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I then felt have not been dispelled, but multiplied by what I have since seen. I know nothing which is to be allowed to stand. I observe the institutions of governments falling around me; and where the work of destruction is to end God only knows. We discharged our consciences in establishing a judicial system which now exists, and it will be for those who hold the power of the government to answer for the abolition of it, which they at present meditate. We are told that our law was against the sense of the nation. Let me tell those gentlemen they are deceived when they call themselves the nation. They are only a dominant party, and though the sun of federalism should never rise again, they will shortly find men, better or worse than themselves, thrusting them out of their places. I know it is the cant of those in power, however they may have acquired it, to call themselves the nation. We have recently witnessed an example of it abroad. How rapidly did the nation change in France! At one time Brissot called himself the nation; then Robespierre; afterwards Tallien and Barras; and, finally, Bonaparte. But their dreams were soon dissipated, and they awoke in succession upon the scaffold or in banishment. Let not these gentlemen flatter themselves that heaven has reserved to them a peculiar destiny. What has happened to others in this country, they must be liable to. Let them not exult too highly in the enjoyment of a little brief and fleeting authority. It was ours yesterday; it is theirs to-day; but to-morrow it may belong to others.

CXVI.-THE GROUND OF TREATY.

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

LET me ask on what ground you mean to treat. Do you expect to persuade? Do you hope to intimidate? If to persuade, what are your means of persuasion? Every gentleman admits the importance of this country. Think you the first consul, whose capacious mind embraces the globe, is alone ignorant of its value? Is he a child whom you may win by a rattle, to comply with your wishes? Will you, like a nurse, sing to him a lullaby? If you have no hope from fondling attentions and soothing sounds, what have you

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to offer in exchange? Have you anything to give which he will take? He wants power: you have no power. He wants dominion: you have no dominion; at least none that you can grant. He wants influence in Europe and have you any influence in Europe? What, in the name of heaven, are the means by which you would render this negotiation successful? Is it by some secret spell? Have you any magic power? Will you draw a circle and conjure up devils to assist you ? Or as you rely on the charms of those beautiful girls with whom, the gentleman near me says, the French grenadiers are to marry? If so, why do you not send an embassy of women?

Gentlemen talk of the principles of our government, as if they could obtain for us the desired boon. But what will these principles avail? When you inquire as to the force of France, Austria, or Russia, do you ask whether they have a habeas corpus act, or a trial by jury? Do you estimate their power, discuss their interior police? No. The question is: How many battalions have they? What train of artillery can they bring into the field? How many ships can they send to sea? These are the important circumstances which command respect and facilitate negotiations. Can you display these powerful motives? Alas! alas! To all these questions you answer by one poor word—confidenceconfidence-confidence; yea, verily, we have confidence. We have faith and hope; aye, and we have charity too. Well-go to market with these Christian virtues, and what will you get for them? Just nothing. Yet in the face of reason and experience you have confidence; but in whom? Why, in our worthy president. But he cannot make the treaty alone. There must be two parties to a bargain. I ask, if you have confidence also in the first consul? But whither, in the name of heaven, does this confidence lead, and to what does it tend? The time is precious. We waste, and have already wasted, moments which will never return.

FOURTH OF JULY, 1851.

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CXVIL-FOURTH OF JULY, 1851.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

ON the Fourth of July, 1776, the representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, declared that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. This declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in the justice of their cause, and the protection of Providence—and yet not without deep solicitude and anxiety-has stood for seventy-five years, and still stands. It was sealed in blood. It has met dangers and overcome them; it has had enemies, and it has conquered them; it has had detractors, and it has abashed them all; it has had doubting friends, but it has cleared all doubts away; and now, to-day, raising its august form higher than the clouds, twenty millions of people contemplate it with hallowed love, and the world beholds it, and the consequences which have followed, with profound admiration. This anniversary animates and gladdens, and unites all American hearts. On other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in controversies more or less important to the public good; we may have likes and dislikes, and we may maintain our political differences often with warm, and sometimes with angry feelings. But to-day we are Americans all in all, nothing but Americans. As the great luminary over our heads, dissipating mists and fogs, cheers the whole hemisphere, so do the associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy and sullen weather, and all noxious exhalations in the minds and feelings of true Americans. Every man's heart swells within him-every man's port and bearing become somewhat more proud and lofty, as he remembers that seventy-five years have rolled away, and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his; his, undiminished and unimpaired; his, in all its original glory; his to enjoy, his to protect, and his to transmit to future generations. If Washington were now amongst us-and if he could draw around him the shades of the great public men of his own days—patriots and warriors, orators and statesmen—and were to address us in their presence, would he not say to us--' "Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank God for being able to see that our labors, and toils, and sacrifices, were not in vain. You are prosperous-you are happy-you are grate

