I goo. 
 
 ®Vb ^outf) leaflets;. 
 
 The United States in the 
 Nineteenth Century. 
 
 E 301 
 .U58 
 Copy 1 
 
 Old South Meeting House, Boston, 
 1900. 
 
THE 
 
 OLD SOUTH LEAFLETS. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH SERIES, 
 1900. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE. 
 
 rgoo. 
 

INTRODUCTION 
 
 The Old South Leaflets were prepared primarily for circulation 
 among the attendants upon the Old South Lectures for Young People. 
 The subjects of the Leaflets are immediately related to the subjects of the 
 lectures, and they are intended to supplement the lectures and stimulate 
 historical interest and inquiry among the young people. They are made 
 up, for the most part, from original papers of the periods treated in the 
 lectures, in the hope to make the men and the public life of the periods 
 more clear and real. 
 
 The Old South Lectures for Young People were instituted in the sum- 
 mer of 1883, as a means of promoting a more serious and intelligent atten- 
 tion to historical studies, especially studies in American history among the 
 young people of Boston. The success of the lectures has been so great as 
 to warrant the hope that such courses may be sustained in many other 
 cities of the country. 
 
 The Old South Lectures for 1883, intended to be strictly upon subjects 
 in early Massachusetts History, but by certain necessities somewhat modi- 
 fied, were as follows : " Governor Bradford and Governor Winthrop," 
 by Edwin D. Mead. "Plymouth," by Mrs. A. M. Diaz. "Concord," 
 by Frank B. Sanborn. "The Town-meeting," by Prof. James K. 
 MosMER. " Franklin, the Boston Boy," by George M. TowLE. "How 
 to study American History," by Prof. G. Stanley Hall. "The Year 
 i777>" by John Fiske. " History in the Boston Streets," by Edward 
 Everett Hale. The Leaflets prepared in connection with these lectures 
 consisted of (i) Cotton Mather's account of Governor Bradford, from the 
 " Magnalia"; (2) the account of the arrival of the Pilgrims at Cape Cod 
 from Bradford's Journal; (3) an extract from Emerson's Concord Address 
 in 1S35; (4) extracts from Emerson, Samuel Adams, Ue Tocqueville, and 
 others, upon the Town-meeting; (5) a portion of Franklin's Autobiogra- 
 phy; (6) Carlyle on the Study of History; (7) an extract from Charles 
 Sumner's oration upon Lafayette, etc.; (8) Emerson's poem, "Boston." 
 
 The lectures for 1884 were devoted to men representative of certain 
 epochs or ideas in the history of Boston, as follows: " Sir Harry Vane, in 
 New England and in Old England," by Edward Everett Hale, Jr. 
 " John Harvard, and the Founding of Harvard College," by Edward 
 Channing, Ph.D. "The Mather Family, and the Old Boston Ministers," 
 by Rev. Samuel J. Barrows. " Simon Bradstreet, and the Struggle for 
 the Charter," by Prof. Marshall S. Snow. " Samuel Adams and the 
 Beginning of the Revolution," by Prof. James K. Hosmer. " Josiah 
 Quincy, the Great Mayor," by Charles W. Slack. "Daniel Webster, 
 the Defender of the Constitution," by Charles C. Coffin. " John A: 
 Andrew, the great War Governor," by CoL. T. W. Higginson. The 
 Leaflets prepared in connection with the second course were as follows : 
 (i) Selections from Forster's essay on Vane, etc.; (2) an extract from 
 Cotton Mather's "Sal Gentium"; (3) Licrease Mather's "Narrative of 
 the Miseries of New England"; (4) an original account of " The Revolu- 
 tion in New England" in 1689; (5) a letter from Samuel Adams to John 
 
Adams, on Republican Government ; (6) extracts from Josiah Quincy's 
 Boston Address of 1830; (7) Words of Webster; (8) a portion of Gover- 
 nor Andrew's Address to the Massachusetts Legislature in January, 1861. 
 
 The lectures for 1885 were upon " The War for the Union," as follows : 
 "Slavery," by William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. "The Fall of Sumter," 
 by Col. T. W. Higginson. "The Monitor and the Merrimac," by 
 Charles C. Coffin. "The Battle of Gettysburg," by Col. Theodore 
 A. Dodge. "Sherman's March to the Sea," by Gen. William Cogswell. 
 "The Sanitary Commission," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. " Abraham 
 Lincoln," by Hon. John L). Long. "General Grant," by Charles C. 
 Coffin. The Leaflets accompanying these lectures were as follows : (i) 
 Lowell's " Present Crisis," and Garrison's Salutatory in the Liberator of 
 January i, 1831 ; (2) extract from Henry Ward Beecher's oration at Fort 
 Sumter in 1865; (3) contemporary newspaper accounts of the engagement 
 between the Monitor and the Merrimac; (4) extract from Edward Everett's 
 address at the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, with 
 President Lincoln's address; (5) extract from General Sherman's account 
 of the March to the Sea, in his Memoirs ; (6) Lowell's " Commemoration 
 Ode"; (7) extract from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, the Emanci- 
 pation Proclamation, and the Second Inaugural Address; (8) account of 
 the service in memory of General Grant, in Westminster Abbey, with Arch- 
 deacon F'arrar's address. 
 
 The lectures for 1886 were upon "The War for Independence," as 
 follows: "Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry," by Edwin D. Mead. 
 " Bunker Hill, and the News in England," by John Fiske. " The Declara- 
 tion of Independence," by James MacAllister. "The Times that tried 
 Men's Souls," by Albert B. Hart, Ph.D. " Lafayette, and Help from 
 France," by Prof. Marshall S. Snow. " The Women of the Revolu- 
 tion," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. " Washington and his Generals," 
 by George M. Towle. "The Lessons of the Revolution for these 
 Times," by Rev. Brooke Herkord. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) 
 Words of Patrick Henry; (2) Lord Chatham's Speech, urging the removal 
 of the British troops from Boston ; (3) extract from Webster's oration on 
 Adams and Jefferson; (4) Thomas Paine's "Crisis," No. i; (5) extract 
 from Edward Everett's eulogy on Lafayette ; (6) selections from the Letters 
 of Abigail Adams; (7) Lowell's " Under the Old Elm "; (8) extract from 
 Whipple's essay on " Washington and the Principles of the Revolution." 
 
 The course for the summer of 1887 was upon " The Birth of the 
 Nation," as follows : " How the men of the English Commonwealth planned 
 Constitutions," by Prof. James K. Hosmer. " How the American Colo- 
 nies grew together," by John Fiske. "The Confusion after the Revolu- 
 tion," by Davis R. Dewey, Ph.D. " The Convention and the Constitu- 
 tion," by Hon. John D. Long. "James Madison and his Journal," by 
 Prof. \i. B. Andrews. "How Patrick Henry opposed the Constitution," 
 by Henry L. Southwick. "Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist.''^ 
 " Washington's Part and the Nation's P'irst Years," by Edward Everett 
 Hale. The Leaflets prepared for these lectures were as follows: (i) 
 Extract from Edward Everett Hale's lecture on " Puritan Politics in 
 England and New England"; (2) "The English Colonies in America," 
 extract from De Tocqueville's " Democracy in America " ; (3) Wash- 
 ington's Circular Letter to the Governors of the States on Disbanding 
 the Army; (4) the Constitution of the United States; (5) "The Last Day 
 of the Constitutional Convention," from Madison's Journal; (6) Patrick 
 
5 
 
 Henry's First Speech against the Constitution, in the Virginia Convention; 
 (7) the Federalist, No. IX.; (8) Washington's First Inaugural Address. 
 
 The course for the summer of 1S88 had the general title of "The Story 
 of the Centuries," the several lectures being as follows : " The Great Schools 
 after the Dark Ages," by Ephraim Emerton, Professor of History in 
 Harvard University. "Richard the Lion-hearted and the Crusades," by 
 Miss Nina Moore, author of "Pilgrims and Puritans." "The World 
 which Dante knew," by Shattuck O. Hartwei.l, Old South first prize 
 essayist, 1883. "The Morning Star of the Reformation," by Rev. Philip 
 S. MoxoM. " Copernicus and Columbus, or the New Heaven and the 
 New Earth," by Prof. Edward S. Morse. "The People for whom 
 Shakespeare wrote," by Charles Dudley Warner. " The Puritans and 
 the English Revolution," by Charles H. Levermore, Professor of His- 
 tory in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. " Lafayette and the 
 Two Revolutions which he saw," by George Makepeace Towle. 
 
 The Old South Lectures are devoted primarily to American history. 
 But it is a constant aim to impress upon the young people the relations of 
 our own history to English and general European history. It was hoped 
 that the glance at some striking chapters in the history of the last eight 
 centuries afforded by these lectures would be a good preparation for the 
 great anniversaries of 1S89, and give the young people a truer feeling of 
 the continuity of history. In connection with the lectures the young 
 people were requested to fi.x in mind the following dates, observing that in 
 most instances the date comes about a decade before the close of the cen- 
 tury. An effort was made in the Leaflets for the year to make dates, 
 which are so often dull and useless to young people, interesting, significant, 
 and useful. — nth Century: Lanfranc, the great mediaeval scholar, who 
 studied law at Pologna, was prior of the monastery of Bee, the most famous 
 school in France in the nth century, and archbishop of Canterbury under 
 William the Conqueror, died io8g. 12th Cent.: Ricliard I. crowned 
 1189. 13th Cent.: Dante, at the battle of Campaldino, the final overthrow 
 of the Ghibellines in Italy, 1289. 14th Cent.: Wyclif died, 1384. 15th 
 Cent.: America discovered, 1492. i6th Cent.: Spanish Armada, 1588. 
 17th Cent. : William of Orange lands in England, 1688. 18th Cent. : 
 Washington inaugurated; and the Bastile fell, 1789. The Old South 
 Leaflets for 1S88, corresponding with the several lectures, were as follows : 
 (i) " The Early History of Oxford," from Green's " History of the English 
 People,"; (2) "Richard Coeur de Lion and the Third Crusade," from the 
 Chronicle of Geoffrey de Vinsauf; (3) "The Universal Empire," passages 
 from Dante's De Monarchia ; (4) "The Sermon on the Mount," Wyclif 's 
 translation; (5) "Copernicus and the Ancient Astronomers," from Hum- 
 boldt's " Cosmos " ; (6) " The Defeat of the Spanish Armada," from Cam- 
 den's "Annals"; (7) "The Bill of Rights," 1689; (8) " The Eve of the 
 French Revolution," from Carlyle. The selections are accompanied by 
 very full historical and bibliographical notes, and it is hoped that the 
 series will prove of much service to students and teachers engaged in 
 the general survey of modern history. 
 
 The year 1S89 being the centennial both of the beginning of our own 
 Federal government and of the French Revolution, the lectures for the 
 year, under the general title of " America and France," were devoted en- 
 tirely to subjects in which the history of America is related to that of 
 France as follows: " Champlain, the Founder of Quebec," by Charles 
 C. Coffin. " La Salle and the French in the Great West," by Rev. 
 
W. E. Griffis. " The Jesuit Missionaries in America," by Prof. James 
 K. HOSMER. "Wolfe and Montcalm: The Struggle of England and 
 France for the Continent," by John Fiske. " P"ranklin in France," 
 by George M. Towle. " The Friendship of Washington and Lafayette," 
 by Mrs. Akha Goold Woolson. "Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana 
 Purchase," by Robert Morss Lovett, Old South prize essayist, 1888. 
 "The Year 1789," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale. The Leaflets for 
 the year were as follows : (i) Verrazzano's account of his Voyage to Amer- 
 ica ; (2) Marquette's account of his Discovery of the Mississippi; (3) Mr. 
 Parkman's Histories ; (4) the Capture of Quebec, from Parkman's " Con- 
 spiracy of Pontiac"; (5) selections from Franklin's Letters from France; 
 (6) Letters of Washington and Lafayette; (7) the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence ; (8) the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789. 
 
 The lectures for the summer of 1890 were on "The American Indians," 
 as follows : " The Mound Builders," by Prof. George H. Perkins. " The 
 Indians whom our Fathers Found," by Gen. H. B. Carrington. "John 
 Eliot and his Indian Bible," by Rev. Edward G. Porter. " King Philip's 
 War," by Miss Caroline C. Stecker, Old South prize essayist, 1889. 
 "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," by Charles A. Eastman, M.D., of the 
 .Sioux nation. " A Century of Dishonor," by Herbert Welsh. "Among 
 the Zuiiis," by J. Walter Fewkes, Ph.D. " The Indian at School," by 
 Gen. .S. C. Armstrong. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) extract from 
 address by William Henry Harrison on the Mound liuilders of the Ohio 
 Valley ; (2) extract from Morton's " New English Canaan " on the Manners 
 and Customs of the Indians ; (3) John Eliot's " Brief Narrative of the Prog- 
 ress of the Gospel among the Indians of New England," 1670; (4) extract 
 from Hubbard's "Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians" (1677) on 
 the Beginning of King Philip's War; (5) the Speech of Pontiac at the 
 Council at the River Ecorces, from Parkman's " Conspiracy of Pontiac " ; 
 (6) extract from Black Hawk's autobiography, on the cause of the Black 
 Hawk War; (7) Coronado's Letter to Mendoza (1540) on his Explorations 
 in New Mexico; (8) Eleazar Wheelock's Narrative (1762) of the R.ise and 
 Progress of the Indian School at Lebanon, Conn. 
 
 The lectures for 1891, under the general title of " The New Birth of the 
 World," were devoted to the important movements in the age preceding 
 the discovery of America, the several lectures being as follows : " The 
 Results of the Crusades," by F. E. E. Hamilton, Old South prize essay- 
 ist, 18S3. " The Revival of Learning," by Prof. Albert B. Hart. "The 
 Builders of the Cathedrals," by Prof. Marshall S. Snow. " The Changes 
 which Gunpowder made," by Frank A. Hill. "The Decline of the 
 Barons," by William Everett. " The Invention of Printing," by Rev. 
 Edward G. Porter. "When Michel Angelo was a Boy," by Hamlin 
 Garland. " The Discovery of America," by Rev. E. E. Hale. The 
 Leaflets were as follows: (i) "The Capture of Jerusalem by the Cru- 
 saders," from the Chronicle of William of Malmesbury ; (2) extract from 
 More's "Utopia"; (3) " The Founding of Westminster Abbey," from 
 Dean Stanley's " Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey " ; (4) " The 
 Siege of Constantinople," from Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire"; (5) ".Simon de Montfort," selections from Chronicles of the 
 time ; (6) " Caxton at Westminster," extract from lUade's Life of William 
 Caxton; (7) " The Youth of Michel Angelo," from Vasari's " Lives of the 
 Italian Painters " ; (8) " The Discovery of America," from Ferdinand Colum- 
 bus's life of his father. 
 
The lectures for 1892 were upon "The Discovery of America," as fol- 
 lows : " What Men knew of the World before Columbus," by Prof. 
 Edward S. Morse. " Leif Erikson and the Northmen," by Rkv. Edward 
 A. HoRTON. "Marco Polo and his Book," by Mr. O. W. Dimmick. 
 "The Story of Columbus," by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. " Americus 
 Vespiicius and the Early Books about America," by Rev. E. G. Porter. 
 "Cortes and Pizarro," by Prof. Chas. H. Levermore. " De Soto and 
 Ponce de Leon," by Miss Ruth Ballou Whittemore, Old South prize 
 essayist, 1891. " Spain, France, and England in America," by Mr. John 
 FiSKE. The Leaflets were as follows : (i) .Strabo's Introduction to Geog- 
 raphy ; {2) The Voyages to Vinland, from the Saga of Eric the Red; (3) 
 Marco Polo's account of Japan and Java; (4) Columbus's Letter to 
 Gabriel Sanchez, describing his First Voyage; (5) Amerigo Vespucci's 
 account of his First Voyage; (6) Cortes's account of the City of Mexico; 
 (7) the Death of De Soto, from the " Narrative of a Gentleman of 
 Elvas " ; (8) Early Notices of the Voyages of the Cabots. 
 
 The lectures for 1893 ^^'cre upon " The Opening of the Great West," as 
 follows: "Spain and France in the Great West," by Rev. William 
 Elliot Griffis. "The North-west Territory and the Ordinance of 1787," 
 by John M. Merriam. " Washington's Work in Opening the West," by 
 Edwin D. Mead. "Marietta and the Western Reserve," by Miss Lucy 
 W. Warren, Old South prize essayist, 1S92. " How the Great West was 
 settled," by Charles C. Coffin. "Lewis and Clarke and the Explorers 
 of the Rocky Mountains," by Rev. Thomas V.a.n Ness. " California and 
 Oregon," by Prof. Josiah Royce. " The Story of Chicago," by Mrs. 
 Mary A. Livermore. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) De Vaca's 
 account of his Journey to New Mexico, 1535; (2) Manasseh Cutler's De- 
 scription of ( >hio, 1787 ; (3) Washington's Journal of his Tour to the Ohio, 
 1770; (4) CJarfield's Address on the North-west Territory and the Western 
 Reserve; (5) George Rogers Clark's account of the Capture of Vincennes, 
 1779; (6) Jefferson's Life of Captain Meriwether Lewis; (7) Fremont's 
 account of his Ascent of Fremont's Peak ; (8) Father Marquette at Chi- 
 cago, 1673. 
 
 The lectures for 1S94 were upon " The Founders of New England," as 
 follows : " William Brewster, the Elder of Plymouth," by Rev. Edward 
 Everett IL\.le. " William Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth," by 
 Rev. William Elliot Griffis. " John Winthrop, the Governor of 
 Massachusetts," by Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge. "John Harvard, 
 and the Founding of Harvard College," by Mr. William R. Thayer. 
 " John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians," by Rev. James De Normandie. 
 " John Cotton, the Minister of Boston," by Rev. John Cotton Brooks. 
 " Roger Williams, the Founder of Rhode Island," by President E. 
 Benjamin Andrews. "Thomas Hooker, the Founder of Connecticut," 
 by Rev. Joseph II. Twichell. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) liracl- 
 ford's Memoir of Elder Brewster; (2) Bradford's First Dialogue; (3) 
 Winthrop's Conclusions for the Plantation in New England ; (4) New 
 England's First Fruits, 1643; (5) John Eliot's Indian Grammar Begun; 
 (6) John Cotton's "God's Promise to his Plantation"; (7) Letters of 
 Roger Williams to Winthrop; (8) Thomas Hooker's "Way of the 
 Churches of New England." 
 
 The lectures for 1895 were upon " The Puritans in Old England," as 
 follows: "John Hooper, the First Puritan," by Edwin D. Mead; " Cam- 
 bridge, the Puritan University," by William Everett; "Sir John Eliot 
 
and the House of Commons," by Prof. Albert B. Hart; "John Hamp- 
 den and the Ship Money," by Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus; "John Pym and 
 the Grand Remonstrance," by Rev. John Cuckson ; " Oliver Cromwell 
 and the Commonwealth," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale; "John 
 Milton, the Puritan Poet," by John Fiske ; " Henry Vane in Old England 
 and New England," by Prof. James K. Hosmer. The Leaflets were as 
 follows: (i) The English Bible, selections from the various versions; (2) 
 Hooper's Letters to Bullinger; (3) Sir John Eliot's "Apology for Soc- 
 rates"; (4) Ship-money Papers ; (5) Pym's .Speech against Strafford; (6) 
 Cromwell's Second Speech ; (7) Milton's " Free Commonwealth " ; (8) Sir 
 Henry Vane's Defence. 
 
 The lectures for 1896 were upon " The American Historians," as follows : 
 "Bradford and Winthrop and their Journals," by Mr. Edwin D. Mead; 
 "Cotton Mather and his ' Magnalia,' " by Prof. Barrett Wendell; 
 "Governor Hutchinson and his History of Massachusetts," by Prof. 
 Charles H. Levermore; "Washington Irving and his Services for 
 American History," by Mr. Richard Burton; "Bancroft and his His- 
 tory of the United States," by Pres. Austin Scott; " Prescott and his 
 Spanish Histories," by Hon. Roger Wolcott; " Motley and his History 
 of the Dutch Republic," by Rev. William Elliot Griffis; " Parkman 
 and his Works on France in America," by Mr. John Fiske. The Leaflets 
 were as follows: (i) Winthrop's " Little Speech " on Liberty; (2) Cotton 
 Mather's " Bostonian Ebenezer," from the " Magnalia " ; (3) Governor 
 Hutchinson's account of the Boston Tea Party; (4) Adrian Van der 
 Donck's Description of the New Netherlands in 1655; (5) ^^^ Debate in 
 the Constitutional Convention on the Rules of Suffrage in Congress ; (6) 
 Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand and Isabella, on his Second Voyage ; 
 (7) The Dutch Declaration of Independence in 1581; (8) Captain John 
 Knox's account of the Battle of Quebec. The last five of these eight 
 Leaflets illustrate the original material in which Irving, Bancroft, Prescott, 
 Motley, and Parkman worked in the preparation of their histories. 
 
 The lectures for 1897 were upon "The Anti-slavery Struggle," as 
 follows : " William Lloyd (Jarrison, or Anti-slavery in the Newspaper," by 
 William Lloyd Garrison, Jr.; "Wendell Phillips, or Anti-slavery on 
 ihe Platform," by Wendell Phillips Stafford; "Theodore Parker, 
 or Anti-slavery in the Pulpit," by Rev. Edward Everett Hale ; " John 
 G. Whittier, or Anti-slavery in the Poem," by Mrs. Alice Freeman 
 Palmer ; " Harriet Beecher Stowe, or Anti-slavery in the Story," by Miss 
 Maria L. Baldwin; "Charles .Sumner, or Anti-slavery in the Senate," 
 by MooRFiELD Storey; "John Brown, or Anti-slavery on the Scaffold," 
 by Frank B. Sanborn; "Abraham Lincoln, or Anti-slavery Trium- 
 phant," by Hon. John D. Long. The Leaflets were as follows: (i) The 
 First Number of T/ie Liberator ; (2) Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of 
 Garrison; (3) Theodore Parker's Address on the Dangers from Slavery; 
 (4) Whittier's account of the Anti-slavery Convention of 1833; (5) Mrs. 
 Stowe's Story of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; (6) Sumner's Speech on the 
 Crime against Kansas; (7) Words of John Brown; (8) The First Lincoln 
 and Douglas Debate. 
 
 The lectures for 1898 were upon " The Old W^orld in the New," as 
 follows: "What Spain has done for America," by Rev. Edward G. 
 Porter; " What Italy has done for America," by Rev. Willum Elliot 
 Griffis ; " What France has done for America," by Prof. Jean Charle- 
 
Magne Bracq ; " What England has done for America," by Miss Kath- 
 arine CoMAN ; "What Ireland has done for America," by Prof. F. 
 Spencer Baldwin; "What Holland has done for America," by Mr. 
 Edwin D. Mead; "What Germany has done for America," by Miss 
 Anna B. Thompson; "What Scandinavia has done for America," by 
 Mr. Joseph P. Warren. The Leaflets were as follows: (r) Account of 
 the Founding of St. Augustine, by Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales ; 
 (2) Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his Third Voyage; (3) Champlain's Ac- 
 count of the Founding of Quebec; (4) liarlowe's Account of the First 
 Voyage to Roanoke; (5) Parker's Account of the Settlement of London- 
 derry, N.H.; (6) Juet's Account of the Discovery of the Hudson River; 
 (7) Pastorius's Description of Pennsylvania, 1700: (8) Acrelius's Account 
 of the P'ounding of New Sweden. 
 
 The lectures for 1S99 were upon "The Life and Influence of Washing- 
 ton," as follows : "Washington in the Revolution," by Mr. John Fiske; 
 " W^ashington and the Constitution," by Re\'. Edward Everett Hale; 
 "Washington as President of the United States," by Rev. Albert E. 
 WiNSHiP; "Washington the True Expander of the Republic," by Mr. 
 Edwin D. Mead; "Washington's Interest in Education," by Hon. 
 Alkred S. Roe; "The Men who worked with Washington," by Mrs. 
 Alice Freeman Palmer; "Washington's Farewell Address," by Rev. 
 Franklin Hamilton; "What the World has thought and said of 
 Washington," by Prok. Edwin A. Grosvenor. The Leaflets were as 
 follows: (r) Washington's Account of the Army at Cambridge in 1775; 
 (2) Washington's Letters on the Constitution; (3) Washington's Inaug- 
 ura?s ; (4) Washington's Letter to Benjamin Harrison in 17S4 ; (5) Wash- 
 ington's Words on a National University; (6) Letters of Washington and 
 Lafayette; (7) Washington's Farewell Address; (8) Henry Lee's P\meral 
 Oration on W'ashington. 
 
 The lectures for 1900 were upon "The United States in the Nine- 
 teenth Century," as follows : " Thomas Jefferson, the First Nineteenth- 
 century President," by Edwin D.Mead; "The Opening of the Great 
 West," by Rev. William E. Barton; "Webster and Calhoun, or the 
 Nation and the States," by Prof. vS. M. Macvane; "Abraham Lincoln 
 and the Struggle with Slavery," by Rev. Charles G. Ames; " Steam and 
 Electricity, from Fulton to Edison," 1)y Prof. F. Spencer Baldwin; 
 "The Progress of Education in the Nineteenth Century," by Mr. Frank 
 A. Hill; "The American Poets," by Mrs. May Alden Ward; "America 
 and the World," by Hon. John L. Bails. The Leaflets were as follows : 
 (i) Jefferson's Inaugurals ; (2) Account of Louisiana in 1803; (3) Calhoun 
 on the Gtjvernment of the United Spates; (4) Lincoln's Cooper Institute 
 Address; (5) Chancellor Livingston on the Invention of the Steamboat; 
 
 (6) Horace Mann's Address on the Ground of the Free School System; 
 
 (7) Rufus Choate's Address on the Romance of New England History; 
 
 (8) Kossuth's First I^peech in Faneuil Hall. 
 
