Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1840-04-18


Mr. Speaker | am admonshed, by the eager
solicitations of gentlemen around me to give
way for motion to ad ioWn ol'that practice
of the House which accords Us more of leisure |
on this day than is allowed to us on any other
day OF the week The servants of other good
masters are, believe indulged in sort of sat
urnalium on the afternoon of Saturday, and VIC
supposed that our kind masters the people, |
might be willing to grant us, their most faith
full slaves a similar respite from toll 1t is now
past three o'clock in the afternoon, and | should
be very willing to pause in the discussion, were
not urged by these menaclng cries Of " Co
on from various parts of the blouse. In this
state ofthings, cannot hope to summon to a
nv thing like attention the unquiet minds OF
many, or the jaded and worn down faculties of
still larger portion Of the House. hope how
ever the House viii not withhold from me a
boon which have often seen granted to others
that is, the privilege of speaking without being
oppressed by crowded audience, (which is ac-
companied by this additional advantage, that the
orator thus situated can at least listen to and
hear himself
If you, Mr.. Speaker, and the members Of
this House have given that attention TO the
speech of the gentleman from Michigan, MIR.
Crary, made yesterday, which some of us
here thought it our duty TO bestow am sure
the novelty of the scene to say nothing more
of it, must huve arrested your curiosity, if, in
deed, it did not. give rise to profound reaec
ton.
| need not remind the House that tits a
rule here as q suppose it is everywhere else
where men dispute by any rule at alp that
what IS said IN debate should be relevant and
pertinent under discussion.-Thc question be-
fore Us is proposition to instruct the Commit
tee of Ways and Means to. report bill grant
ing four hundred and fifty thousand dollars to
continue the construction OF the.Cumberland
road in the states Of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois
The ohiections to- this measure a.e. either, that
/ this Government IS In no sense Bound by COM
pact to make the road or that it is not a work of
any national concern, but merely of local inter-
est, or that the present exhausted state of the
I Treasury viii not warrant the appropriation,
admitting the object of it to be fairly within
the constitutional province Of Congress.
J If the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr
Pickens) and the gentleman from Maine, (Mr
Parris,) who consider the Cumberland road a
work of mere sectional advantage TO a very
small portion of the People, have attended to
the sage dispositions of the gentleman from
Ether come to the conclusion that almost the
whole of the gentleman's speech is what old
fashioned people would call non sequitur'
or else this road connects itself with not mere
Ily the military defences of the Union, but it is
interviewer most intimately with the progress
of science, and especially that most difficult of
all sciences, the proper application of strategies
of barbarian warfare. 1t will be seen that the
t,,r
standing Of the gentleman from Michigan, has
discovered that before we can vote with a clear
conscien ce on the constructions proposed, we
must be well informed as to the number of In
dams who fought at the battle Of Tippecanoe,
in 1911 how these sayages were painted
whether red, black, or blue or whether all were
blended on their barbarian faces. Further, ac-
cording to his views of the subject, before we
vote money to make road, we must know and
approve of what Gen. Harrison thought said,
and did at the battle of Tippecanoe
Again, upon this process OF reasoning, we
must inquire where general should be when a
battle begins, especially in the night, and what
his position during the fight, and where he
should be found when 1t is over and par
tcularly how a Kentuckian behaves himself
when he hears the Indian war whoOp. in day
or night. And after settling all these puzzling
propositions, still we must understand how and
| by whom the battle of the Thames was fought
and IN what manner it then and there become
our troops, regular and militia to conduct them
selves. Sir, it must be obvious, and if these
topics are german to the subject, then does
the Cumberland road encompass all the inter
ess and all the subjects that touch the rights,
duties, and destinies of the civilized world and
! | hope | shall hear no more from Southern
gentlemen of the narrow, sectional and uncon-
stitutionaI, character of the proposed measure.
| That branch Of the subject is | hope forever
quieted, perhaps unintentionally, by the gentle
men from Michigan. His military criticism
| if it has not answered the purposes intended,
has at least in this way done some service 10
the Cumberland road And if my poor halt
ing comprehension has not blundered in pursu-
ing the soaring upward flight of my friend from