the country could hope to be enabled to bring the war to a safe and honorable conclusion.

Instead of performing this duty, the congress which declared the war, took no measures to increase the revenue which was daily sinking: gave no attention to the dangers which awaited the public credit. Within the first year of the war, the department of the treasury was deserted by its head. The superintendance of the finances, the preparation of a system of taxes, and the custody and care of the public credit were devolved upon clerks and job men and undertakers.

The President committed a great fault in sending the secretary of the treasury out of the country, without naming a successor, (and Mr. King might have added, that he committed a greater fault in expelling from his presence, as he did, a committee of the senate deputed to expostulate with him upon this subject) but the congress committed a much greater one, in suffering the treasury department, the object of their special charge to be thus abandoned, without an adequate effort on their part to correct the abuse; or to make those provisions, without which all reflecting men foresaw the derangement of the finances, and the failure of the public credit, which have since occurred.

These opinions, said Mr. King, were not then for the first time avowed by him-honorable senators would do him the justice, to acknowledge that from his first taking his seat among them, he had repeatedly presented them to the senate, and earnestly pressed their importance upon their consideration.

That hitherto, little had been done by congress, and that little had not been advantageously employed in support of the public credit. That now, late as it was, and increased as the public difficulties were, by past omissions, so all important did he deem it to be, to make the utmost exertions the country could do, to revive the public credit, that he should not withhold his support from any constitutional measure, which he thought capable of promoting this object.

He therefore should vote for the land tax, as the basis of a system of taxes, which if prudently administered, promised to revive and support the public credit. He was not sure that congress were not now going too far; and that the amount of the proposed taxes might not exceed the present ability of the people to pay,

but so dangerous did he consider the condition of the nation, that with all his apprehensions arising out of past failures, he should vote for those supplies of men and money without which the country could not, in his judgment, be defended.-From the New York Evening Post, January 13, 1815.

CHAPTER XXV.

Action of Maryland's House of Delegates, thanking King, by Name, and other Members of Congress, for their Agency in stopping the Militia Bill—King's Answer-Morris to King-National Bank—Failure of Conscription Law— Fears Hartford Convention will not take strong Ground-King's Remarks on Bill to lay a direct Tax-Approves-Morris to King-Strictures on the Support of the Government-King to C. King-On current Actions of Congress-King to C. King-Battle of New Orleans-King to MorrisAnswers his Strictures-Union in Defence of the Country only Way to Peace-King to Morris-Treaty of Peace arrived-Morris to King-Conjectures relative to the Treaty-Democrats will probably go for Abolition of the direct Tax.

BY THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES OF MARYLAND.

January 6, 1815.

Amidst the impending sufferings and multiplied disorders of war, brought upon the American people by their misplaced and abused confidence in the wisdom and virtue of their rulers, there has been no evil of a more alarming and fatal tendency in the contemplation of this House, than the inordinate grasp of power and undisguised spirit of encroachment on the sovereign rights of the States and the personal liberties of the citizens, so repeatedly and unequivocally manifested in the acts of the General Government.

Under this impression and in the maintenance of those rights and privileges, it was considered as a prompt and paramount duty on the part of this House to evince a faithful and firm determination of purpose, the moment that intelligence was recently received of the progress of a Bill* in both Branches of the National

* On Nov. 5, 1814, Mr. Giles, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported a bill to the Senate authorizing the President of the United States to call upon the several States and Territories thereof for their respective quotas of

thousand militia, for the defence of the frontiers of the United States On Nov. 22d, after amendments, and a discussion, in which Messrs. Gore and

Legislature, whose palpable object it was to convert the free militia of these United States into train-bands and cohorts of an odious despotic force. This decision was rendered the more indignant by a view of the gross sophistry and arbitrary pretensions promulgated in the Report of the Secretary of War at the commencement of the session, designed to reconcile the repugnant sentiment of the free people of this land to the principle of the several schemes and projects of invasion on their birth rights and liberties, and suggested in that Report for the acquiescence of Congress.

To the sensibility of this House thus seriously awakened by the threatened pressure of a system so immediately calculated to make "confusion worse confounded," and to produce a dread collision of authority between the National Government and the authority of the individual State, it is therefore now a matter of lively gratification to learn, that the passage of the proposed Bill has been eventually arrested in the Senate of the United States. And the gratification is enhanced by the circumstance, that this happy issue has been effected at the instance of an illustrious Statesman and Jurist, whose opinion, worthy as it is on all subjects of the most attentive consideration, is entitled to peculiar regard on any question touching a construction of the powers imparted by the Federal Constitution, because it is the opinion of a surviving member of the convention of sages and patriots, by whom that constitution was planned and originally recommended for adoption.

Wherefore in order more fully to display the solemn interest which the occasion has inspired throughout the community of this Gouldsborough opposed the bill, the Senate passed it, 19 to 12, the title of the bill containing the clause "for the defence of the frontiers against invasion." Mr. King was absent owing to sickness.

The bill was sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence, and was passed by it on Dec. 21st with amendments. The Senate refused to accept all the amendments, and the matter was referred to a Committee of Conference between the two Houses. Their report was made to the Senate on the 28th, and, there being still disagreement, on motion of Mr. King, the bill with the report was postponed to the second Monday in March next, after the final adjournment of Congress, 14 to 13.

It is to this action that the House of Delegates of Maryland refers.-ED. Annals of Congress, 1814-15, pp. 38, 95 et seq.

State, and more especially for the purpose of rendering a just meed of public applause for eminent service in the defence of public liberty,

Resolved-That the thanks of this House, in behalf of the Freemen of Maryland, be and they are hereby presented to the Honorable Rufus King, of the Senate of the United States, for the reasonable and successful interposition of his experienced wisdom and elevated influence of character in averting the meditated operation of a measure, hostile to the immunities of constitutional freedom, offensive to the pure genius of independence, and fraught with consequences baleful and appalling to the social order, tranquillity and well being of this united Republic.

And the House would accompany the respectful tribute which is thus specially offered, with a general expression of the grateful sense which it also entertains of the distinguished merit of the other members of the minority, who so steadfastly and ably cooperated, at every renewal of the struggle, in both Branches of Congress, in combatting against the insidious introduction of an authoritative conscript establishment, more specious in the form of its approach, but not essentially different from that whose intense oppression has just vanished from the Continent of Europe, with its guilty author the blood stained usurper of France.

Ordered that the Honorable the Speaker of this House be requested to transmit to the Honorable Rufus King an authenticated Copy of this present proceeding

By order-UPTON L. REID Clerk,

THE HONBLE. RUFUS KING. DEAR SIR:

House Deleg. Maryland.

ANNAPOLIS, Jany. 6, 1815.

In obedience to the direction of the House of Delegates of Maryland, I have the honor, herewith, to transmit to you a Copy of their proceeding on the subject recognised by the enclosed Resolution. I beg you to be assured of the high satisfaction I take in the discharge of this duty, and to believe me with sentiments of esteem and respect

Yr. very obedient Servt. HENRY H. CHAPMAN

Speaker of the House of Delegates of Maryland.