Chapter LVIII: The Twenty-Second Congress

This body commenced its first session the 5th of December, 1831, and terminated that session July 17th, 1832; and for this session alone belongs to the most memorable in the annals of our government. It was the one at which the great contest for the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States was brought on, and decided--enough of itself to entitle it to lasting remembrance, though replete with other important measures. It embraced, in the list of members of the two Houses, much shining talent, and a great mass of useful ability, and among their names will be found many, then most eminent in the Union, and others destined to become so. The following are the names:

SENATE.

MAINE--John Holmes, Peleg Sprague.

NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Bell, Isaac Hill.

MASSACHUSETTS--Daniel Webster, Nathaniel Silsbee.

RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight, Asher Robbins.

CONNECTICUT--Samuel A. Foot, Gideon Tomlinson.

VERMONT--Horatio Seymour, Samuel Prentiss.

NEW-YORK--Charles E. Dudley, Wm. Marcy.

NEW JERSEY--M. Dickerson, Theodore Frelinghuysen.

PENNSYLVANIA--Geo. M. Dallas, Wm. Wilkins.

DELAWARE--John M. Clayton, Arnold Naudain.

MARYLAND--E. F. Chambers, Samuel Smith.

VIRGINIA--Littleton W. Tazewell, John Tyler.

NORTH CAROLINA--B. Brown, W. P. Mangum.

SOUTH CAROLINA--Robert Y. Hayne, S. D. Miller.

GEORGIA--George M. Troup, John Forsyth.

KENTUCKY--George M. Bibb, Henry Clay.

TENNESSEE--Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White.

OHIO--Benjamin Ruggles, Thomas Ewing.

LOUISIANA--J. S. Johnston, Geo. A. Waggaman.

INDIANA--William Hendricks, Robert Hanna.

MISSISSIPPI--Powhatan Ellis, Geo. Poindexter.

ILLINOIS--Elias K. Kane, John M. Robinson.

ALABAMA--William R. King, Gabriel Moore.

MISSOURI--Thomas H. Benton, Alex. Buckner.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

From MAINE--John Anderson, James Bates, George Evans, Cornelius
Holland, Leonard Jarvis, Edward Kavanagh, Rufus McIntire.

NEW HAMPSHIRE--John Brodhead, Thomas Chandler, Joseph Hammons,
Henry Hubbard, Joseph M. Harper, John W. Weeks.

MASSACHUSETTS--John Quincy Adams, Nathan Appleton, Isaac C.
Bates, George N. Briggs, Rufus Choate, Henry A. S. Dearborn,
John Davis, Edward Everett, George Grennell, jun., James L.
Hodges, Joseph G. Kendall, John Reed. (_One vacancy._)

RHODE ISLAND--Tristam Burgess, Dutee J. Pearce.

CONNECTICUT--Noyes Barber, William W. Ellsworth, Jabez W.
Huntington, Ralph I. Ingersoll, William L. Storrs, Ebenezer
Young.

VERMONT--Heman Allen, William Cahoon, Horace Everett, Jonathan
Hunt, William Slade.

NEW YORK--William G. Angel, Gideon H. Barstow, Joseph Bouck,
William Babcock, John T. Bergen, John C. Brodhead, Samuel
Beardsley, John A. Collier, Bates Cooke, C. C. Cambreleng,
John Dickson, Charles Dayan, Ulysses F. Doubleday, William
Hogan, Michael Hoffman, Freeborn G. Jewett, John King, Gerrit
Y. Lansing, James Lent, Job Pierson, Nathaniel Pitcher, Edmund
H. Pendleton, Edward C. Reed, Erastus Root, Nathan Soule, John
W. Taylor, Phineas L. Tracy, Gulian C. Verplanck, Frederic
Whittlesey, Samuel J. Wilkin, Grattan H. Wheeler, Campbell P.
White, Aaron Ward, Daniel Wardwell.

NEW JERSEY--Lewis Condict, Silas Condict, Richard M. Cooper,
Thomas H. Hughes, James Fitz Randolph, Isaac Southard.

