Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-02-06
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1896.
Ma MeLANE's SPEECH ON NOTIFICATIONS.


The House then resumed the consideration
Of the hill making appropriations for fortifca
tions-the question being on the motion OF Mr.
Forsyth, to postpone the bill.
Mr.. M'LANE, of Delaware, in rising again to
address the House on this subject, said, he
could assure the House, that he did it with the
greatest reluctance; and he should not do it,
because he never rose to address this House
without experiencing more or less pain, but
under an imperious sense ofpublic duty. He
had been particularly appealed to by the gentle
man from Pennsylvania, and invited, in spirit
of accommodation, TO suffer the bill to lie on
the table In declining to saccede to this re-
quest, MIR. Mel. said he was Influenced by no
iliberal feeling; and, if he could do it consist
emily with his public duty, nothing would give
him more pleasure than to comply with the
wishes Of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, or
Of any other member who might make the
same request, He would now inform that gen.
tleman, that, since he had made that request
he had reflected on the objects Of the gentleman
from Georgia, now absent from the House, in
his call on the Department for information;
whose objects, he believed, considering him TO
be devoted champion Of the system of defence
were very different from what had been sup
posed; and, feeling il 70 be his duty 10 ascer-
tain, whether, consistently with the public in.
terest, the consideration of this bill could be
deferred to future and uncertain period of the
session, he had taken proper steps 10 obtain in.
formation on the subject; from which he was
convinced that the public interest required
that this bill should pass through this House
as speedily as was consistent with the right OF
every Member to examine and decide upon its
merits for himself II he thought the propo.
sition OF the gentleman from Georgia had no
other object than TO gain little time for ex
animation, he might probably assent to il; but
he asked Of the House in candor TO say, whe-
Their this could be the only object of the pro-
posed postponement, or the only effect of It's
success. He did not impute to the gentleman
from Georgia any motive different from thai
which ne had avowed, but he inferred from the
whole of what had been said in debate, what
the object of the postponement was One gen.
tleman, for example, who had engaged in the
debate, discovered in this bill gorgons and chi.
meras dire-combustibles that were to shake
the Union TO its centre-so that one would re-
ally imagine these Notifications were TO be E.
rected against our citizens instead Of being for
their protection. One found fault with one
thing, and one with another; one proposed to
reduce the appropriation, and another to post
pone the bill, &c.-trom all which he appre-
hended, that the system Of fortihcation itself
was to be assaulted ,,and that the battle was to
be fought here, between its friends and its OPP
ponents, a, one time or other-if not to day, to-
morrow-if not tomorrow, at some later day.
Under these circumstances, MIR. Mel. said,
the friends Of the bill had RICH: TO treat the
motion for postponement as measure 10 get
rid Of the bill, and, as the battle was to be
fought, it might as well be fought now.
When this bill was before the Committee
Of the whole, Mr. Mel said, he had no in,en-
ton TO take up the time Of the House in exam
lining the details of the system, hating no idea
that it could be necessary to do so. The duty
had been devol,ed upon him, however, by the
course Of the debate, and he should not shrink
from it.
Proceeding to animadvert on the remarks OF
new number Of the House from Pennsyl, a.
MA, (Mr. Stevenson) MIR. Mel. said he did not
allude to that gentleman particularly as being a
new member, or 10 other gentlemen in the same
situation, invidiously; on the contrary, he was
happy to observe that the House had obtained a
great accession Of talent in its new members.
He was sure the gentleman from Pennsylvania
was as capable Of understanding the subject as
he was. The reputation OF that gentleman had
preceded him, and it must be gratifying to his
friends, that he had, on this occasion, redeem
ed the pledge which that reputation gave. But
he must say to that gentleman, that, whether
a new member or not new member, he did
not enter this House perfectly free, and Ito use
his own expressionl untrammelled. A Repre-
sentative does no, come here, at liberty to set
every thing in the nation afloat, or as the gen.
tleman from New-York, (Mr Wood) had we'll
expressed 1t, to root up the foundations Of the
Government. That gentleman is bound-we
arc all bound, more or less, by the acts of our
predecessors. We do not come here sir, TO
overturn things which are fixed and settled
We are sent here, not to pull down, but to build
up. We come to supper, and establish, not to
overtnrn and destroy. We come to aid the
proceedings Of the Government, and the affairs
Of the country; not TO main and TO cripple
them. As well might the gentleman say, he
comes here at perfect liberty to destroy the go.
vernment; to refuse to pay the Presidents sala-
ny, SC. The system of national defence is as
much an Institution Of the country, as the Con-
sutution itself For what is it, sir, that endears
this Government to the People! What is tina,
attribute of this Government which reconciles