32D CONG.....3D SESS. it will go down under precisely the same public odium which has overwhelmed constructive mileage and extra compensation. Mr. DODGE, of Iowa. I move to amend the amendment by adding "and Globe." The amendment to the amendment was rejected; and the question recurring on the amendment, it was rejected. Mr. CHASE. I move to amend the resolution by inserting after the words "National Intelligencer," the words "National Era;" and on the amendment I ask for the yeas and nays. On a division of the question on ordering the yeas and nays, only four Senators rose in its favor, and The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. STUART in the chair) decided that they were not ordered. Mr. CHASE. I ask for a count on the other side. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair does not think that necessary. It requires one fifth of a quorum to order the yeas and nays, and four Senators are not one fifth. Mr. CHASE. I apprehend it is the duty of the Chair, whenever any Senator calls for a division upon any question, to have it. That application is not to be limited to the mere ascertainment of the existence of a majority in favor of any proposition. It requires a majority to carry a proposi- || tion. It requires one fifth of the Senators present to entitle the Senator who demands them to the yeas and nays. that newspaper by making it the publisher of any I say in all courtesy, that he must allow me to portion of the debates of the Senate. I know of repudiate the idea of his representing the Democno practical good which the publication in that racy of that State. In the name of the sound and paper can produce to the country. I cannot con- true men of Ohio, I deny that he is entitled to this sent to encourage either directly or indirectly a position. press which advocates doctrines calculated to distract and divide the Union. That paper is the organ of a faction which has already done much to disturb the harmony of the States, and weaken the bonds which bind them together. The patronage of the Senate should not be so distributed as to aid in this unhallowed work. All that I desire to say to the Senator from Ohio is, that I could not understand his assertion when, the other day, he claimed to be the representative of the great Democracy of Ohio! Does he suppose that the Democracy of that State will recognize that Abolition journal as its organ? Do they look into that paper for the purpose of finding their political creed? Do they examine it for the purpose of determining what the honor and justice of the country may demand from them? If, sir, they do, then, as I said upon another occasion, I was a false representative of that party in the memorable gubernatorial campaign of 1848. But now I am enabled to comprehend the Senator. The Independent Democratic party! Sir, there never has been any other party, known as the Democratic party, but the Independent Democratic party-a party that was founded upon principlesprinciples which they believed to be inseparably connected with the prosperity and happiness of the country. It was always independent, because it sought to stand aloof from all factions and all cliques, and to look with an eye alone to the well fare and happiness of the whole people-a party who have labored from the beginning to perpetuate the Union by securing to each section of the Confederacy the undisturbed enjoyment of its conThe question being taken on the amendment, stitutional rights-a party who are content with there were, on a division-ayes 2, noes 24; nothIf the Democracy of that great State have beConstitution given them by their fathers. Mr. RUSK. I hope the Sergeant-at-Arms will be directed to request the attendance of absent Senators. I do not like to see a thing defeated in this way. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The opinion of the Chair is, that upon any question which requires a quorum to act upon it, it requires one fifth of a quorum to order the yeas and nays; upon a question which does not require a quorum to decide it, as to adjourn from day to day, one fifth of the Senators present can order them. quorum voting. Mr. CHASE. I am sorry that the Senator from Texas does not like to see this thing defeated in this way; but this resolution is supported upon the ground of placing information before people who need to be enlightened by Democratic speeches. Now, I only say that if this is the real ground of the resolution, consistency requires the selection of the paper which has the greatest number of readers, and that paper is the National Era. The resolution is also sustained upon the ground of courtesy to a minority. Now, undoubtedly the readers of the Era, I mean of course those who accept the political faith advocated by it, are in a minority. Possibly, at the present moment they are in a smaller minority than the Whigs. A SENATOR. Are you sure? Mr. CHASE. I rather think so. [Laughter.] There has not been a count since the late election, and I cannot be absolutely certain. We are increasing, and the Whigs are decreasing. [Laughter.] If, then, the argument of courtesy to a minority is good, why not extend it to that minority which is represented by my friend from Massachusetts [Mr. SUMNER] and myself? I appeal to the magnanimity of the Senator from Texas. I know his generosity; I know his fairness. 