Speech of Mr. Mercer, in Reply to a Motion of Mr. Rives, of Virginia, to Strike From the Military Appropriation Bill (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Mercer, in Reply to a Motion o...)
Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Mercer, in Reply to a Motion of Mr. Rives, of Virginia, to Strike From the Military Appropriation Bill
I thank, him, notwithstanding, for this allusion, and the moretas Justice was not done me, recently, when absent from my seat, by another reference of a, gentleman from Pennsylvania, to't'he' same occurrence.
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A discourse on popular education: delivered in the church at Princeton, the evening before the annual commencement of the College of New Jersey September 26, 1826
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An Exposition of the Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States of North America (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from An Exposition of the Weakness and Inefficien...)
Excerpt from An Exposition of the Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States of North America
I assert that the Government of the United States of North America is extremely defective, and carries in its bosom the seeds of its own destruction. Let us enumerate some of the most glaring defects and the most active and certain causes of her failure.
First. The greatest defect in the structure of this government, and the most sure to operate her ruin, is her Federative form: the fruitful source of the many evils that beset her, and of the false feel ings and acts that invade her.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
The Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States of North America
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Letters on the Colonization Society: with a view of its probable results ... addressed to C.F. Mercer
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Charles Fenton Mercer was an American congressman from Virginia.
Background
Charles Fenton Mercer was born on June 16, 1778 at Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was the youngest son of Eleanor (Dick) and James Mercer. His mother died when he was two years old and thirteen years later his father died leaving heavy debts, which the son later undertook to pay.
Education
The boy entered the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1795 and graduated in 1797 at the head of his class. In college he began his lifelong friendship with John Henry Hobart and became a devout Episcopalian.
Career
From 1797 until 1802 he read law at Princeton and at Richmond, Va. When war with France threatened in 1798 he volunteered and was twice offered a commission in the army, but since the threat of war had already passed he declined. In 1802 he was licensed to practise law. Soon afterward he went to England on business and also visited France. On his return he settled at Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia, and began the practice of his profession. He became a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia in 1810 and served until he resigned in 1817 to enter Congress. While a member of the legislature he took a leading part in efforts to increase the banking capital of Virginia, to found a new bank, to promote the colonization in Africa of free negroes from the United States, and to build roads and canals. He offered a bill to provide for a complete system of public education, from common-school to state university, which was defeated in the Senate in the spring of 1817 after having passed the House. He was also the author of the act by which a sword and pension were given to George Rogers Clark. During the War of 1812 he served with the Virginia troops, rising to the rank of brigadier-general. His enthusiasm for internal improvements, the suppression of the slave trade, and the colonization of free negroes gave direction to his efforts when he became a member of the federal House of Representatives in 1817. He was chairman of the committees on roads and canals and on the District of Columbia. He was active in the movement that resulted in the building of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and was for five years, from 1828 to 1833, president of the company.
Resigning from Congress on December 26, 1839, he became cashier of a bank in Tallahassee, Florida. He was original grantee, partner, and agent of the Texas association, a company which obtained a contract to settle colonists in Texas and to receive pay from the Republic in land. When the convention in 1845 declared colonization contracts unconstitutional he and his associates brought suit to force payment, but the case was decided against them in the United States courts. In 1845 he published An Exposition of the Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States. In 1847 he built a house near Carrollton, Kentucky, which he made his home until 1853, when he disposed of his property there. For three years he traveled in Europe, working in the interest of the abolition of the slave trade. Ill with cancer of the lip, he returned to Fair-fax County, Virginia, where he was nursed by relatives until his death.
(Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Mercer, in Reply to a Motion o...)
Politics
Though a member of the Federalist party until its dissolution and then a Whig, he was never an ardent party man. He enjoyed the friendship of Monroe and of John Quincy Adams. He disliked Jackson and Van Buren and on January 26, 1819, delivered an address in Congress in which he assailed Jackson's course in the Seminole War. He was a strong Unionist but was alarmed at the rapidly increasing power of the president and was opposed to the executive's control over federal patronage. He was a leader in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829-30, in which he advocated manhood suffrage, equal representation, and the popular election of important officers with the whole power of his distinguished oratorical ability.