32D CONG.....2D SESS.

December, 1841, Texas suspended payment because she was then unable to pay her debts.

But here let me ask, Who are these creditors who now come forward with such plaintive appeals to this body? Who are they who are imploring the commiseration of Senators: "Help us Are they men who were suffer

or we sink?"

ers by the Texan revolutionary struggle? or are they men who speculated upon the individuals who went through the toils and dangers of that revolution? These promissory notes depreciated in the hands of men who had toiled and fought in the revolution, men who had there given their services and their energies to the cause of independence. In their hands the notes depreciated until they became valueless. They were then thrown upon the market, they were seized upon by speculators. At auctions, in the streets of our cities and villages, they were submitted to public sale and cried off at from three cents to five cents, "Going, going, gone." Then it was that these speculators came in and secured their claims to the generosity and clemency of Texas, and the feeling and commiseration of this body! There were no bonds sold in market for what they would bring; but these were promissory notes sold for a mere song under the auctioneer's hammer, and "in quantities to suit purchasers," for they were piled up as large as cotton bales. When they were cried up till they reached about three cents on the dollar, they would be knocked down to the bidder, and he would be told to go and select from the pile as many as he wanted; he might take a bundle as large as a cotton bale. [Laughter.]

That is the way in which these evidences of debt were obtained. These are the liabilities for which gentlemen claim a hundred cents on the dollar, and which were acquired at the rate of from one to three or five cents on the dollar. No doubt gentlemen in the United States thought the prospect was very fine; they knew that the Texans were descended from the Anglo-Saxon stock, and that they would maintain their liberty in defiance of every difficulty; for the American race never retreated, never took one step backwards, and that from the day they had impressed their footsteps upon a perilous soil, they would go on. Such gentlemen, perhaps, thought that if the Texans were involved in difficulties, they might venture to sell real estate and get money when there was a prospect of investing it in Texas depreciated paper to much advantage. No doubt under these circumstances gentlemen in the United States purchased large amounts of the promissory notes of Texas at ten cents on the dollar, and now come forward and claim one hundred cents on the dollar! To exemplify it more particularly, I will state, that such was the depreciation of Texas currency, that, for instance, if a judge, getting a salary of $3,000, came forward to receive it, and his demand was exhibited, he would receive in Treasury notes $30,000, based upon no issue of bonds, but upon credit. In his hands, the money depreciated, until, perhaps, it became worthless, and then it was thrown into the market in some village, and purchased up by speculators at from one to three or five cents.

This is the character of the Texas liabilities. This is the manner in which they have been bought. What justice, therefore, would there be in giving a hundred cents upon the dollar for their redemption, when they were acquired at rates varying from one cent to five cents? Is Texas bound in good faith to do it? Was the risk to these gentlemen worth the difference between three cents and a hundred cents on the dollar? I think not. Then, let me ask, has Texas evinced a disposition to pay her debts in good faith, and according to the rules of equity?

Upon these funds thus passed away at the most depreciated rates, and that were purchased up at a mere nominal rate, Texas has determined to pay upon none, no matter for what they were bought, less than twenty cents on the dollar, and from that rate up to twenty-five, fifty, seventy, and seventyfive cents, according to the dates of the issues of the notes, and the value at which they were issued, and also including, in most cases, the interest. This is the equitable principle upon which Texas determined to pay her debts. Does this evince a disposition to defraud her creditors, to involve her reputation, to repudiate? In these honest times, if

Texas Debt-Mr. Houston, of Texas.

a man gets his due, he is doing very well. Has not Texas done this towards her creditors? Texas, sir, has evinced no disposition to evade the payment of all equitable and just debts and liabilities.

