At Hanover, in Virginia, during the last summer, at one of the most remarkable, and respectable, and gratifying assemblages that I ever attended, I distinctly announced my conviction, that a bank of the United States was indispensable. As to the opinions of general Harrison, I know that, like many others, he had entertained doubts as to the constitutionality of a bank; but I also know that, as the election approached, his opinions turned more in favor of a national bank; and I speak from my own personal knowledge of his opinions, when I say that I have no more doubt he would have signed that bill, than that you, Mr. President, now occupy that chair, or that I am addressing you.

I rose not to say one word which should wound the feelings of President Tyler. The senator says that, if placed in like circumstances, I would have been the last man to avoid putting a direct veto upon the bill, had it met my disapprobation; and he does me the honor to attribute to me high qualities of stern and unbending intrepidity. I hope, that in all that relates to personal firmness, all that concerns a just appreciation of the insignificance of human life — whatever may be attempted to threaten or alarm a soul not easily swayed by opposition, or awed or intimidated by menace — a stout heart and a steady eye, that can survey, unmoved and undaunted, any mere personal perils that assail this poor, transient, perishing frame, I may, without disparagement, compare with other men. But there is a sort of courage, which, I frankly confess it, I do not possess, a boldness to which I dare not aspire, a valor which I cannot covet. I cannot lay myself down in the way of the welfare and happiness of my country. That I cannot, I have not the courage to do. I cannot interpose the power with which I may be invested, a power conferred not for my personal benefit, nor for my aggrandizement, but for my country's good, to check her onward march to greatness and glory. I have not courage enough, I am too cowardly for that. I would not, I dare not, in the exercise of such a trust, lie down, and place my body across the path that leads my country to prosperity and happiness. This is a sort of courage widely different from that which a man may display in his private conduct and personal relations. Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that higher and nobler courage which prompts the patriot to offer himself a voluntary sacrifice to his country's good.

Nor did I say, as the senator represents, that the president should have resigned. I intimated no personal wish or desire that he should resign. I referred to the fact of a memorable resignation in his public life. And what I did say was, that there were other alternatives before him besides vetoing the bill; and that it was worthy of his consideration whether consistency did not require that the example which he had set when he had a constituency of one state, should not be followed when he had a constituency

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commensurate with the whole union. Another alternative was to suffer the bill, without his signature, to pass into a law under the provisions of the constitution. And I must confess I see, in this, no such escaping by the back door, no such jumping out of the window, as the senator talks about. Apprehensions of the imputation of the want of firmness sometimes impel us to perform rash and inconsiderate acts. It is the greatest courage to be able to bear the imputation of the want of courage. But pride, vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offensive in private life, are vices which partake of the character of crimes in the conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate victim of these passions cannot see beyond the little, petty, contemptible circle of his own personal interests. All his thoughts are withdrawn from his country, and concentrated on his consistency, his firmness, himself. The high, the exalted, the sublime emotions of a patriotism, which, soaring towards heaven, rises far above all mean, low, or selfish things, and is absorbed by one soul-transporting thought of the good and the glory of one's country, are never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That patriotism which, catching its inspirations from the immortal God, and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, grovelling, personal interests and feelings, animates and prompts to deeds of self-sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and of death itself that is public virtue; that is the noblest, the sublimest of all public virtues!

I said nothing of any obligation on the part of the president to conform his judgment to the opinions of the senate and house of representatives, although the senator argued as if I had, and persevered in so arguing, after repeated corrections. I said no such thing. I know and respect the perfect independence of each department, acting within its proper sphere, of other departments. But I referred to the majorities in the two houses of congress as further and strong evidence of the opinion of the people of the United States in favor of the establishment of a bank of the United States. And I contended that, according to the doctrine of instructions which prevailed in Virginia, and of which the president is a disciple, and, in pursuance of the example already cited, he ought not to have rejected the bill.

I have heard that, on his arrival at the seat of the general government, to enter upon the duties of the office of vice-president, in March last, when interrogated how far he meant to conform, in his new station, to certain peculiar opinions which were held in Virginia, he made this patriotic and noble reply: 'I am vice-president of the United States, and not of the state of Virginia; and I shall be governed by the wishes and opinions of my constituents.' When I heard of this encouraging and satisfactory reply, believing, as I most religiously do, that a large majority of the people of the United States are in favor of a national bank, (and gentlemen may shut their eyes to the fact, deny or dispute, or reason it away as they

please, but it is my conscientious conviction that two-thirds, if not more, of the people of the United States desire such an institution,) I thought I beheld a sure and certain guarantee for the fulfilment of the wishes of the people of the United States. I thought it impossible, that the wants and wishes of a great people, who had bestowed such unbounded and generous confidence, and conferred on him such exalted honors, should be disregarded and disappointed. It did not enter into my imagination to conceive, that one, who had shown so much deference and respect to the presumed sentiments of a single state, should display less towards the sentiments of the whole nation.

I hope, Mr. President, that, in performing the painful duty which had devolved on me, I have not transcended the limits of legitimate debate. I repeat, in all truth and sincerity, the assurance to the senate and to the country, that nothing but a stern, reluctant, and indispensable sense of honor and of duty could have forced from me the response which I have made to the president's objections. But, instead of yielding without restraint to the feelings of disappointment and mortification excited by the perusal of his message, I have anxiously endeavored to temper the notice of it, which I have been compelled to take, by the respect due to the office of chief magistrate, and by the personal regard and esteem which I have ever entertained for its present incumbent.

