moment, by great majorities of the people, in favor of Whig principles and a Whig policy, which does not embrace the whole six-and-twenty of our beloved Union. New York and Massachusetts have had an opportunity to show and make clearly manifest what they are in favor of, and so have all the other States to which I have referred. But let us be slow to shut out from this glorious company of patriot States, those to whom no such opportunity has yet been afforded. Their time and their turn will yet come, and that shortly; and let us have no fear for the results. Depend upon it, Sir, the people, the whole people, are coming;—I should rather say, they have come; — come to their own senses; come to their own salvation; come to the pulling down of the strongholds of corruption; come to the restoration of fallen liberty; come to the reëstablishment, in all their beauty and in all their strength, of the old constitutional bulwarks of this Republic!

But I must not trespass longer on your time. Once more, in behalf of the Whigs of Boston, I congratulate you on your success; once more, I thank you for your exertions. And not in their behalf only. In behalf of the whole great body of Massachusetts Whigs — I know all their hearts, and am not afraid to speak for them all-in behalf of them all, of every occupation and profession; in behalf of Whig mechanics, who have taken the measure of true patriotism from the rule of a Paul Revere ; in behalf of Whig farmers, who have ploughed the straight furrow of a Prescott and a Hawley; in behalf of Whig merchants, who have learned to sum up the great account of public duty from the ledger of a John Hancock;— in behalf of them all, of every county, town, and district of the State, whether scattered over the plains of Lexington and Concord, or clustered at the foot of Bunker Hill, or crowded within the precincts of Faneuil Hall; wherever they are, from the furthest reach of either Cape to the line where their territory embraces and becomes one with your own;-in behalf of every one of them—all and everywhere true, all and everywhere triumphant- I congratulate you, I thank you, and in the name of them all, I offer you the right hand of a hearty, genuine, Whig fellowship.

THE SUB-TREASURY SYSTEM.

A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS, IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, MARCH 26, 1838.

Ir is not without a good deal of distrust, Mr. Chairman, that I find myself on the floor of the House. During the early part of the session, I will confess, I more than once desired to be there. More than once did I find the opening line of the old Roman Satirist rising to my lips - semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam ? — must I always be a mere hearer? shall I never have a chance to reply? And sometimes I was almost disposed to quarrel with the unmerited honor which had seemingly doomed me to a perpetual silence. But these feelings have now been so long restrained, that I fear something beside the disposition to mingle in debate may have passed away. Certainly, Sir, it would have been any thing but a matter of regret to me if the yeas and nays had been called on these resolutions a week or more ago, when they first came up in the orders of the day. Discussed as the Sub-Treasury system had been, almost without intermission for six months past, in Congress, in caucus, in the newspapers, and at the fireside, I should have been quite content, for one, to have let it pass here, at so late an hour of the session, entirely without debate.

It was suggested by the gentleman from Gloucester, (Mr. Rantoul,) in opposition to such a course, that the House was utterly ignorant of the merits of the measure that not thirty of them knew what the Sub-Treasury system was. I am inclined to believe, Mr. Chairman, that a large majority of the

members pretty well understood and appreciated that system. I have no idea that any considerable number of them were then, or are now, desirous of a nearer or more familiar acquaintance with it. At any rate, I believe that the minds of the whole House are made up upon it. I believe the minds of the whole people are made up upon it. I have no hope, certainly, of changing a single shade of public or private sentiment by any thing I can say in favor of these resolutions; and I will add that I have no particular apprehension that any thing that has been said, or that may be said, against them, will work any very material change in that public or that private sentiment. I heartily wish, therefore, that we had come to the vote a week ago, and had speeded the resolutions on their errand to the Capitol, to do whatever of good or evil they may be designed or destined to effect.