I have every disposition to be very candid on this occasion, and therefore I think it due to the creditors, I think it due to individuals, and I think it due to the Government of the United States, to state plainly that I would not eschew one liability on the part of Texas, and transfer it to the shoulders of the United States. I would say to Texas, "Pay away the last cent in your coffers, bankrupt yourself, give away your hundred millions of acres of land, rather than throw the responsibility on the United States." If we were to be left destitute of a dollar, and without an acre of land available, the times then would not be as gloomy as those through which Texas has already passed. I would be sorry to see Texas not meet her just liabilities, and throw the responsibility of them upon the United States, and that then, through grace and tender mercy to the reputation of Texas, the United States should liquidate our

debts.

I am for doing justice, and nothing but justice; but I am determined that something shall be understood in relation to this matter, more than the partial representation of the claimants was disposed to exhibit to the world. Who are those that are most clamorous against the injustice of Texas, and the wrongs which they have sustained from her? Are they men who have peculiar claims upon the sympathy of this body? Are they men who have peculiar claims upon the confidence of Texas? Are they men who blended their destiny with hers in her hours of trial? Are they men who marched with her armies upon their marches? Are they men who upon her vigils of peril watched with her? Are they men who toiled or starved for her? No, sir. They have sprung up, like dragon's teeth, around this Capitol within a few years; and we find the diffusive influence of this speculation upon multitudes that surround the Capitol. Members are besieged at every step with appeals, "Do this for us; do justice for us; save the reputation of Texas; be honorable, and it will do her some good." They do not say, in significant strains, "Fill our pockets, fill our pockets, will you?" though this is what they mean. They mean nothing else than to acquire, and to take away from either Government-I will not say ill gotten gains-but what would be clear gains, if they got them.

The largest amount of the outstanding issues against Texas at this time arises from obligations that were issued from her treasury, for which she received but from sixteen to ten cents on the dollar; and now a hundred cents on the dollar is claimed for them, swelling the amount of her debts to millions. No matter how irregularly the debt was contracted by Texas, whether there was authority for the obligations issued or those brought in and funded; whether they were made without appropriations or not, Texas has estimated them, and placed them on a footing with the other equitable demands against her. She has extended equity when she might have caviled, and contended that, according to strict law, or common usage, she was not bound. Yet we are told that if Texas would only come forward and redeem her outstanding obligations at par, or pay all the money she has in her coffers, and the $5,000,000 reserved by the United States, she would establish a reputation above all suspicion; that she would then sustain herself with credit; that it would do her more honor, and make her a more glorious nation than ever existed. Sir, Texas as a State is only a part of this Confederacy; one of thirtyone; and she does not aspire to be more glorious than the United States, or the mighty nations of the earth. We find that they have perpetrated offenses against good morality and national honor, which Texas scorns to do. They have repudiated debts, not only revolutionary debts, but others contracted in good faith. This Texas has not done, and will not do. She has not repudiated one dollar of her revolutionary debt, and she wili not do it. She will pay a hundred cents upon every dollar she has realized. Is not that worthy of admiration? Yet gentlemen say she would be glorious if she would pay the nominal amount of her liabilities.

SENATE.

When the United States repudiated—I de claim that as authority, but I wish to bring array before the public mind-it was for an as upwards of $240,000,000 of revolutionary de Has Texas done anything of that sort? Hu repudiated one just demand, amounting to a r dollar, of citizens of Texas who assisted herr hours of difficulty? Not one. The United y repudiated millions, and hundreds of millions, in the hands of war-worn veterans, who had through a revolutionary struggle of seven ye The United States repudiated the revolutier debt of the war of Independence, which commer in 1776. Texas, during her revolution ov years, did not repudiate one dollar that was by her revolutionary soldiers. The United S when they assumed the debts of the several Sothe old thirteen-after the war of the Revel required the States to scale those debts, arithem at the scaled rates. If we were dispose be a little tricky, might we not follow these amples? But if we have been tricky, I know what fair dealing means.

