Congress Hall (National Assembly Thread)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Mr. Speaker,

The sentiments expressed by the gentleman from Charlottesville are so proper, and the words he speaks so perfectly fitted to the occasion, that I will not further tax the patience of the Assembly by restating that which has already been sufficiently put. The results of the election are clear; the will of the people is known; and a government has been formed which reflects that will. It is my purpose therefore, and so I implore my fellow Whigs to make it theirs, to support the motion to declare that this Assembly has confidence in the government of the first Secretary.

For the sake of our Liberty, in the interests of Peace, and for the preservation of our federal Union—long may it live—I make this plea on behalf of the government. It has been suggested, by resentful tongues abroad, and some who now are seated in this chamber, that a republic cannot endure without dissolving into anarchy and chaos. We believe they are wrong; and now it is up to us to prove them wrong. In this endeavor, in this great and noble experiment, we set an example for the world: to show beyond all reasonable doubt that man can be governed other than by fear, that Liberty and Security are not opposites, and that a government which sets its foundations not on the monarchial principle of hereditary rule, but in the good heads and stout hearts of the people, can endure to see the freedom enjoyed by it's progenitors preserved for the benefit of their posterity.

I yield my time to the chair.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Tariff Act, 1789

Be it resolved,

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Mr. Speaker,

This bill is entered on behalf of the government for to establish a reliable source of revenue for the United States in light of the significant debt left to us by the Confederation. It is the purpose of the government to forgo onerous taxes and duties upon the people of these States; however, without revenue we will be unable to keep our obligations to our creditors, our credit will be ruined, and we will have no prospect of trade with  Europe upon which the economies of both our Northern and Southern States depend. We therefore recommend this legislation to the house, to establish a moderate tariff for the purposes of revenue alone, in order to promote the financial solvency of the United States.

I yield my time to the chair.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Mr. Speaker,

Objects of the utmost gravity, questions which in their immensity contain the fate of our republic, are now before us. Let there be no ambiguity between us, gentlemen, now. May the voice of the Lord our God ring clear in the heart of every American, and the instrument of his divine Will this chamber be, in this, the crisis of our Union.

I will be very plain with you, gentlemen. I cannot condone, cannot excuse, the measures which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has seen fit to levy against the alleged treason of their brethren to the west. The arrest of General Wilkinson; the suspension in some quarters of freedom of the press; the attempts in their multitude to prevent the exercise by the people of their sacred and inalienable right to speak freely, and without fear of coercion; are levied in direct contradiction to the provisions of the Constitution of that Commonwealth, and are anathema to the principle of republican liberty. In this crisis, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have acted with all the arrogance and tactless insolence George III once reserved for the inhabitants of these States. That the contest has now come to violence, that American blood has been shed by American hands, is a prospect which was ever within the power of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to prevent. Instead, provocation, intolerance, and coercion have been the policy of the governing party. For this unhappy course of events, they have no-one to blame but themselves.

But even so—even as the actions of the governors and their officers are destined to beget the manly resistance that now rises up in the West—this is no excuse for violence, and lawlessness. Let there be no mistake, Mr. Speaker: rebellion against a State is a crime against the people, and treason to this Union. No republic may long survive when laws cease to be the currency by which the people bond their liberty, and the contest of faction gives way to the contest of arms. The tyranny of the mob is as terrible and as great a threat to the liberty of the people as the tyranny of the monarch, and I fear the day when powder and musket shot should become the ballots by which governments are made and unmade on this continent.

In an absolute State, where the freedom of speech and the franchise are denied to the people by the laws of the dominion, then rebellion is the right and duty of every good and able citizen; but in a republic, where the laws of the Country are established by the sovereignty of the people, rebellion is unjust and treasonous, and may not be tolerated—even when the grievances which may give rise to rebellion are just and permissible. Such a principle, enshrined in precedent, would be the death knell of the Union—a prospect too horrible for any who call himself the friend of American independence to for a moment entertain. That Westsylvania has been wronged by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, there is no contest; that some among her citizens have sought restitution for these wrongs by the point of the bayonet, is no more allowable, than the crimes they seek to prevent.

This, gentlemen, is our task. The rebellion must be put down with the gentle firmness of a mother, and immediately thereafter measures be taken by this government to restore the rights of the people of Westsylvania and secure the liberty of those wrongly held for the exercise of their natural liberty.

I yield my time to the chair.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Mr. Speaker,

I am informed, by word carried by the swiftest couriers newly arrived in the city, of the burning of Pittsburg. Mutinous militiamen, acting with the apparent disregard of their officers and the evident apathy of the present government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, massacred the defenders and set fire to the town. Colonel Hamilton, who selflessly placed himself in the line of fire in hopes of preventing the further effusion of blood, barely escaped with his life. We do not yet know how many are dead.

The hour has come when this government must prove itself worthy of the confidences of the people and the respect of the world. I move that the National Assembly invest the president with full authority to raise a force sufficient to suppress the lawless rebellion of the Pennsylvania militia and restore peace and tranquility to the western counties.

I yield my time to the chair.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Vermont Statehood Act, 1791

Be it resolved,

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Mr. Speaker,

The resolution of those remaining disputes between the state of Vermont and the state of New York, and the newly received petition of the former for admission to the United States, it is my distinct privilege to present this resolution, and to move that the state of Vermont be immediately received as a new member of the United States.

I yield my time to the chair.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Financial Acts, 1792

Be it resolved:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Mr. Speaker,

These measures are brought in answer to what may be with justice, and is in many quarters, called the most perilous question of our age: that of the federal debt, and the future financial stability of these States. They form their answer in three parts: first, the establishment of a federal Treasury independent of the influence of speculators and foreign interests; second, the opening of trade with the kingdoms of Denmark and Portugal, in accordance with commercial agreements formed with those countries; third, a reasonable tax on imported and domestic liquors. The first and second provisos serve to establish on solid ground the faith and credit of the United States; the second and third to increase the sum of revenue by which the debt may be paid down. Regardless of party, all who admit the necessity of a sound financial policy must approve these sensible and moderate measures, as so we ask this honorable house.

I yield my time to the chair.