and honored by a whole people, would have given her consent to the removal, requested by the whole Congress in 1799, if she had believed what the gentleman from South Carolina now tells us, that such removal would have violated his last will, and been a sacrilege committed against the sanctuary of the tomb?

Sir, how often has the attention of the nation been called to this great cousummation, so devoutly wished by all the people? How often has the arrangement of 1799 come to the public ear, from that estimable man, the grandson of that illustrious matron? How often have we heard from him not in the language of rebuke, which was merited; no, nor of complaint which he might justly utter; but in the language of deep and heartfelt regret, that the bones of Washington were mouldering into dust, at a distance from that mausoleum, which the gratitude of his country had already prepared for them. It cannot then, Sir, it cannot be said, that the consent of the family will be wanted for us to do, what seems to have been so earnestly desired by them.

I cannot, Sir, join in the pious incantation of some gentlemen, who would, in imagination, call up the mighty dead, and put them to inquisition, concerning these obsequies. Who, if he might, would bring back from the blessedness of heaven, to the cares of earth, one purified spirit; or for a moment interrupt the felicities of those realms of reality, by any thing which agitates human feelings, in this region of dust and shadows? Permit me to learn from his life, what his country may, with propriety, do with his remains, after his death. When that immortal soul, now as we trust in beatitude, inhabited and animated his mortal part, where was the place, what was the service to which the voice of his country called him, and he was not there? In the toils of war, in the councils of peace, he was, soul and body devoted to that people, whom he labored through life to build up into one great nation. Should that body think you, Sir, at this time be less at the service of his country, than when alive with the imperishable soul it was Washington, and walked the world, for human welfare? If his whole life doth tell us, that he placed himself at the call of his country, then truly where should all that remains of him, be finally found, but where the same voice would place them?

We would not, in the language of the gentleman from South Carolina, raise over him " a pyramid, a monument, like the eternal mountains." No, Sir, the folly of ancient ambition, has perished from the earth, while these its monuments still stand unmoved upon its surface. This House, we trust, will endure as long as this nation endures. Let this be the Mausoleum of Washington. We would place his remains in the cemetery built for that purpose, under the centre of that dome which covers the Rotundo. Directly over this on that floor, in accordance with the Resolution two years ago submitted to this House, we would erect a pedestrian statue of that man, sufficiently colossal, and placed on a pedestal, so high and massy, as might be required to fill and satisfy the eye, in the centre of that broad and lofty room, which, probably, has no equal in the architecture of the world.

The ever-during marble will give to coming generations the form and the features of Washington; and the traveller of future ages shall learn where he may find his tomb. This House, this Mausoleum of one, who, prospered by Divine assistance, performed more for his country and for the human race, than any other mortal, shall be a place of pilgrimage for all nations. Hither will come the brave, the wise, the good, from every part of our country; not to worship, but to stand by the sepulchre and to relume the light of patriotism at the monument of Washington.

We must with deep and anxious regret have perceived, that Virginia prefers her separate and exclusive claim to these venerated remains. It will never be forgotten, that Washington was a son of that distinguished State. Is not this honor enough to gratify the ambition of any people of any region of our earth? Why so avaricious of his glory, which like that of the sun falls with no diminished brightness on one region, because it shines on a thousand others? She needs it not. She will still have sons enough, warmed with noble ambition, to perfect and preserve the fabric of her glory. Washington was born, and lived for his country. Let the mighty base of his fame extend to his country, his united country, and to every part of it. Then shall the young and the aspiring, in every region of our land, and through all coming generations, whether of humble or elevated origin, read the history of the great and the good; here they shall see by what monumental honors his country has consecrated his name; and thus, he who lived the most perfect man of one age, shall become the great and enduring model for all future time.

Let me, then, in behalf of our common country, implore Virginia, and the distinguished sons of Virginia now in this Hall, to look to a consummation of the arrangement of 1799. I do entreat them now to recollect and regard the unanimity of a no less distinguished delegation then, as worthy of all imitation. Let Virginia, "the fruitful mother of heroes and statesmen," not disregard the memory of her most illustrious matron, who, at the call of her country, surrendered her own individual and peculiar affection, to the promptings of a glorious patriotism.