ful. The fire of liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while duty and the law restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration. Cherish liberty as you love it-cherish its securities as you wish to preserve it. Maintain the Constitution which we labored so painfully to establish, and which has been to you such a source of inestimable blessings. Preserve the Union of the States, cemented as it was by our prayers, our tears, and our blood, Be true to God, your country, and your duty. So shall the whole Eastern world follow the morning sun, to contemplate you as a nation; so shall all succeeding generations honor you as they honor us; and so shall that Almighty Power which so graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity.

CXVIII-ASPIRATIONS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

R. M. T. HUNTER.

THE sense of national honor beats high in the American heart, and its every pulse vibrates at the mere suspicion of a stain upon its reputation. But that same heart is warmed with generous impulses and noble emotions. If you would moderate its lust of empire and its spirit of acquisition, appeal to its magnanimity towards a feeble and prostrate foe -appeal to it in the name of the highest aspirations which can animate the human heart, the desire for moral excellence, the love of liberty, and the noble ambition to take the post of honor among nations, and lead the advance of civilization. If our people are once awakened to a true conception of the real nature and grandeur of their destiny, the first and greatest step, in my opinion, is taken for its accomplishment. If my imagination were tasked to select the highest blessing for my countrymen, I should say, may they be true to themselves and faithful to their mission. I can conceive of nothing of which it is possible for human effort to obtain, greater than the destiny which we may reasonably hope to fulfil. If war has its dreams, dazzling in splendid pageantry, peace also has its visions of a more enduring form, of a higher and purer beauty. To solve by practical demonstration the grand problem of increasing social power consistent with personal

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freedom-to increase the efficiency of the human agent by enlarging individual liberty-to triumph over, not only the physical, but more difficult still, the moral difficulties which lie in the path of a man's progress, and to adorn that path with all that is rare and useful in art, and whatever is highest in civilization, are, in my opinion, the noblest achievements of which a nation is capable. These are the ends to which our ambition should be directed. If we reverse the old idea of the Deity who presides over our boundaries, let us see so far as we are concerned, that his movements are consistent with the peace of the world. The sword may be the occasional, but it is not the familiar weapon of our god Terminus. The axe and the hoe are his more appropriate emblems. Let him turn aside from the habitations of civilized man, his path is toward the wilderness, through whose silent solitudes, for more than two centuries, he has been rapidly and triumphantly advancing. Let him plunge still deeper into the forest, as the natural gravitation of the tide of population impels him onward. His progress in that direction is one of unmixed beneficence to the human race. The earth smiles beneath his feet, and a new creation arises as if by enchantment at his touch. Household fires illuminate his line of march, and new-born lights, strange visitants to the night of primeval solitude, kindle on domestic altars erected to all the peaceful virtues and kindly affections which consecrate a hearth and endear a home. Victorious industry sacks the forest and mines the quarry, for materials for its stately cities, or spans the streams and saps the mountain to open the

way for the advance of civilization still deeper into the pathless forest and neglected wild. The light of human thought pours in winged streams from sea to sea, and the lingering nomad may have but a moment's pause, to behold the flying car which comes to invade the haunts so long secured to savage life. These are the aspirations worthy of our name and race, and it is for the American people to decide whether a taste for peace or the habits of war are most consistent with such hopes. I trust that they may be guided by wisdom in their choice.