USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 47
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" But, Mr. Chairman, should we be unmindful of our interests and tranquillity at home, our mission of peace and good will toward all the world, should our wickedness and madness here stir up the great deep of the Union, and cover us all over in a night of storms, I do not be- lieve the good vessel our fathers built, so often tried and always strong, will go to pieces. No sir, the celestial omens that cheered the day when honest hearts, clear heads, and strong hands launched her forth on the world's wide sea, and have made gloriously luminous all her voyage thus far, will not leave us now. When the blasts of sectional strife shall bellow loudest, when the waves of fiery faction shall be leaping up like hell-dogs all around to devour us; then, sir, a voice will be heard above the storm from our own Great West, calling out to the friends of the Union every where : 'Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid !' and there will be a great calm, though wrecks may be seen all around dripping with blood.
" No sir, the Union will survive, it will never be dissolved. The free States, rich in all the elements of happiness and power, will surely never attempt it. The slave States can never combine for a purpose so sui- cidal. One or more States, North as well as South may withdraw, but many more than the fathers began with, will cling to each other with hooks of steel, and triumphantly ride out a world of storms. Should an individual State ever desire to withdraw from the Union, we will say to her, as ' Abraham said unto Lot, let there be no strife I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for we be brethren ; separate thyself, I pray thee from me.' Should less than a State attempt revolution, we will know how to dispose of them. Yes sir, we will hang the rebellious traitors.
" Mr. Chairman, for more than a quarter of a century I have had
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SAMUEL W. PARKER.
my eyes on this movement, this struggle between freedom and slavery, with an anxiety that has never slumbered. This last evolution, and the reception it has met with, the time and the temper of the public mind, satisfy me now that we have arrived at the point of a decisive erisis. Yes sir, of that I am as confident as I can be of any event shrouded in the future. Repeal the Missouri Compromise by this bill, which opens the way for slavery just as freely into Oregon, Washing- ton, Minnesota, Utah and New Mexico, as into Kansas and Nebraska, and one of two extremes will surely follow :
" The free States will not submit. You will make a gulf between them and the slave States, deep and wide as that which separates the rich man from Lazarus; you dash into the free States a reagent that will precipitate and crystallize all their anti-slavery elements into one solid, compact and indissoluble mass; you build up an omnipotent party there, that will heed no voice but the will of the majority under the Constitution. They will grind to powder every compromise outside of that instrument; that sweet voice of conciliation will charm no more ; they will abolish the inner State and coastwise slave-trade, slav- ery in the District of Columbia ; they will throw a wall for freedom, high as heaven and deep as hell, around the States where slavery now exists, never admitting another into the Union, and around all the Territories, excluding it forever therefrom. The absolute will and power of the majority here will be henceforth the rule of action. Such, sir, I sincerely believe will be the result. It will be but ' an even pace ' with the spirit of all the civilized world, except it may be, where slavery yet has a home on this continent.
" Or, on the other side, the free States will fret a while, will slump and acquiesce. That, the slave States certainly expect. I must con- fess I have heard before of the gradual debauchery of the mind and conscience. 'Nathan said unto David, thou art the man.' Human nature is always the same. The principle will have been settled that the slave owner can not enjoy his just and free, and equal rights as an American citizen, unless he can carry and keep his slave-property with him in all the common territory of the Union. That yielded as his unquestionable right, the abstract right is much stronger, that he should be allowed to go in like manner, into all the States ' where men most do congregate,' go upon our own soil wherever the national ensign, the stars and stripes are unfolded. Form alone will then be in the way. That will dissolve like flax before the flame; and ten years will not transpire before slavery will be tolerated in every State in the Union. If the free States are ready for this, I am not ; nor do I believe they are."
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JOHN M'PHERSON BERRIAN.
