THE

CREDIT OF MASSACHUSETTS VINDICATED.

A SPEECH DELIVERED AT FANEUIL HALL, AT A MEETING OF THE WHIGS OF BOSTON, OCTOBER 12, 1843.

Ir is a pleasant sight, Mr. Chairman, to see the Whigs of Boston once more assembled in such good numbers, and in such good spirits, to consult together for the renewed vindication of their long-cherished principles. It is grateful to reflect, too, that there is so much in the circumstances and signs of the times to justify the animation which seems to pervade this meeting. The tidings which have come to us during the past week, from our friends in other parts of the country, are certainly of the most encouraging and cheering character. They have come upon us with something of the suddenness of an electric shock; and as the spark has coursed along our veins, and vibrated upon our heart-strings, we have felt a fresh assurance that the bonds which have so long united the Whigs of the Union as brethren, are not yet broken. I trust that these tidings will have an influence beyond this hour and beyond these walls. I trust that the great principles of the Whig party will be commended anew to the consideration of every citizen in the Commonwealth; that they will be pondered afresh and more deeply than ever before, in the field and in the counting-room, over the plough and over the spindle and at the fireside, in view of every thing that concerns the business or comes home to the hearts of the people; and that the second Monday of November will find not only city responding to city, Boston to Baltimore, - but State answering to State, Massachusetts giving assurance to Maryland and to Georgia, that in the North and East, as well as in the South

and centre, the old Whig watch-fires are once more kindled — the old Whig spirit once more roused!

The resolutions which have just been read, relate almost exclusively to the politics of Massachusetts; and it has been thought best, by those who have been selected to conduct the affairs of the Whig party during the present year, and to whose peculiar province it belongs to draw up the plan of our annual campaign, that the contest for which we are assembled to prepare, should be conducted mainly with reference to the administration of our own Commonwealth. There is a great and manifest propriety in this course. It is a plan of proceeding entirely reasonable and eminently seasonable. The present year affords us a peculiarly fit and favorable opportunity for attending to the affairs of our own Commonwealth, and one which may not soon occur again. The approaching election is exclusively a State election. In some few of the districts, it is true, the people will be called on to make fresh trials for the election of Representatives in Congress, owing to their unfortunate failures to effect a choice at the regular period. But here, certainly, and I may take occasion to express my deep gratitude for any thing of personal confidence or kindness which may in any humble degree have contributed to the result, here we have no such failures to retrieve. The Whigs of Boston may sometimes be reproached for not making their majority large enough to counterbalance the minorities of their neighbors, in the general returns of the State, a reproach which I trust they will not subject themselves to again this year, but they rarely fail to do up their own work fairly and fully on the regular day. In Boston, therefore, and in this part of the Commonwealth generally, the people will be called on, at the ensuing election, to vote exclusively for State officers. Next year, as I need hardly remind you, we shall enjoy no such unmixed opportunity of expressing our minds as to the administration of our State affairs. Next year, the great quadrennial contest of the Presidency will be upon us. I will not anticipate its arrival. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." But this I may safely predict of it,that it will come back to us under circumstances which more, even, than ever before, will absorb all our thoughts and engross our whole attention.

There will be no chance for looking after local politics, in the

hurly-burly of the next Presidential struggle. Not until that "hurly-burly's done," not until that "battle's lost or won," when it has once opened, shall we be in a condition to look to any issues less broad than those which concern the whole country. Now, then, while we have opportunity, let us look at home. Now, then, while we may, let us remember, that let what will happen to the Nation at large,-let who will be permitted, either by any dispensation of Providence, or by any delusion of the people, to defeat or disappoint the just expectations of the Nation, -we have here a community of our own, institutions of our own, an administration of our own, embracing within the sphere of its influence the nearest and dearest interests of ourselves and our children, for the purity and preservation of which we, and we alone, are responsible. Now then, I repeat it, if there be any thing wrong in the condition of old Massachusetts; if any breach has been made in the walls and fences of the old homestead; if any strip and waste has been committed on the old family premises; if any trespassers have invaded our firesides, and overthrown, or threatened to overthrow, our very altars and household gods; now, now is the time for restoration and redress.

