Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1824-02-27

spare, let me advise the gentleman, who is chair
man OF the Committee of WAYS and Means to
begin with buying our own stock. We can do
hothlhg better with our money than buy our
own bonds. | have known many spectators
leave their own debts unpaid, to purchase the
property of others but 1 never knew ono of
them to come to good. Let us discharge our
war debts, and no longer put off the payment of
IL by shutting evasions, under prctencc of n
Change Of stock. Individuals not inferior to any
IN the country, and some of the great states too,
also entertain serious doubts of the power of
Congress to pass this bill. l should wish, in the
course of future discussion, that some gentleman
could show the urgency OF the occasion to make
the plunge at this moment. Are there not al
ready causes enough of jealousy and discord ex-
isting among us Is this the most suspicious
time to set up new construction of the Con-
stituhon Is this the most suspicious time for
the exercise of the assumption ola power which
the gentleman from New York, with his usual
persplcacity, SO clearly secs we possess, but
which Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison,
and others OF at least equal authority with the
gentleman from New York, as clearly see we
do not possess Is this 4 time To increase those
}ealousies between different quarters ofthe coun-
try, already sufficiently apparent.
l intended, said Mr. r. to have managed this
subject in different manner but the exhaus-
ton of both bodily and mental powers call on
me to do what ought to have done long ago
TO draw these remarks to- a close. Butt Is too
late in the day for me to speak for reputation
Whatever Is to be the fate of this bill-whcther
this splendid project shall shall not go into ope-
ration now, or be reserved for the new reign,
the approach, of which is hailed with SO much
pleasure, my place must be either in the obscu-
rity Of private life, or in the thankess and pro-
fitless employment of attempting to uphold the
rights OF the state, and of the People, so long as
can stand-more especially of the rights my
native State, the land of my sires, which, al
though l be among the least worthy or least
favored of her sons, & although she may allot to
Ile a step-son's portion-I will uphold, SO long
as / live.
Let us then, Ircpcat, Mr.. Chairman, pay our
debts, personal and public let us leave the pro-
fits of labor in the pockets of the people, to rid
them OF that private embarrassment under which
they SO extensively labor. and apply every shil-
ling of the revenue, not indispensable to the ex-
agencies of the government, to the faithful dis
charge ofthc public debt, before we engage in
any new schemes oflavish expenditure. Sir we
have already paid more interest on the 3 per
cent. stock, than the amount of the whole prin-
sipal OF that debt at nominal par.
Should this bill pass, one more measure only
requires to be consummated & then we, who be-
long to that unfortunate portion of this confedc-
racy which Is south of Mason and Dixon's line
and east ofthe Allegheny Mountains, have TO
make up our mind to perish like so many mice
III receiver of mephitic gas under the expert
ments OF a set of new political chemists or we
must resort to the measures, which we first op-
posed to British aggressons and usurpations-
to maintain that independence which the valor
OF our fathers acquired, but which is every day
sliding from under our feet. | besecch all those
gentlemen who come from that portion; of the
Union, to take into serious consideration, whe-
Their they are not, by the passage Of tins bill, pre-
cptately, at least without urgent OCCASION, now
arining the General Government with powers
hitherto uniSnown-undcr which we shall be-
come, what the miserable proprictors of Barba-
does are to their English mortgagees, mere
--sentinels-nanagers slave labor
we ourselves retaining, footing with the
slave of the West Indies, ust enough of the pro-
duct OF our estates to support life, while all the
profits go with the course of the Gulf stream.
lit continue with accumulated pressure, we
must oppose to it associations, and every other
means short of actual insurrectiou. Ne mast
begin to construe the Constitution like those
who treat it as bill ofindctment, in which they
arc anxious to pick iaw-we shall keep on the
windward side of treason-but we must combine
TO resist, and that etfectually these enroach-
ments, or the little upon which we now barely
subslst will be taken from us. With these OBJ
servations, Mr.. K. abandoned the question to its
fate.