He should not go into a lengthy discussion on this point, but if they turned their eyes to our foreign relations, there would be found no reason to exult in the wisdom and firmness of the administration.

He believed, on the contrary, that it was from a want of wisdom and firmness that we were brought into our present critical situation.

If gentlemen had been satisfied with expressing their esteem of the patriotism and virtue of the President, they might have got a unanimous vote; but they could not suppose that gentlemen would so far forget self-respect as to join in the proposed adulation.
[Footnote 48: Some objection has been made to the accuracy of this speech, as reported in the Daily Advertiser.

The author has therefore deemed it proper to make some extracts from the Aurora, the leading paper of that party, of which Mr.Giles was a conspicuous member.
Mr.Giles, after stating that "the want of wisdom and firmness" in the administration, "had conducted the affairs of the nation to a crisis which threatens greater calamities than any that has before occurred,"-- remarks as follows:--"Another sentiment in the report he could not agree to.

He did not regret the President's retiring from office.