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gentleman has been pleased to denominate a party of energy, and the other a party
of responsibility ;
the first, disposed to go forward with the affairs of the Government
with energy, as they deemed right and expedient, and the other only in submission to
the public will. Sir, it can be no news to the members of this Committee that two
parties exist in this country, nor can gentlemen be ignorant that two parties did exist
in the nation at the adoption of the Constitution ; the one consisting of its friends,
and the other composed of its enemies ;
nor
is it necessary for me to say how the
present have grown out of these original parties. It is sufficient for my present pur-
pose to say that the parties alluded to by the gentleman from Virginia are character-
ized by prominent features, and cannot easily be mistaken. . . . One
great feature
which has characterized those whom the gentleman has been pleased to denominate
the party of energy, has been their strong attachment to the present Constitution ;
and a determination not only to leave each department to the exercise of its proper
functions, but to support them in it. Their opponents, to say nothing of their attach-
ment to the Constitution, have on the contrary been disposed to bring all the powers
of the Government into the House of Representatives, and in that way to strip the
other branches of their constitutional authority. . . .
"Again, this party of energy was disposed to establish and support public credit,
in which their opponents did not agree. This party of energy was likewise deter-
mined to defend their country against the hostile attacks of the enemy, and to support
the interests, the safety and honor of the nation ; their opponents, on the contrary,
were disposed to prostrate everything that was dear to the will of the enemy. One
party was disposed to build up and support, while the others were, and still are,
determined to pull down and destroy. . . .
" The public debt has been spoken of, and it has been charged as a crime that
these solemn engagements, which were the price of our independence, and for the
discharge of which the national faith was pledged, have been provided for by the
old Administration. Sir, are we to understand that this crime is to be ultimately
atoned for by wiping out the debt with a sponge.? . . .
"The Indian war has also been alluded to in very extraordinary language, as an
event which was greedily seized to enlarge the field of Executive patronage. Sir,
the gentleman cannot intend to insinuate that the Indian war was excited by the
Administration ; the causes which produced that war are too publicly known to be
forgotten or misunderstood. And has it indeed, at this time, become criminal for
the Government to defend the inhabitants of our frontier from the attacks of the
savages ?
" The gentleman has likewise told us that the depredations upon our commerce,
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