Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1820-05-16


A friend at Washington has forwarded
to us pamphlet containing Mr.. ScoTT's
speech on the Missouri question. The
following is the first paragraph, in which
the "faithful delegate" is supposed to
squint at this state.
"Mr. Scott said, it had been erro-
neously stated, that Missouri demanded
that which she ought more modestly to
sue for as matter of special grace and
favor. In the remarks which be should
now have the honor to submit Oh the
subject, he did not wish to be again mis-
understood by the honorable gentleman
from Newly ork, (Mr. Taylor,) or any
other quarter. Mr.. Scott did not sound
the tocsin Of alarm-he did not beat up
for volunteers in rebellion against the
constituted authorities of his country
but he should degrade, counteract, and
even misrehresenf, the wishes of the
people of Missouri, was he to press their
claim for admission into the Union, by
obsequious supplications, and prayers
suited alone to the taste and palates Of
sycophants, or of tyrants. Sir, said Mr..
Scott, Missouri asks, in the true Ameri-
can character of moderation and firm
ness, your assistance to organize her
state government, as preparatory to her
admission into the Union. She did not
sink herself beneath notice, by an affec-
tation Of inieriority, meekness, depend
ence, and submission, which she did not
feel, nor did she by any rash declarations,
or warlike attitudes, authorize the I'M
generous insinuations, that there was in
that people moral unhtness for self
government. There had been no ex-
hibition Of such a spirit OF boisterous
domination, as ought to induce you to
shun their company, or to avoid asso-
eating with them as a member Of the
federal family. Missouri presented her.
self with the Constitution of the United
States in one hand, and the treaty of
cession in the other, and asked admis-
sion into the Union. She exhibited as
preliminaries, long apprenticeship un-
der the guardianship of your laws; a
moral capacity and fitness in the people
for self-goycrnment; devoted attach
ment to the constitution and laws of the
land firm and fixed republican cha
racter; and numbers sufficient to entitle
her to two representatives. She did not
attempt to deceive Congress in reference
to her territory, or the number of her
inhabitants; she presented an actual
map of the surveys Of the country, by
which calculation might be made with
in few miles ofthe exact extent of her
boundaries she produced documents in
support of her population, sufficient to
satisfy the most conscientious and scru-
pulous; she was not driven to the sub
terfugc of counting her citizens and
travellers in every county through which
they might pass to make out her pre-
tensions to admission, and then to take
off the odium of this deception, to christ
en- the transaction with the name of pious
fraud, because the great object in view
was to Jump into the Union, and obtain
the blessed privilege of debating to her
superiors, and her neighbors. Mr..
Scott, regretted, that this question had
produce SO much excitement; he, how
ever, disclaimed the responsibility of
ultimate measures, because he was act
ing only on the defensive, and was not
one OF the proposers or supporters ofthe
proposition that had caused it. If it was
of recent date he would entertain some