Mr. Birney To The Liberty Party.--Continued

The Saoinaw Nomjnation.- Saginow County suflered much f rom the wild spcculations of 1836-7. It was the theatreofsomeof the wildest of them. With a popuiation not amounting to a thousand souls, it was cursed with a Bnnk, of the "Wild Cat" order. The community were swindled - the bank hroke, of course, and the counly was left in an embarrassed conditïon. - The engngements of exirnvngance had to be met by the leanness of collapse. - A sample we have in the Court House. It was projected at nn expense of Ten Thousnnd dollars. The nuniber of persons aüending Court, hits at no timp, since I have resided in the County, exceeded some fifty or sixty. We average about three terms in every two years, and the business of each term occupies at most, two days. The Court hos never yet been held in the Court House, but in the School House, which hos been found sufficiently large and convenient for tbat purpose. To pay for this Court House - to thisday unfmished - ten thousand dollars were borroweJ from the Saginaw City Bank. in January. 1838. The Bond of the County was given for the .$10,000- although only about $5,300 were paid to the county, the bank having broken before the remainder of the loan was called for. The Bond was assigned by the Bank to the State, for the benefitof the School Fund. In 1843, the Board of Supervisors (the authorities) of Saginnw County hesifated to pay interest on the full amount of the Bond, believing, that the county was equitably bound only for the sum thnt had actual Jy been received. Bui the Commissioner of the Land Office, Mr. Digby V. Bell, in whose hands the Bond was deposited, and who was appcaled tb by the Board, thinking he had no authority in the premises, declined reducing the amount of the Bond, or abating any part of the interest. As to h is want of authority, the Auditor General, Mr. Charles G. Hammond, concurred with Mr. Bell. - However, they united in advising the Board to apply to the Legislature for relief, assuring them, that they had "no doubt that upon their petition, a just and equitable provisión would be made for its settiement."Toward the close of 1843, it was gensrally known that the Supreme Court of the State would, in a cause then pending before it, deelde against the Constitutionnlity of the banking law, under which the Saginaw City Bank had gone into operation. This led the Board in Feb. 1844, io pass the following resolves: after reciiing the bond, they say, - 1. "That they will not consent to pay any more on said Bond than the amount which they had received from ihe Saginaw City Bank on said Bond with interest on the same." 2. "That G. D. Williams,' (Chairman of the Board,) W. L. Little, (Deputy Clerk of the Board,) and H. L. Miller, (Clcrk of the Board and Representative of the County in the Legislature,) are hereby appointed a committee by this Board to negotiate and settle the matter of the Board as above specified; and npon the cancelling of the old bond, to make a new bond, payable in one, two, three and four years, with interest payable annually." 3. "That our Representative in the State Legislature be requested to take measures, to obtain the appointment by the Legislature of a committee, to meet a committee from Saginaw County, to investígate and settle all matters relalive toa certain bond for $10,000, executed by the Supervisors oí the County to the Saginaw City Bank on the first of January, 1838. And the Board would recommend the appointment of C. G. Hammond, D. V. Bell, J. J Adam, as such committee on the part of the State." The Legislature was then in session. A resolve, compvehensive enough in its terms to authorize the allowance on the part of the State, of the ultimatum embodied in the first of the foregoing resolves, was presented in thr Senate, after having been previously submitted to theBoard of State Auditors, and corrected by them. F rom the Auditor General, and the Commissioner of the Land Office it will be recollected. the advice had first proceeded. that the County Board should apply to the Legislalure for relief. I mention this to shew how easy the adjustment of the State claim must have been, after the resolve authorizing it had become a law, inasmuch as by the resolve the Board of State Auditors constiluted the Committee in behair of the State. The resolve passed bólh Houses in the ordinary course of business, without so far as I nm informed. any opposition or alteration. Mr. Miller, as the Representative of the County, doubtless, gave to it all necessary attention. Mr. Williams nnd Col. Little, not being members of either House, could do nothing, if ony thing had been wanting, to secure its passage. After the resolve had been signed by the Governor, all that was necessary to be done, was, the calculation of interest and the giving of a uew bond. Col. Little was not even present at the doing of ibis- havingbefore the time set for it, { left Detroit for home.1 was informed by one of the County Board who was present when the conv mittceon behalfof the County was nppointed, that Mr. Williams and Col. LitIle represented to the Board, that, as the y were about going to Detroit on their private business, the appointment of them would save expense tothe County. And as Mr. Miller was already in Detroit, as a mcmber ot the Legislature, placing him on the commitlee would add nolhing to the expense, lt is but fair tesay, that Mr. Williams denies having rnadesuch a statement in regard to himself. On my asking Col. Little to state to me the nalure of the services he had performed for the compensation ho claimed afterward, lus reply, in substance, was - that he had exerted himself to influence themembers out of doors; or; touse a wcll understood forni of expression, he had