"spectacle
" he might probably make in a
"page of history."

By the adoption of this measure, so soon as these Ministers to Panama take their seats in that Congress, and join in the discussions of that body, that moment you commit an act of war against Old Spain. Is this just? Is it constitutional thus to take out of the hands of Congress, to whom alone belongs the power to say when this nation, of ten millions of people, shall be involved in war? If Spain is too weak to send an army to invade us, she can still declare war, as she will be compelled to do; our own act being, in fact, war against her. By this means, all the idle seamen of England, France, and the Low Countries, besides her own, will be placed on board of privateers, fitted out under the flag of Spain, to destroy our commerce in every sea. What good, then, can possibly result to this nation from this state of things? We are now about to adopt the discarded policy of Pitt, and Castlereagh, which for so many years desolated the British realms, which, if continued but for a few years longer, must inevitably have destroyed the energies of that nation, if not destroyed the Monarchy itself. Now, however, by the opposite course, she enjoys peace, and is daily reaping the fruits of good Government; extending her commerce, disbanding her armies, laying up her navy, increasing her manufactories, paying the national debt, and repealing many of her taxes; whilst we, to make a "figure in history," or exhibit a spectacle" for Europe to look at, are involving ourselves in debt and interminable war-the ultimate end of which no human foresight can see or conjecture.

66

[APRIL, 1826

in a style so clear, simple, firm, and respectful,
that none can misunderstand or doubt the
meaning; here, the bad taste of the rhetorician
is so intermingled with the affectation of the
statesman, that you are in doubt whether it
means this thing or something else; and this,
too, by a Government whose duty it is, as be
ing the oldest of the Republics, to give an ex-
ample of candor and moderation.
Not only
this, but to expose to the people of this nation
every transaction, in a clear and distinct point
of view, that they may unhesitatingly decide
upon their own affairs, and know the conduct of
their Representatives.

This measure, fraught with so much mischief to this country, is one that ought to be avoided if possible. So far as I can see, in all its bearings, it looks to the conquest of Cuba and Porto Rico; or, at all events, of tearing them from the crown of Spain. The interests, if not safety, of our own country, would rather require us to interpose to prevent such an event; and I would rather take up arms to prevent than accelerate such an occurrence. These Republics have a mixed population, it is true, but the proportion of all others, when compared to the Spanish American, is but small. They, by a provision in their constitu tion, have abolished slavery, and placed every color on an equal footing, which may not be any great inconvenience to them. But what will be the state of the case should Cuba and Porto Rico be revolutionized upon their principles? It is well known that those colonies contain nearly five blacks to one white person; that in Cuba the proportion is this or more. It must then be a black Republic. The conIn what a strange attitude this Panama Mis-dition of Hayti is also to be taken into consion places us. Whilst we are at peace with Spain, we are in conclave with her enemies, devising the best means for "carrying on the war" against her; not only to carry it on against her in America, but the expediency of carrying this war into her territory on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, into the Canary Islands. Whilst we say to Europe we will not take part in this contest between Spain and her colonies, neither shall you, to subjugate these countries: we are mingling in the councils of Panama, planning war against Cuba and Porto Rico, the remaining colonies of Spain. A course of this kind is well calculated to bring upon this country the reproach of all nations having any regard for public faith. Instead of pursuing an open, ingenuous, manly course, thinking slowly, and acting prudently, firmly, and sincerely, we are engaged in all the insincerity and folly of Europe, at a period of their history over which themselves would gladly throw a veil. How different has been the course of the British Government! In the correspondence of her Minister with the Envoy of Spain, lately published in this country, we have seen all this diplomatic fog dissipated, which our own seems to delight in as the highest evidence of the talent and skill of the statesman. There, the story is told

sideration at this Congress, to determine whether Hayti shall send Ambassadors to the different powers; and, if all questions are to be decided by a majority of votes, we must expect those Republics to act upon their principles, and compel us to receive a negro Minis ter; as the stipulations of this Confederacy of Republics are, to "interpret treaties," and coerce, if necessary, those who manifest an unwillingness to perform the task assigned to them by the Congress of Panama.

Why should we, then, engage in this moonstruck project, which threatens, at no distant day, a large portion of our country, embracing the whole of our Southern frontier? Cuba is scarcely more than eighty miles from Florida; the narrow sea between can be often passed in a few hours, in open boats; leaving the whole of Louisiana, Florida, and Georiga, open to sudden invasion from these black Republies at any time. Besides, the jealousy and discon tent which this state of things would engender, must finally lead to rebellion and civil discord, should no immediate war be produced. Can there, then, be a man, who, viewing this subject in all its bearings, will not shudder at a picture like this, and abandon the project? A project which cannot, in any possible event,

APRIL, 1826.]