 The Old South Leaflets, which have been published during the years 
 since 1883 in connection with these annual courses of historical lectures 
 at the Old South Meeting-house, have attracted so much attention and 
 proved of so much service that the Directors have entered upon the pub- 
 lication of the Leaflets for general circulation, with the needs of schools, 
 colleges, private clubs, and classes especially in mind. The Leaflets are 
 prepared by Mr, Edwin D, Mead. They are largely reproductions of im- 
 
portant original papers, accompanied by useful historical and bibliographi- 
 cal notes. They consist, on an average, of sixteen pages, and are sold at 
 the low price of five cents a co]:)y, or four dollars per hundred. The aim 
 is to bring them within easy reach of everybody. The Old South Work, 
 founded by Mrs. Mary Hemenway, and still sustained by provision of her 
 will, is a work for the education of the people, and especially the education 
 of our young people, in American history and politics ; and its promoters 
 believe that few things can contribute better to this end than the wide cir- 
 culation of such leaflets as those now undertaken. It is hoped that pro- 
 fessors in our colleges and teachers everywhere will welcome them for use 
 in their classes, and that they may meet the needs of the societies of young 
 men and women now happily being organized in so many places for histori- 
 cal and political studies. Some idea of the character of these Old South 
 Leaflets may be gained from the following list of the subjects of the first 
 hundred numbers, which are now ready. It will be noticed that most of 
 the later numbers are the same as certain numbers in the annual series. 
 Since 1S90 they are essentially the same, and persons ordering the Leaflets 
 need simply observe the following numbers. 
 
 No. 1. The Constitution of the United States. 2. The Articles of 
 Confederation. 3. The Declaration of Independence. 4. Washington's 
 Farewell Address. 5. Magna Charta. 6. Vane's '• Healing Question." 
 7. Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629. 8. Fundamental Orders of Con- 
 necticut, 163S. 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754. 10. Washington's 
 Inaugurals. 11. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation. 
 12. The Federalist, Nos. i and 2. 13. The Ordinance of 1787. 14. The 
 Constitution of Ohio. 15. Washington's Circular Letter to the Gover- 
 nors of the States, 1783. 16. Washington's Letter to Benjamin Harrison, 
 1784. 17. Verrazzano's Voyage, 1 524. 18. The Constitution of Switz- 
 erland. 19. The Bill of Rights, 16S9. 20. Coronado's Letter to Men- 
 doza, 1540. 21. Eliot's Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel 
 among the Indians, 1670. 22. Wheelock's Narrative of the Rise of the 
 Indian School at Lebanon, Conn., 1762. 23. The Petition of Rights, 1628. 
 24. The Grand Remonstrance. 25. The Scottish National Covenants. 
 26. The Agreement of the People. 27. The Instrument of Government. 
 28. Cromwell's First Speech to his Parliament. 29. The Discovery of 
 America, from the Life of Columbus by his son, Ferdinand Columbus. 
 30. Strabo's Introduction to Geography. 31. The Voyages to Vinland, 
 from the Saga of Eric the Red. 32. Marco Polo's Account of Japan and 
 Java. 33. Columbus's Letter to Gabriel Sanchez, describing the First 
 Voyage and Discovery. 34. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his First 
 Voyage. 35. Cortes's Account of the City of Mexico. 36. The Death 
 of De Soto, from the " Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas." 37. Pearly 
 Notices of the Voyages of the Cabots. 38. Henry Lee's Funeral Oration 
 on Washington. 39. De Vaca's Account of his Journey to New Mexico, 
 1535. 40. Manasseh Cutler's Description of Ohio, 1787. 41. Wash- 
 ington's Journal of his Tour to the Ohio, 1770. 42. Garfield's Address on 
 the North-west Territory and the Western Reserve. 43. George Rogers 
 Clark's Account of the Capture of Vincennes, 1779. '^*- Jefferson's Life 
 of Captain Meriwether Lewis. 45. Fremont's Account of his Ascent of 
 Fremont's Peak. 46. Father Marquette at Chicago, 1673. ^7. Washing- 
 ton's Account of the Army at Cambridge, 1775. ^8. Bradford's xMemoir 
 of Elder Brewster. 49. Bradford's First Dialogue. 50. Winthrop's" Con- 
 clusions for the Plantation in New England." 51. " New England's First 
 
Fruits," 1 643- 52. John Eliot's "Indian Grammar Begun.". 53. John 
 Cotton's " God's Promise to his Plantation." 54. Letters of Roger Will- 
 iams to Winthrop. 55. Thomas Hooker's "Way of the Churches of New 
 England." 56. The Monroe Doctrine : President Monroe's Message of 
 1823. 57. The English Bible, selections from the various versions. 58. 
 Hooper's Letters to BuUinger. 59. Sir John Eliot's " Apology for Soc- 
 rates." 60. Ship-money Papers. 61. Pym's Speech against Strafford. 
 62. Cromwell's Second Speech. 63. Milton's "A Free Commonwealth." 
 64. Sir Henry Vane's Defence. 65. Washington's Addresses to the 
 Churches. 66. Winthrop's " Little Speech " on Liberty. 67. Cotton 
 Mather's " Bostonian Ebenezer," from the " Magnalia." 68. Governor 
 Hutchinson's Account of the Boston Tea Party. 69'. Adrian Van der 
 Donck's Description of New Netherlands in 1655. 70. The Debate in 
 the Constitutional Convention on the Rules of Suffrage in Congress. 71. 
 Columbus's Memorial to Ferdinand and Isabella, on his Second Voyage. 
 72. The Dutch Declaration of Independence in 1 58 1. 73. Captain John 
 Knox's Account of the Battle of Quebec. 74. H'kmilton's Report on 
 the Coinage. 75. William Penn's Plan for the Peace of Europe. 76. 
 Washington's Words on a National University. 77. Cotton Mather's 
 Lives of Bradford and Winthrop. 78. The First Number of The Liber- 
 ator. 79. Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of Garrison. 80. Theodore Par- 
 ker's Address on the Dangers from Slavery. 81. Whittier's Account of 
 the Anti-slavery Convention of 1833. 82. Mrs. Stowe's Story of " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." 83. Sumner's Speech on the Crime against Kansas. 84. 
 The Words of John Brown. 85. The First Lincoln and Douglas Debate. 
 86. Washington's Account of his Capture of Boston. 87. The Manners 
 and Customs of the Indians, from Morton's "New English Canaan." 88. 
 The Beginning of King Philip's War, from Hubbard's History of Philip's 
 War, 1677. 89. Account of the Founding of St. Augustine, by Francisco 
 Lopez de Mendoza Grajales. 90. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of his 
 Third Voyage. 91. Champlain's Account of the Founding of Quebec. 
 92. Barlowe's Account of the First Voyage to Roanoke. 93. Parker's 
 Account of the Settlement of Londondeny, N.H. 94. Juet's Account 
 of the Discovery of the Hudson River. 95. Pastorius's Description of 
 Pennsylvania, 1700. 96. Acrelius's Account of the Founding of New 
 Sweden. 97. Lafayette in the American Revolution. 98. Letters of 
 Washington and Lafayette. 99. Washington's Letters on the ConstiUi- 
 tion. 100. Robert Browne's " Reformation without Tarrying for Any." 
 101. Grotius's " Rights of War and Peace." 102. Columbus's Account 
 of Cuba. 103. John Adams's Inaugural. 104. Jefferson's Inaugurals. 
 105. Account of Louisiana in 1803. 106. Calhoun on the Government 
 of the United States. 107. Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address. 108. 
 Chancellor Livingston on the Invention of the Steamboat. 109. Horace 
 Mann's Address on the Ground of the Free School System. 110. Rufus 
 Choate's Address on the Romance of New England History. 111. Kos- 
 suth's First Speech in Faneuil Hall. 
 
 The leaflets, which are sold at five cents a copy or four dollars per 
 hundred, are also furnished in bound volumes, each volnme containing 
 twenty-five leaflets : Vol. i., Nos. 1-25 ; Vol. ii., 26-50 ; Vol. iii., 51-75 ; 
 Vol. iv., 76-100. Price per volume, $1.50. Title-pages with table of 
 contents will be furnished to all purchasers of the leaflets who wish to 
 
bind them for themselves. Annual series of eight leaflets each, in 
 paper covers, 50 cents a volume. 
 
 Address DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, Old South 
 Meeting-house, Boston. 
 
 It is hoped that this list of Old South Lectures and Leaflets will meet 
 the needs of many clubs and classes engaged in the study of history, as 
 well as the needs of individual students, serving as a table of topics. The 
 subjests of the lectures in the various courses will be found to have a 
 logical sequence; and the leaflets accompanying the several lectures can 
 be used profitably in connection, containing as they do full historical notes 
 and references to the best literature on the subjects of the lectures. 
 
<&\h ^outf) ILeafict^. 
 
 No. 104. 
 
 Jefferson's 
 Inaugurals. 
 
 FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS AT WASHINGTON, MARCH 4, 180I. 
 
 Friejids ami Fclloiv-citizens : 
 
 Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive 
 office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that por- 
 tion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express 
 my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been 
 pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness 
 that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with 
 those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness 
 of the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire., 
 A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, travers- 
 ing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, en- 
 gaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget 
 right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal 
 eye, — when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see 
 the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country 
 committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink 
 from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magni- 
 tude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair, did 
 not the presence of many whom I here see remind me that in 
 the other high authorities provided by our Constitution I shall 
 find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to 
 rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are 
 charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those 
 associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guid- 
 ance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the 
 
vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the conflicting ele- 
 ments of a troubled world. 
 
 During the contest of opinion through which we ha\e passed, 
 the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes 
 worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to 
 think freely and to speak and to write what they think ; but 
 this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced 
 according to the rules of the Constitution, all will of course 
 arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in com- 
 mon efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind 
 this sacred principle, that, though the will of the majority is in 
 all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable ; 
 that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law 
 must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, 
 then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let 
 us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection 
 without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. 
 And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that re- 
 ligious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and 
 suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political 
 intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter 
 and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions 
 of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated 
 man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, 
 it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should 
 reach even this distant and peaceful shore ; that this should be 
 more felt and feared by some and less by others, and should 
 divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference 
 of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by 
 different names brethren of the same principle. We are all 
 Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among 
 us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its re- 
 publican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of 
 the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where 
 reason is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some 
 honest men fear that a republican government cannot be 
 strong, that this Government is not strong enough ; but would 
 the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, 
 abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm 
 on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the 
 world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve 
 itself ? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strong- 
 74 
 
est Government on earth. I believe it the only one where 
 every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of 
 the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his 
 own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot 
 be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be 
 trusted with the government of others .' Or have we found 
 angels in the forms of kings to govern him ? Let history an- 
 swer this question. 
 
 Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own 
 Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union 
 and representative government. Kindly separated by nature 
 and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one-quarter 
 of the globe ; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the 
 others ; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our 
 descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation ; en- 
 tertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own 
 faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industr}-, to honor and 
 confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, 
 but from our actions and their sense of them ; enlightened by 
 a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various 
 forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, 
 gratitude, and the love of man ; acknowledging and adoring an 
 overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves 
 that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater 
 happiness hereafter, — with all these blessings, what more is 
 necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people ? Still 
 one thing more, fellow-citizens, — a wise and frugal Govern- 
 ment, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall 
 leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of in- 
 dustry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of 
 labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good gov- 
 ernment, and this is necessary to close the circle of our fe- 
 licities. 
 
 About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties 
 which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is 
 proper you should understand what I deem the essential princi- 
 ples of our Government, and consequentl}^ those which ought 
 to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the 
 narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, 
 but not all its limitations : equal and exact justice to all men, 
 of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political ; peace, 
 commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling 
 
 75 
 
alliances with none : the support of the State governments in 
 all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our 
 domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republi- 
 can tendencies ; the preservation of the General Government 
 in' its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our 
 peace at home and safety abroad ; a jealous care of the right 
 of election by the people, — a mild and safe corrective of abuses 
 which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable 
 remedies are unprovided ; absolute acquiescence in the deci- 
 sions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from 
 which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and imme- 
 diate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best 
 reliance in peace and for the lirst moments of war, till regulars 
 may relieve them ; the supremacy of the civil over the military 
 authority ; economy in the public expense, that labor may be 
 lightly burthened ; the honest payment of our debts and sacred 
 preservation of the public faith ; encouragement of agriculture, 
 and of commerce as its handmaid ; the diffusion of information 
 and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the public reason; 
 freedom of religion ; freedom of the press, and freedom of person 
 under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries 
 impartially selected. These principles form the bright constella- 
 tion which has gone before us and guided our steps through an 
 age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages 
 and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. 
 They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic 
 instruction, the touchstone by w'hich to try the services of those 
 we trust ; and, should we wander from them in moments of 
 error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to re- 
 gain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. 
 
 I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned 
 me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have 
 seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt 
 to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to 
 retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which 
 bring him into it. Without pretensions to that high confidence 
 you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, 
 whose pre-eminent services had entitled him to the first place 
 in his country's love and destined for him the fairest page in 
 the volume of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only 
 as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of 
 vour affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judg- 
 76 
 
5 
 
 ment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those 
 whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. 
 I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be 
 intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who 
 may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. 
 The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation 
 to me for the past ; and my future solicitude will be to retain 
 the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to 
 conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my 
 power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom 
 of all. 
 
 Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance 
 with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever 
 you become sensible how much better choice it is in your 
 power to make. And may that Infinite Power which rules the 
 destinies of the universe lead our councils to what is best, and 
 give them a favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. 
 
 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1805. 
 
 Proceeding, fellow-citizens, to that qualification which the 
 Constitution requires before my entrance on the charge again 
 conferred on me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I en- 
 ter tan of this new proof of confidence from my fellow-citizens 
 at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me so to conduct 
 myself as may best satisfy their just expectations. 
 
 On taking this station on a former occasion, I declared the 
 principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the 
 aftairs of our Commonwealth. My conscience tells me I have 
 on every occasion acted up to that declaration according to its 
 obvious import and to the understanding of every candid mind. 
 
 In the transaction of your foreign affairs we have endeav- 
 ored to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially 
 of those with which we have the most important relations. 
 We have done them justice on all occasions, favored where 
 favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse 
 on fair and equal terms. We are firmly convinced, and we act 
 on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our 
 interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable 
 from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact 
 that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had 
 to armaments and wars to bridle others. 
 
 77 
 
At home, fellow-citizens, you best know whether we have 
 done well or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of 
 useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue 
 our internal taxes. These, covering our land with officers and 
 opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that 
 process of domiciliary vexation which once entered is scarcely 
 to be restrained from reaching successively every article of 
 property and produce. If among these taxes some minor ones 
 fell which had not been inconvenient, it was because their 
 amount would not have paid the officers who collected them, 
 and because, if they had any merit, the State authorities might 
 adopt them instead of others less approved. 
 
 The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign arti- 
 cles is paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign lux- 
 uries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard 
 and frontiers only ; and, incorporated with the transactions of 
 our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride 
 of an American to ask. What farmer, what mechanic, what 
 laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States .'' These 
 contributions enable us to support the current expenses of the 
 Government, to fulfil contracts with foreign nations, to extin- 
 guish the native right of soil within our limits, to extend those 
 limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts as places 
 at a short day their final redemption ; and, that redemption once 
 effected, the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just reparti- 
 tion of it among the States and a corresponding amendment of 
 the Constitution, be applied in time of peace to rivers, canals, 
 roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects 
 within each State. In time of wa?-, if injustice by ourselves or 
 others must sometimes produce war, increased as the same re- 
 venue will be by increased population and consumption, and 
 aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet 
 within the year all the expenses of the year without encroach- 
 ing on the rights of future generations by burthening them with 
 the debts of the past. War will then be but a suspension of 
 useful works, and a return to a state of peace a return to the 
 progress of improvement. 
 
 I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had 
 enabled us to extend our limits ; but that extension may possi- 
 bly pay for itself before we are called on, and in the mean time 
 may keep down the accruing interest. In all events, it will re- 
 place the advances we shall have made. I know that the 
 7S 
 
acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a 
 candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would 
 endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the 
 federative principle may operate effectively ? The larger our 
 association, the less will it be shaken by local passions ; and, in 
 any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of the Missis- 
 sippi should be settled by our own brethren and children than 
 by strangers of another family ? With which should we be 
 most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse ? 
 
 In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise 
 is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the 
 General Government. I have therefore undertaken on no oc- 
 casion to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have 
 left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction 
 and discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged 
 by the several religious societies. 
 
 The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have re- 
 garded with the commiseration their history inspires. En- 
 dowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing an 
 ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupying a coun- 
 try which left them no desire but to b-e undisturbed, the stream 
 of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on 
 these shores. Without power to divert or habits to contend 
 against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current or 
 driven before it. Now reduced within limits too narrow for the 
 hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture 
 and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry 
 which alone can enable them to maintain their place in exist- 
 ence, and to prepare them in time for that state of society 
 which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind 
 and morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them with 
 the implements of husbandry and household use. We have 
 placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, 
 and they are covered with the aegis of the law against aggres- 
 sors from among ourselves. 
 
 But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits 
 their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their 
 reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the 
 change of circumstances have powerful obstacles to encounter. 
 They are combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of 
 their minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and 
 crafty individuals among them who feel themselves something 
 
 79 
 
in the present order of things and fear to become nothing in 
 any other. Tliese persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence 
 for the customs of their ancestors ; that whatsoever they did 
 must be done through all time ; that reason is a false guide, 
 and to advance under its counsel in their physical, moral, or 
 political condition is perilous innovation ; that their duty is 
 to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety 
 and knowledge full of danger. In short, my friends, among 
 them also is seen the action and counteraction of good sense 
 and of bigotry. They, too, have their anti-philosophists who 
 find an interest in keeping things in their present state, who 
 dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the 
 ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our reason and 
 obeying its mandates. 
 
 In giving these outlines, I do not mean, fellow-citizens, to 
 arrogate to myself the merit of the measures. That is due, in 
 the first place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at 
 large, who, by the weight of public opinion, influence and 
 strengthen the public measures. It is due to the sound discre- 
 tion with which they select from among themselves those to 
 whom they confide the legislative duties. It is due to the zeal 
 and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the foun- 
 dations of public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution 
 of which alone remains for others ; and it is due to the able and 
 faithful auxiliaries, whose patriotism has associated them with 
 me in the executive functions. 
 
 During this course of administration, and in order to disturb 
 it, the artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged 
 with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These 
 abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science 
 are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its 
 usefulness and to sap its safety. They might, indeed, have 
 been corrected by the wholesome punishments reserved to and 
 provided by the laws of the several States against falsehood 
 and defamation ; but public duties more urgent press on the 
 time of public servants, and the offenders have therefore been 
 left to find their punishment in the public indignation. 
 
 Nor was it uninteresting to the world that an experiment 
 should be fairly and fully made whether freedom of discussion, 
 unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and 
 protection of truth, whether a government conducting itself 
 in the true spirit of its Constitution, with zeal and purity, 
 80 
 
and doing no act which it would- be unwilling the whole world 
 should witness, can be written down by falsehood and defama- 
 tion. The experiment has been tried : you have witnessed the 
 scene. Our fellows-citizens looked on, cool and collected : they 
 saw the latent source from which these outrages proceeded. 
 They gathered around their public functionaries ; and, when the 
 Constitution called them to the decision by suffrage, they pro- 
 nounced their verdict, honorable to those who had served them 
 and consolatory to the friend of man who believes that he 
 may be trusted with the control of his own affairs. 
 
 No inference is here intended that the laws provided by the 
 States against false and defamatory publications should not be 
 enforced. He who has time renders a service to public morals 
 and public tranquillity in reforming these abuses by the salu- 
 tary coercions of the law ; but the experiment is noted to prove 
 that, since truth and reason have maintained their ground 
 against false opinions in league with false facts, the press, con- 
 fined to truth, needs no other legal restraint. The public judg- 
 ment will correct false reasonings and opinions on a full hear- 
 ing of all parties ; and no other definite line can be drawn be- 
 tween the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing 
 licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule 
 would not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the cen- 
 sorship of public opinion. 
 
 Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so 
 generally as auguring harmony and happiness to our future 
 course, I oft'er to our country sincere congratulations. With 
 those, too, not yet rallied to the same point, the disposition to 
 do so is gaining strength. Facts are piercing through the veil 
 drawn over them, and our doubting brethren will at length see 
 that the mass of their fellow-citizens, with whom they cannot 
 yet resolve to act as to principles and measures, think as they 
 think and desire what they desire ; that our wish as well as 
 theirs is that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the 
 public good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty 
 unassailed, law and order preserved, equality of rights main- 
 tained, and that state of property, equal or unequal, which results 
 to every man from his own industry or that of his father. 
 When satisfied of these views, it is not in human nature that 
 they should not approve and support them. In the mean time 
 let us cherish them with patient affection, let us do them jus- 
 tice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest ; and 
 
 8i 
 
lO 
 
 we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests 
 will at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their 
 country, and will complete that entire union of opinion which 
 gives to a nation the blessing of harmony and the benefit of all 
 its strength. 
 
 I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens 
 have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those 
 principles which they have approved. I fear not that any 
 motives of interest may lead me astray. 1 am sensible of no 
 passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of 
 justice, but the weaknesses of human nature and the limits 
 of my own understanding will produce errors of judgment 
 sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall need, there- 
 fore, all the indulgence which I have heretofore experienced 
 from my constituents : the want of it will certainly not lessen 
 with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that 
 Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of 
 old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flow- 
 ing with all the necessaries and comforts of life, who has 
 covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years 
 with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you 
 to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the 
 minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their 
 measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, 
 and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation 
 of all nations. 
 
 JEFFERSON AND HIS INAUGURATION. 
 
 From Henry A dams' s History of tJie United States. 
 
 According to the admitted standards of greatness, Jefferson was a 
 great man. After all deductions on which his enemies might choose 
 to insist, his character could not be denied elevation, versatility, 
 breadth, insight, and delicacy; but neither as a politician nor as a 
 political philosopher did he seem at ease in the atmosphere which sur- 
 rounded him. As a leader of democracy, he appeared singularly out 
 of place. As reserved as President Washington in the face of popu- 
 lar familiarities, he never showed himself in crowds. During the 
 last thirty years of his life he was not seen in a Northern city, even 
 during his Presidency ; nor indeed was he seen at all except on 
 horseback, or by hi^ friends and visitors in his own house. With 
 manners apparently popular and informal, he led a life of his own. 
 and allowed few persons to share it. His tastes were for that day 
 
II 
 
 excessively refined. His instincts were those of a liberal European 
 nobleman, like the Due de Liancourt; and he built for himself at 
 Monticello a chateau above contact with man. The rawness of 
 political life was an incessant torture to him, and personal attacks 
 made him keenly unhappy. His true delight was in an intellectual 
 life of science and art. To read, write, speculate in new lines of 
 thought, to keep abreast of the intellect of Europe, and to feed upon 
 Homer and Horace were pleasures more to his mind than any to be 
 found in a public assembly. He had some knowledge of mathe- 
 matics and a little acciuaintance with classical art ; but he fairly 
 revelled in what he believed to be beautiful, and his writings often 
 betrayed subtile feeling for artistic form, — a sure mark of intellect- 
 ual sensuousness. He shrank from whatever was rough or coarse, 
 and his yearning for sympathy was almost feminine. That such 
 a man should have ventured upon the stormy ocean of politics was 
 surprising, the more because he was no orator, and owed nothing to 
 any magnetic influence of voice or person. Never effective in de- 
 bate, for seventeen years before his Presidency he had not appeared 
 in a legislative body except in the chair of the Senate. He felt 
 a nervous horror for the contentiousness of such assemblies, and 
 even among his own friends he sometimes abandoned for the moment 
 his strongest convictions rather than support them by an effort of 
 authority. 
 
 If Jetierson appeared ill at ease in the position of a popular leader, 
 he seemed equally awkward in the intellectual restraints of his own 
 political principles. His mind shared little in common with the pro- 
 vincialism on which the Virginia and Kentuckv Resolutions were 
 founded. His instincts led him to widen rather than to narrow the 
 liounds of everv intellectual exercise ; and, if vested with political 
 authority, he could no more resist the temptation to stretch his 
 powers than he could abstain from using his mind on any subject 
 merelv because he might be drawn upon ground supposed to be 
 dangerous. He was a deist, believing that men could manage their 
 own salvation without the help of a state church. Prone to innova- 
 tion, he sometimes generalized without careful analysis. He was 
 a theorist, prepared to risk the fate of mankind on the chance of 
 reasoning far from certain in its details. His temperament was 
 sunny and sanguine, and the atrabilious philosophy of New England 
 was intolerable to him. He was curiously vulnerable, for he seldom 
 wrote a page without exposing himself to attack. He was super- 
 ficial in his knowledge, and a martyr to the disease of omniscience. 
 Ridicule of his opinions and of himself was an easy task, in which 
 his Federalist opponents delighted, for his English was often con- 
 fused, his assertions inaccurate, and at times of excitement he was 
 apt to talk with indiscretion ; while, with all his extraordinarv versa- 
 tility of character and opinions, he seemed dvu'ing his entire life to 
 
12 
 
 breathe with perfect satisfaction nowhere except in the liberal, liter- 
 ary, and scientific air of Paris in 1789. 
 
