation, solemnly decided to extend that measure of protection which was alike demanded by sound policy and strict justice. Then the foundations were laid of the American system; and all that has been subsequently done, including the act of the last session of congress, are but the consequences of the policy then deliberately adopted, having for their object the improvement and perfection of the great work then begun. It is not the least remarkable of the circumstances of these strange times, that some who assisted in the commencement, who laid corner-stones of the edifice, are now ready to pull down and demolish it.

It is not the fact of the existence of an opposition to the tariff, that can occasion any inquietude; nor that of large and respectable assemblies of the people, to express their disapprobation of the policy, and their firm resolution to consume only the produce of their own industry. These meetings are in the true spirit of our free institutions, and that resolution is in the true spirit of the American system itself. But what must excite deep regret is, that any persons should allow themselves to speak of open and forcible resistance to the government of their country, and to threaten a dissolution of the union. What is the state of the case? A great measure of national policy is proposed; it is a subject of discussion for a period of twelve years, in the public prints, in popular assemblies, in political circles, and in the congress of the United States. That body, after hearing the wishes and wants of all parts of the union, fairly stated by their respective representatives, decides by repeated majorities, to adopt the measure. It is accordingly put into successful operation, improved from time to time, and is rapidly fulfilling all the hopes and expectations of its friends. In this encouraging condition of things, a small number of the citizens composing the minority, (for I will not impute to the great body of the minority any such violent purposes,) threaten the employment of force, and the dissolution of the union! Can any principle be more subversive of all government, or of a tendency more exceptionable and alarming. It amounts to this, that whenever any portion of the community finds itself in a minority, in reference to any important act of the government, and by high coloring and pictures of imaginary distress, can persuade itself that the measure is oppressive, that minority may appeal to arms, and if it can, dissolve the union. Such a principle would reverse the established maxim of representative government, according to which, the will of the majority must prevail. If it were possible that the minority could govern and control, the union may indeed as well be dissolved; for it would not then be worth preserving. The conduct of an individual would not be more unwise and suicidal, who, because of some trifling disease afflicting his person, should, in a feverish and fretful moment, resolve to terminate his existence.

Nothing can be more unfair and ridiculous, than to compare any of the acts of the congress of the United States, representing all, and acting for all, to any of the acts of the British parliament, which led to our revolution. The principle on which the colonies seceded was, that there should be no taxation without representation. They were not represented in the British parliament, and to have submitted to taxation, would have been to have submitted to slavery, and to have surrendered the most valuable privileges of freemen. If the colonies had been fairly represented in the British parliament, and equal taxes, alike applicable to all parts of the British empire, had been imposed by a majority, a case of remote analogy to any act of congress to which a minority is opposed, might be deduced from the history of the revolution. But every state of this confederacy is fairly represented, and has the faculty of being fully heard in the congress of the United States. The representation has been regulated by a joint principle of distribution, the result of a wise spirit of mutual compromise and concession, which I hope never to see disturbed, of which none can justly complain, and least of all, those citizens who have resorted to threats of an appeal to arms and disunion.

But there is, I hope and believe, no reason to apprehend the execution of those empty threats. The good sense, the patriotism, and the high character of the people of South Carolina, are sure guarantees for repressing, without aid, any disorders, should any be attempted within her limits. The spirit of Marion, and Pickens, and Sumpter, of the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, and of Lowndes, yet survives, and animates the high-minded Carolinians. The Taylors, and the Williamses, and their compatriots of the present day, will be able to render a just account of all, if there be any who shall dare to raise their parricidal hands against the peace, the constitution, and the union of the states. Rebuked by public opinion—a sufficient corrective—and condemned by their own sober reflections, the treasonable purpose will be relinquished, if it were ever seriously contemplated by any.

I have no fears for the permanency of our union, whilst our liberties are preserved. It is a tough and strong cord, as all will find who shall presumptuously attempt to break it. It has been competent to suppress all the domestic insurrections, and to carry us safely through all the foreign wars with which we have been afflicted since it was formed, and it has come out of each with more strength, and greater promise of durability. It is the choicest political blessing which, as a people, we enjoy, and I trust and hope that Providence will permit us to transmit it, unimpaired, to posterity, through endless generations.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the flattering opinion which you have expressed of my public services, and especially of those which I have endeavored to render to the west. Whilst I am sensible that you appreciate them much too highly, it is at the same time true, that I have sought, on all occasions that appeared to me proper, to advance the interests of that section, of which I am proud to be a citizen, whenever I have thought it could be done without prejudice to the predominant interests of the whole. I have, nevertheless, in several important instances, given my most zealous support to measures, (the navy, and the late war, for example,) in which the west could not be regarded as having any distinct or other interest, than that which belongs to the honor, the prosperity, and the character, of the whole confederacy. During the short period of the present administration, I hope I may be permitted to say, without meaning to claim for it exclusive merit, that more has been done and recommended for the west, than ever was done during the whole preceding period of our present constitution, with the exception only of the acquisition of Louisiana, under the administration of Mr. Jefferson. I have not strength or time to enter into details to establish the general proposition; but those who will take the trouble to examine the appropriations of land and of money, for objects of internal improvement and education, the measures which have been adopted or recommended, in respect to the public domain, the judiciary, and so forth, will find that proposition fully sustained.

There are here many who, by a too flattering estimate of my capacity, decided me worthy of the office of chief magistrate, and, during the last presidential canvass, honored me with their support. To them I take this occasion to say, that, if instead of the present abused chief magistrate, they had obtained the preference, the measures of the administration would not have been, in any essential particular, different from those which have been adopted. All the principal acts and measures of the existing administration, have met with my humble and hearty concurrence.

Cultivating a farm in Kentucky, and having other objects of private concern, I have found it necessary, both on that account, and the relaxation from official business, indispensable to the preservation of health, annually to visit this quarter of the union, during the period of my connection with the executive of the United States. In these visits, I have frequently met large portions of my fellow-citizens, upon their friendly and pressing invitations. My object has been called in question, and my motives assailed. It has been said, that my purpose was electioneering. If it be intended to charge me with employing improper or dishonorable acts, to secure my election, I deny the charge, and disclaim the purpose. I defy my most malignant enemies to show that I ever, during any period of my life, resorted to such acts to promote my own election, or that of any other person. I have availed myself of these assemblies, and of other opportunities, to defend myself against an accusation, publicly made, and a thousand times repeated. I had a right to do this by the immutable laws of self-defence. My addresses to the public, heretofore, have been generally strictly defensive. If they have ever given pain to any of my adversaries, they must reproach themselves with its infliction. There is one way, and but one way, in which they can silence me. My traducers have attributed to me great facility in making a bargain. Whether I possess it or not, there is one bargain which, for their accommodation, I am willing to enter into with them. If they will prevail upon their chief to acknowledge that he has been in error, and has done me injustice, and if they will cease to traduce and abuse me, I will no longer present myself before public assemblies, or in public prints, in my own defence. That is one bargain which I have no expectation of being able to conclude; for men who are in a long-established line of business, will not voluntarily quit their accustomed trade, and acknowledge themselves bankrupts to honor, decency, and truth.

Some who have persuaded themselves that they saw in my occasional addresses to the people, incompatibility with the dignity and reserve belonging to the office I hold, I know not according to what standard, (it can hardly be any deduced from a popular representative government,) these gentlemen have regulated their opinions. True dignity appears to me to be independent of office or station. It belongs to every condition; but if there be a difference between private and public life, the more exalted the station, the greater is the obligation of the public functionary, in my humble judgment, to render himself amiable, affable, and accessible. The public officer who displays a natural solicitude to defend himself against a charge deeply affecting his honor and his character, manifests, at the same time, a just respect for the community. It is, I think, an erroneous judgment of the nature of office, and its relations, to suppose that it imposes the duty on the officer, of abstracting himself from society, and a stiff and stately port. Without, I hope, forgetting what was due to myself, my habit, throughout life, has been that of friendly, free, and frank intercourse with my fellow-citizens. I have not thought it necessary to change my personal identity in any of the various offices through which I have passed, or to assume a new character. It may not be easy to draw the line, as to the occasions in which a man should remain silent, or defend himself. In the general, it is better, perhaps, that he should leave his public acts, and the measures which he espouses or carries, to their own vindication; but if his integrity be questioned, and dishonorable charges, under high and imposing names, be preferred against him, he cannot remain silent without a culpable insensibility to all that is valuable in human life.

