Remarks
For congressional remarks that are not speeches.
Mr. VAN BUREN was not pleased with the time which has been chosen for presenting this document. But the statement itself was a very lame one, and he thought failed to sustain the claim of its author. In the first place, it did not appear by whom this statement was sworn to. And then the grounds on which the co-operation of the Syren was sustained, were very slight. The gentleman supposes that a... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN made some brief observations, and expressed a desire that the question might be taken at once. The vote being then taken on the motion of Mr. HAYNE, to fill the blank with 800,000 dollars, was decided in the negative, as follows:
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Mr. VAN BUREN explained. He had not attributed the deficiency of the commutation to any unjust or unfair intention towards the Officers. But he had said that seven years' full pay was their just equivalent, and that, the present applicants having lived so long, the operation of the act upon them was unjust.
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Mr. VAN BUREN, in the commencement of his remarks, spoke in so low a tone that the Reporter could not distinctly hear him. He was understood to say, that, if there was any ground for opposing the measure, it was that it might interfere with the laws of the States. The bill had formerly been before the Committee on the Judiciary, of which he was a member, and had been found full of difficulties.... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN said that the proposition of the gentleman from South Carolina related to the Judiciary, which he conceived to be one of the most important branches of our Government. Great difficulty had been found in adapting the process of the United States’ courts to the judiciary system of the States. It had more than once been proposed to pass general laws on the subject. But, whenever this... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN remarked, that, when an officer of the Government appropriated the money of Government to his own uses, the principle at present acknowledged, authorized an union of equity with law, to effect a distribution of his property. This was done to operate as a security. But now it was proposed to carry the principle farther, and to allow the United States, for debts contracted by... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN said, that we owe it to the country to dispose, without delay, of this subject, which, for six years, has consumed so much of our time. In the first discussion on this subject, it was contended that the rights of the creditor were impaired by the provisions of the bill; it is now said of the same bill and provisions, that they give too great a power to the creditor over the debtor.... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a bill granting the assent of Congress to an act of the Legislature of Alabama, incorporating the Cahawba Navigation Company, without amendment.
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Mr. VAN BUREN said that the same bill passed the Senate last year, but did not pass the House. It involved no new principle. The compact between the United States and the new States... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN said that it was with reluctance that He differed with his friend from Tennessee, especially on a subject on which the experience of that gentleman was so much greater that his own, and still more in relation to a matter in which the new States had not received their share of benefit. It was proposed by this bill to place the States admitted into the Union, since the year 1789, upon... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN observed that, on Friday the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. White) happened to be on the floor, explaining his views on this amendment, when he (Mr. V. B.) entered the Senate—and he supposed, from the tenor of that gentleman’s observation, that his amendment was, in its scope, co-extensive with the argument on the bill to abolish Imprisonment for Debt, to which he alluded. I was, said... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN, who said that the question ought now to be disposed of. Six States were not waiting the result of the legislation on this subject. This was the second year which this subject had been before Congress, and he was very desirous that its decision should be no longer delayed; and it was quite certain that the bill could be disposed of at once.
Mr. V. B. then made some remarks in a very... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN said he hoped the bill would not be re-committed. It would create an injurious delay-while, if there ever was a case in which a legislative decision ought speedily to be made, it was this. The bill ought not, therefore, to be recommitted, so as to place it behind the other business. He thought the Senator from Maine might reach his object without recommitting the bill; and Mr. V. B... Continue Reading
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The bill to regulate the intercourse between the United States and the British Colonies, was returned from the other House with amendments.
Mr. JOHNSTON, of Louisiana, moved that the Senate agree to the amendments.
On the motion of Mr. VAN BUREN, the bill was ordered to lie on the table until the afternoon.
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Mr. VAN BUREN said that he thought a better disposition might be made of the bill than that proposed by the Senator from Indiana. If the time had not arrived, it certainly was fast approaching, when a due attention to the other great interests of the country would make some general and permanent disposition of the public lands indispensable. In its interference with our legislation, and a great... Continue Reading
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Mr. VAN BUREN considered the object of the bill clearly to be immediately directed to the protection of manufactures: therefore, the reference to the Committee on Manufactures seemed to be proper. Afterwards, it would be also proper to refer it to the Committee on Finance, who would report on the question, whether the state of the revenue, or the effect upon it of this bill, would allow the... Continue Reading
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