Mission to Panama.

[H. OF R.

bring good to this country or that Republic, | coffee, and rum, to say nothing of thousands and may produce incalculable and irremediable of other articles of commerce, the growth and evils to this Union. Surely it will be a bitter products of these colonies. Besides all this, reflection, to those concerned in it, that, to she has from six to seven hundred thousand "exhibit a splendid spectacle to the eyes of slaves, which, if the doctrine inculcated by European Governments," or give those desir- these new Republics prevail, will be incited to ing it "a bright page in history," all these rebellion, and England be doomed to witness evils have been brought upon their country. the scenes of Saint Domingo acted over again, Should the bold daring of this project be car- in her own colonies. Not less important is ried into execution, in all its parts, I am in- Jamaica, Demarara, Berbice, and Trinidad, to clined to think that it will be discovered that her, in the conduct and protection of her comwe have withered the opening bud of our merce everywhere. When she loses these, future greatness, and that "the bright page of her commercial greatness is on the wane. It history" will be crimsoned with the blood of would be nothing short of folly to believe, our citizens. that she would jeopardize these territories, or permit them to be torn from her by revolution, when we know that she taxes the same products higher from any other part of the world than from these colonies, by ten shillings a hundred weight. Let us not deceive ourselves, or be tempted to change our relations with other powers-we have prospered, we do prosper, and are at peace.

If, however, we, reckless of consequences to our citizens and country, pursue this course, asserting, in the propagation of these principles, that men of every nation, kind, color, and degree, are entitled to the same usage, placed upon the same footing, participating alike in all the rights, privileges, and powers of Government, is it at all certain these visions may not be dissipated by the thunder of England? She has too deep a stake in the affairs of America, particularly the West Indies, to look on with indifference.

Loud cries for the question now resounded from all sides of the House.

The question was finally taken on the amendment of Mr. McLANE, and decided in the affirmative, by yeas and nays-yeas 99, nays 95.

The question then being on agreeing to the resolution reported by the Committee of Foreign Relations, as amended on the motion of Mr. MCLANE

Mr. STORRS demanded that it should be decided by yeas and nays; which was ordered by the House, pending which motion, The House adjourned.

The moment these Ministers take their seats in the Congress of Panama, and begin to act upon the subjects proposed, as those which will engage their attention, that moment you will give just cause of war to any European nation which may think proper to declare it against you-France, Russia, the Netherlands-for, the act itself is, on your part, a declaration of war against Spain; and England, whatever may be her disposition at this time towards us, must declare war against us; she cannot avoid it; her interest is too deeply involved to remain an idle and inactive spectator. Were she to take this course, she would stand justified in the eyes of the world. I, too, could not otherwise than think she pursued the course I would have my own country pursue; and, doubtless, Governor Strong's "moral and religious" friends could find some excuses for her. Sir, I do not fear England; we have beaten her in two wars-one, at all events though, in the last, we coped with fearful odds: with Britain from without, and a fearful opposition from within-an opposition now at the head of affairs. But, whilst I do not fearing England, I know her power; it is vast; nor would I, for light causes, disturb that power. Her thousand ships of war, and hundreds of thousands of men, and millions of money, are not trifles to be overlooked in political arrangements.

Great Britain, I have said, will be compelled to wage a war against us, to preserve her own colonies, and her subjects from massacre. She has, in the West Indies, seventeen colonies; including, in this number, two in South America, that of Demarara and Berbice. Her territorial extent is vast, sending directly to Great Britain, annually, immense quantities of sugar,

FRIDAY, April 21.

Mission to Panama.

After some observations, the question was taken on the resolution of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, as amended on the motion of Mr. MOLANE, and decided by yeas and naysyeas 54, nays 143.

So the resolution was rejected.

The question was then taken on striking out the enacting words of the bill, and decided in the negative, by yeas and nays-yeas 61, nays 134.

So the House refused to strike out the enactclause.

The bill was then ordered to its third reading to-morrow,

And the House adjourned.

SATURDAY, April 22.

Mission to Panama.

An engrossed bill "making an appropriation for carrying into effect the appointment of a mission to the Congress of Panama," was read a third time.

Mr. BARNEY demanded that the question on the passage of this bill should be taken by yeas and nays.

Mission to Panama.

The yeas and nays were ordered by the Wilson of Ohio, Wood of N. Y., Wright, Wurts, House. Young-134.

