The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 81

Jan. 1844.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
81
28th Cong 1st Sess.
Abolition Petitions—Mr. J. Jl. Wright.
H. of Heps.
the immense burden, the load after load that has
been placed upon us; and you have before you, at
one view, what wc have J|pcn required by the gov-
ernment to do, on the on^hand, and, on the other,
how little, in return, that government has done for
us. And I will here remark, if Congress is disposed
to aid us, that these appropriations, to have the de-
sired effect, should- be regular and annual; for the
bottom banks of the Missouri, and the Mississippi
below the mouth of. the Missouri, are alluvial,
bedded on sand, formed oat of the sediment of the
Missouri river, and constantly falling in, and ta-
king with them quantities of very large timber,
which produces a constant accumulation of snags.
And here I will observe, that all we ask of the gov-
ernment is, the protection of our commerce—an equal
protection with the balance of the Union. Protect
our commerce, and let free the trade. Do not tram-
mel us; do not make us "hewers of wood and draw-
ers of water;" do not make us pay a portion of our
earnings into the pockets of others; and do not make
us pay tribute, or what amounts to it, to any peo-
ple, here or elsewhere. These things only we ask;
and justice, fairness, equality, the constitution, and
the principles upon which our Government are
based, all demand that we should have Ihem. But,
Mr. Chairman, I have learned with great regret—
for I know the weight that that committee generally
has in this House on subjects of this kind—that the
Committee of Ways and Means have stricken out
the estimates sent to this House by the Secretary of
the Treasury for the improvement of the western
waters. I learned, too, that some of them voted in
committee for striking them out, because they
thought it unconstitutional to appropriate money to
protect commerce on these waters. Yes, sir, not-
withstanding the constitution expressly gives the
power to Congress to regulate foreign comniercc,
and the commerce between the States, and had given
it the power to pass all laws necessary to carry any
substantive power granted into effect, and in pursu-
ance to which Congress, by the act of 1804, de-
clared that these waters should be public highways,
and should forever be free for navigation to all the
States, and to all the people of the United States;
thereby taking them out of State jurisdiction, and
retaining exclusive national jurisdiction;—yet these
gentlemen contend that all this means that Congress
can only protect commerce on salt water, not on
fresh water—not on the western lakes, or these great
public highways.
Sir, the constitution is based upon no such prin-
ciple; it is not exclusively a salt-water constitution;
it is broad enough to cover the whole Union—broad
enough to protect inland, as well as external or for-
eign commerce. It had been adopted by this free
government with a view to its acting equally and
impartially on the interests of all who were beneath
the shield of its protection. And if not, we had bet-
ter give it up and have one that would. We had, it
seemed, in modern times, more able expounders of
the constitution than Jefferson, Madison, and Jack-
son. Jefferson, in 1803, recommended the construc-
tion of the Cumberland road—he signed and ap-
proved appropriation bills for that purpose; so did
Madison, Monroe, Adams, and Jackson. It had
gone on until it was stopped by the 25th Congress.
It was very constitutional until it had got through
the old States; but so soon as it was about to enter
the new States it became unconstitutional. But more
on this subject when it shall come up for action; for
I have not time to dwell upon it now. Jackson, too,
let it be remembered, signed and appi'oved bills for
the improvement of these western waters. He
thought it was as constitutional to protect commerce
in the West as it was in the East—on fresh water
as it was on salt water. And I would rather, Mr.
Chairman, take such men as Jackson and Jefferson
as my guide, as to the powers conferred on Congress
by the constitution, than the opinion of men who
cannot find out that it grants to Congress the power
of doing any thing outside of their own neighbor-
hood.
Before I close, Mr. Chairman, I must notice the
remarks of the gentleman from New York, [Mr.
