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Representatives from that State, of all political
parties are ready, I hope and believe, to vindi-
cate her credit and honor. Let us not bring her
concerns into discussion here, when there is no
sort of reason for it. She can manage her own
affairs. She has made vast and magnificent im-
provements, and she is saddled with a heavy
debt; but she is also possessed of great, ay, of
inexhaustible resources wherewith to meet it.
The people of that great Commonwealth are too
honest, and too enlightened ever to give counte-
nance to a violation of public faith.

I feel deeply obliged to the House for its kind
indulgene extended towards me in making these
few hasty remarks, perhaps somewhat out of
order; and should not have obtruded myself upon
its attention had not the debate taken the peculiar
turn it did.

Mr. BEATTY then rising to address the
Chair-

Mr. MONROE moved, with all due deference,
he said, to the State of Pennsylvania, that the
further consideration of the affairs of that State,
now under discussion, be postponed until Mon-
day next, and be made the special order for that
day.

payments, under a penalty of summary forfeiture
of their charters in case of non-compliance. That
bill was sent to the Senate. The first of Feb-
ruary came, and there was no money to pay the
interest of the debt. What, then, was the great
question which naturally suggested itself to the
Governor? It was, that the honor and faith of
the State must be preserved at all hazards, so far
as that object could be attained without a com-
promise of honesty or principle. I cannot say
that the Governor was wrong. The Governor
then communicated the fact to the Legislature,
that on that day the interest on the debt would
fall due, and that he was unable to negotiate
a loan or to procure the money, and that he
could not therefore redeem the faith or comply
with the pledges of the State, and recommended
the immediate adoption of a joint resolution au-
thorizing the issue of State stock to meet the
interest owing by the State, as an earnest that
the State faith would be preserved untainted.
Now, sir, I am free to say that the course which
suggested itself to me was, that the Executive
should have communicated the facts and corre-
spondence with the several banking institutions
on the subject, and that he should then have left
it to the Legislature (many of the members of
which I happen to be acquainted with, and es-
teem as patriotic men) to determine what course
should have been pursued under the circumstances.
and what the exigencies of the State demanded.
But, being, as I well know him to be, anxious to
serve the State in the best manner he could, theositions of the gentleman from Louisiana, [Mr.
Governor suggested his belief that, if the fifteenth
day of the present month were fixed upon, or any
other immediate day, for the resumption of specie
payments, it would be out of the power of man
to prevent disastrous consequences. And here I
must remark, in regard to this suggestion, that
although, in the first instance, I was struck with
the idea that the Governor had erred, yet he has,
I think, upon reflection, compromised no prin-
ciple-because it was a mere question of time.
Probably the more judicious course would have
been, that the Legislature (and I say so with
great deference to that body) should have raised
a committee to inquire into the condition of all
the banks.

The SPEAKER here interposed, and said that the gentleman was going too much into detail. But, in obedience to loud cries from many parts of the Hall of "Go on!" Go on!" "Proceed!" &c.,

Mr. LEET proceeded as follows: I say, that if the Legislature of Pennsylvania-who, as some gentlemen assert, have receded, and receded at the instance of the executive, (which I do not admit, because, as I said before, the question was merely one of time,) if the Legislature had appointed a committee to inquire into the condition of the banks, to have ascertained the nature and extent of their resources, together with all other necessary facts, I say that their position would have been precisely what it is now in regard to the resumption bill. Sir, Pennsylvania is as independent a State as any in this Union. It is the State in which I was born, and where all my ancestors have lived. In moral, intellectual, and physical resources, she is inferior to none; and I trust that she will never mix up with the party politics of the day a momentous question involving her credit and honor. I say that the Legislature of Pennsylvania is not justly open to censure from any quarter, because they have done that which a sense of duty as representatives of the people, bound by their oaths of office, constrained them to do. If I had the honor of a seat in that body, and upon a certain day the pledges of the State were to be redeemed, what would be my course? Should I look remotely to the election of a President? Should I look remotely to the election of a Governor? Or should I look to the great interests of the State which I represent; that is, should I comply with the engagements of the State? Certainly; and that I conceive to be the noble principle which has actuated themthat is what they mean to do.

