Edwardsville Spectator

(Communicated for the Spectator.)

Fellow Citizens,

I have had the honor of serving you in the capacity of Secretary of State, through a short but busy period. My further services have been declined by the vote of your Senate, and I now return to the privacy which suits my age and habits, and which I quitted rather from a sense of duty than from inclination.

As it is probable that no occasion will again occur in which I may serve you as a public man, I now take leave of you in that character; and I beg to assure you it is in perfect good humor, and with gratitude for the respect and attention I have uniformly received during my short official career.

That a decided and unconquerable antipathy should prevail between myself, as a politician, and such politicians as Messrs. Theophilus W. Smith, Thomas Sloo, jr. Michael Jones, and Stephen Stillman, every man who knows their character and mine, will readily suppose; and will as readily agree that I can suffer no disgrace from a rejection produced by the management of those persons.

That this rejection was not the effect of my demerits, appears from the subjoined testimonial, so kindly, so generously given, by the House of Representatives.

The motives of the other six who voted against my nomination, are of small moment to me; but to their constituents they may be worthy of investigation.-- Their names are as follows: Barker, Beaird, Carlin, Ewing, Grammer, and Hay. The following are the seven gentlemen who honored me by their approbation: Bankson, Bliss, Duncan, Kirkpatrick, Lemen, Parker, and Widen.

M. BIRKBECK.

Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the thanks of this House be presented to Morris Birkbeck, Esq. for the able, impartial, and satisfactory manner in which he has discharged the duties of the office of Secretary of State.

Thomas Mather,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Adopted, January 15, 1825, by yeas 27, nays 4.

Chas. Dunn, Clk.