USA > Georgia > The bench and bar of Georgia: memoirs and sketches. With an appendix, containing a court roll from 1790-1857, etc., volume II > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
2. That it shall not be lawful for any authorities, Federal or State, within the limits of South Carolina, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by said acts from and after the first day of February, 1833,-the Legislature to make such provision as may be necessary to carry out the object of the ordinance.
3. That no appeal shall be allowed in any case drawing in question the authority of the ordinance, or the validity of any act of the Legislature to carry it into effect; nor shall any copy of re- cord be furnished for the purpose of an appeal to the Supreme
38
BENCHI AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
Court of the United States, on pain of contempt; nor will any judgment of reversal be regarded.
4. That all persons holding offices of honor, trust, or profit, civil or military, shall take an oath to obey and execute the ordinance and the acts of the Legislature to give it effect. If such oath be not taken, the office is at once vacated ; nor can any person exer- cise office under a new election without taking said oath.
5. That if the General Government shall employ force, military or naval, against the State, its officers or citizens, or shall shut up her ports, or take any steps to enforce the acts of Congress so de- clared void, except through the civil tribunals, then South Carolina and her people will be absolved from all political connection with the people of the other States, "and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all the acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do."
This was indeed a perilous attitude for the State; and yet there is no doubt the people were honestly and firmly resolved to main- tain it. How disunion was prevented it may be interesting to show by official documents. Passing over the several acts of the Legislature, and the addresses to the people to vindicate the course taken, it will be necessary to notice the proclamation of President Jackson of 10th December, 1832, from which the following is an extract :-
The laws of the United States must be executed. I have no discre- tionary power on the subject : my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. Those who told you [the people of South Carolina] that you might peaceably prevent their execution deceived you : they could not have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion : be not deceived by names : disunion by armed force is TREASON. Are you really ready to incur its guilt ? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences,-on their heads be the dishonor; but on yours may fall the punishment; on your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the Government of your country. It cannot accede to the mad project of disunion of which you would be the first victims : its first magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the performance of his duty. The consequence must be fearful for you, distressing to your fellow-citizens here and to the friends of good govern- ment throughout the world.
The President then advises the people to retrace their steps, to bid the Legislature reassemble and repeal the ruinous acts, &c.
In response to this appeal, the Legislature, then in session,-
Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested forthwith to issue his proclamation, warning the good people of this State against
39
JOHN FORSYTH.
the attempt of the President of the United States to seduce them from their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity and protect the liberty of the State against the arbitrary measures proposed by the President.
Gov. Hayne, on the 20th December, 1832, issued his counter- proclamation at great length, summing up the whole controversy. This passage occurs in it :-
And what is our present condition ? We have an organized government, and a population three times as great as that which existed in '76. We are maintaining not only the rights and liberties of the people, but the sovereignty of our own State, against whose authority rebellion may be committed, but in obedience to whose commands no man can commit treason. We are struggling against unconstitutional and oppressive taxa- tion imposed upon us not only without our consent, but in defiance of our repeated remonstrances and solemn protests. In such a quarrel our duty to our country, ourselves, and our posterity is too plain to be mistaken. We will stand upon the soil of South Carolina and maintain the sovereign authority, or be buried beneath its ruins.
While this fearful issue was pending, the State of Virginia, animated by her lofty principles, interposed her mediation, and, by the appointment of a special commissioner, the Hon. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, prevailed on the authorities of South Carolina to repeal the ordinance of nullification. And thus the clouds of civil war were dispelled,-all parties the better and wiser for the con- flict. Other States joined in the appeal to South Carolina to suspend her action. Mr. Clay's Compromise act of March 3, 1833, soon followed, and the pacification was complete. On the passage of that measure the vote in the House of Representatives was 119 to 85, and in the Senate 29 to 16,-Mr. Forsyth voting in the affirmative.