Mr. Speaker, I have spoken according to the best information I possess in relation to the present condition of the affairs of Pennsylvania. I hope those affairs will not unnecessarily hereafter be dragged into discussion in this House. The

Mr. BEATTY expressed his regret that the affairs of Pennsylvania had been introduced, and his determination to vindicate the honor of his State on all occasions, so far as his feeble abilities would permit him to do.

drawn to the subject, and he had felt bound to call the notice of that gentleman to the state of the documents from the War Department, which had the control of this fund, and he (Mr. C.) had been able to allege, as the result of his examination, that there was, at that time, the sum of two millions of dollars in the hands of pension agents. This statement was roundly denied by the gentleman (Mr. CAMBRELENG] in the way so peculiar to himself. It was denied, also, by a very respectable gentleman from Baltimore, who on the very next day came here and stated that he had made a personal examination into the facts at the War Department and at the Pension Office. He then admitted that there was proof that nearly two millions of dollars were in the hands of pension agents, and he then proceeded to say that it was the practice of the War Department to put the agents in possession of funds from four to six months in advance of the time of disbursement; and he justified it, as gentlemen have justified it to-day, on the ground that it was proper, by way of compensation for the services rendered. The then chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means produced and had read several letters from pension agents; and he (Mr. C.) remembered that several of them were letters calling upon the Secretary of War for remittances of funds to their hands; and several of them went so far as to say that they would not hold the office unless more money was placed in their hands by way of the State of Vermont, said that he understood there was a bill pending before Congress providing for the compensation of pension agents, and that if no more salary was given than that which was contemplated, (which was fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars a year,) it was not worth while to keep the office. That particular agent failed the next week. The Government instituted suit against him, and (Mr. C. was happy to say) either had or would receive the money. The Government had not been so fortunate in relation to a pension agent at Boston. Persons had sought the offices of pension agents on the ground that they could do the business as well as the United States Bank, and that they were willing to do it on the same terms. This was the commencement of these agencies in the United States. It had been urged here that they would do it on the same terms as the United States Bank; that they wanted nothing. He (Mr. C.) would hold them to their bargain until some provision should be made by law in regard to these agencies. If the Government was under the necessity of issuing notes on interest he was for saving that interest as much as possible.

Mr. JONES, of Virginia, thought that the prop-compensation. One of these agents, residing in

GARLAND,] and the gentleman from Kentucky,
[Mr. UNDERWOOD,] could have no other effect
than to embarrass the bill now under considera-
tion, especially when it was recollected that a bill
must shortly come up embracing a general sys-
tem, and imposing restrictions of the severest
character on all public officers into whose hands
the public moneys should go. That bill would
be open to discussion. The present was merely
a bill appropriating money, under existing laws,
to individuals entitled to receive their respective

amounts.

Mr. CURTIS hoped the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means would consent to lay this bill aside without taking the question, in order that the House might be placed in possession of information which, judging from the course of his remarks, the chairman was not now able to give. Mr. C. desired the gentleman to be able to state distinctly whether there were funds enough in the hands of the pension agents to meet the demands.

Mr. JONES said it seemed to him that the information sought by the gentleman from New York [Mr. CURTIS] was already in the possession of every gentleman. There was a statement before the committee showing the amount of moneys appropriated for the several objects of the bill at the last session of Congress. There was also a statement showing the unexpended amounts under each head, and it clearly appeared that, for three classes of pensioners provided for in the third section, there was not enough by one or two hundred thousand dollars. This information was derived from the Commissioner of Pensions. Mr. CURTIS. Then he gives me the information which is contained in this bill-which is

Mr. JONES. No; there is the information contained in the estimates accompanying the bill. Mr. CURTIS. And no other? This book [holding up the estimates] showed that there was no present necessity for an appropriation of more than two or three hundred thousand dollars; and the bill proposed to appropriate about three mil

lions.

