THE CAPITOL OR THE CONSTITUTION.

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ness of the occasion, and show ourselves worthy of the extraordinary circumstances in which we are placed, by securing while we can an American road to India, central and national, for ourselves and our posterity, now and hereafter, for thousands of years to come.

T. H. BENTON.

XXII.-THE CAPITOL OR THE CONSTITUTION.

SIR, the senator from Massachusetts has expressed a preference for the constitution to the capitol of his country. He has dared to declare that he prized the magna charta* of American liberty -the sacred bond of our union, the tie which binds together twelve millions of freemen-above the stones and mortar which compose the crumbling mass within whose walls we are assembled. "The very head and front of his offending hath this extent; no more." Now, grant, sir, that in his judgment, as well as that of many here, the very existence of our liberties is involved in the surrender of the principle he contended for; grant that the concentration of legislative and executive power in the hands of a single man is the death-blow to the constitution, and that the senator was right in considering the proposed appropriation as establishing the very principle which gave that fatal blow; and who is he that, thus believing, would support that proposition because the guns of the enemy were battering at the walls of the capitol ?

Where, sir, is the coward—where is the traitor who would not rather see the capitol than the constitution of his country in ruins? or who would lend himself to the establishment of a despotism among us, with a view to save this building for the despot to revel in? Sir, in the days when Themis'to-clēs led the Athenians to victory at Sal'amis, he advised them to surrender their capitol for the preservation of the constitution of their country. That gallant people rose under the impulse of patriotism as one man, and with a stern resolution to yield life itself rather than abandon their liberties, and surrender the proud privilege of legislating for themselves to the delegate of a Persian despot, who offered them "all their own dominions, together with an accession of territory ample as their wishes, upon the single condition that they should receive law and suffer him to preside in Greece.” At that eventful period of their history, Crys'ilus alone proposed the surrender of their constitution to save the capitol; and they stoned him to death. The public indignation

Pronounced mag'na kar'ta.

was not yet satisfied; for the Athenian matrons then rose and inflicted the same punishment on his wife. Leaving their capitol and their noble city, rich as it was in the productions of every art, and glittering all over with the proudest trophies and the most splendid temples in the world; deserting, in the cause of free government, the very land that gave them birth, they embarked on board their ships, and fought that battle, the name of which has made the bosoms of freemen to thrill with sympathy in all succeeding ages, and shall cause the patriot's heart to beat higher with emotion through countless ages to come.

JOHN M. CLAYTON.

XXIII. - PEACEABLE SECESSION IMPOSSIBLE.

MR. PRESIDENT, I should much prefer to have heard from every member on this floor declarations of opinion that this Union could never be dissolved, than the declaration of opinion by any body that, in any case, under the pressure of any circumstances, such a dissolution was possible. I hear with distress and anguish. the word "secession," especially when it falls from the lips of those who are patriotic, and known to the country, and known all over the world for their political services.

Secession! Peaceable secession! are never destined to see that miracle.

Sir, your eyes and mine
The dismemberment of

this vast country without convulsion! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish-I beg everybody's pardon-as to expect to see any such thing?

Sir, he who sees these States now revolving in harmony around a common center, and expects to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres, and jostle against each other in the realms of space, without causing the crush of the universe. There can be no such thing as a peaceable secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is the great constitution under which we live, covering this whole country, is it to be thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows on the mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun, disappear almost unobserved, and run off? No, sir! No, sir! I will not state what might produce the disruption of the Union; but, sir, I see as plainly as I see the sun in heaven, what that disruption itself must produce; I see that it must produce war, and such a war as I will not describe, in its two-fold character. Daniel

WEBSTER

PERMANENCY OF STATES.

XXIV. — PERMANENCY OF STATES.

183

MR. PRESIDENT, it has always seemed to me to be a grateful reflection, that, however short and transient may be the lives of individuals, States may be permanent. The great corporations that embrace the government of mankind, protect their liberties, and secure their happiness, may have something of perpetuity, and, as I might say, of earthly immortality. For my part, sir, I gratify myself by contemplating what in the future will be the condition of that generous State which has done me the honor to keep me in the counsels of the country for so many years. I see nothing about her in prospect less than that which encircles her now. I feel that when I and all those that now hear me shall have gone to our last home, and afterwards, when mould may have gathered upon our memories, as it will have done upon our tombs, that State, so early to take her part in the great contest of the Revolution, will stand, as she has stood and now stands, like that column which, near her capital, perpetuates the memory of the first great battle of the Revolution, firm, erect, and immovable.

