Willis Alston of North Carolina, chiefly known as an object of Randolph’s peculiar contempt and personal violence, took as strong ground as Randolph himself on these questions. On the other hand Josiah Quincy showed in a high degree the art of irritating opponents by his manner of expressing a low opinion of their sense and motives; and the Southern members resented this treatment the more because Quincy was a man well born and well educated, whose social standing could not be questioned. In reply to his taunts Alston resorted to the well-worn commonplaces of the Republican party. “The present Administration,” said he, “has taken up a new system of defence,--it is that of saving the public money. This system is new, and not known in Federal times. We have not gone on increasing taxes, like our predecessors.” The assertion could not be denied; but Quincy’s retort was not the less pungent. “The Federal Administration,” he replied, “saved the country from danger and disgrace: I wish I could say as much of their successors.” The whole issue lay in these short charges and counter-charges. To some extent the President, his Cabinet, and the Senate had become converted to Federalist views; but the influence of Randolph and of popular prejudices peculiar to Southern society held the House stiffly to an impracticable creed. Whatever the North and East wanted the South and West refused. Jefferson’s wishes fared no better than the requests of the State and city of New York; the House showed no alacrity in taking up the subject of roads, canals, or universities. The only innovation which made its way through Congress was the Act of Feb. 10, 1807, appropriating fifty thousand dollars for the establishment of a coast survey, for this was an object in which the Southern States were interested as deeply as the Northern. Even the Senate’s appropriation for beginning the Cumberland Road was indefinitely postponed by the House.