Mr. J. Clay moved that the House adjourn.
On a division, there were 53 yeas, and 60 nays. Motion lost.
Mr. J. Randolph.—Perhaps it may be supposed, from the course which this business has taken, that the adversaries of the present measure indulge the expectation of being able to come forward, at a future day—not to this House, for that hope is desperate, but to the public, with a more matured opposition than it is in their power now to make. But past experience has shown them that this is one of those subjects which pollution has sanctified; that the hallowed mysteries of corruption are not to be profaned by the eye of public curiosity. No, sir, the orgies of Yazoo speculation are not to be laid open to the vulgar gaze. None but the initiated are permitted to behold the monstrous sacrifice of the best interests of the nation on the altars of corruption. When this abomination is to be practised we go into conclave. Do we apply to the press—that potent engine, the dread of tyrants and of villains, but the shield of freedom and of worth? No, sir, the press is gagged. On this subject we have a virtual sedition law—not with a specious title, but irresistible in its operation, which, in the language of a gentleman from Connecticut, (Mr. Griswold,) goes directly to its object. The demon of speculation, at one sweep, has wrested from the nation their best, their only defence, and closed every avenue of information. But a day of retribution may yet come. If their rights are to be bartered away and their property squandered, the people must not, they shall not be kept in ignorance by whom, or for whom it is done.
We have often heard of party spirit—of caucuses as they are termed—to settle legislative questions, but never have I seen that spirit so visible as at this time. The out-of-door intrigue is too palpable to be disguised. When it was proposed to abolish a judiciary system reared in the last moments of an expiring Administration, the detested offspring of a midnight hour—when the question of repeal was before this House, it could not be taken up until midnight, in the third or fourth week of the discussion. When the great and good man who now fills, and who (whatever may be the wishes of our opponents) I hope and trust will long fill the Executive chair, not less to his own honor than to the happiness of his fellow-citizens; when he, sir, recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, delay succeeded delay, and discussion was followed by discussion, until patience itself was worn threadbare. But now, when public plunder is the order of the day, how are we treated? Driven into the Committee of the Whole, and out again in a breath, by an inflexible majority, exulting and stubborn in their strength, a decision must be had instanter. The advocates for the proposed measure feel that it will not bear a scrutiny. Hence this precipitancy. They wince from the touch of examination, and are willing to hurry through a painful and disgraceful discussion. But, it may be asked, why this tenacious adherence of certain gentlemen to each other on every other point connected with this subject? As if animated by one spirit, they perform all their evolutions with the most exact discipline, and march in a firm phalanx directly up to their object. Is it that men combined to effect some evil purpose, acting on previous pledge to each other, are ever more in unison than those who, seeking only to discover truth, obey the impulse of that conscience which God has placed in their bosoms? Such men do not stand compromitted. They will not stifle the suggestions of their own minds, and sacrifice their private opinions to the attainment of some common, perhaps some nefarious object.
Having given vent to that effusion of indignation which I feel, and which I trust I shall never fail to feel and to express on this detestable subject, permit me now to offer some crude and hasty remarks on the point in dispute. They will be directed chiefly to the claim of the New England Mississippi Land Company, whom we propose to debar (with all the other claimants under the act of 1795) from any benefit of the five millions of acres, reserved by our compact with Georgia, to satisfy such claims not specially provided for in that compact, as we might find worthy of recompense. I shall direct my observations more particularly to this claim, because it has been more insisted upon, and more zealously defended than any other. It is alleged by the memorialists, who style themselves the agents of that company, that they, and those whom they represent, were innocent purchasers; in other words, ignorant of the corruption and fraud by which the act from which their pretended title was derived, was passed. I am well aware that this fact is not material to the question of any legal or equitable title which they may set up; but as it has been made a pretext for exciting the compassion of the Legislature, I wish to examine into the ground upon which this allegation rests. Sir, when that act of stupendous villany was passed in 1795, attempting under the forms and semblance of law to rob unborn millions of their birthright and inheritance, and to convey to a band of unprincipled and flagitious men a territory more extensive, and beyond comparison more fertile than any State of this Union, it caused a sensation scarcely less violent than that produced by the passage of the stamp act, or the shutting up of the port at Boston, with this difference: when the port bill of Boston passed, her Southern brethren did not take advantage of the forms of law, by which a corrupt Legislature attempted to defraud her of the bounty of nature; they did not speculate on the necessities and wrongs of their abused and insulted countrymen. I repeat that this infamous act was succeeded by a general burst of indignation throughout the continent. This is matter of public notoriety, and those—I speak of men of education and intelligence, purchasers, too, of the very country in question—those who affect to have been ignorant of any such circumstance, I shall consider as guilty of gross and wilful prevarication. They offer indeed to virtue the only homage which she is ever likely to receive at their hands—the homage of their hypocrisy. They could not make an assertion within the limits of possibility less entitled to credit.
