H. or R.] The Spanish Treaty. [APRIL, 1820. stimulated by a knowledge of the universal wish that Florida should belong to us. It may be safely affirmed that for many years the people have never looked to a settlement of our differences with Spain, without combining with that adjustment the acquisition of Florida. So strongly had it seized on the public mind, that the original cause of our negotiation with Spain had become only an incident in public sentiment. This general anxiety was connected, too, with a belief that its purchase was essential to the complete suppression of the Indian hostilities, which had so long vexed our Southern citizens. During the long and tedious negotiations which preceded the treaty of February, 1819, this general belief had been cherished and augmented. Nothing was said or published to di barriers have no equivalents; they are above its standard; they are the gift of God to nations; the shield and buckler of defence; the guards and counterchecks against invasion. The great Engineer of the Universe has fixed the natural limits of our country, and man cannot change them; that at least is above the treaty-making power. To that boundary we shall go; 66 peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must;" beyond it, all to us is worthless; we would not have it as a gift; not if Spain would give a dowry with it: that would lay the foundation of perpetual collisions; the other would exclude them so far as human wisdom can avert the danger. Boundaries fix the destiny of nations for peace or war. The primary law of all communities is self-defence, protection from assault, shelter from invasion, safeguards for commerce, and commercial depots. They who sur-vert the public attention, nor to show the peorender barriers, betray themselves; it is high ple or the Government that they attached to treason against posterity; the evil ends not with the country an improper value. But it is now time present; it operates in perpetuity. Why becoming the fashionable opinion that if the sell the birthright of our country? Our ances- treaty is ratified, we shall have acquired nothing tors left us a goodly heritage; let us preserve it valuable; that Florida is a sand-bank; that it unimpaired; we are responsible for the estate, is, at any rate, what we can do very well withand its abutments and defences; not to those out at present. All the value which we have who have passed away, and sleep with their heretofore attached to that country is now fathers; no, sir, to ourselves; to this nation, transferred to Texas; the climate of Texas, its the only free one on the globe; to a long line soil, its relation to the Gulf, its fine port, its of succeeding generations; to the cause of free-high maritime importance, have been spoken dom and humanity itself. Will you hazard a failure of this great political experiment, "in the full tide of its success?" Will you jeopardize the integrity of the nation by surrendering its safeguards, and thereby inviting foreign powers to seize our emporiums, and smite us with disunion? Mr. ANDERSON, of Kentucky, said that he regretted very much to see the course in which the gentlemen who had preceded him had thought proper to indulge themselves. A course which went in every way to depreciate Florida, and to give to Texas such exaggerated advantages as he believed no country ever possessed. He had never heard until lately that the acquisition of Florida was not eminently desirable to this country; not only on account of its positive advantages, but for the purpose of excluding from all ownership any foreign power, whose neighborhood would always be unfriendly, and particularly for preventing its occupation by a power which had a strong naval force. The complete natural boundary which its possession would give us, its fine ports, the command of the Gulf, (an advantage always in the recollection of those whose productions passed to market through the channel of the Mississippi,) had formed the reasons which induced the American people to desire it. Without having any particular information on the subject, which was not common to every gentleman, Mr. A. said that he had yielded to those reasons which seemed so obvious, and had partaken of the general anxiety. Public sentiment had decided on the importance of the acquisition, and the Executive department of the government has been of in language of the highest praise. Mr. A. said that much of this may be true; the map showed to him the climate, and he had heard that there was much fine land. But the nature and accuracy of the information of the gentlemen, he presumed, depended upon authority very much like his own; he had seen very few people who had ever been there. And as it regarded the naval importance of the country and the fine port spoken of, he would observe that he considered the statements of the gentleman wholly wrong. The general opinion, founded on the uncontradicted statements of our naval officers and others, was, that there is no port on the whole coast; and he could say that he had never heard of it, until it was mentioned yesterday by his friend, the SPEAKER. It had been frequently mentioned as a peculiarity and a commercial misfortune attending the coast of the Gulf, for a very great distance to the southward of the mouth of the Mississippi, that there was not even a tolerable harbor. Mr. A. said he thought it peculiarly unfortunate that gentlemen should, under existing cir cumstances, when the acquisition had been made so far as the authorities of our Government extended, depreciate that which we had gotten, and for the payment of which our constituents might soon be called on to contribute, and should endeavor to enhance the value of that country which the same authorities had determined did not belong to us. He thought such a course might