the eye of immortal WASHINGTON lightens along their embattled ranks. Approach these hallowed shores, ye butchers, who have slaughtered half Europe-you will find every defile a THERMOPYLE, and every p.ain a MARATHON! We already behold our fleet whitening the clouds with its canvass, and sweeping the ocean with its thunder. The Gallic flag drops to American valor, and our intrepid sailors sing victory in the midst of the tempest. Fellow-citizens, it is not by tribute, it is not by submission-it is by resolution, it is by courage, that we are to save our country. Let our efforts and our wisdom concentrate in the common cause, and show to the world, that we are worthy that freedom which was won by the valor and blood of our fathers. Let our government, our religion and our liberty, fostered by our care, and protected by our exertions, descend through the long range of succeeding ages, till all the pride and presumption of human arrangements, shall bow to the empire of universal love, and the glory of all sublunary grandeur be forever extinguished.

XLIV. DEMOCRACY.

DEMOCRATIC REVIEW.

DEMOCRACY must finally triumph in human reason, because its foundations are deep in the human heart. The great mass, whose souls are bound by a strong fraternal sympathy, once relieved from ancient prejudices, will stand forth as its moveless champions. It fastens the affections of men, as the shield of their present liberties and the ground of their future hopes. They perceive in it a saving faith, a redeeming truth, a regulating power. It is the only creed which does justice to man, or that can bind the entire race in chains of brotherhood and love. Nothing sinks so deep into the hearts of the multitude, for nothing else is so identified with their moral and social good. Though the high and mighty of the earth may deride its simple truths, these are willing to die in their defence. Those truths are blended too closely with all for which it is worthy to live and glorious to perish, to be relinquished without a struggle or a pang. They are too firmly allied to the imperishable hopes, the deathless

aspirations, the onward triumphant march of humanity, ever to be deserted. The fortunes of individuals may changeempires be born and blotted out-kings rise and fall-wealth, honor, distinction, fade as the dying pageant of a dream—but · Democracy must live. While man lasts, it must live. Its origin is among the necessary relations of things, and it can only cease to be when eternal truth is no more.

Democracy, in its true sense, is the last best revelation of human thought-I speak, of course, of that true and genuine Democracy which breathes the air and lives in the light of Christianity-whose essence is justice, and whose object is human progress. I have no sympathy with much that usurps the name, like that fierce and turbulent spirit of ancient Greece, which was only the monstrous misgrowth of faction and fraud, or that Democracy whose only distinction is the slave-like observance of party usages-the dumb repetition of party creeds; and still less for that wild, reckless spirit of mobism which triumphs with remorseless and fiendish exultation, over all lawful authority, all constituted restraint. The object of our worship is far different from these; the offering is made to a spirit which asserts a virtuous freedom of act and thought-which insists on the rights of men-demands the equal diffusion of every social advantage, asks the impartial participation of every gift of God— sympathises with the down-trodden-rejoices in their elevation and proclaims to the world the sovereignty, not of the people barely, but of immutable justice and truth.

No other doctrine exerts a mightier power over the weal or woe of the whole human race. In times which are gone, it has been the moving spring of revolutions—has aroused the ferocious energies of oppressed nations-has sounded into the ears of despots and dynasties the fearful moanings of coming storms—has crimsoned fields of blood-has numbered troops of martyrs—has accelerated the downfall of emperors -has moved the foundations of mighty thrones. Even now millions of imprisoned spirits await its march with anxious solicitude and hope. It must go forth, like a bright angel of God, to unbar the prison door, to succor the needy, heal the sick, relieve the distressed, and pour a flood of light and love into the darkened intellects and dreary hearts of the sons of

men.

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XLV.-OBLIGATION OF TREATIES.

FISHER AMES.

WILL any man affirm, the American nation is engaged by good faith to the British nation; but this engagement is nothing to this House! Such a man is not to be reasoned with-such a doctrine is a coat of mail, that would turn the edge of all the weapons of argument, if they were sharper than a sword. Will it be imagined the King of Great Britain and the President are mutually bound by the treaty; but the two nations are free?

This, sir, is a cause that would be dishonored and betrayed if I contented myself with appealing only to the understanding. It is too cold, and its processes are too slow for the occasion. I desire to thank God, that, since he has given me an intellect so fallible, he has impressed upon me an instinct that is sure. On a question of shame and honor, reasoning is sometimes useless, and vain. I feel the decision in my pulse if it throws no light upon the brain, it kindles a fire at the heart. It is not easy to deny, it is impossible to doubt, that a treaty imposes an obligation on the American nation. It would be childish to consider the President and Senate obliged, and the nation and House free. What is the obligation? perfect or imperfect? If perfect, the debate is brought to a conclusion. If imperfect, how large a part of our faith is pawned? Is half our honor put at risk, and is that half too cheap to be redeemed? How long has this hair-splitting subdivision of good faith been discovered, and why has it escaped the researches of writers on the law of nations? Should we add a new chapter to that law; or insert this doctrine as a supplement to, or more properly a repeal of the ten commandments?

It is painful, I hope it is superfluous, to make even the supposition, that America should furnish the occasion of this opprobrium. No, let me not even imagine, that a Republican government, sprung, as our own is, from a people enlightened and uncorrupted, a government whose origin is right, and whose daily discipline is duty, can, upon solemn debate, make its option to be faithless; can dare to act what despots dare not avow, what our own example evinces the States of Barbary are unsuspected of. No, let me rather make the supposition, that Great Britain refuses to execute the treaty,

after we have done everything to carry it into effect. Is there

any language of reproach commentary on the fact? what would you not say? ever an Englishman might

pungent enough to express your What would you say, or, rather, Would you not tell them, whertravel, shame would stick to him:

he would disown his country. You would exclaim, England, proud of your wealth, and arrogant in the possession of power, blush for these distinctions, which become the vehicles of your dishonor. Such a nation might truly say to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and sister. We should say of such a race of men, their name is a heavier burden than their debt.

XLVI. THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

I PROFESS, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our federal union. It is to that union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That union we reached only by the discipline of our virtue, in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proof of its utility and its blessings, and although our country has stretched out, wider and wider, and our population stretched farther and farther, they have not overturned its protection, or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. 1 have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, in my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him

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as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant, that on When my

my vision never may be opened what lies behind. eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured-bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as-What is all this worth? Nor those other words of delusion and folly-liberty first, and union afterwards-but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear to every true American heart-liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable!

XLVII-NO EXTENSION OF FREEDOM BY FORCE.

REVERDY JOHNSON.

SIR, our institutions are telling their own story by the blessings they impart to us, and indoctrinating the people everywhere with the principles of freedom upon which they are founded. Ancient prejudices are yielding to their mighty influence. Heretofore revered, and apparently permanent systems of government, are falling beneath it. Our glorious mother, free as she has ever comparatively been, is getting to be freer. It has blotted out the corruptions of her political