to furnish armed ships to the Sultan of Turkey in his future wars with Christian nations. Do you believe, Sir, that our Envoy had left Constantinople before the Russian Minister at the Porte knew this fact? The very drogoman, by whom your Mr. Rhind talked with Reis Effendi, would, for half a plate of piasters, have told the whole story to Count Orloff; and sworn he was doing good service to the Prophet by betraying one Christian dog to another. Sir, has friendship for the Russian Empire been so cherished by the present Sovereign, and his illustrious predecessor, that it has become a sentiment of the American people? Is not this secret article a diplomatic fraud, not only on that friendship, but, which it quite as much concerns us to consider, upon that Sovereign who has so generously cherished it? I say nothing now of what may happen, if the Turk should again war upon the Greek, or how it may comport with the republican principles of the Secretary of State, when he shall call on this House to furnish ships to that despot, thereby aiding him in bringing that people again under his iron yoke. What shall we say to the Emperor of Russia? Who shall make our explanation, if we shall have any to make? It is probable that the news of this treaty, and perhaps a copy of it, reached the Court of St. Petersburgh shortly after our Minister left that city. The shortness of his residence there, the suddenness of his departure, the intelligence of this secret article, the intended sojourn of that Minister, perhaps in England, perhaps in France, the attitudes of the nations of Europe, all giving dreadful note of preparation for war, must have had some tendency to place our relations with Russia on a footing not the most firm and friendly. Does not sound policy— does not national good sense, call on the American people to have an able Minister at that Court, and that, too, right speedily? Have we one there now? Under the mission for which this appropria. tion is to be made, are we likely soon, or ever, I do not say to have such a man there, but to have there any Minister at all?

In answer to all these anxious forebodings, we are told that, in this absence of the Minister, the Secretary of Legation takes very special and satisfactory care of our relations at the Court of St. Petersburgh. If this were not too ludicrous, it must be received as a mere mockery of the American people. When this paragraph came from under his pen, Mr. Secretary Van Buren must, if he had placed his hand there, have felt something on his face different

H*

from the eternal smile. Who is the Secretary of Legation? The protege of the Minister, John Randolph Clay-a lad of less, or certainly not more, than twenty-one years old; undistinguished by talents, education, or employment; without acquaintance with men, or things, or business. A youth to whom fame has not, nor have his friends, attributed any thing extraordinary, either in possession or promise, and with nothing but his sirname to recommend him to public attention. I would not, I cannot, speak in derogation of this youth; and all I would say, is, that he must be utterly unqualified for the public station where he is placed. The service requires men; the nation has able men; Herculean men. Why then hazard our interests, perhaps our peace, by placing the weight of empires on the slender shoulders of boyhood? Let us strike out this appropriation, that this sinecure, this state mission, may be avoided; that the Minister may return to his “Constituents," the Secretary to his studies; and that the PRESIDENT may send a Legation to Russia fit for the public service.

As it will not be contended that this appropriation should be made because the gentleman, who may take the benefit of it, is a native of Virginia; so may gentlemen be assured that these remarks have no sectional origin; and I utterly disclaim any, and all adversary feeling to that distinguished commonwealth, her interests, and her citizens. I have spoken as one of the representatives of the American people; and as one, coming from a part of our common country, which has done, and will do as much for the illustrious men of Virginia, as any other part of this nation. This appropriation is opposed, because it is intended to support a mission, framed for purposes unconnected with the public interests, places our foreign relations in peril, and is without any justification in law usage, or constitutional principle.

SPEECH ON THE APPROPRIATION BILL.

Messrs. Barbour and Coke of Virginia, Mr. Wayne of Georgia, and Mr. Cambreleng of New-York, severally attacked Mr. Burges for his remarks on Mr. Stanberry's motion. On the 15th of January, 1831, he thus addressed the House in reply to those gentlemen.

SPEECH.

MR. SPEAKER :-Permit me to justify myself, under all which has been said, both against me, and against whatever has been here advanced by me in support of the motion made by the gentleman from Ohio. With the indulgence of this House, it may be well to look back to the question made by the motion; for gentlemen in their zeal to eulogize the Minister, or to abuse those who doubt the correctness of his appointment, have departed almost entirely from the matter in issue before us.