Mr. C. well remembered the course of this bill last year, and he well remembered the remarks made by one of his colleagues. When the bill came in two years ago, the then chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, [Mr. CAMBRELENG,] at a late hour, proposed that it should be taken up out of its order, as it had been on the present occasion-and that it should be forthwith passed; because, as he said, there was no money to pay the poor soldiers. The revolutionary soldiers and officers, he said, were daily demanding payment, and there was nothing to give them.

His (Mr. C.'s) attention had at that time been

Mr. WHITE, of Kentucky, desired to put a question to the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. If he had understood the matter correctly, an appropriation of two or three hundred thousand dollars would meet all the present demands upon the various pension funds. The present bill (as Mr. W. understood) appropriated $1,000,000. This would leave an excess of between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars after the entire demands for the 4th of March should be discharged; which sum of seven or eight hundred thousand dollars would remain in the hands of the pension agents for six months; that was to say, until the 4th of September next. Was this the state of the case? Again: He would inquire whether this last-named sum would be adequate to the demands for the 4th of September? It would not, he believed. Here, then, would be double legislation. The demand for the 4th of September would be, he believed, $1,500,000; to meet which there would be this sum of seven or eight hundred thousand dollars. Why this sort of double legislation? He was the last man to refuse all requisite appropriations to meet all the various demands; but he would not appropriate money when there was no necessity.

Mr. JONES said he had a document before him, by referring to which the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. WHITE] could, in a few moments, ascertain the exact amount of money

appropriated at the last session of Congress to meet the claims for pensions intended to be proinstant, say what the precise amount was, but vided for by this bill. Mr. J. could not, on the

26TH CONG....1ST SESS.

a few moments' examination would inform him fully on that point. The gentleman needed not to be under any apprehension as to the large amounts of money which he supposed were to be transmitted to those various pension agencies, because the mere passage of an appropriation bill furnished no funds to the Department with which to meet demands. They were to be looked to from other quarters.

Mr. J. knew it had once been urged here that the mere fact of passing an appropriation bill put so much money in the Treasury of the United States, while the real fact was, that the passage of the bill created a demand upon the Treasury, whilst it brought nothing into it. We were, then, to look to other sources for the means; and if the conjecture of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. CURTIS,] were true, that there was not more than half a million of money in the Treasury, it would require more than ordinary ingenuity to show how one or two millions were to be taken out of it to be placed where it had been usual to place moneys for the payment of pensions. All that was asked here was the appropriation of an amount sufficient to meet existing demands under authority of lawthe names and amounts being furnished. It would be a new doctrine to pass half the appropriation now, and to reserve the appropriation for the other half until the month of September, when Congress would not be here.

Mr. WHITE, of Kentucky, said the gentleman, in his answer, was only throwing him back upon his own difficulty. He (Mr. W.) wished to know whether this bill provided for the payment of pensions coming due on the 4th of September?

New Jersey Contested Election-Mr. Jenifer.

the transfer of unexpended balances, from one
head of appropriation to another, why bring the
bill thus prematurely up? I ask the committee
to rise until inquiry can be made. If there is no
necessity for the immediate appropriation of this
money, I hope no man is ready to put his hands
into the Treasury for it. I move that the com-

mittee rise.

And, that motion having been agreed to, the committee rose and reported progress, and the House adjourned.

NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION.

SPEECH OF HON. D. JENIFER,
OF MARYLAND,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
December 13, 1839.

The question being on Mr. PROFFIT's motion
to reconsider the resolution of Mr. SMITH, of
Maine, that the House at this time proceed to
the election of a Speaker-

Mr. JENIFER said he understood the question before the Chair to be upon the motion of the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. PROFFIT] to reconsider the vote upon the resolution "That this House, at this time, proceed to the election of a Speaker," for the purpose of enabling him to offer a resolution to carry into effect an express order of the House.

