At three o’clock in the afternoon of the 3d of March, the Senate took its recess, as is usual in that period of the session, until five o’clock.  At five o’clock we again assembled, and proceeded with the business of the Senate until eight o’clock in the evening; and at eight o’clock in the evening, and not before, the clerk of the House appeared at our door, and announced that the House of Representatives had disagreed to one of the Senate’s amendments, agreed to others; and to two of those amendments, namely, the fourth and fifth, it had agreed, with an amendment of its own.

Now, Sir, these fourth and fifth amendments of ours were, one, a vote of $75,000 for Castle Island in Boston harbor, and the other, a vote of $100,000 for certain defences in Maryland.  And what, Sir, was the addition which the House of Representatives proposed to make, by way of “amendment” to a vote of $75,000 for repairing the works in Boston harbor?  Here, Sir, it is:—­

“And be it further enacted, That the sum of three millions of dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be expended, in whole or in part, under the direction of the President of the United States, for the military and naval service, including fortifications and ordnance, and the increase of the navy:  Provided, such expenditures shall be rendered necessary for the defence of the country prior to the next meeting of Congress.”

This proposition, Sir, was thus unexpectedly and suddenly put to us, at eight o’clock in the evening of the last day of the session.  Unusual, unprecedented, extraordinary, as it obviously is, on the face of it, the manner of presenting it was still more extraordinary.  The President had asked for no such grant of money; no department had recommended it; no estimate had suggested it; no reason whatever was given for it.  No emergency had happened, and nothing new had occurred; every thing known to the administration, at that hour, respecting our foreign relations, had certainly been known to it for days and weeks.

With what propriety, then, could the Senate be called on to sanction a proceeding so entirely irregular and anomalous?  Sir, I recollect the occurrences of the moment very well, and I remember the impression which this vote of the House seemed to make all round the Senate.  We had just come out of executive session; the doors were but just opened; and I hardly remember that there was a single spectator in the hall or the galleries.  I had been at the clerk’s table, and had not reached my seat, when the message was read.  All the Senators were in the chamber.  I heard the message, certainly with great surprise and astonishment; and I immediately moved the Senate to disagree to this vote of the House.  My relation to the subject, in consequence of my connection with the Committee on Finance, made it my duty to