1 do not see how he can gainsay this practical application of his own principles which I commend to him. I hope he will reconsider his position and award to the liberal, growing, independent Democratic minority the same courtesy which he is so ready to extend to our Whig friends. Mr. WELLER. It seems to me that the Senator from Ohio has given a new name to the old Abolition party. Everybody knows, or ought to know that the party to which he alluded is the Abolition party. He designates it as the Independent Democratic party! I know of no such organization. And as to the Abolitionists, it is utterly impossible by the publication of any debates here to change the minds of the readers of the National Era. It would be casting "pearls before swine." Like Ephraim of old, they are joined to their idols." We had better, therefore, let them alone." [Laughter.] I am not disposed to give any consequence or importance to come abolitionized; if they have abandoned the safe and sound constitutional principles which they so zealously sustained in the olden times; if they have thrown themselves into the arms of a miserable faction, then the Senator from Ohio may claim to be their true representative. But, sir, such is not the fact, and therefore it was that I affirmed that he was not the representative of any portion of the Democracy of that State which I regard as sound. In sustaining the Abolition organ he surely does not represent them. I regard him as the exponent of a faction. I regard him as belonging to a clique-to a faction that has been organized for the purpose of destroying the peace and tranquillity of the Union; and if they succeed in carrying out their measures, the result must be the inevitable dissolution of the Government. I have been provoked, I grant I have been provoked, because he comes here and claims to be the representative of the Democracy of my native State, with which I was so long identified previous to my removal to the Pacific. That he should claim to be the representative of that Democracy, that he should claim that the views which he entertains upon all these political questions are the sentiments of those with whom I have spent nearly the whole of my life, and with whom I have battled in the fiercest contests known in the history of any State, has provoked me I admit. I have not lost my temper however, for I claim to be a good-natured man and not easily moved. I have endured this with a good deal of philosophy. I have sometimes felt myself called upon to speak, because I was the only native of Ohio upon the floor of the Senate; and if I could not be allowed to vindicate her reputation from what I considered the foulest aspersions, I could not tell to whom she would look for it. I repudiate now publicly the idea that the Senator from Ohio represents that portion of the party with which I was connected when I was a resident of that State. He may be the true and faithful representative of what is usually known as the Connecticut Reserve in Ohio. It is the hot-bed of Abolitionism, and the hardest place any democratic christian ever went into. (Laughter.] They are a peculiar people, a very remarkable people; and therefore I am free to admit that my friend from Ohio-for he is my personal friend, and I would not disturb a hair of his head-is their representative; but at the same time, Now, Mr. President, I do not know that I should have said anything upon this occasion or engaged in this unprofitable debate if it had not been for the fact that we have no public business to transact. I would not have been justifiable in imposing remarks of this character upon the Senate, if there had been any public business before us demanding action; but everybody knows that there is nothing for us to do. We are only waiting on the Executive for political victims. The Senator from Ohio has been speaking to-day with no other view perhaps than to spread his speech out in the columns of the Globe. I am willing that it shall go there; and whenever he makes a speech in the Senate, and gives me an opportunity to make a short reply, I will contribute a small amount towards its free publication in the National Era, in order that his constituents upon the Connecticut Reserve may have the opportunity of perusing it. They have a strong affection for me in that region. [Laughter.] Mr. CHASE. The honorable Senator from California has shown his regard to the State of Ohio in one mode; I have shown mine in another. I was not born in Ohio. I went to the State in my boyhood, from New Hampshire. 1 identified my fortune with those of her people. I have witnessed, and so far as lay in my power, have contributed to her development and growth. She has become a great State. I am proud to be numbered among her sons. Her honor and prosperity are very dear to me. The Senator from California was born in the State; but he left it in the prime of his manhood, and became a citizen of California. He became a citizen of the State by accident-I he left behind him many who regret his absence. by choice. I abide-he has departed. Departing, His regrets on account of separation are probably mitigated by the reflection that he is no longer in any degree responsible for the action of "that abolition State." Mr. President, the honorable Senator has said that the publication of these debates in the National Era, would be "casting pearls before swine." The honorable Senator seems to be learned in Scripture. He has studied it at all events so far as to be able to make a quotation; but I submit to the candid judgment of the Senator, whether, in point of fact, and so far as their intercourse with gentlemen here or elsewhere is concerned, the readers of the Era are more entitled to that designation than the readers of other papers, which I will not name. The readers of the Era are very numerous-perhaps not less than a hundred thousand. They constitute a pretty large proportion of the thinking men and women of the country. They are independent in their judgments-not apt to follow leaders, unless they know who they are and where they are going. They form their own opinions; and what is most wonderful, they adhere to them in a minority, just as firmly as when in a majority. It is this peculiar trait of fixed adhesion to their principles, which some persons, who desire nothing so much as to be in the majority, and dread nothing so much as to be in a minority, call fanaticism. My friend from California and I have also different reasons for our different degrees of attachment to Ohio. He ran for Governor; he ran well; but he was beaten. I was a candidate for Senator, and was elected. Notwithstanding my election he denies my right to represent the Democracy of the State. Now, I have never claimed to represent, in a strict party sense, that great and powerful organization which we know at home as the Old Line Democracy. I have acted with it when I could do so consistently with my known principles; but I have never abandoned my position as an Independent Democrat. I