Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1834-04-03


tress; he represents that the cry Of dis
ness that comes TO us from all parts OF
tho country, is not the cry Of dlstress,but
its counterfeit; that il is raIscd for thea
lrical effect, and fora political purpose;
and that purpose to drive him from the
stand which he has taken His friends
in this House leave us to suppose, from
their silence, or their declarations. that
they concur with the Executive in this
representation.
The denial of the fact Of distress, in
the face of all the evidence before us 10
establish it, consider moral phenome-
non; and to be marked as such in the
history of the wandcrings Of the human
mind, eXtravagant as such phenomena
have been. But perhaps it is not wholly
unac countable. We know that the sem
ses do not do their Offices without the
consent of the conscious mind. The
marble column that is standing before US,
and which paints itself on the retina of
the eye, is not seen, if the mInd be so abb
stracted as to be unconscious Of the i'm
age. So it was no absurdiy, the saying
"Seeing they see not, and hearing they
hear rot" for, though a contradiction in
sound, it was none in sense. A proof,
by the by, (and perhaps worthy of no.
ia bene in passing,) that the mind is
being perse, and that The senses are Its
instruisents, but no part of itself.
/ The case is some What analogous with
the human mind, and intellectual objects.
The mind cannot see, or will not yield,
to the force of evidence, against the rre-
determined opposition of the will. The
only rational and prasewonhy end Of
eloquence itself, as an art, is to set the
will on the side of truth and the great
est OF her victories is victory over the
will. Without that victory, there are
cases in which evidence is vain, logic is
vain; miracle, and the greatest of all
mil acles, would be vain. 1t was of such
obdurate and invincible incredulity, it
was said, and by the voice of Divine
Truth itself, then animatihg the human
form-"lf they believe not Moses and
the Prophets, neither would they believe,
though one should be raised from the
dead"
What could be more astonishing, to
one who had not considered the force of
the human will in binding the human un-
derstandIng TO the force Of evidence,
than the denial of the fact of distress in
the face of all the accumulated and ac-
cumulatIng evidence here to establish it.
10 hear It said that the cry of distress is
counterfeit, which we hear in all parts
Of the country-which comes to us au-
thcntIcated by the names of thousands
and tens Of thousands of our iellow-citi-
zens, and among them many that are but
other names for virtue itself; and borne
to US, too, by delegations of the highest
grade OF character in this country; and
thelr statements, 100, corroboratcd by
thousand facts, which no one denies, and
which cannot deceive us? To hear il
said in this Hall, as it has been repea,-
edly said, that the distress began here;
that here II first sounded, and that the
complaints we hear are but the echoes
OF that sound, reverbcraled to US from all
parts Of the country! Then we are to
suppose that the two hundred and liny
failures in New-YoIk, and which are
daily increasing, are all fictitious fail
ures, made to make a show of distress.
not felt, and for political effects; that the
sixty failures in New. Bedford, one fourth
of all the mercantile houses there, are all
fictitious failures, and made To male Il
show Of distress nO, felt, and for political
effect; that the same scene of counter
felt bankruptcy, for the same fraudulent
purpose, has been going ON in all our
commercial towns and cities, and in all
our manufacturing districts that the
whole country has agreed to sink the
value of all the property in it, some ff-
teen or twenty, or twenty five per ce nt.,
to impose upon the President that the
whole country is in one universal con-
sPiracy, by hanging out false signals of
distress, to deceive him, and thereby to
induce him TO recede from the position he
has taken; and to cap the climax, that
Nicholas Biddle has done all this-he
has brlbed the whole country into this
conspiracy.
H The phenomenon is not the less, that
these absurdties should be believed,
while the filty-thousand witnesses are
dlsbelieved, and they the very sufferers
AND victims of the distress
Again: it is said, (and after few
words on this topic ] will relieve the at
tention of the Senate, and resume my
seat, il is said that the deposites were TO
be removed, whatever might be the con-
sequences, if not now, shortly hereafter;
namely, at the expiration of the charter,
some two years hence; that the only dii-