But it has been ordered otherwise. The opponents of the resolutions demanded, claimed, insisted on, a discussion. And in conformity with their convenience and agreeably to their suggestion, if not directly upon their motion, a time for that discussion was assigned. Four days have now nearly elapsed since that time arrived, and we all know how they have been occupied. The first was taken up by the gentleman from Glouces ter, in proposing and pressing sundry amendments to the resolutions, all of which were rejected by large majorities. The first hour or more of the second day was employed by the gentleman from Marblehead, (Mr. Robinson,) in an effective speech against the resolutions; and the gentleman from Gloucester, rising again as his friend from Marblehead took his seat, has held the floor from that time to this. I cannot help hoping, Mr. Chairman, under all these circumstances, that the whole waste of public time and public money which this protracted controversy will have cost, is not destined to be charged to the account of the majority in this House. If it be, however, there will only be another warning added to a list of warnings already neither short nor unedifying, against the manifestation of an excessive courtesy and the accordance of too many indulgences to political opponents.

The gentleman from Gloucester, in his remarks on Thursday,

took occasion to allude to Mr. Webster. He observed, if I remember right, that he had made a particular study of his political character, and should be glad of an opportunity to show up its consistency to the House. This was not a new topic, Sir, with the gentleman from Gloucester. I had the pleasure of meeting him upon it last winter. But though he has repeated his remarks, I do not intend to repeat mine. The political character of Mr. Webster needs no defence. It is safe in the custody, not of his own Massachusetts constituents merely, but of the whole American people, whose faithful soldier and servant he has so long been. It is safe, I might better say, in its own invincible greatness, in its own invulnerable strength. But there is one part of that character, which, however the gentleman from Gloucester may have studied, he certainly has not yet learned. I mean that magnanimity of which an interesting anecdote has recently been related in the papers of the day.

It appears that during the late great speech of Mr. Webster, in the Senate of the United States, on the very subject we are now considering, just as he was about to bear down on Mr. Buchanan of Pennsylvania, it was suggested to him that that gentleman's hands were tied by certain instructions which he had received from his State Legislature; and what was our Senator's reply? "I will not say another word about him I will not even look in that direction." The gentleman from Gloucester, on the contrary, having been goaded and stung to the quick by the unpalatable truths which had been told, in a previous debate, of the administration which he supports, and having considered it inexpedient to reply during that debate, and having nursed his wrath to keep it warm until these Sub-Treasury resolutions should come up for discussion, had no sooner gained audience upon them, than he vented the whole amount and accumulation of his ire, the whole principal and interest of his indignation-upon whom, Sir? Upon any one who had assaulted, or insulted, or in any way injured him? Upon any one even, who was in a position to defend himself when attacked? No, Sir, no, but partly on the distinguished Senator to whom I have already alluded-five hundred miles distant

from him in person, and infinitely farther removed in character from the utmost reach of any shafts which he could throw and partly upon one who, though personally present, and compelled to submit to whatever words or looks it might please the gentleman to throw at him, was entirely prevented, by his official position, from resisting, resenting, or in any way noticing them.

Sir, I will confess that on the occasion to which I allude, I felt in no small degree complimented at being coupled with the great Massachusetts statesman in the censure of the gentleman from Gloucester. But this was by no means the only occasion on which I have been subjected to his attacks, and heretofore I have had no such good company to console me, while my hands have been equally tied behind me. The gentleman best knows his own motives and purposes, but it cannot have escaped observation, that from the beginning of the session to this hour, he has omitted no opportunity which has occurred, or which could be created, to cast censure and contumely upon the Chair. For the first time, Sir, I am now in a condition to retort. But let me assure the House that I do not intend to avail myself of my position for any such purpose. Certainly, Sir, I have not risen with any such intent, and I hope to sit down without having been betrayed into any such act. Placed by the indulgence of the House in a station where it is my duty to check personality and enforce decorum in others, I will not voluntarily exhibit a violation of order in my own person. I will not be provoked into a personal altercation with the gentleman from Gloucester. He has brandished his lance, and shaken his red flag, and played the Matadore in vain. His taunts and provocations I give to the wind. To his arguments, if he has uttered any, and I should chance to meet them along my track, I will pay the respect of a passing notice. And now, Sir, to the subject.

It is one, I need hardly say, of no small compass or comprehension. It calls upon us to look both before and after. The measure to which these resolutions relate, is at once a goal and a starting point in national affairs. It is the end of one series of experiments, and it is the beginning of another. And in order to understand its real nature, we ought to look to what