And how is it with our beloved Commonwealth? How has it fared with her during the past year, and how is it with her now? Who are in possession of her high places, how have they come there, and how have they manifested their title to the continued support and confidence of the people?

Strange scenes strange scenes, certainly, have been wit nessed, and strange sounds heard, within the walls of the capitol of Massachusetts during the last year. It is my fortune,— I should rather say, I owe it to your favor, to have witnessed these scenes from a distance; but distance, I assure you, has lent no enchantment to the view. No true son of Massachusetts, no one who has a true sense of what belongs to her character and her honor, could have read the proceedings of her Legislature, or of her Executive, during the last winter, however distant he may have been from the scene of action, and however free from any mere party preferences or prejudices, without feeling his blood burning in his cheek and tingling to his fingers' ends. The cir

cumstances which attended the organization of the government; the utter disregard for the dignity of the Senate, manifested by the majority in forcing into the Presidential chair, against his will, a person confessedly incompetent to discharge its duties, and who was compelled to abandon his post within a week after his election; the systematic attempt to smuggle into the other branch of the Legislature an irregular and illegal vote, for the purpose of securing a party majority in the choice of a Speaker; the mingled corruption and treachery by which the majority in joint ballot was but too plainly procured; the summary expulsion from office of such men as then occupied the posts of Secretary and Treasurer, and the hunt which was obliged to be instituted for a responsible person to take charge of the public moneys, reminding us almost of the old philosopher with his lantern, hunting for an honest man; - these, with their accompanying incidents, were enough to fill with disgust and indignation all, all, who had hearts for the prosperity and honor of the Old Bay State.

And yet they formed, after all, but the appropriate prelude to the mingled tragedy and farce which followed. They were but the fitting overture to that series of Legislative and Executive acts, which signalized the triumph of the false democracy over the true. They formed, especially, but the becoming introduction to that Executive message with which the serious business of the session commenced. Not soon shall I forget the emotions with which I perused the late message of Governor Morton, on its arrival in Washington. Not soon shall I forget the indignant expressions of my honorable and excellent friend, the late member from Salem, (Mr. Saltonstall,) who chanced to be at my elbow when the mail brought it in to us at midnight, as I read it aloud to him. Five hundred miles away from home, associated with the representatives of other States, we had something of that sensitiveness on the subject of old Massachusetts, something of that jealousy as to every thing which might affect her reputation and renown, which travellers in a foreign country are wont to feel as to the native land they have left behind them. And what was our humiliation at hearing from her own Council Chamber, as from authority, such per

versions of her past history, such reproaches upon her present condition, such an abuse of her previous rulers, such insinuations as to her credit, such imputations upon her integrity, such an impeachment of her honesty! If it had been a stranger who had said these things we could have borne it. No-let me not say so we could not have borne it. If any citizen of another State had uttered such a tirade against old Massachusetts, if a member of Congress from any other part of the country had indulged in such reproaches upon her policy and principles, we should have felt, every one of the Massachusetts members of Congress, (Mr. Parmenter, I am sure, not excepted,) would have felt, that it must not pass unanswered and unrebuked. Our constituents, of both parties, would not have held us guiltless, for suffering it to go by in silence. But it was no stranger; it was our brother; our fellow-citizen; our chosen Chief Magistrate, with the highest honors of the Commonwealth freshly cast upon him, with the robes of office in their newest gloss upon his back. What a return for honors conferred! And what an inducement, too, what a consideration, for a renewal of those honors now! Why, fellow-citizens, the citizen of Massachusetts who should now approach Governor Morton to lend him his support, as he presents himself again for our suffragesafter the libels he has uttered on the character of the Commonwealth—must approach him, I should imagine, in something of the spirit in which Shakspeare's Shylock represents himself as approaching the Merchant of Venice to lend him moneys:

"He should bend low, and in a bondman's key,
With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness,
Say this-

Fair Sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last,
You spurned me such a day; - another time

You called me dog, and for these courtesies

I'll give you my vote. You shall be our Governor."

Mr. Chairman, I have no purpose to enter into any detailed analysis of the late Governor's Message, or of the Legislative proceedings by which it was followed. This work has been done, ably, admirably done, already, by those who have had far greater opportunities than myself, by those who have