THE subject of this sketch was among the most accomplished and talented Senators from the entire South. He was Attorney General in the Cabinet of General Jackson, and for many years Senator from Georgia. He was one of the prominent Southern conservatives that separated from the Jackson party upon the bank and currency ques- tion. I had the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Ber- rian for six years, and I can cheerfully say, as he is no longer with us, that a more accomplished gentleman I never met. His mind was of a high order, well trained by long study for the discussion of legal as well as questions in the Senate. Like the other great men of the body, he always came to the question thoroughly prepared, and conse- quently was very formidable. His manner was easy ; gestures fine ; voice musical, little of the Southern fire of declamation ; the words flowed from him in measured sentences, with proper emphasis, to give the intended force to his language. He was one of the most cxem- plary men in word, act, and deed I ever knew, strictly temperate and ever at his post. As a debater he was more like Silas Wright, of New York, than any other Senator. Mr. Berrian was in person about five feet ten, spare built, large head, with a high capacious forchead, dark hair and eyes, wide mouth, fine features. He was a warm, personal, and political friend of Henry Clay. He made many able speeches in the Senate, extracts from several of which I would like to present to the reader, but must content myself with a few from his great speech on the limitation of the veto power of the President. Mr. Berrian, with many other Senators, including the author of these sketches, was opposed to the required two-thirds vote, to overrule the veto, and in favor of the majority vote being sufficient, placing the question sub- stantially on the ground of the Constitution of Indiana.
" Mr. President: Before I proceed to assign the reasons which will induce me to vote in favor of this resolution, I desire to exclude from the discussion certain considerations which do not appear to me legiti- mately to belong to it. And first, sir, the reference which has been so repeatedly made by gentlemen who have preceded me, to the tribu- nitian power of Rome, seems to me to be entirely inappropriate, and not calculated to aid us in the correct solution of the present inquiry. Between the veto power of the President of the United States and that which was exercised by the Roman tribunes, there is an entire want of analogy. In its origin ; in its duration; in its singleness; in the existence of an antagonist interest, against which it was intended
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JOHN M'PHERSON BERRIAN.
to afford protection ; and in the plurality of persons, to whom it was confided-in all these particulars it is not only variant from, but in absolute contrast with, the power which is conferred on the President of the United States. A brief reference to them will serve to explain my view of this want of analogy.
" 1. The tribunitian power of Rome originated in a popular tumult, and was extorted by plebeian discontent, from the fears of an aristo- cratic Senate. It had its origin in violence, and was the result of a struggle between two distinct and opposite interests, which were per- manently antagonistic to each other. The veto power of the American President was peaceably conferred by the framers of the Constitution, themselves representing one great, one undivided interest, that of the whole American people.
"2. The Roman tribune was elected annually. If he exercised his powers unwisely and injuriously to the interests of those who con- ferred it, a corrective was found in his annual accountability. The abuse of the power was not necessarily of long duration. The Pres- ident of the United States is elected for the term of four years. The abuse of the veto power, nay even its improvident exercise by him, in the commencement of his career, may subject seventeen millions of people to years of suffering.
"3 The tribunitian power of Rome stood alone and unconnected with any other. He who wielded it, was set apart for that important service. The Roman tribune held no other office, the interest con- nected with which might tempt him to abuse his power. Under our Constitution, it is an an accumulation of power, in the highest officer of the Government. The President of the United States, who wields the sword, and practically holds the purse; who is charged with the execution of all the laws, and who dispenses all the patronage of the Government; and who is, moreover, Constitutionally re-eligible to the same high office, is made the sole depository of this additional power.
" 4. The Roman tribune was the chosen representative of the plebeians of Rome. His office was instituted, and his power was conferred for their protection against the antagonist interest of a permanently distinct order of citizens, the Patricians of Rome, in whom the whole legislative power was vested. Here we have no distinct classes, no privileged orders; we have, on the contrary, an entire equality of political rights-and among these, the right to participate personally in the exercise of legislative power belongs to all classes of our citi- zens. Legislation is not here the act of a hereditary Senate, whose members constitute a distinct, permanent, and privileged order. Its powers are exercised by the representatives of the same common con-
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stituents, by whom the President is chosen. They are, themselves, a portion of the people, chosen by and from among them, alike subject with all others, to the laws which are enacted; and when the brief hour of their official existence has passed away, they return to, and become part of, the constituency which they have been deputed tem - porarily to represent.
