The House again resumed the consideration of the report of the Committee of the Whole on the resolution from the Senate approving the conduct of the Executive in refusing to receive any further communications from Francis J. Jackson.
The motion for indefinite postponement being still under consideration—
Mr. Stanford said, so many were the objectionable features of the present resolution before the House, he should vote for its indefinite postponement, and with permission of the House he would give his reasons for his vote. In the first place, he thought the language and style of the resolution highly objectionable, and calculated to render that which was already bad enough still worse; that it was, in the second place, a strange innovation upon all former practice and usage under our present Government; and lastly, that it was clearly unconstitutional. Thus much he should endeavor to show, and trusted he would be able to do it to the satisfaction of the House.
Mr. S. then premised that he had disapproved the introduction of the resolution of approbation at the last session; that he considered unnecessary; but the present he considered not only unnecessary, but even pernicious. That was a pacific one; this belligerent in all its aspects. He had suggested a mode to one or two gentlemen, of getting rid of that one, if they had thought proper, and in which case he would have contributed his vote to have got clear of it. But, had the question been put in a direct form, he should have differed from his colleague, (Mr. Macon,) inasmuch as he should have voted for it. He could not have done honestly otherwise, as he had most cordially approved the arrangement made by our Government with Mr. Erskine. Further, that as respected the rejection of Mr. Jackson, he thought entirely with his colleague, that he might well have been dismissed on the receipt of his first letter. He tells us for what he had been sent and commanded to do. In the case of the Chesapeake, to make "declarations" and to receive counter "declarations" simultaneously. In other words, for the arrogance, insults, and murders, we had borne and suffered, he came to stipulate atonement, if we would stipulate a sort of counter atonement at the same time. Stipulation for stipulation, at any rate. It had "not appeared to His Majesty necessary to command him to propose to our Government any formal agreement" to take place of the rejected one. For the matter, said Mr. S., of Mr. Jackson's instructions, much rather than for the manner of his negotiation, might the communication have been cut off with him. Both matter and manner were, to be sure, objectionable, but the former, in his estimation, formed much the most solid ground of dismissal. It was but too obvious the mission of Mr. Jackson would end as the former one had done. That he did not come to propitiate us was but too manifest.
While the resolution before us, sir, affects to support the Executive Government against insult, and language "highly indecorous," it descends into a style of expression, itself more culpable and degrading; unworthy, indeed, of the country and the dignity of its Government. It was a flattering truth to know that in the style of diplomatic correspondence the American side of the question suffered not in comparison with that of any other. In the late, as well as former instances, the advantage has been calculated, as he presumed, to inspire every American bosom with just sentiments of pride. Had it, therefore, been recommitted, as his colleague (Mr. Macon) had advised, he had no doubt it could have been amended, and rendered more worthy of consideration as a State paper, than it is likely to be in its present dress and form.
Besides, Mr. Speaker, if the measure be intended to have any effect, it must be a bad one. It looks toward war. Already are our difficulties with Great Britain critical enough, but if gentlemen wish war, the thing is altogether appropriate to its end; well calculated not to support, but to thwart the pacific views and intentions of the Executive. We may, in this way, foreclose the door of amicable negotiation which the Executive by his first Message showed us he had kept open. If rudeness of expression had been resorted to on the part of the British Minister, in his correspondence with our Government, had it not been repelled on their part? Had they not amply redressed the insult of the individual? It might well afford some consolation to ourselves and the country, if other wrongs and insults have been even as well repaired as this. Besides the murder of Pierce, the more horrid murders on board the Chesapeake, the continuation of impressments for years, we have had instances, more than one, it is said, of other Ministers conspiring with your conspirators, menacing you with war, and putting your Government at defiance, here in the ten miles square, and the sensibility of Congress had never before been awakened to a resolution of this kind in defence of the Executive. The truth is, sir, it never needed it, nor does it now. We have, in very deed, Mr. Speaker, refined upon the more substantial insults we have suffered, till we have literally reduced it to a war of words. It is the expressions of the individual we are combating, and pledging the whole force of the country to protect the President against the consequences of, and not the more palpable injuries received. Would to Heaven, sir, such a resolution had not been brought forward! It is unworthy of us—unworthy of the political professions we heretofore made, even those made at our last session.
