them. Having however, shown | might be beneficially_employed. that we cannot in safety reduce | In short, said Mr. C. I would act, the army, Mr. C. would leave the | seriously, effectively act, on the details of the report in the abler hands of the honourable chairman, (Mr. Lowndes) who, he had no doubt, could demonstate, that with all the retrenchments which had been recommended, the government would be bankrupt in less than three years, if most of these taxes were not continued. He | would now hasten to that conclusion, at which the committee could not regret more than he did, that he had not long since arrived. | principle that in peace we ought to prepare for war; for I repeat, again and again, that in spite of all the prudence exerted by the government, and the forbearance of others, the hour of trial will come. These halcyon days of peace, this calm will yield to the storm of war, and when that comes, I am for being prepared to breast it. Has not the government been reproached for the want of preparation at the commencement of the late war? And yet the same gentlemen who utter these reproaches, instead of taking counsel from experience, would leave the country in an unprepared condition. As to the attitude in which this country should be placed, the duty of congress could not be mistaken. My policy is to preserve the present force, naval and military; to provide for the augmentation of He would as earnestly comthe navy; and if the danger of war mence the great work, too long should increase, to increase the delayed, of internal improvement. army also. Arm the militia, and He desired to see a chain of turngive it the most effective charac- pike roads and canals from Passater of which it is susceptible. Pro- maquoddy to New Orleans; and vide in the most ample manner, other similar roads intersecting the and place in proper depots, all the mountains, to facilitate intercourse munitions and instruments of war. between all parts of the country, Fortify and strengthen the weak and to bind and connect us toge and vulnerable points indicated by ther. He would also effectually experience. Construct military protect our manufactories. We roads and canals-particularly had given at least an implied from the Miami of the Ohio to the pledge to do so, by the course of Miami of Erie; from the Sciota to administration. He would afford the Bay of Sandusky; from the them protection, not so much for Hudson to Ontario; that the facili- the sake of the manufacturers ties of transportation may exist of themselves, as for the general inthe men and means of the country terest. We should thus have our to points where they may be want- wants supplied when foreign reed. I would employ on this object sources are cut off; and we should a part of the army; which should also lay the basis of a system of also be employed on our line of taxation, to be resorted to when frontier, territorial and maritime, the revenue from imports is stopt in strengthening the works of de- | by war. Such, Mr. Chairman, is a fence. I would provide steam bat- rapid sketch of the policy which teries for the Mississippi, for it seems to me it becomes us to Borgne and Ponchartrain, and for pursue. It is for you now to dethe Chesapeake, and for any part cide, whether we shall draw wisof the north or east where they dom from the past, or neglecting the commencement of the session the lessons of recent experience, Speech of Mr. HOPKINSON, on the 2 F for future expenditures but, I beg it may be distinctly remembered, that the first assault upon the reported system of finance, that assault which goes to its vitality, and opened a breach which others, still declared friends of the administration, have widened, was made by the honourable gentleman from Kentucky, the speaker of the house.-A motion was made by that gentleman to reduce the land tax, from three to two millions-this motion failed not disheartened by the defeat, he followed up the attempt, by a blow infinitely more deadly to the whole scheme, by moving that the land tax should be an annual tax, while every other tax reported is perpetual, and the whole together declared to be a permanent system of taxation. In this the gentleman was successful, and so great a part as three millions of a permanent system, has assurance of existence but for a single year. If this unfortunate, and I may say ill-judged movement, shall throw the whole into confusion, and the government is thereby embarrassed, the public faith impeached, and the public establishments pinched, let it be remembered from whence these evils have flowed; let them be traced to their true source, the friends of the administration, and not the "opposition."-When the honourable speaker had made this first step, it was natural to expect that some other gentleman of the same side, should be ambitious to step before him, and accordingly we find that his colleague proposes to abolish altogether this odious land tax, and strike it out of the system; and of course to throw these three millions upon the shoulders of those who have been, or may be kind enough to take the rest of the burthen.-Is this deal ing fairly and equitably by all? But, sir, the cause of wonder does not stop here-the greater wonder is yet untold-no sooner does the honourable speaker suggest his essential, his vital change in this system of finance, than the honourable chairman of the committee, by whom it was reported, surrenders it at discretion, without an effort to defend, or struggle to preserve it. Can it be expected that we in the opposition, however well disposed, can retain our confidence in a system thus solemnly reported as the matured work of knowledge and deliberation, and thus abandoned as the plaything of a child. I know not the reasons which have determined the honourable chairman to this course; his intelligence and candour oblige me to believe, he can give a satisfactory explanation of it; but until it is given, I must pause in my confidence. For myself, sir, I assure you most seriously, that I took my seat here with a fixed intent to give all the aid in my power to extricate the country from her difficulties, and provide for her future support; to place the resources of the nation fairly and liberally at the disposal of those the people have chosen to govern them; and to suffer no feelings of my own in relation to the administration to interfere with the conscientious discharge of my duty as an American legislator. But how must I hesitate in the course which would bring me to these results, when I find those who are appointed to lead the way, and are presumed to have all the information necessary for the purpose, halting and reced. ing in their steps, and uncertain whether the path lies in this or in that direction; in fact differing among themselves