ON A GENERAL BANKRUPT LAW.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 17, 1842.

[THE subject of a general bankrupt law, after the repeal of the law of 1800, which took place in 1805, had been frequently agitated in congress. Bills were at different periods introduced and discussed, some of which passed the senate, but were lost in the house of representatives. In 1837, president Van Buren recommended to congress the passage of a bankrupt law, exclusively applicable to banks, and other corporations; but the proposition met with very little favor at the time. The pecuniary distress prevailing throughout the country, during the administration of that president, caused many memorials to be presented to congress, praying for a general bankrupt law for the relief of the people, and, on the twenty-third of March, 1840, on presenting a memorial from a large number of the citizens of New York, asking the passage of a uniform bankrupt law, Mr. Clay took occasion to say, that he had been at all times favorable to such a measure, and was then ready to support such a bill, when found suitable in its details, for the exigencies required. In April, three different bills were introduced in the senate, one of which was taken up and discussed. On motion of a senator from Alabama, (an administration man,) sustained by Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, among others, the clause subjecting banks to the operation of the bill was stricken out, by a vote of twenty-eight to sixteen; Mr. Clay, on a subsequent occasion, (February twenty-sixth, 1841,) denying the constitutionality, as well as the expediency, of including corporations in such a law. In June, 1840, Mr. Clay moved to strike out the compulsory provisions in the bill, which was negatived, (seventeen to twenty-five.) He had previously said, (April twenty-second,) that it was not to be denied that the voluntary class of bankruptcies would comprehend a vast majority of all the cases, and hence the bill of the majority of the judiciary committee, would be likely to afford the largest share of relief, in the present embarrassed and deranged state of business.'

The compulsory clause being thus retained, the bill was ordered to be engrossed, on the twenty-fourth of June, by a vote of twenty-four to twenty-three, Mr. Clay in the affirmative. It finally passed the senate on the twenty-fifth, twenty-one to nineteen; but was laid on the table in the house of representatives, on the seventh of July, by a vote of one hundred and one to eighty-nine.

At the extra session of congress in 1841, after the election of president Harrison, the whigs having a majority in both branches, a bankrupt bill was introduced, and, after considerable debate, passed the senate July twenty-fourth, 1841, by a vote of twenty-six to twenty-three, and the house of representatives on the eighteenth of August, one hundred and ten to one hundred and six. Mr. Clay supported this bill, declaring that 'he considered it as part of a system of relief for the country.'

Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, a Van Buren senator, said: 'the refusal of the late administration to act upon the subject, had done more than any thing else to cause their defeat.'

During the next session of the same congress, the most strenuous efforts were made to repeal the bankrupt law, before the time in which it was to go into operation, which was fixed for the first of February, 1842; and the repeal was carried in the house of representatives, one hundred and twenty-six to ninety-four, on the seventeenth of January, but defeated in the senate on the twenty-eighth, by a vote of twenty-two to twenty-three. While the question was pending, numerous petitions from the people, remonstrating against the repeal of the law, were presented to congress. Mr. Clay, on presenting some of these petitions, on the seventeenth of January, made the following remarks on the subject.]

MR. CLAY said, that he was charged with the presentation of a great many memorials, all remonstrating against any repeal or postponement of the bankrupt law. He would not trouble the senate with having them read. There were a great many from the state of New York; two from the state of Maryland; one from Pennsylvania; one from Newark, New Jersey; one from Boston, signed by hundreds of persons; a city which, from its mercantile character, must be supposed to have knowledge on the subject, in which were mingled the names of those both able and unable to pay their debts; also, three from his own state, (Kentucky,) one from the capital of the state, in which were the proceedings of a meeting, strongly remonstrating against interference with the law, going into arguments to show why it should not be repealed or postponed. To this there were four hundred signatures, all of which, the secretaries informed him, were voluntarily made.

Mr. Clay referred to an opinion, which had been thrown out under the sanction of some high commercial authority in New York, that the bankrupt bill, if it should become a law, would operate to throw one hundred millions worth of property into the market to be sacrificed. Such a remark, coming from that source, might be likely to have some weight. But it must be remembered that the estimate of one hundred millions, was mere assumption and random conjecture, for no man could tell, with any thing like accuracy, what the amount would be; it might just as well have been set down at two hundred millions, as at one. But be the amount what it might, in estimating the weight of the statement, as an argument against the bill, it should be inquired, on the other hand, what would be done with this property, should the bill not go into effect? Would it be kept out of the market? Not at all. On the contrary, it would be thrown into the market, to be sold under the hammer, by sheriffs and other officers executing the process of the courts, and that without competition to raise the price. For when the property of a debtor was seized by one of his creditors, what motive could his other creditors have to enhance its avails, by competition at the sale? None in the world. On the contrary, should the law remain undisturbed, what would be the course of action under it? According to his understanding of the act, it would produce a distribution of the goods of the debtor among all his creditors, pro rata; of course, when his property should be set up to sale, it would be the interest of them all to make as much out of it as possible. They would bid it up, instead of suffering it to be sacrificed for a song. He considered, that whatever might be the exact form of legal proceedings in carrying out the law, the result in practice would be, that, under the benignant operation of the act, there would be a distribution of the debtor's effects, not only among all his creditors, but at the highest price they could be made to command.