 Jefferson aspired beyond the ambition of a nationality, and em- 
 braced in his view the whole future of man. That the United States 
 should become a nation like France, England, or Russia, should 
 conquer the world like Rome, or develop a typical race like the 
 Chinese, was no part of his scheme. He wished to begin a new era. 
 Hoping for a time when the world's ruling interests should cease to 
 be local and should become universal ; when questions of boundary 
 and nationality should become insignificant ; when armies and navies 
 should be reduced to the work of police, and politics should consist 
 only in non-intervention, — he set himself to the task of governing, 
 with this golden age in view. Few men have dared to legislate as 
 though eternal peace were at hand, in a world torn by wars and con- 
 vulsions and drowned in blood; but this was what Jefferson aspired 
 to do. Even in such dangers, he believed that Americans might 
 safefy set an example which the Christian world should be led by 
 interest to respect and at length to imitate. As he conceived a true 
 American policy, war was a blunder, an unnecessary risk; and even 
 in case of robbery and aggression the United States, he believed, 
 had only to stand on the defensive in order to obtain justice in the 
 end. He would not consent to build up a new nationality merely to 
 create more navies and armies, to perpetuate the crimes and follies 
 of Europe : the central government at Washington should not be 
 permitted to indulge in the miserable ambitions that had made the 
 Old World a hell, and frustrated the hopes of humanitv. . . . 
 
 Jefferson was the first President inaugurated at Washington ; and 
 the ceremony, necessarily simple, was made still simpler for political 
 reasons. The retiring President was not present at the installation 
 of his successor. In Jefferson's eyes a revolution had taken place as 
 vast as that of 1 776 ; and if this was his belief, perhaps the late 
 President was wise to retire from a stage where everything was ar- 
 ranged to point a censure upon his principles, and where he would 
 have seemed, in his successor's opinion, as little in place as George 
 III. would have appeared at the installation of President Washing- 
 ton. The collapse of government which marked the last weeks of 
 February, 1801, had been such as to leave of the old Cabinet only 
 Samuel Dexter of Massachusetts, the Secretary of the Treasury, and 
 Benjamin Stoddert. of Maryland, the Secretary of the Navy, still in 
 office. John Marshall, the late Secretary of State, had been ap- 
 pointed, six weeks before. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 
 
 In this first appearance of John Marshall as Chief Justice, to ad- 
 minister the oath of office, lay the dramatic climax of the inaugura- 
 tion. The retiring President, acting for what he supposed to be the 
 best interests of the country, by one of his last acts of power, delib- 
 erately intended to perpetuate the principles of his administration. 
 
13 
 
 placed at the head of the judiciary, for life, a man as obnoxious to 
 Jefferson as the bitterest New England Calvinist could have been; 
 for he belonged to that class of conservative Virginians whose devo- 
 tion to President Washington, and whose education in the common 
 law, caused them to hoH Jefferson and his theories in antipathy. 
 The new President and his two Secretaries were political philanthro- 
 pists, bent on restricting the powers of the national government in the 
 interests of human liberty. The Chief Justice, a man who in grasp of 
 mind and steadiness of purpose had no superior, perhaps no equal, 
 was bent on enlarging the powers of government in the interests of 
 justice and nationality. As they stood face to face on this threshold 
 of their power, each could foresee that the contest between them 
 would end only with life. . . . 
 
 John Davis, one of many Englishmen who were allowed by Burr 
 to attach themselves to him on the chance of some future benetit to 
 be derived from them, asserted in a book of American travels pub- 
 lished in London two years afterward that he was present at the in- 
 auguration, and that Jefferson rode on horseback to the Capitol, 
 and, after hitching his horse to the palings, went in to take the oath. 
 This story, being spread by the Federalist newspapers, was accepted 
 by the Republicans, and became a legend of the Capitol. In fact, 
 Davis was not then at Washington; and his story was untrue. 
 Afterward, as President, Jefferson was in the habit of going on 
 horseback, rather than in a carriage, wherever business called him ; 
 and the Federalists found fault with him for doing so. " He makes 
 it a point," they declared,* " when he has occasion to visit the 
 Capitol to meet the representatives of the nation on public business, 
 to go on a single horse, which he leads into the shed and hitches to 
 a peg." Davis wished to write a book that should amuse English- 
 men ; and, in order to give an air of truth to invention, he added 
 that he was himself present at the ceremonv. Jefferson was then 
 living as Vice-President at Conrad's boarding-house, within a stone's 
 throw of the Capitol. He did not mount his horse only to ride 
 across the square and dismount in a crowd of observers. Doubtless 
 he wished to offer an example of republican simplicity, and he was 
 not unwilling to annoy his opponents: but the ceremony was con- 
 ducted with proper form. 
 
 Edward Thornton, then in charge of the Pritish Legation at 
 Washington, wrote to Lord Grenville, then Foreign Secretary in 
 Pitt's administration, a despatch enclosing the new President's In- 
 augural Address, with comments upon its democratic tendencies; 
 and, after a few remarks on this subject, he added : | — 
 
 '• The same republican spirit which runs through this perfornv 
 ance, and which in many passages discovers some bitterness through 
 
 '* Ez'enifig Post, April 20, 1802. 
 
 + Thornton to Grenville, March 4, 1801 ; INISS. British Archives. 
 
 85 
 
14 
 
 all the sentiments of conciliation and philanthropy with which it is 
 overcharged, Mr. Jefferson affected to display in performing the 
 customary ceremonies. He came from his own lodgings to the 
 House where the Congress convenes, and which goes by the name 
 of the Capitol, on foot, in his ordinary dress, escorted by a body of 
 militia artillery from the neighboring State, and accompanied by the 
 Secretaries of the Navy and the Treasury, and a number of his 
 political friends in the House of Representatives. He was received 
 by Mr. Burr, the Mce-President of the United States, who arrived a 
 day or two ago at the seat of government, and who was previously 
 admitted this morning to the chair of the Senate ; and was afterward 
 complimented at his own lodgings by the very few foreign agents 
 who reside at this place, by the members of Congress, and other 
 public officials." 
 
 Only the north wing of the Capitol had then been so far com- 
 pleted as to be occupied by the Senate, the courts, and the small 
 library of Congress. The centre rose not much above its founda- 
 tions ; and the south wing, some twenty feet in height, contained 
 a temporary oval brick building, commonly called the " Oven," in 
 which the House of Representatives sat in some peril of their lives ; 
 for, had not the walls been strongly shored up from without, the 
 structure would have crumbled to pieces. Into the north wing the 
 new President went, accompanied by the only remaining secretaries. 
 Dexter and Stoddert, and by his friends from the House. Received 
 by Vice-President Burr, and seated in the chair between Burr and 
 Marshall, after a short pause Jefferson rose, and in a somewhat inau- 
 dible voice began his Inaugural Addre.ss. 
 
 Time, which has laid its chastening hand on many reputations, 
 and has given to many once famous formulas a meaning unsuspected 
 by their authors, has not altogether spared Jefferson's rirst Inaugural 
 Address, although it was for a long time almost as well known as the 
 Declaration of Independence; yet this Address was one of the few 
 State Papers which should have lost little of its interest by age. As 
 the starting-point of a powerful political party, the first Inaugural was 
 a standard by which future movements were measured ; and it went 
 out of fashion only when its principles were universally accepted or 
 thrown aside. Even as a literary work, it possessed a certain charm 
 of style peculiar to Jefferson, a flavor of Virginia thought and man- 
 ners, a Jeffersonian ideality calculated to please the ear of later gen- 
 erations forced to task their utmost powers in order to carry the 
 complex trains of their thought. 
 
 The chief object of the Address was to c^uiet the passions which 
 had been raised by the violent agitation of the past eight years. 
 Every interest of the new Administration required that the extreme 
 Federalists should be disarmed. Their temper was such as to en- 
 danger both Administration and Union ; and their power was still 
 
 86 
 
15 
 
 formidable, for they controlled New England and contested New- 
 York. To them Jefferson turned : " Let us unite with one heart and 
 one mind," he entreated; '"let us restore to social intercourse that 
 harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are 
 but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from 
 our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled 
 and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political 
 intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and 
 bloody persecutions. Every diiference of opinion is not a difference 
 of principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." . . . 
 
 A revolution had taken place: but the new President seemed 
 anxious to prove that there had been no revolution at all. A new 
 experiment in government was to be tried, and the philosopher at its 
 head began by pledging himself to follow in the footsteps of his 
 predecessors. Americans ended by taking him at his word, and by 
 assuming that there was no break of continuity between his ideas 
 and those of President Washinoton. 
 
 LETTER FROM JEFFERSON TO SAMUEL ADAMS. 
 
 Jl'aski)igto!i. Mar. 2g. /So/. 
 
 1 addressed a letter to you. my very dear and antient friend, on 
 the 4th of March : not indeed to you by name, but through the 
 medium of some of my fellow citizens whom occasion called on me 
 to address. In meditating the matter of that address, I often asked 
 myself, is this exactly in the spirit of the patriarch of liberty, Samuel 
 Adams? Is it as he would express it? Will he approve of it? I 
 have felt a great deal for our country in the times we have seen. 
 But individually for no one so much as yourself. When I have been 
 told that you were avoided, insulted, frowned on, I could but ejacu- 
 late, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' I con- 
 fess I felt an indignation for you, which for myself T have been able, 
 under every trial, to keep entirely passive. However, the storm is 
 over, and we are in port. The ship was not rigged for the service 
 she was put on. We will show the smoothness of her motions on 
 her republican tack. I hope we shall once more see harmony re- 
 stored among our citizens, & an entire oblivion of past feuds. Some 
 of the leaders who have most committed themselves cannot come 
 into this. But I hope the great body of our fellow citizens will do 
 it. I will sacrifice everything but principle to procure it. A few 
 examples of justice on officers who have perverted their functions 
 to the oppression of their fellow citizens must, in justice to those 
 citizens, be made. But opinion, & the just maintenance of it, shall 
 never be a crime in my view : nor bring injury on the individual. 
 Those whose misconduct in office ought to have produced their re- 
 
 87 
 
i6 
 
 moval even by my predecessor, must not be protected by the delicacy 
 due only to honest men. How much I lament that time has deprived 
 me of your aid. It would have been a day of glory which should 
 have called you to the first office of the administration. But give us 
 your counsel, my friend, and give us your blessing ; and be assured 
 that there exists not in the heart of man a more faithful esteem than 
 mine to you, & that I shall ever bear you the most affectionate ven- 
 eration and respect. 
 
 The letter from Jefferson to Samuel Adams immediately preceding, 
 written just after his inauguration, is of interest as an expression of the 
 peculiar esteem and reverence which he felt for " the Father of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution." It is also of interest as an illustration of Jefferson's 
 revelation of his feelings in his letters so much more traly than in his 
 messages and addresses. The importance of this fact is well emphasized 
 by Henry Adams, from whose just and acute characterization of Jefferson 
 extracts are given above. Jefferson's writings are mostly letters, — there 
 are few essays or systematic works, — and few letters of the period are more 
 pregnant, varied, or informing. An edition of Jefferson's writings in nine 
 volumes, edited by H. A. Washington, was published in 1S53 by the 
 authority of the government. The publication of a completer and more 
 critical edition, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, was begun in 1S92. 
 
 The completest biography of Jefferson is that by Randall, in three vol- 
 umes, pu1)lished in 1858. The important biography by Tucker appeared 
 twenty years earlier; and the "Memoirs, Correspondence, and Miscellanies 
 of Thomas Jefferson," by Thomas J. Randolph, earlier still. The best popu- 
 lar life is that by James Parton. The volume on Jefferson in the " American 
 Statesmen " series is by John T. Morse, Jr. The life, by James Schouler, 
 in the " Makers of America " series, is an admiraljle little book. A valuable 
 supplement to all is " The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson," by his 
 great-grand-daughter, Sarah N. Randolph. 
 
 For the period of Jefferson's Presidency we are peculiarly fortunate. To 
 this are devoted the first four of the nine vokmies of Henry Adams's 
 History of the United States, the history of Jefferson's and Madison's 
 administrations. There is no better work relating to any period of Ameri- 
 can history. In wealth of knowledge, in thoroughness and accuracy, in 
 sympathetic appreciation of the time and its men, in grasp and warmth and 
 literary charm, this stands in the front rank of American histories; and to 
 it the student is referred for the most adequate introduction to the time of 
 Jefferson's inauguration and administration. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
<0lti ^outf) %taiitt0. 
 
 No. 105. 
 
 An Account of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 1803. 
 
 Being an Abstract of Documents in the Offices of the Departments 
 of State and of the Treasury. 
 
 The object of the following pages is to consolidate the in- 
 formation respecting the present state of Louisiana, furnished 
 to the Executive by several individuals among the best in- 
 formed upon that subject. 
 
 Of the province of Louisiana no general map, sufificiently 
 correct to be depended upon, has been published, nor has any 
 been yet procured from a private source. It is indeed prob- 
 able that surveys have never been made on so extensive a 
 scale as to afford the means of laying down the various regions 
 of a country which, in some of its parts, appears to have been 
 but imperfectly explored. 
 
 Boundaries. — The precise boundaries of Louisiana, west- 
 wardly of the Mississippi, though very extensive, are at pres- 
 ent involved in some obscurity. Data are equally wanting to 
 assign with precision its northern extent. From the source of 
 the Mississippi, it is bounded eastwardly by the middle of the 
 channel of that river to the thirty-first degree of latitude : 
 thence it is asserted upon very strong grounds that according 
 to its limits, when formerly possessed by France, it stretches to 
 the east, as far, at least, as the river Perdigo. which runs into 
 the bay of Mexico, eastward of the river Mobille. 
 
 It may be consistent with the view of these notes to remark 
 that Louisiana, including the Mobille settlements, was discov- 
 ered and peopled by the French, whose monarchs made several 
 
 S9 
 
grants of its trade, in particular to Mr. Crosat in 17 12, and 
 some years afterwards, with his acquiescence, to the well- 
 known company projected by Mr. Law. This company was 
 relinquished in the year 1731. By a secret convention on the 
 3d November, 1762, the French government ceded so much of 
 the province as lies beyond the Mississippi, as well as the 
 island of New-Orleans, to Spain, and by the treaty of peace 
 which followed in 1763 the whole territory of France and 
 Spain eastward of the middle of the Mississippi to the Iber- 
 ville, thence through the middle of that river, and the lakes 
 Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the sea, was ceded to Great 
 Britain. Spain having conquered the Floridas from Great 
 Britain during our Revolutionary War, they were confirmed to 
 her by the treaty of peace of 1783. By the treaty of St. Ilde- 
 fonso, of the ist of October, 1800, his Catholic Majesty prom- 
 ises and engages on his part to cede back to the French 
 Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the 
 conditions and stipulations therein contained, relative to the 
 Duke of Parma, "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the 
 same extent that it actually has in the hands of Spain, that it 
 had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be after 
 the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other 
 states." This treaty was confirmed and enforced by that of 
 Madrid of the 21st March, 1801. From France it passed to 
 us by the treaty of the 30th of April last, with a reference 
 to the above clause, as descriptive of the limits ceded. 
 
 Divisions of the Province. — The province as held by Spain, 
 including a part of West Florida, is laid off into the following 
 principal divisions : Mobille, from Balise to the city, New- 
 Orleans and the country on both sides of Lake Ponchartrain, 
 first and second German coasts, Catahanose, Fourche, Vene- 
 zuela, Iberville, Galvez-Town, Baton-Rouge, Pointe Coupee, 
 Atacapas, Opelousas, Ouachita, Avoyelles, Rapide, Natchi- 
 toches, Arkansas, and the Illinois. 
 
 In the Illinois there are commandants, at New- Madrid, St. 
 Genevieve, New Bourbon, St. Charles and St. Andrews, all 
 subordinate to the commandant general. 
 
 Baton-Rouge having been made a government, subsequently 
 to the treaty of limits, etc., with Spain, the posts of Manchac 
 and Thompson's Creek, or Feliciana, were added to it, 
 
 Chapitoulas has sometimes been regarded as a separate 
 command, but is now included within the jurisdiction of the 
 90 
 
city. The lower part of the river has likewise had occasion- 
 ally a separate commandant. 
 
 Many of the present establishments are separated from each 
 other by immense and trackless deserts, having no communi- 
 cation with each other by land, except now and then a solitary 
 instance of its being attempted by hunters, who have to swim 
 rivers, expose themselves to the inclemency of the weather, 
 and carry their provisions on their backs for a time, propor- 
 tioned to the length of their journey. This is particularly the 
 case on the west of the Mississippi, where the communication 
 is kept up only by water, between the capital and the distant 
 settlements, three months being required to convey intelli- 
 gence from the one to the other by the Mississippi. The usual 
 distance accomplished by a boat in ascending is five leagues 
 per day. 
 
 The rapidity of the current in the spring season especially, 
 when the waters of all the rivers are high, facilitates the 
 descent, so that the same voyage by water, which requires 
 three or four months to perform from the capital, may be made 
 to it in from twelve to sixteen days. The principal settlements 
 in Louisiana are on the Mississippi, which begins to be culti- 
 vated about twenty leagues from the sea, where the plantations 
 are yet thin, and owned by the poorest people. Ascending, 
 you see them improve on each side, till you reach the city, 
 which is situated on the east bank, on a bend of the river, 35 
 leagues from the sea, ' 
 
 Chapitoulas^ First and Second German Coasts. — Catahanose. 
 — Fourche and Iberville. — The best and most approved are 
 above the city, and comprehend what is there known by the 
 Paroisse de Chapitoulas, Premier and Second Cote des AUe- 
 mands, and extends 16 leagues. 
 
 Above this begins the parish of Catahanose, or first Acadian 
 settlement, extending eight leagues on the river. Adjoining it 
 and still ascending is the second Acadian settlement or parish 
 of the Fourche, which extends about six leagues. The parish 
 of Iberville then commences, and is bounded on the east side 
 by the river of the same name, which, though dry a great part 
 of the year, yet, when the Mississippi is raised, it communi- 
 cates with the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain, and through 
 them with the sea, and thus forms what is called the island of 
 Xew-Orleans. Except on the point just below the Iberville 
 the country from New-Orleans is settled the whole way along 
 
 91 
 
the river, and presents a scene of uninterrupted plantations in 
 sight of each other, whose fronts to the Mississippi are all 
 cleared and occupy on that river from 5 to 25 acres with a 
 depth of 40, so that a plantation of 5 acres in front contains 
 200. A few sugar plantations are formed in the parish of 
 Catahanose ; but the remainder is devoted to cotton and pro- 
 visions, and the whole is an excellent soil, incapable of being 
 exhausted. The plantations are but one deep on the island of 
 New-Orleans, and on the opposite side of the river as far as 
 the mouth of the Iberville, which is 35 leagues above New- 
 Orleans. 
 
 Bayou de Fourche. — Atacapas and Opelousas. — About 25 
 leagues from the last-mentioned place on the west side of the 
 Mississippi, the creek or Bayou of the Fourche, called in old 
 maps La Riviere des Chitamaches, flows from the Mississippi, 
 and communicates with the sea to the west of the Balise. The 
 entrance of the Mississippi is navigable only at high water, but 
 will then admit of craft of from 60 to 70 tons' burthen. On 
 both banks of this creek are settlements, one plantation deep, 
 for near 15 leagues; and they are divided into two parishes. 
 The settlers are numerous, though poor ; and the culture is uni- 
 versally cotton. On all creeks making from the Mississippi 
 the soil is the same as on the bank of the river ; and the border 
 is the highest part of it, from whence it descends gradually to 
 the swamp. In no place on the low lands is there depth more 
 than suffices for one plantation, before you come to the low 
 grounds, incapable of cultivation. This creek affords one of 
 the communications to the two populous and rich settlements 
 of Atacapas and Opelousas, formed on and near the small 
 rivers Teche and Vermilion which flow into the Bay of Mexico. 
 But the principal and swiftest communication is by the Bayou 
 or creek of Plaquemines, whose entrance into the Mississippi 
 is 7 leagues higher up on the same side, and 32 above New- 
 Orleans. These settlements abound in cattle and horses, have 
 a large quantity of good land in their vicinity, and may be 
 made of great importance. A part of their produce is sent by 
 sea to New-Orleans, but the greater part is carried in batteaux 
 by the creeks above mentioned. 
 
 Baton- Rouge and its Dependencies. — Immediately above the 
 Iberville and on both sides of the Mississippi lies the parish 
 of Manchac, which extends four leagues on the river, and is 
 well cultivated. Above it commences the settlement of Baton- 
 92 
 
Rouge, extending about 9 leagues. It is remarkable as being 
 the first place where the high land is contiguous to the river, 
 and here it forms a bluff from 30 to 40 feet above the greatest 
 rise of the river. Here the settlements extend a considerable 
 way back on the east side, and this parish has that of Thomp- 
 son's Creek and Bayou Sara subordinate to it. The mouth of 
 the first of these creeks is about 49 leagues from New-Orleans, 
 and that of the latter 2 or 3 leagues higher up. They run 
 from north-east to south-west, and their head-w^aters are north 
 of the 31st degree of latitude, Their banks have the best soil 
 and the greatest number of good cotton plantations of any part 
 of Louisiana, and are allowed to be the garden of it. 
 
 Poiiite Coupee 6^ Fausse Riviere. — Above Baton- Rouge, at 
 the distance of 50 leagues from New-Orleans, and on the west 
 side of the Mississippi, is Pointe Coupee, a populous and rich 
 settlement, extending 8 leagues along the river. Its produce 
 is cotton. Behind it, on an old bed of the river, now a lake, 
 w^hose outlets are closed up, is the settlement of Fausse Riviere, 
 which is well cultivated. 
 
 In the space now described from the sea as high as and in- 
 cluding the last-mentioned settlement is contained three-fourths 
 of the population and seven-eighths of the riches of Louisiana. 
 
 From the settlement of Pointe Coupee on the Mississippi to 
 Cape Girardeau above the mouth of the Ohio there is no land 
 on the west side that is not overflowed in the spring to the 
 distance of 8 or 10 leagues from the river, wdth from 2 to 12 
 feet of water, except a small spot near New- Madrid, so that in 
 the whole extent there is no possibility of forming a consider- 
 able settlement contiguous to the river on that side. The east- 
 ern bank has in this respect a decided advantage over the 
 western, as there are on it many situations which effectually 
 command the river. 
 
 Red River and its Settlements. — On the west side of the 
 Mississippi, 70 leagues from New-Orleans, is the mouth of the 
 Red River, on whose banks and vicinity are the settlements of 
 Rapide, Avoyelles, and Natchitoches, all of them thriving and 
 populous. The latter is situate 75 leagues up the Red River. 
 On the north side of the Red River, a few leagues from its junc- 
 tion with the Mississippi, is the Black River, on one of whose 
 branches, a considerable way up, is the infant settlement of Oua- 
 chita, which from the richness of the soil may be made a place 
 of importance. Cotton is the chief produce of these settle- 
 
 93 
 
ments, but they have likewise a considerable Indian trade. 
 The river Rouge, or Red River, is used to communicate with 
 the frontiers of New Mexico. 
 
 Concord. — Arkansas. — .5"/. Charles and St. Andre^v, &=€. — 
 There is no other settlement on the Mississippi except the 
 small one called Concord, opposite to the Natchez, till you 
 come to the Arkansas^ River, whose mouth is 250 leagues above 
 New-Orleans. 
 
 Here there are but a few families, who are more attached to 
 the Indian trade (by which chiefly they live) than to cultiva- 
 tion. There is no settlement from this place to New-Madrid, 
 which is itself inconsiderable. Ascending the river, you come 
 to Cape Girardeau, St. Genevieve, and St. Louis, where, though 
 the inhabitants are numerous, they raise little for exportation, 
 and content themselves with trading with the Indians and 
 working a few lead mines. This country is very fertile, espe- 
 cially on the banks of the Missouri, where there have been 
 formed two settlements, called St. Charles and St. Andrew, 
 mostly by emigrants from Kentucky. The peltry procured in 
 the Illinois is the best sent to the Atlantic market, and the 
 quantity is very considerable. Lead is to be had with ease, 
 and in such quantities as to supply all Europe, if the popula- 
 tion were sufficient to work the numerous mines to be found 
 within two or three feet from the surface in various parts of 
 the country. The settlements about the Illinois were tirst 
 made by the Canadians, and their inhabitants still resemble 
 them in their aversion to labor and love of a wandering life. 
 They contain but few negroes, compared to the number of the 
 whites; and it may be taken for a general rule that, in propor- 
 tion to the distance of the capital, the number of blacks dimin- 
 ish below that of the whites, the former abounding most on 
 the rich plantations in its vicinity. 
 