We do not, however, claim the beneft of high examples to which I have referred; but I that in view of them it comes with a very grace frn the affairs of Texas, and to determ what are her liabilities.

from the United States to become ada

The amount of $5,000,000 that was reserve the Treasury of the United States, was reser at the instance of creditors, who were import and surrounding Senators here when legis this subject. Some sagacious lawyer had da ered that the United States were liable when y acquired Texas, and received from her which were intended for the liquidation of 1) debts. It was not intended by that reservation determine what the debts of Texas were, but the debts of a certain character for which the G ernment of the United States might possi held liable. When were they to pay these de When ascertained by Texas, and certified Treasury of the United States. That w object of retaining the $5,000,000, as I unders it at the time, and I vo.ed upon the subject a good faith and confidence, satisfied, as I the amount upon which the impost duties of In were pledged did not amount to $5,000,00),: that there would be a large residuum to Tex that amount.

The President and Secretary of the Tree of the United States, after the passage of that determined, in effect, that the Government of t United States were liable for all the debts of Tex It will be remembered that in the administr of the government of Texas from 1841 downRE time of the annexation in 1845, there was net i dollar of debt incurred, nor one liability era From December, 1841, when the exchequer tem was established, and the immense isso! $12,000,000 were suspended, $200,000 was amount of the currency established by law, that commenced to issue at the rate of a bus cents on the dollar. A combination was de formed of brokers and speculators, gentle alien to Texas, who wanted to filibuster, subvert the Goverment, right or wrong, whos that if they were not admitted into its contr made participants of it, they would subventi by no other way, by revolution. They combine and by their combination immediately reduced by value of that currency from a hundred cents seventy-five, and at one time it went down as 'G as twenty-five cents on the dollar. By ecomm issues, by extreme economy in the Govern the value rose again. But the Legislature w met annually consumed a large amount, and he opposed to the Executive, sought every poss means to embarrass him; and instead of requ the taxes to be paid as under the previous exs ing laws, they repealed those laws for the co tion of taxes, or postponed their operation for s months, so as to depreciate the value of, by le ening the demand for this currency, and there to embarrass the government in such a way that could no longer exist. However, the good form that presided over Texas, and directed her pa did not desert her. The currency came up age and was at par; but after a long session of Texas Congress, it fell to fifty cents, and even » low as thirty-seven and a half cents; but it ras

853.]

32D CONG.....2d Sess.

gain, and continued at par, in spite of all the cominations and machinations of faction, corruption, When that administration ended, in nd treason. 844, the government of Texas had not only accuulated in the treasury $25,000 of par funds in old and silver, but it had paid all just and unavoidble demands to foreign nations, and to support the anta Fé and Mier prisoners in Mexico, and to proure their release, not less than $70,000. So that The Texas debt, with the exception of $2,500,000 ccrued between the years 1838 and 1841, not a olitary cent accrued in the administration which asted from the end of 1841 to 1844. It will thus be een the debt of Texas did not grow out of her neessities, and that the present creditors who come Forward here with their demands, and who, accordng to their saying, helped Texas in her hours of rial and threw their money into the lap, instead of doing that, threw it into the lap of speculators. Not a dollar of it went to Texas which will not Only be paid in par funds, but which will also I, Crust, be paid with interest, and at a premium. There were bonds issued,―let them be paid to the etter and to the Tast farthing; but let those who have accumulated these obligations by speculation, and that too of a most enormous character, receive, like Shylock their " pound of flesh," or two pounds if you please, but "not one drop of Christian blood." Sir, if these men were the assignees, or the descendants of Shylock, they would reflect just credit upon his reputation. [Laughter.] But, Mr. President, it is thought that it is immoral in Texas-that it is not a clever thing in her not to pay her debts. Now, I should like to ascertain by what standard of morality we are to arrive at the adjustment of her debts? Is it that standard of morality that pays a man not only what he has given, but a hundred per cent. in addition to that? Or is it the standard it is proposed to establish here, that when a man has given three cents for a dollar he is to get a hundred cents? Is it that rule by which we are to judge of the morality of Texas, and the advantage of her creditors?

