county, rather than yield it to Lincoln, in running the district towards the mountains. At this point, therefore, the interest of Giles and Lincoln was directly at issue; I had tried invariably to avoid bringing their interest in conflict. I believed it might be avoided by laying off a triangular district, but, when that issue was made by Lincoln's asking the centre for herself, I had no alternative left, but to ask it for you. I was your sworn representative; I had to act for Giles and not for Lincoln. The struggle was a bold and manly one on both sides; victory sometimes being declared on one side and sometimes on the other. It at last settled down in your favor, leaving Lincoln no more right to be dissatisfied than Giles would have been, if victory had been declared on the other side. Had I been the representative of Lincoln I should most probably have done as he did, but, being the representative of Giles, my sworn duty required me to act as I did. Every reason that made Lincoln desire the centre, made Giles desire it, and every thing which made Lincoln averse to being at one end of a district, made Giles averse to the same position. The recollection, however, that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," ought to teach all the counties of the district not to remember in unkindness a generous rivalship, which is past, but to look forward in noble emulation, which can in future give the highest proof of republican virtue and patriotic devotion to the interest and glory of our country.

Our next duty required is, to provide for the election of electors of President and Vice President. The Governor in his Message recommended this as a favorable period for the adoption of the general ticket system. This recommendation was published probably in every newspaper in the State, and thousands of copies were printed and distributed in every part of the country; in the meantime not a single newspaper, not a single letter, was written to the members that I ever heard of; not one public meeting in any county of the State was held in opposition, and the members of the Legislature might well say, the general ticket system, as recommended by the Governor, meets with the general, and, probably, universal approbation of the people; for all have heard it proposed to us, and

none have opposed it. The general ticket system was therefore adopted under the IMPLIED approbation of nearly every man in the State, and was adopted by a unanimous vote, I believe, with the exception, probably, of one single member. Yet strange to tell, it is now objected to. Who of my countrymen were the first and loudest to make complaints? They were the enemies of Jackson and the friends of Adams and Clay. They made a huge outcry, and many plain upright men, that were not of their party, but were good friends to their country, not understanding the subject, and not knowing the motives of the Adams and Clay men, were deceived and carried away by their clamor. I stand up this day not to apologize for the adoption of this system, but to justify and defend it. Go back with me to the dark and trying period of '98, when the great battle was fought between the Federalists and Republicans, in the election between old John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. What was it that lost the republicans several votes in the Southern States? It was not having adopted the general ticket; the federalists had been on their guard and had adopted it, whilst the republicans, not looking into the matter so deeply, were taken by surprise and well nigh ruined by it. The moment, however, that election was over, the republicans in the old States resolved never to have such an advantage taken of them again; and Virginia, and North Carolina, and other States, instantly adopted the general ticket system. Many of the new States coming into the Union after this great struggle did not know so much by experience, and therefore adopted the district system. On reflection, however, they changed the plan; and at the time of the last session there was no State in the Union that voted by districts but Tennessee and Maryland. Maryland has not changed, because she has always leaned to the federal side-but Tennessee has always been on the republican side. She has always been for Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson; and therefore it was proper she should adopt the same system and walk in the same footsteps with her republican sisters of the Union.

Many of the citizens of this State, however, do not oppose the adoption of the system, whilst they mainly object to a ticket having been made and recommended to their consideration.

Many seem to regard this as an abridgment of their rights, and speak of it as a dangerous assumption of power. Let it be remembered, that this change was effected at a called session, when not more than forty-odd days were to elapse before the election. The State is more than five hundred miles in length and more than one hundred in breadth. The new electoral law must be printed at Nashville and carried to the different counties of the State, and be re-printed in the other newspapers of the county towns, and thus sent out to the people, who will require sometime to form themselves into public assemblies, and nominate those candidates whom they intend to support; these nominations must then find their way through every part of the State, in time to be known every where before the election. Now, how long would it be before the Nashville papers would reach East Tennessee, and the law be re-printed, and the people in that section meet and make their nominations? Then how long before these nominations through the papers will be generally known to the people of the Western District? Every one must know that all this could not be done with any certainty, in the common course of things, in forty-odd days. If not done when the election came on, the people would all be in confusion. Those in East Tennessee would not know whom those in the Western District were voting for on the Jackson ticket, nor those in the West be apprised of the electors to be run in the East; and thus the different parts of the State, though aiming to support the same good cause, could not act in concert in the election. The very thing our enemies desired, and by which they hoped they might have some chance in Tennessee, and accordingly made out a Clay ticket.

