Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-04-24
MR.. WISE. OF Va.

This gentleman has come out In the House
of Representatives most honorably and nobly
He was elected to Congress an independent
man, but friendly to the President, and anxious
to support his Administration. Mr.. Wise can,
however, no longer yield support to the princi-
pies avowed and acted upon by those in power
In the House on Monday, Mr.. Wise said:
II was not his design as his friend from Ten
nessee seemed to suppose, to take sides with the
Senate against the President much less had 1t
been his purpose to favor either OF the parues
in that House. He claimed The glorious privi-
lege TO be independent of both. Whom was ne
to favor? The advocates of consolidation, on
the one side or the advocates Of the opposite eX-
treme on the other2 No: he stood between the
fires: he was in favor of neither. Nor was 1t
pleasant to him to become in any sense the In
strument of casting censure upon the Execu@
tive. Would that he could have gone home to
his constituents, and carried with him shadow
of excuse for the President against the accusa-
tons of his enemies. The removal OF the depo-
sites he had never considered as an usurpaton
of power, although it was certainly an abuse OF
mower. But now he was left no ground of de-
fence upon which he could stand. He had heard
interpretations put on the Presidents conduct,
as involving claim to absolute control over
the public moneys but he had always repealed it
until now, when the President himself had
avowed the very thing with which ne had been
charged. What was now left for his friends to
do2 Still to defend2 Still to apologize, against
light against the Presidents own principles,
against his own declarations? He would return
the declaration of his friend from Tennessee,
and say to him, that sooner than do this, ne
would be a dog, and bay the moon. Too true
il was that, after some of the Presidents friends
had strenously denied and resisted construc-
ton put upon the Presidents words by those
who were opposed to him, no sooner ala the
President come out and expressly avow thatye-
ry construction, than those same friends imme-
diately turned about and justified it. This was
the truth. He announced it in the face OF the
whole nation, and lamentable truth it was"
In another part of his Speech Mr.. Wise said:
ssMr. w. believed the President to be as no.
nest a man as God ever made, and he would
still trust him personally with his own liberty or
life, as far as he would trust any man, though
he would trust none, but he feared it was too
true that there were those who had access TO his
councils who were not to be trusted. 1t was al
so true he carried upon his body the honorable
scars which he had received in his country's
service. Mr.. w. revered the man. 1t had long
been the habit of his mind to revere him, and
from almost his boyhoOd he had sustained him.
Bnt if Washington himself had come from the
grave. and claimed as his prerogative the con
troll of the public money, MIR. w. would have
said to him power, power has seduced even you
Mr.. w. had never believed that Andrew Jack
SON was inclined to usurp powers, until ne had
entered the capitol on last Friday morning, and
discovered what sort of paper had been pre-
sented to the Senate, and he now appealed 10
those around him to say what wise man OF that
House, what political leader, what experiences
tactician had put it into the mind OF this youtn-
full boy to offer such resolution. Not one OF
them could answer in the affirmative. IF there
was any credit or discredit in the resolutions,
they belonged to him alone. Yet although this
claim of power on the part of the President had
compelled him to separate, and, he supposed,
finally to separate, from many of those friends
with whom he had hitherto acted, yet under no
circumstances did he contemplate any thing