have a very unhappy effect on the public mind; and he deprecated very much every thing which would now tend to produce dissatisfaction towards a treaty APRIL, 1820.] The Spanish Treaty. [H. OF R. But, if we pass these resolutions, we suddenly relinquish this high ground, and assume the station of our adversary. For fourteen years we have been urgent, Spain reluctant; we have pressed, Spain has receded; but now, when there is an indication of peace, we suddenly change sides-Spain presses, and we recede. We thereby defeat all our declarations of anxiety for peace; we charge as unequal the terms which for several months have been re which we had ourselves promoted and rati- that we only sought an apology for seizing on fied. Florida. The present state of the negotiation On the subject of our power to interfere, in has just brought those Courts to the acknowlthe way proposed, Mr. A. said he had no diffi-edgment (a proud one for us) that we sought culty. He believed that it was competent to only peace and a fair settlement. the House of Representatives, on any occasion in which they might constitutionally interfere, to bring to punishment the betrayers of the public trust, or which they might be ultimately called on to aid by an appropriation of money, to anticipate the case, and to avert the evil, which they foresaw was about to fall on the country. He believed that this House, on every great occasion, might so far imbody and give expression to public sentiment, as to declare by resolution its opinion, for the purposegarded as the terms of peace, and which have of averting a great national calamity which the treaty-making power or any other department was about to bring on the country. A right ultimately to prosecute the offenders seemed itself to give a power to avert the offence, by forewarning the agents. But, while he had no doubt of the right of the House to act in this case, in which, if the treaty were made, they would be called on to make the appropriations to fulfil it, he strenuously contended that no case had been made out to justify our interference. The utmost ingenuity of gentlemen had been exerted to ascertain whether the treaty were a good or a bad one. Where differences of opinion might exist as to its policy, it was essential that the treaty-making power should be uncontrolled; that the department which had the power to act should act on its own responsibility; that the exercise of this power should in no way be controlled, nor its responsibility shared by us. With these sentiments, he could have wished that the resolutions had not been introduced. If they had tended towards another purpose, to which an allusion had been made in the course of the debate, they should have had his cordial support. He would most cordially co-operate in any public measures which should go to establish between this country and the independent Governments of South America those relations which he believed the feelings of our citizens and the just claims of those Governments required-relations which he believed would soon exist with the approbation of every one. been sanctioned by all the authorities of the Government. This course would present the American Government in a point of view wholly different from the one in which her conduct throughout the negotiation had placed her. It would manifest a variableness of public counsel--an instability of decision-in no way calculated to maintain our character among foreign nations, or among our own citizens. Such a political fickleness would create at home and abroad a distrust of the permanence of all our public measures. It must be borne in mind, too, that this House has approved the treaty in the most solemn manner in which it can actby the passage of a law. A bill was introduced and passed for the purpose of executing the treaty, in all those parts which were susceptible of immediate execution, and for establishing a provisional government in Florida. It has been said that this bill passed without discussion. This was true, only because there was no objection or dissent. The forms of our Government do not admit any further ratification than this treaty has received. It received the approbation of that department to which such duties are, in the first instance, assigned. The House of Representatives then originated and the Congress passed a law for carrying it into effect. He did not contend, for a moment, that the treaty was now binding on us-the King of Spain having failed to ratify it within the time prescribed. But, Mr. A. said, he could not consent so soon to contradict the formal declarations which we have made to the world, and now declare to our own citizens that we have ratified a treaty which was not only unequal, but unconstitutional. He would leave to the President and Senate the further negotiation of the subject; and, whether any recent circumstances had occurred, which would induce them to reject those terms of settlement to which they had lately assented, he would submit to them, and let rest on their responsibility the duty of making such an adjustment as our rights demanded. There is another consideration which should make this House cautious in adopting the resolutions before us-cautious in abandoning the high ground we have obtained by our forbearance and magnanimity. The course of this protracted negotiation has gained to us much honor in the eyes of the world. Although we have failed as yet in getting a recompense for the wrongs done to us, we have acquired a character which was worth much more. We have shown to the world that we sought justice, not aggrandizement; we have shown that Mr. A. saw nothing in the whole course of we could abstain from war, even when our ad- this transaction which called on us for our inversary had given to us the amplest justifica-terference. He