Mr. J. said he was gratified that the gentleman from Indiana had moved the reconsideration. It would afford gentlemen once more an opportunity of pausing before they committed an act in direct Mr. JONES said that the amount intended to violation of the rights of New Jersey, of her Repbe appropriated by the bill (including the unex- resentatives upon this floor, and of the order of pended balances of last year for the same pur- this House unrepealed, now on your table. It poses) was intended to cover the whole demand will be recollected that the House, by a large upon the Government for the whole year. The vote, had resolved "to hear and adjudge upon bill provided only for those cases for which ap- 'the elections, returns, and qualifications of all propriations had not been made under other laws, claimants to the seats contested upon this floor, and, as he had said, covered the expenses of the before a Speaker is elected." And now it is prowhole year. The doctrine had never been main-posed to disregard this resolution by electing a tained that Congress should pass the one half of Speaker without deciding which of the New Jeran appropriation bill at one time, and the other sey claimants are entitled, and by refusing to half at another; and, if such a course was to be permit either of them to vote. Mr. J. asked pursued, two sessions of Congress in each year where are the pledges of gentlemen, that after the would be required. Mr. J. then read extracts roll was called over, the rights of New Jersey from documents accompanying the annual esti- should be decided on before they proceeded to mates of the Secretary of the Treasury, showing the election of a Speaker? He called on honorthe amount of unexpended balances on moneys able gentlemen to fulfill their pledges; on that heretofore appropriated, and which, he said, in portion of the House which regarded their obliaddition to the amount asked by this bill, would gations, not to avail themselves of a trick by complete the sum wanted for his service during which they have deceived their opponents. the year.

Mr. WHITE, of Kentucky, did not wish to embarrass the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means or this committee. All he wished was a plain statement of facts.

If he understood the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, the present bill provided for the payments coming due on the 4th of March, and also on the 4th of September, and the only necessity which existed for this speedy action was, that probably one or two of the pension funds might be deficient, whilst in others there was a large surplus; so that there was no necessity for immediate action, but for the fact that there might be a deficiency in one or two of the funds. Now, he would ask the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means whether there was not a general law providing for the transfer of any unexpended balances in one of the funds to meet any deficiency which might exist in another?

Mr. JONES said there was a general law vesting in the President of the United States the power to transfer appropriations under certain other heads therein enumerated. His (Mr. J.'s) recollection did not enable him at this time to say whether this law was applicable to the pension fund or not. His recollection rather inclined the other way; but he would not say so positively. The law could soon be referred to.

Mr. WHITE, of Kentucky. If we now have two million dollars of this pension fund, being rive hundred thousand dollars more than is required for present purposes, why should there be action upon the bill at this time? Why increase the fund? If we have a general law providing for

By a tie in the vote of this morning the question was lost-that J. B. Ayerigg and his four colleagues were entitled to their seats under the commission of the Governor of New Jersey; the vote stood one hundred and seventeen on both sides. Had the question been stated negatively instead of affirmatively, the decision would have been the reverse. And how was that vote accomplished? Gentlemen boast of having gained a victory by the vote of this morning. If it is a victory, it is a discreditable one; and if I show that it was effected by a gross deception, the language which I use will not be considered too harsh to be applied to the perpetrators of it. Mr. J. said, when his friend and himself came here this morning, it was their desire and intention, as far as in their power, to settle the question of the New Jersey contest as speedily as possible, and proceed to the organization of the House. With that view, his friend from Virginia [Mr. WISE] had moved the resolution that J. B. Aycrigg and his colleagues were entitled to their seats; and all that we desired was a fair expression of the vote of the members on the resolution. It was known that the vote would be a close one. It was known that Mr. HAWES, of Kentucky, although ill in his bed, could be brought to the House, if his vote were necessary. It was also known that one or two gentlemen of the Administration party had expressed their opinion that the members having the Governor's commission were entitled to their seats, and that they so intended to vote. In addition to which it was stated by a gentleman now in my eye, that Mr. KEMPSHALL, of New York, the only absent member, had arrived in the morning cars. Under these circumstances, we

