menace, and humiliation that one occupying the office which he does, should place himself in a situation so unworthy of his exalted station. Nor do I intend to invoke the interposition of the Senate to protect the privilege attached to a Senator from one of the sovereign States of this confederacy, which has been outraged in my person. I seek no aid to defend my own privileges; and, so far from being intimidated, I shall be emboldened to express myself with greater freedom, if possible, to denounce the corruption of the administration, or the violation of the laws and of the constitution, in consequence of this attempt to restrain the free exercise of the right of expressing my opinions upon all subjects concerning the public interests, secured to me by the constitution. I leave the Senate to determine what measures the preservation of their own privileges demands.

Much less do I intend to comply with the request, or demand, made of me; demand has no place between equals, and I hold myself within my constitutional privilege, at least equal to the Chief Magistrate himself. I, as legislator, have a right to investigate and pronounce upon his conduct, and condemn his acts freely, whenever I consider them to be in violation of the laws and of the constitution. I, as a Senator, may judge him; he can never judge me.

My object is to avail myself of the occasion to reiterate what I said, as broadly and fully as I uttered them on a former occasion, here in my place, where alone I am responsible, and where the friends of the President will have an opportunity to correct my statement, if erroneous, or to refute my conclusions, if not fairly drawn. I spoke without notes, and it may be that I may omit something which I said on the former occasion that may be deemed material, or express myself less fully and strongly than I then did. If so, I will thank any Senator to remind me, so that my statement now may be as strong and as full as then.

If my memory serves me, I opened my remarks, when I

spoke formerly, by stating that so many and so subtle were the devices by which those who were in power could, in these times, fleece the people, without their knowing it, that it was almost enough to make a lover of his country despair of its liberty. I then stated that I knew of no measure which could better illustrate the truth of this remark, than the one now before us. Its professed object is to restrict the sales of public land, in order, as is avowed, to prevent speculation ; and, by consequence, the accumulation of a surplus revenue in the treasury. The measure is understood to be an administration measure. I then stated that, so far from preventing speculation, it would, in fact, but consummate the greatest speculation which this country has ever witnesseda speculation originating in a state of things of which those in power were the authors: by which they had profited; and which this measure, should it become a law, would but complete. I then asked what had caused such an extraordinary demand for public land, that the sales should have more than quintupled within the last three years?—an1 sail that, to answer this question, we must lock to the state of the currency. That it was owing to the extraordinary increase of bank paper, which had filled to repletion all the channels of circulation. The Secretary had estimated this increase, within that period, from six dollars and fifty cents per individual, to ten dollars. I believed the increase to be much greater-the effects of which have been to double the price of every article, which had not been kept down by some particular cause. In the mean time the price of public lands had remained unaltered, at che dillar and twenty-five cents the acre; and the natural onséquence was, that this excessive currency over wed upon the public land, and had caused these extra riitary geriations which it was the professed object of this bill to prevent.

I then asked what fel and this inundation of paper? The answer was, the experiment" (I Love to remind the

gentleman of the word-) which had removed the only restrictions that existed against the issue of bank paper. The consequence was predicted at the time; it was foretold that banks would multiply almost without number, and pour forth their issues without restriction or limitation. These predictions were, at the time, unheeded; their truth now begins to be realized.

The experiment commenced by a transfer of the public funds from where they were placed by law, and where they were under its safeguard and protection, to banks which were under the sole and unlimited control of the Executive. The effect was a vast increase of Executive patronage, and the opening a field of speculation, in describing which, in anticipation, I pronounced it to be so ample, that Rothschild himself might envy the opportunity which it afforded. Such it has proved to be.

The administration has profited by this vast patronage, and the prejudice which it has excited against the bank, as the means of sustaining itself in power. It is unnecessary to repeat the remarks, in illustration of this. The truth of the statement is known to all the Senators, who have daily witnessed the party topics which have been drawn from this fruitful source. I then remarked that, if rumor were to be trusted, it was not only in a political point of view that those in power had profited by the vast means put in the hands of the Executive by the experiment,-they had profited in a pecuniary, as well as in a political point of view. It has been frequently stated, and not contradicted, that many, in high places, are among the speculators in the public lands; and that even an individual connected with the President himself, one of his nephews, was an extensive adventurer in this field of speculation. I did not name him, but I now feel myself called upon to do so. I mean Mr. McLemore.

Having established these points, I next undertook to show that this bill would consummate those speculations,

and establish the political ascendency which the experiment had given to the Administration. In proof of the former, I availed myself of the declaration of the Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, who had stated that the speculators had already purchased and held a vast amount of public land-not less, as I understood him, than twenty-five or thirty millions of acres; and that if this bill did not pass, the scenes of the last two years would be repeated in this and the coming year. I then undertook to show, from the statement of the Chairman himself, that these speculations would prove ruinous without the aid of this bill. He had stated that the annual demand for public land, resulting from our increased population, could not exceed five millions of acres.

Now, assuming that the quantity on hand is thirty millions of acres, there would be six years' supply in the hands of speculators, even if the land-offices of the United States be closed; and, if the bill did not pass, according to his showing, it would take double or treble the time to dispose of the lands, which, in that case, will be in the hands of speculators. All must see the certain ruin, in that event, of those who have borrowed money to speculate in land; particularly if the sales of public land should be free and open to every one, as it now is, to purchase to the extent of his means. I next showed that the contest was between the Government, as a dealer in public land, and the speculators; that they held in market at least an equal quantity in value to that which the Government now has offered for sale, and that every restriction imposed upon the sales of Government land, must, of necessity, increase the advantages of its rival. dealers.

I then showed that very onerous and oppressive restrictions, of an odious character, upon the sales of the public lands, would be imposed, if the bill should pass. No one thereafter could purchase land of the Government without

license-a license, in my opinion, as offensive and odious as would be a license on the press. To obtain this license, the oath of the applicant was required; and then it could only be obtained on payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, for which the citizen may now receive a grant in fee simple. After he had made his purchase, under authority of his license, the purchaser had to comply with the condition of settlement and cultivation, and must, within the period of five years, prove to the satisfaction of the register and receiver, who are made high judicial officers, a compliance with these conditions, before he could receive his title; and if he failed to comply, by accident or otherwise, he forfeited both his money and the land. I stated that this was a virtual increase of the price of the public lands to the actual settler; so much so, that any sober-minded man would prefer to give the speculators two dollars per acre for land of the same quality, to giving the Government one dollar and twenty-five cents for a license, with these oppressive conditions.

Having established this point, I then undertook to show, that it would increase vastly the power of the Government in the new States, if they chose to exercise this patronage for political purposes. That they would so use it, we had ample proof in the past conduct of the administration, and in the principles which had been openly avowed by its friends. A former Senator from New-York, high in the confidence of the party, and now Chief Magistrate of that State, had openly avowed, in his place on this floor, that to the victor belong the spoils, for which he was reprimanded, at the time, by the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), in a manner worthy of his distinguished talents. Assuming, then, that the power would be exercised with a view to political influence, I showed that it would place a vast number of the citizens of the new States, probably not less than one hundred thousand, in a condition of complete