Hunt,] which were intended for the country, and to
bear on the next presidency. And although 1 regret
that any allusion to party polities should have been
introduced into debate on such a subject as the im-
provement of the navigation of the western waters—
believing that the people should be let alone, and
permitted t© makt, their own President without our
interfering with it here—yet the firebrand had been
thrown into this hall; the gentleman had thrown the
gauntlet; and I, for one3 am not afraid to take it up*
(6)
j And moreover, it is a duty which 1 owe to myself and
] to the country, to reply to the gentleman's slang.
He said that all this neglect of the interests of the
West, was no fault of Congress, but was all charge-
able to Mr. Van Burcn; he was the sole cause of it;
he had Been so busy electioneering, that he had
no time to take into consideration the improvement
of the western waters, or the continuation of the
Cumberland road. This is that same old slang that
was spread forth thousands of times in 1840. And
the gentleman, after it has -gone through so many
filthy processes, has taken it in—memorized it—di-
gested it, and has now brought forth the filthy stuff
again on this floor. Sir, the people, in their sober
second thought, have looked into it, and have ascer-
tained it to be, and pronounced what it is—false.
Sir, when did Mr. Van Burcn oppose the interests
of the West? When did he refuse to sign and ap-
prove a bill passed by Congress, making appropria-
tions either for the Cumberland road or for the im-
provement of the western waters? Never. When
did he recommend that no appropriations be made
for these works? Never. And yet the gentleman,
in the face of all these facts, has the hardihood to
say that Mr. Van Buren stopped them. Does not
the gentleman know that a President cannot enact
an appropriation law, or any other law? If not, it
was time he was learning the fact that he can
only approve or disprove an act passed by Con-
gress; and that Congress has the sole power of
-passing laws for the general government. And does
he not know that Mr. Van Buren signed and ap-
proved every act passed by Congress for these
works while lie was President' And does he not
know that, when he came into the presidency,
through the Secretary of the Treasury, he furnished
the estimates for these works; and that Congress,
notwithstanding these facts, like the Committee of
Ways and Means now, struck out these estimates,
and refused to make the necessary appropriations?
If he does know all these facts, then the gentleman .
has no excuse for what he has said; and, if be
does not, it is time he was learning them. Sir, I
say (and I defy the gentleman to show otherwise,
for the record bears me out) that Mr. Van Buren
had nothing to do, in any way, shape, or form, in
stopping these works; for, until Congress aban-
doned them, he recommended appropriations for
them. And, sir, if Congress should fail now to
make the necessary appropriations for these west-
em waters, you could, with the same propriety,
charge Mr. Tyler, who has recommended them,
and furnished the estimates, through the Secretary
of the Treasury, with having put a stop to these
works, as to make the same charge against Mr.
Van Buren while he was President: for I have
yet to learn that, under our frame of government,
the president is responsible for the action or omis-
sion of Congress; or that Congress is responsible
for the action or omission of the President. The
constitution has prescribed the sphere and limits
within which ei'th has to move. The same gentle-
man [Mr. Hi-si] was very desirous to know what
the democratic creed was. He wanted them to de-
fine their position, so that he might know what their
principles were, and yhat they were for. I pre-
sume the gentleman has inquired for information.