That would be a very agreeable one to the creditors, but I cannot see that it would be complimentary either to the heart or the head of Texas. I do not think there is anything smart in it. It may be smart for the creditors, but certainly most stupid for Texas. They are for fixing their standard of morality for Texas, and she is for fixing her standard of equity and justice for them; and the United States have no business at all with it one way or the other.

if, however, the United States are bound for the debts of Texas, they are bound for much more than this bill proposes to pay. The independence of Texas was not recognized by Mexico when it was annexed to the United States. The domestic debt of Mexico was then about a hundred millions of dollars. They claimed that Texas should pay a part of it. Propositions were even suggested before annexation, that if Texas would assume her proportion of the national debt of Mexico, the independence of Texas might be acknowledged. If the United States are now bound by the act of annexation for the debts of Texas to the extent that the means taken by the United States would have gone, the debt to the Government of Mexico is a prior one, and the United States are bound to Mexico for a much larger sum than they are bound to these creditors. Would you be willing to go back and settle that amount? Yet it has a priority over the present demand. Mexico never recognized the debts that Texas incurred by her revolution, and if you recognize that you are bound to pay them, you should also pay to Mexico the proper proportion of Texas to the one hundred millions of the domestic debt of Mexico.

It is true, the Government of the United States might justly bear a part of the liabilities incurred on the part of Texas, because a portion of the debt of Texas was entered into for the purpose of defending her frontiers against the Indians. What Indians were these? Were they indigenous to Texas? No, sir. Who were they? The Shawnees, the Kickapoos, the Choctaws, the Anadacoes, the Kechies, Wacoes, Caddoes, and other Indian tribes from the limits of the United States, who settled in Mexico, and made war upon Texas. It was therefore necessary for Texas to defend a frontier of six hundred or eight hundred miles against the inroads of these Indians. The Gov

She

Well, sir, Texas has incurred liability. Let her pay issued bonds to a certain amount. those bonds with interest, since she made a tender. of them in the market. Let her pay for her vessels-of-war or navy; let her pay all the just contracts she has made; all the equitable liabilities arising from the currency which she threw into circulation. That currency became valueless in the hands of her own citizens, and was then grasped at by greedy speculators. Let her treat them, as she has done, with justice and fairness. It was twice in prospect to repudiate the debt of Texas. But did she do it? It was talked of, and a little encouragement might have produced the result. The conduct of the refractory creditors had no doubt stimulated it. But Texas did not Her Executive discountenanced repudiate a cent.

SENATE.

justly owed. So she will. But if that message is read, let it be remembered that not a word of the extract is recognized until the whole message is produced here upon the floor, and the whole instrument construed together. It was then laid down as a principle that the Government of Texas would equitably redeem every dollar that she owed.

She had evinced a disposition to do it by sub-
acre when her notes were selling at three cents on
mitting her public lands to entry at two dollars per
the dollar; and she had kept them open for years
She has gone
subject to entry at that rate.
further, and says it will be just to redeem money
issued at a depreciation at the full value at which
it issued from the Treasury with interest thereon.
That is the act of Texas. What the refractory
conduct of her creditors may do with the feelings
Within a few years a
of Texas I cannot say.
total revolution has taken place in her population.
The number of emigrants since annexation, 1 sup-
pose has more than doubled or quadrupled the pre-
vious number of inhabitants. The interest on the
money retained in the Treasury here will dimin-
ish the necessity of taxation by her. What her
people may deem to be politic and expedient here-
after in relation to their debts I know not. I do
not encourage repudiation. I hope it never will
take place; but if it should, let those be account-
able for the result who invoke and provoke their
destiny. Let the sin lie at their doors. I hope it -
will never lie at the door of Texas; but those who
have advanced, or who have contracts with her,
shall be paid to the last farthing of what they have
advanced.

