The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1832-03-13

whatever IN the occurrences relative TO
myself and the second officer of the gov
ernmcnt, or in the dissolution of the late
cabinet; and that there is no ground for
impuiing to him the having advised those
removals from Office which, in the dis
charge of my constitutional functions, it
was deemed proper to make. During his
continuance in the cabinet, his exertions
were directed to produce harmony a.
mong its members and he uniformly en-
deavored to sustain his colleagues. His
final resignation was n sacrifice of oflic-
ial station TO what he deemed the best in
terests of the country.
MIR. M'Lane, our then minister at Lon
don, having previously asked permission
to return, it was my own anxious desire
to commit the important points remaining
open in our relations with Great Britain,
to successor in whose peculiar fitness
and capacity had equal confidence and
to my selection Mr.. Van Buren, yielded
a reluctant assent. In urging upon him
that sacrifice, did not doubt that | was
doing the best for the country, and acting
in confidence with the public wish and
it certainly could not have been antici-
pated that, in the manner of successfully
conducting and terminating an important
and complex negotiation, which had pre-
viously received the sanction of both
houses of Congress, there would have
been found motives for embarrassing the
executive action and for interrupting an
Important foreign negotiation.
can never be led to doubt, that in the
instructions under which that negotiation
relative to the trade with the British
West Indies was conducted and success
fully concluded, the people Ofthe United
States will find nothing either derogatory
to the national dignity and honor, or i'm
proper for such an occasion.
Those parts of the instructions which
have been used to justify the rejection of
Mr.. Van Buren's nomination by the Sen
ate of the United States, proceeded from
my own suggestion ;were the result ofmy
own deliberate investigation and reflec-
ton and now, as when they were die
tated, appear to me to be entirely proper
and consonant to my public duty.
l feel, gentlemen, that am incapable
of furnishing the pride or dignity of that
country, whose glory, both in the field and
in the civil administration, it has been my
object to elevate and feel assured that
the exalted attitude which the American
people maintain abroad, and the pros
perity with which they are blessed at
home, fully attest that their honor and
happiness have been unsullied in my.
hands.
A participation in the trade with the
British West India Islands, upon terms
mutually satisfactory to the United States
and Great Britain, had been an object of
constant solicitude with our Government
from its origin. During the long and
vexatious history of this subject, various
propositions had been made with but par
tial success and in the administration of
my immediate predecessor, smore than
one attempt to adjust it had ended IN
total interruption of the trade.
The acknowledged importance of this
branch of trade, the influence it was be-
lieved to have had in elections which ter
minated in the change of the administra-
ton, and the general expectation on the
part of the people, that renewed efforts,
on frank and decisive grounds, might be
successfully made to recover it, imposed
upon me the duty undertaking the task.
Recently, however, Great Britain had
more than once declined renewing the
negotiation, and placed her refusal upon
objections which she thought proper to
take to the manner of our previous nego-
tiation, and to claims which had at var-
Gus times been made upon the part of
our government.
The American government, notwith-
standing, continued its efforts to gain
participation in the trade. 1t waived the
claims at first insisted upon, as well as
the objection to the imposition by Great
Britain of higher duties upon the produce
of tho United States when imported into
the West Indies, than upon the produce
of her own possessions, which objection
had been taken in 1919 Iii a despatch oi
the then Secretary of State.
a participation in the trade with the
British West India Islands could not
have been, at any time, demanded as
right, any more than in that to the Brit
ish European ports. In the posture of
affairs already adverted to, therefore, the
Executive could ask nothing more than
to be permitted to engage in 1t upon the
terms assented to by his predecessor aud
which were the same as those previously
offered by Great Britain herself. Even
these had been denied to the late admin
istration, and for reasons arising from