The Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1846-1852, 1848-11-03

determined on. MS was the TEST vote
of the House. 1t was lost - Yeas rs
to nays 70. The wings generally voting
to save tho bill--the Locofocos to kill it,
1t was tbereupon referred to the Com
mittee of ways and Means, aud was nev-
erseen afterwards. That Committee was
composed of six friends of Gen. Cass
and three Wings as follows:
Whigs-J B. Ingersol, R. c. Winthrop. S.
F. Vnton,
Locos-MeKay, Dromsoole. Hungeriord, G. S.
Houston, Norris and SeAborn Jones,
The three wings urged both in the
House and in committee that the bill
should be taken up, and they protested
against the unmanly act of smothering it
in the Committee. The six friends OF
Gen. Cass however refused to act upon it
aud thus meanly sknlkingly prevented it's
passage only by piece of the most des.
picable Legislative trickery ever resorted
to. Charity again and again remonstra-
tired with them, but they we're deaf to all
enrreaiIes and the bill was killed as dead
ss the poor Irish victims Of starvation,
whom il was intended to save.
This is the history ofthe bill.
You wish me to inform you concerning
Gen Cass's conduct on that bill, | will
answer frankly and without any personal
acerbity.
Gen. Cass saw that his political friends
in the House Of Representatives were
opposed to the bill. For a whole fort
night he heard the voice of Charity,plea-
ding for the dying sons and daughters of
Ireland. He could not but hear her
meanings aS his friends were choaking
her of in the other end Of the Capitol
Had he felt any desire to stay the desc
lation or save the perishing, he cloud
certainly have induced the Locofoco ma
joriiy Of the House to permit Mr.. Hunts
bill TO be taken up. Surely the "heir
apparent" must have had some influence
with the "household troops"
But even ifhe refused to interfere in
the other House surely he could have
moved in his own chamber. After q
fornight's demagogueing among The Lo'
cofocos of the House to smother the voice
of charity and to cram the grave with the
victims of starvation, he might have ta'
ken the trouble to introduce it into the
Senate if he wished the measure to pass.
Why did he leave it to Crttenden and
! CLAYTON Ia move in the matter before he
opened his mouth about lreland2
But greater than all-worse than all
against General Cass's claims, as friend
of the Irish Relief Bill is the fact that
when the test vote in the Senate referred
to above. was taken, Gen. CdsS was in
his seat and refused To cote for the bill.
| consider this more repreheusible than if
he had openly voted against it with his
twenty-five political friends. | shall
never forget the scene then witnessed on
that Saturday morning. The echoes Of
Crittenden's aud Clayton's eloqnence--
the reverberations of MIR. Cass's own de.
claration that he would lend the bill his
warm support-bad not ceased from the
galleries since the previous day. Char.
ity seemed present in the Chamber,
pleading with streaming eyes and elo-
quent tongue, to Save thousands from cof-
fnless graves. The daughters of Amer
ca were ihronging the galleries to sancti.
fy the scene. We knew that if the bill
passed the Senate that morning, even Lo-
cofnco trickery, and the threatened veto
of Mr.. Polk, nigh, not be able to prevent
It's passing the House, The yeas and
nays were called. Mr.. Cass's name
comes early in the list. His vote was to
decide the fate ofthe bill. If he answer
ed 'Ay,' his friends coming after him, in
alphabetical order, IN the Senate, as well
as his friends in the House, would see
that he wanted it to pass; but ifhe answer,
ed No, or refused to vote at all, his po.
liiical friends in both Houses would see
that he did not care for it. Charity and
Ireland listened for 'Ay.' Death and
famine demanded No or silence. He
had made speecA for us, but we could
not get his UOte. His name was called
twice by The Clerk, but he was silent as
death. When the roll was called thro'
Mr., SEVER again called out 'Cass'-
wishing him to say No We wanted
him to say ray but ten'horse. power
sleam engine, fed by the hot tears oflrish
despair, could not have drawn that mon
osyIlable from him. Had he simply said
'Ay,' thousand graves would have been
,enantless by the magic sound. He was
silent, and thousand victims fell into the
grave where silence sits supreme upon
his sullen throne.
Had he opposed the bill on constitn-
tionul grounds, as H1ngeytord claimed to
do, or through hatred Of the naturalized
citizens as think Le0ia did, he would
have appeared consistent; but 10 pledge
himself in speech to be circulated Gor
Buncombe through the country, that he
would support the bill,yet within 24hours
of that declaration to refuse to give it his
vote--that The same tongue that had pow
er to make long speech had not power
10 pronounce single monosyllable for its
salvation, seems TO me to be anything but
hearty support was an interested
spectator of all this, and was sorry to see
Mr.. Cass fail in the hour Of trial. His
conduct was so extraordinary that | call
ed the attention Of several others to it; bu,
suppose he will not deny the s;atemen,
, have made. All have said can be cas-
a lily proved Had General Cass supported