Sir, I feel that I have trespassed too much, both upon you and myself. If prudence were a virtue of which I could boast, I should have spared both you and me. But I could not deny myself the gratification of expressing my thanks to my Cincinnati friends, for the numerous instances which I have experienced of their kind and respectful consideration. I beg you, sir, and every gentleman here attending, to accept my acknowledgments; and I especially owe them to the gentlemen of the committee, who did me the honor to meet me at Louisville, and accompany me to this city. Whatever may be my future destiny, whilst my faculties are preserved, I shall cherish a proud and grateful recollection of these testimonies of respect and attachment.

ON RETIRING FROM OFFICE.

AT WASHINGTON, MARCH 7, 1829.

[AT the close of Mr. Adams’s administration, Mr. Clay, having resigned his office of secretary of state before the inauguration of general Jackson as president of the United States, was invited to meet his friends at Washington city, and others from various parts of the union, at a public dinner, which he accepted, while preparing to return to the place of his residence at the west. On this occasion the fifth toast was:

‘Health, prosperity, and happiness to our highly valued and esteemed guest and fellow-citizen, Henry CLAY. Whatever the future destination of his life, he has done enough for honor, and need desire no higher reward than the deep seated affection and respect of his friends and his country.’

This having been received with much feeling and applause, Mr. Clay arose and addressed the company as follows:]

IN rising, Mr. President, to offer my respectful acknowledgments for the honors of which I am here the object, I must ask the indulgence of yourself and the other gentlemen now assembled, for an unaffected embarrassment, which is more sensibly felt than it can be distinctly expressed. This city has been the theatre of the greater portion of my public life. You, and others whom I now see, have been spectators of my public course and conduct. You and they are, if I may borrow a technical expression from an honorable profession of which you and I are both members, jurors of the vicinage. To a judgment rendered by those who have thus long known me, and by others though not of the panel, who have possessed equal opportunities of forming correct opinions, I most cheerfully submit. If the weight of human testimony should be estimated by the intelligence and respectability of the witness, and the extent of his knowledge of the matter on which he testifies, the highest consideration is due to that which has been this day spontaneously given. I shall ever cherish it with the most grateful recollection, and look back upon it with proud satisfaction.

I should be glad to feel that I could with any propriety abstain from any allusion at this time and at this place, to public affairs. But considering the occasion which has brought us together, the events which have preceded it, and the influence which they may exert upon the destinies of our country, my silence might be misinterpreted, and I think it therefore proper that I should embrace this first public opportunity which I have had of saying a few words, since the termination of the late memorable and embittered contest. It is far from my wish to continue or to revive the agitation with which that contest was attended. It is ended, for good or for evil. The nation wants repose. A majority of the people has decided, and from their decision there can and ought to be no appeal. Bowing, as I do, with profound respect to them, and to this exercise of their sovereign authority, I may nevertheless be allowed to retain and to express my own unchanged sentiments, even if they should not be in perfect coincidence with theirs. It is a source of high gratification to me to believe that I share these sentiments in common with more than half a million of freemen, possessing a degree of virtue, of intelligence, of religion, and of genuine patriotism, which, without disparagement to others, is unsurpassed, in the same number of men in this or any other country, in this or any other age.

I deprecated the election of the present president of the United States, because I believed he had neither the temper, the experience, nor the attainments requisite to discharge the complicated and arduous duties of chief magistrate. I deprecated it still more, because his elevation, I believed, would be the result exclusively of admiration and gratitude for military service, without regard to indispensable civil qualifications. I can neither retract, nor alter, nor modify, any opinion which, on these subjects, I have at any time heretofore expressed. I thought I beheld in his election an awful foreboding of the fate which, at some future (I pray to God that, if it ever arrive, it may be some far distant) day, was to befall this infant republic. All past history has impressed on my mind this solemn apprehension. Nor is it effaced or weakened by contemporaneous events passing upon our own favored continent. It is remarkable that, at this epoch, at the head of eight of the nine independent governments established in both Americas, military officers have been placed, or have placed themselves. General Lavalle has, by military force, subverted the republic of La Plata. General Santa Cruz is the chief magistrate of Bolivia; colonel Pinto of Chili; general Lamar of Peru; and general Bolivar of Colombia. Central America, rent in pieces, and bleeding at every pore, from wounds inflicted by contending military factions, is under the alternate sway of their chiefs. In the government of our nearest neighbor, an election, conducted according to all the requirements of their constitution, has terminated with a majority of the states in favor of Pedrazza, the civil candidate. An insurrection was raised in behalf of his military rival; the cry, not exactly of a bargain, but of corruption, was sounded; the election was annulled, and a reform effected by proclaiming general Guerrero, having only a minority of the states, duly elected president. The thunders from the surrounding forts, and the acclamations of the assembled multitude, on the fourth, told us what general was at the head of our affairs. It is true, and in this respect we are happier than some of the American states, that his election has not been brought about by military violence. The forms of the constitution have yet remained inviolate.

In reasserting the opinions which I hold, nothing is further from my purpose than to treat with the slightest disrespect those of my fellow-citizens, here or elsewhere, who may entertain opposite sentiments. The fact of claiming and exercising the free and independent expression of the dictates of my own deliberate judgment, affords the strongest guarantee of my full recognition of their corresponding privilege.

A majority of my fellow-citizens, it would seem, do not perceive the dangers which I apprehended from the example. Believing that they are not real, or that we have some security against their effect, which ancient and modern republics have not found, that majority, in the exercise of their incontestable right of suffrage, have chosen for chief magistrate a citizen who brings into that high trust no qualification other than military triumphs.

That citizen has done much injustice—wanton, unprovoked, and unatoned injustice. It was inflicted, as I must ever believe, for the double purpose of gratifying private resentment and promoting personal ambition. When, during the late canvass, he came forward in the public prints under his proper name, with his charge against me, and summoned before the public tribunal his friend and his only witness to establish it, the anxious attention of the whole American people was directed to the testimony which that witness might render. He promptly obeyed the call and testified to what he knew. He could say nothing, and he said nothing, which cast the slightest shade upon my honor or integrity. What he did say was the reverse of any implication of me. Then all just and impartial men, and all who had faith in the magnanimity of my accuser, believed that he would voluntarily make a public acknowledgment of his error. How far this reasonable expectation has been fulfilled, let his persevering and stubborn silence attest. But my relations to that citizen by a recent event are now changed. He is the chief magistrate of my country, invested with large and extensive powers, the administration of which may conduce to its prosperity or occasion its adversity. Patriotism enjoins as a duty, that whilst he is in that exalted station, he should be treated with decorum, and his official acts be judged of in a spirit of candor. Suppressing, as far as I can, a sense of my personal wrong, willing even to forgive him, if his own conscience and our common God can acquit him; and entertaining for the majority which has elected him, and for the office which he fills, all the deference which is due from a private citizen; I most anxiously hope, that under his guidance the great interests of our country, foreign and domestic, may be upheld, our free institutions be unimpaired, and the happiness of the nation be continued and increased.

While I am prompted by an ardent devotion to the welfare of my country, sincerely to express this hope, I make no pledges, no promises, no threats, and I must add, I have no confidence. My public life, I trust, furnishes the best guarantee for my faithful adherence to those great principles of external and internal policy, to which it has been hitherto zealously dedicated. Whether I shall ever hereafter take any part in the public councils or not, depends upon circumstances beyond my control. Holding the principle that a citizen, as long as a single pulsation remains, is under an obligation to exert his utmost energies in the service of his country, if necessary, whether in private or public station, my friends, here and every where, may rest assured that, in either condition, I shall stand erect, with a spirit unconquered, whilst life endures, ready to second their exertions in the cause of liberty, the union, and the national prosperity.

Before I sit down, I avail myself with pleasure of this opportunity to make my grateful acknowledgments, for the courtesies and friendly attentions which I have uniformly experienced from the inhabitants of this city. A free and social intercourse with them, during a period of more than twenty years, is about to terminate, without any recollection on my part of a single painful collision, and without leaving behind me, as far as I know, a solitary personal enemy. If, in the sentiment with which I am about to conclude, I do not give a particular expression to the feelings inspired by the interchange of civilities and friendly offices, I hope the citizens of Washington will be assured that their individual happiness and the growth and prosperity of this city will ever be objects of my fervent wishes. In the sentiment which I shall presently offer, they are indeed comprehended. For the welfare of this city is indissolubly associated with that of our union, and the preservation of our liberty. I request permission to propose,

LET US NEVER DESPAIR OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.

ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF JACKSON’S ADMINISTRATION.

AT FOWLER’S GARDEN, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, MAY 16, 1829.