as to the measures to be pursued. While I would watch with double scruple and care, the uses made of the public resources by an administration not possessing my confidence, I could, by no means feel justified in withholding those resources, and suffering the government itself to fall into dissolution. I will not let my house go to decay, because I do not like the te nant. should be drawn into the contest. I will, however, venture upon it, taking the gentleman's own positions for my guide; and hoping to refute him on the very points and grounds he has chosen to place himself, in relation to the gains of the peace particularly. Let me however premise that this peace had and has my hearty approbation, and most grateful I am to those who made it-God forbid, that I should reproach a measure which I solemnly and conscientiously believe, snatched my coun try from the very brink of the ment was at the last gasp of existence. But six months longer and it was no more. Yes, sir, trust me that, but for this providential peace you and I would not be here listening to proud declamations on the glory of the war; we should have heard nothing of a Congress, at this time, but as a thing that was; we should have had no profound plottings about a next president, no anxious longings for fe On the subject of the motives, the policy and the conduct of the war; the advantage and the glory of the peace, I had hoped to hear not a syllable within these walls, and certainly never intended my-gulph of ruin. The federal governself to make them topics of discussion. I was willing to consider the war as an evil gone by, to be remembered no more as a source of irritation and reproach; and recurred to only for its lessons of wisdom and experience.-1 desired to look to the country in the actual situation in which we find her; to heal the deep wounds inflicted upon her; reanimate her powers and restore her strength. -My attention has not thereforederal offices;-the general governbeen for a moment turned to the ment would have dissolved into numerous considerations that be- its original elements; its powers long to the questions of the war would have returned to the states and the peace. But, sir, how has from which it was derived; and this moderation, for such I must they, doubtless, would have been call it, been received by the hon- fully competent to their own deourable speaker, who has this mo- fence against any enemy.-Does ment sat down-He has gone into not every body remember that all an elaborate and animated justifi- the great states, and I believe the cation, nay eulogium, of the causes small ones too, were preparing for of the war, and a magnificent dis- this state of things, and organizplay of the glory and advantages ing their own means for their own of the peace. And, sir, not satisfied defence. When therefore I speak with this, he has said the oppo- of our desperate condition, I speak sition, as he calls us, has not yet only of the general government, challenged either; and he chal- and not of the country, of which lenges us to do so.-Sir, I feel I never did despair and never can most fully the rashness of taking-But, sir, as I believe that the up this challenge on the instant, strength, prosperity and happiness unarmed, unprepared, and without of this country, essentially depend a moment's anticipation, that I upon the maintenance of the fede ral government, can I but be grateful for an event, which has preserved it-This source of approbation however, is obviously independent of the terms of this boasted treaty, in which I see none of the advantages so boasted of; and, indeed, no excellence but the redemption from evil. The honourable speaker had boldly and distinctly put the question, "What have we gained by the war?" and imposed upon himself the task of exhibiting and proving these mighty gains. But to my astonishment, the whole of his argument was exerted to prove not, what we have gained, for not an item of gain was produced; but what we have not lost; and in those cases in which he admits loss, to show how that loss was produced. In what manner any gain is to be made out of this, I cannot conjecture-To begin with the fisheries -The gentleman has told us that our right in them, was held under the treaty of 1783; that in the late negotiation the British commissioners contended, that by our war we had forfeited all the rights held under former treaties, and among the rest the use of these fisheries. I do not understand from the gentleman that our commissioners assented to this doctrine, but rather that they made their objections to it. But still I cannot see how all this proves we have not lost the fisheries; and whether we lost them by the argument or the war; the only important fact remains unquestioned, that we have lost them. As our present enquiry, to which we are challenged, is into the gains of the war, it seems to me that the loss of the fisheries, however lost, cannot add much to the account of our gains. Thus a physician may give a most learner and unanswerable detail of the reasons why and how his patient died; but I have never heard that the argument restored him to life or satisfied any body that he was not dead. The honourable speaker however, has endeavoured to comfort us for this gain, by reminding us, that the same argument which deprived us of the fisheries, took from the enemy the navigation of the Mississippi, which he held under a former treaty. If this set off were even of a sufficient value to compensate for our loss, and one gentleman thinks it essentially more valuable, I still cannot see how it could aid the main point of this discussion which is to display our gains by war, and to place the loss of the fisheries on the list. But unfortunately for this comfort, the gentleman has been candid enough to inform us that our commissioners actually offered to renew the Mississippi right to the British, if they would renew our right to the fisheries-the offer was rejected; and proves at least, that our commissioners thought the fisheries worth the navigation of the river; and that the British commissioners did not think that navigation worth the fisheries. The next attempt made by the honourable gentleman in displaying our gains by the war, was on the subject of the impressment of seamen; this great bone of contention. What is the argument to show that we have gained any thing here? The gentleman sets out with alluding to a letter, which has appeared in the papers, and excited much clamour with some people, written by a distinguished gentleman in the opposition, as the honourable speaker describes him. Now, says the speaker, the writer of this letter fully adopts and justifies the British doctrine on the subject of impressment; and if the gentlemen in the opposition hold the same opinions, |