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Ho. OF REPS.

did not desire to postpone a decision upon the New Jersey contested election, when every member elect of the Twenty-Sixth Congress was in the city of Washington, and, therefore, we united with the Administration party in demanding that the question be taken. Nor was it considered proper to risk the health of a fellow-member by bringing him to the House, when his vote was not indispensable. The House proceeded to take the question on the resolution that J. B. Aycrigg, &c., are entitled to their seats; when it was ascertained that Mr. KEMPSHALL, of New York, had not arrived that one, if not two, of the members who had pledged themselves to vote for the New Jersey claimants who had the regular certificates of the Governor, contrary to their declaration, voted in the negative. Thus, by a palpable deception, the New Jersey members were excluded from their seats, when, had there been a fair expression of the voice of the House, there would have been a majority of two, if not four, in their favor. Notwithstanding which, gentlemen propose to go into the election of a Speaker at this hour of the night, and to effect, by stratagem, that which they cannot do by a fair and full vote of the House. And yet they proclaim here that they are actuated by conscientious motives.

Here Mr. J., at the suggestion of Mr. GRAVES, yielded the floor for a motion to adjourn, which being decided in the negative, Mr. J. was about to proceed, when Mr. SMITH, of Maine, moved the previous question.

Mr. J. contended that his having given way for the motion to adjourn did not deprive him of his right to the floor.

Mr. SMITH insisted that the floor having been yielded, he had the right to move the previous question.

After some further remarks from Mr. GRAVES and Mr. WISE upon the point of order

Mr. JENIFER resumed, and said that he was not surprised that the member from Maine was unwilling for him to proceed; he could not but be restive under an exposition of such facts as these on this floor. The member has said that our object is to consume time. Mr. J. said we intend to take time to expose to this House and the country the means which have been resorted to to deprive the State of New Jersey of her Representatives in this House. The truth must and will out, however unpalatable to the member and his friends. The call to order and for the previous question comes with an ill grace from that member; for it cannot have escaped notice that he has consumed more time, and been more disorderly, with, perhaps, the exception of one other near him, than any member on this floor. And his repeated calls for the previous question, after having spoken at length himself, show that he fears to afford an opportunity for reply. Mr. J. said it would be well to review the proceedings of the last ten days, for the purpose of seeing who have delayed the organization of the House, as well as to test the consistency of those who have taken the lead in the Administration ranks.

On the first day of the session, the Clerk commenced, as usual, to call over the names of the members elect of the different States, commencing with the State of Maine; and after progressing as far as New Jersey, and calling Mr. Randolph, from that State, immediately stopped the call, read the certificate of J. B. Aycrigg, and stated that there were four others of precisely the same tenor, and refused to proceed unless directed by the members present. Notwithstanding which, the official organ of the Government (the Globe) led off with a statement that the Clerk was interrupted in the call of the roll, and was not permitted to proceed; which statement, although indorsed here upon this floor, every gentleman present knows not to be true. The Clerk had declined to call either of the members from New Jersey except Mr. Randolph, and persisted in refusing, or to put any question to the House save that of adjournment. Days having been spent in this unprecedented state of things, the House, to relieve themselves from their embarrassed condition, indignant at the arrogance of the Clerk in taking his seat at the desk, calling such members as he deemed proper, and refusing to call the gentlemen from New Jersey who had regular certificates from the Governor, you, Mr. Chairman, were unanimous

wishes of the Administration, or refused to lend
his aid in the election of his successor to the
chair, that President Jackson would not have
instantly recalled his letter of promise to appoint?
Was not here a direct interest? Did not the
appointment depend upon the Speaker's vote
and action? Had it not the effect of controlling
both?