[AFTER the election of general Jackson as president of the United States, Mr. Clay having retired to private life at his former residence in Kentucky, was occasionally invited to meet his friends and neighbors at public entertainments, where large concourses always assembled to manifest for him their continued regard and confidence. On one of these occasions he made the following speech, in which he contrasts the proscriptive course of Jackson’s administration in removals from office, with that adopted and pursued by previous presidents. He also alludes to other subjects of prominent public interest.]

TOAST.

Our distinguished guest, friend, and neighbor, HENRY CLAY. With increased proofs of his worth, we delight to renew the assurance of our confidence in his patriotism, talents, and incorruptibility. May health and happiness attend him in retirement, and a grateful nation do justice to his virtues.

AFTER the above, Mr. Clay rose and addressed the immense assemblage of people present, as follows:

I fear, friends and fellow-citizens, that if I could find language to express the feelings which now animate me, I could not be heard throughout this vast assembly. My voice, once strong and powerful, has had its vigor impaired by delicate health and advancing age. You must have been separated, as I have been, for four years past, from some of your best and dearest friends, with whom during the greater part of your lives, you had associated in the most intimate friendly intercourse; you must have been traduced, as I have been, after exerting with zeal and fidelity the utmost of your powers to promote the welfare of our country; and you must have returned among those warm-hearted friends, and been greeted and welcomed and honored by them, as I have recently been; before you could estimate the degree of sensibility which I now feel, or conceive how utterly inadequate all human language is to portray the grateful emotions of my heart. I behold gathered here, as I have seen in other instances since my return among you, sires far advanced in years, endeared to me by an interchange of friendly office and sympathetic feeling, beginning more than thirty years ago. Their sons, grown up during my absence in the public councils, accompanying them; and all, prompted by ardent attachment, affectionately surrounding and saluting me, as if I belonged to their own household. Considering the multitude here assembled, their standing and respectability, and the distance which many have come personally to see me, and to testify their respect and confidence, I consider this day and this occasion as the proudest of my life. The tribute, thus rendered by my friends, neighbors, and fellow-citizens, flows spontaneously from their hearts, as it penetrates the inmost recesses of mine. Tendered in no servile spirit, it does not aim to propitiate one in authority. Power could not buy or coerce it. The offspring of enlightened and independent freemen, it is addressed to a beloved fellow-citizen in private life, without office, and who can present nothing in return, but his hearty thanks. I pray all of you, gentlemen, to accept these. They are due to every one of you for the sentiment just pronounced, and for the proceedings of this day. And I owe a particular expression of them to that portion of my friends, who, although I had the misfortune to differ from them in the late contest, have honored me by their attendance here. I have no reproaches to make them. Regrets I have; but I give, as I have received from them, the hand of friendship as cordially as it is extended to any of my friends. It is highly gratifying to me to know, that they, and thousands of others who coöperated with them in producing the late political change, were unaffected towards me by the prejudice attempted to be excited against me. I entertain too high respect for the inestimable privilege of freely exercising one’s independent judgment on public affairs, to draw in question the right of any of my fellow-citizens to form and to act upon their opinions in opposition to mine. The best and wisest among us are, at best, but weak and fallible human beings. And no man ought to set up his own judgment as an unerring standard, by which the correctness of all others is to be tested and tried.

It cannot be doubted that, with individual exceptions, the great body of every political party that has hitherto appeared in this country, has been honest in its intentions, and patriotic in its aims. Whole parties may have been sometimes deceived and deluded, but without being conscious of it; they no doubt sought to advance the welfare of the country. Where such a contest has existed as that which we have recently witnessed, there will be prejudices on the one side, and predilections on the other. If, during its progress, we cannot calm the passions, and permit truth and reason to have their undisturbed sway, we ought, at least, after it has terminated, to own their empire. Judging of public men and public measures in a spirit of candor, we should strive to eradicate every bias, and to banish from our minds every consideration not connected with the good of our country.

I do not pretend to be, more than other men, exempt from the influence of prejudice and predilection. But I declare most sincerely, that I have sought, in reference to the present administration, and shall continue to strive, to discard all prejudices, and to judge its acts and measures as they appear to me to affect the interests of our country.

A large portion of my friends and fellow-citizens, from whom I differed on the late occasion, did not disagree with me as to the foreign or domestic policy of government. We only differed in the selection of agents to carry that policy into effect. Experience can alone determine who was right. If that policy continues to be pursued under the new administration, it shall have as cordial support from me, as if its care had been confided to agents of my choice. If, on the contrary, it shall be neglected or abandoned, the friends to whom I now refer will be bound by all the obligations of patriotism and consistency to adhere to the policy.

We take a new commencement from the fourth of March last. After that day, those who supported the election of the present chief magistrate were left as free to judge of the conduct of his administration, as those who opposed it. It will be no more inconsistent in them, if it disappoint their expectations, to disapprove his administration, than it will be to support it, if, disappointing ours, he should preserve the established policy of the nation, and introduce no new principles of alarming tendency.

They bestowed their suffrages upon the supposition that the government would be well administered; that public pledges would be redeemed, solemn professions be fulfilled, and the rights and liberties of the people be protected and maintained. If they shall find themselves deceived in any of these respects; should principles avowed during the canvass be violated during the presidency, and new principles of dangerous import, neither avowed to nor anticipated by them, be put forth, they will have been betrayed; the distinguished individual for whom they voted will have failed to preserve his identity, and they will be urged by the most sacred of duties to apply the proper corrective.

Government is a trust, and the officers of government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. Official incumbents are bound, therefore, to administer the trust, not for their own private or individual benefits, but so as to promote the prosperity of the people. This is the vital principle of a republic. If a different principle prevail, and a government be so administered as to gratify the passions or to promote the interests of a particular individual, the forms of free institutions may remain, but that government is essentially a monarchy. The great difference between the two forms of government is, that in a republic all power and authority and all public offices and honors emanate from the people, and are exercised and held for their benefit. In a monarchy, all power and authority, all offices and honors, proceed from the monarch. His interests, his caprices and his passions, influence and control the destinies of the kingdom. In a republic, the people are every thing, and a particular individual nothing. In a monarchy, the monarch is every thing, and the people nothing. And the true character of the government is stamped, not by the forms of the appointment to office alone, but by its practical operation. If in one, nominally free, the chief magistrate, as soon as he is clothed with power, proceeds to exercise it, so as to minister to his passions, and to gratify his favorites, and systematically distributes his rewards and punishments, in the application of the power of patronage, with which he is invested for the good of the whole, upon the principle of devotion and attachment to him, and not according to the ability and fidelity with which the people are or may be served, that chief magistrate, for the time being, and within the scope of his discretionary powers, is in fact, if not in form, a monarch.

It was objected to the late administration, that it adopted and enforced a system of proscription. During the whole period of it, not a solitary officer of the government, from Maine to Louisiana, within my knowledge, was dismissed on account of his political opinions. It was well known to the late president, that many officers, who held their places subject to the power of dismission, were opposed to his reëlection, and were actively employed in behalf of his competitor. Yet not one was discharged from that cause. In the commencement and early part of his administration, appointments were promiscuously made from all the parties in the previous canvass. And this course was pursued until an opposition was organized, which denounced all appointments from its ranks as being made for impure purposes.

I am aware that it may be urged, that a change was made in some of the publishers of the laws. There are about eighty annually designated. Of these, during the four years of the late administration, about twelve or fifteen were changed. Some of the changes were made from geographical or other local considerations. In several instances one friend was substituted for another. In others, one opponent for another.

Several papers, among the most influential in the opposition, but otherwise conducted with decorum, were retained. Of the entire number of changes, not more than four or five were made because of the scurrilous character of their papers, and not on account of the political sentiments of the editors. It was deemed injurious to the respect and moral influence, which the laws should always command, that they should be promulgated in the columns of a public paper, parallel with which were other columns, in the same paper, of the grossest abuse of the government and its functionaries.

On this subject I can speak with certainty, and I embrace with pleasure this opportunity for explanation. The duty of designating the printers of the laws appertains to the office which I lately filled. The selection is usually made at the commencement of every session of congress. It was made by me, without any particular consultation with the president, or any member of his cabinet. In making it, I felt under no greater obligation to select the publisher of the laws of the previous year, than an individual feels himself bound to insert a succeeding advertisement in the same paper which published his last. The law does not require it, but leaves the secretary of state at liberty to make the selection according to his sense of propriety. A publisher of the laws is not an officer of the government. It has been judicially so decided. He holds no commission. The accuracy of the statement, therefore, that no officer of the government was dismissed by the late administration, in consequence of his political opinions, is not impaired by the few changes of publishers of the laws which were made.

But if they had been officers of government, who could have imagined that those who objected to the removal, would so soon have themselves put in practice a general and sweeping system of exclusion.

