Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

300 ABRIDGMENT OF THE SENATE.] Albany Memorial. [MARCH, 1884. ington, and of the town and county of Fayette, FRIDAY, arch 28. Kentucky, on the subject so interesting to the Y people of the United States. This memorial Albany Memorial. was signed by upwards of 1,200 persons, em- Mr. WEBSTER presented a memorial signed bracing mechanics, manufacturers, farmers, by about twenty-eight hundred of the citizens of merchants, and the great body of men of busi- Albany. On presenting this memorial, Mr. ness of those places; it was signed by numbers WEBSTER said: of his friends and neighbors-by individuals, Mr. President: I have the honor to present some of whom he had known for forty years. to the Senate, a memorial from the city of It was on the common topic which had so often Albany. and for so long a time engaged the attention of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Bosthe Senate-the existing distress of the country. ton, have already laid before Congress, the opinIt was very true, that the memorialists did not ions entertained in those cities by men in all classspeak of very great pressure in their portion es of society, andof all occupations and conditions of the country; they spoke.of the approach of in life, respecting the conduct of the administragreat distress, and expressed their apprehensions tion in removing the public deposits. To these, that it would continue to increase. But in Albany now joins her voice-a voice not less what country, in what climate, the most fa- clear, not less strong, not less unanimous, than vored by Heaven, can happiness and prosperity that of her sister cities. exist against bad government, against misrule, It is well known to you, sir, and to gentlemen and against rash and ill-advised experiments? on the floor of the Senate, that Albany, for its On the mountain's top, in the mountain's cavern, size, is an extremely commercial city. Conin the remotest borders of the country, every- nected with the sea by one of the noblest where, every interest has been affected by the rivers on earth, it is placed, also, at the point, mistaken policy of the Executive. While he ad- at or near which many hundred miles of inland mitted that the solicitude of his neighbors and navigation, from the west and from the north, friends was excited in some degree by the embar- accumulate the products of a vast and fertile rassments of the country, yet they felt a deeper interior, and deliver them, for further transport, solicitude for the restoration of the rightful an- into receptacles proper to be borne on tidethority of the constitution and the laws. It is this waters, or to be impelled by steam. In return which excites their apprehensions, and creates all for these riches of inland industry, thus abuntheir alarm. He would not, at this time, enlarge dantly poured forth to the sea, Albany receives, farther on the subject of this memorial. He of course, large amounts of foreign merchandise, would only remark, that hemp, the great staple to be forwarded inward, and to be distributed of the part of the country from whence the for consumption in the western district of the memorial came, had fallen twenty per cent. State, along the shores of the lakes, and even since he left home, and that Indian corn, to the banks of the Mississippi itself. It is another of its greatest staples, the most valu- necessarily, therefore, a place of vast exchanges able of the fruits of the earth for the use of of property; in other words, a place of great trade. man, which the farmer converted into most of Albany, I believe, sir, has a population of the articles of his consumption, furnishing him twenty-eight or thirty thousand people. It with food and raiment, had fallen to an equal has given, I learn, on interesting occasions, extent. There were in that county six thousand nearly, but not quite, thirty-eight hundredvotes. fat bullocks now remaining unsold, when, long The paper, sir, whose folds I am now unrolling, before this time last year, there was scarcely and which I have risen to present to the one to be purchased. They were not sold, Chair, bears twenty-eight hundred names, all because the butchers could not obtain from the believed to be qualified electors. Great pains banks the usual facilities in the way of dis- have been taken to be accurate in this particcounts; they could not obtain funds in antici- ular; and if there be a single name to this pation of their sale wherewith to purchase; paper not belonging to a qualified voter, it is not and now $100,000 worth of this species of only here by mistake, but here after careful property remains on hand, which, if sold, scrutiny has been had, for the purpose of avoidwould have been scattered through the country ing such mistakes. Every man, sir, whose name by the graziers, producing all the advantages is here, is believed to have a right to say " I to be derived from so large a circulation. am an American citizen; I possess the elective Every farmer was too well aware of these facts franchise; I hold the right of suffrage; I posone moment to doubt them. We are, said Mr. sess and exercise an individual share in the sovC., not a complaining people. We think not ereign power of the State; I am one of those so much of distress. Give us our laws-guar- principals, whose agent Government is, and I antee to us our constitution-and we will be expect from Government a proper regard to my content with almost any form of government. interests." Mr. C. asked that the memorial be read, It will thus be seen, sir, that this paper exprinted with the signatures, and referred to the presses the sentiments of three-fourths of as Committee on Finance; which motion was many citizens of Albany as have ever been colcarried. lected, on any occasion, at the polls of the city. What these sentiments are, the Senate will be

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 300
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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