11 demned. Who believes that James K. Polk could have been elected President of the United States, if he had proclaimed to the American people the political doctrines and measures which are set forth and recommended in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury? Who believes that he would have received the vote of New York or Pennsylvania, if the people of those States had known that the influence of his Administration would be exerted to pass such a measure as the bill now before this committee? The gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Thompson,) when addressing this committee, the other day, frankly declared that neither of those States would have voted for Mr. Polk if they had believed that such a measure would have been urged by his Administration, and he warned his political brethren of the Democratic party, that political power would depart from them in those States, if this bill becomes a law. I hopor the Democratic delegation from the State of Pennsylvania, for the zeal,firmness, and ability with which they have resisted and opposed the Administration upon th© question now before this committee ; and I cannot believe that those who in this matter have been so faithful to their constituents, so firm in their duty, knowingly co-operated in deceiving their constituents into the belief that Mr. Polk was as much devoted to the protective policy as Mr. Clay. I am inclined to believe that they were themselves deceived by their confidence in Mr. Buchanan, and were thus made the innocent instruments of misleading their constituents. Whilst I honor them for the fidelity with -which they resist the influence of the Administration, by opposing the bill now under consideration, I must confess my surprise that they do not give voice upon this floor to the deep indignation which their deceived and betrayed constituents may be supposed to feel against those who have deceived and betrayed them. If they desire to free themselves entirely from the imputation of having aided in cheating the people of Pennsylvania into the belief that Mr. Polk would guard and foster the policy of a protective tariff, they must renounce their loyalty to his Administration, and denounce James Buchanan as false and faithless to Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman,the facts which I have brought to the view of this committee establish clearly the position, that the resolutions of the Baltimore Convention, on the subject of the Tariff, are entitled to no weight whatsoever as an argument for the passage of the bill under consideration, inasmuch as it is made manifest, that Mr. Polk and his supporters, in the great States of New York and Pennsylvania, repudiated those resolutions before the last Presidential election; and that without such a repudiation or modification of the Tariff issue, he could not have been elected to the Presidency. The conclusion would therefor© seem to follow,-that the supporters of Mr. Polk’s Administration are morally inhibited from passing this bill into a law; for no fact can be clearer than that the will of the American people was declared against such a law in the election of Mr. Polk. Congress will, by passing the bill now before this committee, consummate the fraud which the Executive branch of the Government has begun, but which it has as yet only partially completed. In my endeavor to establish these conclusions, I have found it necessary to animadvert with some severity upon the conduct of high public functionaries. I have done so in the performance of what I conceive to be a public duty, and not to gratify personal or party malignity. It is certainly the right of a free people, and the Representatives of a free people, boldly to canvass
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