The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 350
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350
CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
New Jersey was entitled to the floor, he haying
yielded for a special purpose.
Mr. WINTHROP inquired if the gentleman from
New Jersey could yield the floor for a special pur-
pose.
The SPEAKER was understood to say that the
gentleman from New Jersey had the floor.
Mr. ELMER inquired the present state of the
question.
The SPEAKER replied that the bill was on its
engrossment.
Mr. ELMER said the Committee of Elections
had reported the bill now under discussion as a sub-
stitute for the bill introduced by the gentleman from
Ohio. The bill of the gentleman from Ohio pro-
gosed to fix one uniform day throughout the United
tates, not only for the election of electors of Presi-
dent and Vice President, but for members to this
House; but the Committee of Elections, by their
substitute, had limited it to the election of electors
only. Such was the bill before the House; and
he (Mr. E.) now moved to amend that bill. The
bill under discussion proposed to fix the day for
the election of electors of the next President and
Vice President for the first Tuesday after the first
Monday of November next; and he proposed so to
amend it as to prevent its application to the next
election. This bill proposed an important change;
but he was satisfied there was not time for the State
legislatures to act on such an important matter; and
hence difficulties of a very serious character might
be created. They could not be too careful in their
legislation on such a subject; for if ever a serious
difficulty should arise respecting the validity of the
election of the President of the United States, no
one could tell what the consequences might be. He
went with the gentleman from Ohio in his proposi-
tion; but for the reasons which he assigned, he now
submitted his amendment, as follows:
"That the time of choosing the electors for Presi-
dent and Vice President of the United States, when
any such election shall be held subsequent to the
year 1844, shall be the Tuesday next after the first
Monday of November in every fourth year suc-
ceeding the lust election of said electors, except
when !1 special election shall be held m pursuance
of the 10th section of the act to which this is an
amendment; and when such special election shall be
held, the time therefor shall be the Tuesday next
after the first Monday of November, in the year
when the same shall be held pursuant to the section
aforesaid."
This, lie said, was a substitute for the whole bill,
for in that s'hape alone could he now get in his
amendment; but he only proposed the simple change
which he had explained.
Mr. DUNCAN again obtained the floor.
Mr. HARDIN inquired if the gentleman from
Ohio could again occupy the floor, having already
occupied one hour, simply on a proposed amend-
ment, which was not a substantial change of the ques-
tion.
The SPEAKER pro tern, decided that the gentle-
from Ohio having again obtained floor, was entitled
to it on the amendment, for an hour.
Mr. DUNCAN said he believed he was entitled
to the floor, and he should oppose the amendment of
the gentleman from New Jersey, as that would not
be doing moie than half the buamess, if he under-
stood it. It did not at all touch the election of mem-
bers of Congi ess, and therefore he should proceed to
address himself to the bill as it was introduced, and
conclude with his objections to the amendment of
the gentleman from New Jersey. He regarded it as
an axiom, as old, perhaps, as any other axiom, and
as universal as any other wherever civilization ex-
ists, and wherever moral principles are cultivated—
Mr. DICKINSON interposed, and said he rose to
a question of order.
Mr. DUNCAN called upon the gentleman from
Tennessee to reduce Ins point of order to writing,
and for that purpose he would stop; but he trusted
the time thus lost would not be deducted from the
time allotted to him.
Mr. DICKINSON said his point was, that the
gentleman from Ohio had occupied one hour on this
bill, and could not occupy another, under existing
rules.
The SPEAKER explained that the gentleman
from Onio was now occupying the floor on the
amendment of the gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. GrRIDER made some observation, which
was not heard distinctly.
Mr. RAYNER said, if this thing were allowed,
it would be a violation of the spirit, if not the let-
ter, of the one-hour rule; and, though it had been
heretofore attempted, it had never been allowed.
Mr. McCLERNAND inquired if it was compe-
tent for gentlemen to raise points of order which
had been decided by the Chair.
Mr. DICKINSON appealed from the decision of
the Chair, that the point raised might be settled;
and on the appeal he called for the yeas and nays,
but they were not ordered.
Mr. SCHENCK said he knew not what had
been the practice of the last Congress under this
one-hour rule; and he therefore inquired if it was
competent for a gentleman to speak an hour, and
then to move an amendment, not substantially vary-
ing the proposition, and thus go on for one hour af-
ter another.
The SPEAKER explained. This was the case
where a bona fide amendment was offered, on which
the gentleman from Ohio properly obtained the floor.
This case had precedents in the last Congress, when
Mr. Wise and Mr. Marshall both obtained the
floor under analogous circumstances, and were sus-
tained in the right to it.
Mr. RAYNER said, such a violation of the one-
hour rule as that in the cases referred to by the
Speaker, was then held to be flagrantly and mani-
festly unjust.,
Mr. WINTHROP made some observations, in
the course of which he sustained the decision of the
Chair, and said that he had himself made a like de-
cision a few weeks ago, when occupying the chair,
as chairman of the Committee of the Whole on the
state of the Union.
The House sustained the decision of the Chair.
Mr. DUNCAN resumed and said, that when he
was interrupted, he was about to speak of the means
that were used in 1840, to overthrow the democratic
party and defeat the election of Mr. Van Buren, and
it was to prevent the exercise of such means again
that this bill had been introduced; and the amend-
ment of the gentleman from New Jersey did not meet
the exigencies of the rase. If was as important that
the electoral franchise should be preserved pure in
relation to the elections of members of Congress, as
to the election of the President and Vice President;
and the object of the bill was to prevent the exercise
of the means resorted to in 1840, ill all such cases.
