attach us to that country, powerful, indeed, must be the cause which has overpowered it. Yes, sir, there is a cause strong enough. Not that occult, courtly affection, which he has supposed to be enter5 tained for France; but it is to be found in continued and unprovoked insult and injury,-a cause so manifest, that the gentleman from Virginia had to exert much ingenuity to overlook it. But, sir, here I think the gentleman, in his eager admiration of that country, has not been suffi10 ciently guarded in his argument. Has he reflected on the cause of that admiration? Has he examined the reasons of our high regard for her Chatham? It is his ardent patriotism; the heroic courage of his mind, that could not brook the least insult or injury offered to his country, but 15 thought that her interest and honor ought to be vindicated, at every hazard and expense. I hope, when we are called on to admire, we shall also be asked to imitate. I hope the gentleman does not wish a monopoly of those great virtues to remain to that nation. 20 "The balance of power" has also been introduced as an argument for submission. England is said to be a barrier against the military despotism of France. There is, sir, one great error in our legislation. We are ready enough to protect the interests of the States, and it should seem, 25 from this argument, to watch over those of a foreign nation, while we grossly neglect our own immediate concerns. This argument of the balance of power, is well calculated for the British parliament, but not at all fitted to the American congress. Tell them, that they have to 30 contend with a mighty power, and that, if they persist in insult and injury to the American people, they will compel them to throw the whole weight of their force into the scale of their enemy. Paint the danger to them; and if they will desist from injury, we, I answer for it, will not 35 disturb the balance. But it is absurd for us to talk of the balance of power, while they, by their conduct, smile with contempt at our simple, good-natured policy. If, however, in the contest, it should be found, that they underrate us, which I hope and believe, and that we can effect the bal40 ance of power, it will not be difficult for us to obtain such terms as our rights demand. I, sir, will now conclude, by adverting to an argument of the gentleman from Virginia, used in debate on a preceding day. He asked, "Why not declare war immediate ly?" The answer is obvious; because we are not yet prepared. But, says the gentleman, “such language, as is here held, will provoke Great Britain to commence hostilities." I have no such fears. She knows well, that 5 such a course would unite all parties here; a thing, which, above all others, she most dreads. Besides, such has been our past conduct, that she will still calculate on our patience and submission, till war is actually commenced. LESSON CLXXXVII.-MILITARY INSUBORDINATION. HENRY CLAY. Mr. Chairman,-I trust that I shall be indulged with some few reflections upon the danger of permitting the conduct, on which it has been my painful duty to animadvert, to pass without a solemn expression of the disappro5 bation of this house. Recall to your recollection, sir, the free nations which have gone before us. Where are they now? "Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were, 10 And how have they lost their liberties? If we could transport ourselves back, sir, to the ages, when Greece and Rome flourished in their greatest prosperity, and, mingling in the throng, should ask a Grecian, if he did not fear that some daring military chieftain, covered with glory, some 15 Philip, or Alexander, would one day overthrow the liberties of his country,—the confident and indignant Grecian would exclaim, 'No! no! we have nothing to fear from our heroes; our liberties will be eternal.' If a Roman citizen had been asked, if he did not fear that the conqueror of 20 Gaul might establish a throne upon the ruins of public liberty, he would have instantly repelled the unjust insinuation. Yet Greece has fallen; Cæsar has passed the Rubicon; and the patriotic arm even of Brutus could not preserve the liberties of his devoted country. 25 Sir, we are fighting a great moral battle, for the benefit, not only of our country, but of all mankind. The eyes of the whole world are in fixed attention upon us. One, and the largest portion of it, is gazing with jealousy, and with envy; the other portion, with hope, with confidence, 30 and with affection. Everywhere, the black cloud of legitimacy, is suspended over the world, save only one bright spot, which breaks out from the political hemisphere of the west, to enlighten, and animate, and gladden, the human heart. Obscure that, by the downfall of liberty here, and all mankind are enshrouded in a pall of universal darkness. Beware, then, sir, how you give a fatal sanction, 5 in this infant period of our republic, to military insubordination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Cæsar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte; and, that if we would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid their errors. 10 I hope, sir, that gentlemen will deliberately survey the awful isthmus, on which we stand. They may bear down all opposition. They may even vote the general* the public thanks. They may carry him triumphantly through this house. But if they do, sir, in my humble judgment, 15 it will be a triumph of the principle of insubordination,a triumph of the military over the civil authority,-a triumph over the powers of this house, a triumph over the constitution of the land, and I pray, sir, most devoutly, that it may not prove, in its ultimate effects and conse20 quences, a triumph over the liberties of the people. LESSON CLXXXVIII.