ulog-rolled" it with them. I was given to understand Ihat Mr. Williams' exertions had taken the same laudable uirection, whilst the resolve was before the Legislature. Soonafterthe return of Messrs. Williams, Little and Miller, a meeting of the County Board was held, at which there were present only ihree of the Supervisors, out of five, the whole number. The two who were not present knew nothïng of the meeting. Both of them, if 1 remember rightly - one of them, I know - told me, that he did not consider the last meeting held by the Boqrd to have been adjourned to any other time, although itwas aftenvards found by mm so entered on the records. ín the case of an adjournment to any particular day, it would not have been necessary to notify them of the meeting; otherwise, if the meeting adjourned without day. Of the three in attendance, Mr. Williams was one. - Anoherof three vas Mr. Campbell, who had claims to a large amount, and of a character not altogether unquestionable, which he was about to present for allowance. Mr. Williams and Col. Little each presen ted his claim for one hundred dollars, for services rendered in adjusting the bond case. After theywere allo wed, Mr. Miller presented his - also, for one hundred dollars; - stating as his ground of merilorious claim, that he had done as niuch toward theadjustment as had either of the other gentlemen, and Ihat if ihey were jusüy entitled to what had been allowed them, he was equally so, to thesameallowance. His claim was allowed. When I considered our povertyas a county; how few highways we have (there being no practicable and easy one even for a horseman, by which the inhabitants of the town in which I reside can pass to any other part of the county,) in what wretched condition these few highways are; and how great need there is that our county affairs should be conducted on the most economical plan; - above all, when I considered the smallness of the services rendered by the claimants - and that men of any pretensions lo public spirit vvould have performed them, under the eircumstance-, without making any charge - or, if any, not more than what would meet their actual outlay; - when I considered all this, I feit indignant, as n citizenat theimposition; atsuch shameful plundering of the County. More especially did Í think, the claim of Mr. Miller was an outrage on all that was just and decent, inasmuch as he was, at the time, receiving his daily pay as a member of the Legislature. One other specimen - and it is but a specimen- of the abuses that have been practiced in the management of our county affairs. In 1843, itwas proposed iu the Board of Supervisors to appropriate twelvs hundred dollars (a large sum for this county,) tor the improvement of certain roads. One of the Board objected on the ground, that the county was deep in debt, and that there was no law authorizing the Board to appropriate the county funds to such purposes. The Statute book was resorted to - but no law for it could be found. The project seemed to be abandoned. The Board adjourned after allowing the members their pay for attendance, &c. The member vvho opposed the appropriation, and froni whom 1 received thistion, went home - not supposing, for a moment, that there would be a renewal of the appropriation scheme. - After he had left, a meeting wns called and held, I think, the same affernoon, and the #1200 approprialion carried. Certain portions of this sum were allolted to certain roads. Each Su pervisor had a road assigned to him, ant the expenditure of the sum allotted to i confided entirely to his discrction. N bonds were required for the faithful expenderé of the money: nor were th Supervisors bound in any way to adver tise the public letting of the contract but were left, without the least check o restraint, to ernploy whomsoever they might choose to employ, and to favo whomsoever they might choose to favor The allowances made afterward by th Board to themselves, individually, wer such as might have beenexpected. Tak a single instance: One hundredand fifty dollars were appropriated on a particu lar road. The whole sum was not ex pended, by more than tnrenty four do lars. This latter sum ($24,) was allow. ed the Supervisor to whom this road habeen assigned, for his trouble in employng the men who did the work and for receiving ihe work. lt is proper, here to ayr that one of the Supervisors would ake no part whatever in the transaction, md that another of the number fairly adertised the contracts and had a public eltingofthem. By such a system of imposition and Di-odigality the couníy has been made virtnally insolvent for years, and its noney matters keptin the most depressed condition, notwithslanding the large anount of, Taxes it receives annuaJly from non-resident landholders. When I emoved to it, now more than three years igo. the "County Orders" (v ritten acfnpwledgments of indebtedness to creditrs,) were selling for sixty-two and a ialf cents on the dollar, and in some intances for even less. ï was told thejr vould be at par next year. Next year came, but witli it the same rate of depreiation. A third year and no change for lie better. I, at lengtb, saw the cau&e, nd knew that, unless the body of the )eople could be aroused, & made to look nto their County affairs. they would alvays remain as they were. The merhants received from their customers - hiefly laboring men - County orders for ieir goods, at an enormous advance. - oo also, the resident agents, or tax-payers, br non-resident landholders, bought the rders with the cash of their employers t a discount of thirty seven and a half ents on the dollar. They could be used t par in the payment of Taxes. In this vay a profit of almost one hundred per ent-might be made by all persons who ould secure from