possess. I commend him to a prudent husbandry of his
resources.
XCVI.— FINAL TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY.
DEM. RKVIEW.
TuK naked right of a peojde to change their government
none but the sturdiest adherents of unrelenting despotism will
deny. But in the practical determination of a change, par-
ties will inevitably arise; they will arrange themselves
under the operation of necessary influences and principles
fcprinifing from the diversity of human nature. Tlie interests
li).stt'red by established systems, through the natural instinct
of sclfisliue.ss, will speedily form themselves into conservative
bauds. Their dependants, through all the ramifications of
Bociety, will hasten to swell the same ranks ; while the
naturally timid, dubious as to the virtue of their fellow-men,
averse to change, conjuring up dismal prospects ot future
anarchy and misrule, will enlist under the same banners.
Ho lliuiC will bu gaiiicicd the wealth and fashion which
1
134 THE BOOK OF ELOQUENCE. '^
draws its existence from old customs and laws — the prvi-
lese wliich subsists on ancient error — and the tal«»tit wliieh,
accustomed to profouad veneration, never travels beyuml a
beaten track. They will be met, on the other hjuid, by the
untutored yet unsopliisticated mass, and those b«T?d, indepen-
dent men of" genius who intuitively seize the rigtit, and labor
with fearless selt-denying energy ibr human progress. TUc
contest will be intense, as the interests and ]:«i.uiciples in-
volved are great. As it embraces the great doctrines of
science, the first truths of government, the welfare of nations,
and the destinies of a race, a long warfare will infringe on
the civilities of life, will break the restraints of law, will
estrange friends, will throw the sword into families, and give
rein to the wildest excesses of passion. Yet it is not difficult
to tell where victory will perch. The rights and happiness
of the many will prevail. Democracy must finally reign.
There is in man an eternal principle of progress which no
power on earth may resist. Every custom, law, science, or
religion, which obstructs its course, will fall as leaves before
the wind. Already it has done much, but will do more.
The despotism of force, the absolutism of religion, the feudal-
ism of wealth, it has laid on the crimson field ; while the
principle, alive, un wounded, vigorous, is still battling against
nobility and privilege with unrelaxing strength. It i^' con-
tending for the extinction of tyranny, for the abolition of pre-
rogative, for the reform of abuse, for the amelioration of
government, for the destruction of monopoly, for the estab-
lishment of justice, for the elevation of the masses, for the
progress of humanity, and for the dignity and worth of the
individual man. In this great work it has a mighty and effi-
cient aid — Christianity, self-purified and self-invigorated, Is
its natural ally — Christianity struck the first blow at the
vitals of unjust power. The annunciations of its lofty
Teacher embodied truths after which the nations in their
dim twilight had long straggled in vain. These potent doc-
trines were the inherent dignity, the natural equality, the
s]iiritual rights, the glorious hopes, of man. They addressed
the individual apart from social ran'; or position, riercing
the thick obscurity which ages of darkness have gathered —
removing the obstructions of heapcd-up falsehood and fraud
■— they speak to oppressed, down-trodden man. They speak
t'l him in a voice of infinite power; they touch the chords o*^
sensibility, and expand his soul to free, generous action ; thsy
AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION. 135
awaken hope ; they administer consolation ; they cherish the
sonso &f pf-rsonal worth ; they strenjrthen faith in truth ; they
reveal th^ Lighest excellence ; they demand unceasing pro-
gress ; tiity worship the soul as of higher importance than
all outward TVvjrlds.
The movomcnt of man, then, must be onward. The vir-
tue of earth, aarl the holiness of Heaven, are pledged to his
sijppirrt. Maj' trod hasten the day of his complete final suc-
cess I Then will the downcast look up, then will the earth
be glad, then will a broad shout of rejoicing break through
the concave of heaven, and be echoed back from the thrones
on high.
XCVII.— AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION.
J. 0. ISACKS.
Ts not this power in the hands of Congress liable to abuse ?