At first, I confess it did appear to me that there might be something, in the removal of these remains, inappropriate to a birth-day celebration. It is not so. These two days, that of his birth, and that of this celebration, are separated by the whole duration of an hundred years. Between these two points, what a tide of events has rolled over the world? When the eye of recollection looks back towards that birth-day morning, what a succession of benefits, blessings, glories, seem to have been lighted up by that auspicious sun! Our Independence, institutions, government, with all their concomitant excellencies, we behold; and in all, the mighty agency of Washington! He seems to stand on earth among us, in the midst of his achievements, to receive our gratitude, and to witness his own fame. If we carry in procession these mouldering remains, it will help to bring us back to a perception of our common allotment, and teach us to realize his and our own mortality. In the midst of our gratulations, that such a man was born, we shall have before our eyes the memorial, that such a man has died; and the joys of the Centennial Birth-Day, shall be chastened by those teachings of wisdom, which remind us, that no human life, no sublunary good can endure forever.

Let us then be permitted to hope, that this nation may now, at last, discharge its high obligation to that venerated family, by doing appropriate honors to the remains of this most illustrious man; so that, hereafter, the filial piety of no son or daughter of America, may be agitated with the anxious fear, that some felonious hand may violate the sanctuary of his tomb, and give to a foreign land the glory of being the Mausolem of WASHINGTON.

SPEECH ON THE REMOVAL OF THE

PUBLIC DEPOSITES.

The following Resolution, offered by Mr. Mardis, being under . consideration :

Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reporting a Bill requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit the public monies of the United States in the State Banks; and, also, as to the expediency of defining by law all contracts hereafter to be made with the Secretary for the safe-keeping, management, and disbursement of the same. Mr. Burges sent up to the Speaker an amendment, requiring all after the word "Resolved" to be stricken out, and that amendment to be inserted, by which the sufficiency of the Secretary's reasons, for his order and direction to remove the public money, would be brought before the House, and made the only question for discussion. The Speaker suggested that, by some alterations, this amendment might be made in order; and

Mr. Burges proceeded as follows;

MR. SPEAKER: -The amendment just offered by me, I will put in the form suggested by the Chair, to bring it within the strictest requirements of order. In that form, it will present to the House what has, from the first opening of the debate, seemed to me the sole question for decision in both Houses of Congress: are the reasons, laid before us, by the Secretary of the Treasury, sufficient to justify the order and direction given by him to remove the money of the United States from the Bank and its branches? If they are not, and the House of Representatives vote that they are not, then, because Congress do not sustain the Secretary of the Treasury, in his order and direction of removal, he must leave the money where the law has ordered it to be deposited. Unless both Houses decide that the reasons are sufficient, the Secretary has failed to lay before Congress such reasons as, in their opinion, justify him in making the order and direction of removal. Congress is the Court to which the Secretary appeals for a confirmation of his order

and direction of removal; if this Court be equally divided, no judgment can be given, confirming the order and direction of the Secretary; and, therefore, that order and direction are not confirmed, but of necessity, reversed; and the Secretary is bound to reverse them, by giving orders and directions to the collectors of the revenue, and the Treasurer of the United States, to deposit the public money in the United States Bank and its branches.

Before making any further allusion to the reasons of the Secretary, it may be proper to give some reply to the argument of the gentleman from Alabama, (Mr. Mardis,) on the Resolution presented by him. He has, indeed, done the best justice, which could have been done to the case. Not the chamois, in his own native Alps, could spring from rock to rock with more agility; nor could the young panther leap from one tree to another, in our own deep forests, with more of muscular, than he has displayed of intellectual elasticity, in moving from point to point of this great argu.

ment.

Notwithstanding this, he does not seem to be aware of how much he admits, by the very words of his Resolution. He would induce Congress to enact laws by which the doings of the Secretary of the Treasury may be confirmed. Those doings are either legal or illegal. If legal, they require no law to confirm them; for no law renders them more than legal, more than lawful. If they are illegal, the gentleman does not intend, I must believe, to require of Congress the enactment of such laws, as may shield public officers themselves, from punishment, when the whole country is suffering, from the effects of their own violations of the laws.

This gentleman, in the course of his argument, urges the House to confer on the State banks the power of making a paper currency equal to that of the United States Bank. He tells us that he would do this, because the United States Bank is unconstitutional. The power to make paper currency, is one of the powers of the United States Bank, and is one without which it could not be a bank. If the Constitution forbid Congress to confer on a United States Bank the power to make bills of credit, or paper currency, by what legerdemain can Congress confer that power on State banks?

I do not remember any thing more, in the gentleman's argument, which may require my attention. His war with the United States Bank is, in my opinion, no part of the question; and his determina