" 5. But again. The power of the veto, as it was established in Re- publican Rome, was not entrusted to a single will. The Roman tribunes were originally two, afterward five, and subsequently ten in number, and he who enunciated the veto must first obtain the con- enrrence of his colleagues. Here the veto power is emphatically an unit. Among seventeen millions of people, one man is its sole depository ; he speaks, and the legislative voice is silenced. I do not dilate these reflections. It is sufficient to state them, to show the entire diversity, nay, the absolute contrast which exists between the question which we are assembled to consider, and that which was pre- sented to the Roman statesman. I mistake, sir. The diversity is not entire-the contrast is not absolute. There are, as I will endeavor to demonstrate before I sit down, two points of minute resemblance. The tribunitian power of Rome was, in its origin, a simple negative ; but in process of time, it drew to itself the initiative power, that of preparing laws, as well as forbidding them. This is the first point of resemblance between the Tribunitian and the Presidential power. It is sufficiently exact-and the other is not less so. This guardian and champion of plebeian right-this pure and perfect emanation of popu- lar will-the actual afflatus of the genuine democracy of ancient Rome, by the concurring testimony of historians, produced a series of evils greater in number, infinitely exceeding in their magnitude, those which it was established to prevent.
" Mr. President, we shall gain as little instruction, on the subject of our inquiry, by an examination of the veto power, as it is found in the existing governments of Europe. In the structure of those governments, in the condition of their people, there is a total want of analogy to the government and the people of the United States. Take the case of England, for example. The King is there a branch of the legislature. His duties are not merely executive, but he is also a component part of the legislative power. Parliament can not assemble without him, and may be prorogued or dissolved at his pleasure. In the language of English commentators, on the Consti- tution of that kingdom, speaking with reference to that Parliament, the King is caput, principium, et finis of that great corporation, and body politic. But, again ; the people of England are divided into
-
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separate classes, orders, and estates, which are permanently distinct, each class having its own peculiar interests, which may habitually conflict with those of every other, or of some other class. These are represented as classes, in the Parliament of Great Britain, which con- sists of the King, the Lords, temporal and spiritual, and the Com- mons. If the interests of a hereditary aristocracy, or of an estab- lished Church, should lead to an invasion of the rights of the great body of the people, the House of Commons interposes the shield of its defense. If the rights of the aristocracy, or of the Church, are assailed by the representatives of the people, these noble Lords come to the rescue. And beyond and above all these, in solitary and sullen omnipotence, is another portion of the legislative power, vested in the monarch, whose single will restrains the action of all the other estates in the kingdom.
