It is not easy, for a man of even less sensibility than myself, to hear in silence the State in which I was born, and one of whose Representatives I am, calumniated in the manner in which it had been that day, by the gentlemen from Connecticut and South Carolina. In defence of that State, actuated by a love to it, and not from any respect to its detractors; not to repel any imputation of meanness, of cowardice, of malice, which the gentleman from South Carolina has called ours, (meaning, I suppose, his own,) I will inform him, and the gentleman from Connecticut, that that State was the first to celebrate the fame of the Hero of America, by erecting a statue to him in the Capitol at Richmond.
The gentleman from Connecticut objects to a confidence in the record of the historian. Does the gentleman wish to suppress the history of the political events of 1776? Or does he believe that these events will be handed down in association with the bloody buoy, and Porcupine's works? Perhaps he has formed from his own mind a proper selection for our children, and is against the press handing down any thing else?
Mr. H. said, that the gentleman from Virginia had misstated what he had said. He had cast no reflection on the State of Virginia; but had barely stated two instances of statues overthrown and destroyed, to illustrate their frailty.
During the preceding debate, Mr. Claiborne stated that the committee to whom this subject had been committed, had obtained several estimates; among which was one in writing, by Dr. Thornton, which states with confidence that the expense of an equestrian statue would not exceed from eight thousand to fifteen thousand pounds currency.
After some remarks from Mr. Shepard and Mr. Lyon, the yeas and nays were taken on engrossing the bill, and were—yeas 44, nays 40, as follows:
Yeas.—George Baer, Bailey Bartlett, John Brown, Christopher G. Champlin, William Cooper, William Craik, Franklin Davenport, John Dennis, George Dent, Joseph Dickson, William Edmond, Thomas Evans, Abiel Foster, Jonathan Freeman, Henry Glenn, Samuel Goode, Chauncey Goodrich, Elizur Goodrich, Roger Griswold, William Barry Grove, Robert Goodloe Harper, Archibald Henderson, William H. Hill, Benjamin Huger, James H. Imlay, John Wilkes Kittera, Henry Lee, Lewis R. Morris, Abraham Nott, Harrison G. Otis, Thomas Pinckney, Jonas Platt, Leven Powell, John Read, Nathan Read, John Rutledge, jr., John C. Smith, Samuel Tenney, George Thatcher, John Chew Thomas, Richard Thomas, Peleg Wadsworth, Lemuel Williams, and Henry Woods.
Nays.—Willis Alston, Theodorus Bailey, John Bird, Phanuel Bishop, Robert Brown, Gabriel Christie, Matthew Clay, William Charles Cole Claiborne, John Condit, John Davenport, Thomas T. Davis, John Dawson, Joseph Eggleston, Lucas Elmendorph, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, John A. Hanna, Joseph Heister, David Holmes, George Jackson, Aaron Kitchell, Michael Leib, Matthew Lyon, James Linn, Nathaniel Macon, Peter Muhlenberg, John Randolph, William Shepard, John Smilie, John Smith, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Richard Stanford, Thomas Sumter, Benjamin Taliaferro, John Thompson, Abram Trigg, John Trigg, Lyttleton W. Tazewell, Philip Van Cortlandt, and Joseph B. Varnum.
The third reading of the bill was fixed for Thursday week; when the House adjourned to Tuesday, the thirtieth.