did not think that the circumtion. We have defeated the malicious predic-stance of the President and Senate having made tions of the politicians of Europe, who declared one treaty, which we did approve, gave any H. OF R.] The Spanish Treaty. [APRIL, 1820. evidence that they would now make one which | have never been able to determine. It has aswe did not. sumed, as a fact, that which we may all beHe would now proceed to consider the reso- lieve, but which inasmuch as there is no standlution presented by the SPEAKER, in reference ard between nations to measure the respective to its application, without attending closely to rights of each, must be uncertain, so long as the phraseology. In its operation, it contained both parties assert their claims. Probably no a denial of the right of the treaty-making power American has ever read the long discussions on to declare the Sabine River as the western this subject, which have been conducted by the limit of Louisiana. Although, in form, the secretaries of the two countries, without an first member of the resolution purported to be ardent wish to find proofs to sustain the claims a declaration that the President and Senate of his country to the farthest boundaries concould not cede any of the territory of the tended for; and very few of us have ever read United States, still its meaning is so far ex-without finding that for which we all looked. plained by the second resolution and the speech But these reasons are of no avail, so long as of the SPEAKER, that it was fair to consider it there is no common tribunal to enforce them. in its operation, and not in its abstract form. Mr. A. said, then, that he should not go into This view of the subject would save him from the ultimate question of the right, which he a most laborious discussion, which an examina- considered utterly useless to him who held the tion of the question of ceding territory belong-negative of the proposition before the House, ing to the United States would involve. Wheth- but should attempt to show that the country er the power to acquire territory does include referred to was in the third class; or was disa power to cede? Whether territory be as puted territory. And there is certainly nothmuch under the regulation of treaties as other ing which falls more aptly within the power to property? Whether there be any limitation of form treaties than the settlement of the limits the treaty-making power, in relation to terri- of disputed or undefined territory. tory, produced by any special exception in the constitution; and, indeed, what are the limitations to this power? are, singly, questions of great magnitude; some of which will probably produce much unpleasant contention before they are finally settled. He was, however, happy to think that the present case required no such discussion. It was sufficient for him to show that the treaty, as concluded, was within the powers of the department which made it, without indulging in any speculations on the construction of the constitution on other controverted points. His single aim, then, was to show that the President and Senate might safely declare, in a treaty of limits, that the disputed province of Texas was not included within the possessions of the United States, without at all assuming the power to cede any of the public territory. To present the proposition, with distinctness, to the committee, it may be stated that there are three situations, in one of which the province of Texas must be placed: 1st. It may belong to Spain certainly; 2d. Or to us; The history of the transaction shows, that the ownership of this province has never ceased to be a question. That there never has been a moment of time, since the original purchase of Louisiana, at which our claims were admitted by the other contracting party. There are three facts, which alone must assign this country to that class in which he had placed it. Spain has never agreed that it belonged to us. We have never had possession. The President of the United States approved the arrangements made by the American officers with the Spanish commandant, in 1806, by which the Spaniard was to retire with his forces beyond the Sabine; and neither party was to molest the other on their respective banks. This arrangement was made by the military officer for a temporary purpose, but was acquiesced in by Mr. Jefferson, as appears by his Message at the succeeding session, has never been violated, and has, to every purpose, been heretofore the western limit of our purchase. It would be difficult to devise any circumstances which would more certainly affix on this coun3d. Or it may be disputed territory. try the character of a "disputed territory;" In the first-mentioned state of the case, there there is no trait of such a character absent. could be no difficulty; there could be none in After volumes have been written by the agents recognizing that which previously existed. of the Governments, to maintain their respective That supposition, then, will be no farther pur-rights, it would now indeed be extraordinary to sued. The second case, then, produces the difficulty, and is the only one on which the resolutions can be maintained. There is no pretence for sustaining the resolutions until it is first shown that Texas belongs to us; but no attempt has been made to prove it. The very ground on which the demand of gentlemen for our votes must be supported has not been touched. The debate has assumed, as a fact, that which the Spaniards have never conceded, and which, in fourteen years of negotiation, we declare that its ownership was not a subject of negotiation; for, if the final settlement is not within the power of the department which has acted on it, the previous negotiation has been idle. We hold the deed of cession, which we declare, grants the