of public money expended, and the ridicule and censure of foreign nations to which this strange embassy has exposed us it will be well for our country if it involves us in no other and greater calamities.

To suit his theory to his practice, the President claims almost boundless authority for the Executive; ejects the Senate from all participation in the institution of embassies and the commissioning of envoys; compares the influence of the constituent on the representative to the effect of paralysis on the human body. In the true spirit of arbitrary condescension, he displays to the nation fantastical projects of benefaction and improvement, befitting the gracious king of star-gazing subjects, rather than the responsible agent of free people. Nor is the profusion with which public money is expended, and the mismanagement of the government abroad, greater than its profligacy at home. The chief member of the cabinet, whose duties require his greatest sagacity and most intense application, annually deserts his department, and displays himself as an itinerant Rhetor at electioneering feasts, exceeding some of his colleagues in this official degradation only as far as he exceeds them in ability. In the days of Washington and Jefferson, it was not in this manner that the great officers of State were employed; neither Hamilton nor Madison was seen traversing various States at seasons of election, to rise before carousing multitudes, and to pour forth praises on the President in office, whilst the flood-gates of defamation were opened against his expected competitor. Those great men never dealt in boisterous harangues, unbecoming the gravity of statesmen; in banquet bravadoes, consistent neither with decency or courage; nor in bold assertions, bearing no comparison with facts. One was devotedly engaged in the definition of our rights at home, and in the expansion and security of our interests abroad, now violated and neglected; the other was sedulously employed in the creation of a system of economy and credit, now impaired and abandoned; whilst both had exerted their mighty intellects in the formation of that bond of national union, which it is the earnest and ardent desire of this General Assembly to maintain and perpetuate. They have made this brief, but, in their opinion, impartial reference to the conduct of

the present administration, in support of their second resolution.

In regard to the third resolution, it will be sufficient to say, that the acknowledged popularity, the established fame, and well tried patriotism of Andrew Jackson, designate him as the candidate most capable of, and most deserving, a successful competition with Mr. Adams. Here he has been known, from the dawn of manhood-through the vicissitudes of life and fortune--in peace and in war-and we speak the sentiments of our constituents, as well as our own, when we declare that the fire of youth never impelled him beyond the bounds of honor, and that the coldness of age has not made him deaf to the voice of patriotism. As a man, he has always enjoyed our peculiar esteem; and as a public agent, our highest confidence. The force and fitness of his intellect we have never found inferior to the grandeur of his character or the lustre of his fame. Conspicuous for the charities of private life, and alone doubtful of his public abilities, he has seldom left its sacred retreats without earning renown for himself and glory for his country. But the retreats of private life are no longer sacred. This beloved citizen, this genuine republican; venerable for his age, illustrious for his services, and still more illustrious for his inflexible patriotism, has seen not only his conduct distorted by slander, and his glory tarnished by calumny, but the partner of his bosom traduced and exposed for the sport of the idle and the malice of the infamous. That couch which has been so often forsaken, that others might sleep in safety and peace -that breast that has so often braved danger, that others might not even feel its alarms, which felt a stain on the honor of the country like a stab into its own vitals, has been invaded and cruelly outraged. That some of the members of the present administration of the Federal Government are accountable for the slander and persecution of Gen. Jackson and his wife, is reluctantly, though solemnly, asserted. No moral distinction can be drawn between the act of hiring a man to commit a crime and that of rewarding him after he has committed it; and it is notorious that the prostituted miscreants who invent and circulate these slanders, are the continued objects of ministerial favor, patronage and pay-hired with the money

of the very people whose willing gratitude and just admiration are the real causes of this defamation and rancor. This foul injustice not only aggravates the demerit of its procurers, but should endear to his country the hero who sustains it. As citizens of Tennessee, we feel it our especial duty to denounce it, and to proclaim our proud, our fervent, and our increased attachment to the candidate and the cause of the people.

REPLY OF MR. BROWN,

In Support of the Resolutions on a preceding page.

Mr. SPEAKER: Until the last remarks fell from the gentleman from Knox, I did not intend to have said anything in support of these resolutions. Even now I do not intend to discuss their merits. They contain, as I conceive, within themselves, sufficient arguments for their adoption. An intimation, however, has been made, that they were introduced to catch the gentleman who last addressed this House. Why should I wish to catch him, or throw any impediments whatever in his way? (Mr. W. here explained and Mr. B. proceeded.) My purposes in introducing these resolutions are infinitely above men; they relate to great and fundamental principles in the administration of this government. When they were introduced on yesterday, they were clearly and distinctly read in hearing of all the members of this House. They have been on your table the usual period for examination and reflection: yet gentlemen allege that they have been taken by surprise! Taken by surprise as to the incidents attending the last Presidential election? They have been known to the nation more than three years. Taken by surprise as to the alarming measures of those now in power? They have been discussed over and over again, during two sessions of Congress. Taken by surprise as to the desperate and degrading means now employed to secure another "reign of terror" over this republic? Those means have been used publicly, in the high places of

the earth, and it is strange, indeed, if they have escaped the most superficial observer.

With some degree of emphasis it has been asked, why the Legislature of Tennessee should take up the subject? I answer, because Tennessee, like the other States of the Union, has suffered by the shameful incidents alluded to in these resolutions. I answer further, that the State of Tennessee is under peculiar obligations to enter her solemn protest against the combinations here complained of, because she first presented Gen. JACKSON to the nation as a candidate for the Presidency. It was not of his seeking; it was done without the slightest procurement or interference on his part. Is not Tennessee, then, at least excusable, when she complains of the unholy combinations which defeated him; of the vile calumnies by which it is hoped that he can be again defeated? It was, however, stated by the gentleman from Knox, that one member of the House of Representatives from Knox County, at the session when General Jackson was first nominated for the Presidency, had been heard to declare, that he was nominated only to make a diversion in favor of Mr. Adams to the prejudice of Mr. Crawford. If it was intended that that was the motive of the particular member alluded to, I have nothing to say. But if it were intended to make even the slightest intimation, that such was the motive of the General Assembly which then nominated General Jackson, I utterly deny it. I was then a member, and have a right to speak thus explicitly of events in which I was an actor. The Legislature of Tennessee, in submitting his name to the nation, was influenced by no motive of hostility either to Mr. Adams or Mr. Crawford, but by a sense of gratitude for his public services, and just admiration of those great and eminent qualifications which it believed fitted him for the office. Besides all this, it seems to me, that it is proper for this General Assembly thus to express its opinions, on another account. The reputation of that distinguished individual is now public property. His fame is identified with the nation. Every public assembly, therefore, can well be justified in defending him against the assaults of defamation and malice. Several gentlemen have attempted to rouse the conscientious scruples of this House, by assuming