He was going on to say what those means were, and
to speak of the pipelaying of 1840; and of the impor-
tation of voters fioni one State to another, and from
one county to another, and he hoped that m now al-
luding to those days he should be in order, for they
were relevant; as this bill, if passed into a law,
would operate to prevent a recourse to them hereaf-
ter. One of the means used—and he supposed the
end was to justify the means—was, by a system of
falsehood, to produce the impression that Mr. Van
Buren's administration was an extravagant adminis-
tration, and he had designed to contrast the expend-
itures of that administration with the expenditures of
this.
It would be remembered that these charges of ex-
travagance in Mr. Van Buren's administration were
accompanied universally with professions that a sys-
tem of reformation should be adopted. He would
now proceed to exhibit to the American people—to
the hundreds and thousands of those who had been
induced to desert the democratic party, and go over
to the standard of the whigs—the manner in which'
those promises and professions had been fulfilled.
Mr. D. instituted a comparison between the ex-
penditures during the administration of Mr. Van
Buren and the expenditures during the present ad-
ministration, showing a large excess in the latter
over the former.
It was the right of the people, in a republican form
of government, to know what were the sentiments
and principles of those who offered themselves as
candidates for office; and that right carried with it the
duty on the part of the candidate to declare what his
principles were, and what measures he would carry
out if elected. This right, and this duty, had been
violated in 1840. It was openly avowed that there
should be no disclosure of opinions or principles;
when they were pressed upon that point, they would
turn the matter off with a Tippecanoe song.
Mr. D. exhibited an anatomical drawing of "that
same old coon," and entered into an exposition of
the principles of the whig party, as illustrated by
this their favorite emblem, and the chief object of
whig Pagan adoration; and in conclusion, in
humorous allusion to the ancient custom of divining
by examining the entrails of beasts, predicted the
entire overthrow of the whig party.
Again: it was said that the administrations of Van
Buren and Jackson were prescriptive administra-
tions; and that, if the whigs gained the ascendency,
proscription would be proscribed.
There was to be no sueh thing as proscription.
The only question to be asked was, was the man
capable and honest? But how were these promises
fulfilled? A month before the election, this city
swarmed with hosts of long, lean, hungry office
hunters. Every public house was filled with them
from the garret to the cellar, and some houses, too,
he would not name. They came in crowds; _ old
federalists, who, forty years before, had been driven
into retirement, came out on the restoration of their
party, and joined in the geneial scramble. The
inauguration was hardly over, before every demo-
cratic head of a department was dismissed and whigs
put in their places, and then the guillotine com-
menced work in earnest. Each new head of a de-
partment vied with the others in the work of pro-
scription, though Granger and Ewing excelled them
all. The question was not, "Is he honest' Is he ca-
pable?" but "Is he a democrat' Does he belong to
democratic associations?" If answered in the affirma-
tive, "off with his head!" That was the way the
promise to proscribe proscription was fulfilled. He
made the assertion, and he challenged contradiction,
that there were more men turned out of office in six
months' time, than there were in all the preceding
administrations, from General Washington down.
That was not all. Before the elections, they prom-
ised the laborers two dollars a da y and roast beef,
if they would help them to overthrow Mr. Van
Buren's administration.
Here Mr. D. held up to the view of the House
one of the whig banners that was used in his district
in the last presidential election, the inscription on it
being "Six cents a day and sheep's pluck under
Van Buren; and two dollars a day and good
ROAST mini' UNDER GENERAL HARRISON." HsW
was this promise fulfilled? Mr. D. here lecounted
an anecdote of his meeting with a poor laborer near
Cincinnati, who told him that he was promised two
dollars a day and good roast beef, if he would vote
for General Harrison; but now he could not get 25
cents a day, and had no beef at all, and that he
would see all the federalists damned before he would
be deceived by them any more.
Mr. D. concluded by explaining the benefits that
would result from the passage of the bill, and ear-
nestly appealing to the House, by their desire for the
preservation of our free institutions, by their love of
country, and by their regard for the principles of
morality and religion, to pass it, and thus avoid that
flood of vice and immorality that had overspread the
land during the last elections.
Mr. CL1NGMAN then obtained the floor; and
oil his motion,
The House adjourned.
The following petitions, presented to-day, were
handed to the reporters by the members presenting
them:
By Mr. TIBBATTS: Petition of the heirs of
Captain Richard Lucas, praying the passage of a
law granting to them the commutation pay due to
their ancestor: referred to the Committee oil Revo-
lutionary Claims.
By Mr. JEREMIAH BROWN: Petition of sun-
dry citizens of Lancaster county, Penu., praying
for retrenchment m the expenditures of the govern"
ment generally, and particularly in the per diem
allowance and mileage of members of Congress.
by Mr. FISH: Petition of a large number of in-
ventors, engineers, and others, for an Improvement
of the patent laws. Also, of Mrs. Mary W. Thomp-
son, asking a pension.
By Mr. DANA: Petition of 122 citizens of Tomp-
kins and Chenmrg counties, for a post route from
Ithaca to Havard, by way of Cayutaville: referred
to the Committee on the Post Office and Post
Roads.
By Mr. ST. JOHN: Petition of William H.
Brinkerhoft and Toother citizens of Ohio, asking a
reduction of postage, and the abolishing of the frank-
ing privilege Also, the petition of Peter Lantz and
92 citizens of Big Spring township, Seneca county,
fetate of Ohio, asking a change of school land.
By Mr. JOSEPH A. WRIGHT: Petition of
Pearce Tones and 52 others, citizens of Vigo county
State of Indiana, asking for a portion of the public
ands in the Vmcennes land district, Indiana; and of
the Shawneetown and Palestine districts, Illinois to
aid m the improvement of the Wabash river: referred
to the Committee on Public Lauds. Also, the pe
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 1: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2367/m1/374/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.