PENNSYLVANIA--Robert Allison, John Banks, George Burd, John
C. Bucher, Thomas H. Crawford, Richard Coulter, Harmar Denny,
Lewis Dewart, Joshua Evans, James Ford, John Gilmore, William
Heister, Henry Horn, Peter Ihrie, jun., Adam King, Henry King,
Joel K. Mann, Robert McCoy, Henry A. Muhlenberg, T. M. McKennan,
David Potts, jun., Andrew Stewart, Samuel A. Smith, Philander
Stephens, Joel B. Sutherland, John G. Watmough.

DELAWARE--John J. Milligan.

MARYLAND--Benjamin C. Howard, Daniel Jenifer, John L. Kerr,
George E. Mitchell, Benedict I. Semmes, John S. Spence, Francis
Thomas, George C. Washington, J. T. H. Worthington.

VIRGINIA--Mark Alexander, Robert Allen, William S. Archer,
William Armstrong, John S. Barbour, Thomas T. Bouldin,
Nathaniel H. Claiborne, Robert Craig, Joseph W. Chinn, Richard
Coke, jun., Thomas Davenport, Philip Doddridge, Wm. F. Gordon,
Charles C. Johnston, John Y. Mason, Lewis Maxwell, Charles F.
Mercer, William McCoy, Thomas Newton, John M. Patton, John J.
Roane, Andrew Stevenson.

NORTH CAROLINA--Dan'l L. Barringer, Laughlin Bethune, John
Branch, Samuel P. Carson, Henry W. Conner, Thomas H. Hall,
Micajah T. Hawkins, James J. McKay, Abraham Rencher, William B.
Shepard, Augustine H. Shepperd, Jesse Speight, Lewis Williams.

SOUTH CAROLINA--Robert W. Barnwell, Jas. Blair, Warren R. Davis,
William Drayton, John M. Felder, J. R. Griffin, Thomas R.
Mitchell, George McDuffie, Wm. T. Nuckolls.

GEORGIA--Thomas F. Foster, Henry G. Lamar, Daniel Newnan, Wiley
Thompson, Richard H. Wilde, James M. Wayne. (One vacancy.)

KENTUCKY--John Adair, Chilton Allan, Henry Daniel, Nathan
Gaither, Albert G. Hawes, R. M. Johnson, Joseph Lecompte,
Chittenden Lyon, Robert P. Letcher, Thomas A. Marshall,
Christopher Tompkins, Charles A. Wickliffe.

TENNESSEE--Thomas D. Arnold, John Bell, John Blair, William
Fitzgerald, William Hall, Jacob C. Isacks, Cave Johnson, James
K. Polk, James Standifer.

OHIO--Joseph H. Crane, Eleutheros Cooke, William Creighton,
jun., Thomas Corwin, James Findlay, William W. Irwin, William
Kennon, Humphrey H. Leavitt, William Russel, William Stanberry,
John Thomson, Joseph Vance, Samuel F. Vinton, Elisha Whittlesey.

LOUISIANA--H. A. Bullard, Philemon Thomas, Edward D. White.

INDIANA--Ratliff Boon, John Carr, Jonathan McCarty.

MISSISSIPPI--Franklin E. Plummer.

ILLINOIS--Joseph Duncan.

ALABAMA--Clement C. Clay, Dixon H. Lewis, Samuel W. Mardis.

MISSOURI--William H. Ashley.

DELEGATES.

MICHIGAN--Austin E. Wing.

ARKANSAS--Ambrose H. Sevier.

FLORIDA--Joseph M. White.

Andrew Stevenson, Esq., of Virginia, was re-elected speaker; and both branches of the body being democratic, they were organized, in a party sense, as favorable to the administration, although the most essential of the committees, when the Bank question unexpectedly sprung up, were found to be on the side of that institution. In his message to the two Houses, the President presented a condensed and general view of our relations, political and commercial, with foreign nations, from which the leading passages are here given:

"After our transition from the state of colonies to that of
an independent nation, many points were found necessary to
be settled between us and Great Britain. Among them was the
demarcation of boundaries, not described with sufficient
precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that
divide the States and territories of the United States from
the British provinces, have been definitively fixed. That,
however, which separates us from the provinces of Canada and
New Brunswick to the North and the East, was still in dispute
when I came into office. But I found arrangements made for its
settlement, over which I had no control. The commissioners who
had been appointed under the provisions of the treaty of Ghent,
having been unable to agree, a convention was made with Great
Britain by my immediate predecessor in office, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, by which it was agreed 'that the
points of difference which have arisen in the settlement of the
boundary line between the American and British dominions, as
described in the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, shall be
referred, as therein provided, to some friendly sovereign or
State, who shall be invited to investigate, and make a decision
upon such points of difference:' and the King of the Netherlands
having, by the late President and his Britannic Majesty, been
designated as such friendly sovereign, it became my duty to
carry, with good faith, the agreement, so made, into full
effect. To this end I caused all the measures to be taken which
were necessary to a full exposition of our case to the sovereign
arbiter; and nominated as minister plenipotentiary to his court,
a distinguished citizen of the State most interested in the
question, and who had been one of the agents previously employed
for settling the controversy. On the 10th day of January last,
His Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to the
plenipotentiaries of the United States, and of Great Britain,
his written opinion on the case referred to him. The papers
in relation to the subject will be communicated, by a special
message, to the proper branch of the government, with the
perfect confidence that its wisdom will adopt such measures as
will secure an amicable settlement of the controversy, without
infringing any constitutional right of the States immediately
interested.

"In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress,
I expressed a confident hope that the justice of our claims
upon France, urged as they were with perseverance and signal
ability by our minister there, would finally be acknowledged.
This hope has been realized. A treaty has been signed, which
will immediately be laid before the Senate for its approbation;
and which, containing stipulations that require legislative
acts, must have the concurrence of both Houses before it can be
carried into effect.

"Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source of
irritation will be stopped, that has, for so many years, in some
degree alienated from each other two nations who, from interest
as well as the remembrance of early associations, ought to
cherish the most friendly relations--an encouragement will be
given for perseverance in the demands of justice, by this new
proof, that, if steadily pursued, they will be listened to--and
admonition will be offered to those powers, if any, which may be
inclined to evade them, that they will never be abandoned. Above
all, a just confidence will be inspired in our fellow-citizens,
that their government will exert all the powers with which they
have invested it, in support of their just claims upon foreign
nations; at the same time that the frank acknowledgment and
provision for the payment of those which were addressed to our
equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords a practical
illustration of our submission to the Divine rule of doing to
others what we desire they should do unto us.

"Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the
irregularities committed by their vessels, or in their ports, to
the perfect satisfaction of the parties concerned, and having
renewed the treaties of commerce entered into with them, our
political and commercial relations with those powers continue to
be on the most friendly footing.

"With Spain, our differences up to the 22d of February, 1819,
were settled by the treaty of Washington of that date; but,
at a subsequent period, our commerce with the states formerly
colonies of Spain, on the continent of America, was annoyed and
frequently interrupted by her public and private armed ships.
They captured many of our vessels prosecuting a lawful commerce,
and sold them and their cargoes; and at one time, to our demands
for restoration and indemnity, opposed the allegation, that
they were taken in the violation of a blockade of all the ports
of those states. This blockade was declaratory only, and the
inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest, that
this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband
of war. This, in its turn, was also found untenable; and
the minister whom I sent with instructions to press for the
reparation that was due to our injured fellow-citizens, has
transmitted an answer to his demand, by which the captures
are declared to have been legal, and are justified because
the independence of the states of America never having been
acknowledged by Spain, she had a right to prohibit trade with
them under her old colonial laws. This ground of defence was
contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly
alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws
of nations; and had been abandoned by Spain herself in the
convention which granted indemnity to British subjects for
captures made at the same time, under the same circumstances,
and for the same allegations with those of which we complain.

"I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will lead
to other views, and feel confident, that when his Catholic
Majesty shall be convinced of the justice of the claim, his
desire to preserve friendly relations between the two countries,
which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain, will induce him
to accede to our demand. I have therefore dispatched a special
messenger, with instructions to our minister to bring the case
once more to his consideration; to the end that if, which I
cannot bring myself to believe, the same decision, that cannot
but be deemed an unfriendly denial of justice, should be
persisted in, the matter may, before your adjournment, be laid
before you, the constitutional judges of what is proper to be
done when negotiation for redress of injury fails.

