The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1826-04-26
WEDNESDAY,, APRIL 26, 1926.


repeat, and, repeating, sanction, what, when It
was srst uttered thirty years ago, was con
sidered the iEsolent caluniny Of a foreign en-
voy, and which, taken 10 connexon with his
reference 10 what was said by Walpole. went
the length Of declaring, that every member
of this House had his price--that his prise
was SO cheap a one as dinner. Yes, sir. /
that we were literally ready TO sell orr con-
sciences. our constituents, or country, for
mess OF pottase. Sir, ii this House Of Repre-
sentatives is not essentially pure, ask, 10 the
name CT Heaven, what are the prospects OF |
liberty in this world, under this dispensaticn
Where aud when arc you TO have free, safe,
and representative gov eminent? How are
you to get it! How are you 10 keep it. The
gentleman says, " lead me not into tempda-
tion.n This is his remedy--against corrup-
| ton. Do not set me to choose a n esident,
and will not abuse The power you give me
that Gceasi9P Tbs him IS ii iqd s seSmPsnd
| pray, = ask me no questions, and | will tell
you no lies.n The choice of President is iot
| the only, not greatest thing we lave 10 do.
Have we not peace and war, life and death,
| prosperity and adversely for ourselves, for our
posterity, for all nations perhaps 10 come,
whose fate is involved in the success of this
SsStN CAdupIC vi pOPuidI LlstiluttoiiS. i1oFS
we not all this in our power? Can we not,
! any day, by law, by constitutional law, turn
half the industry Of the country out Of its
channels, and spread bankruptcy, and ruin,
and despair. over the land? Choose Presi-
dent, sir. IL we stop the passage of the APP
preparation bills for the support OF govern
ment. where is your President and his Cabinet
then? Scattered to the four winds OF l1cav
en-, by the exercise Of an act Of ordinary iegis
| latien.
But, the gentleman saya it is not merely Of
| fee which is TO be the bribe, but it is the
emo!ument of Office. Sir, if this House be
what the gentleman represents it 10 be, does
{ he not suppose that, in 1907 or l8i the Brit
ish Government would have paved this floor,
and filed these desks with gold, to have hs@
US choose France fer our enemy? But. with
OUT resorting TO the extreme sTpposition Of
foreign bribery, let me a!!;ide 10 what might
have passed witl,.G our own country. Those
| factious cities, those seats Of corruption and
intrigue, in the dark. days of the restrictive
system, when the grass was springing up be-
tween the paving stones of their streets;
when their ships were rottng at the wharves !;
when The arm of humble industry, not less
than that of gigantic speculation, was palsed ;
which must work for daily s2ztenance was
struck with stupor and despair, had this House
been what the gentleman represents it, and
those cities what he represents them, would
have raised the embargo in three weeks, and
would have found thha ways and means very
easily 10 do it. But, | will put this matter
to a prompter test. If the gentleman from
South Carolina will give me his vote, and
that Of twentyor thirty Of his friends not in
| tho cause Of corruption, but in one of the pur-
est and hottest causes politician ever main
tanned; if he viii emily give me his aid TO pro-
cure Just Indemnity for those fellow citizens
who, some fifteen, some twenty years, have
been knocking at your door--some of them,
as the gentlemen from Norh-Caroina, (Slr
Saunders forcibly expressed it, shivcriug
beggars at a bolted door, asking just compen-
xation for those claims on foreign Govern
ment, which for your own political purposes
! you renounced, aud others equally strong, on
the same government, which you now neglect
TO enforce il he viii give me his vote, and
| those of twenty of his friends, to procure our
| fellow citizens this bare justice, when come
to call his attention to'this subject, as hope
ere long to do, will send him home in a
coach and four. | believe there are about
| thirty millions at stake in that controversy,
of which | will undertake for the claimants
1 to pile up ten millions in that area for every
gentleman TO fill his pockets, till he cannot
stagger from the Hall with the weight. Does
the gentleman object TO the publicity of the
prefer. Sir, we will do it with the silence of
death; the contract shall be sealed at deep
midnight; the conscious stars shall not look
down upon it and the gentleman's left pock-
ct shall not know what his right pocket re-
ceivcth.
do jest, sir, in truth, and, perhaps, too
| broadly. on a subject so serious as this; yet
what have done? have supposed the gen
tleman to do, in single Case, what he sup
poses the House always proneto do. have
supposed him TO do, in a just cause, and for
! fortune, what he says we are all prone to do
corrup;y and for dinner. But perhaps the
gentleman thinks am doing him injustice, in
pushing his argument TO an cxtre me which he
never contemplated, and in speaking Of a
! kind Of corruption he disclaims. | own, sir,
that he did state, that lie did not mean 10 say
that the corruption was of direct and pecu-
mary kind, although he did aver that gain
was our idol, and that twas the eniolumehts
OF office that created the temptation. He
Z, said, however, will grant that the temptation
was to come in the guise Of honorable station
and confidential trusts.
In this part of the subject, which is some
what delicate, the gentleman very handsome
| ly disclaimed all historical allusion to what
was passed. He did, however, allege, il |
did not misepprehend him, for took no notes
of his speech, that this House had been
warned, by experience, that corruption was
on the Threshold, and be did make some
what significant allusion 10 that Mosaic Cab
met which Burke has 50 happily and 50 mem-
orably described.
In reference TO this, and to ascertain, by
practical example, the extent OF this danger
70 which our purity is here exposed, desire
TO ask what were the differences in political
opinion which divided the various candidates
for the Chair, at one time Eve or six in num-