small ones, small, if we consider the number of men engaged, but large if we consider their distance and the serious complications they may cause. The war in Mexico has already cost us more than the Italian War, to say nothing of the complications it may entail. The war expenditure has, of course, been met by loans, and the public debt has consequently been considerably increased. (1865.)

Thurman, Allen G. (American, 1813-1895.)

Vested Rights and Sovereignty - It has been said that we have no right to destroy vested rights, and decisions have been read of courts in these very words, or words of similar import, where a reservation of right to amend, alter, or repeal a charter is involved, and the courts have said there is some limitation to this power. What limitation have they put upon it? That in the exercise of the power you must not destroy vested rights that have been created under the charter, nor impair the obligation of contracts that have been created under it. When the courts said you are not to destroy vested rights created under the charter, or im. pair an obligation of contracts created under it, did they mean that you are not to touch the contract between the government and the corporation itself, its charter? No, sir, nothing of the kind; there was no such idea as that. They never intended it. . . When a charter is passed and contains this reserved right to alter, amend, or repeal, and the company accepts the charter with that reservation in it, it is an assent beforehand on the part of the company that the government may exercise that right, although in so doing it does alter the charter or does modify it, so long at least as the general objects of the charter are observed.—(1877.)

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Tooke, John Horne (England, 1736-1812.)

"What Is the Best Government? »— I have been more concerned in my room than I have with the commerce of men in the world; and I read there when I was very young that when Solon was asked which was the best government, he answered: "Where those who are not personally injured, resent and pursue the injury or violence done to another, as he would if done to himself." That, he said, was the best kind of government; and he made a law empowering men to do so. Now, gentlemen, we are happier, we are under a better government; for our laws enjoin us to do what he only empowered men to do. By our laws the whole neighborhood is answerable for the conduct of each; our laws make it each man's duty and interest to watch over the conduct of all. This principle and motive has been represented in me as malice. It is the only malice they will ever find about me.-(At his trial for libel. 1777.) Toombs, Robert (American, 1810-1885.)

The Sword as a Title to Territory-Our next and last acquisition was California and New Mexico. They are the fruits of successful We have borne our full share of its burdens, we demand an equal participation in its

war.

benefits. The rights of the South are consecrated by the blood of her children. The sword is the title by which the nation acquired the country. The thought is suggestive; wise men will ponder upon it, brave men will act upon it. I foresaw the dangers of this question; I warned the country of these dangers. From the day that the first gun was fired upon the Rio Grande, until the act was consummated by all the departments of this government, I resisted all acquisitions of territory. My honorable colleague before me [Mr. Stephens] and myself, standing upon the ground taken by the Republican party in 1796 against Jay's Treaty, voted against appropriating the money to carry out the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. We had no support from the South, and but half a dozen votes from the North. I saw no good prospect of adjusting fairly the question which the acquisition would present. I therefore resisted a policy which threatened the ruin of the South or the subversion of the government. And to-day, men of the North, these are the alternatives you present us. We demand an equal participation in the whole country acquired, or a division of it between the North and the South. (1850.)

Tyler, John (American, 1790-1862.)

The Flag of Yorktown-I regard union, next to freedom, as the greatest of blessings. Yes, sir, "the Federal Union must be preserved." But how? Will you seek to preserve it by force? Will you appease the angry spirit of discord by an oblation of blood? Suppose that the proud and haughty spirit of South Carolina shall not bend to your high edicts in token of fealty? that you make war upon her, hang her governor, her legislators, and judges, as traitors, and reduce her to the condition of a conquered province, have you preserved the Union? This Union consists of twenty-four States; would you have preserved the Union by striking out one of the States,- one of the old thirteen? Gentlemen have boasted of the flag of our country with its thirteen stars. When the light of one of these stars shall have been extinguished, will the flag wave over us under which our fathers fought? If we are to go on striking out star after star, what will finally remain but a central and a burning sun, blighting and destroying every germ of liberty? The flag which I wish to wave over me is that which floated in triumph at Saratoga and Yorktown. It bore upon it thirteen States, of which South Carolina was one. Sir, there is a great difference between preserving union and preserving government: the Union may be annihilated, yet government preserved; but under such a government no man ought to desire to live.-(From the debate in the U. S. Senate on the Revenue Collection Bill of 1833.)

Tyndall, John (England, 1820-1893.)