happen, however, to be the only representative the Democracy of Ohio has in this Chamber; and I will say, with whatever zeal and energy and fidelity the Senator from California has represented his constituents, he has not exceeded my devotion to the interests and the honor of mine. There are differences of opinion in Ohio. To some my opinions are doubtless less acceptable than those 32D CONG.....3D SESS. of the Senator from California. I do not think them the less sound on that account. They are mine the result of my own examination and my own reflection. I am ready to defend them whenever assailed, wherever questioned. The Senator has referred to some remarks of mine made lately in Executive session. I do not complain of this. What I say in Executive session I am willing to have repeated anywhere. But then, as now, instead of claiming to represent the organization known as the Old Line Democracy of Ohio, I distinctly disclaimed all right to speak for it as a member of the party, because while I sympathized with the vast majority of those fellowcitizens of mine in all their generous devotion to the union of these States, while I rejected as they did many of the doctrines and opinions promulgated at Baltimore as anti-Democratic and antiprogressive, I did not feel myself at liberty to go with them in support of the nominees of the Convention. I claimed for the faith and opinions of Ohio all the respect and all the deference which is accorded to the faith and opinions of Virginia; and I refused to support candidates nominated upon a platform constructed as if in the very wantonness of contempt for the settled convictions of the people of my State, and declared to be such by successive Democratic Conventions for the last five years. If voting for Convention nominees is all that is necessary to make a Democrat; if Democracy is nothing more than unreasoning and unreasonable devotion to organization without regard to principles or measures, I certainly make no pretension to the name or character. But, sir, if holding in deep reverence and with earnest faith the old maxims of Democracy; if belief with Jefferson that all men are created equal, and are entitled to equal rights; if an honest recognition of the duty of carrying out these fundamental principles into their practical application, resolutely and without reserve; if fearless advocacy of economy and reform of abuses at home, and generous sympathy with the oppressed abroad; if earnest endeavors to advance our country upon the line marked out by our forefathers to the great destiny which fidelity to American principles will assuredly secure for her; if devotion to the Constitution and the union of the States; if these elements make a Democrat, I claim to be as good a Democrat as any I see upon this floor. I shun no scrutiny of my political opinions or acts. I am quite willing to have my title to the appellation of Democrat compared with that of any other Senator. I should not be surprised if some who challenge my Democracy, were to come out upon such a comparison a good way behind me. The Senator from California tells us that the party represented by the National Era is the Abolition party, and that this party is vainly endeavoring to appropriate the name of Democracy. Why, Mr. President, it is the party which was organized at Buffalo in 1848. The President has appointed a number of gentlemen who were of this party in 1848, to high stations, and the Senate has manifested its accustomed liberality and good sense by confirming these nominations. I do not know that these gentlemen have recanted anything they said in 1848. It is true that the gentlemen thus nominated and thus indorsed, resumed their positions last year within party lines, and have voted for the nominees of the Baltimore Convention. But, I repeat, they have not recanted their opinions of 1848. Now, the party which was organized in that year has ever since been known as the Free Democracy or the Independent Democracy. For one, I like the last designation best, because it expresses best my idea of the organization; but I care little which is used. Certain it is that by one or the other the party has always been distinguished in the resolves of its public meetings and the proceedings of its convention. The great body of voters who compose this organization, and whose numbers increase from day to day, claim to be Democrats, because they hold in good faith all the cardinal maxims of the Democratic faith, and insist on their impartial application to all questions. They call themselves Independent Democrats, because they reject the dictation of the slave power. Courtesy and fairness, one would think, require that they be called by the name under which they choose to be known. If Senators, however, think proper to persist in orable bargain when a great party gets down upon its knees to some faction, and agrees to parcel out the offices. It was indeed humiliating to see a great party placed in this position. They were compelled, therefore, to go over to these three or four who were adhering to the Senator from Ohio. It was by a combination, an unhallowed combination between the Democracy of that day and the Free-Soilers that elevated the Senator to the place he now holds in this Chamber. If that be a matter for my friend to boast of, while he reminds me of my defeat, he is entitled to all the glory resulting from it. By such means I too could have succeeded. One word of conciliation to the Abolitionists, and I would have been Governor. I was beaten, but not disgraced. In the last campaign in Ohio he attached his fortunes to John P. Hale, and sustained him and his political platform. He utterly "repudiated and spit upon" the Baltimore platform. He could not support General Pierce, because he was nominated upon a calling them Abolitionists, it will do no harm. Mr. WELLER. The Senator from Ohio is very much_mistaken in supposing that I cherish any unkind feelings towards his constituents, because of my having been a defeated candidate for Governor in 1848. The history of that campaign is well known to the country. It was the only occasion in that State when the Abolition party did not unite upon a candidate