The president is invested with the tremendous power of dismission, to be exercised for the public good, and not to gratify any private passions or purposes. It was conferred to prevent the public from suffering through faithless or incompetent officers. It was made summary because, if the slow progress of trial before a judicial tribunal were resorted to, the public might be greatly injured during the progress and prior to the decision of the case. But it never was in the contemplation of congress, that the power would or could be applied to the removal of competent, diligent, and faithful officers. Such an application of it is an act of arbitrary power, and a great abuse.

I regret extremely that I feel constrained to notice the innovation upon the principles and practice of our institutions now in progress. I had most anxiously hoped, that I could heartily approve the acts and measures of the new administration. And I yet hope that it will pause, and hereafter pursue a course more in unison with the spirit of a free government. I entreat my friends and fellow-citizens, here and elsewhere, to be persuaded that I now perform a painful duty; and that it is far from my wish to say one word that can inflict any wound upon the feelings of any of them. I think, indeed, that it is the duty of all of them to exercise their judgments freely and independently on what is passing; and that none ought to feel themselves restrained, by false pride, or by any part which they took in the late election, from condemning what their hearts cannot approve.

Knowing the imputations to which I expose myself, I would remain silent if I did not solemnly believe that there was serious cause of alarm in the principle of removal, which has been recently acted on. Hitherto, the uniform practice of the government has been, where charges are preferred against public officers, foreign or domestic, to transmit to them a copy of the charges, for the purpose of refutation or explanation. This has been considered an equitable substitute to the more tedious and formal trials before judicial tribunals. But now, persons are dismissed, not only without trial of any sort, but without charge. And, as if the intention were to defy public opinion, and to give to the acts of power a higher degree of enormity, in some instances the persons dismissed have carried with them, in their pockets, the strongest testimonials to their ability and integrity, furnished by the very instruments employed to execute the purposes of oppression. If the new administration had found these discharged officers wanting in a zealous coöperation to execute the laws, in consequence of their preference at the preceding election, there would have been ground for their removal. But this has not been pretended; and to show that it formed no consideration, they have been dismissed among its first acts, without affording them an opportunity of manifesting that their sense of public duty was unaffected by the choice which they had at the preceding election.

I will not dwell on the injustice and individual distress which are the necessary consequences of these acts of authority. Men who accepted public employments entered on them with the implied understanding, that they would be retained as long as they continued to discharge their duties to the public honestly, ably, and assiduously. All their private arrangements are made accordingly. To be dismissed without fault, and without trial; to be expelled, with their families, without the means of support, and in some instances disqualified by age or by official habits from the pursuit of any other business, and all this to be done upon the will of one man, in a free government, was surely intolerable oppression.

Our institutions proclaim, reason enjoins, and conscience requires, that every freeman shall exercise the elective franchise freely and independently; and that among the candidates for his suffrage, he shall fearlessly bestow it upon him who will best advance the interests of his country. The presumption is, that this is always done, unless the contrary appears. But if the consequence of such a performance of patriotic duty is to be punishment; if an honest and sincere preference of A. to J. is to be treated as a crime, then our dearest privilege is a mockery, and our institutions are snares.

During the reign of Bonaparte, upon one of those occasions in which he affected to take the sense of the French people as to his being made consul for life, or emperor, an order was sent to the French armies to collect their suffrages. They were told in a public proclamation, that they were authorized and requested to vote freely, according to the dictates of their best judgments, and their honest convictions. But a mandate was privately circulated among them, importing that if any soldier voted against Bonaparte, he should be instantly shot.

Is there any other difference, except in the mode of punishment, between that case and the arbitrary removal of men from their public stations, for no other reasons, than that of an honest and conscientious preference of one presidential candidate to another? And can it be doubted, that the spirit which prompts these removals is restrained from being extended to all, in private life, who manifested a similar preference, only by barriers which it dare not yet break down? But should public opinion sanction them, how long will these barriers remain?

One of the worst consequences of the introduction of this tenure of public office will be, should it be permanently adopted, to substitute for a system of responsibility, founded upon the ability and integrity with which public officers discharge their duties to the community, a system of universal rapacity. Incumbents, feeling the instability of their situations, and knowing their liability to periodical removals, at short terms, without any regard to the manner in which they have executed their trusts, will be disposed to make the most of their uncertain offices while they hold them. And hence we may expect innumerable cases of fraud, peculation, and corruption.

President Jackson commenced his official career on the fourth of March last, with every motive which should operate on the human heart to urge him to forget the prejudices and passions which had been exhibited in the previous contest, and to practice dignified moderation and forbearance. He had been the choice of a considerable majority of the people, and was elected by a large majority of the electoral votes. He had been elected mainly from the all-powerful influence of gratitude for his brilliant military services, in spite of doubts and fears entertained by many who contributed to his elevation. He was far advanced in years, and if fame speak true, was suffering under the joint infirmities of age and disease. He had recently been visited by one of the severest afflictions of Providence, in the privation of the partner of his bosom, whom he is represented to have tenderly loved, and who warmly returned all his affection. He had no child on whom to cast his honors. Under such circumstances, was ever man more imperiously called upon to stifle all the vindictive passions of his nature, to quell every rebellious feeling of his heart, and to dedicate the short residue of his life to the God who had so long blessed and spared him, and to the country which had so greatly honored him?

I sincerely hope that he will yet do this. I hope so for the sake of human nature, and for the sake of his own reputation. Whether he has, during the two months of his administration, so conducted himself, let facts tell and history pronounce. Truth is mighty, and will prevail.

It was objected to Mr. Adams, that by appointing several members of congress to public places, he endangered the purity of the body, and established a precedent fraught with the most dangerous consequences. And president Jackson, (no, he begged his pardon, it was candidate Jackson,) was so much alarmed by these appointments, for the integrity and permanency of our institutions, that in a solemn communication which he made to the legislature of Tennessee, he declared his firm conviction to be, that no member of congress ought to be appointed to any office except a seat upon the bench. And he added, that he himself would conform to that rule.

During the four years of Mr. Adams’s administration, the whole number of appointments made by him from congress, did not exceed four or five. In the first four weeks of that of his successor, more than double that number have been appointed by him. In the first two months of president Jackson’s administration, he has appointed more members of congress to public office, than I believe were appointed by any one of his predecessors during their whole period of four or eight years. And it appears, that no office is too high or too low to be bestowed by him on this favored class, from that of a head of a department, down to an inconsiderable collectorship, or even a subordinate office under a collector. If I have not been misinformed, a representative from the greatest commercial metropolis in the United States, has recently been appointed to some inferior station, by the collector of the port of New York.

Without meaning to assert as a general principle, that in no case would it be proper that a resort should be had to the halls of congress, to draw from them tried talents, and experienced public servants, to aid in the executive or judicial departments, all must agree, that such a resort should not be too often made and that there should be some limit both as to the number and the nature of the appointments. And I do sincerely think, that this limit has, in both particulars, been transcended beyond all safe bounds, and so as to excite serious apprehensions.

It is not, however, my opinion, but that of president Jackson, which the public has now to consider. Having declared to the American people, through the Tennessee legislature, the danger of the practice; having deliberately committed himself to act in consonance with that declared opinion, how can he now be justified in violating this solemn pledge, and in entailing upon his country a perilous precedent, fraught with the corrupting tendency which he described?

It is in vain to say, that the constitution, as it now stands, does not forbid these appointments. It does not enjoin them. If there be an inherent defect in the theoretical character of the instrument president Jackson was bound to have redeemed his pledge, and employed the whole influence and weight of his name to remedy the defect in its practical operation. The constitution admitted of the service of one man in the presidential office, during his life, if he could secure successive elections. That great reformer, as president Jackson describes him, whom he professes to imitate, did not wait for an amendment of the constitution, to correct that defect; but after the example of the father of his country, by declining to serve longer than two terms, established a practical principle which is not likely to be violated.

There was another class of citizens upon whom public offices had been showered in the greatest profusion. I do not know the number of editors of newspapers that have been recently appointed, but I have noticed in the public prints, some fifteen or twenty. And they were generally of those whose papers had manifested the greatest activity in the late canvass, the most vulgar abuse of opponents, and the most fulsome praise of their favorite candidate. Editors are as much entitled to be appointed as any other class of the community; but if the number and the quality of those promoted, be such as to render palpable the motive of their appointment; if they are preferred, not on account of their fair pretensions, and their ability and capacity to serve the public, but because of their devotion to a particular individual, I ask if the necessary consequence must not be to render the press venal, and in time to destroy this hitherto justly cherished palladium of our liberty.

