istration should leave no blot upon his country's record, and that no act within his constitutional control would be tolerated which could not challenge a ready justification before the tribunal of the civilized world. How great the difference between that and the sentiments of the Senator from Illinois! Let the President adhere to these principles, and he will thereby disarm opposition; he will make of those who have heretofore been strong political opponents some of the warmest friends he has in the world. I put this declaration in contrast with all these gigantic ideas [laughter] of breaking treaties, and going beyond the limits of the country in defiance of them. But if the President should, in opposition to all our hopes and belief, be induced to disregard the faith of treaties, he will hardly progress through half the period of his constitutional term before he will find the great heart of the American people, which is honest to the core, opposed to him, and the most sincere of his present friends will vindicate the justice of the sentence against him, while they sorrow for his fall.

I

JUSTICE THE SUPREME LAW OF NATIONS

(From a Speech on the Mexican War. United States Senate, January 11th and 12th, 1848)

NEVER have been, and I am not now, willing to acquire one acre of ground from Mexico, or any other nation under heaven, by conquest or robbery. I hold that, in all our transactions with the other nations of the world, the great principle ought to be maintained by us that "Honesty is the best policy," and that an honorable reputation is of more value to a country than land or money. I hold that any attempt on our part, merely because we happen to possess superior strength, to compel a weaker nation to cede to us all that we choose to demand as indemnity, while we at the same time admit that we ask for more than she owes us, is nothing else but robbery. If a man owe me a sum of money, and I meet him on the highway, and insist, with a pistol pointed at his breast, that he shall deliver to me a deed of his farm, at the estimate which I choose to put upon it, I think there could not be much difference of opinion as to the nature of that transaction. I should like to know how my friend from Maryland, who is an able lawyer,

would defend the man guilty of such conduct. Would it be any palliation, or excuse, or justification of the conduct of an offender in such a case, that some money was justly due him? Could there be found in Christendom a court and jury that would hesitate as to the verdict in such a case? And what, let me ask,as a friend near me [Mr. Webster] suggests, what would be the value of the deed obtained under such circumstances? If the possessor of it should even go "unwhipt of justice," would he not be the object to which the scornful finger of every honest man would be pointed, so long as he lived upon earth? I hold— and, however old-fashioned the notion may be, I shall maintain it so long as I have a seat here-that character is as valuable to a nation as it is to an individual; and inasmuch as I would scorn as a private citizen to despoil my neighbor of his property in these circumstances and with these avowals, so, as a public man, I never can sanction, in the slightest degree, such a course of conduct on the part of the government of the country.

We are one of the strongest nations of the earth. We have been amongst the weakest. In times gone by, we have suffered from the cruelty, the tyranny, and injustice of other nations, and have uttered loud complaints. We have now waxed strong and can put our foot upon the neck of a sister republic, and compel her to yield to the terms we ourselves dictate. The question now comes up, and it addresses itself to every genuine lover of his country, whether the acquisition of all this territory, under these circumstances, would compensate us for the loss of the reputation that high national character which we have hitherto sustained?

1292

JEREMIAH CLEMENS

(1814-1865)

HEN the issues of sectional supremacy were so joined between the North and South as to make civil war or further con

cessions on both sides inevitable, it was believed by some that all inconvenient issues at home could be indefinitely postponed by forcing foreign war. In that connection, the annexation of Cuba, Porto Rico, the Central American States, Mexico, and Canada, were discussed as a part of what was called "the manifest destiny" of the Anglo-Saxon race in America. It was charged that this policy "originated with the Southern slave-owners," but one of the most effective protests ever made against it was the speech delivered in the United States Senate, February 7th, 1853, by Jeremiah Clemens, of Alabama. Mr. Clemens has not generally been classed among the greatest statesmen of his time, but no one will read a dozen of his sentences without seeing that he has the oratorical faculty highly developed. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, December 28th, 1814. Educated at La Grange College and the University of Alabama, he studied law at the University of Transylvania, in Kentucky. Entering public life in 1838 as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ala. bama, he served afterwards in the State Legislature, and in the Mexican War as a Lieutenant-Colonel. Returning in 1843, he was re-elected to the Legislature. From 1849 till 1853 he represented Alabama in the United States Senate. He died May 21st, 1865.

