With respect to a reference of the subject to the Supreme Court which had been suggested, the Governor said: "It will be for the Government of Georgia ultimately to submit, or not, to the decision of that tribunal." He did not. consider the Supreme Court the constitutional arbiter in controversies involving rights of sovereignty between a State and the United States. Mr. Monroe had recommended an attempt to effect the removal of the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi; and for this purpose Secretary Barbour, in February, 1826, transmitted to Congress a bill. But no definitive action. was taken upon it. Bent on the one great object, the "overthrow of the administration," the opposition left unemployed no means which could be devised for this purpose. A resolution was offered, calling upon the Secretary of State for a list of the newspapers in which the laws were directed to be published since he came into office, designating the changes which had been made, and the reasons for each change. It was alleged that he had made changes from personal and political motives. To employ eighty-two presses in the service of the administration was alarming to the libcrties of the people. On the other hand, the right to call upon a public officer for the reasons of his acts was denied. Such a call was believed to be without precedent. Out of the eighty or more presses in which the laws had been published, only sixteen had been changed-some from geographical considerations ; and in four instances, the persons displaced and those appointed were of the same political party. The resolution was debated at great length; but no definitive action was had upon it. The course pursued by the next administration in respect to appointments, will soon appear. Before the excitement caused by the alleged "coalition" of Messrs. Adams and Clay had subsided, a new impulse was given to it by a direct charge made by Gen. Jackson himself, occasioned on this wise: An anonymous letter appeared in the Fayetteville (N. C.) Observer, stating that the writer had been told at the Hermitage, by Gen. Jackson, "that Mr. Clay's friends made a proposition to his friends, that if they would promise, for him, not to put Mr. Adams into the seat of Secretary of State, Clay and his friends would, in one hour, make him, Jackson, the Presi dent. He indignantly rejected the proposition." It soon became known, that Carter Beverly, of Wheeling, Va., was the author of the letter. His veracity being impeached, he requested of Gen. Jackson a confirmation of the statements in his published letter. The General, in his answer, said he had been called on, in January, 1825, by a member of Congress, who said, that he had been informed by the friends of Mr. Clay, that the friends of Mr. Adams had made overtures to them, saying, if Mr. Clay and his friends would unite in aid of the election of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay should be Secretary of State. And he was of opinion it was right to fight such intriguers with their own weapons, &c., &c. Mr. Clay, in a letter to the public, challenged Gen. Jackson to the proof. The General replied in an address to the public, and named James Buchanan as the member of Congress alluded to. Mr. Buchanan, in a public letter, through the Lancaster Journal, disclaimed having come to Gen. Jackson as an agent for any one. He says: "I called on Gen. Jackson solely as his friend, upon my individual responsibility. Until I saw Gen. Jackson's letter to Mr. Beverly, and at the same time was informed by a letter from the Editor of the U. S. Telegraph, that I was the person to whom he alluded, the conception never once entered my mind that he believed me to have been the agent of Mr. Clay, or of his friends, or that I had intended to propose to him terms of any kind for them, or that he could have supposed me capable of expressing the opinion, that it was right to fight them with their own weapons.'" Mr. Buchanan then suggests how Gen. Jackson may have been led into the mistake. Here, then, is presented a question of veracity between the General and Mr. Buchanan, as the former would not confess to a "mistake." Many readers will recollect the publication, in 1856, of what purported to be an original letter from Gen, Jackson to Mr. Polk, in which he advised him not to appoint Mr. B. to a seat in his Cabinet, for the reason that he was a deceitful man, or unworthy of confidence, and referred to the denial above mentioned, say ing: "He did propose to fight them with their own weap ons." The reader will form his own opinion as to which of the two gentlemen is the more worthy of credence. In 1828, the tariff was again modified. The protection afforded by the act of 1824, was generally satisfactory. A means, however, had been devised of evading in a measure the intentions of the act. Woolen goods were subject to an ad valorem duty of 333 per cent. on the price at the place whence imported. False invoices of these goods were made out at prices below their actual value, and the duties paid accordingly. By this means, the treasury was defrauded of a part of the revenue, and the manufacturer of a part of the protection to which he was entitled. To remedy this evil, and a few others, a bill was introduced in 1827, usually called the "woolens bill," and was passed by the House, 106 to 95, but defeated in the Senate by the casting vote of Vice-President Calhoun, to the great dissatisfaction of the manufacturers. Public meetings were held in some States, and a National Convention, composed of delegates from 13 States, met at Harrisburg, Pa., to consult on measures to promote the interests of agriculture and manufactures and at the next session of Congress, (1827-1828,) numerous petitions were received praying for relief. An act was passed, increasing the duties on iron and some other articles; changing the duties on others from ad valorem to specific duties, laying those upon woolens according to the minimum principle.