ly called on to preside. This step was hailed with
general acclamation, and the surrounding galle-
ries audibly proclaimed their gratification at a
move which seemed to disembarrsss us from the
disgraceful position to which we had too long
submitted. You had just avowed your opinion
that it was the duty of the Clerk to call the names
of such members as produced regular credentials,
according to the laws of their State and the Con- Mr. J. said there was another case in point still
stitution of the United States. You had, by an more recent, and which has been noticed on a
argument which was irresistible, awakened the former occasion-he meant that of the present
members to a sense of their situation, and of their Minister to Austria. At the extra session, Mr.
duty to organize the House of Representatives Muhlenberg had evinced symptoms of dissatis-
according to the uniform practice of our prede- faction with the Administration, and at the meet-
cessors, and by giving proper credence to the ing of the regular session of the Twenty-Fifth
constituted authorities and laws of their respective Congress, when this House stood so nearly di-
States. You had scarcely entered upon the duties vided upon certain measures of the Administra-
assigned to you as Chairman, when you are called tion, that not a vote could be dispensed with, he
on by the gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. DROM-kept entirely aloof-waiting to see where he could
GOOLE,] to instruct him which of the members
from New Jersey were to be permitted to vote in
the organization of the House. And upon your
replying" that the Chair conceived the rule to be
that such persons as possessed commissions in
conformity with the constitution and laws of
New Jersey were entitled to vote as members
of this House, and that none others were en-
'tled;" for thus having responded to a call made
on you by one of the tellers, you were instantly
charged by the gentleman from New York, [Mr.
VANDERPOEL, with having committed an "act
of gross usurpation;" and by my colleague [Mr.
F. THOMAS] of a monstrous usurpation;" with
similar denunciations from various quarters,
equally at war with decorum and delicacy.
Those gentlemen seem to have imagined that
you, Mr. Chairman, had been placed there to act
accordingly to their dictation; to obey their will;
to further their illegal, unprecedented measures;
that you were to be an automaton, to nod your
head whichever way they thought proper to pull
the wires. They have been disappointed. They
have not found in you so pious a Clerk as to be
too conscientious to discharge your duty.

[It was here proposed by several members to adjourn, it being past eight o'clock at night.]

Mr. J. said, in obedience to the wishes of his friends around him, he would move an adjournment, and would conclude what he had to say in the morning; in doing which he would occupy the attention of the House but a few moments; or, if gentlemen were sincere in their professions in desiring the question to be taken on the resolution, he would waive his right to the floor, and permit it to be put at twelve or one o'clock tomorrow, when the members who were sick might be present, as also all others who desired to vote. The motion to adjourn being lost--

Mr. J. continued, and said: It was now apparent that the object was not that the question should be taken speedily, but that it should be taken in the absence of members who could not vote to-night in consequence of the dispensation of Providence. This is the consistency of gentlemen who express a desire that there should be a fair and full expression of the Representatives of the people.

Mr. J. said he would further test the consistency of some gentlemen. It has been argued that the New Jersey members should not vote in the organization of the House, because they are interested. What interest have they not common to other members, in the ordinary transactions of the House? If that be a sufficient ground why a member should not be entitled to vote, let us see if we cannot find some direct interest in former members of Congress in giving their votes upon certain occasions, which were both countenanced and approved by gentlemen now and then present. What was the fact in relation to our present Minister to England? Did he not preside over this House for weeks, perhaps months, with a letter from President Jackson in his pocket, that he intended to appoint him Minister abroadduring which period many exciting and nearly balanced questions, in which the Administration felt deep interest, were decided in this House, and some by the casting vote of the Speaker at the same time that arrangements were making to elect to the chair the favorite of the President? Will any gentleman undertake to say, had Mr. Speaker Stevenson given a vote contrary to the