"The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France, seemed
to present a favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a
similar nature on other powers, and particularly in the case of
those upon Naples; more especially as, in the course of former
negotiations with that power, our failure to induce France
to render us justice was used as an argument against us. The
desires of the merchants who were the principal sufferers, have
therefore been acceded to, and a mission has been instituted for
the special purpose of obtaining for them a reparation already
too long delayed. This measure having been resolved on, it was
put in execution without waiting for the meeting of Congress,
because the state of Europe created an apprehension of events
that might have rendered our application ineffectual.

"Our demands upon the government of the Two Sicilies are of a
peculiar nature. The injuries on which they are founded are
not denied, nor are the atrocity and perfidy under which those
injuries were perpetrated attempted to be extenuated. The sole
ground on which indemnity has been refused is the alleged
illegality of the tenure by which the monarch who made the
seizures held his crown. This defence, always unfounded in any
principle of the law of nations--now universally abandoned, even
by those powers upon whom the responsibility for acts of past
rulers bore the most heavily, will unquestionably be given up
by his Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels will receive an impulse
from that high sense of honor and regard to justice which are
said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confidence that
the talents of the citizen commissioned for that purpose will
place before him the just claims of our injured citizens in such
a light as will enable me, before your adjournment, to announce
that they have been adjusted and secured. Precise instructions,
to the effect of bringing the negotiation to a speedy issue,
have been given, and will be obeyed.

"In the late blockade of Terceira, some of the Portuguese fleet
captured several of our vessels, and committed other excesses,
for which reparation was demanded; and I was on the point of
dispatching an armed force, to prevent any recurrence of a
similar violence, and protect our citizens in the prosecution
of their lawful commerce, when official assurances, on which I
relied, made the sailing of the ships unnecessary. Since that
period, frequent promises have been made that full indemnity
shall be given for the injuries inflicted and the losses
sustained. In the performance there has been some, perhaps
unavoidable, delay; but I have the fullest confidence that my
earnest desire that this business may at once be closed, which
our minister has been instructed strongly to express, will very
soon be gratified. I have the better ground for this hope, from
the evidence of a friendly disposition which that government has
shown by an actual reduction in the duty on rice, the produce
of our Southern States, authorizing the anticipation that this
important article of our export will soon be admitted on the
same footing with that produced by the most favored nation.

"With the other powers of Europe, we have fortunately had no
cause of discussions for the redress of injuries. With the
Empire of the Russias, our political connection is of the
most friendly, and our commercial of the most liberal kind.
We enjoy the advantages of navigation and trade, given to the
most favored nation; but it has not yet suited their policy, or
perhaps has not been found convenient from other considerations,
to give stability and reciprocity to those privileges, by a
commercial treaty. The ill-health of the minister last year
charged with making a proposition for that arrangement, did
not permit him to remain at St. Petersburg; and the attention
of that government, during the whole of the period since his
departure, having been occupied by the war in which it was
engaged, we have been assured that nothing could have been
effected by his presence. A minister will soon be nominated,
as well to effect this important object, as to keep up the
relations of amity and good understanding of which we have
received so many assurances and proofs from his Imperial Majesty
and the Emperor his predecessor.

"The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important trade
with the hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the value of which
has been hitherto little known, and of course not sufficiently
appreciated. While our commerce finds an entrance into the south
of Germany by means of this treaty, those we have formed with
the Hanseatic towns and Prussia, and others now in negotiation,
will open that vast country to the enterprising spirit of our
merchants on the north; a country abounding in all the materials
for a mutually beneficial commerce, filled with enlightened
and industrious inhabitants, holding an important place in
the politics of Europe, and to which we owe so many valuable
citizens. The ratification of the treaty with the Porte was sent
to be exchanged by the gentleman appointed our chargé d'affaires
to that court. Some difficulties occurred on his arrival; but at
the date of his last official dispatch, he supposed they had
been obviated, and that there was every prospect of the exchange
being speedily effected.