A law was passed by the Legislature of Texas,
after annexation to the United States, in 1848, by
which it was provided, that any person coming
forward and depositing fifty cents at the treasury
and for every fifty cents received at the treasury
of Texas, should take a receipt from the treasurer,
he should be entitled to one acre of land. Certifi-
cates to the amount of more than half a million of
dollars were deposited under this law, as I was in-
formed, and land drawn, or land warrants issued,
to that amount. These gentlemen have gone quietly
How are the benefits of this
and located their lands, and now realize several
hundred per cent.
bill to be extended to them? How are they to be
recompensed for the losses which they have sus-
tained, according to the plan of this bill? Are they
to fall back upon the United States? Are they to
become recipients of the benefits proposed in this
bill, or, are they to be excluded?

But I am sure that the honorable gentleman who
introduced this bill cannot object to the principle of
Texas scaling. She is to be the judge of her own
matters. She knows very well under what cir-
cumstances the debts or liabilities were contracted.
She knows their character perfectly; and we find
that the honorable gentleman who introduced the
bill has not determined to pay according to the face
of the paper, or of the demands of the creditors; but
that a certain amount shall be paid, and that, if
he, too, is for scaling the liabilities. He proposes
that does not cover all the liabilities, the creditors
shall receive it according to the proportion of their
demands, and shall give a receipt in full. Now,
Mr. President, as for the morality of the thing,
whether one cent or one dollar, one degree or ten
degrees of discretion at all changes the standard of
1 think
morality, I am not prepared to say.
Texas is the best judge of this matter; so that the
United States would incur an additional reproach
upon herself, if she were, by this law, to take it
out of the hands of Texas to adjust her own af-
fairs. Texas knows what her liabilities are: she
knows all the circumstances surrounding them,
under which they grew up, under which they
dragged along, and by which they were managed.
She knows, too, the influences and the means of
their acquisition. But she is not acquainted with
the means and influences that surround this Cap-
itol, and which grow every day. I know it is
perilous, eminently perilous, to oppose an influ-
ence so overwhelming as that of the claimants here.
I have stood in perilous positions before, but when
I feel well on this
I felt badly, nobody knew it. I
occasion, and proud that I have a colleague who
has realized all that experience could teach or suf-

it. It may be that an extract will be read here from the message of her Executive, in 1843, show-fering inflict. ing that she would pay the last cent which she

Personally, to those who are the Texas creditors,

32D CONG.....2D SESS.

I have no objection. I look upon them as I look upon other speculators. I look upon them as I do on men who go into the market every day-men who wish to make, in their estimation, honest gains, and who would not have their consciences smitten if they made one hundred per cent. every day. That would not involve their honor, but it would, in their estimation, sustain the honor of those on whom they make the one hundred per cent. I want no more sympathizers with Texas. I do not want them to appeal in behalf of Texas, to rescue her honor. Her honor, her safety, her existence, her liberty, her independence, were once involved, and I did not see, in her direst need, and when clouds enveloped her in darkness, the face of one of those men who now claim to be her benefactors or her sympathizers. It was not until the last enemy had marked her soil-it was not until our star had risen in the east, and until it was attaining something like its meridian spiendor, that the speculators were attracted by the hopes of gain. Then, in that proud day, they were willing to unite their destiny with her; but to grope their way in darkness, to peril their lives in conflict, to confront and grapple with the enemy, not one was there. Let them not talk of Texas' honor, Texas' renown, and Texas' escutcheon cleared. She cleared them herself, sir. It was not a speculation; it was a real transaction; and she will keep it clear. It is her best guardian under the aegis of the Constitution. I desire justice and liberality to all who aided Texas; and no matter how they have acquired their demands, give them an earnest for everything they have, and upon that earnest give them interest, and, if you please, be liberal, but let Texas have the credit of doing justice to her creditors, and let not the United States intervene to save her soiled honor, as it is called. She will take care of that article herself, and she will take care of her money, too, I trust, and make a useful application of it in paying all just demands, but not the demands of Shylocks. Sir, I have done.

COLONIZATION IN NORTH AMERICA.

DEBATE IN THE SENATE, SATURDAY, February 7, 1853.