country to us; while Spain holds the country and denies that the deed embraces it. When it is remembered, that between nations there is no common arbiter by which the rights of each can be ascertained, APRIL, 1820.] Mausoleum to General Washington. our claims will, in the eyes of the world, be considered equal, unless, indeed, the possession of our adversary should create in his behalf a presumption against us. Our own convictions that the country is within Louisiana can have no effect; as there is no test by which it can be demonstrated. An American statesman may rise and declare, that "Texas belongs to us; I know it; I can prove it;" but it is a vain declaration;-of what avail can it be, when the Spaniard, standing on the land, says "it is mine; I hold it, and there is no judge between us?" It is a matter not susceptible of demonstration; and there is no tribunal to which either is bound to submit. The result certainly is, that the western limit of Louisiana has ever been so uncertain, that its adjustment is clearly within | the power which has acted on it. It seems to have been admitted, that, where the extent of a purchase of territory was undefined, the President and Senate could, by treaty, define its boundaries. Nothing can be more plain, than that the same power which can acquire territory, can define the extent of the acquisition; or, in other words, declare how much it did purchase. [H. OF R sequence to which a doctrine would lead, which should deny to the President and Senate the power of determining by treaty, that Texas or any other controverted territory, to which we had a claim, but never had possession, did not belong to us? What tribunal would they propose, to settle the controversy? If they reject the one which we propose, there is no other test but the sword. The result would be, that, in every case of disputed lines, unless our neighbor would unconditionally relinquish to the full extent of our claims, our pretensions must be asserted by war; and that war could not be abandoned, however disastrous it might be, until we had completely succeeded. No treaty could be sooner made, because it would cede a part of our territory. And in the case of Texas, how long should we fight for it? Until the House of Representatives shall be of opinion that it does not belong to us? The very moment in which you take from the Senate the power of determining the right to the property, you are on the ocean without a pilot. The opinion of each individual in the community is entitled to equal weight in this consideration. To the man who thinks that the country is There is nothing which can, under the dis- ours, a treaty involving a relinquishment of it tribution of powers in our constitution, be more will be unconstitutional, while to him who is certainly assigned to the President and Senate, of a different opinion, it will be valid and withthan the settlement of disputed boundaries. out objection. The mischiefs of that construcProbably there is no single subject on which tion, which must be to substitute the sword for so many treaties have been made. None which the Senate, could not be obviated by the arbiis more peculiarly the attribute of the depart-tration of any foreign or disinterested power. ment to which belongs the peace-making power. From the very great extent of our territory, and the undefined state of its limits, on several sides, this power must be frequently called into exercise. Its frequent operation on the settlement of differences of this kind, must have been contemplated by the convention; and it could never have been intended, that, in a general grant of the power, it should be construed not to apply to cases which had been invariably, in all countries, the subjects of its operation. In the short course of our history, treaties have been made, in which boundaries theretofore uncertain, have been fixed; and territory before uncertain as to its ownership, has been declared to belong to us, or, to the other contracting party, as it should fall on the one or the other side of the designated line. This would be entirely inadmissible, as the President and Senate could not refer to others a decision on a point, which they themselves had no authority to decide. Mr. A. said he wished it understood, that he applied his arguments only to a country situated like Texas; a country which was really in dispute, one to which we had a claim, but which we had never possessed. THURSDAY, April 6. Mausoleum to General Washington. Mr. ERVIN, of South Carolina, submitted the following resolutions: to be erected over it, in the Capitol square, east of the Capitol, a suitable mausoleum, with inscriptions emblematical of the principal events of his military and political life. Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of said States be reThe language of the treaty has been referred quested to take measures to obtain from the honorto, for the purpose of showing that a cession of able Bushrod Washington the body of the late General territory was in the contemplation of the nego-George Washington; and, if obtained, that he cause tiators. Mr. A. said that he considered the treaty as he should consider any other written instrument, by its legal operation. He thought that the word "cede" was improperly used; but it was an impropriety only in phrase. The intention of the clause was, clearly, a designation of boundary only. If the result was within the constitutional powers of the President and Senate, it would be unnecessary cavilling to censure the language in which the exercise of that power was expressed. But do gentlemen see with clearness the con be authorized to give the sum of H. OF R.] Mausoleum to General Washington. Be it further resolved, That the President do cause | to be procured an equestrian statue of bronze of General George