be most felt. His rival in Pennsylvania, Gov-
ernor Wolf, had received a lucrative and high
appointment in Washington, and his claims had
been overlooked. Thus he stood with his arms
folded; when the contested election between Clai-
borne and Gholson, and Prentiss and Word,
afforded another opportunity of evincing the do-
mestic diplomacy of the Administration. The
majority of this House depended upon the issue of
that contest, and some two or three members were
tantalized with the expectation of receiving this
mission. By the casting vote of Mr. Speaker Polk,
Prentiss and Word returned here with a majority
of six thousand of the votes of Mississippi, were
driven from their seats and sent back for a third
election. Up to the moment the vote was taken
in the House, Mr. Muhlenberg remained per-
fectly quiet; and when he gave his vote against
Prentiss and Word, by which a tie was produced,
great surprise was expressed by many members
present, which, however, was dissipated, when
on the next day he was nominated by the Presi-
dent of the United States to the Senate as Minis-
ter to Austria! Where could there have been a
more direct interest in voting than that by which
a member of this House obtained an appointment
of Minister abroad? Had Mr. Muhlenberg voted
to retain Prentiss and Word in their seats, no
matter how conscientiously he believed them
entitled, no gentleman will undertake to say that
he could have received the appointment. It fol-
lows, then, as an indisputable fact, that it was not
his diplomatic qualifications, or his knowledge
of the Dutch language, to which he is indebted
for his mission, but the penetration of the Execu-
tive in finding out his accessible points.

HO. OF REPS.

oppose their right to seats. Yet, with his speech then fresh in his recollection, as it seems to be now, he voted-and how did he vote? To sustain the people of Mississippi in their expressed wishes? To give to their Representatives just chosen by a majority of six thousand votes their seats upon this floor? To carry out his Democratic doctrine, that the voice of the people was paramount to all other considerations, and should be obeyed? No; he voted to disfranchise the State of Mississippi; he voted to send home Prentiss and Word with this overwhelming majority. And what was the consequence? The Administration party succeeded in their views here. But Prentiss and Word triumphed again at home, and were returned back by the people to take their seats in this Hall, to the mortification of those who were accessory to such a flagrant disregard of the people's will. Then it was that the blush of shame should have come over the cheeks of those who had been the principal actors in working this injustice. Deep must have been their mortification to witness this rebuke from the people when these two gentlemen, a second time came to claim their rights as the Representatives of their State.

Referring to this matter (Mr. J. said) reminded
him of an impromptu which was sent him from
the ladies' gallery whilst the gentleman from
Kentucky [Mr. WHITE] was eloquently de-
nouncing the inconsistent conduct of gentlemen
who were in the habit of professing one thing
and practicing another, when he exclaimed, "Oh,
shame! where is thy blush?"-which he was
sure the House would pardon him in reading, as
it is so immediately applied to the present case:
"Where is thy blush, oh honest shame!
Permit her then to speak:

Shame would be shamed to find her blush
Upon that member's cheek."

Such were the indignant feelings excited by an
exposure of the political morality of members
here in the breast of those who are always dis-
posed to extend the utmost charity.