The agents of the New England Land Company are unfortunate in two points. They set out with a formal endeavor to prove that they are entitled to their proportion of fifty millions of acres of land, under the law of 1795, and this they make their plea to be admitted to a proportional share of five. If they really believed what they say, would they be willing to commute a good legal, or equitable claim, for one tenth of its value? Their memorial contains, moreover, a suggestion of falsehood. They aver that the reservation of five millions for satisfying claims not otherwise provided for, in our compact with Georgia, was especially intended for the benefit of the claimants under the act of 1795, and that we were pledged to satisfy them out of that reservation. Now, sir, turn to the sixth volume of your laws, and what is the fact? In the first place, so much of the reserved five millions as may be necessary, is appropriated specifically for satisfying claims derived from British grants not regranted by Spain; and as much of the residue as may be necessary is appropriated for compensating other claims, not recognized in our compact with Georgia. An appropriation for certain British grants specially, and for other claims generally, is falsely suggested to have been made for the especial benefit of the claimants of 1795; and the reservation of a power in the United States to quiet such claims as they should deem worthy of compensation, is perverted into an obligation to compensate a particular class of claims; into an acknowledgment that such claims are worthy of compensation. Can this House be inveigled by such barefaced effrontery? Sir, the act containing this appropriation clause was not brought to a third reading till the first of March. Our powers expired on the fourth: it was at the second session of the seventh Congress. It was in the power of those opposed to the corrupt claims of 1795 to have defeated the bill by a discussion. But, sir, they abstained on this ground. If the appropriation of the five millions had not been made at that session, the year within which, by our agreement with Georgia, it was to be made, if at all, would have expired before the meeting of the next Congress; and it was urged, by the friends of the bill, that there were several descriptions of claims to which no imputation of fraud could attach; that by making a general appropriation we secured to ourselves the power of recompensing such claims as, on examination, might be found worthy of it, whilst we pledged ourselves to no class of claimants whatever. But that if we should suffer the term specified, in our compact with Georgia, to elapse without making any appropriation, we should preclude ourselves from the ability to compensate any claims, not specially provided for, however just and reasonable we might find them, on investigation, to be. Under these circumstances, and I appeal to my excellent friend from Maryland, who brought it in, for the correctness of my statement, the opponents of the bill gave it no other opposition than a silent vote. And now, sir, we are told that we stand pledged, and that an appropriation for British grants not regranted by Spain, specially, and for such other claims against the State of Georgia, generally, as Congress should find quite worthy, was made for the especial benefit of a particular description of claimants, branded, too, with the deepest odium; who dare to talk to us of public faith, and appeal to the national honor!
