subjection of all wills to one will, which revived throughout the Union the old Revolutionary designations of political parties. And unless the friends of the national administration shall disavow and denounce these doctrines and these deeds to which I have referred, or unless they shall expunge, not one, but all of them not from a mere Legislative Journal only, but from the pages of history, and the memory of man, however they may wince and writhe under the odious title which has attached to them, they will in vain essay to shake it off. They must stand for Tories still.

Mr. Chairman, I am glad the gentleman from Gloucester has seen fit to raise this issue. It has not only given me an opportunity to set matters right on this head, but has afforded me an opening for giving expression to a sentiment which I have deeply felt during the past year, and with which I will conclude these remarks. I need hardly say, Sir, that I do not under-estimate the calamities in which the late crisis has involved the country. But great as they have been and still are, as often as I have reviewed the high-handed Executive acts of which I have spoken, I have come to this deliberate and solemn conclusion, that if the redemption of the country from such usurpation and misrule could have been purchased at no other price than this crisis and these calamities, it would still have been purchased cheap. My honorable friend from Charlestown, (Mr. Austin,) remarked the other day that he never would play the part of the strong man at Gaza, and pull down the pillars of the public prosperity, in order to effect the downfall of his political adversaries. I cordially concur with him, Sir, in that patriotic sentiment. I would not have produced one jot or tittle of existing sufferings for any political effect, nor would I now protract them one hour or moment for such a purpose. I hold it to be the duty of us all, as citizens and as legislators, to do all in our power, without distinction of party, to bring about a restoration of prosperity, and particularly a resumption of payments. But looking upon the crisis as a thing already existing, and in the production of which I, at least, had no part or agency, I say again, that if the political redemption of the country could have been procured at no other or lower rate, I would still have

had it purchased at this rate, and would still have gladly paid my full proportion of its price. Sir, I rejoice in the self-vindicating power of the Constitution, which this crisis has displayed, — I repeat it, Mr. Chairman, THE SELF-VINDICATING POWER OF THE CONSTITUTION, -for that seems to me the very key and index of the whole catastrophe. The first object and operation of the Constitution was to revive a prostrate commerce, to restore a fallen credit, to raise up a depreciated and still sinking currency. And was it not entirely fit and appropriate that commerce, and currency, and credit, should give signs and warnings, when that Constitution was violated and trampled upon, by their own depression and downfall? For myself, I thank my God that it has been so. I pray him that the public prosperity may never survive the public liberty. I pray him that whenever that liberty may be menaced, whenever the Constitution assailed, whenever the wide arch of this glorious Republic in danger of falling, the people, the whole people, may be roused up to the rescue, if in no other way, by their own sufferings and distresses!

THE VOTES OF INTERESTED MEMBERS

A DECISION PRONOUNCED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS, FEBRUARY 19, 1840.

A BILL to increase the capital stock of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company being under consideration, and Mr. Church, of Westport, having moved an amendment in the following terms: "The private property of the Corporation, or Stockholders for the time being, and of those who shall be stockholders at the time when any debt shall be contracted, shall be holden for the payment of such debt, and may be taken therefor on any execution issued against the Corporation for such debt, in the same manner as on executions issued against them for individual debts. Any Stockholder who shall pay any debt of the Corporation for which he is made liable, by this Act, shall have the same remedies for the recovery of the amount so paid, or any part thereof, as is provided in the 32d Sec. of the 38th Chap. of the Revised Statutes;" and the yeas and nays having been taken on this amendment, Mr. Allen, of Northfield called upon the Speaker to disallow the votes of Messrs. Safford and Quincy, of Boston, and of Mr. Baker, of Dorchester, as being Stockholders in the Corporation, and as being therefore precluded from voting, under the fourteenth rule of the 2d chapter of the Rules and Orders, which is as follows:

"No member shall be permitted to vote, or serve on any Committee, in any question where his private right is immediately concerned, distinct from the public interest."