 General Description of Upper Louisiana. — When compared 
 with the Indiana territory, the face of the country in Upper 
 Louisiana is rather more broken, though the soil is equally 
 fertile. It is a fact not to be contested that the west side of 
 the river possesses some advantages not generally incident to 
 those regions. It is elevated and healthy and well watered with 
 a variety of large, rapid streams, calculated for mills and other 
 water works. From Cape Girardeau, above the mouth of the 
 Ohio, to the Missouri, the land on the east side of the Missis- 
 sippi is low and flat and occasionally exposed to inundations ; 
 94 
 
that on the Louisiana side, contiguous to the river, is generally 
 much higher, and in many places very rocky on the shore. 
 Some of the heights exhibit a scene truly picturesque. They 
 rise to a height of at least 300 feet, faced with perpendicular 
 li7nc and freestone, carved into various shapes and figures by 
 the hand of nature, and afford the appearance of a multitude 
 of antique towers. From the tops of these elevations the land 
 gradually slopes back from the river, without gravel or rock, 
 and is covered with valuable timber. It may be said with 
 truth that, for fertility of soil, no part of the world exceeds 
 the borders of the Mississippi, the land yields an abundance 
 of all the necessaries of life, and almost spontaneously, very 
 little labor being required in the cultivation of the earth. That 
 part of Upper Louisiana which borders on North Mexico is 
 one immense /rrt-Zr/^,- it produces nothing but grass; it is filled 
 with buffalo, deer, and other kinds of game ; the land is rep- 
 resented as too rich for the growth of forest trees. 
 
 It is pretended that Upper Louisiana contains in its 
 bowels many silver and copper mines, and various specimens 
 of both are exhibited. Several trials have been made to ascer- 
 tain the fact : but the want of skill in the artists has hitherto 
 left the subject undecided. 
 
 The salt works are also pretty numerous : some belong to 
 individuals, others to the public. They already yield an 
 abundant supply for the consumption of the country, and, if 
 properly managed, might become an article of more general 
 exportation. The usual price per bushel is 150 cents in cash 
 at the works. This price will be still lower as soon as the 
 manufacture of the salt is assumed by government, or patron- 
 ised by men who have large capitals to employ in the business. 
 One extraordinary fact relative to salt must not be omitted. 
 There exists about 1,000 miles up the Missouri, and not far 
 from that river, a Salt Mountain ! The existence of such a 
 mountain might well be questioned, were it not for the testi- 
 mony of several respectable and enterprising traders, who have 
 visited it, and who have exhibited several bushels of the salt 
 to the curiosity of the people of St. Louis, where some of it 
 still remains. A specimen of the same salt has been sent to 
 Marietta. This mountain is said to be 180 miles long and 45 
 in width, conaposed of solid rock salt, without any trees or even 
 shrubs on it. Salt springs are very numerous beneath the sur- 
 face of the mountain, and they flow through the fissures and 
 
 95 
 
cavities of it. Caves of salt-petre are found in Upper Louisi- 
 ana, though at some distance from the settlements. Four men 
 on a trading voyage lately discovered one several hundred 
 miles up the Missouri. They spent 5 or 6 weeks in the manu- 
 facture of this article, and returned to St. Louis with 400 
 weight of it. It proved to be good, and they sold it for a high 
 price. 
 
 The geography of the Mississippi and Missouri, and their 
 contiguity for a great length of way, are but little known. The 
 traders assert that 100 miles above their junction a man may 
 walk from one to the other in a day ; and it is also asserted 
 that 700 miles still higher up the portage may be crossed in 
 four or five days. This portage is frequented by traders, who 
 carry on a considerable trade with some of the Missouri 
 Indians. Their general route is through Green Bay, which is 
 an arm of Lake Michigan ; they then pass into a small lake 
 connected with it, and which communicates with the Fox 
 River ; they then cross over a short portage into the Ouiscon- 
 sing River, which unites with the Mississippi some distance 
 below the falls of St. Anthony. It is also said that the traders 
 communicate with the Mississippi above these falls, through 
 Lake Superior ; but their trade in that quarter is much less 
 considerable. 
 
 Canal of Carondekt. — Behind New-Orleans is a canal about 
 i-^ miles long, which communicates with a creek called the 
 Bayou St. Jean, flowing into Lake Ponchartrain. At the 
 mouth of it, about 2^ leagues from the city, is a small fort 
 called St. Jean, which commands the entrance from the lake. 
 By this creek the communication is kept up through the lake 
 and the Rigolets to Mobille and the settlements in West 
 Florida. Craft drawing from 6 to 8 feet water can navigate 
 to the mouth of the creek, but except in particular swells of 
 the lake cannot pass the bar without being lightened. 
 
 St. Bernardo. — On the east side of the Mississippi, about 
 five leagues below New-Orleans and at the head of the English 
 bend, is a settlement known by the name of the Poblacion de St. 
 Bernardo, or the Terre aux Boeufs, extending on both sides of a 
 creek or drain, whose head is contiguous to the Mississippi, 
 and which flowing eastward, after a course of 18 leagues and 
 dividing itself into two branches, falls into the sea and lake 
 Borgne. This settlement consists of two parishes, almost all 
 the inhabitants of which are Spaniards from the Canaries, who 
 96 
 
content themselves with raising fowls, corn, and garden stuff 
 for the Market at New-Orleans. The lands cannot be culti- 
 vated to any great distance from the banks of the creek on 
 account of the vicinity of the marsh behind them, but the place 
 is susceptible of great improvement and of affording another 
 communication to small craft of from 8 to lo feet draught be- 
 tween the sea and the Mississippi. 
 
 Settlements below the English Turn. — At the distance of i6 
 leagues below New-Orleans the settlements on both banks of 
 the river are of but small account. Between these and the 
 fort of Plaquemines the country is overflowed in the spring, 
 and in many places is incapable of cultivation at any time, 
 being a morass almost impassable by man or beast. This 
 small tongue of land extends considerably into the sea, which 
 is visible on both sides of the Mississippi from a ship's mast. 
 
 Country from Plaqucfnines to the Sea, and Effect of the Hurri- 
 canes. — From Plaquemines to the sea is 12 or 13 leagues. 
 The country is low, swampy, chiefly covered with reeds, having 
 little or no timber and no settlement whatever. It may be 
 necessary to mention here that the whole lower part of the 
 country from the English Turn downward is subject to over- 
 flowing in hurricanes, either by the recoiling of the river or 
 reflux from the sea on each side ; and on more than one occa- 
 sion it has been covered from the depth of 2 to 10 feet, accord- 
 ing to the descent of the river, whereby many lives were lost, 
 horses and cattle swept away, and a scene of destruction laid. 
 The last calamity of this kind happened in 1794; but, fortu- 
 nately, they are not frequent. In the preceding year the 
 engineer who superintended the erection of the fort of 
 Plaquemines was drowned in his house near the fort, and the 
 workmen and garrison escaped only by taking refuge on an 
 elevated spot in the fort, on which there were, notwithstanding, 
 2 or 3 feet of water. These hurricanes have generally been 
 felt in the month of August. Their greatest fury lasts about 
 1 2 hours. They commence in the south-east, veer about to all 
 points of the compass, are felt most severely below and seldom 
 extend more than a few leagues above New-Orleans. In their 
 whole course they are marked with ruin and desolation. Until 
 that of 1793 there had been none felt from the year 1780. 
 
 Passes, or Mouths of the Mississippi. — About 8 leagues below 
 Plaquemines, the Mississippi divides itself into three channels, 
 which are called the passes of the river ; viz., the East, South, 
 
 97 
 
10 
 
 and South-west passes. Their course is from 5 to 6 leagues 
 to the sea. The space between is a marsh with Httle or no 
 timber on it ; but from its situation it may hereafter be ren- 
 dered of importance. The East pass, which is on the left 
 hand going down the river, is divided into two branches about 
 two leagues below, viz. the Pass a la Loutre, and that known 
 to mariners by the name of the Balize, at which there is a small 
 block house and some huts of the pilots, who reside only here. 
 The first of these secondary channels contains at present but 
 8 feet water, the latter from 14 to 16 according to the seasons. 
 The South pass, which is directly in front of the Mississippi, 
 has always been considered as entirely choaked up, but has 10 
 feet water. The South-west pass, which is on the right, is the 
 longest and narrowest of all the passes, and a few years ago 
 had 18 feet water, and was that by which the large ships al- 
 ways entered and sailed from the Mississippi. It has now but 
 8 feet w^ater, and will probably remain so for some time. In 
 speaking of the quantity of water in the passes, it must be 
 understood of what is on the bar of each pass ; for immediately 
 after passing the bar, which is very narrow, there are from 5 to 
 7 fathoms at all seasons. 
 
 Country East of Lake Poiichartrain. — The country on the east 
 side of Lake Ponchartrain to Mobille, and including the whole 
 extent between the American line, the Mississippi above New- 
 Orleans, and the lakes (with the exception of a tract of about 
 30 miles on the Mississippi, and as much square contiguous 
 to the line, and comprehending the waters of Thompson's 
 Creek, Bayou Sara, and the x'\met) is a poor thin soil, over- 
 grown with pine, and contains no good land whatever, unless 
 on the banks of a few small rivers. It would, however, afford 
 abundant supplies of pitch, tar and pine lumber, and would 
 feed large herds of cattle. 
 
 The Inhabitants and their Origin. — The inhabitants of 
 Louisiana are chiefly the descendants of the French and 
 Canadians. There are a considerable number of English and 
 Americans in New-Orleans. The two German coasts are 
 peopled by the descendants of settlers from Germany, and a 
 few French mixed with them. The three succeeding settle- 
 ments up to Baton-Rouge contain mostly Acadians, banished 
 from Nova Scotia by the English and their descendants. The 
 government of Baton-Rouge, especially the east side, which 
 includes all the country between the Iberville and the Amer- 
 98 
 
II 
 
 ican line, is composed partly of Acadians, a very few French, 
 and of a great majority of Americans. On the west side they 
 are mostly Acadians : at Pointe Coupee and Faussee River they 
 are French and Acadians. Of the population of the Atacapas 
 and Opelousas, a considerable part is American. Natchito- 
 ches, on the Red River, contains but a few Americans, and the 
 remainder of the inhabitants are French ; but the former are 
 more numerous in the other settlements on that river, — viz., 
 Avoyelles, Rapide, and Ouacheta. At Arkansas they are, 
 mostly French ; and at New-Madrid, Americans. At least two- 
 fifths, if not a greater proportion of all the settlers on the 
 Spanish side of the Mississippi, in the Illinois country, are 
 likewise supposed to be Americans. Below New-Orleans the 
 population is altogether French, and the descendants of 
 Frenchmen. 
 
 New Orleans. — By recurring to the maps and examining the 
 position of Louisiana, it will appear that the lower part 
 projects considerably into the sea. It has in all probability 
 been formed by the sediment brought down by the current and 
 deposited on the flat coast. There is therefore on the east 
 side but a very narrow slip along the bank of the river, from 
 the sea to the Iberville. The land is not generally susceptible 
 of cultivation more than a mile in depth from the river : the 
 rest is low and swampy to the lakes and the sea, but in general 
 abounds with cypress timber, which is sawed by mills, which 
 are worked by artificial streams from the Mississippi in the 
 time of freshes. They generally run five months in the year. 
 
 What has been said of the east equally applies to the west 
 side of the river. The soil and situation are nearly the same. 
 After leaving the bank of the river, there is an immense 
 swamp, intersected by creeks and lakes, extending to the high 
 lands of Atacapas, and occupying a space of thirty or forty 
 leagues. 
 
 The city of New-Orleans, which is regularly laid out, on the 
 east side of the Mississippi, in lat. 30, N., and long. 90, W., ex- 
 tends nearly a mile along the river, from the gate of France 
 on the south to that of Chapitoulas above, and a little more 
 than a third of a mile in breadth, from the river to the ram- 
 part ; but it has an extensive suburb on the upper side. The 
 houses in front of the town, and for a square or two back- 
 wards, are mostly of brick, covered with slate or tile, and many 
 of two stories. The remainder are of wood, covered with 
 
 9) 
 
12 
 
 shingles. The streets cross each other at right angles, and are 
 32 French feet wide. The squares between the intersections 
 of the streets have a front of 300 French feet. There is in the 
 middle of the front of the city -a. place (farmes, facing which the 
 church and town house are built. There are from 12 to 1,400 
 houses in the city and suburbs. The population may be esti- 
 mated at 10,000, including the seamen and garrison. It was 
 fortified in 1793, but the works were originally defective, could 
 not have been defended, and are now in ruins. The powder 
 magazine is on the opposite bank of the river. 
 
 The public buildings and other public property in New- 
 Orleans are as follows : — 
 
 Two very extensive brick stores, from 160 to 180 feet in 
 length and about 30 in breadth. They are one-story high, and 
 covered with shingles. 
 
 A government house, stables, and garden, occupying a front 
 of about 220 feet on the river, in the middle of the town, and 
 extending 336 feet back to the next street. 
 
 A military hospital. 
 
 An ill-built custom-house of wood, almost in ruins, in the 
 upper part of the city, near the river. 
 
 An extensive barrack in the lower part of the city, fronting 
 on the river, and calculated to lodge 12 or 1,400 men. 
 
 A large lot adjoining the king's stores, with a few sheds in 
 it. It serves as a park for artillery. 
 
 A prison, towai house, market house, assembly room, some 
 ground rents, and the common about the town. 
 
 A public school for the rudiments of the Spanish language. 
 
 A cathedral church unfinished, and some houses belonging 
 to it. 
 
 A charitable hospital, with some houses belonging to it, and 
 a revenue of 1,500 dollars annually, endowed by an individual 
 lately deceased. 
 
 The canal de Carondelet has been already described. 
 
 Number of Inhabitants. — According to the annexed census,* 
 No. 2, of Louisiana, including Pensacola and the Natchez, as 
 made in 1785, the whole number of inhabitants amounted to 
 32,062, of which 14,215 were free whites, 1,303 free people of 
 colour, and 16,544 slaves. 
 
 The statement. No. 3, from the latest documents, makes the 
 whole number 42,375, the free whites, 21,244, the free people 
 of colour, 1,768, and the slaves, 12,920. 
 
 * Referring to appendix not here printed. 
 100 
 
13 
 
 A particular statement respecting the population, Sec, of 
 Upper Louisiana, and another containing the census of New 
 Orleans, in this year, are numbered 4 and 5 in the appen- 
 dix. 
 
 These papers certainly exhibit a smaller number than the 
 real population of the country. From an official document, 
 made in July last, and received from Atacapas since the state- 
 ment, No. 3, was formed, it appears that it contained 2,270 
 whites, 210 free people of colour, 1,266 slaves, in all 3,746 
 souls instead of 1,447, ^^ therein stated. It is highly probable 
 that the return for the neighbouring district of Opelousas is in 
 the same proportion underrated. 
 
 A conjectural estimation made by a gentleman of great re- 
 spectability and correct information, residing at Natchez, raises 
 the number of whites in the island of New Orleans, on the west 
 side of the river, and some settlements on the east side, to 50, 
 150, and the number of blacks to 39,820. His statement is 
 also subjoined, No. 6. 
 
 It is at all times difficult to obtain the full census of a 
 county, and the impediments are increased in this from its 
 scattered population. The actual enumeration may therefore 
 fall short of the true numbers. 
 
 Aniitia. — There is a militia in Louisiana. The following is 
 the return of it, made to the court of Spain, by the Baron of 
 Carondelet. 
 
 Alilitia. 
 From Balize to the city — volunteers of the Mississippi, 
 
 — 4 companies of 100 men each — complete, 400 
 
 City — Battalion of the city, 5 companies, 500 
 
 Artillery company, with supernumeraries, 120 
 
 Carabineers, or privileged companies of horse, 
 
 2 companies of 70 each — incomplete, 100 
 
 Mulattoes, 2 companies; negroes, i do. 300 
 
 Mixed legion of the Mississippi, comprehending Gal- 
 veztown, Baton-Rouge, Pointe Coupee, Atacapas, and 
 Opelousas, viz. 
 
 2 companies of grenadiers, 
 
 8 do. of fusileers, 
 
 4 do. of dragoons, 
 
 2 do. lately added from Bayou Sara. 
 
 16 companies of 100 men each, 1,600 
 
 lOI 
 
Avoyelles, i company of infantry, loo 
 
 Oucheta, i do. of cavalry, loo 
 
 Natchitoches, i do. of infantry and i of cavalry, 200 
 
 Arkansas, i do. of infantry and cavalry, 100 
 
 Illinois, 4 do. of cavalry > These are always above the com- 
 4 do. of infantry ) pliment. 
 Provincial regiment of Germans and Acadians, from 
 the first German coast to Iberville, 
 10 companies, viz. 2 of grenadiers, ( 
 
 8 fusileers, j ' 
 
 Mobille and the country east of Lake Ponchartrain, 
 2 companies of horse and foot incomplete, 120 
 
 00 
 
 5'440 
 
 The same gentleman alluded to, page [13], makes the number 
 
 of the militia to amount to 10,340 men within the same limits 
 to which his estimate of the population applies. He distrib- 
 utes them in the several settlements, as follows : 
 
 T. The island of New-Orleans, with the opposite 
 
 margin and the adjacent settlements, - - - - 5,000 
 
 2. The west margin from Manchac, including Pointe 
 Coupee, and extending to the Red River, - - - 800 
 
 3. Atacapas, along the coast, between the Delta of 
 
 the Mississippi and the river Sabine, - - - - 350 
 
 4. Opelousas, - - - - - - - - 750 
 
 5. Red River, including Bayou Boeuf, Avoyelles, 
 Rapide, and Natchitoches, . . . . . 1,000 
 
 6. Ouachita, - - - - - - - - 300 
 
 7. Concord, -------- 40 
 
 8. Arkansas, -------- 150 
 
 9. New Madrid and its vicinity, - - - - 350 
 
 10. Illinois and Missouri, ----- 1,000 
 
 11. The settlements on the east side of the Missis- 
 sippi, from the American line to the Iberville, and some 
 
 other settlements, ------- 600 
 
 10.340 
 
 It is to be observed that none of these statements include 
 the country beyond the river Sabine, nor even all those which 
 lie eastwardly of it. Data are also wanting to give them. 
 
 Fortifications. — St. Louis has a lieutenant colonel to com- 
 
15 
 
 mand in it, and but few troops. Baton-Rouge is an ill-con- 
 structed fort, and has about 50 men. In describing the canal 
 of Carondelet, the small fort of St. Jean has been mentioned, 
 as has the block house at the Balize in its proper place. The 
 fortifications of New-Orleans, noticed before, consist of five ill- 
 constructed redoubts, with a covered way, palisade and ditch. 
 The whole is going fast to decay, and it is supposed they 
 would be of but little service in case of an attack. Though 
 the powder magazine is on the opposite side of the river, there 
 is no sufificient provision made for its removal to the city, in 
 case of need. 
 
 The fort of Plaquemines, which is about twelve or thirteen 
 leagues from the sea, is an ill-constructed, irregular brick work, 
 on the eastern side of the Mississippi, with a ditch in front of 
 the river, and protected on the lower side by a deep creek, 
 flowing from the river to the sea. It is, however, imperfectly 
 closed behind, and almost without defence there, too much 
 reliance having been placed on the swampiness of the ground, 
 which hardens daily. It might be taken, pchaps, by escalade, 
 without difficulty. It is in a degree ruinous. The principal 
 front is meant to defend the approach from the sea, and can 
 oppose, at most, but eight heavy guns. It is built at a turn in 
 the river, where ships in general must anchor, as the wind 
 which brings them up so far is contrary in the next reach, 
 which they mostly work through ; and they would, therefore, be 
 exposed to the fire of the fort. On the opposite bank are the 
 ruins of a small closed redoubt, called Fort Bourbon, usually 
 guarded by a sergeant's command. Its tire was intended to 
 flank that of the fort of Plaquemines, and prevent shipping 
 and craft from ascending or descending on that side. When 
 a vessel appears, a signal is made on one side, and answered 
 on the other. Should she attempt to pass without sending a 
 boat on shore, she would be immediately fired upon. 
 
 Indians. — The Indian nations within the limits of Louisiana 
 are as far known as follows, and consist of the numbers here- 
 after specified. 
 
 On the eastern bank of the Mississippi, about 25 leagues 
 above Orleans, the remains of the nation of Houmas, or Red 
 Men, which do not exceed 60 persons. There are no other 
 Indians settled on this side of the river, either in Louisiana or 
 West Florida, though they are at times frequented by parties 
 of wandering Choctaws. 
 
 103 
 
i6 
 
 On the west side of the Mississippi are the remains of the 
 Tounicas, settled near, and above Pointe Coupee on the river, 
 consisting of fifty or sixty persons. 
 
 In the Atacapas. — On the lower parts of the Bayou Teche, 
 at about eleven or twelve leagues from the sea, are two villages 
 of Chitimachas, consisting of about an hundred souls. 
 
 The Atacapas, properly so called, dispersed thoughout the 
 district, and chiefly on the Bayou or creek of Vermillion, about 
 one hundred souls. 
 
 Wanderers of the tribes of Bilexis and Choctaws on Bayou 
 Crocodile, which empties into the Teche, about fifty souls. 
 
 /// the Opcloiisas, to the N. W. of Atacapas. — Two villages 
 of Alibamas in the centre of the district near the church, con- 
 sisting of one hundred persons. 
 
 Conchates dispersed through the country as far west as the 
 river Sabinas and its neighbourhood, about three hundred and 
 fifty persons. 
 
 On the River Rotige. — At Avoyelles, nineteen leagues from 
 the Mississippi, is a village of the Biloni nation, and another 
 on the lake of the Avoyelles, the whole about sixty souls. 
 
 At the Rapide, twenty-six leagues from the Mississippi, is a 
 village of Choctaws of one hundred souls, and another of 
 Biloxes, about two leagues from it, of about one hundred more : 
 about eight or nine leagues higher up the Red River is a vil- 
 lage of about fifty souls. All these are occasionally employed 
 by the settlers in their neighbourhood as boatmen. 
 
 About eighty leagues above Natchitoches on the Red River 
 is the nation of the Cadoquies, called by abbreviation Cados. 
 They can raise from three to four hundred warriors, are the 
 friends of the whites, and are esteemed the bravest and most 
 generous of all the nations in this vast country. They are rap- 
 idly decreasing, owing to intemperance and the numbers annu- 
 ally destroyed by the Osages and Choctaws. 
 
 There are, besides the foregoing, at least four to five hun- 
 dred families of Choctaws, who are dispersed on the west side 
 of the Mississippi, on the Ouacheta and Red Rivers, as far 
 west as Natchitoches ; and the whole nation would have emi- 
 grated across the Mississippi, had it not been for the opposi- 
 tion of the Spaniards and the Indians on that side who had 
 suffered by their aggressions. 
 
 On the River Arkansas, etc. — Between the Red River and 
 the Arkansas there are but a few Indians, the remains of tribes 
 104 
 
17 
 
 almost extinct. On this last river is the nation of the same 
 name, consisting of about two hundred and sixty warriors. 
 They are brave, yet peaceable and well-disposed, and have 
 always been attached to the French, and espoused their cause 
 in their wars with the Chickasaws, whom they have always 
 resisted with success. They live in three villages ; the first is 
 at eighteen leagues from the Mississippi on the Arkansas River, 
 and the others are at three and six leagues from the first. A 
 scarcity of game on the eastern side of the Mississippi has 
 lately induced a number of Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
 &c., to frequent the neighbourhood of Arkansas, where game is 
 still in abundance : they have contracted marriages with the 
 Arkansas, and seem inclined to make a permanent settlement 
 and incorporate themselves with that nation. The number is 
 unknown, but is considerable, and is every day increasing. 
 
 On the river St. Francis, in the neighbourhood of New- 
 Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Reviere a la Pomme, and the en- 
 virons, are settled a number of vagabonds, emigrants from the 
 Delawares, Shawnese, Miamis, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Piorias, 
 and supposed to consist in all of five hundred families : they 
 are at times troublesome to the boats descending the river, 
 and have even plundered some of them, and committed a few 
 murders. They are attached to liquor, seldom remain long in 
 any place, many of them speak English, all understand it, and 
 there are some who even read and write it. 
 - At St. Genevieve, in the settlement among the whites, are 
 about thirty Piorias, Kaskaskias, and Illinois, who seldom 
 hunt, for fear of the other Indians : they are the remains of a 
 nation which, fifty years ago, could bring into the field one 
 thousand two hundred warriors. 
 
 On tlie Missouri. — On the Missouri and its waters are many 
 and numerous nations, the best known of which are : the 
 Osages, situated on the river of same name, on the right 
 bank of the Missouri, at about eighty leagues from its conflu- 
 ence with it : they consist of one thousand warriors, who live 
 in two settlements at no great distance from each other. They 
 are of a gigantic stature and well proportioned, are enemies of 
 the whites and of all other Indian nations, and commit depreda- 
 tions from the Illinois to the Arkansas. The trade of this 
 nation is said to be under an exclusive grant. They are a 
 cruel and ferocious race, and are hated and feared by all the 
 other Indians. The confluence of the Osage River with the 
 Missouri is about eight leagues from the Mississippi. 
 
