Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-03-18
MIR. LEIGH'S SPEECH.

In the Senate, on the 18th instant, Mr.. Leigh
presented the memorial of the citizens of Pc
tersburg in relation to the Removal of the De-
posites and after referring to the character OF
the memorialists, and giving his views as to the
existing distress in the country, thus proceeded:
Icannot believe it possible that the people of
nv own State will ever consent to see any such
stupendous and overwhelming power vested IN
the President, much more that they will unite
with others TO confirm him in the possession OF
it-that they want intelligence to discern the
consequences or virtue to avert them by all
means in their power. They must lose their
devotion to civil liberty, and their knowledge OF
its principles; they must lose all regard 10 the
very principle of property; the pride and the
love must be supplanted in their hearts and ex-
tingushed by party spirit, before they consent
that the President, by the independent power he
claims for himself, and has in fact begun to
exercise, shall m Ike the expe iment he pro-
poses on the body polite. have discovered
since | came to this place-no one who would
not shut his eyes and ears could have failed to
discoyer-that a systematic effort is making,
planned, and directed chiefly by persons here,
many of them having no connection with Viz
ginia. to reverse the public sentiment OF that
State at the approaching elections, and, as they
hope and intend to hitch her again to the car
of Executive power She is thought to have
broken out of harness. have myself no fears
or doubts of the result; and, as TO any views OF
pesona ambition, am wholly indifferent about
il. | am indissolubly bound to Virginia. must
partake with her of veal or wo; and, ii she
consent to evil, | must bear my share OF her
destiny with resignation. One part OF the et-
fort to which l have alluded, consists in the
stale trick of boldly claiming majority In an
ticipation as the means of procuring one A
gentleman, not holding the relation to the State
that do nowise bound by instructions from
the State Legislature, has thought proper to find
or make an occasion to tell the members OF the
General Assembly, that, in their late resolutions
concerning the measures of the Executive of
the United States they have not expressed the
sentiments of their constituents do not men,
ton it in hostility, (for have no hostility to-
wards any man, but with real sense OF pain.
If that gentleman had only reflected that the
subject of those resolutions was under discus
sion for many weeks and if he had reflected
also, on what he must have KNOWN the sensi-
biitv of the members of that body to the will of
their constituents, and the intimacy of the rea
ton existing there between the representative
and constituent body, | think he would hardly
have presumed to suppose himself better ac-
quainted than they with the sentiments OF their
own constituents, and TO put his differences IN
opposition to their evidence. And it is wonder
fn to me that any man, protesting to be dis
ciple of the Virginia school, protesting devotion
TO the State rights principles which she has so
long and so steadily maintained, should so far
have forgotten himself as to cast such contume-
ly on her Legislature and that too, without
provocatlon, occasion, or even object, unless
he supposes his opinions to possess a mightier
influence at home than any other person there
ever apprehended If he does not know that
the dignity of Government is essential to the
maintenance of its authority, he has not read
the heart of man. say, confidently, that who
ever shall succeed in bringing our State Legis-
lature into general contempt, will do more to
impair its just authority than any single mea-
sure of this Government possibly can. Neither
are the people of Virginia of temper to ac-
cept professions of respect in lieu of the reality
Some there are, who think that the danger to
our institutions to be most dreaded in the pre-
sent coniuncture of affairs, is the prostration of
the powers of the Executive department of the
Union and the assumption OF all power oy the
Legislature DR.. Johnson said, that those who
would raise the cry of Popery in England, IN
his day, would have raised an alarm OF ire IN
the midst of the general deuge; and say, that
those who, in our country and our day, are
holding forth the danger of the annlhllanon OF
the powers of the President would hold the like
language at Warsaw ST. Petersburg, or Con-
stantinopie. Let us recur for moment to the
history OF the last six months, and see what the
President has done, and what it is insisted he
had right to do.
The charter of the Bank of the United States
provided, that the public moneys should be de-
posted in it, unless the Secretary of the Treasu-
ny should at any time otherwise direct; in which