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

DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 371 JUNE, 1834.] Official Revenue Statements-Prosperity of the Country. [SFNATE. error, which would relieve him from a load of chamber of the Senate, and went to a comsin, which would be burdensome to carry across mittee, from which it might not return in time Jordan. for consideration at this session. It had been The memorial was referred to the Committee called for under circumstances which attracted on Finance, and ordered to be printed. attention, and disclosed information which deserved to be known. It was called for early in May, in the crisis of the alarm operations, TUESDAY, June 10. and with confident assertions that the answer to Rhode Island Contested Election. the call would prove the distress and the suffering of the country. It was confidently asserted On motion of Mr. W.EBnSTER, the Committee that the Secretary of the Treasury had overon Finance was discharged from the further estimated the revenues of the year; that there consideration of the resolution of the Senate, would be a great falling off-a decline-a bankrequesting said committee to inquire into the ruptcy; that confidence was destroyed-enterexpediency of allowing to the honorable E. prise checked-industry paralyzed —commerce R. Potter the pay and mileage of a member suspended! that the direful act of one man, in of Congress, while attending at the seat of one dire order, had changed the face of the Government, pending the contested election country, from a scene of unparalleled prosperity of the Senator from the State of Rhode Island; to a scene of unparalleled desolation! that the which motion was agreed to: whereupon, canal was a solitude, the lake a desert waste of Mr. WRIGHT submitted the following resolu- waters, the ocean without ships, the commertion: cial towns deserted, silent, and sad; orders for Whereas, the honorable Elisha R. Potter, at the goods countermanded; foreign purchases stopcommencement of the present session of Congress, ped! and that the answer of the Secretary would did cause to be laid before the Senate a commission prove all this, in showing the falsity of his own from the Governor of the State of Rhode Island, estimates, and the great decline in the revenue duly authenticated, and constituting the regular and importations of the country. Such were primafacie evidence to entitle him to a seat in the the assertions and predictions under which the Senate. And whereas, the contest for the seat call wasmade, andto whichthe public attention claimed by Mr. Potter was not finally decided by the was attacted by every device of theatrical decSenate until the 27th day of May now last past, when lamation from this floor. Well, the answer the said seat was awarded to the honorable Asher Robbins, comes. The Secretary sends in his report, with Therefore, Resolved, That the said Elisha R. Pot- every statement called for. It is a report to ter is entitled to the compensation of mileage al- make the patriot's heart rejoice! full of high lowed by law to members, for his travel from his and gratifying facts; replete with rich inforplace of residence, in the State of Rhode Island, to mation, and pregnant with evidences of nationthe capital, and returning; and also to the per diem al prosperity. How is it received-how reallowance of a member of Congress, for the time ceived by those who called for it? With downhe actually attended at the city of Washington cast looks, and wordless tongues! A motion during the contest pending before the Senate in re- is even made to stop the reading! to stop the lation to the seat claimed by him, and occupied by reading of such a report! called for under such the honorable M r. Robbins. circumstances! while whole days are given up to reading the monotonous, tautologous, and MONDAY, June 16. endless repetitions of distress memorials, the echo of our own speeches, and the thousandth SOcrta Ry tenue Sttemenats-uReyort ofa tohe edition of the same work, without emendation Secretary of the Treasuriy n answer to nry. or correction! All these can be read, and printWetbter's catll-Psros~perity of the Country. ed, too, and lauded with studied eulogium, and The VICE PRESIDENT presented a communica- their contents sent out to the people, freighted tion from the Secretary of the Treasury, trans- upon every wind; but this official report of the mitting the amount of duties upon imports, Secretary of the Treasury upon the state of during the first quarter of the year 1834, and their own revenues, and of their own commerce, furnishing estimates of the probable receipts called for by an order of the Senate, is to be of the remaining quarters of the year. treated like an unwelcome and worthless inAfter the Secretary had commenced the read- truder; received without a word-not even ing of the communication, read-slipped out upon a motion —disposed of Mr. WEBSTER moved that the further reading as the Abbe6 Sieyes voted for the death of Louis be dispensed with, and the communication and the Sixteenth, mort sans phrase! death, withdocuments be referred to the Committee of Fi- out talk! But he, Mr. B., did not mean to sufnance, and printed. fer this report to be despatched in this uncereMr. BENTON intimated that this was an im- monious and compendious style. It had been, portant paper, and he desired to hear it read. called for to be given to the people, and the The reading was then proceeded in: when it people should hear of it. It was not what was was completed- expected, but it is what is true, and what will Mr. BENTON said that this report was of a na- rejoice the heart of every patriot in America. ture to deserve some attention, before it left the A pit was dug for Mr. Taney; the diggers of

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 371
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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