JANUARY 19TH.—SPEECH ON THE ANSWER OF THE HOUSE TO GOVERNOR CLINTON’S MESSAGE

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This now leads us to examine the important question presented to us by the proposed amendment. For my own part, I have seen with regret the progress of this business, and it was my earnest wish to have avoided the present discussion. I saw with regret the first application of Congress to the Governor, because it was easy to perceive that it involved a delicate dilemma: Either the Governor, from consideration of inconvenience, might refuse to call the Assembly, which would derogate from the respect due to Congress; or he might call them, and, by being brought together at an unreasonable period before the time appointed by law for the purpose, they would meet with reluctance and perhaps with a disposition less favorable than might be wished to the views of Congress themselves.

I saw, with equal regret, the next step of the business. If a conference had been desired with Congress, it might have been had—circumstances might have been explained; reasons might have been assigned satisfactory to them for not calling the Legislature, and the affair might have been compromised. But instead of this, the Governor thought fit to answer by a flat denial, founded on a constitutional amendment, and the idea of an invasion of the right of free deliberation was brought into view. I earnestly wished the matter to have rested here. I might appeal to gentlemen in the House—and particularly to the honorable gentleman who is so zealous in support of the amendment—that, before the speech appeared, I discovered a solicitude that, by passing the subject over in silence, it might give occasion to the present discussion.

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The question by the honorable member on my right has been wrongly stated. He says it is this: whether a request of Congress to convene the Legislature isconclusive upon the Governor of the State? or whether a bare intimation of that honorable body lays him under a constitutional necessity of convening the Legislature? But this is not the true question. From the shape in which the business comes before us, the inquiry truly is: whether a solemn application of the United States to the Executive of the State to convene the Legislature for the purpose of deliberating on a matter which is considered by that body as of essential importance to the Union, and which has been viewed in a similar light by most of the other States individually, is such an extraordinary occasion as left the Governor under no constitutional impediment to a compliance? And, it may be added, whether that application, under all the circumstances, was an attempt to invade the freedom of deliberation in this House?

Here let us ask, what does the Constitution say upon the subject? Simply this, that the governor “shall have power to convene the Assembly and Senate on extraordinary occasions.” But what is an extraordinary occasion? What circumstances are to concur, what ingredients combine, to constitute one? What general rule can be imagined by which to define the precise meaning of these vague terms, and draw the line between an ordinary and an extraordinary occasion? Will the gentleman on my right (that is, the ever-ready-to-jump-up-in-a-Jack-in-the-box-fashion-to-say-it-is-n’t-when-A.-H.-says-it-is Mr. Jones) furnish us with such a criterion? Profoundly skilled as he is in law (at least the local laws of the State), I fancy it will be difficult for him to invent one that will suit his present purpose. Let him consult his law books, they will not relieve his embarrassment. It is easy to see that the clause allows the