If the principle of all these appointments, this monopoly of public trusts by members of congress and particular editors, be exceptionable, (and I would not have alluded to them but from my deliberate conviction that they are essentially vicious,) their effects are truly alarming. I will not impute to president Jackson any design to subvert our liberties. I hope and believe, that he does not now entertain any such design. But I must say, that if an ambitious president sought the overthrow of our government, and ultimately to establish a different form, he would, at the commencement of his administration, proclaim by his official acts, that the greatest public virtue was ardent devotion to him. That no matter what had been the character, the services, or the sacrifices of incumbents or applicants for office, what their experience or ability to serve the republic, if they did not bow down and worship him, they possessed no claim to his patronage. Such an ambitious president would say, as monarchs have said, ‘I am the state.’ He would dismiss all from public employment who did not belong to the true faith. He would stamp upon the whole official corps of government one homogeneous character, and infuse into it one uniform principle of action. He would scatter, with an open and liberal hand, offices among members of congress, giving the best to those who had spoken, and written, and franked, most in his behalf. He would subsidize the press. It would be his earnest and constant aim to secure the two greatest engines of operation upon public opinion—congress and the press. He would promulgate a new penal code, the rewards and punishments of which, would be distributed and regulated exclusively by devotion or opposition to him. And when all this powerful machinery was put in operation, if he did not succeed in subverting the liberties of his country, and in establishing himself upon a throne, it would be because some new means or principle of resistance had been discovered, which was unknown in other times or to other republics.

But if an administration, conducted in the manner just supposed, did not aim at the destruction of public liberty, it would engender evils of a magnitude so great as gradually to alienate the affections of the people from their government, and finally to lead to its overthrow. According to the principle now avowed and practiced, all offices, vacant and filled, within the compass of the Executive power, are to be allotted among the partisans of the successful candidate. The people and the service of the state are to be put aside, and every thing is to be decided by the zeal, activity, and attachment, in the cause of a particular candidate, which were manifested during the preceding canvass. The consequence of these principles would be to convert the nation into one perpetual theatre for political gladiators. There would be one universal scramble for the public offices. The termination of one presidential contest would be only the signal for the commencement of another. And on the conclusion of each we should behold the victor distributing the prizes and applying his punishments, like a military commander, immediately after he had won a great victory. Congress corrupted, and the press corrupted, general corruption would ensue, until the substance of free government having disappeared, some pretorian band would arise, and with the general concurrence of a distracted people, put an end to useless forms.

I am aware that the late acts of administration on which it has been my disagreeable duty to animadvert, (I hope without giving pain to any of my fellow-citizens, as I most sincerely wish to give none,) were sustained upon some vague notion or purpose of reform. And it was remarkable that among the loudest trumpeters of reform were some who had lately received appointments to lucrative offices. Now it must be admitted that, as to them, a most substantial and valuable reform had taken place; but I trust that something more extensively beneficial to the people at large was intended by that sweet sounding word. I know that, at the commencement, and throughout nearly the whole progress of the late administration, a reform in the constitution was talked of, so as to exclude from public office members of congress, during the periods for which they were elected, and a limited term beyond them. The proposition appeared to be received with much favor, was discussed in the house of representatives, session after session, at great length, and with unusual eloquence and ability. A majority of that body seemed disposed to accede to it, and I thought for some time, that there was high probability of its passage, at least, through that house. Its great champion (general Smyth, of Virginia,) pressed it with resolute perseverance. But unfortunately, at the last session, after the decision of the presidential question, it was manifest that the kindness with which it had been originally received had greatly abated. Its determined patron found it extremely difficult to engage the house to consider it. When, at length, he prevailed by his frequent and earnest appeals to get it taken up, new views appeared to have suddenly struck the reformists. It was no longer an amendment in their eyes, so indispensable to the purity of our constitution; and the majority which had appeared to be so resolved to carry it, now, by a direct or indirect vote, gave it the go-by. That majority, I believe, was composed in part of members who, after the fourth of March last, gave the best practical recantation of their opinions, by accepting from the new president lucrative appointments, in direct opposition to the principle of their own amendment. And now general Smyth would find it even more impracticable to make amongst them proselytes to his conservative alteration in the constitution, than he did to gain any to his exposition of the Apocalypse.

Reform, such as alone could interest a whole people, can only take place in the constitution, or laws, or policy of the government. Now and then, under every administration, and at all times, a faithless or incompetent officer may be discovered, who ought to be displaced. And that, in all the departments of the government. But I presume that the correction of such occasional abuses could hardly be expected to fulfil the promise of reform which had been so solemnly made. I would then ask, what was the reform intended? What part of the constitution was to be altered? what law repealed? what branch of the settled policy of the country was to be changed? The people have a right to know what great blessing was intended by their rulers for them, and to demand some tangible practical good, in lieu of a general, vague, and undefined assurance of reform.

I know that the recent removals from office are attempted to be justified by a precedent drawn from Mr. Jefferson’s administration. But there was not the most distant analogy between the two cases. Several years prior to his election, the public offices of the country had been almost exclusively bestowed upon the party to which that at the head of which he stood was opposed. When he commenced his administration he found a complete monopoly of them in the hands of the adverse party. He dismissed a few incumbents for the purpose of introducing in their places others of his own party, and thus doing equal justice to both sects. But the number of removals was far short of those which are now in progress. When president Jackson entered on his administration, he found a far different state of things. There had been no previous monopoly. Public offices were alike filled by his friends and opponents in the late election. If the fact could be ascertained, I believe it would be found that there was a larger number of officers under the government attached than opposed to his late election.

Further, in the case of Mr. Jefferson’s election, it was the consequence of the people having determined on a radical change of system. There was a general belief among the majority who brought about that event, that their opponents had violated the constitution in the enactment of the alien and sedition laws; that they had committed other great abuses, and that some of them contemplated an entire change in the character of our government, so as to give it a monarchical cast. I state the historical fact, without intending to revive the discussion, or deeming it necessary to examine whether such a design existed or not. But those who at that day did believe it, could hardly be expected to acquiesce in the possession by their opponents, the minority of the nation, of all the offices of a government to which some of them were believed to be hostile in principle. The object of Mr. Jefferson was, to break down a preëxisting monopoly in the hands of one party, and to establish an equilibrium between the two great parties. The object of president Jackson appears to be, to destroy an existing equilibrium between the two parties to the late contest, and to establish a monopoly. The object of president Jefferson was the republic, and not himself. That of president Jackson is himself, and not the state.

It never was advanced under Mr. Jefferson’s administration, that devotion and attachment to him were an indispensable qualification, without which no one could hold or be appointed to office. The contrast between the inaugural speech of that great man, and that of his present successor, was remarkable in every respect. Mr. Jefferson’s breathed a spirit of peace. It breathed a spirit of calm philosophy and dignified moderation. It treated the nation as one family. ‘We are all republicans, all federalists.’ It contained no denunciations; no mysterious or ambiguous language; no reflections upon the conduct of his great rival and immediate predecessor. What is the character of the inaugural speech of the present chief magistrate, I shall not attempt to sketch. Mr. Jefferson, upon the solemn occasion of his installation into office, laid down his rule for appointment to office—‘is he honest? is he capable? is he faithful to the constitution?’ But capacity and integrity and fidelity, according to the modern rule, appear to count for nothing, without the all-absorbing virtue of fidelity to president Jackson.

I will not consume the time of my friends and fellow-citizens with observations upon many of the late changes.

My object has been, to point your attention to the principle which appears to have governed all of them, and to classes. I would not have touched this unpleasant topic, but that it seems to me to furnish much and just occasion for serious alarm. I hope that I have treated it in a manner becoming me, without incurring the displeasure of any one now present. I believe the times require all the calm heads and sound hearts of the country. And I would not intentionally say one word to excite the passions.

But there are a few cases of recent removal of such flagrant impropriety, as I sincerely think, that I cannot forbear alluding to them. Under no administration prior to the present, from the commencement of the government, have our diplomatic representatives been recalled from abroad, on account of the political opinions they entertained in regard to a previous presidential election. Within my recollection, at this time, there has been but one instance of recall of a foreign minister under the present constitution, on account of any dissatisfaction with him. But president Washington did not recall colonel Monroe (the case referred to) from France, on his individual account, but because he was not satisfied with the manner in which he performed the duties of the mission. President Jackson has ordered home two of our foreign ministers, one filling the most important European mission, and the other the most important of our missions on this continent. In both cases the sole ground of recall is, that they were opposed to his election as president. And as if there should be no possible controversy on this head, one of them was recalled before it was known at Washington that he had reached Bogota, the place of his destination; and consequently before he could have possibly disobeyed any instruction, or violated any duty.