APRIL, 1826.]

Revolutionary Officers.

[H. or R.

tual. Without officers, he said, an army could | the inequality of provision made by the several not exist; and that, under their present embar-States. Pennsylvania maintains her officers in a rassments, few of them would be able, if will- decent manner; she has given them half pay for ing, to continue in the service for the war. He life. What a difference between their situation and then undertook to prove the necessity of half that of the officers of any other line in the army! pay and pensionary establishments. Few men, some of whom are so actually destitute of clothing he said, are capable of making continued sacri- as to be unfit for duty, and obliged, from that cause fices of all views of private interest; and that have often said, and I beg leave to repeat it, the alone, to confine themselves to their quarters. I it was in vain to exclaim against the depravity half pay provision is, in my opinion, the most politic of human nature on this account; we must and effectual that can be adopted. On the whole, change the constitution of man before we can if something satisfactory be not done, the army, almake it otherwise. While an officer, instead of ready so much reduced in officers, by daily resignagaining any thing, is impoverished by his com- tions, as not to have a sufficiency to do the common mission, there can be no sufficient tie upon duties of it, must either cease to exist at the end of him; and it would be a comfortless reflection the campaign, or it will exhibit an example of more to any man, that, after he may have contributed virtue, fortitude, self-denial, and perseverance, than to securing the rights of his country, at the has, perhaps, ever yet been paralleled in the hisrisk of his life and ruin of his fortune, there tory of human enthusiasm. The dissolution of the would be no provision made to prevent himself army is an event that cannot be regarded with inand family from sinking into indigence and difference: it would bring accumulated distress wretchedness. Nothing, he said, in his opin- upon us; it would throw the people of America into ion, would serve more powerfully to reanimate general consternation; it would discredit our cause their zeal than half pay and pensionary estab-To think of replacing the officers with others, is throughout the world; it would shock our Allies: lishments; as it would, in a great degree, re- visionary; the loss of the veteran soldier could not lieve the painful anticipation of leaving their be replaced." widows and orphans a burthen on the charity of their country; and it would dispel the apprehension of personal distress at the termination of the war, from having thrown themselves out of professions and employments which they might not have it in their power to resume. He urged his sentiments, he observed, with the more freedom, because he could not receive the smallest benefit from the establishment.

Shortly after the date of this letter, paper money became so bad that it was no longer offered in payment; in this year, also, was the defection of Arnold, and the fall of Charleston. Under these circumstances, and in consequence of the recommendations to the States not being complied with, and the urgent solicitations of the Commander-in-Chief, Congress were induced, on the 21st October, 1780, to resolve, Congress being inspired with the same love that half pay for life be granted to the officers of country, and seeing the actual necessity of in the army of the United States who shall the case, again, on the 17th of August, 1779, continue in service to the end of the war. resolved, "That it be recommended to the sev-There were several intervening and subsequent eral States to grant half pay for life to the officers who should continue in the service to the end of the war." But this recommendation was not complied with on the part of the States. At this period, the issue of the war was uncertain, and in great danger, and the uneasiness among the whole troops had become alarming. General Washington again, on the 20th of August, 1780, addressed a letter to the President of Congress, of which the following is an extract:

"I cannot forbear returning, in this place, to the necessity of a more ample and equal provision for the army. The discontents on this head have been gradually matured to a dangerous extremity; there are many symptoms that alarm and distress me. Endeavors are using to unite both officers and men in a general refusal of the money, and some corps now actually decline receiving it. Every method has been taken to counteract it, because such a combination in the army would be a severe blow to our declining currency; the most moderate insist that the accounts of depreciation ought to be liquidated at stated periods, and certificates given by Government for the sums due. They will not be satisfied with a general declaration that it shall be made good. This is one instance of complaint; there are others equally serious. Among the most serious, is

resolves, all of which need not be referred to: the resolve of 1780 being the principal one by which the public faith of the nation was solemnly pledged, and on the faithful discharge of the duties to be performed by the officers under it, depended the liberties and salvation of the country. This compact of the Government was noble and just: it infused, for a time, a spirit of contentment among the officers, but that was all their arrearages remained unpaid, and their accounts unsettled; their distresses and sacrifices daily increased, and their patience and patriotism had more difficulties to encounter than had ever before fallen to the fortune of any army. For upwards of two years the officers remained without any pay, and they had to procure their clothing by their own means, and through their friends. The situation of the soldiers was something better, at this period, their supply was deficient, still as they were provided with clothes; though there were instances of their refusing to accept of commissions, because it was not in their power to find their own clothing. A description of the situation of the army is given by the officers themselves. In December, 1782, the officers of the army addressed Congress, in behalf of

H. OF R.]

Revolutionary Officers.

