aided in driving from the ocean a traffic which had long dishonored our country, and outraged the best feelings of our nature. The foreign slavetrade is now piracy. Would to God, the domestic might, like his barbarous brother of the seas, be made an outlaw of the land, and punished on the same gibbet.

The Constitution, we know, does not permit one class of the States to legislate on the nature or condition of the property of the other class. Why tell us, for we already know, that neither our religion nor our humanity can reach or release that condition? Humanity could once bathe the fevered forehead of Larazus-she could not bring to his comfort so much as a crumb from the sumptuous and profuse table of Dives. Religion may weep, as the Saviour of the World wept over the proud city of Herod: but her tears will fall like the rain-drops on the burning ploughshare, and serve only to render the stubborn material more obdurate.

We are called and pressed to decide this question, and yet threatened that the decision will dissolve the Union. "The discussion and the Constitution will terminate together."-" Southern gentlemen will, in that event, leave this Hall." Who makes this menace, and against whom? It cannot be a war-cry; can it be a mere party watchword? On what event of immeasurable moment are we thus adjured? In a paltry claim of two hundred and nine and "thirty" pieces of silver, shall we, who have in this Hall lifted the hand, or "kissed" the hallowed gospel of God, in testimonial of high devotion to its requirements, shall we now, in the same place, "deliver up" this our great national charter? This event cannot come with safety to our country, and wisdom would admonish us to inquire what concomitants may attend it; and whom they will visit most disastrously! Must we be schooled on the benefits of the Union? It were wise for such scholars to take some lessons on the evils of separation. The Hebrew, when fed by the bread of Heaven, murmured at his God: looked over the sea, and pined for the luxurious slavery of Egypt. Is it a vain imagining; or may there be a charm in foreign alliance, more potent than the plain simplicity of domestic independence? England can, indeed, make lords. The United States can make none. She, too, can, and has in the last century, made more slaves than all other nations, Pagan or Christian.

We are surrounded, protected, and secured by our Constitution. By this we are in safety from the power and violence of the world; as some wealthy regions are, by their own barriers, sheltered from the ravages of the ocean. Do not forget, for they never forget, that a small, insidious, persevering reptile, may, unseen, bore through the loftiest and broadest mound. The water follows its path, silently and imperceptibly at first, but the rock itself is worn away by the continual attrition of a perpetually

running stream. A ravine, a breach, is made; and the ocean rushing in, flocks, and herds, and men, are swept away by the deluge. Pause, before you peril such a country; pause, before you place in jeopardy so much wealth, and life, and intellect, and loveliness. Those of us, whose sun is far in the West, may hope to be sheltered before the storm. Be not deceived. Sparsed and blanched as are our hairs, they may be defiled in the blood of our sons; and to you, who in the pride of manhood feel the warm blood flowing at your hearts, while you stand joyously in the blooming circle of household loveliness, the day may come, unless the all-merciful God pours into the bosom of this nation the hallowed and healing spirit of mutual confidence and mutual conciliation-to you the tremendous day may come, when you shall sigh for the sad consolation of him, who, before that hour, shall have sheltered his very last daughter in the sanctuary of the tomb. Do not understand me as I do not mean to be understood. Those who would avert the events of that catastrophe do not stand here in mercy, or to menace, or to deprecate. They stand here amidst all the muniments of the Constitution. They will not desert the ship, leave her who may; they will perform the voyage, and to the very letter, and in the full spirit of all and singular the shipping articles; and they, too, will, by the blessing of God, perform it without fear— prosperously, as they trust, and with triumphant success.

W

A REBUKE TO JOHN RANDOLPH.

[From a Speech on the Tariff. U. S. H. of R. 1828.]

HENCE all this abuse of New England, this misrepresentation of the North and the West? It is, sir, because they, and all the patriots in the nation, would pursue a policy calculated to secure and perpetuate the national independence of Great Britain. It is because they are opposed by another policy, which, by its entire, and by every part of its operation, will inevitably bring the American people into a condition of dependence on Great Britain, less profitable, and not more to our honor, than the condition of colonies. I cannot, I would not look into the secrets of men's hearts: but the nation will examine the nature and tendencies of the American and the anti-American systems; and they can understand the arguments offered in support of each plan of national policy; and they too can read, and will understand, the histories of all public men, and of those two systems of national policy. Do we, as it has been insinuated, support the American policy, in wrong, and for the injury and damage of old England? I do not; those

with whom I have the honor to act, do not pursue this course—No,

Who, sir, would wrong; who would reduce the wealth, the power of England? Who, without a glorious national pride, can look to that as to our mother country? It is the land of comfort, accommodation, and wealth; of science and literature; song, sentiment, heroic valor, and deep, various, political philosophy. Who is not proud that our fathers were the compeers of Wolfe; that Burke and Chatham spoke our mother tongue? Who does not look for the most prosperous eras of the world, when English blood shall warm the human bosom over the habitable breadth of every zone-when English literature shall come under the eye of the whole world-English intellectual wealth enrich every clime; and the manners, morals, and religion, of us and our parent country, spread civilization under the whole star-lighted heaven; and, in the very language of our deliberations, the hallowed voice of daily prayer shall arise to God, throughout every longitude of the sun's whole race.

I would follow the course of ordinary experience; render the child independent of the parent; and from the resources of his own industry, skill, and prudence, rich, influential, and powerful, among nations. Then, if the period of age and infirmity shall, as God send it may never, but if it shall come, then, sir, the venerated parent shall find shelter behind the strong right hand of her powerful descendant.

The policy of the gentleman from Virginia calls him to a course of legislation resulting in the entire destruction of one part of this Union. Oppress New England until she shall be compelled to remove her manufacturing labor and capital to the regions of iron, wool, and grain; and nearer to those of rice and cotton. Oppress New England until she shall be compelled to remove her commercial labor and capital to New York, Norfolk, Charleston, and Savannah. Finally oppress that proscribed region, until she shall be compelled to remove her agricultural labor and capital-her agricultural capital? No, she cannot remove that. Oppress and compel her, nevertheless, to remove her agricultural labor to the far-off West; and there people the savage valley, and cultivate the deep wilderness of the Oregon. She must, indeed, leave her agricultural capital; her peopled fields; her hills with culture carried to their tops; her broad, deep bays; her wide, transparent lakes, longwinding rivers, and populous water-falls; her delightful villages, flourishing towns, and wealthy cities. She must leave this land, bought by the treasure, subdued by the toil, defended by the valor of men, vigorous, athletic, and intrepid; men, godlike in all, making man resemble the moral image of his Maker; a land endeared, oh! how deeply endeared,