propose some course, and I had not a moment’s doubt or hesitation what that course ought to be.  I took upon myself, then, Sir, the responsibility of moving that the Senate should disagree to this vote, and I now acknowledge that responsibility.  It might be presumptuous to say that I took a leading part, but I certainly took an early part, a decided part, and an earnest part, in rejecting this broad grant of three millions of dollars, without limitation of purpose or specification of object, called for by no recommendation, founded on no estimate, made necessary by no state of things which was known to us.  Certainly, Sir, I took a part in its rejection; and I stand here, in my place in the Senate, to-day, ready to defend the part so taken by me; or, rather, Sir, I disclaim all defence, and all occasion of defence, and I assert it as meritorious to have been among those who arrested, at the earliest moment, this extraordinary departure from all settled usage, and, as I think, from plain constitutional injunction,—­this indefinite voting of a vast sum of money to mere executive discretion, without limit assigned, without object specified, without reason given, and without the least control.

Sir, I am told, that, in opposing this grant, I spoke with warmth, and I suppose I may have done so.  If I did, it was a warmth springing from as honest a conviction of duty as ever influenced a public man.  It was spontaneous, unaffected, sincere.  There had been among us, Sir, no consultation, no concert.  There could have been none.  Between the reading of the message and my motion to disagree, there was not time enough for any two members of the Senate to exchange five words on the subject.  The proposition was sudden and perfectly unexpected.  I resisted it, as irregular, as dangerous in itself, and dangerous in its precedent; as wholly unnecessary, and as violating the plain intention, if not the express words, of the Constitution.  Before the Senate, then, I avowed, and before the country I now avow, my part in this opposition.  Whatsoever is to fall on those who sanctioned it, of that let me have my full share.

The Senate, Sir, rejected this grant by a vote of TWENTY-NINE against nineteen.  Those twenty-nine names are on the journal; and whensoever the EXPUNGING process may commence, or how far soever it may be carried, I pray it, in mercy, not to erase mine from that record.  I beseech it, in its sparing goodness, to leave me that proof of attachment to duty and to principle.  It may draw around it, over it, or through it, black lines, or red lines, or any lines; it may mark it in any way which either the most prostrate and fantastical spirit of man-worship, or the most ingenious and elaborate study of self-degradation, may devise, if only it will leave it so that those who inherit my blood, or who may hereafter care for my reputation, shall be able to behold it where it now stands.

The House, Sir, insisted on this amendment.  The Senate adhered to its disagreement; the House asked a conference, to which request the Senate immediately acceded.  The committee of conference met, and in a very short time came to an agreement.  They agreed to recommend to their respective houses, as a substitute for the vote proposed by the House, the following:—­