Washington, to be executed by some eminent artist, which shall be placed on the top of the said mausoleum, in the centre building of the Capitol, or in any other place within the public square, which, by a majority of the persons in the preceding resolution referred to, shall be deemed most suitable. And be it further enacted, That a committee be appointed to bring in a bill to make the necessary appropriations of money to carry into execution the objects contemplated in the preceding resolutions. Mr. ERVIN addressed the Chair as follows: Mr. Speaker, I consider it among the fortunate incidents of my life that I have the honor of a seat in the great council of my country, and enjoy an opportunity to vote for a statue and monument to General George Washington, late President of the United States; not, sir, in the hope to confer honor, or to perpetuate the fame of this great man, but to join in manifesting to the world and the latest posterity, our admiration and gratitude for his eminent virtues and most distinguished services. It is not my intention; nay, it is unnecessary to repeat any considerable portion of his history to this enlightened assembly-it lives in our memories, it dwells upon our tongues: or his virtues, for they are embalmed in the bosom of our affections. To their narration I can impart no new ornament; for, in their praise, eloquence has poured forth all her eulogiums, and even panegyric itself has been exhausted. [APRIL, 1820. hold the other sitting upon the ruins of Carthage, more emblematical of fallen greatness than the very ruins which surrounded it. They will follow it in its flight from the bloody plains of Pharsalia, and behold it naked, lifeless, friendless, and inurned on Egypt's sultry shore; they will see it for a few splendid years awing the world-then behold it stript of imperial power and splendor, cut off from all the endearing sympathies of our nature, our consolation in misfortune, and exiled to a rock in the great Pacific ocean. Here, sir, when we who are now guiding the destinies of our country will be silent in the dust, our children from the North and the South, from the East and the West, will meet in mournful silence; the great events of the Revolution will pass in solemn review before them; the disasters of defeat, and the triumphs of victory. They will behold the man whose cause I now advocate, guiding the storm and directing the energies of an injured people, determined to be free. They will remember the joint exertions, the kindred blood which flowed to purchase our freedom, and will kneel around it, and with full hearts swear to transmit the rich inheritance unimpaired to their latest posterity. All the enlightened nations of antiquity considered it a duty not only to commemorate the virtuous deeds, but to perpetuate to their posterity the very form and appearance of their illustrious dead. To this end all their literature and arts were equally subservient. On the one Nor is it, sir, for the purpose of mere idle hand, whilst history recorded, and eloquence declamation that I hope to claim the attention rendered immortal, their virtues and warlike of this honorable body to the resolutions which achievements; on the other hand, the marble, I have done myself the honor to present. Con- decorated with the ornaments of drapery, seemsiderations more momentous have influenceded to breathe under the chisel of the artist, and me. The storm has not yet wholly subsided an artificial form on canvas was almost pencilled which lately threatened, not only the peace and into life dividing empire with the grave, and tranquillity, but the union of these States. To handing down to posterity the venerable image the motives of common security and common of the benefactors of their country. Hence the interest which have so happily and gloriously incentive to great actions; hence that undaunted united us, I wish, if possible, to add those of courage which made them superior to the dansentiment and kindred sympathy; and I know gers of the field; and hence that noble emulaof nothing more calculated to beget the one or tion which stimulated them to aspire after awaken the other, than to entomb the father of generous fame and everlasting renown, when our country in a mausoleum, with inscriptions they knew, and acted under the influence of emblematical of the great events of his political that knowledge, that they would survive the and military life, erected at the national ex- decay of nature, and be seen and venerated in pense. other times. Cold, indeed, will be that heart which could ever approach it, without experiencing mingled emotions of veneration and respect. The wise, good, and oppressed from every clime, will come and survey, with wonder and delight, the gratitude of the American people to him "who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.' At its pedestal the ambitious will learn the vast difference between promoting the glory and happiness of millions of freemen, and that of mere personal aggrandizement. Whilst statues, monuments, and the applause of unborn millions, will be the soul-ennobling reward of virtuous ambition in the one case, they will be Do we fear the amount of the expenditure? Quadruple the sum expended whilst debating the Missouri question, will cover the amount necessary. But, admitting it should be more, will my country promise, and promise, and never perform? On the 17th of August, 1788, in the moment of triumph, when the services of WASHINGTON called forth universal expressions of grateful feeling, the Continental Congress unanimously voted him an equestrian bronze statue; but, notwithstanding his virtues and great achievements, he had the mortification to outlive the gratitude of his country, for it has never been procured. In 1799, after having done all the good in his |