Tazewell himself thought
the best he ever delivered in the Senate, was on some one of the
bankrupt bills of his term of service; but of this speech not a passage
can now be found.
Nor would it be practicable to present here even a condensed view of the
reports which he drew either as the head or as a member of the Committee
of Foreign Affairs. Almost any one of those reports would have built up
a respectable reputation for its author. I shall only specify his report
on the Panama mission, which mainly settled the public mind in relation
to that measure; and his report on the Colonization Society, in which,
incidentally--and by the way, he demonstrated conclusively the
constitutional right of the United States to acquire territory. When it
is remembered that Mr. Jefferson took a different view of this question
at the time of the acquisition of Louisiana, and believed an amendment
to the constitution necessary to the validity of the purchase; the
originality as well as the ability of Mr. Tazewell appear in a favorable
light.
Meantime his reputation had been extending far and wide.
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