of their own. I was so odious to them and their principles, that they united upon my opponent, and with the union of the Abolitionists and the Whig party they beat me some three hundred votes out of a popular vote of three hundred thousand. If I had remained at home and concealed my views upon the "Wilmot proviso" from the public eye, I should have succeeded beyond all doubt. This I well knew at the time, but I traversed the whole State and proclaimed my opinions fully and freely everywhere, preferring defeat to a dishonorable victory. Í would scorn to hold any office by concealing my principles from the people. But the Senator says that that election which resulted in my defeat placed him in the Senate. I know exactly how he was elected, and I should have supposed he would scarcely boast of such a victory. I understand the history of that election. The Senator had some three or four Abolition friends in the Legislature who held the balance of power between the Whig and Democratic parties; they had the power to control the action of the Legislature; they exercised it. They required an agreement as to the officers to be selected before an election for Senator could be had. They required them to enter into a bargain; and if he will allow me to say-and I say it with all proper respect-a dishonorable bargain; for it is a dishon those principles which were dear to the Abolition heart. How many votes were cast along with that Senator in Ohio? Some thirty thousand. In the mean while the great Democratic party of that State recorded their votes in favor of General Pierce, thereby ratifying, confirming, and sanctioning the Baltimore platform. Does he represent the Democracy of Ohio? The Democracy of Ohio are content to take General Pierce with his principles as avowed by the Baltimore Convention; but the Senator utterly repudiates that, and that portion of the people backing him in his repudiation were thirty thousand, while the majority for General Pierce were, in the whole State, some eighteen thousand or twenty thousand. Therefore I had a right to assume that the Senator from Ohio did not represent the wishes of the people there, when some three hundred and fifty thousand votes were cast in that campaign, and the whole number who acted with the Senator was only thirty thousand. Therefore he represents thirty thousand, a large portion of whom are in the Connecticut Reserve. He is the exponent of their principles, and not the principles of the Democracy. He directed all his efforts to defeat General Pierce; he denounced the sentiments of the Convention which nominated him, and now he claims to represent the Democracy of Ohio! Is not such a claim absolutely ridículous? The Senator has said, too, that the Democratic party at the present session have indorsed some of the unrecanting Free-Soilers of 1848. When? The Democratic party, with that manliness and independence which I trust will always characterize them, avowed their principles through the Baltimore Convention to the world: they desired no man to take their candidate; they sought no concealment; they desired no one to take their candidate with a "generous confidence "-without the platform. They proclaimed their principles; they inscribed them upon their banner; they placed that banner in the hands of their candidate; they were so plainly written, that he who runs might read, and a wayfaring man, though an Abolitionist, need not err therein. [Laughter.] This was fair and manly upon our part. No man was called upon to sustain our candidate, unless he cordially, sincerely, and heartily responded to the principles incorporated in the platform. A very large majority of the people whom the Senator pretends to represent, did respond to them; and all of those men who were confirmed by the Senate of the United States who went with the Free-Soil party in 1848, came in at that contest, and gave in their adhesion to our principles by voting for our candidate; and all that we have said, therefore, in the ratification of the nominations alluded to, is that those who came back, and in good faith subscribed to our principles and supported our candidate, were entitled to a share of the Federal patronage. There has been no man confirmed who would dare to avow to the world the political principles which actuate the Senator from Ohio. Has an Abolitionist been confirmed-any of those who united with him in the last contest? Not one of them. Has any of them been sent in by the President of the United States? No, sir; and they never will. The President has no sympathies with the faction to which the Senator belongs. The Senator says that this Administration has 32D CONG.....3D SESS. taken men back into the Democratic party who have never abandoned the principles of the Buffalo platform of 1848. Sir, we judge them by their action. When they support our candidate and our principles fairly and manfully, we have a right to assume that they have seen the error of their ways, and have come back into the Democratic party. They could not support General Pierce without indorsing the principles upon which he was nominated. To proscribe a class because of their offenses of 1848, would be manifestly unjust. Wise men change their opinions; fools never do. Now, Mr. President, I did not desire to have said anything in this discussion. I should not have been provoked to enter into it but for the repeated remarks of the Senator from Ohio, to the effect that he represents the Democracy of that State. With all respect to him, I claim that I am a much better representative than he is. In the last canvass in that State, it gave a large majority for the man whom I voted for, and who stood upon the principles I avowed; therefore I have a right to claim to be a better representative of the Democracy of that State than he is. When I come to analyze principles I am not willing to regard him as anything else than an Abolitionist. I have so regarded him from the beginning. I have known him in olden times. I have known him when he was canvassing the State in a hopeless minority, as he always will be in Ohio, for there is a vast amount of intelligence there, particularly off the Connecticut