The pecuniary effect of these changes, is the certain expenditure, in outfits, of eighteen thousand dollars, and perhaps more than triple that sum in contingences. Now it does seem to me, that (and I put it to your candid judgments whether) this is too large a sum for the public to pay, because two gentlemen had made a mistake of the name which they should have written on a little bit of paper thrown into the ballot-boxes. Mistake! They had, in fact, made no practical mistake. They had not voted at all, one being out of the United States, and the other out of his own state at the time of the election. The money is therefore to be paid because they made a mistake in the abstract opinions which they held, and might possibly, if they had been at home, have erroneously inscribed one name instead of another on their ballots.

There would be some consolation for this waste of public treasure, if it were compensated by the superiority of qualification on the part of the late appointments, in comparison with the previous. But I know all four of the gentlemen perfectly well, and my firm conviction is, that in neither change has the public gained any intellectual advantage. In one of them, indeed, the victor of Tippecanoe and of Thames, of whose gallantry many who are now here were witnesses, is replaced by a gentleman who, if he possesses one single attainment to qualify him for the office, I solemnly declare it has escaped my discernment.

There was another class of persons whose expulsion from office was marked by peculiar hardship and injustice. Citizens of the District of Columbia were deprived of all actual participation in the elections of the United States. They are debarred from voting for a president, or any member of congress. Their sentiments, therefore, in relation to any election of those officers, are perfectly abstract. To punish them, as in numerous instances has been done, by dismissing them from their employments, not for what they did, but for what they thought, is a cruel aggravation of their anomalous condition. I know well those who have been discharged from the department of state, and I take great pleasure in bearing testimony to their merits. Some of them would have done honor to any bureau in any country.

We may worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences. No man’s right, in that respect, can be called in question. The constitution secures it. Public offices are happily, according to the theory of our constitution, alike accessible to all, protestants and catholics, and to every denomination of each. But if our homage is not paid to a mortal, we are liable to a punishment which an erroneous worship of God does not bring upon us. Those public officers, it seems, who have failed to exhibit their devotion to that mortal, are to be visited by all the punishment which he can inflict, in virtue of laws, the execution of which was committed to his hands for the public good, and not to subserve his private purposes.

At the most important port of the United States, the office of collector was filled by Mr. Thompson, whose removal was often urged upon the late administration by some of its friends, upon the ground of his alleged attachment to general Jackson. But the late president was immovable in his resolution to deprive no man of his office, in consequence of his political opinions, or preferences. Mr. Thompson’s removal was so often and so strongly pressed, for the reason just stated, that an inquiry was made of the secretary of the treasury, into the manner in which the duties of the office were discharged. The secretary stated, that there was no better collector in the public service; and that his returns and accounts were regularly and neatly rendered, and all the duties of his office ably and honestly performed, as far as he knew or believed. This meritorious officer has been removed to provide a place for Mr. Swartwout, whose association with colonel Burr is notorious throughout the United States. I put it to the candor of all who are here, to say if such a change can be justified in the port of New York, the revenue collected at which amounts to about ten millions of dollars, or more than one third of the whole revenue of the United States.

I will detain the present assembly no longer, upon subjects connected with the general government. I hope that I shall find, in the future course of the new administration, less cause for public disapprobation. I most anxiously hope, that when its measures come to be developed, at the next and succeeding sessions of congress, they shall be perceived to be such as are best adapted to promote the prosperity of the country. I will say, with entire sincerity, that I shall be most happy to see it sustaining the American system, including internal improvements, and upholding the established policy of the government at home and abroad. And I shall ever be as ready to render praise where praise is due, as it is now painful to me, under existing circumstances, to participate in the disapprobation which recent occurrences have produced.

No occasion can be more appropriate than the present, when surrounded by my former constituents, to say a few words upon the unimportant subject of myself. Prior to my return home I had stated, in answer to all inquiries whether I should be again presented as a candidate to represent my old district in the house of representatives, that I should come to no absolute decision, until I had taken time for reflection, and to ascertain what might be the feelings and wishes of those who had so often honored me with their suffrages. The present representative of the district has conducted himself towards me with the greatest liberality, and I take pleasure now in making my public acknowledgments, so justly due to him. He had promptly declined being a candidate, if I would offer, and he warmly urged me to offer.

Since my return home, I have mixed freely as I could with my friends and fellow-citizens of the district. They have met me with the greatest cordiality. Many of them have expressed a wish that I would again represent them. Some of the most prominent and respectable of those who voted for the present chief magistrate, have also expressed a similar wish. I have every reason to believe, that there would be no opposition to me, from any quarter or any party, if I were to offer. But if I am not greatly deceived in the prevailing feeling throughout the district, it is one more delicate and respectful towards me, and I appreciate it much higher, than if it had been manifested in loud calls upon me to return to my old post. It referred the question to my own sober judgment. My former constituents were generally ready to acquiesce in any decision I might think proper to make. If I were to offer for congress, they were prepared to support me with their accustomed zeal and true-heartedness. I thank them all, from the very bottom of my heart, whether they agreed or differed with me in the late contest, for this generous confidence.

I have deliberated much on the question. My friends in other parts of the union, are divided in opinion about the utility of any services which I could render, at the present period, in the national legislature. This state of things, at home and abroad, left me free to follow the impulse of my own feelings, and the dictates of my own judgment. These prompted me to remain in private life. In coming to this resolution, I did not mean to impair the force of the obligation under which every citizen, in my opinion, stood, to the last flickering of human life, to dedicate his best exertions to the service of the republic. I am ready to act in conformity with that obligation, whenever it shall be the pleasure of the people; and such a probability of usefulness shall exist as will justify my acceptance of any service which they may choose to designate.

I have served my country now near thirty years. My constitution, never very vigorous, requires repose. My health, always of late years very delicate, demands care. My private affairs want my attention. Upon my return home, I found my house out of repair; my farm not in order, the fences down, the stock poor, the crop not set, and late in April the corn-stalks of the year’s growth yet standing in the field—a sure sign of slovenly cultivation.

Under all circumstances, I think that, without being liable to the reproach of dereliction of any public duty to my country or to my friends, I may continue at home for a season, if not during the remainder of my life, among my friends and old constituents, cheering and cheered by them, and interchanging all the kind and friendly offices incident to private life. I wished to see them all; to shake hands cordially with them; to inquire into the deaths, births, marriages, and other interesting events among them; to identify myself in fact, as I am in feeling, with them, and with the generation which has sprung up whilst I have been from home, serving them. I wish to put my private affairs to rights, and if I can, with the blessing of Providence, to reëstablish a shattered constitution and enfeebled health.

It has been proposed to me to offer for a seat in the legislature of the state. I should be proud of the selection, if I believed I could be useful at Frankfort. I see, I think, very clearly, the wants of Kentucky. Its finances are out of order, but they could be easily put straight, by a little moral courage, on the part of the general assembly, and a small portion of candor and good will among the people. Above all, we want an efficient system of internal improvements adopted by the state. No Kentuckian who travelled in or out of it, could behold the wretched condition of our roads, without the deepest mortification. We are greatly in the rear of almost all the adjacent states, some of which sprung into existence long after we were an established commonwealth. Whilst they are obeying the spirit of the age, and nobly marching forward in the improvement of their respective territories, we are absolutely standing still, or rather going backwards. It is scarcely credible, but nevertheless true, that it took my family, in the month of April, nearly four days to travel, through mud and mire, a distance of only sixty-four miles, over one of the most frequented roads in the state.

And yet our wants, on this subject, are perfectly within the compass of our means, judiciously applied. An artificial road from Maysville to the Tennessee line, one branch in the direction of Nashville, and a second to strike the mouth of Cumberland or Tennessee river; an artificial road extending from Louisville to intersect the other, somewhere about Bowling Green; one passing by Shelbyville and Frankfort, to the Cumberland gap; and an artificial road extending from Frankfort to the mouth of Big Sandy; compose all the leading roads which at present need the resources of the state. These might be constructed, partly upon the McAdams method, and partly by simply graduating and bridging them, which latter mode can be performed at an expense less than one thousand dollars per mile. Other lateral connecting these main roads, might be left to the public spirit of the local authorities and of private companies.

Congress, without doubt, would aid the state, if we did not call upon Hercules without putting our shoulders to the wheel. But without that aid we could ourselves accomplish all the works which I have described. It would not be practicable to complete them in a period of less than seven or eight years, and of course not necessary to raise the whole sum requisite to the object in one year. Funds drawn from executed parts of the system might be applied to the completion of those that remained. This auxiliary source, combined with the ample means of the state, properly developed, and faithfully appropriated, would enable us to construct all the roads which I have sketched, without burdening the people.