"This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper to
give of our political and commercial relations in Europe. Every
effort in my power will be continued to strengthen and extend
them by treaties founded on principles of the most perfect
reciprocity of interest, neither asking nor conceding any
exclusive advantage, but liberating, as far as it lies in my
power, the activity and industry of our fellow-citizens from the
shackles which foreign restrictions may impose.

"To China and the East Indies, our commerce continues in its
usual extent, and with increased facilities, which the credit
and capital of our merchants afford, by substituting bills for
payments in specie. A daring outrage having been committed in
those seas by the plunder of one of our merchantmen engaged
in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, and the piratical
perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a state of society that
the usual course of proceeding between civilized nations could
not be pursued, I forthwith dispatched a frigate with orders to
require immediate satisfaction for the injury, and indemnity to
the sufferers.

"Few changes have taken place in our connections with the
independent States of America since my last communication
to Congress. The ratification of a commercial treaty with
the United Republics of Mexico has been for some time under
deliberation in their Congress, but was still undecided at the
date of our last dispatches. The unhappy civil commotions that
have prevailed there, were undoubtedly the cause of the delay;
but as the government is now said to be tranquillized, we may
hope soon to receive the ratification of the treaty, and an
arrangement for the demarcation of the boundaries between us.
In the mean time, an important trade has been opened, with
mutual benefit, from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by
caravans, to the interior provinces of Mexico. This commerce is
protected in its progress through the Indian countries by the
troops of the United States, which have been permitted to escort
the caravans beyond our boundaries to the settled part of the
Mexican territory.

"From Central America I have received assurances of the most
friendly kind, and a gratifying application for our good offices
to remove a supposed indisposition towards that government
in a neighboring state: this application was immediately and
successfully complied with. They gave us also the pleasing
intelligence, that differences which had prevailed in their
internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. Our treaty with
this republic continues to be faithfully observed, and promises
a great and beneficial commerce between the two countries; a
commerce of the greatest importance, if the magnificent project
of a ship canal through the dominions of that state, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, now in serious contemplation,
shall be executed.

"I have great satisfaction in communicating the success which
has attended the exertions of our minister in Colombia to
procure a very considerable reduction in the duties on our flour
in that republic. Indemnity, also, has been stipulated for
injuries received by our merchants from illegal seizures; and
renewed assurances are given that the treaty between the two
countries shall be faithfully observed.

"Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil
commotions; and, until they shall be settled, disorders may
naturally be apprehended, requiring the constant presence of a
naval force in the Pacific Ocean, to protect our fisheries and
guard our commerce.

"The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil,
previously to, and immediately consequent upon, the abdication
of the late Emperor, necessarily suspended any effectual
application for the redress of some past injuries suffered
by our citizens from that government, while they have been
the cause of others, in which all foreigners seem to have
participated. Instructions have been given to our minister
there, to press for indemnity due for losses occasioned by these
irregularities, and to take care that our fellow-citizens shall
enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor, by the
treaty lately made between the two powers; all which, the good
intelligence that prevails between our minister at Rio Janeiro
and the regency gives us the best reason to expect.

"I should have placed Buenos Ayres on the list of South American
powers, in respect to which nothing of importance affecting us
was to be communicated, but for occurrences which have lately
taken place at the Falkland Islands, in which the name of that
republic has been used to cover with a show of authority acts
injurious to our commerce, and to the property and liberty of
our fellow-citizens. In the course of the present year, one of
our vessels engaged in the pursuit of a trade which we have
always enjoyed without molestation, has been captured by a band
acting, as they pretend, under the authority of the government
of Buenos Ayres. I have therefore given orders for the dispatch
of an armed vessel, to join our squadron in those seas, and aid
in affording all lawful protection to our trade which shall be
necessary; and shall, without delay, send a minister to inquire
into the nature of the circumstances, and also of the claim, if
any, that is set up by that government to those islands. In the
mean time, I submit the case to the consideration of Congress,
to the end that they may clothe the Executive with such
authority and means as they may deem necessary for providing a
force adequate to the complete protection of our fellow-citizens
fishing and trading in those seas.

