"The cession of the Spanish province of Louisiana to France, which took place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make a change in the aspect of our foreign relations, which will doubtless have just weight in any deliberations connected with that subject."
Are we to suppose the Executive has not been vigilant in ascertaining the circumstances attending this event? No. Are we to suppose he is unwilling to inform us what they are? No. He must be supposed willing to give the information. Therefore, why should gentlemen prevent us from obtaining that intelligence, which is presumed to exist, and which the Executive must be willing to give?
Mr. Randolph was averse to going into a Committee of the whole House on the state of the Union, if it were understood that the resolution of the gentleman from Connecticut was to be taken up. It was not very material to him in what way the House signified their dissent to the measure; but, preferring that which was least circuitous, he hoped they would refuse to take it up in committee. Much pains having been taken to impress a belief that the President had communicated to the House a fact of which he possessed no official information, Mr. R. begged the House to recollect that the tortured ingenuity of gentlemen had been unable fairly to infer the fact from the Executive communications; nor could it be implied from a refusal to concur in the proposed resolution. His opposition to it grew out of the resolution itself. It conveys the suspicion that Spain has ceded Louisiana to France indefinitely, thereby giving to France some color of claim to the countries formerly comprised under that appellation; or that she has made the cession by limits incompatible with her engagements to us; and that in either case our right to the navigation of the Mississippi may have been impaired. For, if you suppose in this transfer of her property that Spain has paid due regard to her stipulations with us, the resolution ceases to have an object. Now, sir, wherefore cast this imputation on Spain?—especially at this crisis, when, as I am informed from a respectable source, one of the first characters in the Union is recently nominated Minister to that Court, for the purpose of adjusting all differences on this subject?
I should have supposed another reason would have deterred the gentleman from persisting in this call. That gentleman and his friends had recorded on the journals of this House their solemn determination, however sensibly they might feel the injuries inflicted on the rights and interests of these States, to refuse all co-operation in the support of those rights and interests so long as the direction of the Government should be retained by those who now possess it. For, after having expressed their disapprobation of that clause in a resolution lately adopted by the House to affect our rights of limits and of navigation through the Mississippi, objecting to no other part of it, they had, nevertheless, refused to give their assent to it because of this objectionable passage. There was a time, sir, when such conduct would have been denounced by a portion of this House as the essence of Jacobinism and disorganization. Mr. R. concluded by saying that he thought it unwise at this time, in the very cradle of the negotiation, to throw out insinuations which would have a tendency to irritate or disgust the Spanish Court.
Mr. Griswold.—I did not expect that the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph) would, in the face of the journal now on the table, in contradiction to the knowledge of every gentleman in this House, have made the declaration we have just heard. Have we given our vote that we would not defend the free navigation of the Mississippi? Have we not been ready to unite in adopting those measures which the infraction of treaties and our violated rights demand? I appeal to our journals. What has been done, there appears, and will contradict the assertions of that gentleman. When the resolution was under consideration in the secret committee, which the gentleman (Mr. Randolph) emphatically called his offspring, there were two votes taken on certain parts or members of it, previous to the main question. A motion was made to strike out the following clause:
"And relying with perfect confidence on the vigilance and wisdom of the Executive, they will wait the issue of such measures as that department of the Government shall have pursued for asserting the rights and vindicating the injuries of the United States."
I voted against this part of the resolution for two reasons: first, because I could not express a confidence which I did not feel; and secondly, because I was not satisfied with a resolution to do nothing. I thought we ought to do something; that it was not proper for the Legislature to sit as idle spectators of an important political transaction, which required legislative interference. I thought we ought to prepare for the worst. These were the reasons, Mr. Speaker, which influenced my conduct upon the motion for striking out. But how did we vote on the motion for agreeing to the following clause?
"Holding it to be their duty at the same time to express their unalterable determination to maintain the boundaries, and the rights of navigation and commerce, through the river Mississippi, as established by existing treaties."
Did we refuse our assent? Did we object to a syllable contained in this part of the resolution? No, sir, the vote was unanimous. Every member of the House stands pledged to support the sentiments therein expressed. On this point there was no difference of opinion. I appeal to your journals, sir, and to the recollection of every gentleman who was on that secret committee, whether I am not correct. It is true that there was a difference of opinion in the secret committee upon the other part of the resolution; on one side of the House it appeared proper to express great confidence in the present Executive, and, leaving every thing to that department, to do nothing ourselves; whilst on the other side, as we did not feel that confidence, we could not express it, and believing the occasion demanded legislative interference, we thought it necessary to prepare for the worst. How, then, can we be charged by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph) with having recorded our determination not to protect the rights and interests of these States, when our votes, appearing on your journal, not only prove our unalterable determination to defend those rights, but likewise prove that we were willing to leave the vindicating of those rights entirely to the Executive, and were earnestly desirous of adding thereto all the aid which the Legislature could contribute, and that we have been prevented from pursuing this course by the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Randolph,) and his friends? I must be permitted again to express my astonishment that the gentleman can with any face make these charges, and again to appeal to your journal, and the recollection of every gentleman, for a contradiction of these unmerited aspersions.
When the main question was taken we refused our assent. Not because we were unwilling to adopt such measures as circumstances might require; but because we could not sanction those expressions of unbounded confidence in the Executive, and that determination to do nothing which the resolution contained.