 105 
 
Sixty leagues higher up the Missouri, and on the same 
 bank, is the river Kanzas, and on it the nation of the same 
 name, but at about seventy or eighty leagues from its mouth. 
 It consists of about two hundred and fifty warriors, who are 
 as fierce and cruel as the Osages, and often molest and ill-treat 
 those who go to trade among them. 
 
 Sixty leagues above the river Kanzas, and at about two hun- 
 dred from the mouth of the Missouri, still on the right bank, 
 is the rivierre Platte^ or Shallow River, remarkable for its 
 quicksands and bad navigation ; and near its confluence with 
 the Missouri dwells the nation of Octolactos, commonly called 
 Otos, consisting of about two hundred warriors, among whom 
 are twenty-five or thirty of the nation of Missouri, who took 
 refuge among them about twenty-five years since. 
 
 Forty leagues up the river Platte you come to the nation of 
 the Panis, composed of about seven hundred warriors in four 
 neighbouring villages. They hunt but little and are ill provided 
 with fire-arms : they often make war on the Spaniards in the 
 neighbourhood of Santa Fe, from which they are not far 
 distant. 
 
 At three hundred leagues from the Mississippi and one hun- 
 dred from the river Platte, on the same bank, are situated the 
 villages of the Mahas. They consisted in 1799 of five hundred 
 warriors, but are said to have been almost cut of¥ last year by 
 the small-pox. 
 
 At fifty leagues above the Mahas, and on the left bank of 
 the Missouri, dwell the Poncas, to the number of two hundred 
 and fifty warriors, possessing in common with the Mahas their 
 language, ferocity, and vices. Their trade has never been of 
 much value, and those engaged to it are exposed to pillage and 
 ill-treatment. 
 
 At the distance of 450 leagues from the Mississippi, and on 
 the right bank of the Missouri, dwell the Aricaras, to the num- 
 ber of 700 warriors ; and 60 leagues above them, the Mandane 
 nation, consisting of about 700 warriors likewise. These two 
 last nations are well disposed to the whites, but have been the 
 victims of the Sioux, or Nandowessies, who being themselves 
 well provided with fire-arms, have taken advantage of the de- 
 fenceless situation of the others, and have on all occasions 
 murdered them without mercy. 
 
 No discoveries on the Missouri, beyond the Mandane nation, 
 have been accurately detailed, though the traders have been 
 106 
 
19 
 
 informed that many large navigable rivers discharge their 
 waters into it, far above it, and that there are many numerous 
 nations settled on them. 
 
 The Sioux, or Mandowessies, who frequent the country be- 
 tween the north bank of the Missouri and Mississippi, are a 
 great impediment to trade and navigation. They endeavour 
 to prevent all communication with the nations dwelling high 
 up the Missouri, to deprive them of ammunition and arms, and 
 thus keep them subservient to themselves. In the winter they 
 are chiefly on the banks of the Missouri, and massacre all who 
 fall into their hands. 
 
 There are a number of nations at a distance from the banks 
 of the Missouri, to the north and south, concerning whom but 
 little information has been received. Returning to the Missis- 
 sippi, and ascending it from the Missouri, about 75 leagues 
 above the mouth of the latter, the river Moingona, or Riviere 
 de Moine, enters the Mississippi on the west side ; and on it 
 are situated the Ayoas, a nation originally from the Missouri, 
 speaking the language of the Otachatas. It consisted of 200 
 warriors before the small-pox lately raged among them. 
 
 The Saes and Renards dwell on the Mississippi, about 300 
 leagues above St. Louis, and frequently trade with it. They live 
 together, and consisted of 500 warriors : their chief trade is 
 with Michilimakinac, and they have always been peaceable 
 and friendly. 
 
 The other nations on the Mississippi higher up, are but 
 little known to us. The nations of the Missouri, though cruel, 
 treacherous, and insolent, may doubtless be kept in order by 
 the United States if proper regulations are adopted with respect 
 to them. 
 
 It is said that no treaties have been entered into by Spain 
 with the Indian nations westward of the Mississippi, and 
 that its treaties with the Creeks, Choctaws, &c., are in effect 
 superceded by our treaty with that power of the 27 th October, 
 
 1795- 
 
 Of Lands and Titles. — The lands are held in some instances 
 
 by grants from the crown, but mostly from the colonial govern- 
 ment. Perhaps not one-quarter part of the lands granted in 
 Louisiana are held by complete titles ; and of the remainder a 
 considerable part depends upon a written permission of a com- 
 mandant. Not a small proportion is held by occupancy with 
 a single verbal permission of the officer last mentioned. This 
 
 107 
 
20 
 
 practice has always been countenanced by the Spanish govern- 
 ment, in order that poor men, when they found themselves a 
 little at ease, might, at their own conveniencey, apply for and 
 obtain complete titles. In the mean time such imperfect rights 
 were suffered by the government to descend by inheritance, 
 and even to be transferred by private contract. When requi- 
 site, they have been seized by judicial authority, and sold for 
 the payment of debts. 
 
 Until within a few years the governor of Upper Louisiana 
 was authorized to make surveys of any extent. In the exercise 
 of this discretionary power, some abuses were committed ; a 
 few small monopolies were created. About three years ago 
 he was restricted in this branch of his duty, since which he 
 has been only authorised to make surveys to emigrants in the 
 following manner : two hundred acres for each man and wife, 
 fifty acres for each child, and twenty acres for each slave. 
 Hence the quantity of land allowed to settlers depended on 
 the number in each family ; and for this quantity of land 
 they paid no more than the expense of survey. These sur- 
 veys were necessary to entitle the settlers to grants ; and the 
 governor, and after him the intendant at New-Orleans, was 
 alone authorised to execute grants on the receipt of the 
 surveys from the settlers. The administration of the land- 
 office is at present under the care of the intendant of the 
 province. 
 
 There are no feudal rights nor noblesse. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain the quantity of lands granted, 
 without calling on the claimants to exhibit their titles. The 
 registry being incomplete, and the maps made by the different 
 surveyors-general having been burnt in the fires of New- 
 Orleans of 1788 and 1794, no estimate has been obtained. 
 
 All the lands on both sides of the Mississippi from the dis- 
 tance of sixteen leagues below New-Orleans to Baton-Rouge 
 are granted to the depth of forty acres, or near half a league, 
 which is the usual depth of all grants. Some have double and 
 triple grants, — that is to say, they have twice or thrice forty 
 acres in depth ; and others have grants extending from the 
 Mississippi to the sea or the lakes behind them. In other 
 parts of the country the people, being generally settled on 
 the banks of creeks or rivers, have a front of from six to forty 
 acres, and the grant almost invariably expresses a depth of 
 forty acres. All the lands ungranted in the island of New- 
 108 
 
21 
 
 Orleans or on the opposite bank of the Mississippi are sunken^ 
 inundated, and at present unfit for cuhivation, but may, in 
 part, be reclaimed at a future day by efforts of the rich and 
 enterprising. 
 
 , Cultivation of Sugar. — The sugar-cane may be cultivated 
 between the river Iberville and the city, on both sides* of the 
 river, and as far back as the swamps. Below the city, how- 
 ever, the lands decline so rapidly that beyond fifteen miles the 
 soil is not well adapted to it. Above the Iberville the cane 
 would be affected by the cold, and its produce would therefore 
 be uncertain. Within these limits the best planters admit that 
 one-quarter of the cultivated lands of any considerable planta- 
 tion may be planted in cane, one-quarter left in pasture, and 
 the remaining half employed for provisions, &c., and a reserve 
 for a change of crops. One Parisian arpent of one hundred 
 and eighty feet square may be expected to produce, on an 
 average, twelve hundred weight of sugar and fifty gallons of 
 rum. 
 
 From the above data, admitting that both sides of the river 
 are planted for ninety miles in extent and about three-fourths 
 of a mile in depth, it will result that the annual product may 
 amount in round numbers to twenty-five thousand hogsheads 
 of sugar, with twelve thousand puncheons of rum. Enterpris- 
 ing young planters say that one-third or even one-half of the 
 arable land might be planted in cane. It may also be re- 
 marked that a regular supply of provisions from above at a 
 moderate price would enable the planter to give his attention 
 to a greater body of land cultivated with cane. The whole of 
 these lands, as may be supposed, are granted ; but in the Ata- 
 capas country there is undoubtedly a portion, parallel to the 
 seacoast, fit for the culture of the sugar-cane. There vacant 
 lands are to be found, but the proportion is at present un- 
 known. 
 
 In the above remarks the lands at Terre aux Bceuf, on the 
 Fourche, Bayou St. Jean, and other inlets of the Mississippi, 
 south of the latitude supposed to divide those which are fit 
 from those which are unfit for the cultivation of the cane, have 
 been entirely kept out of view. Including these and taking one- 
 third instead of one-fourth of the lands fit for sugar, the prod- 
 uce of the whole would be fifty thousand instead of twenty- 
 five thousand hogsheads of sugar. 
 
 The following quantities of sugar, brown, clayed, and refined, 
 
 109^- 
 
22 
 
 have been imported into the United States from Louisiana 
 and the Floridas, viz. : — 
 
 In 1799 773»542 lb. 
 
 1800 ----- 1,560,865 
 
 1801 ----- 967,619 
 ' 1802 1,576,933 
 
 Of the Laivs. — When the country was first ceded to Spain, 
 she preserved many of the French regulations, but by ahnost 
 imperceptible degrees they have disappeared, and at present 
 the province is governed entirely by the laws of Spain, and the 
 ordinances formed expressly for the colony. Various ordi- 
 nances promulgated by General O'Reilly, its first governor 
 under Spain, as well as some other laws, are translated, and 
 annexed in the appendix. No, i. 
 
 Courts of/iisiice. — The governor's court has a civil and mili- 
 tary jurisdiction throughout the province. That of the lieu- 
 tenant governor has the same extent in civil cases only. 
 
 There are two alcades, whose jurisdiction, civil and criminal, 
 extends through the city of New-Orleans and 5 leagues around 
 it, where the parties have no fucro mUitar, or military privi- 
 lege : those who have can transfer their causes to the gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 The tribunal of the Intendant has cognizance of admiralty 
 and fiscal causes, and such suits as are brought for the recovery 
 of money in the king's name or against him. 
 
 The tribunal of the Alcade Provincial has cognizance of 
 criminal causes, where offences are committed in the country, 
 or when the criminal takes refuge there, and in other specified 
 cases. 
 
 The ecclesiastical tribunal has jurisdiction in all matters 
 respecting the church. 
 
 The governor, lieutenant governor, Alcades, Intendant, 
 Provincial Alcade, and the Provisor in ecclesiastical causes 
 are respectively sole judges. All sentences affecting the life 
 of the culprit, except those of the Alcade Provincial, must be 
 ratified by the superior tribunal, or captain-general, according 
 to the nature of the cause, before they are carried into execu- 
 tion. The governor has not the power of pardoning criminals. 
 An auditor and an assessor, who are doctors of law, are ap- 
 pointed to give counsel to those judges ; but for some time past 
 there has been no assessor. If the judges do not consult 
 
23 
 
 those officers or do not follow their opinions, they make them- 
 seh'es responsible for their decisions. 
 
 The commandants of districts have also a species of judicial 
 power. They hear and determine all pecuniary causes not ex- 
 ceeding the value of one hundred dollars. When the suit is 
 for a larger sum, they commence the process, collect the proofs, 
 and remit the whole to the governor, to be decided by the 
 proper tribunal. They can inflict no corporal punishment ex- 
 cept upon slaves ; but they have the power of arresting and 
 imprisoning when they think it necessary, advice of which and 
 their reasons must be transmitted to the governor. 
 
 Small suits are determined in a summary way by hearing 
 both parties 7'h'a voce ; but in suits of greater magnitude the 
 proceedings are carried on by petition and reply, replication 
 and rejoinder, reiterated until the auditor thinks they have 
 nothing new to say. Then all the proofs either party chooses 
 to adduce are taken before the keeper of the records of the 
 court, who is always a notary public. 
 
 The parties have now an opportunity of making their re- 
 marks upon the evidence by way of petition, and of bringing 
 forward opposing proofs. When the auditor considers the 
 cause as mature, he issues his decree, which receives its bind- 
 ing force from the governor's signature, where the cause de- 
 pends upon him. 
 
 There is an appeal to Havanna, if applied for within five 
 days after the date of the decree, in causes above a certain 
 value. An ulterior appeal lies to the Audience which formerly 
 sat at St. Domingo, but which is now removed to some part of 
 Cuba, and from thence to the council of the Indies in Spain. 
 
 Suits are of various durations. In pecuniary matters the 
 laws encourage summary proceedings. An execution may be 
 had on a bond in four days and in the same space on a note of 
 hand after the party acknowledges it, or after his signature is 
 proved. Moveable property is sold after giving nine days' 
 warning, provided it be three times publicly cried in that inter- 
 val. Landed property must be likewise cried three times, with 
 an interval of nine days between each ; and it may then be 
 sold. All property taken in execution must be appraised and 
 sold for at least half of the appraisement. In pecuniary matters 
 the governors decide verbally without appeal, when the sum does 
 not exceed one hundred dollars. The Alcades have the same 
 privilege when the amount is not above twenty dollars. 
 
24 
 
 In addition to these courts, four years ago there were estab- 
 lished four Alcades de Barrio, or petty magistrates, one for 
 each of the four quarters of the city, with a view to improve 
 its police. They hear and decide all demands not exceeding 
 ten dollars, exercise the power of committing to prison, and, in 
 case of robbery, riot, or assassination, they can, by calling on a 
 notary, take cognizance of the affair ; but, when this is done, 
 they are bound to remit the proceedings to some of the other 
 judges, and in all cases whatever to give them information 
 when they have committed any person to prison. 
 
 Most of the suits are on personal contracts, rights to dower, 
 inheritances, and titles to land. Those arising from personal 
 quarrels are generally decided in a summary way. The inhabit- 
 ants are said not to be litigious. . . . 
 
 Learfiitig. — There are no colleges, and but one public school, 
 which is at New-Orleans. The masters of this are paid by the 
 Mng. They teach the Spanish language only. There are a 
 few private schools for children. Not more than half of the 
 inhabitants are supposed to be able to read and write, of whom 
 not more than two hundred perhaps are able to do it well. In 
 general, the learning of the inhabitants does not extend beyond 
 those two arts, though they seem to be endowed with a good 
 natural genius and an uncommon facility of learning whatever 
 they undertake. 
 
 The Church. — The clergy consists of a bishop, who does not 
 reside in the province, and whose salary of four thousand dol- 
 lars is charged on the revenue of certain bishopricks in Mexico 
 and Cuba ; two canons, having each a salary of six hundred 
 dollars; and twenty-five curates, five for the city of New- 
 Orleans and twenty for as many country parishes, who receive 
 each from three hundred and sixty to four hundred and eighty 
 dollars a year. Those salaries, except that of the bishop, to- 
 gether with an allowance for sacristans and chapel expences, 
 are paid by the treasury at New-Orleans, and amount annually 
 to thirteen thousand dollars. 
 
 There is also at that place a convent of Ursalines, to which 
 is attached about a thousand acres of land, rented out in three 
 plantations. The nuns are now in number not more than ten 
 or twelve, and are all French. There were formerly about the 
 same number of Spanish ladies belonging to the order, but 
 they retired to Havanna during the period when it was ex- 
 pected that the province would be transferred to France. The 
 
25 
 
 remaining nuns receive young ladies as boarders, and instruct 
 them in reading, writing, and needle-work. 
 
 They have always acted with great propriety, and are gen- 
 erally respected and beloved throughout the province. With 
 the assistance of an annual allowance of six hundred dollars 
 from the treasury, they always support and educate twelve 
 female orphans. 
 
 THE LOUISIANA TERRITORV. 
 
 Frcmi Mc Master^ s History of the People of the United States, 
 Vol. II., 631. 
 
 The Province of Louisiana, as the region came to be called, 
 was to the Americans of that day an unknown land. Not a 
 boundary was defined. Not a scrap of trustworthy information 
 concerning the region w-as to be obtained. Meagre accounts of 
 what travellers had seen on the Missouri, of what hunters and 
 trappers knew of the upper Mississippi, of what the Indians 
 said w^ere the features of the great plains that stretched away 
 toward the setting sun, had indeed reached the officials ; and 
 out of these was constructed the most remarkable document 
 any President has ever transmitted to Congress. It told of a 
 tribe of Indians of gigantic stature ; of tall bluffs faced with 
 stone and carved by the hand of Nature into what seemed 
 a multitude of antique towers ; of land so fertile as to yield the 
 necessaries of life almost spontaneously ; of an immense prairie 
 covered with buffalo, and producing nothing but grass because 
 the soil was far too rich for the growth of trees ; and how a 
 thousand miles up the Missouri was a vast mountain of salt. 
 The length was one hundred and eighty miles ; the breadth 
 was forty-five. Not a tree, not so much as a shrub, was on it ; 
 but, all glittering white, it rose from the earth a solid mountain 
 of rock salt, with streams of saline water flowdng from the 
 fissures and cavities at its base. The story, the account ad- 
 mitted, might well seem incredible ; but, unhappily for the 
 doubters, bushels of the salt had been shown by traders to the 
 people at St. Louis and Marietta. 
 
 Even this assurance failed to convince the Federalists. 
 Everywhere they read the story with the scoffs and jeers it so 
 richly deserved. Can the mountain, one journal asked, be 
 
26 
 
 Lot's wife ? Has the President, asked another, been reading 
 the " Mysteries of Udolpho " ? What a dreadful glare it must 
 make on a sunshiny day ! exclaimed a third. No trees on it ? 
 How strange ! There ought surely to be a salt eagle to perch 
 on the summit and a salt mammoth to clamber up its side. 
 The President, being a cautious philosopher, has surely been 
 afraid to tell us all. He must have kept much back, else we 
 should have seen some samples from that vale of hasty-pudding 
 and that lake of real old Irish usquebaugh that lies at the 
 mountain's base. The stories told fourteen years since about 
 the Ohio country are now surpassed. The pumpkin-vines, the 
 hoop-snakes, the shoe-and-stocking tree of the Muskingum, are 
 but " pepper-corns " beside the mountain of salt. 
 
 Bad as was the Federal wit, the labored attempts of the 
 Republican journals to prove the existence of the mountain 
 were more stupid still. The fact was pronounced undoubted. 
 Bits of the salt had reached the President ; nay, were to be 
 seen at Washington, at New York, at Boston among the 
 curiosities of Mr. Turell's museum. There the editor of the 
 Colnmhiaii Centiiiel had the impudence to assure his readers he 
 had seen a piece the size of a hen's egg from the banks of the 
 Missouri. But one had the courage and good sense to declare 
 the story was half a fable. The editor of the A^atioual .-Egis 
 did not, he asserted, for a moment believe that a huge mountain 
 of salt stood gleaming and glittering in the sun. The deposit 
 was probably a great deep mine, a mountain in "extent under- 
 ground. Neither the President nor any member of the govern- 
 ment had explored Louisiana. In describing the country, such 
 facts had to be used as were supplied by travellers, and that 
 class of travellers so much disposed to magnify mole-hills into 
 mountains. What wonder, then, that some fabulous embellish- 
 ments crept into the account which, undoubtedly, the President 
 sent to Congress without reading through ! 
 
 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 
 
 From Henry At^rms's History of the United States. II. 48. 
 
 Livingston had achieved the greatest diplomatic success re- 
 corded in American history. Neither Franklin, Jay, Gallatin, 
 nor any other American diplomatist was so fortunate as Living- 
 114 
 
27 
 
 ston for the immensity of his results compared with the paucity 
 of his means. Other treaties of immense consequence have 
 been signed by American representatives, — the treaty of alli- 
 ance with France ; the treaty of peace with England, which 
 recognized independence ; the treaty of Ghent ; the treaty 
 which ceded Florida ; the Ashburton treaty ; the treaty of 
 Guadeloupe Hidalgo, — but in none of these did the United 
 States government get so much for so little. The annexation 
 of Louisiana was an event so portentous as to defy measure- 
 ment. It gave a new face to politics, and ranked in historical 
 importance next to the Declaration of Independence and the 
 adoption of the Constitution, — events of which it was the logi- 
 cal outcome ; but as a matter of diplomacy it was unparalleled, 
 because it cost almost nothing. 
 
 The purchase of the Louisiana territory in 1S03 constituted the first great chapter in tlie 
 history of our national expansion. This purchase doubled the area of the United States, 
 adding over 400,000 square miles. It comprised almost the entire region between the Missis- 
 sippi River and the Rocky Mountains, north of Te.xas, — the territon,' out of which have 
 since been formed the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, with a great part of the States of Minnesota 
 and Colorado, and also the Indian Territory, including Oklahoma. By a secret convention 
 in 1 7O2, confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France had given this vast territory to 
 Spain ; and the control which Spain thus had of the mouth of the Mississippi became, as 
 years went on, a matter of more and more serious concern to our Western people, for whom 
 the Mississippi and its tributaries were the great avenues of travel and of trade. Our saga- 
 cious statesmen saw early what serious consequences might be involved in the situation. 
 Franklin said to Jay in 17S4: "I would rather agree with the Spaniards to buy at a great 
 price the wliole of their right on the Mississippi tlian sell a drop of its waters. A neighbor 
 might as well ask nie to sell my street-door.'' Jefferson devoted his earnest thouglit to the 
 subject years before 1S03. As Secretary of State in '171/), when there seemed to be some 
 danger of Great Britain seizing New Orleans, he expressed to Washington his opinion that, 
 rather than see Louisiana and Florida added to the British Empire, we should take part in 
 the general war which then seemed impending; and at the same time he warned the French 
 to let the territory alone. In 1801 Spain, by a secret treaty, ceded the territory back to 
 France. Napoleon planned a great expedition and colony for Louisiana, and had ambitious 
 tlioughts of the restoration in America of the French power which fell before England at 
 Quebec. The intimations of the cession from Spain to France created much disturbance and 
 alarm in America. " Kentucky was in a flame. The President was deeply stirred. The 
 Spaniards had retained Louisiana on sufferance : the United States could have it at any time 
 from tJiem. But the French would be likely to hold their ancient possessions with a tigliter 
 clutch, and not content themselves with two or three trading-posts in a fertile territory large 
 enough for an empire. Jefferson, from the hour when the intelligence reached him, had only 
 this thought : The French must not have New Orleans. No one but ourselves must own our 
 owni stre»t-door." He addressed urgent instructions and suggestions to Mr. Livingston, our 
 minister at Paris, embodying considerations which he knew would find their way to Napo- 
 leon. The United States could not let the French control the mouth of the Mississippi, and 
 a conflict about it might finally necessitate an alliance of some sort between ourselves and 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Early in 1S03 Jefferson sent Mr. Monroe, as a special ambassador, to join Mr. Living- 
 stone in Paris, charged with the fullest instrucrions, and authorized to give two million dol- 
 lars, if lie could do no better, for the island of New Orleans alone. Monroe arrived to find 
 France on the eve of war with England, and Napoleon in active negotiations with Living- 
 ston for the transfer to the United States of the whole of Louisiana. Napoleon knew that 
 the British fleet could easily keep French forces away from the Mississippi ; and, rather than 
 have Great Britain seize Louisiana, he would sell it to the United States, getting what 
 mcmey he could out of it for use in the impending war. " I know the full value of Lou- 
 
 "5 
 
28 
 
 isiana," he said. " and I have been desirous of repairing the fault of the Frencli negotiators 
 who abandoned it in 1763. But, if it escapes from me, it shall one day cost dearer to those 
 who obUge me to strip mvself of it than to those to whom I wish to deliver it. The English 
 have successively taken from France Canada, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, 
 and the richest portions of Asia. They shall not have the Mississippi, which they covet. 
 ... I already consider the colony as entirely lost ; and it appears to me that, in the hands of 
 this growing power, it will be more useful to the policy and even to the commerce of France 
 than if I should attempt to keep it." " I have given to England," he said afterward, "a 
 maritime rival that will, sooner or later, humble her pride." The terms of the sale — 
 " probably the largest transaction in real estate which the world has ever known " — were 
 agreed upon after considerable bickering, the sum paid by the United States being fifteen 
 million dollars. The treaty contained a positive provision that " the inhabitants of the ceded 
 territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as 
 possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the 
 rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United .States." ^I. Marbois, the 
 French minister, relates that, as soon as the three negotiators had signed the treaties, they 
 all rose, and shook hands; and Mr. Livingston gave utterance to the joy and satisfacdon 
 of them all, sa\ang : — 
 
 " We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives. The treaty which 
 we have just signed has not been obtained by art nor dictated by force, and is equally advan- 
 tageous to the two contracting parties. It will change vast solitudes into flourishing dis- 
 tricts. From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank. 
 The United States will re-establish the maritime rights of all the world, which are now 
 usurped by a single nation. The instruments which we have just signed will cause no 
 tears to be shed : they prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human 
 creatures. The Mississippi and t)ie Missouri will see them succeed one another and mul- 
 tiply, truly worthy of the regard and care of Providence, in the bosom of equality, under just 
 laws, freed from the errors of superstition and bad government." 
 