The next question which agitated the country was the removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the United States, and the dismissal from office of Mr. Duane, because, as Secretary of the Treasury, he refused to sign the order. This proceeding took place in September, 1833. Mr. Taney, then Attorney-General, was next appointed Secretary of the Treasury, who made the order as resolved upon by the Cabinet paper which President Jackson refused to submit to the Senate after being requested, by a formal resolution of that body, to communicate a copy. He would not recognise the authority of the Senate to inquire into or supervise his Cabinet consultations. For these he was responsible to the country in the general exercise of his duties, and to no other tribunal.
In the war which ensued between the President and the Senate,
40
BENCH AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
after the passage of the resolution censuring his conduct in the removal of the deposits, Mr. Forsyth was the acknowledged leader of the administration in Congress. He gained laurels in every debate, if not victory in every contest. Such an exhibition of power on sudden emergencies had never been witnessed before. In January, 1834, he delivered a speech of considerable length justifying the President, from which the following is extracted :-
The President of the United States and the late Secretary of the Treasury seem, sir, to have well understood their respective powers and obligations. When the question of the removal of the deposits was first agitated, with the frankness and firmness entitled to public respect, Mr. Duane opposed the measure : it was one he could not sanction ; but, if resolved upon by the President, he would give way for another who, coinciding with the President, could act without scruple or hesitation. After a thorough investigation of the various arguments submitted to him, the President made his decision, and then, unfortunately, declined fulfilling his voluntary engagement. The cause assigned was still more unfortunate. He conceived that he was insulted. This did not absolve him from his engagement : indeed, it should have furnished a new motive for withdrawing. If treated courteously, his resignation should have been tendered out of respect to the President ; if rudely, he should have thrown back upon the President his commission, from respect to himself.
Honorable Senators censure without measure the paper read to the Cabinet by the President. The exercise of ordinary charity would place the subject in a very different light from that thrown upon it here. Is it not apparent from the document itself, recollecting the preceding and attendant circumstances, that the sole object of the President was to shield Mr. Duane from the responsibility of the act which he seemed to dread ? The President desired to take the whole, to reconcile his Secretary to the course resolved on. Entertaining a conscientious conviction that the course was fraught with injurious consequences to the public, the Secretary would have been faithless had he accepted the offered shelter. He was only wrong in shifting the ground upon which he stood. No honest Secretary will ever put his hand to a work which, in his judgment, will bring ruin or distress upon his country. No public officer is bound to suffer even uncourteous treatment from the Chief-Magistrate : the only honorable step in either case is resignation of office, and submission of his conduct to the judgment of that great tribunal-public opinion-to which all must yield a cheerful or forced obedience.
If little charity has been shown to the President, by what term shall I describe the treatment of the present Secretary of the Treasury, distin- guished through a long life as a politician, and as a man, by his urbanity, and courtesy, and virtue ? To call it harsh would not convey an adequate idea of its extreme injustice. An officer who, previous to his appointment to the Treasury Department, had urged upon the President, by fact and argument, the propriety of a removal of the deposits, is accused of being made the supple tool of the Executive for that act,-is represented as standing by, the cold spectator of the struggles of his colleague in the con- test between his conscience and his attachment to the Chief-Magistrate, as witnessing the contemptuous expulsion of that colleague from office, and then coolly entering the vacant place without sympathy or the smallest
41
JOHN FORSYTH.
emotion for the man who preferred the loss of honors and emolument to a betrayal of the interests of the people.
The present Secretary* left a place of honor for another not more honorable,-a place of great responsibility for one of greater responsibility, -a place uniting honor and profit, which the condition of a large family impelled him to regard, for an honorable place, the profits of which are insufficient to defray his necessarily-increased expenditures. These cir- cumstances alone should protect him from the slightest censure; but he stood committed to the President by his previously-given advice, and, when called upon to perform a task he had urged upon his colleague, he could not, without dishonor, have disobeyed the call. He stood pledged to the Chief-Magistrate and to the country, and he has not shrunk from his duty. He abides, with unshaken confidence in the justice of his country, all the consequences of the act he recommended to another and performed himself. And now is he represented here by the Senators from Kentucky (Clay) and South Carolina (Calhoun) as claiming all power to himself and denying all power to Congress,-as claiming to himself and the Executive an authoritative control over the whole treasure of the nation, and denying the right of Congress to interfere. This is a terrible position to an officer whose duties are prescribed by Congress,-who is now dependent upon one branch of Congress for his continuance in an office which he is accused of having earned, regardless of the feelings and honors of a colleague, by base subserviency to the mandates of a ruthless master.