That a resolution of approbation, Mr. Speaker, is against all example for the last eight years; that it is an innovation upon all usage and practice, reference need only be had to the speeches of gentlemen during the last session. They afford the most ample proof. They were then unwilling to pour out the oil of adulation upon the Executive head. It was deemed unnecessary, anti-republican, to do so. He hoped gentlemen understood him. He was using their own language upon that occasion, and not his own. He borrowed it for its excellence and fitness upon the present occasion. Such language conveyed his sentiments then, and still did; and, for his part, he could not comprehend how it could be correct then, and now the reverse of correct. Some gentlemen on the floor perfectly remembered that when Mr. Jefferson came into the Presidency, eight years ago, he changed the mode of personal address into that of written message. "In doing this," said he, in his first Message, "I have had a principal regard to the convenience of the Legislature, to the economy of their time, to their relief from the embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects not yet fully before them, and to the benefits thence resulting to the public affairs." All acquiesced in this new course, and from that time to the late instance mentioned, no time had been wasted in pouring back the oil of adulation or approbation, in any form, on the Executive head. The only instance which could be cited during the last eight years, was found incidentally incorporated in a resolution relating to the navigation of the Mississippi. The words were, "and relying with, perfect confidence on the vigilance and wisdom of the Executive." This, then, was the only drop of this oil which the last Administration produced, and has been called up at this first ordinary session of a new Administration to form an example to follow; or rather, might we not say, to resume the exploded practice of former times, and thus echo back messages in this new form of joint resolution. But what was the style in which gentlemen spoke at our last summer session, when the subject of approbation was then before us? The language of one was, if it were the object to bring before the House a discussion upon the Message of the President, and to return an answer to his Excellency's most gracious Message, he should certainly be opposed to it. If there had ever been a particular part of the former Administration which had met the approbation of the Republicans generally of this country, it was the discontinuance of the practice. Another had told us that he was "opposed to a deviation from what he conceived to be the duty, and becoming the dignity of the House." He thought the House had nobler duties to perform than passing abstract resolutions, out of which no legislative act is contemplated, merely for the purpose of pouring the oil of adulation upon the head of the Chief Magistrate. And again, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Findlay,) whose opinions are always so much relied upon and respected in this House, and he, Mr. S., trusted by few more sincerely than himself, had, upon that occasion, with singular happiness and force, spoken thus: "Law," said the gentleman, "is the only language of a Legislature. It is the only language that can command obedience and respect. Any equal number of citizens met in a tavern, and there passing a resolution of approbation, would have equal force with such a resolution passed in this House, and would be more in character. They are acting without authority from the constitution or the rules of the House." It would be for that gentleman to tell us, to tell the House, and he would beg the gentleman's pardon for the particular request—but he must request that he would take the occasion to let us all know how his doctrine then is now to be got over. For his own part, he could not comprehend how right and wrong could change their respective sides in so short a time.
His colleague, (Mr. Macon,) in referring to former times, had expressed some doubt whether the majority were the same party now they were then. He felt no doubt himself they were the same; but there was no room to doubt, from the present question itself, they had undergone some strange modification since former times. The doctrines then must be well remembered by him, yourself, Mr. Speaker, and a few others on this floor. The advocates of this sort of adulation must go back beyond the times of the late and last Administration, if they would introduce the fashion again. At the opening of the fifth Congress, in the answer of this House to the speech of the President, these words are used: "We cannot omit to testify our approbation of the measure, and to pledge ourselves that no considerations of private inconvenience shall prevent, on our part, a faithful discharge of the duties to which we are called." And again, this sentence: "Whilst we view with great satisfaction, the wisdom, dignity, and moderation, which have marked the measures of the Supreme Executive of our country in its attempt to remove, by candid explanations, the complaints and jealousies of France, we feel the full force of that indignity which has been offered our country in the rejection of its Minister." This language was too much in the style of adulation for us then to brook, and our names, sir, stand recorded together against it. Let gentlemen compare for themselves.
It is the peculiar misfortune, sir, of this system, if again to be revived, that the right of approbation fully implies the right of disapprobation and censure; and during the same Administration of which we are speaking this right of disapproving and censuring was also attempted to be exercised. The resolution was introduced at the first session of the sixth Congress, by a gentleman then from the city of New York, (Mr. Livingston,) in the case of Jonathan Robbins. The same gentleman is occasionally present here at this time, and seems yet to be a stickler for judicial decision, and still thinks the Executive, against an individual, matchless odds. The part of the resolution alluded to, runs thus: "that the decision of those questions by the President of the United States against the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, in a case where those courts had already assumed and exercised jurisdiction, and his advice and request to the judge of the district court, that the person thus charged should be delivered up, provided, only, such evidence of his criminality should be produced as would justify his apprehension and commitment for trial, is a dangerous interference of the Executive with judicial decisions." Hence, then, sir, it might be easily seen from a practice of this sort, that a whole session might be wasted without doing any part of the public business. The thing would be endless.
In the fourth Congress, on a subject of a call for papers in relation to the British Treaty, an unhappy difference arose between this House and the Executive. General Washington was the President. His reply to the House was, "that a just regard to the constitution, and to the duty of his office, forbid a compliance with their request." The House, again by resolution, asserted their right, disclaiming, however, at the same time, any agency in making treaties. Notwithstanding the violence and passion of the moment, this House did not then think they had any right to meddle with the making of treaties; but now it would seem the present House were disposed to join the Senate in this sort of interference in the negotiations of the Executive to form a treaty.