I put it to the members of this House to answer me that ques-
tion, -from what we know of ourselves ; from what we have
seen and believe with respect to others ; from the circum-
stances which surround us ; from the motives which may
actuate ; the influence which may be exerted upon us ; our
proneness to temptation ; our love of power ; and a thou-
sand other considerations, which the mind, honestly in search
of truth, cannot help but find. Are we prepared to say that
this power is not liable to abuse here ? No, sir, we cannot,
we know that it may be — that it can be abused ; then send
it away — part with it at once — give it up to its rightful
r.wners — take ofl'the broad I'eproach of suspicion which rests
upon us — restore the Representatives of the People to what
they were chosen for, and what the Constitution intended
them to be — legislalors, and nothing but legislators. Let us
resume the dignity of our stations and the importance of our
cliaracters. Gentlemen sjteak oftlie confidence which should
be tilt and maintained ibr Congress — the dignity of its mem-
bers. I hope it will so decide this question, as to entitle it
to a nation's confidence, and by preserving its purity, secure,
unshaken, that confidence. As to the rest, God preserve its
members from the dignity of olfiee brokers and President ma-
kers. We want no Warwicks, with their vassals, here — no
king-makers, that would disgrace the name of Nevil '
136 THE BOOK OF ELOQUENCE.
Gentlemen attempt to divert our attention from the defeotf
in the Constitution, by expressing a reverence for its framers
approaching to idolatry. Sir, to those who shared in the
struggle for independence, and laid the deep foundations of
our Government, I claim an equal participation in rendering
the full tribute of regard which is due to mortal man. They
gave us the charter of our liberty ; they could not. Heaven
did not give us a charter of exemption from the weakness
and the wickedness of human nature. No, sir, m the days
of our Fathers, the golden age of pristine purity — when, ac-
cording to one gentleman on this floor, " the political little
finger" of our statesmen could almost work miracles ; and,
ac(^ording to another, the palest star in that firmament out-
shone the whole galaxy of these degenerate times — even then
our country produced an Arnold I And who was Arnold ?
Some obscure, degraded, scape-gallows felon ? No, sir, no ;
he was found in front of the foremost rank of patriots, with
a wreath of" glory on his brow, which the rough hand of time
could not tear away — this man became a traitor '.
XCVIII.— MISSION TO PAJfAMA. â–
DANIEL WEBSTEE.
Wi: are told that the country is deluded and deceived by
cabalistic words. Cabalistic words ! If we express an emo-
tion of pleasure at the results of this great ac'ioii of the spirit
of political liberty ; if we rejoice at the birth of new Republican
nations, and express our joy by the common terms of regard
and sympathy ; if we feel and signify high gratification that,
throughout this whole continent, men are now likely to be
blessed by free and popular institutions ; and if in the utter-
ing of these sentiments, we happen to speak of sister Repub-
lics, of the great American family of Nations, or of the
political systems and forms of government of this hemisphere ;
then, indeed, it seems, we deal in senseless jargon, or impose
upon the judgment and feeling of the community by cabalis-
tic words! Sir, what is meant by this ? Is it intended that
the people of the United States ought to be totally indifferent
to the fortunes of these new neighbors ? Is no change, in
the lights iu which "'e ave to view them, to be wrought, by
:
MISSION TO PANAMA. 137
their having thrown off foreign dominion, established Inde-
j^ndence, and Instituted on our very borders, Republican
governments, essentially after our own example ? If it be a
weakness to feel a strong Interest In the success of these great
revolutions, I confess myself guilty of that weakness. If it
be A'eak to feeJ that I am an American, to think that recent
events have not only opened new modes of intercourse, but
have created also new grounds of regard and sympathy be-
tween ourselves and our neighbors ; if it be weak to feel that
the South, in her present state, is somewhat more emphati-
cally part of America than when she lay obscure, oppressed,
and unknown, under the grinding bondage of a foreign pow-
er ; if it be weak to rejoice, when, even in any corner of the
earth, human beings are able to get up from beneath oppres-
sion, to erect themselves, and enjoy the proper happiness of
their Intelligent nature ; if this be weak, it Is a weakness
from which I claim no exemption.
A day of solemn retribution now visits the overproud
monarchy of Spain. The prediction is fullilled. The spirit
of Montezuma and of the Incas might now well say,
" Art thou, too, fallen, Iberia? Do we see
Tlie robber and tlie rmirilerer weak as we ?
Thou, that hast wasted earth, and tlared despise
Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies,
Tl»y pomp is in the grave; thy glory laid
Low in the pit thine avarice has made."
We cannot be so blind, we cannot so shut up our senses,
and smother our faculties, as not to see that, in the progress
and establishment of South American liberty, our own example
has been among the most stimulating causes. Tliat great
\\'jr]it — a light which can never be hid — the light of our own
glorious Eevolulion, has shone on the path of the South
American Piitriots, from the beginning of their course. In
their emergencies, they have looked to our experience. In
their political institutions, they have followed our models.
