Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1840-10-15

with the mattor9 Were they called on to
guaranty the debts of Virginia or of Mary
land! (Laughter.) Yet, the effect very ma
turally and inevitably was, to depress the
value of State securities in the Foreign mar
ket. | was in Europe at the time. My own
State had her bonds in that market and
what did see! The most miserable, pitt
full, execrablc lucubrations taken from the
public press in New York, endeavoring to
prove that the States had not sovereignty e.
nough to contract debts. These wretched
productions declared that the bonds issued by
the States of this Union were all void: that
they were no better than waste paper, and cX-
horted European capitalists not to touch one
of them. These articles, coming as they did,
from this side the water, were all seized on
with avidity and put into circulation in the
leading journals all over Europc-at the same
time, the Administration press in this coun-
try, unrebuked by the Government, put forth
arguments going to show that Virginia has no
authority to contract debt in the name and
on the credit of the Commonwealth-tha
Massachusetts is SO completely shorn of eve
~ particle of sovereignty whatever, that she
can issue no public security of any kind on
which to borrow money! And this the doc
trine of State Rights Well, gentlemen,
was called on TO meet this question, and
told those who put to me the enquiry, that
the States of the American Union were, in
this respect. just as sovereign as any. of their
States in Europe. held correspondence
on the subject, which was published at large;
and for that-yes, for defending State Rights
before the face of all Europe, have been de-
nounced as one who wants the general govern
ment to assume the debts ofthe States: as one
who has conspired to buy up British Wings
with foreign gold! Cloud laughter and cheer
ing All this, however, has not rutfled my tenn
per. l have seen it all with composure. But
confess there is. one thing which has disturb
ed the serenity of my mind. 1t is what APP
pears to be a studied attempt, on the part of
this whole Administration, including it's
head, to fix a spot upon the good name of
Read the letter of the President to some of
his friends in Kentucky-to what he calls
''the entire democracy of Kentucky" q
should like much to know what constitutes
the Democracy ola State. These good friends
of the President write to him that the entire
Democracy of the State is with him, and he
writes back how happy he is to hear that such
is the fact. The State comes to the vote, and
two-thirds of the people of the State are
found to be against him-yet still he clasps
to his breast with exultation, the entire de-
mocracy of Kentucky "') [Great laughter
and cheering.1 And so it will be month
hence. Gen. Harrison will have been elect
ed by simultaneous rush of the free voters
of the whole Union-yet MIR. Van Buren, will
still continue to clasp to his embraces ''the
entire Democracy of the country. BE this
as it may, he does, in that letter, ascribe TO
President Washington, in 1871, and to Mr..
Madison, in 1916, corrupt motives for their
public conduct. l may forgive this, but
shall not forgetit. ask you to read that let
ter, and one other written on the occasion, and
then, if it comes in your way, ask you to
peruse an Address put forth by the Admins
tration members of the New York Legisla-
ture. What do you think they say You,
countrymen of Jefferson and of Madison, of
Henry, of Wythe, of the Lees, and a host of
kindred spirits of the same order-you, who
inherit the soil and the principles of those men
who shed their blood for our national indie
pendence-what do you think they say Of
your fathers and of my fathers Why, that
in all their efforts and sacrifices i'm that great
struggle, they meant, not independence-not
civil liberty-not the establishment of Re
publican Governmen-but merely to transfer
the Throne from England to America, and to
be themselves Peers and Mobiles around it
Does it not disturb the blood of Virginians to
hear language like this Cries of ''yes,
yes ~ mingled with cheering.] do say that
this attempt to scorch the fair, unsullied rep
utatiGn of our nceSIors-but no, nO-they
cannot scorch it: it will go through hotter
furnace than any their detraction can kindle,
and even the smell of fire shall not be upon
their garments. Yet it does raise ones in
dignation to see men, certainly not the great
est of all benefactors of their country, thus at
fbo cf hot
and ever since universally admitted to have
been among her greatest ard her best of
friends.-[ Cheers.
While speaking of the attacks of this adj
ministraton on State Rights, should not do
my duty if omitted to notice the outrage re-
Gently perpetrated on the most sacred rights
of the State and People of New Jersey. By
the Constitution of the United States, New
Jersey like the other States is entitled to have
a certain quota of Representatives in Con-
gress and she chooses them in their various
districts in the manner she thinks ft. The
right to have specific number of Represen-
tatives is State Right under the Consttu-
iron. Under the Constitutional guaranty of
this right, New Jersey sends up to the House
of Representatives her proper number OF men.
Now | say that, by universal principles, al
though Congress be the Judge in the last re-
sort of the election return and qualification of
her own members, those who bring in their
hand the prescribed evidence Of their election,
by the People of any State, are entitled to
take their seats upon the floor of that House
and to hold them until disturbed by proof pre-
ferred on general petition. That this is so,
must be apparent from the fact that those
members who voted them out of their seats
possess no better or other means of proving
their own right to sit and to vote ON that ques-
ton, than that held by any one of those whom