The objection to this appropriation, and the motion to strike it from this Bill, have been made, because it is proposed for payment of a salary to a foreign minister, who, by his commission of legation, or by certain secret articles given to him, is authorized to leave the Court to which he is sent, to go to any other country, whenever, in his own opinion, his health may require it; and not to return to that Court so long as, according to the same opinion, it may be injurious to his health to do so. We deny such mission to be a legal one we deny that the salary provided by law for foreign ministers, is, or ever can be, due to any man sent abroad under such credentials: with such privileges reserved, and such powers granted to him, not to the public, but to his own use. The objection to this appropriation has, therefore, not been made because the gentleman was, when sent abroad, and had long been, a valetudinarian: or, because, if then in health, that health, exhausted by the toils of diplomacy, might require relaxation and relief from public service. No, Sir; nor because that refreshment might not be found unless

under a milder sky, and by removing to a more genial climate than that of Russia. Such things may excite, as they certainly have excited, the special wonder of the nation; and they are, and will be very proper topics of debate, when considering the "State purposes" of this mission: but they have not been nor will they be made the grounds of objection to the appropriation of this item in the Bill. We object to this salary on account of the illegality of this mission, and because the Secretary of State, knowing the enfeebled health of Mr. Randolph-knowing his inability to attend to the laborious details of that public service-knowing that his constitution could not endure either the winter or summer climate of Russia, did invent this mission, and did advise the President to send out this gentleman with credentials as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at the Court of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia; and at the same to give him a commission, no matter for what cause, to reside as such Minister, in whatever country he might choose to reside. Such a mission cannot be formed-such a minister cannot be sent abroad, either under our laws or our constitution, or under the usages and laws of nations. I ask the attention of the House, therefore, to the inquiry, whether this salary can be due for an illegal and void mission? whether it can be due as a quantum meruit, or as a pro rata compensation for the services which were rendered at the Court of Russia; or, last of all, whether it can be due, because this mission may subserve certain purposes, highly useful to the Secretary of State? Before these inquiries can, to the best purpose, be made, it is proper to give some reply to what has been offered by several gentlemen against this motion. These gentlemen have said less to support this appropriation, than to impugn the motives of those who oppose it. With my motives the gentlemen are welcome to amuse themselves. The storm of their abuse passed over me, as the winter storms of my native New-England have often passed over the humble dwelling of my boyhood, without shaking a stone from the chimney, or starting a shingle on the roof. I have too much respect for myself to believe that they have abused me from the wantonness of malice, but do believe it was done simply because they could find nothing to say more appropriate to the question.

This motion has been made to protect the rights of the nation against the encroachments of power. Those who resist such

encroachments and assaults of power, must always expect to encounter vociferous, if not infuriated adversaries. I have not entered this warfare without "counting the cost." A school of high authority taught me, that, in a war of aggression, "He who takes the sword shall perish by the sword," but in a war of defence, "let him who has no sword sell his coat and buy one."

How then has our defence been met and answered? How by the gentleman from Virginia? (Mr. Barbour.) First of all, I am accused of objecting to this appropriation, because it is for the use of a Virginian. In this the gentleman is utterly mistaken. I informed him of this error in a few moments after he had taken his seat. He has, notwithstanding, chosen to put this error in print. Suffer me, Sir, in my place, and before this House, to protest against this procedure. The gentlemen who heard me then, and who do me the honor to hear me now, I call to witness, that I said no such thing; and I should have nothing to regret, could my protestation be made the printed companion of the gentleman's allegation against me, and travel, side by side, with it, under the eye of the nation. This, I know, cannot be done and I must suffer the imputation, wherever his speech is read, without my correction of its errors. Be it so; but I believe there is too much good sense, and too much moral sentiment in Virginia, to set down one of their fellow men as quite so stupid, or quite so malevolent.

The gentleman alleges that I considered this mission as a bribe offered to Virginia. This might have been said by me, because I believed it to be true. If said, was it said, or could it be intended, in derogation of Virginia? Is Virginia dishonored by this attempt of the wily Secretary? I did not, and no man will intimate that Virginia had even looked with a favorable eye on this bribe, this splendid bestowment. Not those who hear, but those who listen to the song of the syren, and are allured by the enchantment, become debased by the temptation. Sir, temptations are spread over the whole path of our lives, from the cradle to the grave. The enticements of pleasure beset our youth; the toils of ambition are spread for our vigorous manhood; and in old age, the honest amor habendi, when all other loves are frozen in the heart, allures the dim eye to gaze at, and the sure ear to listen to, the glittering beauties and golden melodies of avarice.