" I speak of the theory of the Britishi Constitution, not of the practical operation of the government. Here, in the United States, all legislative power is vested in Congress. The President does not participate in it. His duties are strictly and exclusively executive. I speak here again of Constitutional theory, and not of practical result. We have no distinct orders, no antagonist, political interests, specially represented in the National Legislature, which is composed of the common Representatives of a common constitueney. Finally, sir, this utter want of analogy is rendered most obvious by a comparison of the power of the British Parliament with that of the American Congress. That of the former has been expressed by figured speech, which some have considered too bold, the omnipotence of Parliament; but the objectors concede all that is material to the present discussion, when they admit it to be true, 'that what the Parliament doth, no authority on earth can undo.' It has power to make, to expound, and to repeal laws, without other limit than that which is imposed by natural impossibility. It wields that absolute despotic power which, it is said, must reside somewhere in all governments. It is not limited to ordinary legislation, acting under, and in subjection to, the Consti- tution ; but it may deal with the Constitution itself, according to its absolute and uncontrollable will and pleasure. It can regulate, and new-model the succession to the crown, as it did in the reign of Henry VIII., and of William III. It can alter the established religion ; it did so in several instances, in the reign of the former monarch, and in those of his immediate successors. It can change the Constitution of the kingdom, and of Parliament itself, as was done by the act of Union, and the successive establishment of triennial and septennial Parliaments. Such is the British Parliament. It is not an ordinary
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Legislature, acting under a fixed and permanent Constitutional law, from which it can not depart ; it is a permanent convention of the three estates of the kingdom, holding the Constitution itself in its keeping, which it may fashion according to its will. The security of such a government, so far as security is attained, consists in giving to each separate estate, not a qualified, but an absolute check upon the others; of the Lords and Commons upon each other, and of the monarch upon both ; this last to be exercised through the medium of the veto power, or of those other sources of influence which the power and resources of the crown enable it to acquire.
" The American Congress is a Legislature exercising limited powers, clearly specified, and accurately defined, in a written Constitution, from which they may not depart, and representing constituents, between whom there is an entire equality of rights and community of interests. There is thus, in Great Britain and the United States, not only a want of analogy, but there exists an absolute contrast between those circumstances which can properly enter into the consideration of this question. The examination of the veto power as it exists in England, can not therefore aid our present inquiry. Excluding, then, from our consideration, all these irrelative topics, let us meet the real issue. Let us not withhold from the people the true and only ques- tion which is proposed to submit to their determination. That question is : How and to what extent ought the veto power to be limited ? The opponents of the resolution say, that the single will of the President ought to control the united wills of any number of the Senate and House of Representatives, less than two-thirds of each. The advocates of the resolution conteud, that the united wills of a majority of all the Senators and Representatives elected to Congress, expressed at one and re-affirmed at the next subsequent session, after deliberately considering the reasons of the President, and after per- sonal intercourse with their constituents, during the recess, ought to prevail over the single will of the President. Mr. President, I found my objection to the veto power, as it now exists, on these two propo- sitions.
"1. All legislative powers granted by the Constitution are vested in Congress ; none, therefore, can legitimately belong to the President. If in the practical operation of the Government they have heen so vested, they have been seduced from their original depositary, and the purpose of the framers of the Constitution has not been realized, but has been frustrated.
"2. The practical operation of the Presidential veto, is to turn the Legislative power from the halls of Congress, to the Executive chamber.
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JOHN M'PHERSON BERRIAN.
I speak of the efficient, not of the formal power. Congress may retain the latter. The formal process of enaeting laws may still be carried on in this, and in the other end of the Capitol. Laws may still purport to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled ; but the efficient power of legislation will reside elsewhere, for the veto power though limited in form, has become absolute in fact.
" But, sir, it is, moreover, the direet and inevitable tendeney of that power, in its repeated and uncontrolled exereise, to transfer the initia- tive from the Legislature to the Executive.
" It was the manifest intention of the framers of the Constitu- tion to give to the President a negative upon the legislation of Con- gress, which shall be limited, not absolute.
"In the practical operation of the Government, this power has proved to be absolute, not limited. Divided as the people of the United States are, and in all time to come will be into parties approaching to equality, on prominent political questions, the President of the United States, by the possession of the veto power, as it now exists, is enabled, first, to restrain, then to control, and finally to direct the publie will. His will is substituted for their will, and practically on subjects of the greatest interest, and, therefore, productive of the greatest excitement, the legislative power of the country bends to the will, and acknowledges the resistless sway of one man. Is this desira- ble ? Is it consistent with the spirit of our institutions ? Does the Demoeraey, the real Democracy of the country, desire it? If so, I bow, as becomes me to their beliest. But in the exercise of my rights as a free citizen, in the discharge of my duty as an American Senator, I have felt that it was both my right and my duty thus to expose it, in its nakedness, to their view."