America's Most Difficult Problem - De Tocqueville evidently doubts the capacity of a democracy to foster genius as it was fostered in the ancient aristocracies. "The future," he

says,

"will prove whether the passion for profound knowledge, so rare and so fruitful, can be born and developed so readily in democratic societies as in aristocracies. As for me," he continues, "I can hardly believe it." He speaks of the unquiet feverishness of democratic communities, not in times of great excitement, for such times may give an extraordinary impetus to ideas, but in times of peace. "There is, then," he says, "a small and uncomfortable agitation, a sort of incessant attrition of man against man, which troubles and distracts the mind without imparting to it either animation or elevation." It rests with you to prove whether these things are necessarily so,-whether the highest scientific genius cannot find in the midst of you a tranquil home. I should be loath to gainsay so keen an observer and so profound a political writer, but, since my arrival in this country, I have been unable to see anything in the constitution of society to prevent a student with the root of the matter in him from bestowing the most steadfast devotion on pure science. If great scientific results are not achieved in America, it is not to the small agitations of society that I should be disposed to ascribe the defect, but to the fact that the men among you who possess the endowments necessary for scientific inquiry are laden with duties of administration or tuition so heavy as to be utterly incompatible with the continuous and tranquil meditation which original investigation demands. It may well be asked whether Henry would have been transformed into an administrator, or whether Draper would have forsaken science to write history, if the original investigator had been honored as he ought to be in this land. I hardly think they would. Still I do not think this state of things likely to last. In America there is a willingness on the part of individuals to devote their fortunes, in the matter of education, to the service of the commonwealth, which is without a parallel elsewhere; and this willingness requires but wise direction to enable you effectually to wipe away the reproach of De Tocqueville.

Your most difficult problem will be not to build institutions, but to make men; not to form the body, but to find the spiritual embers which shall kindle within that body a living soul.-(1873.)

Uhlman, D.

(American, Contemporaneous.) The Sovereignty of Individual Manhood -The great truth which was promulgated by the Declaration of Independence, and established by the War of the Revolution, and made the distinguishing characteristic of our nationality, was that all legitimate power resides in, and is derived from, the people. This sublime truth, to us so self-evident, so simple, so obvious, was before that time measurably undeveloped in the history of the world. Philosophers, in their dreams, had built ideal governments; Plato had luxuriated in the happiness of his fanciful republic; Sir Thomas More had reveled in the bright visions of his "Utopia »; the immor

tal Milton had uttered his sublime views on freedom; and the great Locke had published his profound speculations on the true principles of government; but never, until the establishment of American independence, was it, except in very imperfect modes, acknowledged by a nation, and made the corner stone and foundation of its government, that the sovereign power is vested in the mass. - (From a speech in 1855.)

Vallandigham, Clement L. (American, 18201871.)

What Will Preserve the Union - Devoted as I am to the Union, I have yet no eulogies to Its pronounce upon it to-day. It needs none. highest eulogy is the history of this country for the last seventy years. The triumphs of war and the arts of peace,-science; civilization; wealth; population; commerce; trade; manufacture; literature; education; justice; tranquillity; security to life, to person, to property; material happiness; common defense; national renown; all that is implied in the "blessings of liberty"; these, and more, have been its fruits from the beginning to this hour. These have enshrined it in the hearts of the people; and, before God, I believe they will restore and preit. (House of Representatives, 1861. From the "World's Best Orations.»

serve

"Money, Money, Sir, Was at the Bottom »— For a good many years parties were organized upon questions of finance or of political economy. Upon the subjects of a permanent public debt, a national bank, the public deposits, a protective tariff, internal improvements, the disposition of the public lands, and other questions of a similar character, all of them looking to the special interests of the moneyed classes, parties were for a long while divided. The different kinds of capitalists sometimes also disagreed among themselves,-the manufacturers with the commercial men of the country; and in this manner party issues were occasionally made up. But the great dividing line at last was always between capital and labor,-between the few who had money and who wanted to use the government to increase and "protect it, as the phrase goes, and the many who had little but wanted to keep it, and who only asked government to let them alone. Money, money, sir, was at the bottom of the political contests of the times; and nothing so curiously demonstrates the immense power of money as the fact that in a country where there is no entailment of estates, no law of primogeniture, no means of keeping up vast accumulations of wealth in particular families, no exclusive privileges, and where universal suffrage prevails, these contests should have continued, with various fortune, for full half a century.-(1861.) Van Buren, Martin (American, 1782-1862.)