Reserve. [Laughter.] There will always be a majority there against the principles he avows; and you will never find in that goodly State a majority who will be willing to indorse the sentiments which have been oftentimes expressed here upon a particular question by the Senator who is accidentally here now. Mr. President, I have said perhaps more on this subject than I ought to have said, but there are particular reasons why I have felt myself called upon to vindicate the character, and the honor, and the truth of the Democracy of Ohio. I owe them a deep debt of gratitude for the manly firmness with which they sustained me in one of the fiercest battles ever fought. Although I have found a home in a far distant land, I can never forget the brave and gallant spirits who gathered around me in 1848. I never can desert them. In a social point of view, I should be sorry, sir,. to lose the Senator from Ohio; but unless he abandons his errors and renounces his heresies, his political days are numbered. It is not probable that a contingency will ever occur again when a great political party will be willing to throw itself into the hands of a few Abolitionists, and sacrifice principle in order to obtain place. It is not often that such things occur, and therefore I count with a good deal of certainty upon the fact that, in two years from this time, the place that now knows him will know him no more forever. [Laughter.] He will go into the shades of private life, where he can have an opportunity of reflecting upon the errors of his past life. He will have ample time to show his philanthropy by devising some plan to improve the moral and political condition of our black population. His philanthropy takes in the whole family of man, black and white, and in retirement he may be able to do something to immortalize his name. I am sure his heart is right, but his head is awfully turned. There is evidently something wrong in that region. [Laughter.] He is obstinate; and having started wrong, the further he goes the worse it is. If he will repent in sackcloth and ashes, if he will renounce his errors, and promise to walk for the future in the path of Democracy and truth, we will allow him to take a place amongst us. I have some hopes of him, for "While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return." [Laughter.] Mr. CHASE. This discussion, so far as it has assumed a personal character, is certainly not of my seeking. I have no disposition, however, to shun any responsibility which it may impose. It commenced in an effort to give a portion of the public patronage to the National Intelligencer, for no reason under the sun, that I can see, except to show the magnanimity of the majority in this Chamber towards the political paper of a minority. It seems to terminate in a discussion of the Special Session-Publication of Debates. action of political parties in Ohio, and of some personal matters which concern myself. The Senator from California has thought proper to refer to the local politics of my State, and to the events which resulted in my election to the seat which I now hold. And now let me say to him, and to all who concern themselves in these things, that so far as I have had any share in any political action in Ohio, I stand ready to meet the fullest and the most searching scrutiny. Sir, I have no political secrets. My public life has been so plain, so open, that he who runs may read its record. No man can truthfully say that I have ever deviated, upon any occasion or under any influence, by the breadth of a hair, from the path which fidelity to my long-cherished principles required me to pursue. It is true that I have acted in a minority. The time has been when I have stood almost alone. Some years ago, when I first promulgated those political principles which have ever since determined my action, I found few sympathizers or supporters. But I knew these principles to be sound. I believed them to be important; and I did not shrink from their defense then any more than I shrink from it now when their abstract correctness is generally admitted, and their practical application is resolutely demanded by tens of thousands of voters at the ballot-box. And let me say to gentlemen that they are indulging a vain dream if they fancy that these principles are to die out of the hearts of the people. They will go on conquering and to conquer. You may depend upon it that the faith of freedom is neither dead nor dying. You may depend upon it that it has lost nothing of that vital energy which has already overcome so many prejudices and changed so many convictions. The advocates of that faith shrink from no discussion. They desire it rather. They court investigation. They challenge scrutiny. They know that the more their principles and measures are examined and scrutinized the more they will commend themselves not only to the warm and generous affections, but to the sober and deliberate judgments of the American people. influence of patronage will succeed, I cannot say. But we know it is made, and we know too that it is the most common thing in the world, when two parties, or two sections of one party, having some common objects, unite to form a majority over a third party hostile to these objects, to divide the offices which that majority has to fill between the sections which compose it. Now, it so happened that in the Legislature of Ohio, in 1848-'49, no party had a majority; the Independent Democrats were, it is true, few in number; but the Old Line Democrats, though more numerous, were not numerous enough to effect anything by themselves. Under these circumstances that which was most natural took place-the Independents and Old Line Democrats united. But there was-and I am proud to say it no sacrifice of principle on either side. The Old Line Democrats voted for me because they knew me to be sound in the Democratic faith, though independent in party action. The Independent Democrats voted for Old Line nominees for supreme judges, who, though they differed from them in party action, yet shared their general opposition to the extension and nationalization of slavery. Let the Senator make all he can of this. I see