Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1832-07-25
PUBLIC FAST DAY.

~o-NS-,--A~AJ ~
now the Governor of Ohio.
PUBLIC FAST DAY.
The following joint resolution from the Senate,
having had its first and second reading, coming
|up on its last reading, viz:
ResoIred, By the Senate and House of Rep
|resentatives Of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That Joint committee q
both Houses wait on the President of the United
States, and request that he recommend day,to
be designated by him, of public humiliation,
prayer, and fasting, to be observed by the People
|of the United States, with religious soemnlty,
and with fervent supplications to Almighty God,
that He will be graciously pleased to continue
His blessings upon our country, and that He will
avert from it the Asiatc scourge which has
reached our borders-or if, in the dspensations
OF His Providence, we are not to be exempted
from the calamity, that, through His bountiful
mercy, its severity may be mitigated. and its du-
ration shortned:
Mr. BUReEs addressed the House, but in a
voice frequently so subdued, that he was very i'm
perfectly heard at the Reporters table. He
commenced by avowing his entire belief in the
|exIstence Of the Providence of God, and his deep
conviction of the efficacy of prayer and fasting
not only in rendering men better. but in averting
Judge of the World against the impenitent and
guilty SOUL When this resolution came into the
House he had hoped that there would have been
but one sentiment in regard pit That that body
would have been pervaded by one common senti-
ment, disposing all to look to Him to whom their
fathers had looked in times of national danger,
and who would never fail those who put their
confidence in him. Wretched, indeed, would the
nation be, which, when called upon to humiiate
themselves before the Ruler of the World, should
|reply-"We cannot do it. The very institutions
of our power forbid US, in our national capacity,
from performing any such act" The feeling
from which that resolution had proceeded, was
the united feeling of this people. They needed
but one to give the word, and the aspirations of
all would ascend to the Throne of the Almighty.
1t would be astonishing, indeed, had the trainers
Of the Constitution excluded the members of that
House, or the high officers of Government from
uniting with the nation in one common act of
humiliation and prayer. The instrument they
had framed could not be so understood. And
surely when SO great calamity as this desolating
lpestilence, overhung the land, it was proper
moment in which to request the Chief Magistrate
to call upon the nation to raise their hearts
and voices to Heaven. Did gentlemen fatter
themselves that this pervading pestilence would
country had it spared? 1t had hung in the cas-
tern hemisphere for these thirteen or fourteen
| years past We had heard of it at distance
We heard fits western progress. We had had
space for reflection and repentance.
| Now the desolating scourge was on our very
borders. Nav, the shaft of death had already
flown, and ought we audaciously to resist thay
natural impulse of the heart which directed men
to the Almighty whenever danger was nigh?
Besides, what could be so we'll calculated to re
sist the attacks of this disease as that state Of
mind which strong religious feeling alone could
produce? 1t was disease which affected not
the body alone ltseemed to fall upon the
ITSELF And there was no protection against tn
dread off but that fear of the Almighty whic}
excluded all other fear. If the spirit of a ma
were not humbled before the Eternal, and hi.
trust not reposed in him, such a man was prepar
ed to become an early victim to the destroyer
This was alike the dictate of sound morals and
of medical science.
The objection which has been made to the res
olution, was a most unssund one. 1t involve 4
the idea that an opinion given by the Chief M
gistrate to any body, ought to control the acts "a
that House. Mr. B. could not SO lightly belies
of the Chief Magistrate of this nation, as to sup
pose whatever the President might have said IL
COnVerSatlOn, or written 10 lnulVluudiS, uat WIFI
the two Houses Of the American Congress.
speaking in the name of the American Peo-
pie, made request so reasonable and so prope !
as that contained in the resolution, he would re
fuse to comply with it. Was that House I
have newspapers, and letters, and wltnesse
brought before 1t, to tell it what we're the opin-
ions, bound as they were to bell We whatever was
honorable or upright concerning the Chief Ma
gistrate Of the republic could they believe that if
the President should refuse to perform this act
himself, because it was unconstitutional, that he
could admit that the two Houses Of the legisla-
ture could do it? Could he at the same time adj
nit it to be constitutional and unconstitutional
And, if not, was there not the same objection to
the amendment that there would be to the resolu-
ton? Could the President, while believing that
the whole Government collectively, had no pow
er to perform this act, admit that one branch of
the Government had power to perform
We have the painful duty Of announcing the
death # Col. MITCHELL, member of Congress,
from Maryland. He haslabored under a disease
throughout the session, but whenever hisstrength
would enable him 10 reach the House,he anxious
ly devoted himself to the service Of his country