The Speaker decided that those gentlemen did not come within the meaning of the rule, and declined excluding them from the count. From this decision Mr. Allen appealed, and thereupon the Speaker stated his reasons as follows:

THE SPEAKER said that he had already remarked to the House that the point which had been raised by the gentleman from Northfield was by no means a new one to him. During the first session in which he had the honor to occupy the chair of the House, he was twice called on to decide it. On both of those occasions he spared no pains in examining the authorities and precedents on the subject; on both of them he had the satisfaction to arrive at a clear and unhesitating conviction in

his own mind; and on both of them, too, he had the still greater satisfaction of being sustained by a large majority of the House.

The first of these cases was that of one or more Bank Directors and Stockholders, whom it was proposed to exclude from serving on a committee of one from each county, to which had been referred a memorial from the Associated Banks, on the subject of the suspension of specie payments. The Speaker decided that Bank Directors and Stockholders were entitled to serve on such a committee under the rule; and that decision, after a long argument in opposition to it by a gentleman not now a member, was sustained, 337 to 97.

The second case was that of sundry Stockholders in the Western Railroad Corporation, whom it was proposed to exclude from voting on the bill for granting the credit of the State in aid of the enterprise in which that Corporation were engaged. The Speaker decided that those Stockholders were entitled to their votes; and that decision, also, was sustained, 238 to 43. These cases differed considerably from each other, and both of them, in some degree, from that now under consideration. The former related to a whole class of corporations, the doctrine advanced in opposition to the Chair being, on that occasion, that no director or stockholder in the one hundred and eighteen banks in this Commonwealth could serve on any committee, or give any vote on any question, relating to banks and banking. The latter related only to a single corporation, and in this respect was analogous to the case before the House. It was obvious, however, that all three of them involved the same general principles, and must be governed by the same parliamentary precedents.

There was one point in which the Speaker said he was glad to find that all these cases agreed. In neither of them did his decision affect results. The committee, on which the bank director was permitted to serve, could of course do nothing final. Their proceedings, like those of all other committees, were controlled by the House. So also in the second case, had all the stockholders in the Western Railroad Corporation, who were members of the House, been deprived of the right of voting, the aid of the State would still have been granted by a handsome majority. And so

in the present instance, too, should the three gentlemen who have been named as stockholders be excluded from the count, there would remain a majority of thirty-seven to dispose of the amendment of the gentleman from Westport. The Speaker trusted that these circumstances would insure to the question on the present occasion, as they doubtless had in the previous instances in which it had been raised, a more calm, deliberate, and dispassionate investigation, than if an important issue were immediately involved in its settlement.

Such an investigation he thought it eminently deserved. In his judgment it was a question of high importance and of farreaching responsibility. Other corporations were concerned in its settlement beside the Sandwich Glass Company; - corporations of a different class and character. The real question before the House was, whether the city of Boston should be deprived of two of its members legally chosen and duly qualified, and the town of Dorchester of one third of its rightful representation here, on an allegation that the private interests of the members referred to were inconsistent with a faithful discharge of their duty to their constituents? It was the right of the towns and cities, and not of the members themselves, which was really at stake in this and in all similar cases. And gentlemen would do well to bear in mind, that though the controversy might now relate to a city and a town which perhaps could afford to spare a vote or two, it might next be raised in relation to such as had but one Representative, and thus disfranchise them altogether on particular questions.

The Speaker said that as often as he had reflected on this view of the case, and it had been again and again the subject of his examination, he had been led to doubt both the policy and the justice of retaining in our Rules and Orders any such principle as that under which the question had been raised. The power of the House in all matters relating to their own proceed. ings might, perhaps, be unquestionable. The Constitution expressly gave them such a power and he supposed it to be abso lute. They might silence members, he presumed, not merely in the case provided for, but in any or all other cases, subject only to their responsibility to the people. But power was obvi