 The general ignorance concerning the Louisiana territory, on the part of the American 
 people at the time of the purchase, -was very great: even the boundaries were far from being 
 clearly defined. For the sake of furnishing the best informarion available, Jefferson had 
 prepared and submitted to Congress the document whose more important portions are 
 reprinted in the present leaflet. Besides what is here given, the document contained 
 accounts of the existing political organization, of the exports, imports, and navigation, and, 
 in an appendix, census details and other matter. The document, which performed for that 
 time a function similar to that of the report of the Philippine Commission in our time, was 
 printed in pamphlet form by various publishers for general circulation. The edition used for 
 the present reprint was published by John Conrad and Company of Philadelphia, 1S03. 
 
 The best general account of the purchase of Louisiana and of the debates and legisla- 
 tion incident to it is that by Henry Adams in his History of the United States during the 
 Administration of Thomas Jefferson, vol. ii. See also Cooley's " Acquisition of Louisiana." 
 The subject has prominent place in all the biographies of Jefferson. There is an excel- 
 lent brief account in Gilman's Life of Monroe, in the American Statesmen Series ; and the 
 bibliography of the subject, by Professor J. F. Jameson, in the appendix to that volume, is 
 the best to which the student can be referred. See also the references in the valuable chapter 
 on "Territorial Acquisitions and Divisions." by Justin Winsor and Professor Edward 
 Channing, in the Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. vii. The original letters 
 of Livingston and JNIonroe, giving accounts of the negotiations in Paris, appear in the Amer- 
 ican State Papers, Foreign Relations, ii. ; and there is a history of the cession by Barb^- 
 Marbois, one of the French negotiators. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 116 
 
No. io6. 
 
 The Govern- 
 ment of the 
 United States. 
 
 By JOHN C. CALHOUN. 
 
 FuOiM CALiioux's '' Discourse on the Constitution and 
 Government of the United States." 
 
 Ours is a system of government, compounded of the sepa- 
 rate governments of the several States composing the Union, 
 and of one common government of all its members, called the 
 Government of the United States. The former preceded the 
 latter, which was created by their agency. Each was framed 
 by written constitutions ; those of the several States by the 
 people of each, acting separately, and in their sovereign char- 
 acter ; and that of the United States, by the same, acting in 
 the same character, — but jointly instead of separately. All 
 were formed on the same model. They all divide the powers 
 of government into legislative, executive, and judicial; and are 
 founded on the great principle of the responsibility of the 
 rulers to the ruled. The entire powers of government are 
 divided between the two ; those of a more general character 
 being specifically delegated to the United States ; and all 
 others not delegated, being reserved to the several States in 
 their separate character. Each, within its appropriate sphere, 
 possesses all the attributes, and performs all the functions of 
 government. Neither is perfect without the other. The two 
 combined, form one entire and perfect government. With 
 these preliminary remarks, I shall proceed to the consideration 
 of the immediate subject of this discourse. 
 
 The Government of the United States was formed by the 
 Constitution of the United States ; — and ours is a democratic, 
 federal republic. 
 
 117 
 
It is democratic, in contradistinction to aristocracy and 
 monarchy. It excludes classes, orders, and all artificial dis- 
 tinctions. To guard against their introduction, the constitu- 
 tion prohibits the granting of any title of nobility by the United 
 States, or by any State.* The whole system is, indeed, demo- 
 cratic throughout. It has for its fundamental principle, the 
 great cardinal maxim, that the people are the source of all 
 power ; that the governments of the several States and of the 
 United States were created by them, and for them ; that the 
 powers conferred on them are not surrendered, but delegated ; 
 and, as such, are held in trust, and not absolutely ; and can be 
 rightfully exercised only in furtherance of the objects for which 
 they were delegated. 
 
 It is federal as well as democratic. Federal, on the one 
 hand, in contradistinction to nafio/ia/, and, on the other, to a 
 confederacy. In showing this, I shall begin with the former. 
 
 It is federal, because it is the government of States united 
 in a political union, in contradistinction to a government 
 of individuals socially united ; that is, by what is usually 
 called, a social compact. To express it more concisely, it is 
 federal and not national, because it is the government of a 
 community of States, and not the government of a single State 
 or nation. 
 
 That it is federal and not national, we have the high author- 
 ity of the convention which framed it. General Washington, 
 as its organ, in his letter submitting the plan to the considera- 
 tion of the Congress of the then confederacy, calls it, in one 
 place,^ — -"the general government of the Union;" — and in 
 another, — "the federal government of these States." Taken 
 together, the plain meaning is, that the government proposed 
 would be, if adopted, the government of the States adopting it, 
 in their united character as members of a common Union ; 
 and, as such, would be a federal government. These expres- 
 sions were not used without due consideration, and an accurate 
 and full knowledge of their true import. The subject was not 
 a novel one. The convention was familiar with it. It was much 
 agitated in their deliberations. They divided, in reference to 
 it, in the early stages of their proceedings. At first, one party 
 was in favor of a national and the other of a federal govern- 
 ment. The former, in the beginning, prevailed ; and in the 
 plans which they proposed, the constitution and government 
 
 * I St Art., g and lo Sec. 
 Ii8 
 
are styled "National." But, finally, the latter gained the 
 ascendency, when the term " National " was superseded, and 
 " United States " substituted in its place. The constitution 
 was accordingly styled, — " The constitution of the United States 
 of America ;'" — and the government, — " I'he government of the 
 United States;" leaving out "America," for the sake of 
 brevity. It cannot admit of a doubt, that the Convention, by 
 the expression " United States," meant the States united in a 
 federal Union ; for in no other sense could they, with propri- 
 ety, call the government, " the federal government of these 
 States," — and '•'• the general government of the Union "—zs, they 
 did in the letter referred to. It is thus clear, that the Conven- 
 tion regarded the different expressions, — " the federal govern- 
 ment of the United States ; " — " the general government of the 
 Union," — and, — "government of the United States," — as 
 meaning the same thing, — a federal, in contradistinction to a 
 national government. 
 
 Assuming it then, as established, that they are the same, it 
 is only necessary, in order to ascertain with precision, what 
 they meant by '■'■federal government" — to ascertain what they 
 meant by '■'■ the government of the United States." For this pur- 
 pose it w.ill be necessary to trace the expression to its origin. 
 
 It was, at that time, as our history shows, an old and familiar 
 phrase, — having a known and well-defined meaning. Its use 
 commenced with the political birth of these States ; and it has 
 been applied to them, in all the forms of government through 
 which they have passed, without alteration. The style of the 
 present constitution and government is precisely the style by 
 which the confederacy that existed when it was adopted, and 
 which it superseded, was designated. The instrument that 
 formed the latter was called, — ^'■Articles of Confederation and 
 Perpetual Union." Its first article declares that the style of 
 this confederacy shall be, " The United States of America ; " 
 and the second, in order to leave no doubt as to the relation 
 in which the States should stand to each other in the confed- 
 eracy about to be formed, declared, — " Each State retains its 
 sovereignty, freedom and independence ; and every power, ju- 
 risdiction, and right, which is not, by this confederation, ex- 
 pressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled." 
 If we go one step further back, the style of the confederacy 
 will be found to be the same with that of the revolutionary 
 government, which existed when it was adopted, and which it 
 
 119 
 
superseded. It dates its origin with the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. That act is styled, — " The unanimous Declaration 
 of the thirteen United States of America." And here again, 
 that there might be no doubt how these States would stand to 
 each other in the new condition in which they were about to 
 be placed, it concluded by declaring, — "that these United 
 Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent 
 States " ; " and that, as free and independent States, they have 
 full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, and 
 to do all other acts and things which independent States may 
 of right do." The " United States " is, then, the baptismal 
 name of these States, — received at their birth ; — by which 
 they have ever since continued to call themselves ; by which 
 they have characterized their constitution, government and 
 laws ; — and by which they are known to tha rest of the world. 
 The retention of the same style, throughout every stage of 
 their existence, affords strong, if not conclusive evidence that 
 the political relation between these States, under their present 
 constitution and government, is substantially the same as 
 under the confederacy and revolutionary government ; and 
 what that relation was, we are not left to doubt ; as they are 
 declared expressly to be '^''free, independent and sovereign 
 States." They, then, are now united, and have been, through- 
 out, simply as confederated States. If it had been intended 
 by the members of the convention which framed the present 
 constitution and government, to make any essential change, 
 either in the relation of the States to each other, or the basis of 
 their union, they would, by retaining the style which designated 
 them under the preceding governments, have practised a de- 
 ception, utterly unworthy of their character, as sincere and 
 honest men and patriots. It may, therefore, be fairly inferred, 
 that, retaining the same style, they intended to attach to the 
 expression, — " the United States," the same meaning, sub- 
 stantially, which it previously had ; and, of course, in calling 
 the present government, — " the federal government of these 
 States," they meant by " federal," that they stood in the same 
 relation to each other, — that their union rested, without mate- 
 rial change, on the same basis, — as under the confederacy and 
 the revolutionary government ; and that federal, and confed- 
 erated States, meant substantially the same thing. It follows, 
 also, tfiat the changes made by the present constitution were 
 not in the foundation, but in the superstructure of the system. 
 
We accordingly find, in confirmation of this conclusion, that 
 the convention, in their letter to Congress, stating the reasons 
 for the changes that had been made, refer only to the necessity 
 which required a different " OK-ganization " of the government, 
 without making any allusion whatever to any change in the 
 relations of the States towards each other, — or the basis of the 
 system. They state that, " the friends of our country have 
 long seen and desired, that the power of making war, peace, 
 and treaties ; that of levying money and regulating commerce, 
 and the correspondent executive and judicial authorities, should 
 be fully and effectually vested in the Government of the 
 Union : but the impropriety of delegating such extensive trusts 
 to one body of men is evident ; hence results the necessity of 
 a dijfcrent organization^ Comment is unnecessary. 
 
 We thus have the authority of the convention itself for 
 asserting that the expression, " United States," has essentially 
 the same meaning, when applied to the present constitution 
 and government, as it had previously ; and, of course, that the 
 States have retained their separate existence, as independent 
 and sovereign communities, in all the forms of political exist- 
 ence, through which they have passed. Such, indeed, is the 
 literal import of the expression, — "the United States," — and 
 the sense in which it is ever used, when it is applied politi- 
 cally, — I say,/<?///'/Vrt'//i', — because it is often applied, ^'■<?t'^r^///- 
 icail}\ to designate the portion of this continent occupied by 
 the States composing the Union, including territories belong- 
 ing to them. This application arose from the fact, that there 
 was no appropriate term for that portion of this continent ; and 
 thus, not unnaturally, the name by which these States are 
 politically designated, was employed to designate the region 
 they occupy and possess. The distinction is important, and 
 cannot be overlooked in discussing questions involving the 
 character and nature of the government, without causing great 
 confusion and dangerous misconceptions. 
 
 But as conclusive as these reasons are to prove that the 
 government of the United States is federal, in contradistinction 
 to national, it would seem, that they have not been sufficient to 
 prevent the opposite opinion from being entertained. Indeed, 
 this last seems to have become the prevailing one ; if we may 
 judge -from the general use of the term "national," and the 
 almost entire disuse of that of "federal." National is now 
 commonly applied to " the general government of the Union," 
 
— and "the federal government of these States," — and all 
 that appertains to them or to the Union. It seems to be for- 
 gotten that the term was repudiated by the convention, after 
 full consideration ; and that it was carefully excluded from the 
 constitution, and the letter laying it before Congress. Even 
 those who know all this, — and, of course, how falsely the term 
 is applied, — have, for the most part, slided into its use without 
 reflection. But there are not a few who so apply it, because 
 they believe it to be a national government in fact ; and among 
 these are men of distinguished talents and standing, who have 
 put forth all their powers of reason and eloquence, in support 
 of the theory. The question involved is one of the first mag- 
 nitude, and deserves to be investigated thoroughly in all its 
 aspects. With this impression, I deem it proper, — clear and 
 conclusive as I regard the reasons already assigned to prove 
 its federal character, — to confirm them by historical refer- 
 ences ; and to repel the arguments adduced to prove it to be a 
 national government. I shall begin with the formation and 
 ratification of the constitution. 
 
 That the States, when they formed and ratified the constitu- 
 tion, were distinct, independent, and sovereign communities, 
 has already been established. That the people of the several 
 States, acting in their separate, independent, and sovereign 
 character, adopted their separate State constitutions, is a fact 
 uncontested and incontestable ; but it is not more certain than 
 that, acting in the same character, they ratified and adopted 
 the constitution of the United States ; with this difference only, 
 that in making and adopting the one, they acted without con- 
 cert or agreement ; but, in the other, with concert in making, 
 and mutual agreement in adopting it. That the delegates who 
 constituted the convention which framed the constitution, were 
 appointed by the several States, each on its own authority; 
 that they voted in the convention by States ; and that their 
 votes were counted by States, — are recorded and unquestion- 
 able facts. So, also, the facts that the constitution, when 
 framed, was submitted to the people of the several States for 
 their respective ratification ; that it was ratified by them, each 
 for itself ; and that it was binding on each, only in conse- 
 quence of its being so ratified by it. Until then, it was but 
 the plan of a constitution, without any binding force. It was 
 the act of ratification which established it as a constitution 
 between the States ratifying it ; and only between them, on the 
 
condition that not less than nine of the then thirteen States 
 should concur in the ratification ; — as is expressly provided by 
 its seventh and last article. It is in the following words : 
 " The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be 
 sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the 
 States so ratifying the same." If additional proof be needed 
 to show that it was only binding between the States that rati- 
 fied it, it may be found in the fact, that two States, North 
 Carolina and Rhode Island, refused, at first, to ratify ; and 
 were, in consequence, regarded - in the interval as foreign 
 States, without obligation, on their parts, to respect it, or, on 
 the part of their citizens, to obey it. Thus far, there can be 
 no difference of opinion. The facts are too recent and too 
 well established, — and the provision of the constitution too 
 explicit, to admit of doubt. 
 
 That the States, then, retained, after the ratification of the 
 constitution, the distinct, independent, and sovereign character 
 in which they formed and ratified it, is certain ; unless they 
 divested themselves of it by the act of ratification, or by some 
 provision of the constitution. If they have not, the constitu- 
 tion must be federal, and not national ; for it would have, in 
 that case, every attribute necessary to constitute it federal, and 
 not one to make it national. On the other hand, if they have 
 divested themselves, then it would necessarily lose its federal 
 character, and become national. Whether, then, the govern- 
 ment is federal or national, is reduced to a single question ; 
 whether the act of ratification, of itself, or the constitution, by 
 some one. or all of its provisions, did, or did not, divest the 
 several States of their character of separate, independent, and 
 sovereign communities, and merge them all in one great com- 
 munity or nation, called the American people.'' 
 
 Before entering on the consideration of this important ques- 
 tion, it is proper to remark, that, on its decision, the character 
 of the government, as well as the constitution, depends. The 
 former must, necessarily, partake of the character of the latter, 
 as it is but its agent, created by it, to carry its powers into 
 effect. Accordingly, then, as the constitution is federal or 
 national, so must the government be ; and I shall, therefore, 
 use them indiscriminately in discussing the subject. 
 
 Of all the questions which can arise under our system of 
 government, this is by far the most important. It involves 
 many others of great magnitude ; and among them, that of the 
 
 123 
 
allegiance of the citizen ; or, in other words, the question to 
 whom allegiance and obedience are ultimately due. What is 
 the true relation between the two governments, — that of the 
 United States, and those of the several States? and what is 
 the relation between the individuals respectively composing 
 them ? For it is clear, if the States still retain their sover- 
 eignty as separate and independent communities, the allegiance 
 and obedience of the citizens of each would be due to their 
 respective States ; and that the government of the United 
 States and those of the several States would stand as equals 
 and co-ordinates in their respective spheres ; and, instead of 
 being united socially, their citizens would be politically con- 
 nected through their respective States. On the contrary, if 
 they have, by ratifying the constitution, divested themselves of 
 their individuality and sovereignty, and merged themselves 
 into one great community or nation, it is equally clear, that the 
 sovereignty would reside in the whole, — or what is called the 
 American people ; and that allegiance and obedience would be 
 due to them. Nor is it less so, that the government of the 
 several States would, in such case, stand to that of the United 
 States, in the relation of inferior and subordinate, to superior 
 and paramount ; and that the individuals of the several States, 
 thus fused, as it were, into one general mass, would be united 
 socially, and not politically. So great a change of condition 
 would have involved a thorough and radical revolution, both 
 socially and politically, — a revolution much more radical, 
 indeed, than that which followed the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 They who maintain that the ratification of the constitution 
 effected so mighty a change, are bound to establish it by the 
 most demonstrative proof. The presumption is strongly op- 
 posed to it. It has already been shown, that the authority of 
 the convention which formed the constitution is clearly against 
 it ; and that the history of its ratification, instead of supplying 
 evidence in its favor, furnishes strong testimony in opposition 
 to it. To these, others may be added ; and, among them, the 
 presumption drawn from the history of these States, in all the 
 stages of their existence down to the time of the ratification of 
 the constitution. In all, they formed separate, and, as it 
 respects each other, independent communities ; and were ever 
 remarkable for the tenacity with which they adhered to their 
 rights as such. It constituted, during the whole period, one 
 124 
 
of the most striking traits in their character, — as a very brief 
 sketch will show. 
 
 During their colonial condition, they formed distinct commu- 
 nities, — each with its separate charter and government, — and 
 in no way connected with each other, except as dependent 
 members of a common empire. Their first union amongst 
 themselves was, in resistance to the encroachments of the 
 parent country on their chartered rights, — when they adopted 
 the title of, — "the United Colonies." Under that name they 
 acted, until they declared their independence; — always, in 
 their joint councils, voting and acting as separate and distinct 
 communities; — and not in the aggregate, as composing one 
 community or nation. They acted in the same character in 
 declaring independence ; by which act they passed from their 
 dependent, colonial condition, into that of free and sovereign 
 States. The declaration was made by delegates appointed by 
 the several colonies, each for itself, and on its own authority. 
 The vote making the declaration was taken by delegations, 
 each counting one. The declaration was announced to be 
 unanimous, not because every delegate voted for it, but be- 
 cause the majority of each delegation did ; showing clearly, 
 that the body itself, regarded it as the united act of the several 
 colonies, and not the act of the whole as one community. To 
 leave no doubt on a point so important, and in reference to 
 which the several colonies were so tenacious, the declaration 
 was made in the name, and by the authority of the people of 
 the colonies, represented in Congress ; and that was followed 
 by declaring them to be, — "free and independent States." The 
 act was, in fact, but a formal and solemn annunciation to the 
 world, that the colonies had ceased to be dependent communi- 
 ties, and had become free and independent States ; without in- 
 volving any other change in their relations with each other, 
 than those necessarily incident to a separation from the parent 
 country. So far were they from supposing, or intending that 
 it should have the effect of merging their existence, as sepa- 
 rate communities, into one nation, that they had appointed a 
 committee, — which was actually sitting, while the declaration 
 was under discussion, — to prepare a plan of a confederacy of 
 the States, preparatory to entering into their new condition. 
 In fulfilment of their appointment, this committee prepared the 
 draft of the articles of confederation and perpetual union, 
 which afterwards was adopted by the governments of the 
 
 125 
 
lO 
 
 several States. That it instituted a mere confederacy and 
 union of the States has already been shown. That, in forming 
 and assenting to it, the States were exceedingly jealous and 
 watchful in delegating power, even to a confederacy ; that they 
 granted the powers delegated most reluctantly and sparingly ; 
 that several of them long stood out, under all the pressure of 
 the revolutionary war, before they acceded to it ; and that, 
 during the interval which elapsed between its adoption and 
 that of the present constitution, they evinced, under the most 
 urgent necessity, the same reluctance and jealousy, in dele- 
 gating power, — are facts which cannot be disputed. 
 
 To this may be added another circumstance of no little 
 weight, drawn from the preliminary steps taken for the ratifica- 
 tion of the constitution. The plan was laid, by the convention, 
 before the Congress of the confederacy, for its consideration 
 and action, as has been stated. It was the sole organ and 
 representative of these States in their confederated character. 
 By submitting it, the convention recognized and acknowledged 
 its authority over it, as the organ of distinct, independent, 
 and sovereign States. It had the right to dispose of it as it 
 pleased ; and, if it had thought proper, it might have defeated 
 the plan by simply omitting to act on it. But it thought proper 
 to act, and to adopt the course recommended by the conven- 
 tion ; — which was, to submit it, — "to a convention of dele- 
 gates, chosen in each State, by the people thereof, for their 
 assent and adoption." All this was in strict accord with the 
 federal character of the constitution, but wholly repugnant to 
 the idea of its being national. It received the assent of the 
 States in all the possible modes in which it could be obtained : 
 first, — in their confederated character, through its only appro- 
 priate organ, the Congress ; next, in their individual character, 
 as separate States, through their respective State governments, 
 to which the Congress referred it ; and finally, in their high 
 character of independent and sovereign communities, through 
 a convention of the people, called in each State, by the author- 
 ity of its government. The States acting in these various 
 capacities, might, at every stage, have defeated it or not, at 
 their option, by giving or withholding their consent. 
 
 With this weight of presumptive evidence, to use no stronger 
 expression, in favor of its federal, in contradistinction to its 
 national character, I shall next proceed to show, that the ratifica- 
 tion of the constitution, instead of furnishing proof against, 
 contains additional and conclusive evidence in its favor. 
 126 
 
II 
 
 We are not left to conjecture, as to what was meant by the 
 ratification of the constitution, or its effects. The expressions 
 used by the conventions of the States, in ratifying it, and those 
 used by the constitution in connection with it, afford ample 
 means of ascertaining with accuracy, both its meaning and 
 effect. The usual form of expression used by the former is : — 
 "We, the delegates of the State," (naming the State,) "do, in 
 behalf of the people of the State, assent to, and ratify the said 
 constitution." All use, "ratify," — and all, except North Caro- 
 lina, use, "assent to." The delegates of that State use, 
 "adopt," instead of "assent to;" a variance merely in the 
 form of expression, without, in any degree, affecting the mean- 
 ing. Ratification was, then, the act of the several States in 
 their separate capacity. It was performed by delegates ap- 
 pointed expressly for the purpose. Each appointed its own 
 delegates ; and the delegates of each, acted in the name of, 
 and for the State appointing them. Their act consisted in, 
 " assenting to," or, what is the same thing, " adopting and rati- 
 fying " the constitution. 
 
 By turning to the seventh article of the constitution, and to 
 the preamble, it will be found what was the effect of ratifying. 
 The article expressly provides, that, "the ratification of the 
 conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the establish- 
 ment of this constitution, between the States so ratifying the 
 same." The preamble of the constitution is in the following 
 words ; — " We, the people of the United States, in order to form 
 a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
 quillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
 welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
 our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the 
 United States of America." The effect, then, of its ratifica- 
 tion was, to ordain and establish the constitution; — and, 
 thereby, to make, what was before but a plan, — " The constitu- 
 tion of the United States of America." All this is clear. 
 
 It remains now to show, by whom, it was ordained and estab- 
 lished ; for 7i.<hom, it was ordained and established ; for ivhat, 
 it was ordained and established ; and over luhom, it was or- 
 dained and established. These will be considered in the order 
 in w'hich they stand. 
 
 Nothing more is necessary, in order to show by whom it was 
 ordained and established, than to ascertain who are meant by, 
 ■ — " We, the people of the United States ; " for, by their author- 
 
 127 
 
12 
 
 ity, it was done. To this there can be but one answer: — it 
 meant the people who ratified the instrument ; for it was the 
 act of ratification which ordained and estabhshed it. Who 
 they were, admits of no doubt. The process preparatory to 
 ratification, and the acts by which it was done, prove, beyond 
 the possibility of a doubt, that it was ratified by the several 
 States, through conventions of delegates, chosen in each State 
 by the people thereof ; and acting, each in the name and by 
 the authority of its State : and, as all the States ratified it, — - 
 "We, the people of the United States," — mean, — We, the 
 people of the several States of the Union. The inference is 
 irresistible. And when it is considered that the States of the 
 Union were then members of the confederacy, — and that, by 
 the express provision of one of its articles, " each State retains 
 its sovereignty, freedom, and independence," the proof is 
 demonstrative, that, — " We, the people of the United States of 
 America," mean the people of the several States of the Union, 
 acting as free, independent, and sovereign States. This strik- 
 ingly confirms what has been already stated ; to wit, that the 
 convention which formed the constitution, meant the same 
 thing by the terms, — "United States," — and, "federal," — 
 when applied to the constitution or government ; — and that 
 the former, when used politically, always mean, — these States 
 united as independent and sovereign communities. 
 
 Having shown, by whom, it was ordained, there will be no 
 difficulty in determining, y^;r 7«:'//(7w, it was ordained. The pre- 
 amble is explicit ; — it was ordained and established for, — 
 " The United States of America ; " adding, " America," in con- 
 formity to the style of the then confederacy, and the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. Assuming, then, that the " United 
 States " bears the same meaning in the conclusion of the pre- 
 amble, as it does in its commencement, (and no reason can be 
 assigned why it should not,) it follows, necessarily, that the 
 constitution was ordained and established y^-r the people of the 
 several States, by whom it was ordained and established. 
 