nothing in it to lament. I can appeal confidently to my whole course here to justify the confidence reposed in me. Nothing has transpired in the history of either of the eminent gentlemen elected to other offices at the same time, to make Independent Democrats regret the votes they cast for them. Many members of the Legislature who participated in these elections have since received distinguished proofs of the public confidence; and a succession of Democratic victories instead of the succession of defeats which had for years marked the previous history of the Democratic party, has attested the wisdom of the Old Line Democrats who recommended, or adopted, or approved the union. Sir, I do not so highly value a seat here that I would sacrifice one jot or tittle of my personal independence to obtain or to retain it. Nor would I surrender any political principle to come or to remain here. The prophecy of the Senator from California may be fulfilled. It is very possible that I may not be reëlected. I shall have as little to regret in that event as any man. I am entirely willing, whenever the people of my State indicate that such is their pleasure, to retire from the scene. I have said on another occasion, and to my Democratic constituents, that a private is not less acceptable to me than a public station. I said it sincerely and honestly. I have ever preferredand all the acts of all my life will prove it-action with a minority in defense of principles, to action with a majority, and to any position which a majority can confer, in disregard of principles. I have said that I represent the true sentiments of the people of Ohio. I have never said that I represent a majority party organization. The Senator from California tells us that he has been And now, sir, let me further say that there is nothing in the circumstances of my election which I desire to withdraw from scrutiny here or elsewhere. The Senator from California may, if he sees fit, stigmatize the action of the Old Line Democratic members of the Ohio Legislature-and every one of whom, by the way, had just before supported him for Governor-as dishonorable. I never thought it so. There happen to be two Democratic parties in my State. The political platforms of both are substantially the same; but one insists upon the national recognition and adoption of its principles as the condition of support to national nominees; the other has hitherto supported national nominees without any such condition. The former is known as the Independent or Free Democracy; the latter as the Old Line Democracy; and many who act in the Old Line hold the State plat-provoked by my claim to represent that Demoform very cheap, and sympathize strongly with those who are known in other States as Hunkers; there are more, however, with whom the principles of the State platform are a cherished faith, and who of course sympathize more strongly with the Independent Democracy. Some two years ago, when no national election was pending, when the Old Line Democracy was in opposition to the National Administration, and of course not responsible for any proslavery action, many of the Independent Democrats, myself among them, supported the Old Line nominations. At this election, the Old Line ticket was elected by a large majority over all opposition. Upon no other occasion, for many years, has the Old Line State ticket received an absolute majority. A SENATOR. How was it at the last presidential election? Mr. CHASE. The Independent Democrats unanimously supported their own ticket, and the Baltimore nominees lacked fifteen thousand votes of an absolute majority. Well, sir, there has been in New York a union of the Barnburners and Hunkers; and no small pains is taken at the other end of the Avenue, and at this, to cement and consolidate this union. We have witnessed a pretty careful distribution and adjustment of the offices with this view. How the attempt to harmonize these discordant elements by the potent cratic party in Ohio which voted for him as Governor. I have never made any such claim. If he has been provoked, he has been provoked without occasion. I have never assumed any other position than that which I take now. I represent Ohio-the people-not a mere party organization. I have no doubt at all that my political principles are the political principles of a large majority of that people, however their expression may be restrained or modified by party policy. There is not, for example, a sentence in the whole platform of the Old Line Democracy from which I dissent. I have maintained its principles, and have defended its policy every time I have addressed my constituents in whatever part of the State. I shall continue to do so. All I ask of the Old Line Democracy of Ohio is to carry out inflexibly and without reserve the principles of their platform. The chief, if not the only point of difference between me and them, is that I cannot consent, for the sake of party union and a party victory, to support national candidates who reject those principles-the nominees of a Convention who trample upon and spurn them. I know just as well as the Senator from California that those who concur in the support of candidates nominated upon a platform, are generally supposed to unite in approbation of it. But I know also, and the Senator knows just as well as 32D CONG....3D SESS. I do, hat thousands and tens of thousands of voters in nearly every northern State, while they supported the candidates of the Baltimore Convention, repudiated the Baltimore platform. I could not adopt this course. I felt that it gave a sort of right to the supporters of the platform to say to its opponents, "By supporting the candidates you adopted the platform. You are now bound by it, and must acquiesce in it." I was unwilling to place myself in any such position. The Senator says, also, nobody has been appointed or confirmed who has not acquiesced in the platform. But how acquiesced? Virtually, only by support of the candidates nominated upon it; not by any public declaration of changed opinions. When and where did John A. Dix recant any of his opinions avowed in 1848, when he and I went together in support of the same