In their deliberations, they have invoked the presiding Spirit
of our own Liberty. They have looked steadily, in every
ailversity, to the great noktiikiin i-uhit. In the hour of
bloody conflict, they have remembered the fields which have
been consecrated by the blood of our fathers ; and when they
have fallen, they have wished only to be remembered with
them, as men who had acted their parts bravely, ibr the
cause of Liberty in the Western World.
138 THE BOOK OF ELOQUENCE.
XCIX.— OUR DUTY TO REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
PELEG 8PRAGUE.
You talk of erecting statues and marble memorials of the
Father of his country. It is well. But could his spirit now
be heard within these walls, would it not tell you, that, to
answer his fervent prayers, and verify his confident predic-
tions of your gratitude to his companions in arms, would be
a sweeter incense, a more grateful homage to his memory,
than the most splendid mausoleum ? You gave hundreds
of thousands of dollars to La Fayette. It was well ; and
the whole country resounded, Amen. But is not the citizen
soldier, who fought by his side, who devoted e 'erything to
your service, and has been deprived of his promised reward,
equally entitled, I will not say, to your liberality, but to your
justice ?
Sir, the present provision for the soldiers of the Revolution
is not sufficient. Instead of presuming every man to be up-
right and true until the contrary appears, every applicant
seems to be presupposed to be false and perjured. Instead
of bestowing these hard-earned awards with alacrity, they
appear to have been refused, or yielded with reluctance ; and
to send away the war-worn veteran, bowed down with the
infirmities of age, empty from your door, seems to have been
deemed an act of merit. So rigid has been the construction
and application of the existing law, that cases most strictly
within its provisions, of meritorious service and abject pov-
erty, have been excluded from its benefits. Yet gentlemen
"tell us that the law, so administered, is too liberal ; that it
goes too far, and they would repeal it. They would take
back even the little which they have given I And is this
possible ? Look abroad upon this wide extended land, upon
its wealth, its happiness, its hopes ; and then turn to the aged
soldier who gave you all, and see him descend in neglect and
poverty to the tomb I The time is short. A few years, and
these remnants of a former age will no longer bo seen.
Then we shall indulge unavailing regrets for our present
apathy : for, how can the ingenuous mind look upon thegi'ave
of an injured benefactor ? How poignant the reflection, that
the time for reparation and atonement has gone forever I In
what bitterness of soul shall we look back upon the infatua-
tion which shall have cast aside an opportunity v/hiih can
THE ZERO LINE OF VALOR. 139
never return, to give peace to our conscience. We shall
then endeavor to stifle our couvictions, hy empty honors to
their bones. We shall raise high the monuineut, and trum-
pet loud their deeds, but it will he all in vain. It cannot
warm the hearts which shall have sunk cold and comfortless
to the earth. This is no illusion. How often do we see, in
our public Uazettes, a pompous display of honors to the mem-
ory of some veteran patriot, who was suflei'ed to linger out
his latter days in unregai'ded penury ?
" How proud we can pr(«s to the fun'ral array
Oi' liiin wliom we sliumrd in his sickness and sorrow ;
And bailitFs may seize liis last blanket to-day,
Whose pall shall be borne up by heroes to-morrow."
C— THE ZERO LINE OF VALOR.
DAVID BARTON.
I SHOULD like to see this question in mathenatics figured
out, in the rule of three, and the quotient fairly stated. If
the low war mark or zero line of the Senator's valor, wlieu
peace is in all our borders, and not a war speck in the sky,
that" I can see, be equal to that of Palafox in the passes of
the Pyrenees, guarding his native Spain against the invad-
ing legions of Napoleon Bonaparte ; or of Leonidas, with his
three hundred Spartans, at the Straits of Thermopylaj,
guarding Sjiarta and all Greece against the million of myr-
midons of Xerxes, the king of Persia and of kings ; what
would be the spring-Hood height, or boiling degree of his
raire, if placed in the Pine-spur-gap of our own AUeghanies,
with his naked war-knife drawn, to guard the magnificent
valley of the Mississippi against the invasive Yankees; and
upon lifting up his eyes and looking over the plains below,
towards the north-east, he should behold the universal Yan-
kee nation, armed cap-a-pie, with drums beating and ban-
ners flying, coming to invade us, and lay our valley under
one sheet of fire, from the Lake of the Woods to the Balize,
and from the sources of the Mis-souri to the aforesaid Pine-
B|iiir-gap! arnl to carry away into captivity the brightest
portion of our mulatto beauties! Figures cannot count it.