 Nor will there be any difficulty in showing,/^;/- what, it was 
 ordained and established. The preamble enumerates the ob- 
 jects. They are, — " to form a more perfect union, to establish 
 justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
 defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
 of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." To effect these 
 objects, they ordained and established, to use their own lan- 
 128 
 
13 
 
 guage, — " the constitution for the United States of America ; " 
 — clearly meaning by "for," that it was intended to be their 
 constitution ; and that the objects of ordaining and establish- 
 ing it were, to perfect their union, to establish justice among 
 them — to insure their domestic tranquillity, to provide for 
 their common defence and general welfare, and to secure the 
 blessings of liberty to them and their posterity. Taken all 
 together, it follows, from what has been stated, that the con- 
 stitution was ordained and established by the several States, as 
 distinct, sovereign communities ; and that it was ordained and 
 established by them for themselves — for their common welfare 
 and safety, as distinct and sovereign communities. 
 
 It remains to be shown, over whom, it was ordained and 
 established. That it was not over the several States, is settled 
 by the seventh article beyond controversy. It declares, that 
 the ratification by nine States shall be sufficient to establish 
 the constitution between the States so ratifying, " Between," 
 necessarily excludes '■'over:'' — as that which is between States 
 cannot be oirr them. Reason itself, if the constitution had 
 been silent, would have led, with equal certainty, to the same 
 conclusion. For it was the several States, or, what is the same 
 thing, their people, in their sovereign capacity, who ordained 
 and established the constitution. But the authority which or- 
 dains and establishes, is higher than that which is ordained 
 and established ; and, of course, the latter must be subordinate 
 to the former ; — and cannot, therefore, be over it. " Between," 
 always means more than over; — and implies in this case, that 
 the authority which ordained and established the constitution, 
 was the joint and united authority of the States ratifying it ; 
 and that, among the effects of their ratification, it became a 
 contract between them ; and, as a compact, binding on them ; — 
 but only as such. In that sense the term, "between," is appro- 
 priately applied. In no other, can it be. It was, doubtless, used 
 in that sense in this instance ; but the question still remains, 
 over whotn. was it ordained and established ? After what has 
 been stated, the answer may be readily given. It was 07'er the 
 government which, it created, and all its functionaries in their offi- 
 cial character, — and the individuals composing and inhabiting 
 the several States, as far as they might come within the sphere 
 of the powers delegated to the United States. 
 
 I have now shown, conclusively, by arguments drawn from 
 the act of ratification, and the constitution itself, that the sev- 
 
 129 
 
14 
 
 eral States of the Union, acting in their confederated character, 
 ordained and established the constitution ; that they ordained 
 and established it for themselves, in the same character ; that 
 they ordained and established it for their welfare and safety, in 
 the like character ; that they established it as a compact be- 
 t7ueen them, and not as a constitution over them ; and that, as 
 a compact, they are parties to it, in the same character. I 
 have thus established, conclusively, that these States, in ratify- 
 ing the cohstitution, did not lose the confederated character 
 which they possessed when they ratified it, as well as in all the 
 preceding stages of their existence ; but, on the contrary, still 
 retained it to the full. 
 
 Those who oppose this conclusion, and maintain the national 
 character of the government, rely, in support of their views, 
 mainly on the expressions, " we, the people of the United 
 States," used in the first part of the preamble ; and, " do ordain 
 and establish this constitution for the United States of Amer- 
 ica," used in its conclusion. Taken together, they insist, in 
 the first place, that, "we, the people," mean, the people in their 
 individual character, as forming a single community ; and that, 
 "the United States of America," designates them in their 
 aggregate character, as the American people. In maintaining 
 this construction, they rely on the omission to enumerate the 
 States by name, after the word " people," (so ^s to make it 
 read, " We, the people of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
 &c.," as was done in the articles of the confederation, and, 
 also, in signing the Declaration of Independence;) — and, in- 
 stead of this, the simple use of the general term " United 
 States." 
 
 However plausible this may appear, an explanation perfectly 
 satisfactory may be given, why the expression, as it now 
 stands, was used by the framers of the constitution ; and why 
 it should not receive the meaning attempted to be placed upon 
 it. It is conceded that, if the enumeration of the States after 
 the word, "people," had been made, the expression would have 
 been freed from all ambiguity ; and the inference and argu- 
 ment founded on the failure to do so, left without pretext or 
 support. The omission is certainly striking, but it can be 
 readily explained. It was made intentionally, and solely from 
 the necessity of the case. The first draft of the constitution 
 contained an enumeration of the States, by name, after the 
 word " people ; " but it became impossible to retain it after 
 130 
 
15 
 
 the adoption of the seventh and last article, which provided, 
 that the ratification by nine States should be sufficient to estab- 
 lish the constitution as between them ; and for the plain reason, 
 that it was impossible to determine, whether all the States 
 would ratify; — or, if any failed, which, and how many of the 
 number; or, if nine should ratify, how to designate them. No 
 alternative was thus left but to omit the enumeration, and to 
 insert the " United States of America," in its place. And yet, 
 an omission, so readily and so satisfactorily explained, has 
 been seized on, as furnishing strong proof that the government 
 was ordained and established by the American people, in the 
 aggregate, — and is therefore national. 
 
 But the omission, of itself, would have caused no difficulty, 
 had there not been connected with it a twofold ambiguity in 
 the expression as it now stands. The term " United States,'' 
 which always means, in constitutional language, the several 
 States in their confederated character, means also, as has been 
 shown, when applied geographically, the country occupied and 
 possessed by them. While the term " people," has, in the 
 English language, no plural, and is necessarily used in the sin- 
 gular number, even when applied to many communities or 
 states confederated in a common union, — as is the case with 
 the United States. Availing themselves of this double ambi- 
 guity, and the omission to enumerate the States by name, the 
 advocates of the national theory of the government, assuming 
 that, '■^ 2ve, the people,'' meant individuals generally, and not 
 people as forming States ; and that " United States " was used 
 in a geographical and not a political sense, made out ai"^ argu- 
 ment of some plausibility, in favor of the conclusion that, " we, 
 the people of the United States of America," meant the aggre- 
 gate population of the States regarded en masse, and not in 
 their distinctive character as forming separate political com- 
 munities. But in this gratuitous assumption, and the conclu- 
 sion drawn from it, they overlooked the stubborn fact, that the 
 very people who ordained and established the constitution, are 
 identically the same who ratified it ; for it was by the act of 
 ratification alone, that it was ordained and established, — as has 
 been conclusively shown. This fact, of itself, sweeps away 
 every vestige of the argument drawn from the ambiguity of 
 those terms, as used in the preamble. 
 
 They next rely, in support of their theory, on the expression, 
 — •' ordained and established this constitution." They admit 
 
i6 
 
 that the constitution, in its incipient state, assumed the form of 
 a compact ; but contend that, " ordained and estabhshed," as 
 applied to the constitution and government, are incompatible 
 with the idea of compact ; that, consequently, the instrument 
 or plan lost its federative character when it was ordained and 
 established as a constitution ; and, thus, the States ceased to 
 be parties to a compact, and members of a confederated union, 
 and became fused into one common community, or nation, as 
 subordinate and dependent divisions or corporations. 
 
 I do not deem it necessary to discuss the question whether 
 there is any incompatibility between the terms, — " ordained 
 and established," — and that of "compact," on which the whole 
 argument rests ; although it would be no difficult task to show 
 that it is a gratuitous assumption, without any foundation what- 
 ever for its support. It is sufficient for my purpose, to show, 
 that the assumption is wholly inconsistent with the constitu- 
 tion itself; — as much so, as the conclusion drawn from it has 
 been shown to be inconsistent with the opinion of the conven- 
 tion which formed it. Very little will be required, after what 
 has been already stated, to establish what I propose. 
 
 That the constitution regards itself in the light of a comjDact, 
 still existing between the States, after it was ordained and es- 
 tablished ; that it regards the union, then existing, as still 
 existing ; and the several States, of course, still members of it, 
 in their original character of confederated States, is clear. Its 
 seventh article, so often referred to, in connection with the 
 arguments drawn from the preamble, sufficiently establishes all 
 these ipoints, without adducing others ; except that which re- 
 lates to the continuance of the union. To establish this, it will 
 not be necessary to travel out of the preamble and the letter 
 of the convention, laying the plan of the constitution before 
 the Congress of the confederation. In enumerating the objects 
 for which the constitution was ordained and established, the 
 preamble places at the head of the rest, as its leading object, — 
 " to form a more perfect union." So far, then, are the terms, 
 — " ordained and established," from being incompatible with 
 the union, or having the effect of destroying it, the constitution 
 itself declares that it was intended, " to form a more perfect 
 union." This, of itself, is sufficient to refute the assertion of 
 their incompatibility. But it is proper here to remark, that it 
 could not have been intended, by the expression in the pre- 
 amble, — "to form a more perfect union," — to declare, that the 
 
17 
 
 old was abolished, and a new and more perfect union estab- 
 lished in its place : for we have the authority of the convention 
 which formed the constitution, to prove that their object was to 
 continue the then existing union. In their letter, laying it 
 before Congress, they say, — " In all our deliberations on this 
 subject, we kept steadily in our view, that which appears to us, 
 the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation 
 of our union." " Our union," can refer to no other than the 
 then existing union, — the old union of the confederacy, and of 
 the revolutionary government which preceded it, — of which 
 these States were confederated members. This must, of 
 course, have been the union to which the framers referred in 
 the preamble. It was this, accordingly, which the constitution 
 intended to make more perfect ; just as the confederacy made 
 more perfect, that of the revolutionary government. Nor is 
 there any thing in the term, " consolidation,'' used by the con- 
 vention, calculated to weaken the conclusion. It is a strong 
 expression ; but as strong as it is, it certainly was not intended 
 to imply the destruction of the union, as it is supposed to do 
 by the advocates of a national government ; for that would 
 have been incompatible with the context, as well as with the 
 continuance of the union, — which the sentence and the entire 
 letter imply. Interpreted, then, in conjunction with the ex- 
 pression used in the preamble, — " to form a more perfect 
 union," — although it may more strongly intimate closeness of 
 connection ; it can imply nothing incompatible with the pro- 
 fessed object of perfecting the union, — still less a meaning 
 and eiifect wholly inconsistent with the nature of a confeder- 
 ated community. For to adopt the interpretation contended 
 for, to its full extent, would be to destroy the union, and not to 
 consolidate and perfect it. 
 
 If we turn from the preamble and the ratifications, to the 
 body of the constitution, we shall find that it furnishes most 
 conclusive proof that the government is federal, and not na- 
 tional. I can discover nothing, in any portion of it, which 
 gives the least countenance to the opposite conclusion. On 
 the contrary, the instrument, in all its parts, repels it. It is, 
 throughout, federal. It everywhere recognizes the existence 
 of the States, and invokes their aid to carry its powers into 
 execution. In one of the two houses of Congress, the mem- 
 bers are elected by the legislatures of their respective States ; 
 and in the other, by the people of the several States, not as 
 
composing mere districts of one great community, but as dis- 
 tinct and independent communities. General Washington 
 vetoed the first act apportioning the members of the House 
 of Representatives among the several States, under the first 
 census, expressly on the ground, that the act assumed as its 
 basis, the former, and not the latter construction. The Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President are chosen by electors, appointed by 
 their respective States ; and, finally, the Judges are appointed 
 by the President and the Senate ; and, of course, as these are 
 elected by the States, they are appointed through their agency. 
 But, however strong be the proofs of its federal character 
 derived from this source, that portion which provides for the 
 amendment of the constitution, furnishes, if possible, still 
 stronger. It shows, conclusively, that the people of the sev- 
 eral States still retain that supreme ultimate power, called 
 sovereignty ; — the power by which they ordained and estab- 
 lished the constitution ; and which can rightfully create, 
 modify, amend, or abolish it, at its pleasure. Wherever this 
 power resides, there the sovereignty is to be found. That it 
 still continues to exist in the several States, in a modified form, 
 is clearly shown by the fifth article of the constitution, which 
 provides for its amendment. By its provisions, Congress may 
 propose amendments, on its own authority, by the vote of two- 
 thirds of both houses ; or' it may be compelled to call a conven- 
 tion to propose them, by two-thirds of the legislatures of the 
 several States : but, in either case, they remain, when thus 
 made, mere proposals of no validity, until adopted by three- 
 fourths of the States, through their respective legislatures ; or 
 by conventions, called by them, for the purpose. Thus far, the 
 several States, in ordaining and establishing the constitution, 
 agreed, for their mutual convenience and advantage, to modify, 
 by compact, their high sovereign power of creating and estab- 
 lishing constitutions, as far as it related to the constitution and 
 government of the United States. I say, for their mutual con- 
 venience and advantage; for without the modification, it would 
 have required the separate consent of all the States of the 
 Union to alter or amend their constitutional compact ; in like 
 manner as it required the consent of all to establish it between 
 them ; and to obviate the almost insuperable difficulty of mak- 
 ing such amendments as time and experience might prove to 
 be necessary, by the unanimous consent of all, they agreed to 
 make the modification. But that they did not intend, by this, 
 134 
 
19 
 
 to divest themselves of the high sovereign right, (a right which 
 they still retain, notwithstanding the modification,) to change 
 or abolish the present constitution and government at their 
 pleasure, cannot be doubted. It is an acknowledged principle, 
 that sovereigns may, by compact, modify or qualify the exer- 
 cise of their power, without impairing their sovereignty ; of 
 which, the confederacy existing at the time, furnishes a striking 
 illustration. It must reside, unimpaired and in its plentitude, 
 somewhere. And if it do not reside in the people of the sev- 
 eral States, in their confederated character, where, — so far- as 
 it relates to the constitution and government of the United 
 States, — can it be found .'' Not, certainly, in the government ; 
 for, according to our theory, sovereignty resides in the people, 
 and not in the government. That it cannot be found in the 
 people, taken in the aggregate, as forming one community or 
 nation, is equally certain. But as certain as it cannot, just so 
 certain is it, that it must reside in the people of the several 
 States : and if it reside in them at all, it must reside in them 
 as separate and distinct communities ; for it has been shown, 
 that it does not reside in them in the aggregate, as forming 
 one community or nation. These are the only aspects under 
 which it is possible to regard the people; and, just as certain 
 as it resides in them, in that character, so certain is it that 
 ours is a federal, and not a national government. 
 
 WEBSTER S TRIBUTE TO CALHOUN. 
 
 Speech in the Senate^ April i, 1850, the Day after Mr. 
 Calhoun^ s Death. 
 
 I hope the Senate will indulge me in adding a very few 
 words to what has been said. My apology for this presump- 
 tion is the very long acquaintance which has subsisted between 
 Mr. Calhoun and myself. We are of the same age. I made 
 my first entrance into the House of Representatives in May, 
 18 13, and there found Mr. Calhoun. He had already been in 
 that body for two or three years. I found him then an active 
 and efficient member of the assembly to which he belonged, 
 taking a decided part, and exercising a decided influence, in 
 all its deliberations. 
 
 135 
 
20 
 
 From that day to the day of his death, amidst all the strifes 
 of party and politics, there has subsisted between us, always, 
 and without interruption, a great degree of personal kindness. 
 
 Differing widely on many great questions respecting the in- 
 stitutions and government of the country, those differences 
 never interrupted our personal and social intercourse. I have 
 been present at most of the distinguished instances of the ex- 
 hibition of his talents in debate. I have always heard him 
 with pleasure, often with much instruction, not unfrequently 
 with the highest degree of admiration. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun was calculated to be a leader in whatsoever 
 association of political friends he was thrown. He was a man 
 of undoubted genius and of commanding talent. All the coun- 
 try and the world admit that. 
 
 His mind was both perceptive and vigorous. It was clear, 
 quick, and strong. 
 
 Sir, the eloquence of Mr. Calhoun or the manner of his ex- 
 hibition of his sentiments in public bodies was part of his 
 intellectual character. It grew out of the qualities of his mind. 
 It was plain, strong, terse, condensed, concise ; sometimes im- 
 passioned, still always severe. Rejecting ornament, not often 
 seeking far for illustration, his power consisted in the plainness 
 of his propositions, in the closeness of his logic, and in the 
 earnestness and energy of his manner. These are the qual- 
 ities, as I think, which have enabled him, through such a long 
 course of years, to speak often, and yet always command atten- 
 tion. His demeanor as a Senator is known to us all — is 
 appreciated, venerated by us all. No man was more respect- 
 ful to others ; no man carried himself with greater decorum, no 
 man with superior dignity. I think there is not one of us but 
 felt, when he last addressed us from his seat in the Senate, his 
 form still erect, with a voice by no means indicating such a 
 degree of physical weakness as did, in fact, possess him, with 
 clear tones, and an impressive, and, I may say, an imposing 
 manner, who did not feel that he might imagine that we saw 
 before us a Senator of Rome, when Rome survived. 
 
 Sir, I have not in public nor in private life known a more 
 assiduous person in the discharge of his appropriate duties. 
 I have known no man who wasted less of life in what is called 
 recreation or employed less of it in any pursuits not connected 
 with the immediate discharge of his duty. He seemed to have 
 no recreation but the pleasure of conversation with his friends. 
 136 
 
21 
 
 Out of the chambers of Congress, he was either devoting him- 
 self to the acquisition of knowledge pertaining to the immedi- 
 ate subject of the duty before him or else he was indulging in 
 those social interviews in which he so much delighted. 
 
 My honorable friend from Kentucky has spoken in just 
 terms of his colloquial talents. They certainly were singular 
 and eminent. There was a charm in his conversation not 
 often found. He delighted especially in conversation and in- 
 tercourse with young men. I suppose that there has been no 
 man among us who had more winning manners, in such an 
 intercourse and conversation with men comparatively young, 
 than Mr. Calhoun. I believe one great power of his character, 
 in general, was his conversational talent. I believe it is that, 
 as well as a consciousness of his high integrity, and the great- 
 est reverence for his intellect and ability, that has made him 
 so endeared an object to the people of the State to which he 
 belonged. 
 
 Mr. President, he had the basis, the indispensable basis, of 
 all high character; and that was unspotted integrity — unim- 
 peached honor and character. If he had aspirations, they 
 were high, honorable, and noble. There was nothing grovel- 
 ling or low or meanly selfish that came near the head or the 
 heart of Mr. Calhoun. Firm in his purpose, perfectly patriotic 
 and honest, as I am sure he was, in the principles that he 
 espoused, and in the measures that he defended, aside from 
 that large regard for that species of distinction that conducted 
 him to eminent stations for the benefit of the republic, I do 
 not believe he had a selfish motive or selfish feeling. 
 
 However, sir, he may have differed from others of us in his 
 political opinions or his political principles, those principles 
 and those opinions will now descend to posterity under the 
 sanction of a great name. He has lived long enough, he has 
 done enough, and he has done it so well, so successfully, so 
 honorably, as to connect himself for all time with the records 
 of his country. He is now an historical character. Those of 
 us who have known him here will find that he has left upon 
 our minds and our hearts a strong and lasting impression of 
 his person, his character, and his public performances, which, 
 while we live, will never be obliterated. We shall, hereafter, 
 I am sure, indulge in it as a grateful recollection that we have 
 lived in his age, that we have been his contemporaries, that 
 we have seen him and, heard him and known him. We shall 
 
 137 
 
22 
 
 delight to speak of him to those who are rising up to fill our 
 places. And, when the time shall come when we ourselves 
 shall go, one after another, in succession to our graves, we shall 
 carry with us a deep sense of his genius and character, his 
 honor and integrity, his amiable deportment in private life, and 
 the purity of his exalted patriotism. 
 
 VON HOLST ON CALHOUN. 
 
 From his Life of CalJioun. 
 
 Life is not only " stranger than fiction," but frequently also 
 more tragical than any tragedy ever conceived by the most fervid 
 imagination. Often in these tragedies of life there is not one 
 drop of blood to make us shudder, nor a single event to com- 
 pel the tears into the eye. A man endowed with an intellect 
 far above the average, impelled by a high-soaring ambition, un- 
 tainted by any petty or ignoble passion, and guided by a char- 
 acter of sterling firmness and more than common purity, yet, 
 with fatal illusion, devoting all his mental powers, all his moral 
 energy, and the whole force of his iron will to the service of a 
 doomed and unholy cause, and at last sinking into the grave in 
 the very moment when, under the weight of the top-stone, the 
 towering pillars of the temple of his impure idol are rent to 
 their very base, — can anything more tragical be conceived.'* . . . 
 
 It was his solemn conviction that throughout his life he had 
 faithfully done his duty, both to the Union and to his section, 
 because, as he honestly believed slavery to be " a good, a posi- 
 tive good," he had never been able to see that it was impos- 
 sible to serve at the same time the Union and his section, if 
 his section was considered as identical with the slavocracy. 
 In perfect good faith he had undertaken what no man could 
 accomplish, because it was a physical and moral impossibility : 
 antagonistic principles cannot be united into a basis on which 
 to rest a huge political fabric. Nullification and the govern- 
 ment of law ; State supremacy and a constitutional Union, 
 endowed with the power necessary to minister to the wants of 
 a great people ; the nationalization of slavery upon the basis 
 of States-rightism in a federal Union, composed principally of 
 free communities, by which slavery was. considered a sin and 
 138 
 
22> 
 
 a curse ; equality of States and constitutional consolidation 
 of geographical sections, with an artificial preponderance 
 granted to the minority, — these were incompatibilities, and no 
 logical ingenuity could reason them together into the formative 
 principle of a gigantic commonwealth. The speculations of 
 the keenest political logician the United States had ever had 
 ended in the greatest logical monstrosity imaginable, because 
 his reasoning started from a coiifradictio in adjecto. This he 
 failed to see, because the mad delusion had wholly taken pos- 
 session of his mind that in this age of steam and electricity, of 
 democratic ideas and the rights of man, slavery was " the most 
 solid foundation of liberty." More than to any other man, the 
 South owed it to him that she succeeded for such a long time 
 in forcing the most democratic and the most progressive com- 
 monwealth of the universe to bend its knees and do homage to 
 the idol of this " peculiar institution " ; but therefore also the 
 largest share of the responsibility for what at last did come 
 rests on his shoulders. 
 
 No man can write the last chapter of his own biography, in 
 which the Facit of his whole life is summed up, so to say, in 
 one word. If ever a new edition of the works of the greatest 
 and purest of pro-slavery fanatics should be published, it ought 
 to have a short appendix, — the Emancipation Proclamation of 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 John C. Calhoun (1782-1S50) was the pre-eminent representative of the doctrine of State 
 Rights, as Daniel Webster was the pre-eminent representative of the doctrine of National 
 Sovereignty, in the great controversy which raged in the country uninterruptedly in various 
 forms from the time of the Constitutional Convention until its final settlement by the logic of 
 events in the Civil War. " Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable," was 
 the great watchword of Webster. It was this emblazoned on our ensign which he wished 
 might greet his last earthly vision. " If you should ask me," Calhoun once said, " the word 
 that I would wish engraven on my tombstone, it is Xiiliijicaiion." It was in the debate 
 between Webster and Calhoun in February, 1S33, immediately after the passage of the nulli- 
 fication act by South Carolina,^an act declaring the national tariff act of 1S32 null and void 
 and forbidding the collection of duties at any port in the State, threatening secession if inter- 
 fered with, — and in the famous debate between Webster and Senator Havne, of .South 
 Carolina, tliree years before, while South Carolina was threatening nullification and while 
 Calhoun was Vice-President of the United States and president of tlie Senate, that tlie two 
 opposing principles received their most powerful presentation upon the floor of Congress. 
 The student should read (Calhoun's Works, vol. i.) Calhoun's speech on the Revenue Col- 
 lection (Force) Bill, February 15-1(1, 1S33, and his speech on his Resolutions in support of 
 State Rights, February 26, 1833. The first of these famous resolutions was, "That the 
 people of the several .States comprising these United States are united as parties to a consti- 
 tutional compact, to which the people of each State acceded as a separate and sovereign com- 
 munity, each binding itself by its own particular ratification ; and that the union, of which 
 the said compact is the bond, is a union between the States ratifying the same." The student 
 should also read the various addresses prepared by Calhoun for the legislature and people of 
 South Carolina during the nullification period, 1.S2S-32, setting forth their theory of their 
 relation to the general government (Calhoun's Works, vol. vi.) . 
 
 '39 
 
24 
 
 But perhaps nowhere else did Calhoun expound his views so systematically as in his 
 " Discourse on the Constitution and (iovernment of the United States," whose introductory 
 sections are reprinted in the present leaflet. 'J'his was the second of two important essays in 
 political philosophy written in i.S4g, but not published until after his death. The first of the 
 two essays was a general "Disquisition on Government''; and of this posthumous work 
 John Stuart Mill spoke as tliat of one who had "displayed powers as a speculative political 
 thinker superior to any who has apiieared in American politics since tlie authors of ' Tlie Fed- 
 eralist.' " These essays occupy together the whole of the first volume of Calhoun's Works. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the theory that the United States is a confederacy was 
 exclusively a Southern theory, and the theory of a nation a Northern one. Both theories 
 have been operative in both sections. See Powell's " Nullification and Secession in tlie 
 United States." Hayne's great speech upon State Rights should always be read in connec- 
 tion with Webster's famous reply to it, especially for its historical survey of the attitude of 
 New England and the North in 1.S15 and preceding years. A still more powerful presenta- 
 tion of this— one of the greatest of all American political papers — is the address of John 
 Quincy Adams, first published by Henry Adams in his " Documents relating to New Eng- 
 land Federalism." The strong national theory and sentiment upon which our government 
 now rests have been a gradual development ; and Webster's great speeches were even more 
 important for the history which tliey made than for that which they expounded. 
 