"Expansion » Before the Mexican and Civil Wars-Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory, the multiplication of States, and the increase of population. system was supposed to be adapted only to

Our

boundaries comparatively narrow. These have been widened beyond conjecture; "the members of our Confederacy are already doubled; and the numbers of our people are incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of danger have long surpassed anticipation, but none of the consequences have followed. The power

and influence of the republic has risen to a height obvious to all mankind; respect for its authority was not more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present limits; new and inexhaustible sources of general prosperity have been opened; the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive genius of our people, developed and fostered by the spirit of our institutions, and the enlarged variety and amount of interests, productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain of mutual dependence, and formed a circle of mutual benefits too apparent ever to be overlooked. - (From his first annual message, 1837.)

Vane, Sir Henry (England, 1612-1662.)

Repudiating the Cromwells as a Dynasty -Mr. Speaker, among all the people of the universe, I know none who have shown so much zeal for the liberty of their country as the English at this time have done;-they have, by the help of Divine Providence, overcome all obstacles, and have made themselves free. We have driven away the hereditary tyranny of the House of Stuart, at the expense of much blood and treasure, in hopes of enjoying hereditary liberty, after having shaken off the yoke of kingship; and there is not a man among us who could have imagined that any person would be so bold as to dare to attempt the ravishing from us that freedom which cost us so much blood and so much labor. But so it happens, I know not by what misfortune, we are fallen into the error of those who poisoned the Emperor Titus to make room for Domitian; who made away Augustus that they might have Tiberius; and changed Claudius for Nero. I am sensible these examples are foreign from my subject, since the Romans in those days were buried in lewdness and luxury, whereas the people of England are now renowned all over the world for their great virtue and discipline; and yet,-suffer an idiot, without courage, without sense,-nay, without ambition, to have dominion in a country of liberty! One could bear a little with Oliver Cromwell, though, contrary to his oath of fidelity to the Parliament, contrary to his duty to the public, contrary to the respect he owed that venerable body from whom he received his authority, he usurped the government. His merit was so extraordinary, that our judgments, our passions, might be blinded by it. He made his way to empire by the most illustrious actions; he had under his command an army that had made him a conqueror, and a people that had made him their general. But, as for Richard Cromwell, his son, who is he? what are his titles? We have seen that he had a sword by his side; but did he ever draw it? And what is of more importance in this case, is he fit to get obedience

from a mighty nation, who could never make a footman obey him? Yet, we must recognize this man as our king, under the style of protector!a man without birth, without courage, without conduct! For my part, I declare, sir, it shall never be said that I made such a man my master!-(Complete. British Parliament. 1659.)

"I Have Otherwise Learned Christ»-No, my lords, I have otherwise learned Christ, than to fear them that can but kill the body, and have no more that they can do. I have also taken notice, in the little reading that I have had of history, how glorious the very heathen have rendered their names to posterity in the contempt they have showed of death, when the laying down of their lives has appeared to be their duty,-from the love which they have owed to their country.

Two remarkable examples of this give me leave to mention to you upon this occasion. The one is of Socrates, the divine philosopher, who was brought into question before a judgment seat, as now I am, for maintaining that there was but one only true God, against the multiplicity of the superstitious heathen gods; and he was so little in love with his own life upon this account, wherein he knew the right was on his side, that he could not be persuaded by his friends to make any defense, but would choose rather to put it upon the conscience and determination of his judges, to decide that wherein he knew not how to make any choice of his own as to what would be best for him, whether to live or to die; he ingenuously professing that for aught he knew it might be much to his prejudice and loss to endeavor longer continuance in this bodily life.

The other example is that of a chief governor, Codrus, that, to my best remembrance, had the command of a city in Greece, which was besieged by a potent enemy, and brought into unimaginable straits. Hereupon the said governor made his address to the Oracle to know the event of that danger. The answer was: "That the city should be safely preserved if the chief governor were slain by the enemy. » He understanding this, immediately disguised himself and went into the enemy's camp, amongst whom he did so comport himself that they unwittingly put him to death; by which means, immediately, safety and deliverance arose to the city as the Oracle had declared. So little was his life in esteem with him when the good and safety of his country required the laying down of it. (At his trial for high treason. 1662.)

Vergniaud, Pierre Victurnien (France, 17531793.)