[APRIL, 1826.

on the several States, entirely failed: so that, contrary to the expectations of all the parties, Congress was without any means either to pay money for these commutation certificates, or to convert them into securities which would command money. The result was that nothing was paid, and the commutation certificates depreciated to about eight for one. This was a period in which the officers stood in the most urgent need of money; as, in October, 1783, Congress had discharged those who had been engaged for the war. Thus was an unpaid army dispersed, and all the cheering prospects with which they had been flattered, by the resolves of 1780 and 1783, at once vanished from their sight. Necessity obliged the most of them to part with their certificates at about one year's half pay. In this condition the situation of the officers remained for eight years, until after the constitution and the funding system were established, when the certificates were funded in the hands of the then holders, at three per cent. interest on the arrears of interest, and with a suspension of interest on one

themselves and their brethren, the soldiers, to make manifest to Congress the distresses under which they labored; that they had struggled with difficulties, year after year, under hopes that each would be the last, but they had been disappointed; that their embarrassments had thickened so fast that many of them were unable to go further. To prove their hardships, they referred to the Paymaster's accounts for the last four years; that, although the States had given certificates for pay due, for part of the time, they had sunk in value to little or nothing; and, as trifling as they were, many had been under the sad necessity of parting with them to prevent their families from actually starving. They represented that shadows had been offered to them, while the substance had been gleaned by others, and that their distresses had now been brought to a point; that they had borne all that men could bear; that their property was expended, and their resources at an end; and that their friends were wearied out with their incessant applications; that the uneasiness of the soldiers, for want of pay, was great and dangerous, and further ex-third of the principal for ten years; so that periments on their patience might have fatal effects. They described the deplorable situation of the army, as to rations, clothing, and pay. They spoke of the half pay as an honorable and just compensation for services rendered, and hoped, for the honor of human nature, that there would be none so hardened in the sin of ingratitude, as to deny the justice of the reward; but that, if objections to the mode only were raised, to preserve the harmony of the community, they were willing to commute the half pay pledged, for full pay for a certain number of years, or for a sum in gross. They entreated that Congress, to convince the army and the world that the independence of America should not be placed on the ruins of any particular class, would point out some mode of immediate redress.

the amount of stock received, reduced to six per cent., was scarcely equal to the sum which would have been payable at that time for half pay, under the act of the 21st of October, 1780. But even this security for their wages, on these unequal terms, came too late for the officers, as the certificates of most of them were then gone into the hands of speculators; and it was not in their power to regain them. The inability of the Government to perform its contract brought this distress upon them; their wants had to be complied with as far as the certificates would go: and to this, it is to be added, that, when the army was disbanded, two years of their pay remained unpaid; and the evidences of these arrears had to share the same fate with the commutation certificates. The officers had no control over necessity; and nothing of their two years' pay and the half pay for life has been enjoyed by them, except the mere shadow. This is the simple narrative of their case, as it has remained for upwards of forty years.

The subsequent proceedings in relation to the officers are notorious. On the 21st of March, 1783, Congress resolved, that five years' full pay should be given to the officers, in money, or in securities, bearing an interest of six per cent. per annum, as should be most After a lapse of so many years, it will readi convenient to Congress, to be paid as other ly be perceived how difficult it is to settle the creditors of the United States, in lien of half claims of the Revolutionary officers on any pay for life: provided, however, that this com- principle that may be deemed accurate, and mutation be accepted by lines and corps, and corresponding with the various views that are not by officers individually, and that such ac-entertained on the subject. The principle on ceptance or refusal should be signified by the Commander-in-Chief to Congress, from the lines under his immediate command, in two months. This resolution depended entirely on the success of applications to be made to the respective States to place funds in the power of Congress. And, on the 18th of April, the 2d of May, 1783, and 27th of May, 1784, resolves passed that requisitions should be made to the several States to provide funds to enable Congress to discharge the well-earned dues of the armv. But these requisitions of Congress,

which former committees have gone, is that of deducting from the arrears of half pay, computed from the cessation of hostilities to the present time, the full nominal amount of the commutation certificates, and paying the sur viving officers the balance, if it did not exceed a million; and henceforward, during the remainder of their lives, paying the half pay stipulated by the resolve of 1780. Even this mode of settlement, which is the most favor able to the officers of any suggested, subjects them to all the losses occasioned by the depre