Now, fellow-citizens, it was this very shortness of time; it was to avoid this very confusion amongst friends, and to defeat the hopes and schemes of our enemies, that induced us to make out and recommend these electors to you. It was not to abridge your rights, but to enlarge them, by enabling you to vote for fifteen, instead of one elector, as heretofore. It was not to dictate and compel your votes, contrary to your wishes, but only to recommend and give facility and effect to those votes which we knew you were determined to give to

Jackson.

The Legislature felt like too much was at stake in the election of that illustrious and venerable man, to run any hazard of losing the vote of Tennessee for the want of an electoral ticket. If there had been more time to go upon, the members would not have thought a moment of doing so. But, when her enemies were proudly boasting that New York would abandon him, that South Carolina would not vote for him, and that even good old Pennsylvania, seduced by the mammon of unrighteousness, would forget her ancient affection for him, your representatives would have been traitors to him, to you, and to their country, not to have done all in their power to give him the vote of Tennessee, without even the possibility of a failure. He is a citizen of Tennessee; he is proud of being so; he has declared that his brightest glory is identified with her, and that wherever he may be when Providence shall be pleased to call him from his earthly labors, his desires and his commands have already been given, that his mortal remains shall be laid for repose in the bosom of her soil. I have looked upon his grave, already prepared by his own orders, close by the side of her, whom, when living, he so much loved, and whom his enemies so much and so wantonly calumniated. If we have erred, it has been on the side of safety; we have pursued the counsel of the Fathers of the Republic; we have followed the footsteps of the ablest and the wisest States of the Union, and let me assure you, that if your future statesmen shall never follow worse counsels, nor imitate worse examples, you have nothing to fear, your freedom will be secure as your mountains, and your prosperity as abundant as your rivers that roll their mighty tribute to the ocean.

Both of these last mentioned subjects were brought before us by executive communication, but when they were disposed of, the Legislature was not willing to adjourn without bestowing the most serious attention to the various memorials of the people, in favor of a State Bank. These memorials set forth the pecuniary distresses of the country in the most feeling manner, and referring to the large amount due to the United States Bank, and to the sudden suspension or contraction of its accommodations, insisted that the establishment of a State

Bank, presented the only means of extricating the community from its embarrassments. In order to show their anxiety on this subject, and to give assistance to the Legislature, they had in many of the counties elected delegates to meet at Nashville, for the purpose of consulting and presenting the subject in the most forcible manner to the General Assembly. These delegates presented the charter of a Bank on what was most called "the real estate plan," new in its principles and complicated in its details. On its third reading in the Senate, at a late period of the session, it was clearly ascertained that such a charter could not pass, and thereupon, the bill being withdrawn for amendment, your representatives, deeply impressed with the propriety of having a Bank of some description, took all the papers to their room and made out the charter which finally passed, and which is now before the public as a law of the land. In preparing this charter, the Legislature has used every possible care to avoid the errors heretofore committed on similar subjects. In chartering former Banks, there was no sufficient safeguard against issuing too much paper for the specie on hand, nor against injudicious laws to stockholders, predicated on their stock. In the present one, a provision is inserted, that should the directors violate the charters in these particulars, they shall be liable in their individual property, and if that should fail to repair all damages, the stockholders, in their private estates, to the extent of each one's stock, are liable for the balance. This is an important principle, distinguishing this from all former charters, and protecting the people from the evils heretofore experienced by broken banks in the State. Tennessee has set the example, and if other States will follow, we shall hear no more of bank explosions, of depreciated currency, etc. Nor shall we be so often assailed with the argument that the people cannot do without a National Bank. The President, it is true, has vetoed that Bank; and in doing so, has covered himself with the highest glory; but unless the different States, when they create Banks, shall establish them on the most safe and permanent foundations, there is still great danger that this institution wil yet recover from its discomfiture and ride triumphant over the rights of the States.