"Then I Am a Moderate"-I know that liberty is ever as active as a blazing flame,that it is irreconcilable with the inertia that is fit only for slaves! Had we tried but to feed that sacred fire which burns in my heart as ardently as in that of the men who talk incessantly about "the impetuosity" of their character, such great dissensions would never have arisen

Vergniaud, Pierre Victurnien - Continued in this Assembly. I know that in revolutionary times it was as great a folly to pretend the ability to calm on the spur of the moment the effervescence of the people as it would be to command the waves of the ocean when they are beaten by the wind. Thus it behooves the lawmaker to prevent as much as he can the storm's disaster by wise counsel. But if under the pretext of revolution it become necessary, in order to be a patriot, to become the declared protector of murder and of robbery, — then I am a "Moderate » !—(Replying to Robespierre. 1793.)

"Upright Men Hide Themselves » - Upright men hide themselves when the conditions have been reached under which crime may be committed with impunity. There are men, on the contrary, who only show themselves during public calamities, like some noxious insects which the earth produces only during storms. These men constantly spread suspicions, distrust, jealousies, hates, revenges. They thirst for blood. In their seditious insinuations they accuse of "aristocracy » virtue itself, in order to acquire the right to trample it under foot. They make crime a part of their democracy that they may democratize crime, gorge themselves with its fruits without having to fear the sword of justice. — (1792.)

Vest, George Graham (American, 1836-.)

Imperialism Old and New-Sir, we are told that this country can do anything, Constitution or no Constitution. We are a great people,great in war, great in peace, but we are not greater than the people who once conquered the world, not with long-range guns and steel-clad ships, but with the short sword of the Roman legion and the wooden galleys that sailed across the Adriatic. The colonial system destroyed all hope of republicanism in the olden time. It is an appanage of monarchy. It can exist in no free country, because it uproots and eliminates the basis of all republican institutions,- that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

I know not what may be be done with the glamor of foreign conquest and the greed of the commercial and money-making classes in this country. For myself, I would rather quit public life and would be willing to risk life itself rather than give my consent to this fantastic and wicked attempt to revolutionize our government and substitute the principles of our hereditary enemies for the teachings of Washington and his associates.-(From a speech in the U. S. Senate, December 12th, 1898.)

where Pericles could bring only tributary lamentations and tears. If, with the Roman orator, he commemorates the warrior fallen on the field of battle, he gives to the soul of the departed that immortality which Cicero dared promise only to his renown, and charges Deity itself with the acquittal of a country's gratitude.

Vinet, Alexander (Switzerland, 1797-1847.)

The Meaning of Religion-What is religion? It is God putting himself in communication with man; the Creator with the creature, the Infinite with the finite. There, already, without going further, is a mystery; a mystery common to all religions, impenetrable in all, religions. If, then, everything which is a mystery offends you, you are arrested on the threshold, I will not say of Christianity, but of every religion; I say, even of that religion which is called natural, because it rejects revelation and miracles; for it necessarily implies, at the very least, a connection, a communication of some sort between God and man, the contrary being equivalent to atheism. Your claim prevents you from having any belief; and because you have not been willing to be Christians, it will not allow you to be Deists. - (From a sermon on I. Corinthians, xi. 9.) Voorhees, Daniel W. (American, 1827-1897.)

"We Are Entering upon a New Century »— We are entering upon a new century. Portions of the last century were full of glory. The closing years of our last century, however, have had tears and blood commingled, sorrow and gloom. The cypress of mourning has been in thousands of households, but with the coming of this new century there comes a new dispensation, the dawn of a revelation of glory such as shall eclipse the past years of the century that has gone by. There is no reason why we should not thus adjust our differences, if differences we have; and standing, as I do, one of the representatives of the great Mississippi Valley, we appeal to the people of the far East. We say to them: "What is for your prosperity is likewise for ours." You all rest upon the prosperity of the agricultural interests of the mighty Mississippi Valley. The foundation of commercial glory and greatness is the farmer's plow and the sickle and the rich harvest. We freight your ships, we make your cities prosper. You, in turn, benefit us in a thousand ways. We interlace and interchange and bind our interests together, when we properly consider it.-(In the "Tilden Convention," St. Louis, 1876.)

Walpole, Sir Robert (England, 1676-1745.)