If so, one would presume that the gentleman did
not know, until very recently, (probably not until
he became a candidate for a seat here, and felt their
weight,) that there was such a party as the demo-
cratic party in this nation; and that he has now
more particularly found it out since he has been
here, and is about to enter into battle with them at
random; and therefore desires—as he wishes to know
how to conduct the battle, and where to strike—
that they shall define their position. Well, as I sup-
pose the gentleman is in good earnest, and if he will
read, or employ somebody to read for him, I will
furnish him the data—the documents by which he
will be enabled to arrive at that fact. And 1 will
start upon such political works as Jefferson's; mid I
will next present him with the hundreds of 'ad-
dresses from the beginning, issued and published to
the world by democratic State conventions; next, I
will furnish him, down to the last one, the addresses
issued and published to the world by all the demo-
cratic national conventions that have been held; and,
lastly, the actions, the speeches, and the votes, of
the democratic membeis of Congress. And let me
inform the gentleman, if he did not know it before,
that the principles of the democratic party, from the
beginning, were for the public eye; they never es-
poused a principle that they were ashamed of, or
wished to hide from the fvMk eye; there tod been
no duplicity or double-dealing in their course of ac-
tion; theiy never had one set of principles for the
private, and another set for the public eye; they al-
ways knew that their principles-were, right, and es-
sential to the permanency of our-institutions, and to
free government; and were, at ail times, determined
to stand or fall by them; and therefore,. knowing'
they were correct, and, if successful, and carried
out, would work the greatest good to the greatest
number, were" ever anxious to spread thfcm before
the world, that the world, seeing and examining them,
might be won by them, and embrace them. And
now let us turn the leaf; for one who lives in a glass
house ought never to throw stones. The gentle-
man ought to have recollected that he belonged to
that famous j&rty who, in 1840, had no principles
for the public eye—whose principles were different in
different quarters of the Union, as would best suit
their purposes—who met in national conven-
tion at Harrisburg, nominated their candidates for
President and Vice President, and, for the first
time in the history of political conventions in
our government, failed to promulgate to the coun-
try the principles upon which they and their
candidates would act if successful, for the pur-
pose of drawing into their fold, until they get into
power, all the odd and fag ends of factions, and par-
ties. Their leader obeyed the mandate of this con-
vention. He refused, when called upon, to pro-
mulgate any principles for ike public eye. It is true
he wrote some letters touching upon some of the
great questions which then agitated the country, but
with an express injunction that they were not for
the public eye. Thus this ^arty, to which the gen-
tleman belonged, instead of being at that time the
same thing to all men, were all things to all-men—
they were bank men or anti-bank, according to the
region where they happened to be. Protective
tariff men or anti-protective tariff men; abolitionists
or anti-abolitionists, as circumstences might require.
In a word, their great principles was to have no
principles at all. The gentleman seems to have for-
gotten all this. His memory is short—not three
years long. He seems to have forgotten too, that
this same party, in 1840, substituted coonery for
principles—that is, coons, coonskins, gourds, badges,
hard-cider, cider barrels, canoes, carousals, &c..&c.;
and, although they had no principles, made a great
many general promises—such as, that they would
reform the currency; make money more plenty, and
make it better; raise the wages of labor, and the
price of produce; reform and retrench the expendi-
tures of the government, so as to bring down the an-
nual expenditures of the government to thirteen
millions of dollars, &c. &c.; and thus, by this coonery,
and these fair promises, they rode into power; and
when seated, as they supposed, safely in power, and
while yet these promises were warm and fresh in the
mind of every one, they turned about and violated
every promise and pledge they had made; and com-
menced o system of extravagance hitherto unknown
to the country, and a system of odious measures
which they knew were obnoxious to the people, and
which they dare not ran upon in the canvass. For
these reasons, and being bound together by no prin-
ciple, but bound only with a rope of sand, the people
repudiated them; they tumbled to pieces, and are
now left with a fragment of what the party then
was. The people weighed them in the balance, and
found them wanting. Yet some of them contend
that their principles were known. How known,
when they were different in different parts of the
Union? Did they, through the Harrisburg conven-
tion, or any other authorized medium, declare them-
selves or their candidates to be in favor of a national
bank? in favor of the distribution of the proceeds of
the public lands? in favor of a high protective tariff?
in favor of the bankrupt law? and in favor of the
mandamus act? No, sir; not one. They did not
dare to do it. They very well knew, if they had,
they would have been defeated; and yet they passed
all these measures through Congress! It is true, the
President stopped one of them; and another was so
obnoxious to the people that they were forced to re-
peal it themselves, before their power expired. Be-
sides these, they passed other acts which the people
ha^e condemned; out, as my timeiss about to expiie,
I shall not have time to enumerate them.
REMARKS OF MR. J. A. WRIGHT,
of indiana.
In the House of Representatives, January 27, 1844.—
On the report of the Select Committee on Rules,
proposing to abolish what is usually known as die