Passing over other parts of the speech, the peroration is here given :-
Well, sir, did the honorable Senator (Mr. Clay) play his part. Skil- fully did he avail himself of the false position of South Carolina to effect his great purpose of saving from approaching shipwreck his favorite system. In the views which he presented of the probable fate of the Tariff I entirely concurred. Nevertheless, he had my aid in the passage of the bill of compromise. I knew I was doing present and prospective injustice to my constituents; but I acted under duress. I gave my aid to one great evil to avert the greatest of all evils,-civil war. How immi- nent the danger, let the condition of the adverse parties in Charleston- the fairest of our Southern cities-attest. With passions inflamed to mad- ness, they watched each other. Friends, cordial and familiar friends a few years since, met in the market-place with the stern courtesy of pre- determined hostility. Every man looked upon the ground on which he stood as the probable scene of a bloody contest. Arms and ammunition were prepared, organization complete, the array ready to be made. They stood like gladiators, stripped on the arena, with foot advanced, looks of proud defiance, hand on glaive, kindling eyes, waiting the expected signal
* The Hon. Roger B. Taney resigned the office of Attorney-General when he accepted the Treasury Department ; but the Senate rejected his nomination, and he was remitted to private life. He was next nominated as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the place of Justice Duval, resigned, and was again rejected. By the 4th of March, 1836, sufficient changes had been made in the political cast of the Senate to give a majority in favor of the administration. Mr. Taney was then nominated as Chief-Justice of the United States to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Chief-Justice Marshall, and on the 15th of March, 1836, the nomina- tion was confirmed by the Senate. He has proved worthy of the high trust.
42
BENCH AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
to bare their blades and rush with the fury of unchained tigers at each others' throats. And who were to be the leaders in this deadly strife ? The Hamiltons, and the Haynes, and the Pinckneys, and the Rutledges, and the Draytons, and the Hugers, and the Middletons, and the Poin- setts, and the Pettigrues,-men whose sires, shoulder to shoulder, had stood the brunt of Revolutionary battle, cemented with their blood our independence, raised up by the wisdom of their councils this mighty fabric of government, which secures the happiness of millions of freemen, whilst its blessed influence is circling like the sunlight over the darkness of the whole earth,-sons worthy of such sires, illustrious by their moral and intellectual worth, who had performed all their duties in peace and war, who had emblazoned their names in deathless characters on the fairest pages of our history. These were the men who were about to present to a pity- ing and astonished world the heart-withering spectacle of patriots' swords dyed in civil conflict with patriots' blood. It was not the will of the Omnipotent that another bloody sacrifice should be made to atone for the sins of the people as the price of the precious blessings bestowed by his bounty. The cup of bitterness, humiliation, and woe passed untasted from our lips. Would it thus have passed away if that despised, reprobated, vilified, hated, but just and stern, old man had not occupied the House and the hearts of the people ?
It is not necessary to dwell longer on the Congressional services of Mr. Forsyth. He had become a man of note, of high renown as a statesman and an orator. President Jackson appointed him Secretary of State; and his nomination was confirmed by the Senate on the 27th day of June, 1834, in place of the Hon. Louis McLane,* resigned.
Throughout the remainder of Gen. Jackson's term, and until March 4, 1841, when President Van Buren retired, Mr. Forsyth continued at the head of the Cabinet. His official communications were remarkable for their ability, polish, and all those elevated courtesies which give a charm to diplomacy. The Cabinets of Europe were familiar with, and appreciated, his generous and patriotic character.