candidates? When and where did he give in his adhesion to the Baltimore platform of 1852? I refer to this distinguished gentleman-distinguished every way, by his talents, by his acquirements, by his personal worth, and by the high place he occupies in the regards of the country-as the representative of a class. They are all claimed as supporters of the platform because they voted for the nominees; and this, too, notwithstanding the open declarations of many of them that, while they supported the candidates, they utterly rejected the doctrines of the Convention. I did not choose to afford any pretense for such a claim in respect to myself. I preferred to take position with that minority of which the Senator has spoken, and which he says will always remain a minority. Let him not, however, deceive himself on this point. No future event is more certain, in my judgment, than that the principles of this minority will become the principles of a majority of the American people. Mr. RUSK. When will it be? Mr. CHASE. I cannot tell; but if you will observe the great and constant increase of the numbers of their consistent supporters, and the still greater change which has been going on in public sentiment in favor of these principles, you will be satisfied that it is nearer at hand than some gentlemen would willingly believe. But I will pursue this subject no further. I have already detained the Senate too long. I regret the necessity of saying anything upon these subjects; but it was a necessity. It was impossible for me to leave unanswered the observations of the Senator from California, though nothing was further from my expectation when I entered into this discussion than a debate of this nature. I rose at first, as I said at the beginning, from a sense of public duty, to oppose the resolution of the Senator from New York, [Mr. SEWARD.] I oppose.it Special Session Resignation of a Senator. as bad in principle and bad as a precedent. It proposes a large and useless expenditure of public money. It proposes to extend and perpetuate a bad system. And an effort is made to force this resolution through at the very close of a special session, when it is almost impossible to obtain a quorum to do any business. I resist it. I think it wrong; and I hope to find a majority of the Senate, should the resolution ever be brought to a vote, of the same opinion. Mr. BRODHEAD. This is a very thin Senate. There must be a very large majority in favor of the resolution; but still, if the Senator from Ohio insists on a division, we had better understand it now, and adjourn if we cannot muster a quorum. I think myself that we had better pass the resolution to give four dollars to the Intelligencer for what they have published, and will publish, of the debates of the last session. The most of the speeches have been published, and there are but few to be published; and I therefore hope that, by general consent, we will pass the resolution now. Mr. CHASE. I will say in reply to the Senator from Pennsylvania, that my deliberate judgment is, that it is not right for the Senate to pass resolutions involving a large expenditure of public money without a quorum. I cannot, for one, consistently with my views of public duty, permit it. Mr. BRODHEAD. I think it is generally known that I am on the side of economy; but this will not take a large expenditure of public money. There are certainly Senators enough here to adopt the resolution, and there is a large majority of those who are present in favor of it. Mr. JONES, of Iowa, moved that the Senate adjourn. The motion was not agreed to. The question being taken on Mr. CHASE'S amendment to insert "the National Era," resulted-ayes 2, noes 19; no quorum voting. Mr. WELLER. It is evident that there is no quorum present, and we are completely within the power of the two Senators. If they choose to insist upon a division the division will result in a disclosure of the fact that we have no quorum. It is a deliberate attempt on the part of those two Senators to defeat this resolution, or force the National Era into the patronage of the Senate. There is no difficulty in comprehending that this is the determination of the Senator from Ohio; and under the rules of the Senate, if he persists he can succeed in his object. I have no difficulty in understanding it, because he has said that his course is so plain that he who runs may read, but I think that in his case, he who reads will run. [Laughter.] Mr. SEWARD. I introduced this resolution and I am happy to see that it commands the sup SENATE. port of so large a majority of the body. It is embarrassed by a proposition, whether intended or not, to give to the National Era the printing of the debates of the Senate. I would at all times give such a proposition, if it were presented independently before us, my support, but inasmuch as the pressing of it now is embarrassing the resolution, and as there is no quorum present, I move that the Senate adjourn. Mr. CHASE. I will merely say one word. It is supposed by some Senators that if the motion to insert the National Era should prevail, I will vote for the resolution. I have already declared the principle on which I proceed. I should not vote for the resolution if this amendment was inserted, but upon the same principles which commend the Intelligencer to the vote of the Senate I say the National Era ought to be included; but still if the resolution were so amended I should vote against it. The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. PUBLIC ACTS OF THE THIRTY-SECOND CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, Passed at the Second Session, which was begun and held in the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia, on Monday the 6th day of December, 1852, and ended on Friday, the 4th day of March, 1853. MILLARD FILLMORE, President; WILLIAM RUFUS KING, President of the Senate pro tempore till the 20th December, 1852, when he resigned, and DAVID R. ATCHISON, was chosen in his place; LINN BOYD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. upon such vessel shall be equal to three fourths of the cost of said vessel when so repaired. APPROVED, December 23, 1852. PUBLIC, I.