dence daily to their memory. We can not forget them, even if we had sufficient baseness to wish it. Every spot of New England earth has a story to tell of them; every cherished institution of New England society bears the print of their minds. The strongest element of New England character has been transmitted with their blood. So intense is our sense of affiliation with their nature, that we speak of them universally as our fathers." And though their fame every where else were weighed down with calumny and hatred, though the principles for which they contended, and the noble deeds they performed, should become the scoff of sycophants and oppressors, and be blackened by the smooth falsehoods of the selfish and the cold, there never will be wanting hearts in New England to kindle at their virtues, nor tongues and pens to vindicate their name.

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Ex. CLIII.-COMMERCE.

EDWARD EVERETT.

TRACE, for a moment, the history of commerce, from the earliest period. In the infancy of the world, its caravans, like gigantic silk-worms, went creeping through the arid wastes of Asia and Africa, and bound the human family together in those vast regions, as they bind it together now. Its colonial establishments scattered the Grecian culture all round the shores of the Mediterranean, and carried the adventurers of Tyre and Carthage to the North of Europe and the South of Africa. The walled cities of the middle ages prevented the arts and refinements of life from being trampled out of existence under the iron heel of the feudal powers. The Hanse towns were the bulwark of liberty and property in the North and West of Europe, for ages. The germ of the representative system sprang from the municipal franchises of the boroughs. At the revival of letters, the merchant princes of Florence received the fugitive arts of Greece into their stately palaces. The spirit of commercial adventure produced that movement in the fifteenth century which carried Columbus to America, and Vasco di Gama round the Cape of Good Hope. The deep foundations of the modern system of international law, were laid in the interests and rights of commerce, and the necessity of protecting them. Commerce sprinkled the treasures of the newly found Indies throughout the Western nations: it nerved the arm of civil and religious liberty in the Protestant world; it gradually carried the colonial system of Europe to the ends of the

earth, and with it the elements of future independent, civilized, republican governments.

But why should we dwell on the past? What is it that gives vigor to the civilization of the present day, but the world-wide extension of commercial intercourse, by which all the products of the earth and of the ocean, of the soil, the mine, of the loom, of the forge, of bounteous nature, creative art, and untiring industry,-are brought, by the agencies of commerce, into the universal market of demand and supply. No matter in what region, the desirable product is bestowed on man, by a liberal Providence, or fabricated by human skill. It may clothe the hills of China with its fragrant foliage; it may glitter in the golden sands of California; it may wallow in the depths of the Arctic seas; it may ripen and whiten in the fertile plains of the sunny South; it may spring forth from the flying shuttles of Manchester in England, or Manchester in America:—the great world-magnet of commerce attracts it all alike, and gathers it all up for the service of man. I do not speak of English commerce, or of American commerce. Such distinctions belittle our conceptions. I speak of commerce in the aggregate the great ebbing and flowing tides of the commercial world, the great gulf-streams of traffic, which flow round from hemisphere to hemisphere, the mighty trade-winds of commerce, which sweep from the old world to the new ;that vast aggregate system which embraces the whole family of man, and brings the overflowing treasures of nature and art into kindly relation with human want, convenience, and taste.

In carrying on this system, think, for a moment, of the stupendous agencies that are put in motion. Think, for a moment, of all the ships that navigate the sea. An old Latin poet, who knew no waters beyond those of the Mediterranean and Levant, says that the man must have had a triple casing of oak and brass about his bosom, who first trusted his frail bark on the raging sea. How many thousands of vessels, laden by commerce, are, at this moment, navigating, not the narrow seas frequented by the ancients, but those world-encompassing oceans. Think, next, of the mountains of brick, and stone, and iron, built up into the great commercial cities of the world; and of all the mighty works of ancient and modern contrivance and structure,--the moles, the lighthouses, the bridges, the canals, the roads, the railways, the depth of mines, the titanic force of enginery, the

delving plows, the scythes, the reapers, the looms, the electric telegraphs, the vehicles of all descriptions, which, directly or indirectly, are employed or put in motion by commerce,and last, and most important, the millions of human beings that conduct, and regulate, and combine these inanimate, organic, and mechanical forces.

And, now, is it any thing less than a liberal profession, which carries a quick intelligence, a prophetic forecast, an industry that never tires, and, more than all, and above all, a stainless probity beyond reproach and above suspicion, into this vast and complicated system, and, by the blessing of Providence, works out a prosperous result? Such is the vocation of the merchant,--the man of business,―pursued in many departments of foreign and domestic trade-of finance, of exchange,—but all comprehended under the general name of commerce;—all concerned in weaving the mighty network of mutually beneficial exchanges which enwraps the world.

