Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-03-31

legation received, expressed the mosi oppo'
site opinions, and there were not wanting IN
stances ofletters from some OF the very MEM
hers who had voted for the resolution, advls-
;nr different course Ireceived from high
Iv reenectable portion of my constituents pa
ner. instructing me as follows: Owe, the un-
ders;rned voters in the Congressional district,
having viewed the instructions or request OF
the Legislature Of Kentucky, on the subject
of choosing President and vice-President OF
the United States, with regret, and the said
request or instruction TO our representative IN
Congress from this district, being without our
knowledge or consent, we, for many reasons,
known to ourselves, connected with so mo-
mentons an occasion, hereby instruct our re-
preventative in Congress to vote, on this occa'
sion, agreeable to his own Judgment, and by
the best lights he may have on the subject
with, or without, the consent of the Leglsia-
ture of Kentucky" This instruction came
| both unexpected and unsolicited by me, and
it was accompanied by letters assuring me,
| that it expressed the opinion of majority OF
nv constituents. l could not, therefore, re-
| gard the resolution as conclusive evidence OF
| your wishes.
Viewed as mere request, as II, purported
to be, the General Assembly doubtless had
the power to make it. But then, with great
Difference, think it was worthy OF serious
consideration whether the dignity Of the Ge'
neral Assembly ought not to have induced it
to forbear addressing itself, not to another lie.
gislative body, but to a small part of it, and
| requesting the members who composed tha'
! part, in case which the constitution had con-
| filed to them, to vote according to the wishes
of the General Assembly, whether those wish
es did or did not conform to their sense OF du-
tv. l could not regard the resolution as an
instruction; for, from the origin OF our State,
its legislature has never assumed nor exercised
| the right to instruct the representatives IN
| Congress. | did not recognize the right,
therefore, of the Legislature to instruct me.
I recognized that right only when exerted by
YOU. That the portion of the public servants
who made up the General Assembly have no
right to instruct that portion ofthem who con-
stituted the Kentucky delegation i'll the house
of representatives, is a proposition too clear to
be argued. The members of the General As
sembly would have been the first to behold as
presumptuous interposition, any instruction,
if the Kentucky delegation could have COM
mitted the absurdity to issue, from this place,
any instruction to them TO vote in particular
manner on any of the interesting subjects
which lately engaged their attention at Frank
fort. And although nothing is further from
my intention than to impute either absurdity
or presumption to the General Assembly, in
the adoption of the resolution referred to,
must saw that the difference between an in
struction emanating from them to the delega-
ton, and from the delegation to them, is not
in principle, but is to be found only in the de-
gree of superior importance which belongs to
the General Assembly.
Entertaining these views Of the election on
which it was made my duty to vote, felt N.Y.
self bound, in the exercise Of my best judg-
ment, to prefer Mr.. Adams; and according
" voted for him. should have been highly
grati6ed fit had not been my duty to vote on
the occasion; but that was not my situation,
and did not choose to shrink from any res
possibility which appertained to your repre-
sentative. Shortly after the election, it was
rumored that Mr.. Kremer was preparing a
publication, and the preparations for it which
were making, excited much expectation. Ac-
cordingly, on the Goth Of Feb. the address,
under his name, to the ELECTORS of the ninth
Congressional District of the State of Penn
sylvania," made its appearance in the Wash
ington City Gazette. No member Of the
House, am persuaded, believed that Mr..
Kremer wrote one paragraph of that address,
or of the plea, which was presented to the
committee, to the jurisdiction of the House.
Those who counselled him, and composed
both papers, and their purposes, were just as
we'll known as the author of any report from
committee to the house. The first observa-
ton which is called for by the address is the
place its publication. That place was in this
CITY, remote from the centre of Pennsylva-
MIA, near which Mr.. Kremer's district is stua-
ted, and in paper having but very limited,
if any, circulation in it. The time is also re-
markable. The fact that the President in
tended to nominate me to the Senate, for the
Office which now hold, in the course ofa few
DAVIS, was then well known; and the publica-
ton of the address was, no doubt, made less
with an intention to communicate information
10 the electors of the ninth Congressional
District of Pennsylvania, than TO effect the de-
cision of the Senate on the intended nominal
ton. of the character and contents of that
address of Messrs. George Kremer s Co. made
up, as it is, of assertion without proof, of in
ferences without premises, and OF careless,
jocoss, and quizzing conversations of some of
nv friends, to which l was no party, and of
which had never heard, it is not my intention
to saw much 1t carried its own refutation,
and the parties concerned saw its abortive ma
ture the next day in the indignant counte-
nance of every unprejudiced and honorable
member In his card, Mr.. Kremer had been
made to say, that he held himself ready 'to
p,ore to the satisfaction ofunprejudiced minds,
enough to satisfy them ofthe accuracy OF the
statements which are contained in that letter,
TO the ertent that they concern the course Of con-
duct of II Clay" The object for excluding
my friends from this pledge has been noticed.
But now the election was decided, and there
no longer existed motive for discriminating
between them and me. Hence the only
statements that are made in the address, having
the semblance of proof, relate rather to them
than to me; and the design was, by establish
ing something like facts upon them, to make
those facts react upon me.
Of the few topics ofthe address upon which
shall remark, the first is, the accusation,
brought forward against me, of violating in
structions. 1.-THE accusation were true, who
was the party offended, and to whom was l
amenable' If violated any instructions, they