Patriotism-Gentlemen have talked a great deal about patriotism. A venerable word, when duly practiced! But I am sorry to say that of late it has been so much hackneyed about that it is in danger of falling into disgrace. The very idea of true patriotism is lost; and the term has been prostituted to the very worst of purposes. A patriot, sir!-Why, patriots spring up like mushrooms! I could raise fifty of them within the four-and-twenty hours. I have raised many of them in one night. It is but refusing to gratify

an unreasonable or an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot. I have never been afraid of making patriots; but I disdain and despise all their efforts. This pretended virtue proceeds from personal malice, and from disappointed ambition. There is not a man amongst them whose particular aim I am not able to ascertain, and from what motive he has entered into the lists of opposition!

Warren, Joseph (American, 1741-1775.)

"The Fatal Fifth of March» - The ruinous consequences of standing armies to free communities may be seen in the histories of Syracuse, Rome, and many other once flourishing states, some of which have now scarce a name! Their baneful influence is most suddenly felt when they are placed in populous cities; for, by a corruption of morals, the public happiness is immediately affected! and that this is one of the effects of quartering troops in a populous city is a truth to which many a mourning parent, many a lost despairing child in this metropolis must bear a very melancholy testimony. Soldiers are also taught to consider arms as the only arbiters by which every dispute is to be decided between contending states; they are instructed implicitly to obey their commanders, without inquiring into the justice of the cause they are engaged to support; hence it is that they are ever to be dreaded as the ready engines of tyranny and oppression. And it is too observable that they are prone to introduce the same mode of decision in the disputes of individuals, and from thence have often arisen great animosities between them and the inhabitants, who, whilst in a naked, defenseless state, are frequently insulted and abused by an armed soldiery. And this will be more especially the case when the troops are informed that the intention of their being stationed in any city is to overawe the inhabitants. That this was the avowed design of stationing an armed force in this town is sufficiently known; and we, my fellow-citizens, have seen, we have felt, the tragical effects! The fatal fifth of March, 1770, can never be forgotten. The horrors of that dreadful night are but too deeply impressed on our hearts. Language is too feeble to paint the emotion of our souls, when our streets were stained with the blood of our brethren, -when our ears were wounded by the groans of the dying, and our eyes were tormented with the sight of the mangled bodies of the dead. When our alarmed imagination presented to our view our houses wrapped in flames, our children subjected to the barbarous caprice of the raging soldiery,—our beauteous virgins exposed to all the insolence of unbridled passion, -our virtuous wives, endeared to us by every tender tie, falling a sacrifice to worse than brutal violence, and perhaps like the famed Lucretia, distracted with anguish and despair, ending their wretched lives by their own fair hands. When we beheld the authors of our distress parading in our streets,

or drawn up in a regular battalia, as though in a hostile city, our hearts beat to arms; we snatched our weapons, almost resolved by one decisive stroke to avenge the death of our slaughtered brethren and to secure from future danger all that we held most dear; but propitious Heaven forbade the bloody carnage and saved the threatened victims of our too keen resentment, not by their discipline, not by their regular array,-no, it was royal George's livery that proved their shield, - it was that which turned the pointed engines of destruction from their breasts. The thoughts of vengeance were soon buried in our inbred affection to Great Britain, and calm reason dictated a method of removing the troops more mild than an immediate recourse to the sword. With united efforts you urged the immediate departure of the troops from the town; you urged it with a resolution which insured success; you obtained your wishes, and the removal of the troops was effected without one drop of their blood being shed by the inhabitants. (From the oration on the Boston Massacre. 1772.)

"An Injury to One the Concern of All» — That man is formed for social life is an observation which, upon our first inquiry, presents itself immediately to our view, and our reason approves that wise and generous principle which actuated the first founders of civil government; an institution which hath its origin in the weakness of individuals, and hath for its end the strength and security of all; and so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly known, and religiously attended to, government is one of the richest blessings to mankind, and ought to be held in the highest veneration.

In young and new-formed communities the grand design of this institution is most generally understood and the most strictly regarded; the motives which urged to the social compact cannot be at once forgotten, and that equality which is remembered to have subsisted so lately among them prevents those who are clothed with authority from attempting to invade the freedom of their brethren; or, if such an attempt be made, it prevents the community from suffering the offender to go unpunished; every member feels it to be his interest and knows it to be his duty to preserve inviolate the constitution on which the public safety depends, and he is equally ready to assist the magistrate in the execution of the laws and the subject in defense of his right; and so long as this noble attachment to a constitution, founded on free and benevolent principles, exists in full vigor, in any state, that state must be flourishing and happy.—(1772.) Washington, George (American, 1732-1799.)

"The Great Rule of Conduct in Regard to Foreign Nations »— -The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let