But, solicitous as I feel on this interesting subject, I regret that I have not yet seen sufficient demonstrations of the public will, to assure me that the judgment of the people had carried them to the same or similar conclusions to which my mind has conducted me. We have been, for years past, unhappily greatly distracted and divided. These dissensions have drawn us off from a view of greater to less important concerns. They have excited bitter feelings and animosities, and created strong prejudices and jealousies. I fear that from these causes the public is not yet prepared dispassionately to consider and adopt a comprehensive, I think the only practical, system of internal improvements, in this state. A premature effort might retard, instead of accelerating, the object. And I must add, that I fear extraneous causes would bias and influence the judgment of the legislature.

Upon the whole, I must decline acceding to the wishes of those who desired to see me in the legislature. Retirement, unqualified retirement, from all public employment, is what I unaffectedly desire. I would hereafter, if my life and health are preserved, be ready at all times to act on the principles I have avowed, and whenever, at a more auspicious period, there shall appear to be a probability of my usefulness to the union or to the state, I will promptly obey any call which the people may be pleased to make.

And now, my friends and fellow-citizens, I cannot part from you, on possibly this last occasion of my ever publicly addressing you, without reiterating the expression of my thanks from a heart overflowing with gratitude. I came among you, now more than thirty years ago, an orphan boy, pennyless, stranger to you all, without friends, without the favor of the great. You took me up, cherished me, caressed me, protected me, honored me. You have constantly poured upon me a bold and unabated stream of innumerable favors. Time, which wears out every thing, has increased and strengthened your affection for me. When I seem deserted by almost the whole world, and assailed by almost every tongue, and pen, and press, you have fearlessly and manfully stood by me, with unsurpassed zeal and undiminished friendship. When I felt as if I should sink beneath the storm of abuse and detraction, which was violently raging around me, I have found myself upheld and sustained by your encouraging voices, and your approving smiles. I have doubtless committed many faults and indiscretions, over which you have thrown the broad mantle of your charity. But I can say, and in the presence of my God and of this assembled multitude, I will say, that I have honestly and faithfully served my country; that I have never wronged it; and that, however unprepared I lament that I am to appear in the Divine presence on other accounts, I invoke the stern justice of his judgment on my public conduct, without the smallest apprehension of his displeasure.

Mr. Clay concluded by proposing the following toast:

THE STATE OF KENTUCKY. A cordial union of all parties in favor of an efficient system of internal improvements, adapted to the wants of the state.

EFFECT OF THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM ON THE SOUTHERN STATES.

AT NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI, MARCH 13, 1830.

[ON this occasion, Mr. Clay (then in private life) being on his return home from a visit to New Orleans, was invited by the citizens of Natchez to partake of a public dinner, which invitation he accepted. A brief sketch of his remarks in reply to a toast in honor of him, taken from a Natchez paper, is given below, in which he shows that the operation of a protective tariff is beneficial to the cotton-growing regions of the south, as well as to the interests of the north, although the latter are more directly employed in manufactures.]

THE RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF MR. CLAY.

‘The manner in which Mr. Clay has been received in Natchez, reflects great credit upon the citizens; nothing they could do, becoming a patriotic and hospitable people, was neglected, and the attentions were not confined to his political friends; he accepted private entertainments from others, and was visited by all.

‘On Saturday (thirteenth instant) a public dinner was given to Mr. Clay by the people of the city and county, agreeably to previous engagements; on this occasion numbers came to see him from distant counties. But on one occasion of the kind, have we seen in this city a larger assemblage of citizens, and that was in honor of La Fayette.’

‘The honorable Edward Turner, judge of the supreme court of this state, presided, assisted by several vice-presidents.’

‘Previous to giving the toast in honor of Mr. Clay, judge Turner addressed the company, in which he alluded to his (Mr. Clay’s) great public services, and concluded by announcing the following sentiment, which was received with the strongest emotion.

‘OUR DISTINGUISHED GUEST—the firm and patriotic statesman; the grandeur and usefulness of his political views can only be surpassed by his eloquence and ability in advocating them.’

To which Mr. Clay replied in substance as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

I not only rise in gratitude for the favorable opinions you entertain of me, but to avail myself of an opportunity to acknowledge my sense of the honors conferred upon me by my fellow-citizens of Mississippi. I did, indeed, expect to receive from them such kind attentions, as they are celebrated for extending to every stranger having had the satisfaction to visit them; but it is my pride to acknowledge, that those paid to me, have far, very far, exceeded my expectations; to have received and not acknowledge how sensible I am of them, would seem an affectation of concealing feelings, which I ought to rejoice in possessing, and which justice to myself, as well as to those who bestow this kindness, requires of me to avow.

Ere I landed on your shores, your welcome and congratulations came to meet me; and they came too the more welcome, because I saw commingling around me, citizens, who, though at variance on political subjects, do not suffer their differences to interfere with the claims, which, as friends and as countrymen, they have on each other; and if I have done aught deserving their approbation as well as their censure, believe me, in all that I have done, I have acted in view of the interest and happiness of our common country.

There is nothing in life half so delightful to the heart, as to know, that, notwithstanding all the conflicts that arise among men, yet there comes a time when their passions and prejudices shall slumber, and that the stranger guest shall be cheered in seeing, that whatever differences may arise among them, yet there are moments when they shall cease from troubling, and when all that is turbulent and distrustful among them, shall be sacrificed to the generous and social dictates of their nature; and it would be to me a source of great satisfaction to think, that a recollection of the present would act as a mediator, and soften the asperities of your divisions, as circumstances and events may renew them.

The gentleman who sits at the head of this festive board, and near whose person your kind consideration and courtesy has placed me, was the companion of my early days; and neither time nor distance have weakened in him the feelings which began with our youth, the strong and bright evidences of which are shown in the narration he has given of my public services. But I fear that he has rather conceived me to be what his wishes would have me; and that to these, more than to my own deservings, must I attribute his flattering notice of me.

He then adverted to that part of judge Turner’s address which spoke of Mr. Clay as the decided advocate of the late war. We cannot attempt to draw even the outlines of his observations, or to portray the feelings he discovered while depicting the part which Kentucky acted in the war; of the volunteers she sent forth to battle, of the privations she suffered, of the money expended, and of the blood that flowed from her sons, in supporting the nation in the defence of her rights and independence. The expression of his eye, his attitude, and gestures, evinced how deeply the subject affected him. The people of Kentucky, he said, acted nobly throughout the whole contest; and whether in defeat or in victory, she still showed the determination to sustain the American character, and to maintain American independence; and it would be only to repeat, what was a common observation among the people of his state, to say, that their countrymen of Mississippi, acted with a spirit during the war worthy the best days of the revolution.

In speaking of the invasion of Louisiana, and of the battle of New Orleans, his feelings and his voice seemed to rise with the subject. The encomiums he passed upon the hero who had achieved the victory, though said in a few words, were such as might be expected from a statesman so great in honor, and so exalted in patriotism as Mr. Clay. He concluded this part of his speech, by saying, that, although by the negotiations at Ghent, none of the objects for which the nation went to war, were guarantied by the treaty of peace; yet they were secured to us by a power much stronger than any treaty stipulations could give; the influence of our arms, the resources and power of the republic, as brought forth and shown in the contest.

He now spoke of the apprehensions entertained by many, that the union would be dissolved; but he considered all apprehensions of this kind, as arising more from our fears that such a misfortune should visit the country, than from any substantial reasons to justify them. Rumors, he said, had gone abroad ever since the adoption of the present constitution, that the republic would be dismembered. Whenever any important question arose, in which the passions and prejudices of party, rather than the reason of the people, was brought to bear on the discussion, the cry would be heard, that the union would fall in the conflict; to-day, the disposition to separate would be charged on the west; to-morrow, against the north or the east; and then it would be returned back again to the south; but as long as I have lived, said Mr. Clay, I have seen nothing to give me any serious fears that such an evil could befall us. First, the people were divided into democrats and federalists; then we had the funding system, and the bank of the United States; then came the Missouri question, and last the tariff. On this question my partial friend has honored me with the appellation of the advocate of domestic industry. I am, indeed, from conscientious convictions, the friend of that system of public policy, which has been called the American system; and here, among those who honestly differ with me on this question, I would be indulged, by this magnanimous people, in offering a few remarks on this subject.

It has been objected to this policy by a distinguished statesman in congress, that our country was too extended, the lands too cheap and fertile, and our population too sparse to admit of the manufacturing system; that our people were physically incapable of that confined degree of labor, necessary to excellence in manufactures; but experience has surely disproved these positions. We are by nature inferior to no people, physically or mentally, and time has proved and will continue to prove it.