One subject is deemed so interesting that it is here specially noticed,-the proposed annexation of Texas to the United States, under Mr. Van Buren's administration. The reply of Mr. Forsyth is also given,-not only for the sake of the argument, but as a specimen of his style.
On the 4th of August, 1837, General Memucan Hunt, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Texas, addressed a note to Mr. Forsyth, as Secretary of State, offering to cede Texas to the United States and to open negotia- tions for that purpose. Owing to the length of his note, (occupy- ing about ten pages in documentary form,) only a synopsis can be
* Mr. McLane died in October, 1857.
43
JOHN FORSYTH.
given in this memoir. The note is ably written, abounding in de- tails and in argument, showing "some few of the great advantages -both national and social-which would result to the two con- tracting parties from the proposed amalgamation of their respect- ive sovereignties." Events in chronological order will be noted.
In 1698, the old Spanish town of Bexar was founded; in 1716, La Bahia, afterward Goliad; Nacogdoches in 1732; Victoria at a later period. These old settlements were surrounded and cramped by the Indians of various savage tribes up to 1821, when the dawn of civilization began. In January of that year, Moses Austin, and after him his son, Stephen F. Austin, planted a colony of Anglo-American emigrants on the river Brazos. In the mean time Mexico had shaken off the Spanish yoke and had formed an independent government. The Emperor Iturbide in 1823, by a decree, authorized Austin to proceed with his colony.
In 1824, the Constitution of Mexico, based upon that of the United States, was established, and the provinces of Texas and Coahuila were united as one of the States of the Mexican Con- federacy. During the year 1825, another general colonization- law was passed, granting lands, under which the country was rapidly settled. But, in 1830, the Supreme Government pro- hibited the further introduction of American settlers in Texas. In 1832, hostilities broke out between Bustamente and Santa Anna, two rival chieftains. Under the latter, the colonists took posses- sion of the Mexican forts at Velasco, Anahuac, and Nacogdoches. In 1833, Texas attempted to avail herself of the privilege secured by the Constitution of 1824,-that whenever she possessed the elements of self-government she might maintain a separate or- ganization. Stephen F. Austin was duly commissioned to wait upon the Government with a petition for this object. The petition was not only treated with marked insult, but Austin himself was imprisoned in the city of Mexico.
Centralism then became a project with Santa Anna, who, in 1835, attempted to overthrow the State Governments, and to con- solidate all power, civil and military, in the hands of a single in dividual. Most of the States were trampled down by the usurper. In this emergency, the people of Texas declared for the Constitu- tion and took up arms.
General Hunt then describes the preparation, the conflict, and the victory at San Jacinto on the 21st of April, 1836, when Santa Anna, then President of Mexico, was made prisoner and his army annihilated. The names of Fannin, Bowie, and Crockett appear
44
BENCH AND BAR OF GEORGIA.
in the list of heroes who perished in the cause of freedom. Pass- ing over other matters touched upon, the language of Gen. Hunt is here quoted :-
She [Texas] has a territory estimated at near two hundred thousand square miles, a population of one hundred thousand, capable of throwing into the field an army of eight thousand strong; and such is the fertility of her soil and the industry of her people that, besides the productions necessary for the support of her population, her exports of cotton will probably this year amount to fifty thousand bales. Her revenue-arising from imposts and taxes under a law of the late Congress, without refer- ence to the income accruing from the public domain-has been estimated at half a million of dollars. The great extent of her public domain- capable of sustaining a population of ten millions, embracing every variety of soil, and blessed with a climate most propitious for agricultural pursuits-justifies the assertion that Texas is, for her population, a nation of equal resources with any other on the globe. The undersigned, there- fore, feels confident that the Honorable the Secretary of State will at once perceive that the people of Texas, in assigning their affection for the people of the United States as their principal reason for desiring annexation, are amply provided with all the resources to become of them- selves a powerful nation.
