States. This plea did not appear in the early objections of Spain to our claims. It was an after-thought, resulting from the insufficiency of every other plea, and is certainly as little valid as any other.

"The injuries for which indemnities are claimed from Spain, though committed by Frenchmen, took place under Spanish authority; Spain, therefore, is answerable for them. To her we have looked, and continue to look, for redress. If the injuries done to us by her resulted in any manner from injuries done to her by France, she may, if she pleases, resort to France as we resort to her. But whether her resort to France would be just or unjust is a question between her and France; not between either her and us, or us and France. We claim against her, not against France. In releasing France, therefore, we have not released her. The claims, again, from which France was released, were admitted by France, and the release was for a valuable consideration in a correspondent release of the United States from certain claims on them. The claims we make on Spain were never admitted by France, nor made on France by the United States; they made, therefore, no part of the bargain with her, and could not be included in the release."

Certainly, Sir, words could not have been used which should more clearly affirm that these individual claims, these private rights of property, had been applied to public uses. Mr. Madison here declares, unequivocally, that these claims had been admitted by France; that they were relinquished by the government of the United States; that they were relinquished for a valuable consideration; that that consideration was a correspondent release of the United States from certain claims on them; and that the whole transaction was a bargain between the two governments. This declaration, Sir, be it remembered, was made little more than two years after the final promulgation of the convention; it was made by the Secretary of State under that administration which gave effect to the convention in its amended form; and it proves beyond mistake, and beyond doubt, the clear judgment which that administration had formed upon the true nature and character of the whole transaction.

I have said nothing, Sir, of the Louisiana convention, because neither that convention, nor any thing done under it, affects this question in the slightest degree. Great mistakes, I am aware, have existed on this point. The honorable member from New York candidly acknowledged that he himself had partaken in

this misapprehension; but as he, and others who have opposed the bill, admit that the convention which accompanied the Louisiana treaty is not connected with this subject at all, I will not detain the Senate with remarks upon it. Suffice it to say, that the demands provided for by that convention were only certain debts arising in contract, or from detention of vessels by embargo, and for certain vessels not condemned at the date of the convention of 1800, and that none of them arose from illegal captures and condemnations. And the Senate will see, that, to avoid all ambiguity on that point, this bill expressly excludes from its provisions all claims which were paid, in whole or in part, under that convention.

It only remains to show the reasonableness of the amount which the bill proposes to distribute. And this, it must be admitted, can only be fixed by estimate, and this estimate may be formed in various ways. So far as can be learned from official reports, there are something more than six hundred vessels, with their cargoes, which are supposed to form claims under this bill. Some of them, it is probable, may not be good claims; but a very great majority of that number will be, no doubt, just and fair cases.

Then the question is, What may be regarded as a just average value of each vessel and cargo ? And this question is answered, in a manner as satisfactory as the nature of the case allows, By ascertaining the average value of vessels and cargoes for which compensation has been awarded under the treaty with Spain. That average was sixteen thousand eight hundred dollars for each vessel and cargo; and, taking the cases coming under this bill to be of the same average value, the whole amount of loss would exceed ten millions of dollars, without interest.

On this estimate, it seems not unreasonable to allow the sum of five millions in full satisfaction for all claims. There is no ground to suppose that the claimants will receive, out of this sum, a greater rate of indemnity than claimants have received who had claims against Spain, or than other claimants against France, whose claims have not been relinquished, because arising since 1800, will receive, under the provisions of the late French convention.

Mr. President, I have performed the duty of explaining this

case to the Senate, as I understand it. I believe the claims to be as just as were ever presented to any government. I think they constitute an honest and well-founded debt, due by the United States to these claimants; a debt which, I am persuaded, the justice of the government, and the justice of the country, will one day both acknowledge and honorably discharge.

THE APPOINTING AND REMOVING POWER.*

MR. PRESIDENT,- The professed object of this bill is the reduction of executive influence and patronage. I concur in the propriety of that object. Having no wish to diminish or to control, in the slightest degree, the constitutional and legal authority of the presidential office, I yet think that the indirect and rapidly increasing influence which it possesses, and which arises from the power of bestowing office and of taking it away again at pleasure, and from the manner in which that power seems now to be systematically exercised, is productive of serious evils.

The extent of the patronage springing from this power of appointment and removal is so great, that it brings a dangerous mass of private and personal interest into operation in all great public elections and public questions. This is a mischief which has reached, already, an alarming height. The principle of republican governments, we are taught, is public virtue; and whatever tends either to corrupt this principle, to debase it, or to weaken its force, tends, in the same degree, to the final overthrow of such governments. Our representative systems suppose, that, in exercising the high right of suffrage, the greatest of all political rights, and in forming opinions on great public measures, men will act conscientiously, under the influence of public principle and patriotic duty; and that, in supporting or opposing men or measures, there will be a general prevalence of honest, intelligent judgment and manly independence. These presumptions lie at the foundation of all hope of maintaining

A Speech on the Appointing and Removing Power, delivered in the Senate of the United States, on the 16th of February, 1835, on the Passage of the Bill entitled "An Act to repeal the First and Second Sections of the Act to limit the Term of Service of certain Officers therein named."

governments entirely popular. Whenever personal, individual, or selfish motives influence the conduct of individuals on public questions, they affect the safety of the whole system. When these motives run deep and wide, and come in serious conflict with higher, purer, and more patriotic purposes, they greatly endanger that system; and all will admit that, if they become general and overwhelming, so that all public principle is lost sight of, and every election becomes a mere scramble for office, the system inevitably must fall. Every wise man, in and out of government, will endeavor, therefore, to promote the ascendency of public virtue and public principle, and to restrain as far as practicable, in the actual operation of our institutions, the influence of selfish and private interests.

I concur with those who think, that, looking to the present, and looking also to the future, and regarding all the probabilities that await us in reference to the character and qualities of those who may fill the executive chair, it is important to the stability of government and the welfare of the people that there should be a check to the progress of official influence and patronage. The unlimited power to grant office, and to take it away, gives a command over the hopes and fears of a vast multitude of men. It is generally true, that he who controls another man's means of living controls his will. Where there are favors to be granted, there are usually enough to solicit for them; and when favors once granted may be withdrawn at pleasure, there is ordinarily little security for personal independence of character. The power of giving office thus affects the fears of all who are in, and the hopes of all who are out. Those who are out endeavor to distinguish themselves by active political friendship, by warm personal devotion, by clamorous support of men in whose hands is the power of reward; while those who are in ordinarily take care that others shall not surpass them in such qualities or such conduct as are most likely to secure favor. They resolve not to be outdone in any of the works of partisanship. The consequence of all this is obvious. A competition ensues, not of patriotic labors; not of rough and severe toils for the public good; not of manliness, independence, and public spirit; but of complaisance, of indiscriminate support of executive measures, of pliant subserviency and gross adulation. All throng and rush together to the altar of man-worship;