non-residents they of paying their taxes; - independently f the regular commission or charges. The añairs of the couniy were in sucli condition, that I delermined on making trial logetthem before the people. - Vith this view I called a public meeting uring the term of our Circuit Gourt in August. Mr. Williams, and Col. Little vere not present - both being out of the Co. at the time. Mr. Miller was present; eplied to my statements in regard to the djustment ofthe State claim, made the jest apology he could for claiming and eceiving his $100; - declared, it had urnt his pocket ever since he had taken it, and concluded by pledging himself unconditionally to return it to theCountv Treasury. What I had done was evidently wellreceived by all who were present except the wrong-doers and their immediate friends. Many too, even of those who were not present, on being informed of what had been done, expressed themselves as much obliged to me for having gone forwarj in what they had long known ought to have been done, but which no one had ventured upon before. When this meeting, which was held in the anemoon, was about to be dismissed, I gave noticeof another to be held in the evening, when I proposed giving my views at length on the Texas Annexation question, and on other matters ofitical interest. I had nearly the same audience that were in the anemoon meeting - besides some additional hearers. With the VVhig and Democratie sectionsof the great pro-slavery party of he country, I dealt with the most imparial justice, in shewing from their acts, their unfaithfulness in the cause of huitian rights - their disregard of the Conslituiion and of the true interests of the free States. Particularly did I exposé the inconsistency - the servility - of the Democratie party, in their departure, at theBaltimore Convention, from the fundamental demecratic rule, (as laid down by Mr. JefFerson, the great apostle of Democracy, asheis called,) viz: that the majorily must rule, - for the sake of bringing in a slaveholdér as their candidate. In the same way did I deal with that party for its hardihood - its bold effrontery, in commending the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence in one its resol ves, and Texas Annexation with Slavery engrafted on it in another. I bestowed on-them - to be sure, in agood humo red way [for what forbids truth being told in that way?] every epithet of fair and honorable castigation which falls short of denunciation and railing. I compared them, in their deafness to the cries of the Slave, in their insensibility to the claims of Humanity, in their torpor under the justest and sharpest rebukes of the Liberty party to Virgil's Harpies, from whose dry and tough hides the keenest swords rebounded ineffectual, and from whose bodies no drop of blood could be drawn undcr thé most trenchant blows of Eneas and his valiant followers. I discriminated between my democracy and theirs - describing theirs as of the skin-deep. the cutaneous type; as limiting mens' righls by the complexion, whic an infinitely wise Creator had bestowec on them; mine, as a democracy fashionei after the Declaration of Independence, - as a democracy acknowledging all me entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit o happincss. So unfaithful did I then fee had been the course of the Democrali party - aye, and of the Whig party too - to the interests of the country, that argued it as the highest expediency, tha the people risp up and anniiiilatc them both.At the close of the meeting no one in lis senses could have thought that I was "Loco Foco;" or, that I cherished any ympathy for a party whose acts I exjosed, condemned nnd ridiculed. But for lis object, what I said in the meeting vas superfluous; - inasmuêh as I had innriably expressed the same sentiments n speakingof the democratie party,whenver a proper occasion offered in comnon conversation with such of my neighors as were in the habit of discussing poitical or party sub'jects. In addilion to vhat I had said publicly before both paries, - to my neighbor Capt. M on roe, a emocrat, who asked me if ï would atend the Convention as a Town Delégale, replied, I could not, because I was not democrat of his party. To Mr. Garand, a democrat, I had said that the coruptions of both the Whig and Democratc party called for their being broken up. 'o Mr. Frazer, a Whig, I had said subtantially the same thing. To Mr. hompson, a Whig, who informeel me would probably be nominated by the democratie Convention, I suggested - and vithout any expression of disapprobation n his part - whether it would not be beter, in the event of my being nominated )y the Democratie .Convention, that the Whigs should make no nomination of a andidate; in the view, that my election ould not be looked on as a democratie riumph, and that it would tend to destroy ie partyism with which our country was ursed. I am not aware that I was required,on ny principie of fair dealing, tosny more nder the circumstances in which I was )laced, than I did say to those with whom conversed. My solicitudO toobtain the omination was, by no means of a tioubleome character. Thinking that my reation to the Liberty party, as well as my pposition to both the other parties, was veil understood, I did not see the proprity of my presenting, in individual cases, formal expose of my political creed. - Meïther did it strike me, as wise or beoming for me, to say in advance, what would do, and what I would not do, in hie event of my election - further than vas ansvverable to the particular point )resented by the enquirer. Both Whigs nd Dernocrats who chose to consult with ïie, were told that, if elected, I would serve the county as its Representative, - no matter by what nomination 1 might be presented as a candidale. It