Thus, then, it is that Texas, in seeking to place herself among the States of the Union, is prompted mainly by a filial reverence for the Con- stitution and the people of the United States. She has no expectation of an invasion, much less of a reconquest, at the hands of Mexico. The humiliating defeat and capture of General Santa Anna at San Jacinto is too fresh upon the memories of her soldiery to justify the indulgence of any such apprehensions. Nor does she seek annexation as a shield of protection against the interference of European monarchies. Since the recognition of her independence by the Government of this country, she has too much reliance upon the wisdom and the justice of England and France to suppose that either of the crowned heads of those two nations will occupy any other than positions of the most decided neutrality with reference to the difficulties between Mexico and herself; and, should this proposition of annexation not be acceded to by this Government, she confidently expects at the hands of every civilized nation of Europe the honors of a recognition, as a preliminary step to the formation of treaties of amity and commerce.
In reviewing the interests of the two republics involved in this ques- tion of annexation, the undersigned cannot concede that the United States encounters an equal sacrifice with the people of Texas. Texas brings to this negotiation not only the resources already recapitulated, but her sovereignty. She brings, too, that which, in the eyes of the naval powers of Europe, will constitute the material ground for the formation of the most liberal commercial treaties,-viz .: her immense forests of live-oak, comprising, according to the estimate of President Houston in his message of the 5th of May, 1837, four-fifths of all that species of timber now in the world.
She brings, too, a market for all the various manufactures and for all the agricultural products of the United States, excepting those of cotton and sugar; and these she will contribute from her own soil to swell the already colossal amount of the exports of this nation. The territory, and
45
JOHN FORSYTH.
with it the enterprise, of the country will be extended; her political power will be increased ; and the undersigned trusts that he will not be considered intrusive in expressing his deep conviction that the Union of these States will be strengthened by the annexation of a people whose proudest impulses are for its continuance and glory.
What advantage the United States brings to this negotiation the undersigned will not presume to suggest. Her immense resources, her splendid fleets, her power to raise armies, her magnificent Government, her unexampled career of prosperity, her incomparable administration of justice, and, finally, all her attributes of greatness, are sources of as much congratulation to the people of Texas as they can possibly be to herself. What Texas wishes at the hands of the Government of this Union is simply annexation,-an amalgamation of flags; and the under- signed assures the Honorable the Secretary of State that this is the soli- tary advantage which he seeks to gain in this negotiation, but which, he begs leave to say, he hopes to accomplish upon the high principle of a strict adherence to the just rights and dignity of the sovereignty of the Texan nation.
1
From the portion of Gen. Hunt's note here given, it will be seen that the question was managed with competent skill. The remaining part was not less manly, open, and respectful. Mr. Forsyth replied as follows :-
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, August 25, 1837.
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has had the honor to receive the note of his Excellency General Hunt, Envoy Extra- ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Texas, dated the 4th instant, proposing a negotiation for the purpose of annexing that country to the United States.
That communication has been laid before the President, who has con- sidered it with just sensibility. In giving to the undersigned instruc- tions to present in reply a prompt and decisive indication of the course it has been necessary to adopt, the President indulges the confident expectation that no unfriendly spirit toward the Government or the people of Texas will or can be imputed to the United States.
Neither the duties nor the settled policy of the United States permit them to enter into an examination of the accuracy of the historical facts related by General Hunt, nor to allow them, if even admitted to be cor- rect, to control the decision of the question presented by him. The United States were foremost in acknowledging the independence of Mexico, and have uniformly desired and endeavored to cultivate relations of friendship with that power. Having always, since the formation of their Government, been exempt from civil wars, they have learned the value of internal quiet, and have consequently been anxious yet passive specta- tors of the feuds with which their neighbors have been afflicted. Al- though, in the controversy between Texas and Mexico, circumstances have existed and events have occurred peculiarly calculated to enlist the sympathies of our people, the effort of the Government has been to look upon that dispute also with the same rigid impartiality with which it has regarded all other Mexican commotions.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.