FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100  
101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>   >|  
uch and ought to be destroyed. I detest the man and disdain the spirit that can ever bend to a mean subserviency to the views of any nation. It is enough to be American. That character comprehends our duties and ought to engross our attachments." Considering the probable influence on the Indian tribes of the rejection of the treaty, he said, "By rejecting the Posts we light the savage fires, we bind the victims.... I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage vengeance and shrieks of torture. Already they seem to sigh in the west wind,--already they mingle with every echo from the mountains." His closing words again bring Chatham to mind. "Yet I have perhaps as little personal interest in the event as any one here. There is, I believe, no member who will not think his chance to be a witness of the consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to reject, and a spirit should rise, as rise it will, with the public disorders to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slender and almost broken as my hold upon life is, may outlive the government and Constitution of my country." This appeal, supported by the petitions and letters which poured in upon the House, left no doubt of the result. An adjournment was carried, but the speech was decisive. The next day, April 29, it was resolved to be expedient to make the necessary appropriations to carry the treaty into effect. The vote stood 49 ayes to 49 nays, and was decided in the affirmative by Muhlenberg, who was in the chair. But the House would not be satisfied without an expression of condemnation of the instrument. On April 30 it was resolved that in the opinion of the House the treaty was objectionable. While Mr. Gallatin in this debate rose to the highest rank of statesmanship, he showed an equal mastery of other important subjects which engaged the attention of the House during the session. He was earnest for the protection of the frontier, but had no good opinion of the Indians. "Twelve years had passed," he said, "since the peace of 1783; ever since that time he had lived on the frontier of Pennsylvania. Not a year of this period had passed, whether at war or peace, that some murders had not been committed by the Indians, and yet not an act of invasion or provocation by the inhabitants." In the matter of impressment of American seamen, he urged the lodging of sufficient power in the executive. Men had been impressed, and he held it to be the duty
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100  
101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

treaty

 

passed

 

savage

 
opinion
 
Indians
 

frontier

 
resolved
 

spirit

 

American

 

instrument


condemnation
 

decisive

 

expression

 

objectionable

 

carried

 
effect
 

speech

 

Muhlenberg

 

expedient

 
affirmative

appropriations

 
decided
 

adjournment

 

satisfied

 

committed

 

invasion

 

provocation

 
murders
 

period

 

inhabitants


executive

 

impressed

 

sufficient

 

impressment

 

matter

 

seamen

 

lodging

 

Pennsylvania

 

mastery

 

important


subjects

 

engaged

 

showed

 

debate

 

highest

 

statesmanship

 
attention
 

Twelve

 

protection

 

session