470
TEX.\$ ST,\TE LIBRARY
No. 469 1836 Oct. 24., ~I. B. LA:'IIAR. ADDRESS TO TRE SEX.ATE 10 Gen. Lamars' Address·to the Senate Delivered on the 24th October 1836. as Vice President Gentlemen of the .Senate; As the presiding officer of this body, I shall haYe frequent occasion to solicit your generous indulgence. Being but little acquainted with parliamentary proceedings, it will not be in my power to enter upon the duties of my station with facility and ease. This must be acquired by experience, and in the mean time I sha1l have to avail myself of the intelligence of the members of the house. and especially of the knowledge of the honorable gentleman who has hitherto presided with so much credit to himself and satis- faction to the Senate. ·with such assistance, I cannot wander far into error, before I shall have removed, by your courtesy and aid, the de- -ficien<'y under which J am now labouring. \Vbat you may lose. gen- tlemen, by the change in this chair, will be l)bundantly repaid by the accession of strength. which it throws into your Councils. · It falls not within my province, to recommend measures for your consicleration or to participate in your deliberations; but I hope it will not be considered as inconsistent with the occasion or unsuited to the times, for one who feels a deep solicitude for the harmony of this body as well as for the weal of the Country, to advert to a few of the evils and difficulties, which, in your deliberative capacity, you muy have to encounter, and which it will be the duty of every patriot, not only to abstain from himself, but as far as practicable to arrest in others. There are two vices in particular, admirably calculated to mar our tranquillity, and dctitroy the best prospects of the Republic. With your permission I will hold them up to special reprobation. .And first I allude to the disgusting habit of impugning the motives and assailing with indiscriminnte denunciation the character of all with whom we may -chance to differ in opinion or come in collision. This is certainly a vulgar and odious practice, as detrimental to the public as it is disreputable to the individual who indulges in it. Yet not- withstanding its debasing nature, it often prevails over all sense of justice and decorum, in some of our.most solemn assemblies, and not unfrcquently forms the prominent feature of our political discussions. Some people fall' into it from careless inconsideration, others a.re hurried into it from the impetuosity of an ardent tempel'nment, whilst a few, I hope but very fow, indulge in it from the instiuctiYe loYe of detraction, and the mere wantonness of insult. nut 110 matter from what cause it may proceed, it is still a vice without npolo~y-it is still n noxious wred disfiguring the flower garden of the heart, and bear- ing no profitable fruit to any. Indeed, I cnnnot conceive any thing more incompatihle with honor and justice, than an attempt to accomplish by defamation what can- not be achieved by truth and reason. If unable to answer the argu- "Copy In Lamar'11 nand.
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