Page:Works of John C. Calhoun, v3.djvu/36

22 SPEECHES. draft drawn before the appropriation was made, the majority would have been on the other side, and all the unhappy train of consequences which have since followed would have been prevented. So earnest were the French Ministry in their ef- forts to carry the bill, that their defeat dissolved the admin- istration. With these facts before us, who can doubt where the re- sponsibility rests? We had thrown the impediments in the way;--we who had been so urgent to obtain the treaty, and who were to profit by its execution! It matters not, in the view in which I am considering the question, to what motives the acts of our Executive may be attributed--whe- ther to design or thoughtlessness--it cannot shift the respon- sibility. Let us now proceed to the next stage of this most unfor- tunate affair. I pass over the intervening period ; I come to the open- ing of the next session of Congress. In what manner does the President, in his message at the opening of the session, notice the failure of the French Chambers to make the ap- propriation ? Knowing, as he must, how much the acts to which I have referred had contributed to the defeat of the bill, and that his administration was responsible for those acts, it was natural to expect that he would have noticed the fate of the bill in the calmest and most gentle manner ; that he would have done full justice to the zeal and fidelity of the French Executive in its endeavor to obtain its passage, and would have thrown himself, with confidence, on the jus- tice and honor of the French nation for the fulfilment of the treaty ; — in a word, that he would have done all in his power to strengthen the Executive Government in France, in their future efforts to obtain the appropriation, and have carefully avoided every thing that might interpose additional obstacles. Instead of taking this calm and considerate course, so well calculated to secure the fulfilment of the