Henry Clays Remarks in House and Senate | Page 6

this high trust by trampling, or
suffering to be trampled down, law, justice, the Constitution, and the
rights of the people? by exhibiting examples of inhumanity and cruelty
and ambition? When the minions of despotism heard, in Europe, of the
seizure of Pensacola, how did they chuckle, and chide the admirers of
our institutions, tauntingly pointing to the demonstration of a spirit of
injustice and aggrandizement made by our country, in the midst of an
amicable negotiation! Behold, said they, the conduct of those who are
constantly reproaching kings! You saw how those admirers were
astounded and hung their heads. you saw, too, when that illustrious
man, who presides over us, adopted his pacific, moderate, and just
course, how they once more lifted up their heads with exultation and
delight beaming in their countenances. And you saw how those
minions themselves were finally compelled to unite in the general
praises bestowed upon our government. Beware how you forfeit this
exalted character. Beware how you give a fatal sanction, in this infant
period of our Republic, scarcely yet twoscore years old, to military
insubordination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her
Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that if we
would escape the rock on which they split we must avoid their errors.
How different has been the treatment of General Jackson and that
modest, but heroic young man, a native of one of the smallest States in
the Union, who achieved for his country, on Lake Erie, one of the most
glorious victories of the late war. In a moment of passion he forgot
himself and offered an act of violence which was repented of as soon as
perpetrated. He was tried, and suffered the judgment to be pronounced
by his peers. Public justice was thought not even then to be satisfied.
The press and Congress took up the subject. My honorable friend from
Virginia, Mr. Johnson, the faithful and consistent sentinel of the law

and of the Constitution, disapproved in that instance, as he does in this,
and moved an inquiry. The public mind remained agitated and
unappeased until the recent atonement, so honorably made by the
gallant commodore. And is there to be a distinction between the
officers of the two branches of the public service? Are former services,
however eminent, to preclude even inquiry into recent misconduct? Is
there to be no limit, no prudential bounds to the national gratitude? I
am not disposed to censure the President for not ordering a court of
inquiry, or a general court-martial. Perhaps, impelled by a sense of
gratitude, he determined, by anticipation, to extend to the general that
pardon which he had the undoubted right to grant after sentence. Let us
not shrink from our duty. Let us assert our constitutional powers, and
vindicate the instrument from military violation.
I hope gentlemen will deliberately survey the awful isthmus on which
we stand. They may bear down all opposition; they may even vote the
general the public thanks; they may carry him triumphantly through
this House. But, if they do, in my humble judgment, it will be a triumph
of the principle of insubordination, a triumph of the military over the
civil authority, a triumph over the powers of this House, a triumph over
the Constitution of the land. And I pray most devoutly to Heaven that it
may not prove, in its ultimate effects and consequences, a triumph over
the liberties of the people.

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