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
JOHN G. DAVIS.
THE subject of this sketch is one of the prominent men of the Wabash Valley. Early associated with Gen. Howard and Gov. Wright, he became an ardent Democrat, and a devoted friend of those distin- guished men. Mr. Davis is in person tall and slim, full six feet high, light hair and eyes, wide mouth, prominent features, high, retreating forehead. He is possessed of a high order of talents, was an active and energetic member of Congress, and has recently been elected to the next Congress from his district. As a speaker he is plain, prae- tical, animated, forcible, speaking directly to the question, and is always heard with marked attention. Mr. Davis made several able speeches in Congress. I give an extract from one on the Pacific Rail- road, to show his style, which will be interesting to the reader.
" In my judgment, sir, no question of public policy has ever been agitated among the people, or brought before the American Congress, for its deliberation and action, more momentous in its character or con- sequences, or which, if successful, is caleulated to result in greater practical and lasting benefit to the entire country, than the proposition to unite the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a railway across the conti- nent. It is, therefore, no matter of surprise, that the American peo- ple should look forward, with snch deep anxiety and solicitude, to the result of our deliberations npon the subject.
" Sir, the idea of construeting a railway across the continent was, but a few years since, regarded by the masses as a wild, visionary, and Utopian scheme, having no better foundation for its feasibility than the fanciful imaginations of the distinguished gentleman from Mis- souri [Mr. Benton], Asa Whitney, of New York, and a few other early pioneers in the movement. In fact, sir, that class of men, who fold their arms, and quietly sit down in the belief that human skill, science, and improvement have reached the utmost limit of perfection ; who always hang as an inenbus upon the skirts of progress and advancement in every thing calculated to add wealth, greatness, and grandeur to our common country, and who instinctively resist, with a zeal worthy of a better cause, every attempt to improve the moral, social, political, or commercial condition of their fellow-men, were skeptical alike of the practicability of the project, and of the common sense of the projectors, whom they viewed as visionary innovators.
" But, sir, time, which tries all things, has done its work, and the project of a railroad to the Pacific is no longer viewed as a visionary or impracticable scheme. The North American mind has not been
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JOHN G. DAVIS.
idle or inactive. The people have read, thought, investigated, and become convinced. That voice which, but a few years ago, was weak and effeminate, is now strong and resistless in its favor. The power of reason, truth, and justice has finally triumphed over doubt and skepticism ; and now, instead of a solitary voice here and there in favor of the necessity and practicability of the enterprise, we find the people, East, West, North, and South, with a unanimity hitherto unknown, in favor of the project. This voice, this sentiment, has found its way into Congress, and demands of the Representatives of the people legislative action-prompt, but calm, cautious, prudent action. And, sir, should this session terminate without our having first matured and adopted some practical and Constitutional plan for its early commencement and execution, we shall return among our constituents without a plausible excuse for the negleet of a high and paramount duty, and disappoint their just hopes and expectations.
" The National Legislature has been from time to time, appealed to by memorials from more than twenty State Legislatures (among which is that of my own State), by large and respectable conventions and meetings in every portion, and embracing among the signers men dis- tinguished alike by their talent, their energy, and their influence, all urging legislative action upon the subject. Prior, however, to the last session, these appeals have been unheeded. A deaf ear has been turned to these unmistakable evidences of popular sentiment, except by favorable reports (resulting in no practical action), by committees of the Senate and House.
" Fortunately, however, the aspect of things has changed for the better, and I congratulate the country that we have met here again under more favorable auspices. A brighter day has dawned upon the project, and the doubt and uncertainty which east a gloom over the hopes of its friends, are fast giving away before the power of truth, and the lights of argument and investigation; and, although the sequel may prove me no prophet, I feel confident, from the indications around me, that a majority of this committee are in favor of giving legislative aid and encouragement to this noble enterprise.
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