Poets cauuot sing it. Homer did his be-t in Achilles' wrath
140 THE BOOK OF ELOQUENCE.
about the loss of his sweetheart, and while chasing Hector
around the walls of Troy ; and that barL4y came up to the
ZOTO line of the Senator's valor ! And Cervantes is dead I
Apropos ! Cervantes was the man for this sort of vaior !
It all rashes on the mind " like a flood of coming light !"
All is not right in the capital ! There is more occcsio;i,
now, for Dr. Cutbush or Dr. CutscuU, than for any military
hero to guard us against the Yankees I These mental ilhi-
sions have atllicted the frail sons of Adam in other countries,
and in climates better than our own ! My honorable friend.
Don (iuixotte de la Mancha, a countryman of Pclatbx, had
a long spell of them ! On one occasion he attacked, as he
supposed, an army of steel-clad knights, which turned out to
be a flock of harmless merinoes I Then a funeral procession,
and wounded a friar I Again, a windmill and a fulling-
mill, imagining them colossal, enchanted giants, more terri-
ble than iEsop's buffalo bull ! But why recount his freaks,
when all these honorable Senators have read Cervantes ?
and they who hope for missions to Spain, South America*, or
Mexico, have, doubtless, read him in the original I
CL— EFFECT OF STEADINESS OF PURSUIT.
ASHEE ROBBINS.
The most interesting instance of the efficacy of this steadi-
ness of pursuit was given by the city of Athens ; the most
interesting, because the object was most so. From the earliest
times, Athens aspired to literature and the elegant arts. l3y
a steady pursuit of the policy adopted \Adth a view to this
end, the city of Athens became such a monument of the arts,
that even her imperfect and dilapidated remains are at this
day the wonder of the world. What splendors, then, must
she have emitted in the day of her splendor ! When, in her
freshness, she met the morning sun, and reflected back a rival
glory I When she was full of the masterpieces of genhis in
every art — creations, that were said to have exalted in the
human mind the ideas of the divinities themselves I The
fervid eloquence of Demosthenes failed, unequal to the task,
to do justice to those immortal splendors, when employed, as
it occasionally was, for that purpose, in his addresses to the
THE TERRITOKIES. 141
Athenian people. It was by the steady pursuit of the same
policy, that tiieir literary works of every kind came to be
equally the masterpieces of human jrenius ; and being more
diflused, and less impaired by the injuries of time, than the
other monunu'nls of the arts, they were, and still are, the
wonder of the world, that, after it, the Athenians themselves
could never surpass them ; whilst others have never been
able to equal them. Now, what has been the efiect ? Lite-
rature and arts have gathered around that city a charm that
was, and is felt by all mankind ; which no distance, no time,
can dispel Ko scholar, of any age or clime, but has made
(in fancy, at least) a pilgrimage to its shore ; there to call
around him the shades of the mighty dead, whose minds still
live, and delight and astonish in their immortal works. It is
emphatically the city of the heart, where the afiections de-
light to dwell ; the green spot of the earth where the fancy
loves to linger. How poor is brute force — even the most
magnificent, even the Roman — compared to the empire of
mind, to which all other minds pay their voluntary homage !
Her literature and her arts acquired to Athens this empdre,
wliich her remains still preserve, and always will preserve. In
contemplating the phenomenon of her literary achievements, a
great and profound writer could not forbear saying, " that it
seemed a providential event, in honor of human nature, to show
to what perlection the species might ascend." Call it provi-
dential if you please — as every event is, in some sense, provi-
dential — but it was the efiect of artificial causes, as much so
as the military power of the Romans ; it was the efiect of a
policy, early adopted, and always after steadily pursued.
CIL— THE TERRITORIES.
EGBERT C. â– WINTIIROl'.
Mr. Chairman, I see in the territorial possessions of this
TJuion the seats of new States, the cradles of new Comtnoii-
Wi'alths, tlie tnirseries, it may be, of new Republican lilm-
pires. I see, in them, the future abodes of our brethren, our
children, and our children's children, for a thousand generations.