The Senate having under consideration the resolutions respecting colonization on the North American continent by European Powers, and respecting the Island of Cuba:

Mr. CLEMENS said:

Mr. PRESIDENT: When the Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON] introduced his resolution in relation to the tripartite convention proposed by England and France, I was confined to a bed of sickness; but I gathered from the reported debates that he had consulted with no one but the Senator from Michigan (Mr. CASS] and the Secretary of State. Now, sir, I do not deny the individual right of those Senators, under ordinary circumstances, to exclude whom they please from their consultations; but this is not an ordinary occasion, nor are they ordinary men. One [Mr. MASON] is chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the other [Mr. CASS] has had bestowed upon him the title of Pater Senatus. Whatever they do commits the party to which they are attached, and I think it but fair that those of us who are expected to be bound by their action, should have had some notice in advance of what that action was to be. I think, moreover, that the wishes of the President elect should have been ascertained; that prominent members of his own party should have hesitated before placing him in a position so embarrassing as that in which he now finds himself. If it should turn out, as I sincerely hope it may, that he does not accord with many of the opinions which have been advanced upon this floor, he is placed, in the very outset of his career, in direct opposition to leading members of his party. If, on the other hand, he should concur with them, it would have been more respectful to let him take the first steps, and not to have snatched, with such impatient hands, the wreath, or bad,) which

ex

tended to grasp. On this, and on other accounts, the resolution of the Senator from Virginia seemed to me impolitic, and those of the Senator from Michigan, which are based upon it, equally indefensible.

Mr. President, there are periods in the history of nations, as of individuals, when one false move must be followed by years of suffering; when the neglect or improper use of the right moment, or the right occasion, infuses a poison into the bodypolitic no remedy can reach. We are approaching such a period, if it is not already upon us. From the line of conduct now to be adopted, much that is good, or much that is evil, will surely ensue. To render all I have to say perfectly intelligible, it will be necessary to enter upon a brief review of the past..

Heretofore the advice of Washington has been respected, and we have succeeded in steering clear of the tangled web of European politics. Besides, the growth of the American Union has been so rapid as to defy the calculations of European statesmanship. The merchant, when he found a rival taking away his most profitable traffic, the manufacturer, as year by year the demand for his productions diminished, the fisherman, when he saw Yankee sails invading the haunts of the great monsters of the deep, all these understood that a new power had sprung into existence, and felt that they were engaged in a rivalry in which European energy and European intelligence were destined to be overshadowed. But kings and cabinet ministers could not comprehend that a few scattered colonies, but a short time since a feeble dependency on the Crown of Britain, had indeed become a powerful nation. The monarch who looked back upon a line of a hundred sires, could comprehend no stable form of Government save that which was endeared to him alike by interest, and by educational prejudice. If, in his imperial dreams, the vision of America ever rose before his eyes, it was only as a people whose own unbridled passions would drive them into anarchy, whose turbulence and whose dissensions would furnish another reason to the world for committing all government to sceptered hands.

In the mean time, the neglected and despised Republic was moving steadily and rapidly along the road to wealth, to power, and to honor; but its strength was unmarked and its vigor unknown abroad. The war with Mexico followed. A little

handful of citizen soldiers overran a nation of seven millions of inhabitants, and dictated the terms of peace from her national capital. Here was a lesson which even kingly dullness could not misunderstand, or ministerial servility misinterpret. Suddenly the whole tone of the public journals of Europe was changed. Prior to that time they had derided our progress and laughed at the feebleness of our military force. It was assumed to be impossible for a Government like ours to carry on a war of foreign conquest. Foolish editors, writing at the dictation of still more foolish masters, argued themselves and their readers into the conviction that the first summons of the drum to an aggressive war would be the signal of ruin and destruction to the Union. That summons came; a powerful nation was vanquished; and so little were the energies of our people taxed, that at home it would scarcely have been known a war was going on save for the reports of battles and victories which floated upon every gale from the South.

