328 NxVrURAL AND CIVIL 



latiire to make an address to ihe president on 

 that occasion ; and that it could not be constru- 

 ed in any other lisi^ht, than The answer of the 

 assembly of Vermont to the president'' s message to 

 the two houses of Compress ; and hoped that so 

 ludicrous a motion would not be any further 

 urged, as no conininnication had been made to 

 them by the president. The intrepid mover 

 did not mean however to loose the opportunity 

 and enjoyment of displaying his talents and pat- 

 riotism in writinu: another address. At the end 

 of fourteen days the motion was called up, and 

 tlie question proposed whether it should become 

 a resolution of the house. The yeas and nays 

 being demanded it passed in the affirmative, 

 yeas 98, nays 62.* In two days the address 

 was produced. J It contained scarcely a senti- 

 ment or idea, that was not borroAved from the 

 president's message to Congress ; and these 

 were disfigured and deformed by a preposterous 

 attempt to turn every paragraph into adukuion. 

 The assembly scarcely knew what to make of 

 it. Nobody commended it, and nobody oppos- 

 ed it ; it neither occasioned oppositioii, applause, 

 or even remark ; but passed into a resolve with 

 that inattention, that generally denotes insignifi- 

 cance and u'ant of importance in the subject. 



It was at this session that tlie subject of 

 banks first canie before the legislature of Ver- 

 mont. These establishments had taken place in 

 all the adjacent states, and in almost every state 

 in the union, and were become very numerous ; 

 most of the monies in circulation, were already 

 of this description. \Viiatever inconveniencies 



* Page 243. + p. 264, 



