Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress Page: 2,959
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2959
GALES & SEATON'S REGISTER
2960
H. of R.]
The Public Deposites.
[\I mm 12, 1834.
believe—if there is, indeed, any gleam of hope that there
is relief for the country coming, 1, for one, will agree to
sit here fasting, and in sack cloth and ashes, till the mo-
ment shall arrive when an oppressive, an arbitrary, a ty-
rannical Government shall say to the people, "it is
enough—we will now give you relief" But what is it that
the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Polk] tells us? The
appendix is not ready! Ay, sir, when hunger is gnawing
at our vitals, and we are all but sinking in despair, we are
told the appendix is not here! You must wait for the
printer! Why keep up this shadowy phantom of a paltry
controversy that has no longer an existence? Why, in-
stead of telling us what the Secretary of the Treasury has
done, keep ringing in our ears that the bank must not be
rechartered? That is not the question. The great thing
we have to consider is the act of removal; it is not the
two-penny appendix. It is a mere shift—a miserable put-
off. When gentlemen are prepared and anxious to pre-
sent their views on the great question before the nation,
they must wait for an appendix. They tell you they don't
want the appendix, nor any thing that is in it. Yet they
must wait, because somebody else wants it. Well, sir,
and when we get it, what then? Why then comes the
previous question. A committee is ordered," and next
summer we shall have a few sinecure officers made into a
vagabond committee, going up and down the country,
printing evidence against the bank, and to be paid for it!
Ay, sir, to be paid for it! God forgive me! everything
now-a-days is to be paid for! paid for! I implore gentle-
men not to bring forward such a proposition as this, and
- then sustain it by arguments, which anywhere else would
. be called boyish and puerile. Here, I know, every thing
advanced is entitled to be heard with respect. But, sir,
in a country village, such reasons would be objects of
contempt.*; -
: Mr. MASON, of Virginia, observed, if all the members
in the House were in the same state of mind as thegentle-
nian from Rhode Island, it must be apparent there could
be no reason for postponing the debate. That gentle-
man's opinion was made up. Nothing could satisfy him
that the course of the administration was any thing bu.t a
gross assumption of power. The gentleman, begging the
very question in debate, had pronounced it such; but Mr.
M. trusted that the members of the House who were to
pass upon the question submitted to their judgment, had
not prejudged it. To him it was a perfectly novel propo-
sition, that the report of one of the standing committees
was to be precipitated, upon the House in the absence of
documents which ought to accompany it. The gentle-
man, indeed, had told the House that the reasons for post-
ponement were puerile, and that the documents would
not sustain the positions they were intended to support.
Such, no doubt, was his opinion, but common courtesy
required that, before the House undertook to act on a
committee's-report, it should have sll parts of that re-
port. He trusted that the discussion (for the country
would not fail to see that the purpose of gentlemen was
not to take the question, but to engage in a protracted
discussion,) would not commence until an opportunity had
been afforded fully to examine the ground of the "com-
mittee's report. '
Mr. M., through the whole progress of this matter, had
hitherto sat a silent, but he trusted not an inattentive ob-
server, and he entertained the, opinion that the panic in
the country which had occasioned such great distress to
all the, interests of trade and industry, arose, in a great
measure, from the delay which had occurred in settling
these questions, tie implored the gentleman from Rhode
Island, vvien the subject should be presented in some tan-
gible shape, that he would show a disposition to have as
speedy a decision of it as Mr. M., and those who acted with
him. He would not consent to the imputation of being
in favor of delay," which could only aggravate the evils of
the country. Supposing we should refuse to postpone,
what are we told? Why, sir, that no decision can be had,
because the observations of the gentleman from Georgia
alone will extend far enough to put off a decision beyond
Tuesday. Sir, if that gentleman is disposed to favor the
House, by presenting his views, I shall be an attentive,
and, as I hope, an instructed listener; but I cannot con-
sent to go into the discussion until we have before us the
materials on which the committee acted.
Mr. ALLAN, of Kentucky, said that the report of the
Committee of Ways and Means was the most important
subject before the pesent Congress. We have now
reached it in the regular progress of business. After a
postponement of over a week, the chairman of that com-
mittee proposes another delay of almost another week;
because he says certain papers, referred to in his report,
are not yet printed. This might be an argument proper
to be used Jpy one who desired to use these unprinted
papers; but the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Wii.de] is
willing to proceed in the debate without them. Mr. A.,
therefore, did not see the necessity of delay. But, sir,
whether this debate shall now commence, or next week,
is unimportant. There has been certain indications mani-
fested in regard to the disposition of this report with which
he [Mr. A.] was not satisfied. When this report was
first presented to this House, why was it not referred,
agreeably to the rules and usages, to the Committee of the
Whole on the state of the Union, where that full and free
discussion could be had which is due to this all-important
subject. But, sir, in violation of usage, the chairman
keeps this subject under the power of the previous ques-
tion, with the view, as was to be feared, to prevent dis-
cussion. Against such a course he protested, as the State
from which he came had, as yet, had no opportunity of
being heard.
The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Masos] has ex-
pressed a willingness to postpone discussion, while he
commends speedy action.
Mr. MASON said that he had been misunderstood.
Mr. ALLAN said he was glad that he was mistaken.
He hoped that he also misunderstood the chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means. He would call upon
that gentleman to state whether it was the intention to
keep this report from the Committee of the Whole, and
to prevent discussion.
Mr. POLK said, in reply, that he did not know that the
gentleman from Kentucky was warranted to propose to
him any such question. He would, however, answer the
gentleman. At the same time that he would do nothing
which might operate to restrain a full discussion of the
subject, he would consent to do nothing that must delay
decision: he would do nothing by his vote which should
put the subject in a situation where no decision could ever
be had upon it. As,to the matter immediately before the
House, the House itself had ordered that the report of
the committee, with the accompanying documents, should
be printed for the use of the members. He considered
it important that this should be done. The printer, how-
ever, had not yet furnished those documents to the House.
They were not upon the tables of members; he knew no
member of the House or of the Committee of Ways and
Means could have controlled the action of the printer. He
knew not why the papers were not here. The gentle-
man from Georgia [Mr. Watss] was perfectly right in
the opinion he had expressed that, if Mr. P. had consent-
ed to go into the discussion under present circumstances,
he might justly have been charged with precipitancy. It
was.no part of his purpose to produce procrastination; he
wished to have the subject discussed; he desired that the
House should give the fullest expression of its opinion.
The opposition of the gentleman from Georgia behind
him [Mr. Wix.de] did, he confessed, surprise him—be-
cause, in private conversation with the members, he had
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress, book, 1834; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30766/m1/90/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.