I am aware that the people of this quarter of the union conscientiously believe, that the tariff bears heavily on them; yet I feel also well assured, from a retrospect of the past, that if the laws on this subject were even more severe in their operation than I believe them to be, this patriotic people would endure them patiently. Yes, if the independence of the country, the interests, and above all the cause of the union required heavy sacrifices, they would endure them. But whilst claiming no immunity from error, I feel the most sincere, the deepest conviction, that the tariff, so far from having proved injurious to the peculiar interests of this section of country, has been eminently beneficial. I ask leave to put two questions to those interested in your great staple. I would take the common operations of sale and of purchase; has the operation of the tariff lowered the price of what you sell? The price of every article must be regulated mainly by the demand; has, then, the consumption of cotton diminished since the tariff of 1824, or 1828? No, it has increased, greatly increased; and why? Because the protection extended by this policy, has created a new customer in the American manufacturer, who takes two hundred thousand bales, without having lessened the demand for the European market.

British merchants have found new markets for their cotton fabrics, and the competition, thus created, while it has reduced the price of the manufactured article, has increased the consumption of the raw material. Again, has the tariff increased the price of what you buy? Take the article of domestic cottons, for example; has not the American manufacturer, since the adoption of this system, afforded you a better article and at less price than before? Take a familiar instance, one in which having some personal interest, I ought to be acquainted with; take the article manufactured in my own state, for the covering of your cotton bales; take any period, say six years before and six years since the tariff of 1824; has the average price of cotton bagging increased or diminished, in that period? I think I can appeal confidently to those around me, for the reply. We afford you a better article than the European, and at a greatly reduced price. But, I am permitting myself to be carried away by the subject; I will obtrude no longer on the indulgence of this generous people. I feel my inability to express my profound and heartfelt gratitude, for the too flattering reception you have given me, and for the sentiments you have been pleased to honor me with, an humble individual in private life. I ask permission to offer a sentiment.

‘The health and prosperity of the people of the state of Mississippi.’

ON NULLIFICATION, ETC.

DELIVERED AT CINCINNATI, AUGUST 3, 1830.

[THERE are few, if any, among the numerous addresses with which Mr. Clay has favored the country, on the policy of the government, and the true interests of the people, which more richly deserve careful consideration, than the following speech, delivered at the mechanics collation, in the Apollonian garden, on the third of August, 1830. It embraces almost every exciting topic of the time, including the American system, recharter of the U. S. Bank, and nullification.

The eighth toast—‘Our valued guest—It is his highest eulogium, that the name of Henry Clay is inseparably associated with the best interests of the country, as their assertor and advocate.’

When the enthusiastic cheering, which followed the reading of this toast, had subsided, Mr. Clay rose and addressed the company as follows.]

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

In rising to make the acknowledgments which are due from me, for the sentiment which has been just drunk, and for the honors which have been spontaneously rendered to me on my approach, and during my visit to this city, I feel more than ever the incompetency of all language adequately to express the grateful feelings of my heart. Of these distinguished honors, crowned heads themselves might well be proud. They indeed possess a value far surpassing that of any similar testimonies which could be offered to the chief of an absolute government. There, they are, not unfrequently, tendered by reluctant subjects, awed by a sense of terror, or impelled by a spirit of servility. Here, in this land of equal laws and equal liberty, they are presented to a private fellow-citizen, possessing neither office nor power, nor enjoying any rights and privileges which are not common to every member of the community. Power could not buy nor deter them. And, what confers an estimable value on them to me—what makes them alone worthy of you, or more acceptable to their object, is that they are offered, not to the man, but to the public principles and public interests, which you are pleased to associate with his name. On this occasion, too, they emanate from one of those great productive classes which form the main pillars of public liberty, and public prosperity. I thank you, fellow-citizens, most cordially, for these endearing proofs of your friendly attachment. They have made an impression of gratitude on my heart, which can never be effaced, during the residue of my life. I avail myself of this last opportunity of being present at any large collection of my fellow-citizens of Ohio, during my present visit, to express my respectful acknowledgments for the hospitality and kindness with which I have been every where received and entertained.

Throughout my journey, undertaken solely for private purposes, there has been a constant effort on my side, to repress, and, on that of my fellow-citizens of Ohio, to exhibit public manifestations of their affection and confidence. It has been marked by a succession of civil triumphs. I have been escorted from village to village, and have every where found myself surrounded by large concourses of my fellow-citizens, often of both sexes, greeting and welcoming me. Nor should I do justice to my feelings, if I confined the expression of my obligations to those only with whom I had the happiness to agree, on a late public event. They are equally due to the candid and liberal of those from whom it was my misfortune to differ on that occasion, for their exercise towards me of all the rights of hospitality and neighborly courtesy. It is true, that in one or two of the towns through which I passed, I was informed, that attempts were made, by a few political zealots, to dissuade portions of my fellow-citizens from visiting and saluting me. These zealots seemed to apprehend, that an invading army was about to enter the town; that it was necessary to sound the bells, to beat the drums, to point the cannon, and to make all needful preparations for a resolute assault, and a gallant defence. They were accordingly seen in the streets, and at public places, beating up for recruits, and endeavoring to drill their men. But I believe there were only a few who were awed by their threats, or seduced by their bounty, to enlist in such a cause. The great body of those who thought differently from me, in the instance referred to, remained firm and immovable. They could not comprehend that it was wrong to extend to a stranger from a neighboring state, the civilities which belong to social life. They could not comprehend that it was right to transform political differences into deadly animosities. Seeing that varieties in the mode of worshipping the great Ruler of the universe did not disturb the harmony of private intercourse, they could not comprehend the propriety of extending to mortal man a sacrifice which is not offered to our immortal Father, of all the friendly and social feelings of our nature, because we could not all agree as to the particular exercise of the elective franchise. As independent and intelligent freemen, they would not consent to submit to an arrogant usurpation which assumed the right to control their actions, and to regulate the feelings of their hearts, and they scorned with indignation, to yield obedience to the mandates of would-be dictators. To quiet the apprehensions of these zealots, I assure them, that I do not march at the head of any military force; that I have neither horse, foot, nor dragoon, and that I travel with my friend Charles, (a black boy, residing in my family, for whom I feel the same sort of attachment that I do for my own children,) without sword, pistol, or musket! Another species of attempted embarrassment has been practiced by an individual of this city. About an hour before I left my lodgings for this spot, he caused a packet to be left in my room by a little boy, who soon made his exit. Upon opening it, I looked at the signature, and that was enough for me. It contained a long list of interrogatories, which I was required publicly to answer. I read only one or two of them. There are some men whose contact is pollution. I can recognize no right in the person in question to catechize me. I can have no intercourse with one who is a disgrace to the gallant and generous nation from which he sprang. I cannot stop to be thus interrogated by a man whose nomination to a paltry office, was rejected by nearly the unanimous vote of the senate; I must be excused if, when addressing my friends, the mechanics of Cincinnati, I will not speak from his notes. On the renewal of the charter of the present bank of the United States, which I believe formed the subject of one or two of these interrogatories, I will say a few words for your, not his sake. I will observe, in the first place, that I am not in favor of such a bank as was recommended in the message of the president of the United States, at the commencement of the last session of congress; that, with the committee of the two houses, I concur in thinking it would be an institution of a dangerous and alarming character; and that, fraught as it would be with the most corrupting tendencies, it might be made powerfully instrumental in overturning our liberties. As to the existing bank, I think it has been generally administered, and particularly of late years, with great ability and integrity; that it has fulfilled all the reasonable expectations of those who constituted it; and, with the same committees, I think it has made an approximation towards the equalization of the currency, as great as is practicable. Whether the charter ought to be renewed or not, near six years hence, in my judgment, is a question of expediency to be decided by the then existing state of the country. It will be necessary at that time, to look carefully at the condition both of the bank and of the union. To ascertain, if the public debt shall, in the mean time, be paid off, what effect that will produce? What will be our then financial condition? what that of local banks, the state of our commerce, foreign and domestic, as well as the concerns of our currency generally? I am, therefore, not now prepared to say, whether the charter ought, or ought not, to be renewed on the expiration of its present term. The bank may become insolvent, and may hereafter forfeit all pretensions to a renewal. The question is premature. I may not be alive to form any opinion upon it. It belongs to posterity, and if they would have the goodness to decide for us some of the perplexing and practical questions of the present day, we might be disposed to decide that remote question for them. As it is, it ought to be indefinitely postponed.