I believe, sir, that if commotion shall shake the country, there will be one rock for ever, as solid as the granite of her hills, for the Union to repose upon. I believe that, if disasters arise, bringing clouds which shall obscure the ensign now over her and over us, there will be one star that will but burn the brighter amid the darkness of that night; and I believe that, if in the remotest ages (I trust they will be infinitely remote!) an occasion shall occur when the sternest duties of patriotism are demanded and to be performed, Massachusetts will imitate her own example; and that, as at the breaking out of the Revolution she was the first to offer the outpouring of her blood and her treasure in the struggle for liberty, so she will be hereafter ready, when the emergency arises, to repeat and renew that offer, with a thousand times as many warm hearts, and a thousand times as many strong hands!

XXV. - LIBERTY OF SPEECH.

IB.

IMPORTANT, sir, as I deem it to discuss, on all proper occasions, the policy of the measures at present pursued, it is still more important to maintain the right of such discussion in its full and just extent. Sentiments lately sprung up, and now growing fashionable, make it necessary to be explicit on this point. The more I perceive a disposition to check the freedom

of inquiry by extravagant and unconstitutional pretenses, the firmer shall be the tone in which I shall assert, and the freer the manner in which I shall exercise it.

It is the ancient and undoubted prerogative of this people to canvass public measures, and the merits of public men. It is a "home-bred right," a fireside privilege. It hath ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin, in the nation. It is not to be drawn into controversy. It is as undoubted as the right of breathing the air, or walking on the earth. Belonging to private life as a right, it belongs to public life as a duty; and it is the last duty which those whose representative I am shall find me to abandon. Aiming at all times to be courteous and temperate in its use, except when the right itself shall be questioned, I shall then carry it to its extent. I shall place myself on the extreme boundary of my right, and bid defiance to any arm that would move me from my ground.

This high, constitutional privilege I shall defend and exercise within this house, and without this house, and in all places; in time of peace, and in all times. Living, I shall assert it; and, should I leave no other inheritance to my children, by the blessing of God I will leave them the inheritance of free principles, and the example of a manly, independent, and constitutional defense of them.

XXVI. SECRET AND PROSCRIPTIVE SOCIETIES.

IB.

I AM not allowed, sir, to reach the merits of the question before the Senate without alluding to the body of men who bear the name of "Know Nothings." They are said to have contrived their disguise with so much ingenuity that even a person who is not a novitiate can not disclaim a knowledge of their ceremonies and principles, without implying his communion and membership with them. Nevertheless, sir, I must be permitted to deny all connection with this new order. I am under no responsibility for its doings, and I have not the least sympathy with its principles or sentiments.

I belong to one voluntary association of men; one which has to do with spiritual affairs—it is a branch of the Christian church. That association is an open one; it performs all its rites and gives all its instructions with publicity; it invites every man to come in and partake of its privileges.

I belong to one temporal society of men, and that is the political party which embodies most fully and truly, according to my notions, though, I confess, very inadequately, the principles of

POLICY OF ROADS.

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the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States. This also is an open association. All its transactions are conducted in broad daylight; and it invites all citizens to coöperate with it in maintaining good government and advancing the cause of human nature.

These two are the only voluntary associations to which I nów belong, or ever have belonged, since I became a man; and, unless I am bereft of reason, they are the only associations of men to which I shall ever suffer myself to belong.

Secret societies, sir? Before I would place my hand between the hands of other men in a secret Lodge, Order, Class, or Council, and, bending my knee before them, enter into combination with them for any object, personal or political, good or bad, I would pray to God that that hand and that knee might be paralyzed, and that I might become an object of the pity, and even of the mockery, of my fellow-men. Swear, sir?-I, a man, an American citizen, a Christian, swear to submit myself to the guidance and direction of other men, surrendering my own judgment to their judgment, and my own conscience to their keeping? No, sir, no!

Proscribe a man, sir, because he was not born in the same town, or county, or state, or country, in which I was born? Why, sir, I do most earnestly and affectionately advise all persons, hereafter to be born, that they be born in the United States; and, if they can, without inconvenience, to be born in the State of New York, and thus avoid a great deal of trouble for themselves and for others. Mr. President, you now know the length and the breadth of my connection with the new and mysterious Order of patriots, the Know Nothings!

W. H. SEWARD.

XXVII.-POLICY OF ROADS.

It would be difficult, Mr. President, to exaggerate the influence of roads as a means of civilization. This, at least, may be said: Where roads are not, civilization can not be; and civilization advances as roads are extended. By roads, religion and knowledge are diffused; intercourse of all kinds is promoted; the producer, the manufacturer, and the consumer, are all

Pronounce are like the letter r; been, bin; again, agen. Give short e in yet, get, &c., its true sound. Say catch, not ketch; just, not jest. In several words (but not in all) like evil, even, heaven, &c., the vowel before the final consonant is unsounded. Give the ph in sphere its f sound. The t and e in often should be unsounded.