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Ex. CLIV.-FREEDOM OF DISCUSSION.

W. C. PRESTON.

THE gentleman has referred to the contest to be fought between liberty and power; and I say, that if the contest did not originate here, it is made when we are not permitted to speak of the administration in terms that we believe to be true, without being denounced for it. The president of the United States certainly demands a degree of forbearance from his political opponents; but am I to be told that one can only allude to him in the humble language of a degraded Roman senate, speaking of the emperor with his prætorian guards surrounding the capitol? Am I to be told, when he came into power on principles of reform, after "keeping the word of promise to our ear, and breaking it to our hope,"-am I to be told that I must close my lips, or be denounced for want of decorum? Am I to be told, when he promised to prevent official influence from interfering with the freedom of elections, that I must not speak of the broken promise, under pain of the displeasure of his friends? Am I to be told, when he came into power as a judicious tariff man, after advocating his principles and aiding in his election,-believing at the time in his integrity, though I did not believe him possessed of intellectual qualifications,

-am I to be told, after pledges that have been violated, promises that have been broken, and principles that have been set at naught, that I must not speak of these things as they are, for fear of being denounced for want of courtesy to the constituted authorities? Why, to what pass are we come! Are we to be gagged-reduced to silence? If nothing else is left to us, the liberty of speech is left; and it is our duty to cry aloud and spare not, when the undenied, admitted, and declared fact before us is, that these pledges have been made, and have been violated. This administration is about to end; and if gentlemen can succeed in preventing us from complaining of being deceived, if they can reduce us to abject slavery, they will also have to expunge the history of the country, the president's written and recorded communications to congress, and the most ardent professions of his friends, when fighting -his battles, before they can conceal the recorded fact, that he has made pledges which he has violated, and promises which he has repeatedly broken. If they succeed in reducing us to slavery, and closing our lips against speaking of the abuses of this administration, thank God! the voice of history, trumpettongued, will proclaim these pledges, and the manner in which they have been violated, to future generations!

Neither here nor elsewhere will I use language, with regard to any gentleman, that may be considered indecorous; and the question not easily solved is, how far shall we restrain ourselves in expressing a just and necessary indignation; and whether the expression of such indignation may be considered a departure from courtesy. That indignation, that reprobation, I shall express on all occasions. But those who have taken upon themselves the guardianship of the Grand Lama, who is surrounded by a light which no one can approach,about whom no one is permitted to speak without censure,-have extended that guardianship to the presiding officer of this house. Gentlemen are not permitted to speak of the qualifications of that officer for the highest office in the government. Shall we, sir, because he is here as presiding officer of this body, keep silent when he is urged upon the people, who are goaded and driven to his support, lest we be guilty of an indecorum against those who are the constituted authorities of the country? Thank God, it is not my practice to "crook the pliant hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning!" This aggression of power upon our liberties, sir, and this tame submission to aggression, forbode evil to this nation. Coming events cast their shadows before them," deepening

and darkening; and, as the sun sets, the shadows lengthen. It may be the going down of the great luminary of the republic, and that we all shall be enveloped in one universal political darkness!

Ex. CLV.-LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED WITH THE AMERICAN CAPITOL.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

WITH each succeeding year, new interest is added to this spot. It becomes connected with all the historical associations of our country, with her statesmen and her orators; and, alas! its cemetery is annually enriched with the ashes of her chosen sons.

Before is the broad and beautiful river, separating two of the original thirteen states, and which a late president, a man of determined purpose and inflexible will, but patriotic heart, desired to span with arches of ever-enduring granite, symbolical of the firmly cemented union of the North and the South. That president was General Jackson.

On its banks repose the ashes of the Father of his Country; and at our side, by a singular felicity of position, overlooking the city which he designed, and which bears his name, rises to his memory the marble column, sublime in its simple grandeur, and fitly intended to reach a loftier height than any similar structure on the surface of the whole earth. Let the votive offering of his grateful countrymen be freely contributed to carry higher, and still higher, this monument. May I say, as on another occasion-"Let it rise! let it rise, till it shall meet the sun in his coming,-let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit."

Fellow-citizens,-What contemplations are awakened in .our minds, as we assemble here to re-enact a scene like that performed by Washington. Methinks I see his venerable form now before me, as presented in the glorious statue by Houdon, now in the capitol of Virginia. He is dignified and grave; but concern and anxiety seem to soften the lineaments of his countenance. The government over which he presides is yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free from troubles at home, he sees the world in commotion and arms, all around him. He sees that imposing foreign powers are