Mr. Clay hoped the senate would pause. He called upon the friends of the administration, in no taunting or reproachful spirit, to redeem the pledges and promises with which they came into power. If the love of country, if a faithful discharge of duty to the people, if a just economy, would not animate them, and stay these extravagant appropriations, he hoped the devotion to party would. Could they expect to continue in power, (and he candidly confessed, that he was not particularly anxious that they should,) with such unexampled appropriations? How can they meet their constituents with these bills staring them in the face?
And for what purpose shall they be made? Does any man believe, will any senator rise in his place and say, that these immense appropriations can be prudently, safely, and wisely disbursed? He had, indeed, heard that it was not expected they would be. He had heard, what was too wicked, profligate, and monstrous for him to believe, that it was intended to withdraw the appropriations from the public treasury, place them to the credit of disbursing officers, in the custody of local banks, and thus elude the operation of the deposit bill, which has recently passed. That bill had been demanded by the people of this country. It had passed from a profound sense of duty, in consequence of that demand, by unprecedented majorities in both houses. And he would not allow himself for a moment to believe, that a sinister design existed any where, to elude the operation of that great and salutary measure. What, sir! is the money of the people of thiscountry, to be held in the deposit banks, one of which, according to a statement going the rounds of the papers, has made fourteen and a half per centum dividend for six months?
The annual average appropriations for fortifications heretofore, have been about seven hundred and fifty or eight hundred thousand dollars; and by the bill now before us, and that for a similar object which we have sent to the house, if both pass, we shall have appropriated for fortifications for one year, four millions and a half. Is it possible in one year judiciously to expend this enormous sum? When we look at the price of labor, the demands upon it for an increase of the army, for volunteers, and for the general avocations of society, does any body believe, that this vast sum can be judiciously laid out? It has been said, that, having omitted to make any appropriation last year, we ought this year to appropriate double the ordinary sum. But, if you cannot safely expend it, why should that be done? He was willing to make large and liberal appropriations for the navy and for fortifications; we ought, however, to look to all our great interests, and regulate the appropriations in reference to a survey of the whole country; and he earnestly entreated the senate to fulfil the hopes and expectations which had been recently inspired in the people of this country, by checking and putting itself decidedly against this rash, wild, and ruinous extravagance. He would vote for the commitment, to reduce the appropriations one half; after which there would remain an amount equal to double the ordinary annual appropriations, without including the sum in the bill now before the house.
ON RECOGNISING THE INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JULY 1, 1836.
[IN March, 1836, a convention of forty-four delegates assembled at the town of Washington, in Texas, and made a formal declaration of independence and separation from the republic of Mexico. A previous declaration had been made by a few individuals in Texas, in December, 1835. On the twenty-first of April, 1836, a decisive battle was fought on the banks of the San Jacinto river, between the Texans and Mexicans, in which the latter were defeated, and president Santa Ana taken prisoner. An armistice was concluded in May, 1836, between Santa Ana and the president of Texas, Mr. Burnet, by which the former was released and sent home, and the Mexican troops evacuated the territory of Texas; Santa Ana agreeing not to take up arms, nor to exercise his influence against Texas during the war of independence. Under these circumstances, a proposition was brought before congress to acknowledge the independence of Texas, when Mr. Clay expressed his sentiments as follows.
Mr. Preston made some remarks, in the course of which he stated, that he had with difficulty restrained himself from offering an amendment to recognise the independence of Texas immediately. He gave a brief narrative of the events of the revolution in Texas, and stated that he had this morning received authentic information, in the form of a letter from Mr. Austin, which confirms the statement that general Filasola had carried into effect the armistice agreed on between the Texian government and Santa Ana. This treaty Mr. Preston regarded as amounting to a recognition, on the part of Mexico, of the independence of Texas. The vice-president of Texas was about to proceed to Vera Cruz, to enforce from the mouths of the Texian guns the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace between the two countries.
Mr. Preston continued, at some length, to expatiate on the situation and achievements and claims of Texas, and adverted to certain treaty stipulations with Mexico concerning the Indians west of the Sabine, which stipulations it would only be in the power of Texas now to carry into effect. He concluded with offering to amend the resolution, by adding an expression of the gratification which the senate felt on hearing of the course taken by the president of the United States to obtain information of the situation of Texas.
The report of the committee concluded with the following resolution.