Page images
PDF
EPUB

I take to be shortly this: The general had established martial law, and, by virtue of it, had arrested an individual. The prisoner sued out his writ of habeas corpus, returnable before Judge Hall. The general refused to produce him, and the judge fined the general a thousand dollars.

I cannot but believe the senator makes an unjust, as he certainly does an unnecessary imputation upon Judge Hall, when he attributes to him motives so paltry as personal pique and irritation. The relative conditions of the judge and general forbid such a conclusion. The judge could not have been prompted to or restrained in so high and bold a course, by motives so petty and unworthy. They could not have inspired him with the courage necessary for the performance of such an act. How he lacked the support of all sympathy-how utterly solitary he was in performing his duty, is proved by the fact, that when he pronounced judgment, the assembled multitude rushed forward to pay the fine the ladies begged the honour to be permitted to discharge it; and, doubtless, ten times the sum would have been advanced by the eager and grateful citizens, if General Jackson had not thought it a fit occasion to inculcate in his own person a lesson of submission to the laws. As it was, the ladies did subscribe a thousand dollars for this purpose, which, by the direction of the general, was appropriated to the widows and orphans of the late battle, and he paid the fine with his own money.

:

Amidst the state of feeling, evinced by such acts, the judge could have found no support, but rather cause for dismay and shrinking, from the influence of any unworthy impulses. The consciousness of malice would have made him a coward. Nothing but an ennobling sense of duty could have endowed him with a courage as heroical as that which he confronted, and which enabled him to withstand the ardour of the citizens and the brow of the conqueror.

The case, therefore, presents itself to us, as I trust it will to posterity-as one in which a commanding general, in the zealous and honest discharge of his duty, in time of war, did an act, which a judge, in the zealous and honest discharge of his duty, pronounced against. In this view of the matter, we may remit the fine without inflicting censure any where; and while we manifest our gratitude to

General Jackson, show that we respect the lesson which gave us of deference to the judge.

he

LESSON XCVII.

On Arming for War with England, Dec. 1811.-H. CLAY.

GENTLEMEN have inquired, what will be gained by the contemplated war? I ask, in turn, what will you not lose by your mongrel state of peace with Great Britain? Do you expect to gain any thing in a pecuniary view? No, sir. Look at your treasury reports. We now receive only six millions of revenue annually; and this amount must be diminished in the same proportion as the rigourous execution of the orders in council shall increase. Before these orders existed, we received sixteen millions. We lose, then, to the amount of ten millions of revenue per annum by our present peace. A war would produce the repeal of the orders in council; and our revenue would be restored, our commerce would flourish, our wealth and prosperity would advance.

But England, it seems, is fighting the battles of mankind; and we are asked, shall we weaken her magnanimous efforts? For argument's sake, let us concede the fact, that the French Emperor is aiming at universal empire; can Great Britain challenge our sympathies, when, instead of putting forth her arms to protect the world, she has converted the war into a means of self-aggrandizement; when, under pretence of defending them, she has destroyed the commerce and trampled on the rights of every nation ;when she has attempted to annihilate every vestige of the public maritime code of which she professes to be the champion? Shall we bear the cuffs and scoffs of British arrogance, because we may entertain chimerical fears of French subjugation? Shall we swallow the potion of British poison, lest we may be presented with the imperial dose ?— Are we called upon to bow to the mandates of royal insolence, as a preparation to contend against Gallic usurpation ?

Who ever learned in the school of base submission, the lessons of noble freedom, and courage, and independence?

Look at Spain. Did she secure her independence by submitting, in the first instance, to the dictates of imperial usurpations? No, sir. If she had resisted the first intrusion into her councils, her monarch would not at this time be a miserable victim in the dungeons of Marseilles. We cannot secure our independence of one power, by a dastardly submission to the will of another. But look at our own history. Our ancestors of the Revolution resisted the first encroachments of British tyranny. They foresaw that by submitting to pay an illegal tax, contemptible as that was in itself, their liberties would ultimately be subverted.

Consider the progress of the present disputes with England. For what were we contending the other day? For the indirect colonial carrying trade. That has vanished. For what are we now deliberating? For the direct export and import trade; the trade in our own cotton, and tobacco, and fish. Give this up, and to-morrow we must take up arms for our right to pass from New York to New Orleans; from the upper country on James River to Richmond.

Sir, when did submission to one wrong, induce an adversary to cease his encroachments on the party submitting? But we are told that we ought only to go to war when our territory is invaded. How much better than invasion is the blocking of our very ports and harbours, insulting our towns, plundering our merchants, and scouring our coasts? If our fields are surrounded, are they in a better condition than if invaded? When the murderer is at our doors, shall we meanly skulk to our cells? Or shall we boldly oppose him at his entrance?

LESSON XCVIII.

Love.-SOUTHEY.

THEY sin who tell us love can die;
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.

In heaven ambition cannot dwell,
Nor avarice in the vaults of hell;-
Earthly these passions, as of earth,
They perish when they have their birth.

But love is indestructible,

Its holy flame for ever burneth,—

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth;
Too oft on earth a troubled guest,

At times deceived, at times opprest;
It here is tried and purified,
And hath in heaven its perfect rest;
It soweth here with toil and care,

But the harvest time of Love is there.
Oh! when a mother meets on high
The babe she lost in infancy,

Hath she not then, for pains and fears,
The day of woe, the anxious night,
For all her sorrow, all her tears,
An over-payment of delight!

LESSON XCIX.

America to Great Britain.-WASHINGTON ALLSTON.

ALL hail! thou noble land,

Our fathers' native soil!
Oh, stretch thy mighty hand,
Gigantic grown by toil,

O'er the vast Atlantic wave to our shore:

For thou, with magic might,

Canst reach to where the light
Of Phoebus travels bright
The world o'er!

The Genius of our clime,

From his pine-embattled steep,
Shall hail the great sublime;

While the Tritons of the deep

With their conchs the kindred league shall proclaim.
Then let the world combine

O'er the main our naval line,
Like the milky way, shall shine
Bright in fame!

Though ages long have passed
Since our fathers left their home,
Their pilot in the blast,

O'er untravell'd seas to roam,

Yet lives the blood of England in our veins!
And shall we not proclaim

That blood of honest fame,
Which no tyranny can tame
By its chains?

While the language, free and bold,
Which the bard of Avon sung,
In which our Milton told

How the vault of heaven rung,

When Satan, blasted, fell with all his host;
While this, with reverence meet,
Ten thousand echoes greet,
From rock to rock repeat
Round our coast;

While the manners, while the arts,
That mould a nation's soul,

Still cling around our hearts,

Between let ocean roll,

Our joint communion breaking with the sun:
Yet, still, from either beach,

The voice of blood shall reach,
More audible than speech,
"We are one!"

LESSON C.

Cardinal Wolsey's Speech to Cromwell.-SHAKSPEARE.

CROMWELL, I did not think to shed a tear,
In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me,
Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman.
Let's dry our eyes, and thus far hear me, Cromwell;
And when I am forgotten, as I shall be,

And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention

Of me must more be heard; say, then, I taught thee

« EelmineJätka »