D

CUBA AND "MANIFEST DESTINY »

(From a Speech in the United States Senate, February 7th, 1853) ANGER does not threaten us from abroad. In that quarter the skies are clear and bright. It is at home that the symptoms of an approaching hurricane are manifest. These symptoms are everywhere about us and around us. They may be found in the restless and disturbed state of the public mind; in the speeches of dinner orators, dignifying war with the name of "progress," and clothing wholesale robbery with the mantle of patriotism. They might have been seen in the frenzied enthusiasm which followed the footsteps of that sturdy

beggar, Louis Kossuth and in the wild and reckless attempts of American citizens to take possession of the island of Cuba. Sir, I deplore their fate as much as any man can, and condemn as strongly the cruel and barbarous conduct of the Spanish governor. I but refer to them as evidence of a state of things to which all eyes ought to be directed. And last, sir, though not least, the signs of this danger may be found in the ill-regulated, but fierce and strenuous, efforts of "Young America" to bring about a war with anybody or upon any pretext.

All these things indicate that a spirit of change is abroad in the land. I may be told that word is written on every earthly thing. Perhaps it may be so; but justice, honor, mercy, are the children of God, and know no change. In the sublime morality of the Christian's creed we may find a guide for our footsteps which cannot lead to error: "Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you." It is not in the Book of Revelations that we are taught to covet the goods of our neighbors. It is not there we are encouraged to indulge a lawless spirit of war and conquest. We do not learn from thence the duty of progressing backward from a peaceful age to a period of barbarism, when the strong hand was the only law, and the steel blade the only arbiter of disputed questions.

Sir, I have heard much of this thing called progress. In the eyes of some gentlemen it covers all defects and makes atonement for every error. I am not its enemy, but I wish to know exactly what it means, and in what direction I am to progress. If it means that glorious spirit which sweeps abroad upon the wings of peace, shedding life and light and happiness on the land and on the sea; which sends the missionary among the heathen, and gathers the infidel and the unbeliever beneath the Gospel's ample shield; which doubles the productions of earth, and lays bare the treasures of ocean; which plants the church of God in the wilderness of the West, and substitutes the Sabbath bell for the howl of the panther; which carries literature and science to the log cabin of the pioneer, and connects every part of this wide Republic by links so strong, so close, that the traveler feels every spot he treads is home, and every hand he grasps a brother's hand,-if this be the progress which is meant, most gladly do I enlist under its banner.

But, sir, I am not permitted so to understand it. I understand progress, as interpreted by modern politicians, to be quite

a different thing. The first lesson they inculcate is a sort of general defiance to all mankind; an imitation of the worst practice of olden chivalry-the practice of hanging a glove in some public place as a challenge to every passer-by to engage in mortal combat-a practice, in no degree based upon wrongs to be redressed, or injuries to be avenged, but upon a pure, unmitigated love of blood and strife. They have borrowed also from the crusaders another vicious and indefensible habit—that of impoverishing themselves at home to raise the means of transportation to other lands to erect altars and inculcate principles by the edge of the sword. They propose to grasp the territory of an old and faithful ally, not only without the shadow of a claim, but without even the robber's plea of necessity; to hush the busy hum of commerce; to withdraw the artisan from his workshop, the laborer from his field, the man of science and the man of letters from their high pursuits; to convert the whole land into one vast camp, and impress upon the people the wild and fierce character of the followers of King Clovis.

Sir, I wish to indulge in no exaggerated statements, but let us, in the cant phraseology of the day, "establish a foreign policy." Let us set about convincing the world that we are indeed "a power upon earth." Let us rob Spain of Cuba, England of Canada, and Mexico of her remaining possessions, and this continent will be too small a theatre upon which to enact the bloody drama of American progress! Like the Prophet of the East, who carried the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, American armies will be sent forth to proclaim freedom to the serf; but if he happen to love the land in which he was born, and exhibit some manly attachment to the institutions with which he is familiar, his own lifeblood will saturate the soil, and his wife and children be driven forth as houseless wanderers, in proof of our tender consideration for the rights of humanity. Sir, this is a species of progress with which Satan himself might fall in love.

Mr. President, there are in this connection still other lights in which the question before us may be presented. Look at America as she now is, prosperous in all things, splendid, magnificent, rich in her agriculture, rich in her commerce, rich in arts and sciences, rich in learning, rich in individual freedom, richer still in the proud prerogative of bending the knee to none but the God who made us, and of worshiping even in his tem