“Gentlemen, I never opposed Andrew Jackson for the sake of popularity.  I knew it was a hard row to hoe; but I stood up to the rack, considering it a duty I owed to the country that governed me.  I had reviewed the course of other Presidents, and came to the conclusion that he did not of right possess any more power than those that had gone before him.  When he transcended that power, I put down my foot.  I knew his popularity; that he had come into place with the largest majority of any one that had gone before him, who had opposition:  but still, I did not consider this as giving him the right to do as he pleased, and construe our Constitution to meet his own views.

“We had lived the happiest people under the sun for fifty years, governed by the Constitution and laws, on well-established constructions:  and when I saw the Government administered on new principles, I objected, and was politically sacrificed:  I persisted in my sins, having a clear conscience, that before God and my country, I had done my duty.

“My constituents began to look at both sides; and finally, at the end of two years, approving of my course, they sent me back to Congress—­a circumstance which was truly gratifying to me.

“Gentlemen, I opposed Andrew Jackson in his famous Indian bill, where five hundred thousand dollars were voted for expenses, no part of which has yet been accounted for, as I have seen.  I thought it extravagant as well as impolitic.  I thought the rights reserved to the Indians were about to be frittered away; and events prove that I thought correct.

“I had considered a treaty as the sovereign law of the land; but now saw it considered as a matter of expedience, or not, as it pleased the powers that be.  Georgia bid defiance to the treaty-making power, and set at nought the Intercourse Act of 1802; she trampled it under foot; she nullified it:  and for this, she received the smiles and approbation of Andrew Jackson.  And this induced South Carolina to nullify the Tariff.  She had a right to expect that the President was favorable to the principle:  but he took up the rod of correction, and shook it over South Carolina, and said at the same time to Georgia, ‘You may nullify, but South Carolina shall not.’

“This was like his consistency in many other matters.  When he was a Senator in Congress, he was a friend to internal improvements, and voted for them.  Everything then that could cement the States together, by giving them access the one to the other, was right.  When he got into power, some of his friends had hard work to dodge, and follow, and shout.  I called off my dogs, and quit the hunt.  Yes, gentlemen, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and Tennessee, and other States, voted for him, as a supporter of internal improvements.

“Was he not a Tariff man?  Who dare deny it!  When did we first hear of his opposition?  Certainly not in his expression that he was in favor of a judicious tariff.  That was supposed to be a clincher, even in New England, until after power lifted him above the opposition of the supporters of a tariff.