Mr. J. said it was truly amusing to witness the ingenuity displayed by gentlemen in shifting their course, evading the true question, and their efforts to produce a false issue. The two gentlemen from South Carolina [Mr. RHETT and Mr. PICKENS] who had been prominent in this debate, and who have taken directly opposite grounds in argument, come nevertheless to the same conclusion. Both of them advocate State Rights and the will of the people; neither of them act correspondent to his professions. They proposed to elect This reference to the Mississippi election calls a Speaker without permitting New Jersey to have to mind the ingenious defense which my colleague her vote, although it is unanimously admitted [Mr. F. THOMAS,] had made against a charge of that she has present here her quota of legally inconsistency as to his course in relation to that elected Representatives. The first gentleman contested election and the New Jersey case. At [Mr. RHETT] believes that Mr. Ayerigg and his the extra session he delivered a speech in favor four colleagues are as much entitled to their seats of Gholson and Claiborne's right to their seats; on this floor as he himself from South Carolina and the principal ground upon which he based is. The other, [Mr. PICKENS,] professing a his argument was the right of the people to elect great regard for the will of the people, repudiating their Representatives regardless of forms or in- the constituted authority of the State of New terposition of Executive authority. The will of Jersey, disregarding the legal credentials furthe people was then, as now, urged as para- nished by the Governor, insists upon the right mount to all other considerations. Their voice of Mr. Dickerson and his four friends to seats, should be heard, and their wishes conclusive, without any credentials whatever from the proper and neither the Governor of the State nor judges authorities; but upon a bare allegation that they of the elections should deprive the dear people have a majority of the votes of the State. And of the Representatives of their choice. This now, when a vote has been taken and lost, that was the Democratic doctrine then and now Mr. Ayerigg, &c., are entitled, under the certifipreached. Let us see the practice. At the regu-cate of the Governor, to participate in the organlar session, after a regular election held in the ization of the House, the two gentlemen from State of Mississippi, according to the laws and South Carolina, one voting that Mr. Ayerigg,&c., constitution of the State, Prentiss and Word are, the other that Mr. Dickerson, &c., are, duly were returned to Congress by a majority of six elected, now shake hands together, and agree that thousand votes over Gholson and Claiborne. neither are entitled to scats. fore, yielded his principles; the other, with equal rapidity, has compromised his; by which it is expected to elect an Administration Speaker-for it may all be summed up in that irresistible argument. How can the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. PICKENS] reconcile his present position to himself, if he were sincere, of which I will not permit myself to doubt, when he so elegantly defended the rights of the people of New Jersey against executive interposition, and so strongly urged the claims of Mr. Dickerson, &c., before the House had voted upon those of Mr. Ayerigg &c? How is it that the former were the legal

What was the Democratic doctrine then? "Res
adjudicata" was set up as a sufficient plea to de-
prive the people of Mississippi of their Repre-
sentatives, and the people's voice was unheard
by my colleague or his friends, and Prentiss and
Word, with this undisputed majority, were de-
nied their seats. But my colleague says he made
no speech upon the case. No, he could not go
that; because at the extra session, he had made
one in favor of Gholson and Claiborne, which
applied so directly to the sustaining of Prentiss
and Word at the regular session, that he could
not, except by taking directly opposite ground,

The one has, there

SPEECH OF HON. F. W. PICKENS,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA,

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
February 13, 1840,

On the two per cent. Fund, the Cumberland road, and the power of the Government to make Internal Improvements.

Mr. PICKENS rose and said:

Mr. SPEAKER: When I moved yesterday that the House adjourn, (the first time I ever made such a motion,) I did it not with a view to protract this debate, or to enter into a lengthy discussion of the subject, but with a desire to present the reasons which influenced me in making the original motion, and the accompanying remarks which I submitted a few days ago. And, sir, I should not now have entered particularly into this debate, if I had not been pointedly alluded to by several gentlemen on both sides, and who have thus made it almost imperious on me to trespass, for a few moments, upon the attention of the House. I confess, Mr. Speaker, that I listened with pleasure to the well-turned periods and mellow voice of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. HOFFMAN,] who always seems to strike those chords which vibrate through this House with more perfect delicacy than any other gentleman on this floor. Yes, I must say that I listened, with great pleasure, to the eloquent gentleman from New York-an ornament to his great and noble city: I mean a noble city, because she is rich in resources, and rich in commercial enterprise. But, in other respects, she presents to my mind a most singular spectacle, producing, probably, the greatest compound of interests of any city on this continent-a collection of novi homines-from the proud and princely merchant, who rolls in his coach and four, to the locofoco that sleeps in the market and lives upon bonesoup-presenting a heterogeneous mass of contradictory combinations, which remind me of nothing so strongly as Shakspeare's allusion to

"Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,"

all mingled together

"Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

A most extraordinary, and, upon the whole, interesting city-and of which I take pleasure in saying, the gentleman is the ornament and the pride.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, I must, at the same time, confess that I listened with regret to some of the partisan remarks in which the gentleman | thought proper to indulge. Upon this question, and upon all others connected with the fiscal action of this Government, I have higher objects in view than to stoop to party discussion. I will not even stop to pluck the barbed arrow from the sides of the Executive, even though it should be shot from the "loud-twanging bow" of Achilles