The conclusion of the memorial is amusing enough. After having played over the farce, which was acted by the Yazoo Squad at the last session, affecting to believe that an appropriation has been made by the act of March 1803, for their especial benefit, they pray that Congress will be pleased to give them—what? that to which they assert they are entitled?—by no means—an eighth or tenth part of it—which said eighth or tenth part, if we may credit them, has been already appropriated to their use by law. From a knowledge of the memorialists, and those whom they represent, can you believe for a moment that, if they had the least faith in the volume of argument (I am sorry to profane the word) which they presented to the House to prove the goodness of their title, can you believe that under such impression they would accept a paltry compromise of two shillings in the pound—much less that, to obtain it, they would descend so low! Sir, when these men talk about public faith and national honor, they remind me of the appeals of the unprincipled gamester and veteran usurer to the honor of the thoughtless spendthrift, whilst in reality they are addressing themselves to his vices and his folly.
The first year that I had the honor of a seat in this House, an act was passed of a nature not altogether unlike the one now proposed. I allude to the case of the Connecticut Reserve, by which the nation were swindled out of some three or four millions of acres of land, which, like other bad titles, had fallen into the hands of innocent purchasers. When I advert to the applicants by whom we were then beset, I find that among them was one of the very persons who style themselves agents of the New England Mississippi Land Company, who seems to have an unfortunate knack at buying bad titles. His gigantic grasp embraces with one hand the shores of Lake Erie, and stretches with the other to the Bay of Mobile. Millions of acres are easily digested by such stomachs. Goaded by avarice, they buy only to sell, and sell only to buy. The retail trade of fraud and imposture yields too small and slow a profit to gratify their cupidity. They buy and sell corruption in the gross, and a few millions, more or less, is hardly felt in the account. The deeper the play, the greater their zest for the game, and the stake which is set upon their throw is nothing less than the patrimony of the people. Mr. Speaker, when I see the agency that has been employed on this occasion, I must own that it fills me with apprehension and alarm. This same agent is at the head of an executive department of our Government, subordinate indeed in rank and dignity, and in the ability required for its superintendence, but inferior to none in the influence attached to it. This officer, possessed of how many snug appointments and fat contracts, let the voluminous records on your table of the mere names and dates and sums declare; having an influence which is confined to no quarter of the country, but pervading every part of the Union; with offices in his gift amongst the most lucrative, and at the same time the least laborious, or responsible, under the Government, so tempting as to draw a member of the other House from his seat, and place him as a deputy at the feet of your applicant; this officer presents himself at your bar, at once a party and an advocate. Sir, when I see this tremendous patronage brought to bear upon us, I do confess that it strikes me with consternation and dismay. Is it come to this? Are heads of executive departments of the Government to be brought into this House, with all the influence and patronage attached to them, to extort from us now, what was refused at the last session of Congress? I hope not, sir. But if they are, and if the abominable villany practised upon, and by the Legislature of Georgia, in 1795, is now to be glossed over, I for one will ask what security they, by whom it shall be done, can offer for their reputations, better than can be given for the character of that Legislature? I will pin myself upon this text, and preach upon it as long as I have life. If no other reason can be adduced but a regard for our own fame, if it were only to rescue ourselves from this foul imputation, this weak and dishonorable compromise ought to receive a prompt and decisive rejection. Is the voice of patriotism lulled to rest, that we no longer hear the cry against an overbearing majority, determined to put down the constitution, and deaf to every proposition of compromise? Such were the dire forebodings to which we have been heretofore compelled to listen. But if the enmity of such men be formidable, their friendship is deadly destruction, their touch pollution.
Such men, I repeat it, are formidable as enemies, but their friendship is fraught with irresistible death. I fear indeed the “Danaos et dona ferentes.” But, after the law in question shall have passed, what security have you that the claimants will accede to your terms of compromise? that this is not a trap, to obtain from Congress something like a recognition of their title, to be hereafter used against us? Sir, with all our wisdom, I seriously doubt our ability to contend with the arts and designs of these claimants, if they can once entangle us in the net of our own legislation. Let the act of March, 1801, of which already they have made so dexterous a use, be remembered. They themselves have pointed out the course which we ought to pursue. They have told us, that so long as we refrain from legislating on this subject, their case is hopeless. Let us then persevere in a “wise and masterly inactivity.”[23]
The committee rose, and had leave to sit again, and the House adjourned.