-An Act making an appropriation for || Secretary of the Treasury that the repairs put || bringing to the seat of Government the Votes for President and Vice President of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a sum not exceeding twenty thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the payment of the sums due by law to the several messengers of the respective States, as compensation for conveying to the seat of Government the vote of the Electors of the said States for President and Vice President of the United States. APPROVED, December 16, 1852. PUBLIC, II.-An Act to amend the act approved the thirty-first August, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, in reference to the appropriation for continuing the survey of the Mexican Boundary. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the purpose of continuing the survey of the Mexican boundary, it shall be lawful to use so much of the appropriation provided by the act approved thirty-first August, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, entitled "An act making 'appropriations for the civil and diplomatic ex'penses of the Government for the year ending the thirtieth June, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, and for other purposes,' as may be required in running and marking said boundary under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the Rio Grande, below the town called "Paso," and in defraying any necessary expenses heretofore incurred, or that may hereafter be incurred, connected with said survey. APPROVED, December 23, 1852. PUBLIC, III.-An Act authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue Registers to Vessels in certain cases. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he hereby is, authorized to issue a register or enrollment for any vessel built in a foreign country whenever such vessel may have been, or shall hereafter be, wrecked in the United States, and have been, or shall hereafter be, purchased and repaired by a citizen or citizens thereof: Provided, That it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the PUBLIC, IV.-An Act to amend an act entitled "An act to establish the Territorial Government of Oregon," approved August fourteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oregon be, and hereby are, authorized in all cases where the sixteen or thirty-six sections, or any part thereof, shall be taken and occupied under the law making donations of land to actual settlers, or otherwise to cause the county commissioners of the several counties in said Territory, or such other officer or officers as they shall direct, to select, in lieu thereof, an equal quantity of any unoccupied land in sections, or fractional sections, as the case may be. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That when selections are made in pursuance of the provisions of the first section of this act, said lands so selected, and their proceeds, shall be forever inviolably set apart for the benefit of common schools. APPROVED, January 7, 1853. PUBLIC, V.-An Act granting to the Sackett's Harbor and Ellisburg Railroad Company the right of way through the military reservation at Sackett's Harbor, New York. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the right of way through the public lands of the United States lying in the village of Sackett's Harbor, in the county of Jefferson and State of New York, be, and is hereby, granted to the Sackett's Harbor and Ellisburg Railroad Company: Provided, That, in the opinion of the President of the United States, such grant be not injurious to the public interest, and that the location shall be approved by the President as to the position and width of the said railroad: And provided further, That if the said railroad shall not be completed within two years, or if at any time after its completion the said railroad be discontinued or abandoned, the grant shall cease and determine. APPROVED, January 7, 1853. PUBLIC, VI.—An Act making further appropriations for the construction of Roads in the Territory of Minnesota. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums of money be, and they are hereby, appropriated for the construction of roads in the Territory of Minnesota, in addition to the sums heretofore appropriated for teenth, eighteen hundred and fifty, to wit: For the the same objects, by the act approved July eighconstruction of a road from Point Douglass, on the Mississippi river, to the falls or rapids of the direct and convenient route between those points, Saint Louis river of Lake Superior, by the most twenty thousand dollars; for the construction of a road from Point Douglass to Fort Gaines, now Fort Ripley, ten thousand dollars; for the construction of a road from the mouth of Swan river, or the most expedient point near it, north or south of said river, to the Winnebago agency at Long Prairie, five thousand dollars; and for the construction of a road from Wabashaw to Mendota, five thousand dollars; and for the survey and laying out of a military road from Mendota to the mouth of Big Sioux river, on the Missouri, five thousand dollars. The said roads to be constructed under the direction of the Secretary of War, pursuant to contracts to be made by him. APPROVED, January 7, 1853. PUBLIC, VII.-An Act authorizing certain Soldiers of the late war with Great Britain to surrender the Bounty Lands drawn by them, and to locate others in lieu thereof. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for any soldier in the late war with Great Britain, to whom bounty land has been allotted and patented in any State of this Union, by virtue of the laws of the United States passed prior to the year 1850, which was and is unfit for cultivation, to surrender said patent, and to receive in lieu thereof the same quantity of any of the public land subject to private entry at the minimum price as he may select: Provided, That before receiving such new land it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office that the land so allotted and patented to said soldier is unfit for cultivation, and that said soldier has never disposed of his interest in said land by any sale of |