—LOSS OF NATIONAL CHARACTER.MAXCY. The loss of a firm national character, or the degradation of a nation's honor, is the inevitable prelude to her destruction. Behold the once proud fabric of a Roman empire,an empire carrying its arts and arms, into every part of 5 the eastern continent; the monarchs of mighty kingdoms, dragged at the wheels of her triumphal chariots; her eagle waving over the ruins of desolated countries. Where is her splendor, her wealth, her power, her glory? Extinguished for ever. Her mouldering temples, the mournful 10 vestiges of her former grandeur, afford a shelter to her muttering monks. Where are her statesmen, her sages, her philosophers, her orators, her generals? Go to their solitary tombs, and inquire. She lost her national character, and her destruction followed. The ramparts of her 15 national pride were broken down, and Vandalism desolated her classic fields. Citizens will lose their respect and confidence in our government, if it does not extend over them the shield of an honorable national character.. Corruption will creep in, 20 and sharpen party animosity. Ambitious leaders will seize upon the favorable moment. The mad enthusiasm for *General Jackson. 5 revolution, will call into action the irritated spirit of our nation, and civil war must follow. The swords of our countrymen may yet glitter on our mountains; their blood may yet crimson our plains. Such, the warning voice of all antiquity, the example of all republics proclaim,-may be our fate. But let us no longer indulge these gloomy anticipations. The commencement of our liberty, presages the dawn of a brighter period, to the world. That bold, enterprising spirit which 10 conducted our heroes to peace and safety, and gave us a lofty rank amid the empires of the world, still animates the bosoms of their descendants. Look back to that moment, when they unbarred the dungeons of the slave, and dashed his fetters to the earth; when the sword of a 15 Washington leaped from its scabbard, to revenge the slaughter of our countrymen. Place their example before you. Let the sparks of their veteran wisdom flash across your minds, and the sacred altars of your liberty, crowned with immortal honors, rise before you. Relying on the 20 virtue, the courage, the patriotism, and the strength of our country, we may expect our national character will become more energetic, our citizens more enlightened, and may hail the age, as not far distant, when will be heard, as the proudest exclamation of man: "I am an American." LESSON CLXXXIX.-LAFAYETTE AND NAPOLEON.- Of all the ancient nobility, who returned to France, Lafayette and the young Count de Vaudreuil, were the only individuals who refused the favors which Napoleon was eager to accord to them. Of all to whom the cross 5 of the legion of honor was tendered, Lafayette alone had the courage to decline it. Napoleon, either for want of true perception of moral greatness, or because the detestable servility of the mass of returning emigrants had taught him to think there was no such thing as honor or inde10 pendence in man, exclaimed, when they told him that Lafayette refused the decoration, "What, will nothing satisfy that man but the chief command of the National Guard of the empire ?"-Yes, much less abundantly satisfied him; the quiet possession of the poor remnants of 15 his estate, enjoyed without sacrificing his principles, From this life nothing could draw him. Mr. Jefferson offered him the place of governor of Louisiana, then just become a territory of the United States; but he was unwil ling, by leaving France, to take a step that would look like a final abandonment of the cause of constitutional liberty, 5 on the continent of Europe. Napoleon ceased to importune him; and he lived at Lagrange, retired and unmolested, the only man who had gone through the terrible revolution, with a character free from every just impeachment. He entered it with a princely fortune,-in the 10 various high offices which he had filled he had declined all compensation, and he came out poor. He entered it in the meridian of early manhood, with a frame of iron. He came out of it fifty years of age, his strength impaired by the cruelties of his long imprisonment. He had filled 15 the most powerful and responsible offices; and others still more powerful, the dictatorship itself, had been offered him; he was reduced to obscurity and private life. He entered the revolution with a host of ardent colleagues of the constitutional party. Of those who escaped the guil20 lotine, most had made peace with Napoleon; not a few of the Jacobins had taken his splendid bribes; the emigrating nobility came back in crowds, and put on his livery; fear, interest, weariness, amazement, and apathy reigned in France and in Europe;-kings, emperors, armies, nations, 25 bowed at his footstool;-and one man alone,-a private man, who had tasted power, and knew what he sacrificed; —who had inhabited dungeons, and knew what he risked; —who had done enough for liberty, in both worlds, to satisfy the utmost requisitions of her friends, this man alone 30 stood aloof in his honor, his independence, and his poverty. And if there is a man in this assembly, that would not rather have been Lafayette to refuse, than Napoleon to bestow his wretched gewgaws; that would not rather have been Lafayette in retirement and obscurity, and just not 35 proscribed, than Napoleon, with an emperor to hold his stirrup-if there is a man who would not have preferred the honest poverty of Lagrange to the bloody tinsel of St. Cloud; that would not rather have shared the peaceful fireside of the friend of Washington, than have spurred his 40 triumphant courser over the crushed and blackened heaps of slain, through the fire and carnage of Marengo and Austerlitz, that man has not an American heart in his bosom. |