did not once oceur to me, that my course would be chargeable with unfairnessor indirectness; or, that it would give rise to the slightest suspicion of my sincerity among my Liberty party friends, or that it was, in the least degree, disparaging the dignity of my Presidential nomination to servé the people of the county in which I reside at a time, when there was but little probability that I would be called to serve them in a more enlarged sphere. The circumstances attendingthe nomination, and the expectations of the Convention which made it, may be gathered from the following letters. Mr. AlbertVI lier [formerly an associate Judge in his county) is the gentleman who preided in the Convention; Mr. Watters, ïcted as the Secretary; Mr. Campbell, one of the gentleman referred to in Mr. Vliller's letter, [Mr. Miller, himself, was he other]as having first been offered the nomination, is Supervisor of the town of rlampton and Mr. Farguharson filis the same office in the Town of Taymouth, and has filled it for many years in succession. [Mr. Miller's Letter.] "James G. Birney, Esq: Dear Sir- I now comply with your late .equest, that I should infonn you of the ground upon which I supported your nomination as a candidaíe for Representative in the State Legislature; - by stating, that after the nomination had been tendered to two members of the democratie party, and declined by them, I suggested to some of my friends, that inasuuich as there appeared to be no one in the democratie party who wished to be the candidate, and a number of your friends in the Convention were anxious to obtain the nomination for you, that it might be policy to give it to you; saying, at the same time, that I thought you would attend to the interests of the county in the Legislature as well as any person we could send there. But I never supposed, that you would turn aside from your long cherished political principies to serve any party in the Legislature; but merely that you would attend to the in terests of County and State generally, ii the best manner you could as a Repre sentative of the people. Yours respectfully, ALBERT MILLER. Saginaw, Dec. 18, 1844. [Mr. Watter's letter to Jonathan Laad Esq. of Louell, Mass. - extract, a publishedin the newspapers.'] "It was not with any expectation tha Mr. Birney had changed, or would chang his political principies. The people o the couñty knowing therelation in whic Mr. Birney stands to the Liberty party could not êxnect any such change for seat in the Legislature. In fact, I eu tertain too high an opinión of him, as citizen anda pol itician, to hope for that. He proceeds to say, "When we sawhat misrepiesentations the Whig papers from East to West put upon his nomination, the Democratie party thought best to lay aside local interests, and nomínate one of the party." [The letter is dated Oct. 26, 1844.] [Mr. Campbelfs Letter.] Lower Saginaw, Dec. 16, 1844, Mr. James G. Birney: Sm: - Tn compliance with your request of ijs morning, I state that ever since your removal to this place, I have been a near neigh)or of yours and in the habit of daily interourse with you. I am a mernber of the Denocratic party, nd was a delégate from this Town (Hamp on) tothe Democratie County Convention, by which you were nominoted íor Representativo o the Stato Legislature. I opposed your omination in that convention, because l tho't t would injure our party te plnce a known bolitionist at the head of our Ticket. Although it was sutted in the Convention )y those who were zealous for your nominaon, that you were a Democ rat, yet, I had o often heard you discrimínate between your )emocracy nnd that of the Democratie party, that I feit assured you was not of that par1 am yonrs, Sec. SIDNEY S. CAMPBELL." [Mr. Fargiüiarson $ Letter.] Saginaw City, Dec. 18, 1844. James G. Birnet, Esq. De ar Sm: - Agreeably to your rpquest, I thte to you in writing what T told you this morning: that when I carne to this place, to ttend the Democratie Convention, on 28th f Sept. last, I met with Mr. Garland; I askd him, if he was a Delégale; he replied he was not, and that he had been lelt out as he ïought, because of the man that he wi&hed o have nominated for Representative. I sked him who that was? He replied, Mr. irney. I said, that is the man. above allthers, that I would like lo have nominated, ut he will not accept. Mr. Garland replied ] - he will accept, for I spoke to him obout ii s I was helping him over the river (Cass) as j e was going out East, he told me that he did ot ask a nomination from any of the parües, ut C the people chose to elect him, he would erve ihem to the best of his ability . Mr. Garland was then put on the Taymonth elegation, (of which I wns one) one of the riginal deleg-ates pot bemg present. Fhat elegation, with one exception, supported your omination. I voled for you, not on the round of general politics, bu: simply because lliought, you would attend to, and efficiently jromote, the interests ot' the couniy. Of your aithiulness to those interesta I ihought yon ïad given the most satisfactory proof in the manner in which you brought before the peole the bad management of some of its affaire n August last. I was present in the Convention generally, uring its session. I did not henr from Mr. Garland a word about your having authorized iim to eay, that you would support deinoratic men and meosues - nor about your foreffoing the agitation of the Antislavery quesjon - nor, indeed, a word conflicting with the emarks he made to me on first seeing him, n relation to you. The only whig in Taymouth voted for you, and only one demorat against you. Mr. Haden, one of the )emocratic Cor. Committee of this County, old me that his name was signed to the cali or a second nominalion, without his knowldse.