* *To some readers, perhaps, this term may need an explanation. Minimum signifies the least quantity or value assignable in a given case. By the act of 1824, woolen cloths costing in the foreign market over 33% cents the square yard, were charged with a duty of 33% per cent. But as many were imported with invoices at prices one-fourth or one-third less than those really charged, this act provided that all woolen cloths costing abroad under 33 cents, must be charged with a specific duty of 14 cents a yard. Costing over 33 cents, and under 50, they must be deemed to have cost 50, and charged 40 per cent. duty; that is, 50 cents is the least value upon which the duty was to be charged. Costing over 50 cents, and not exceeding $1, they must be considered as having cost $1, and be charged accordingly; one dollar being the minimum, or least price upon which the duty was to be estimated. The next minimum was $2,50, and the next and last $4. The benefit of this principle is By the act of 1824, many articles previously charged with ad valorem duties, were made subject to specific duties; and by the act of 1828, the duties on an additional number of articles were altered from ad valorem to specific, as by specific duties, and duties by the minimum rule, (which are in effect the same as specific duties,) the intended measure of duties is secured. This tariff was, on the whole, probably, the highest that had ever been enacted. Among its most prominent supporters were Silas Wright, Barnard, Martin Hoffman, Martindale, and Strong, of N. Y.; Mallory, of Vt.; Bates, of Mass.; Ingersoll, of Conn.; Buchanan, Forward, and Ingham, of Pa.; Vinton and Wright, of Ohio. Among its opponents were Anderson and Sprague, of Maine; Cambreleng, of N. Y.; Alexander, Gilmer, and Randolph, of Va.; Hamilton and M'Duffie, of S. C.; Wickliffe, of Ky.; Wilde, of Ga. It passed the House, 105 to 94, as follows: Maine: Nays, 7. Yeas, 2; nays, 11. Yeas, 4; nays, 2. New Hampshire: Yeas, 4; nays, 2. Massachusetts : Rhode Island: Yea, 1; nay, 1. Connecticut : Vermont: Yeas, 5. New York: Yeas, 27; nays, 6. New Jersey: Yeas, 5. Pennsylvania: Yeas, 23. Delaware: Yea, 1. Maryland: Yea, 1; nays, 5. Virginia: Yeas, 3; nays, 15. North Carolina: Nays, 13. South Carolina: Nays, 9. Georgia: Nays, 7. Kentucky: Yeas, 12. Tennessee: Nays, 9. Ohio: Yeas, 13. Indiana: Yeas, 3. The bill, somewhat amended, passed the Senate, 26 to 21, as follows: Maine: Nays, 2. (Webster;) nay, 1, necticut: Yeas, 2. New Hampshire: Nay, 1. Massachusetts: Yea, 1, (Silsbee.) Rhode Island: Yea, 1; nay, 1. ConVermont: Yeas, 2. New York: Yeas, 2, (Sanford readily seen. For instance: If an importer should present an invoice of cloth at 50 cents a yard which is worth 75 cents, the fraud would be readily discovered, and the article would be deemed to have cost $1, and charged accordingly. This would compel the foreign manufacturer to make all goods costing over 50 cents, intended for our market, worth, as near as possible, $1, and not exceeding that price. And so of the other minima, $2,50 and $4. The duties on woolens were, after the first year, to be increased 5 per cent. and Van Buren.) New Jersey: Yeas, 2. Pennsylvania: Yeas, 2 The indignation of the South excited by the passage of this act, was not allayed until after the enactment of the Compromise act of 1833. One year remained of Mr. Adams' Presidential term; and, lest the load of unprincipled opposition under which it was staggering should prove insufficient to crush it, another attempt was made to effect the object. In January, 1828, Mr. Chilton, of Kentucky, moved resolutions declaring the expediency of the speedy discharge of the public debt, and, in order to effect it, the necessity of a general system of retrenchment, the discontinuance of needless offices, the reduction of salaries; and instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to report such means of retrenchment as might be deemed necessary. The friends of the administration, although aware that the resolutions had been introduced for party effect, yet, concurring in the measure proposed, and believing that the Government had been economically administered, made no serious opposition to their reference. Among the list of alleged abuses, the navy list was said to be crowded; cadets had been educated at West Point who were out of employment; a fifth auditor had been appointed for a time which had expired, and his services were no longer necessary; too many clerks were employed; the contingent fund had been improperly used many salaries might be reduced; and the reduction should begin with the compensation and mileage of members of Congress; and there was an unnecessary expenditure for printed documents. ; Opposition members were not unanimous upon all points. Messrs. Buchanan, Randolph, and M'Duffie, although they believed in the necessity of reform, did not think the present a favorable time, nor the manner proposed a proper one. Mr. Buchanan said also that the duties of the fifth auditor had been doubled, and the office was necessary. |