"This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped,
fellow-citizens, may be of some use in so much of your
legislation as may bear on that important subject; while it
affords to the country at large a source of high gratification
in the contemplation of our political and commercial connection
with the rest of the world. At peace with all--having subjects
of future difference with few, and those susceptible of easy
adjustment--extending our commerce gradually on all sides, and
on none by any but the most liberal and mutually beneficial
means--we may, by the blessing of Providence, hope for all that
national prosperity which can be derived from an intercourse
with foreign nations, guided by those eternal principles of
justice and reciprocal good will which are binding as well upon
States as the individuals of whom they are composed.

"I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our
affairs, because the course of our national policy enables
me to do it without any indiscreet exposure of what in other
governments is usually concealed from the people. Having none
but a straightforward, open course to pursue--guided by a single
principle that will bear the strongest light--we have happily no
political combinations to form, no alliances to entangle us, no
complicated interests to consult; and in subjecting all we have
done to the consideration of our citizens, and to the inspection
of the world, we give no advantage to other nations, and lay
ourselves open to no injury."

This clear and succinct account of the state of our foreign relations makes us fully acquainted with these affairs as they then stood, and presents a view of questions to be settled with several powers which were to receive their solution from the firm and friendly spirit in which they would be urged. Turning to our domestic concerns, the message thus speaks of the finances; showing a gradual increase, the rapid extinction of the public debt, and that a revenue of 27-3/4 millions was about double the amount of all expenditures, exclusive of what that extinction absorbed:

"The state of the public finances will be fully shown by the
Secretary of the Treasury, in the report which he will presently
lay before you. I will here, however, congratulate you upon
their prosperous condition. The revenue received in the present
year will not fall short of twenty-seven million seven hundred
thousand dollars; and the expenditures for all objects other
than the public debt will not exceed fourteen million seven
hundred thousand. The payment on account of the principal and
interest of the debt, during the year, will exceed sixteen
millions and a half of dollars: a greater sum than has been
applied to that object, out of the revenue, in any year since
the enlargement of the sinking fund, except the two years
following immediately thereafter. The amount which will have
been applied to the public debt from the 4th of March, 1829, to
the 1st of January next, which is less than three years since
the administration has been placed in my hands, will exceed
forty millions of dollars."

On the subject of government insolvent debtors, the message said:

"In my annual message of December, 1829, I had the honor to
recommend the adoption of a more liberal policy than that which
then prevailed towards unfortunate debtors to the government;
and I deem it my duty again to invite your attention to this
subject. Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last
session passed an act for the relief of certain insolvent
debtors of the United States: but the provisions of that law
have not been deemed such as were adequate to that relief to
this unfortunate class of our fellow-citizens, which may be
safely extended to them. The points in which the law appears to
be defective will be particularly communicated by the Secretary
of the Treasury: and I take pleasure in recommending such an
extension of its provisions as will unfetter the enterprise of a
valuable portion of our citizens, and restore to them the means
of usefulness to themselves and the community."

Recurring to his previous recommendation in favor of giving the election of President and Vice-President to the direct vote of the people, the message says:

"I have heretofore recommended amendments of the federal
constitution giving the election of President and Vice-President
to the people, and limiting the service of the former to a
single term. So important do I consider these changes in our
fundamental law, that I cannot, in accordance with my sense
of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new
Congress. For my views more at large, as well in relation to
these points as to the disqualification of members of Congress
to receive an office from a President in whose election they
have had an official agency, which I proposed as a substitute, I
refer you to my former messages."

And concludes thus in relation to the Bank of the United States:

"Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to
the Bank of the United States, as at present organized, I felt
it my duty, in my former messages, frankly to disclose them,
in order that the attention of the legislature and the people
should be seasonably directed to that important subject, and
that it might be considered and finally disposed of in a manner
best calculated to promote the ends of the constitution, and
subserve the public interests. Having thus conscientiously
discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it proper, on this
occasion, without a more particular reference to the views
of the subject then expressed, to leave it for the present
to the investigation of an enlightened people and their
representatives."