Thus vanished one delusion, and with it the old system of political tactics. It was no longer our weakness, but our strength which became the subject of comment. The aggressive spirit and the grasping ambition of America were portrayed in the darkest colors, and Europe was called upon to interpose some check to the territorial aggrandizement of the great Republic. Wrong in their apathy, they were roused from it only to involve themselves still more deeply in error by their action. From newspaper articles they progressed to diplomatic notes; and now, as we have been informed by the President, France and England have made a formal proposition to the United States, that the three Powers should unite in assuring to the Crown of Spain undisturbed possession of the Island of Cuba, through all coming time.

Now, Mr. President, I am willing to go with the Senator from Michigan, and to say that this proposition meant something. I am willing to say that it did not mean what it imported on its face; that it was known it must be rejected; and the idle form of making the offer would have been dis

SENATE.

pensed with but for ulterior objects. Let conceded that it was intended to intimidate is United States-to give us notice that France 12 England were watching Cuba, and were dez mined to resist any efforts upon our part to quire its possession. But, sir, while concej. all this, I do not agree with that Senator as to mode in which it is to be met. I do not tha is the part of wisdom, or sound policy, to pez ourselves to be hurried into intemperate an because France and England have made a forme parade of their future purposes,

To redeem a threat from contempt it is nes sary that the party making it should possess: power of carrying it into effect. As long as Eze statesmen keep their senses, a thousand Ce could not induce them to declare war against United States. Withhold the exports of our ton for one year, and their starving millions w be in open rebellion, We have heard t since, in a time of profound peace, of bane borne by her peasantry with the fearful inserit "Blood or bread." Who doubts that that would be reawakened, and who doubts that would furnish the first, the second, and then course of the banquet to which she would be ted at home? Add to this the certainty of one hundred thousand American bayonets ge ing in the sunlight of Canada, and a thum American vessels cutting up her commente every sea, and you have an amount of danger a suffering no nation will willingly brave. A me of this body, not long ago, declared that Erga had given bond and security to keep the peace wards the United States. Yes, sir, and that curity is her life's blood, her very existence, merely her provinces and dependencies, 152 I fancy she would consider it a poor exchange secure Cuba to Spain and lose Canada bene but she has something more at stake, and I re any threats from that quarter as the verest conade in which any Government ever perme itself to indulge.

France is in scarcely a better condition. has recently erected an imperial throne above! crater of a volcano, and he who occupies the se must watch by day and by night, or an era will soon come to bury him and his fortune neath a burning flood. Even if the great peror himself now held the reins, a war v America would be destruction to France. Tor: an army on our shores would be to devote sword; and the ocean is not an element on whe any great portion of French glory has been i quired. I am not unaware that upon paperi naval power of France seems to be immensey R perior to ours; but those who so calculate, sight of a great truth: guns and vessels do not say stitute a navy. If every vessel on our nata gister were, to-morrow, burned to the water's e France would no more be capable of contents with the United States upon the ocean tha oak of the forest is capable of resisting the 20 derbolt of Heaven. It is seamen who mais! navy; and wherever they are found vessels 1. not long be wanting. In this, the main elemes | success, we are far in advance of every Europe: Power. Our fisheries turn out annually a body. hardy mariners, unequaled for skill, for ener and for daring. It must be remembered, too, t our tonnage greatly exceeds that of any oth! Power. And as long as these advantages reas to us, the crumbling dynasties of the Old Wo may build war-steamers without number, b whenever a contest comes, the best of them soon be found sailing under Yankee colors. Te sels-of-war, manned by peasantry, are feeble foes

Mr. President, I have referred to these thing with no view of encouraging a spirit of aggressort but the reverse. The proposition of England an of France has been seized hold of to inflame popular mind, and I had some apprehensions tha the indignation and resentment excited by it ng lead to offensive acts which could have but termination. It is this which I wish to avoid. I wish to show that we can afford to laugh to som the implied threat hanging over us, and that the is better policy than yielding to the dictates of: hasty resentment. Cuba will be ours whenever it is right and needful for us to take it. Whec. ever the might of this Republic is put forth in just cause there is no human power which can