I see, growing u]) within their borders, institutions upon
•which the chaiacter and condiliou of a vast multitude of the
142 THE BOOK OF ELOQUENCE.
American family, and of the human race, in all time to
come, are to depend. I feel, that for the oiiginal sha])inff
and msulding of these institutions, you and I and each one of
us, who occupy these seats, are in part responsible. And I
cannot omit to ask myself what shall I do, that I may de-
serve the gratitude and the blessing, and not the condemna-
tion and tlie curse, of that posterity whose welfai'e is thus in
some degree committed to my care ?
As I pursue this inquiry, sir, I look back instinctively to
the day, now more than two hundred years ago, when the
Atlantic coast was the scene of events like those now in pro-
gress upon the Pacific ; — when incited, not, indeed, by the love
of gold, but by a devotion to that which is better than gold,
and whose price is above rubies, the tbrefathers of New
England were planting their colony upon that rock-bound
shore. I look back to the day when slavery existed nowhere
upon the American continent, and before that first Dutch
ship, " built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark," had
made its way to Jamestown, with a cargo of human beings in
bondao-e. 1 refiect how much our fathers would have exult-
ed, could they have arrested the progress of that ill-starred
vessel, and of all other kindred employment. I recall the
original language of the Declaration of Independence itself, as
first dralted by Thomas Jetierson, assigning it as one of the
moving causes for throwing off our allegiance to the British
monarch, that " he had waged cruel war against human
nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and
liberty, in the persons of a distant people who never offended
him, captivating and carrying them into slavery into another
hemlspliere, or to incur miserable death in their transporta-
tion thither."
1 remember, too, that whatever material advantages may
have since been derived from slave labor in the cultivation
of a crop which was then unknown to our country, that the
moral character and social influence of the institution are
still precisely what they were described to be, by those who
understood them best, in the early days of the Republic.
And 1 see, too — as no man can help seeing — that almost all
the internal dangers and domestic dissensions which cast a
doubt upon the perpetuity of our glorions Union, have been,
and still are, the direct or indirect consequences of the exist-
ence of this institution. And thus seeing, thus remembering,
thus reflecting, how can I do otherwise than resolve, that it
DANGER OF FACTION. 113
shall be by no vote of miue, that slavery shall be established
m any territory wliere it does not already exist I
cm.— TRIUMPH OF riETY OVER ARMS.
JOSEPH STORT.
Time was, when the exploits of war, the heroes of many
battles, the conquerors of millions, the men who waded
tlirough slaughter to thrones, the kings whose. footsteps were
darkened witii blood, and the sceptered oppressors of the earth,
were alone deemed worthy themes for the poet and the
orator, for the songs of the minstrel, and the hosannas of the
multitude. Time was, when feats of arms, and tournaments,
and crusades, and the high array of chivalry, and the pride
of royal banners waving for victory, engrossed all minds.
Time was, when the ministers of the altar sat down by the
side of the tyrant, and numbered his victims, and stimnlated
his persecutions, and screened the instruments of his crimes —
and there was praise, and glory, and revelry, for these things.
Murder and rapine, burning cities and desolated plains, if so
be they were the bidding oi royal or baronial feuds, led on by
the courtier or the clan, were matters of public boast, the de-
liglits of courts, and the treasured pleasure of the fireside
tales. But these times have passed away. Christianity bus
resumed her meek and holy reign. The Puritans have not
lived in vain. The simple piety of the Pilgrims of New
England casts into shade tliis false glitter, which dazzled and
betrayed men into the worship of their destroyers.
CIV.— DANGER OF FACTION.
WILLIAM GASTON.
I WOULD not depress your buoyant spirits with gloomy an-
ticipations, but I should be wanting in frankness, if I did not
state my conviction that you will be called to the perform-
ance of other duties unusually grave and important. Perils
E'trround you and are imminent, which will rei}.nire ckar
heads, pure intentions, and stout hearts, to discern and to
1-14 THE BOOK OF ELOQUENCE.
overcome. There is no side on which danger may not make
its approach ; but from the wickedness and madness of
factions it is most nieiiaciiig. Time was, indeed, when fac-
tions contended amongst us with virulence and fury ; but
they were, or affected to be, at issue on questions of priiicij)lu ;
now, Americans band together under the names of men, and
wear the livery, and put on the badges of their leaders. Then,
the individuals of the different parties were found side by side,