 The most scholarly and critical life of Calhoun is that in the American Statesmen Series, 
 by Von Hoist, whose Constitutional History of the United States is also largely devoted to 
 the study of the long struggle with the State Rights doctrine, of which Calhoun was the 
 great champion. There is an earlier biography by John S. Jenkins, in which several of 
 Calhoun's most significant and representative speeches are incorporated : and this will be of 
 use to those who do not have access to the edition (in 6 vols.) of Calhoun's Works. The 
 long article on Calhoun in the Cycloiiiudia of American Biography was written by J. Randolph 
 Tucker, and is of unusual value. The lives of Webster and his replies to Calhoun and 
 Hayne should be consulted. The bibliography for the whole period of Calhoun's iiublic life 
 in Channing and Hart's " Guide to American History " is very complete and well arranged. 
 See especially the sections on "Theories of the Constitution," " Tariff and Nullification, 
 1828-32," and " Public Controversy as to Slavery." 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 140 
 
O^lD ^outf) Heaflet^, 
 
 No. 107. 
 
 Lincoln's 
 
 Cooper Institute 
 
 Address. 
 
 Address at Cooper Institute, New York, Feb. 27, 1S60. 
 
 Mr. President and Felhnv-citizens of New York: — The facts 
 with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and famil- 
 iar ; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make 
 of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode 
 of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations 
 following that presentation. In his speech last autumn at 
 Columbus, Ohio, as reported in the " New- York Times," Sen- 
 ator Douglas said : 
 
 Our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, 
 understood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now. 
 
 I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this dis- 
 course. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and an 
 agreed starting-point for a discussion between Republicans and 
 that wing of the Democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It 
 simply leaves the inquiry : What was the understanding those 
 fathers had of the question mentioned ? 
 
 What is the frame of government under which we live .'' 
 The answer must be, " The Constitution of the United States." 
 That Constitution consists of the original, framed in 1787, and 
 under which the present government first went into operation, 
 and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first ten of 
 which were framed in 1789. 
 
 Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution ? I sup- 
 pose the "thirty-nine" who signed the original instrument may 
 
 141 
 
be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of the present 
 government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed 
 it, and it is altogether true to say they fairly represented the 
 opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. Their 
 names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, 
 need not now be repeated. 
 
 I take these "thirty-nine," for the present, as being " our 
 fathers who framed the government under which we live." 
 What is the question which, according to the text, those 
 fathers understood "just as well, and even better, than we do 
 
 now 
 
 ? 
 
 It is this : Does the proper division of local from Federal 
 authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in our Federal Terri- 
 tories ? 
 
 Upon this. Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, and Re- 
 publicans the negative. This affirmation and denial form an 
 issue ; and this issue — this question • — is precisely what the 
 text declares our fathers understood " better than we." Let 
 us now inquire whether the "thirty-nine," or any of them, ever 
 acted upon this question ; and if they did, how they acted upon 
 it — how they expressed that better understanding. In 1784, 
 three years before the Constitution, the United States then 
 owning the Northwestern Territory and no other, the Congress 
 of the Confederation had before them the question of prohibit- 
 ing slavery in that Territory ; and four of the " thirty-nine " 
 who afterward framed the Constitution were in that Congress, 
 and voted on that question. Of these, Roger Sherman, 
 Thomas Mifflin and Hugh Williamson voted for the prohibi- 
 tion, thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing 
 local from Federal authority, nor anything else, properly for- 
 bade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
 Federal territory. The other of the four, James McHenry, 
 voted against the prohibition, showing that for some cause he 
 thought it improper to vote for it. 
 
 In 17S7, still before the Constitution, but while the conven- 
 tion was in session framing it, and while the Northwestern 
 Territory still was the only Territory owned by the United 
 States, the same question of prohibiting slavery in the Terri- 
 tory again came before the Congress of the Confederation ; 
 and two more of the " thirty-nine " who afterward signed the 
 Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on the question. 
 142 
 
They were William Blount and William Few ; and they both 
 voted for the prohibition — thus showing that in their under- 
 standing no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor 
 anything else, properly forbade the Federal Government to 
 control as to slavery in Federal territory. This time the pro- 
 hibition became a law, being part of what is now well known 
 as the ordinance of '87. 
 
 The question of Federal control of slavery in the Territories 
 seems not to have been directly before the convention which 
 framed the original Constitution ; and hence it is not recorded 
 that the " thirty-nine," or any of them, while engaged on that 
 instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question. 
 
 In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitu- 
 tion, an act was passed to enforce the ordinance of '87, includ- 
 ing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. 
 The bill for this act was 'reported by one of the "thirty-nine " 
 — Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages 
 without a word of opposition, and finally passed both branches 
 without ayes and nays, which is equivalent to a unanimous 
 passage. In this Congress there were sixteen of the thirty- 
 nine fathers who framed the original Constitution. They were 
 John Langdon, Nicholas Oilman, Wm. S. Johnson, Roger Sher- 
 man, Robert Morris, Thos. Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abra- 
 ham Baldwin, Rufus King, William Paterson, George Clymer, 
 Richard Bassett. George Read, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, 
 and James Madison. 
 
 This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing 
 local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, 
 properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the Federal 
 territory ; else both their fidelity to correct principle, and their 
 oath to support the Constitution, would have constrained them 
 to oppose the prohibition. 
 
 Again, George Washington, another of the " thirty-nine," was 
 then President of the United States, and as such approved and 
 signed the bill, thus completing its validity as a law, and thus 
 showing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from 
 Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade 
 the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal 
 territory. 
 
 No great while after the adoption of the original Constitu- 
 tion, North Carolina ceded to the Federal Government the 
 
 143 
 
country now constituting the State of Tennessee ; and a few 
 years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes the 
 States of Mississippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession 
 it was made a condition by the ceding States that the Federal 
 Government should not prohibit slavery in the ceded country. 
 Besides this, slavery was then actually in the ceded country. 
 Under these circumstances, Congress, on taking charge of 
 these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. 
 But they did interfere with it — take control of it — even there, 
 to a certam extent. In 1798 Congress organized the Territory 
 of Mississippi. In the act of organization they prohibited the 
 bringing of slaves into the Territory from any place without the 
 United States, by fine, and giving freedom to slaves so brought. 
 This act passed both branches of Congress without yeas and 
 nays. In that Congress were three of the " thirty-nine " who 
 framed the original Constitution. They were John Langdon, 
 George Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all probably voted 
 for it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition to it 
 upon record if, in their understanding, any line dividing local 
 from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, prop- 
 erly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery 
 in Federal territory. 
 
 In 1803 the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana 
 country. Our former territorial acquisitions came from certain 
 of our own States ; but this Louisiana country was acquired 
 from a foreign nation. In 1804 Congress gave a territorial 
 organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State 
 of Louisiana. New Orleans, lying within that part, was an old 
 and comparatively large city. There were other considerable 
 towns and settlements, and slavery was extensively and thor- 
 oughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not, in 
 the Territorial Act, prohibit slavery ; but they did interfere 
 with it — take control of it — in a more marked and extensive 
 way than they did in the case of Mississippi. The substance 
 of the provision therein made in relation to slaves was : 
 
 I St. That no slave should be imported into the Territory 
 from foreign parts. 
 
 2d. That no slave should be carried into it who had been 
 imported into the United States since the first day of May, 
 1798. 
 
 3d. That no slave should be carried into it, except by the 
 owner, and for his own use as a settler ; the penalty in all the 
 144 
 
5 
 
 cases being a fine upon the violator of the law, and freedom to 
 the slave. 
 
 This act also was passed without ayes or nays. In the Con- 
 gress which passed it there were two of the " thirty-nine." They 
 were Abraham Baldwin and Jonathan Dayton. As stated in 
 the case of Mississippi, it is probable they both voted for it. 
 They would not have allowed it to pass without recording their 
 opposition to it if, in their understanding, it violated either the 
 line properly dividing local from Federal authority, or any pro- 
 vision of the Constitution. 
 
 In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri question. Many 
 votes were taken, by yeas and nays, in both branches of Con- 
 gress, upon the various phases of the general question. Two 
 of the "thirty-nine" — Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — 
 were members of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for 
 slavery prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. 
 Pinckney as steadily voted against slavery prohibition and 
 against all compromises. By this, Mr. King showed that, in 
 his understanding, no line dividing local from Federal author- 
 ity, nor anything in the Constitution, was violated by Congress 
 prohibiting slavery in Federal territory ; while Mr. Pinckney, 
 by his votes, showed that, in his understanding, there was some 
 sufficient reason for opposing such prohibition in that case. 
 
 The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the "thirty- 
 nine," or of any of them, upon the direct issue, which I have 
 been able to discover. 
 
 To enumerate the persons who thus acted as being four in 
 1784, two in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 1798, two in 
 1804, and two in 1819-20, there would be thirty of them. But 
 this would be counting John Langdon, Roger Sherman, William 
 Few, Rufus King, and George Read each twice, and Abraham 
 Baldwin three times. The true number of those of the "thirty- 
 nine " whom I have shown to have acted upon the question 
 which, by the text, they understood better than we, is^ twenty- 
 three, leaving sixteen not shown to have acted upon it in any 
 way. 
 
 Here, then, we have twenty-three out of our thirty-nine 
 fathers "who framed the government under which we live," 
 who have, upon their official responsibility and their corporal 
 oaths, acted upon the very question which the text affirms they 
 " understood just as well, and even better, than we do now " ; 
 and twenty-one of them — a clear majority of the whole "thirty- 
 
 145 
 
nine" — so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross 
 political impropriety and wilful perjury if, in their understand- 
 ing, any proper division between local and Federal authority, 
 or anything in the Constitution they had made themselves, and 
 sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control 
 as to slavery in the Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one 
 acted ; and, as actions speak louder than words, so actions 
 under such responsibility speak still louder. 
 
 Two of the twenty-three voted against congressional prohi- 
 bition of slavery in the Federal Territories, in the instances in 
 which they acted upon the question. But for what reasons 
 they so voted is not known. They may have done so because 
 they thought a proper division of local from Federal authority, 
 or some provision or principle of the Constitution, stood in the 
 way ; or they may, without any such question, have voted 
 against the prohibition on what appeared to them to be suffi- 
 cient grounds of expediency. No one who has sworn to sup- 
 port the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what he 
 understands to be an unconstitutional measure, however expe- 
 dient he may think it ; but one may and ought to vote against 
 a measure which he deems constitutional if, at the same time, 
 he deems it inexpedient. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set 
 down even the two who voted against the prohibition as having 
 done so because, in their understanding, any proper division 
 of local from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, 
 forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
 Federal territory. 
 
 The remaining sixteen of the " thirty-nine," so far as I have 
 discovered, have left no record of their understanding upon the 
 direct question of Federal control of slavery in the Federal 
 Territories. But there is much reason to believe that their 
 understanding upon that question would not have appeared 
 different from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been 
 manifested at all. 
 
 For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have pur- 
 posely omitted whatever understanding may have been mani- 
 fested by any person, however distinguished, other than the 
 thirty-nine fathers, who framed the original Constitution ; and, 
 for the same reason, I have also omitted whatever understand- 
 ing may have been manifested by any of the "thirty-nine" 
 even on any other phase of the general question of slavery. 
 If we should look into their acts and declarations on those 
 146 
 
other phases, as the foreign slave-trade, and the morality and 
 poUcy of slavery generally, it would appear to us that on the 
 direct question of Federal control of slavery in Federal Terri- 
 tories, the sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably 
 have acted just as the twenty-three did. Among that sixteen 
 were several of the most noted anti-slavery men of those times, 
 — as Dr. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Mor- 
 ris, — while there was ' not one now known to have been 
 otherwise, unless it may be John Rutledge, of South Caro- 
 lina. 
 
 The sum of the whole is that of our thirty-nine fathers who 
 framed the original Constitution, twenty-one — a clear majority 
 of the whole — certainly understood that no proper division of 
 local from Federal authority, nor any part of the Constitution, 
 forbade the Federal Government to control slavery in the 
 Federal Territories ; while all the rest had probably the same 
 understanding. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding 
 of our fathers who framed the original Constitution ; and 
 the text affirms that they understood the question ''better than 
 we." 
 
 But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of 
 the question manifested by the framers of the original Consti- 
 tution. In and by the original instrument, a mode was pro- 
 vided for amending it ; and, as I have already stated, the 
 present frame of "the government under which we live " con- 
 sists of that original, and twelve amendatory articles framed 
 and adopted since. Those who now insist that Federal con- 
 trol of slavery in Federal Territories violates the Constitution, 
 point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus violates ; 
 and, as I understand, they all fix upon provisions in these 
 amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The 
 Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon 
 the fifth amendment, which provides that no person shall be 
 deprived of " life, liberty, or property without due process of 
 law " ; while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents plant 
 themselves upon the tenth amendment, providing that " the 
 powers Hot delegated to the United States by the Constitu- 
 tion " "are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
 people." 
 
 Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by 
 the first Congress which sat under the Constitution — the 
 identical Congress which passed the act, already mentioned, 
 
 147 
 
enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Terri- 
 tory. Not only was it the same Congress, but they were the 
 identical, same individual men who, at the same session, and 
 at the same time within the session, had under consideration, 
 and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional amend- 
 ments, and this act prohibiting slavery in all the territory the 
 nation then owned. The constitutional amendments were in- 
 troduced before, and passed after, the act enforcing the ordi- 
 nance of '87 ; so that, during the whole pendency of the act 
 to enforce the ordinance, the constitutional amendments were 
 also pending. 
 
 The seventy-six members of that Congress, including sixteen 
 of the framers of the original Constitution, as before stated, 
 were pre-eminently our fathers who framed that part of " the 
 government under which we live " which is now claimed as 
 forbidding the Federal Government to control slavery in the 
 Federal Territories. 
 
 Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day to affirm 
 that the two things which that Congress deliberately framed, 
 and carried to maturity at the same time, are absolutely incon- 
 sistent with each other ? And does not such affirmation be- 
 come impudently absurd when coupled with the other affirma- 
 tion, from the same mouth, that those who did the two things 
 alleged to be inconsistent, understood whether they really were 
 inconsistent better than we — better than he who affirms that 
 they are inconsistent ? 
 
 It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine framers of the 
 original Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Con- 
 gress which framed the amendments thereto, taken together, 
 do certainly include those who may be fairly called "our 
 fathers who framed the government under which we live." 
 And so assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of 
 them ever, in his whole life, declared that, in his understand- 
 ing, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any 
 part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to 
 control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. I go a step 
 further. I defy any one to show that any living man in the 
 whole world ever did, prior to the beginning of the present 
 century (and I might almost say prior to the beginning of the 
 last half of the present century), declare that, in his understand- 
 ing, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any 
 part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to 
 
control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. To those who 
 now so declare I give not only "our fathers who framed the 
 government under which we live," but with them all other liv- 
 ing men within the century in which it was framed, among 
 whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the evidence 
 of a single man agreeing with them. 
 
 Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunder- 
 stood. I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly 
 in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all 
 the lights of current experience — to reject all progress, all im- 
 provement. What I do say is that, if we would supplant the 
 opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so 
 upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even 
 their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, cannot 
 stand ; and most surely not in a case whereof we ourselves 
 declare they understood the question better than we. 
 
 If any man at this day sincerely believes that a proper divi- 
 sion of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Consti- 
 tution, forbids the Federal Government to control as to slavery 
 in the Federal Territories, he is right to say so, and to enforce 
 his position by all truthful evidence and fair argument which 
 he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have less 
 access to history, and less leisure to study it, into the false 
 belief that " our fathers who framed the government under 
 which we live " were of the same opinion — thus substituting 
 falsehood and deception for truthful^ evidence and fair argu- 
 ment. If any man at this day sincerely believes " our fathers 
 who framed the government under which we live " used and 
 applied principles, in other cases, which ought to have led 
 them to understand that a proper division of local from Federal 
 authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, 
 he is right to say so. But he should, at the same time, brave 
 the responsibility of declaring that, in his opinion, he under- 
 stands their principles better than they did themselves ; and 
 especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting 
 that they " understood the question just as well, and even 
 better, than we do now." 
 
 But enough ! Let all who believe that " our fathers who 
 framed the government tinder which we live understood this 
 question just as well, and even better, than we do now," speak 
 as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This is all Re- 
 
 149 
 
lO 
 
 publicans ask — all Republicans desire — in relation to slavery. 
 As those fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an 
 evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected only 
 because of and so far as its actual presence among us makes 
 that toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the guaran- 
 ties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but fully and 
 fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with 
 this, so far as I know or believe, they will be content. 
 
 And now, if they would listen, — as I suppose they will 
 not, — I would address a few words to the Southern people. 
 
 I would say to them : You consider yourselves a reasonable 
 and a just people; and I consider that in the general qualities 
 of reason and justice you are not inferior to any other people. 
 Still, when you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to 
 denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than out- 
 laws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but 
 nothing like it to "Black Republicans." In all your conten- 
 tions with one another, each of you deems an unconditional 
 condemnation of " Black Republicanism " as the first thing to 
 be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be 
 an indispensable prerequisite — license, so to speak — among 
 you to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. Now can you 
 or not be prevailed upon to pause and to consider whether 
 this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves? - Bring forward 
 your charges and specifications, and then be patient long 
 enough to hear us deny or justify. 
 
 You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an 
 issue ; and the burden of proof is upon you. You produce 
 your proof ; and what is it ? Why, that our party has no exist- 
 ence in your section — gets no votes in your section. The 
 fact is substantially true ; but does it prove the issue ? If it 
 does, then in case we should, without change of principle, 
 begin to get votes in your section, we should thereby cease to 
 be sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion ; and yet are 
 you willing to abide by it ? If you are, you will probably soon 
 find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes 
 in your section this very year. You will then begin to discover, 
 as the truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch the issue. 
 The fact that we get no votes in your section is a fact of your 
 making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that fact, 
 that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until you show 
 that we repel you by some wrong principle or practice. If we 
 150 
 
II 
 
 do repel you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is 
 ours ; but this brings you to where you ought to have started 
 — to a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If 
 our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section for the 
 benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our principle, and 
 we with it, are sectional, and are justly opposed and denounced 
 as such. Meet us, then, on the question of whether our princi- 
 ple, put in practice, would wrong your section ; and so meet us 
 as if it were possible that something may be said on our side. 
 Do you accept the challenge.'' No! Then you really believe 
 that the principle which '• our fathers who framed the govern- 
 ment under which we live " thought so clearly right as to adopt 
 it, and indorse it again and again, upon their official oaths, is 
 in fact so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation 
 without a moment's consideration. 
 
 Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning 
 against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell 
 Address. Less than eight years before Washington gave that 
 warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved 
 and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of 
 slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act embodied 
 the policy of the government upon that subject up to and at 
 the very moment he penned that warning; and about one year 
 after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that 
 prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection 
 his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy of 
 free States. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since 
 arisen upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in 
 your hands against us, or in our hands against you .' Could 
 Washington himself speak, would he cast the blame of that 
 sectionalism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, who 
 repudiate it? We respect that warning of Washington, and we 
 commend it to you, together with his example pointing to the 
 right application of it. 
 
 But you say you are conservative — eminently conserva- 
 tive — while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of 
 the sort. What is conservatism ? Is it not adherence to the 
 old and tried, against the new and untried .' We stick to, con- 
 tend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy 
 which was adopted by " our fathers who framed the govern- 
 ment under which we live '' ; while you with one accord reject, 
 
 151 
 
12 
 
 and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and insist upon sub- 
 stituting something new. True, you disagree among your- 
 selves as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on 
 new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in reject- 
 ing and denouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you 
 are for reviving the foreign slave-trade ; some for a congres- 
 sional slave code for the Territories ; some for Congress forbid- 
 ding the Territories to prohibit slavery within their limits ; 
 some for maintaining slavery in the Territories through the 
 judiciary ; Some for the " gur-reat pur-rinciple " that " if one 
 man would enslave another, no third man should object," fan- 
 tastically called "popular sovereignty"; but never a man 
 among you is in favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Fed- 
 eral Territories, according to the practice of " our fathers who 
 framed the government under which we live." Not one of all 
 your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in 
 the century within which our government originated. Con- 
 sider, then, whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves, 
 and your charge of destructiveness against us, are based on 
 the most clear and stable foundations. 
 
 Again, you say we have made the slavery question more 
 prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that 
 it is more prominent, but we deny that we made it so. It was 
 not we, but you, who discarded the old policy of the fathers. 
 We resisted, and still resist, your innovation ; and thence comes 
 the greater prominence of the question. Would you have that 
 question reduced to its former proportions ? Go back to that 
 old policy. What has been will be again, under the same con- 
 ditions. If you would have the peace of the old times, readopt 
 the precepts and policy of the old times. 
 
 You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. 
 We deny it ; and what is your proof ? Harper's Ferry ! John 
 Brown ! John Brown was no Republican ; and you have failed 
 to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enter- 
 prise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, 
 you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know it, you 
 are inexcusable for not designating the man and proving the 
 fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcusable for asserting 
 it, and especially for persisting in the assertion after you have 
 tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that 
 persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, is 
 simply malicious slander. 
 152 
 
13 
 
 Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or 
 encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still insist that our 
 doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. 
 We do not believe it. We know we hold no doctrine, and 
 make no declaration, which were not held to and made by 
 " our fathers who framed the government under which we 
 live." You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. 
 When it occurred, some important State elections were near at 
 hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief that, by 
 charging the blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us 
 in those elections. The elections came, and your expectations 
 were not quite fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, 
 as to himself at least, your charge was a slander, and he was 
 not much inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Repub- 
 lican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a con- 
 tinual protest against any interference whatever with your 
 slaves, or with you about your slaves. Surely this does not 
 encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in common with " our 
 fathers who framed the government under which we live," 
 declare our belief that slavery is wrong ; but the slaves do not 
 hear us declare even this. For anything we say or do, the 
 slaves would scarcely know there is a Republican party. I 
 believe they would not, in fact, generally know it but for your 
 misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In your political 
 contests among yourselves, each faction charges the other with 
 sympathy with Black Republicanism ; and then, to give point 
 to the charge, defines Black Republicanism to simply be insur- 
 rection, blood, and thunder among the slaves. 
 
 Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were 
 before the Republican party was organized. What induced 
 the Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years ago, in which 
 at least three times as many lives were lost as at Harper's 
 Ferry? You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to 
 the conclusion that Southampton was " got up by Black Re- 
 publicanism." In the present state of things in the United 
 States, 1 do not think a general, or even a very extensive, slave 
 insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of action 
 cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid com- 
 munication; nor can incendiary freemen, black or white, 
 supply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in parcels ; 
 but there neither are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable 
 connecting trains. 
 
 153 
 
14 
 
 Much is said by Southern people about the affection of 
 slaves for their masters and mistresses ; and a part of it, at 
 least, is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised 
 and communicated to twenty individuals before some one of 
 them, to save the life of a favorite master or mistress, would 
 divulge it. This is the rule ; and the slave revolution in Hayti 
 was not an exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar 
 circumstances. The gunpowder plot of British history, though 
 not connected with slaves, was more in point. In that case 
 only about twenty were admitted to the secret ; and yet one 
 of them, in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to 
 that friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity. Occa- 
 sional poisonings from the kitchen and open or stealthy assassi- 
 nations in the field, and local revolts extending to a score or 
 so, will continue to occur as the natural results of slavery ; but 
 no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in 
 this country for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much 
 hopes, for such an event, will be alike disappointed. 
 
 In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, 
 " It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation 
 and deportation peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that 
 the evil will wear off insensibly ; and their places be, pari 
 passu, filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it 
 is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the 
 prospect held up." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the power 
 of emancipation is in the Federal Government. He spoke of 
 Virginia ; and, as to the power of emancipation, I speak of the 
 slaveholding States only. The Federal Government, however, 
 as we insist, has the power of restraining the extension of the 
 institution — the power to insure that a slave insurrection shall 
 never occur on any American soil which is now free from 
 slavery. 
 
 John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insur- 
 rection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt 
 among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In 
 .fact it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, 
 saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its 
 philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in 
 history, at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthu- 
 siast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies 
 himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He vent- 
 154 
 
15 
 
 Lires the attempt, which ends in little else than his own execu- 
 tion. Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon and John Brown's 
 attempt at Harper's Ferry were, in their philosophy, precisely 
 the same. The eagerness to cast blame on old England in the 
 one case and on New England in the other, does not disprove 
 the sameness of the two things. 
 
 And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use 
 of John Brown, Helper's Book, and the like, break up the Re- 
 publican organization ? Human action can be modified to 
 some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is 
 a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation which 
 cast at least a million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy 
 that judgment and feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up 
 the political organization which rallies around it. You can 
 scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed 
 into order in the face of your heaviest fire ; but if you could, 
 how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which 
 created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot-box into 
 some other channel .-' What would that other channel prob- 
 ably be ? Would the number of John Browns be lessened or 
 enlarged by the operation .'' 
 
 But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a 
 denial of your constitutional rights. 
 
 That has a somewhat reckless sound ; but it would be pal- 
 liated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere 
 force of numbers, to deprive you of some right plainly written 
 down in the Constitution. But we are proposing no such 
 thing. 
 
 When you make these declarations, you have a specific and 
 well- understood allusion to an assumed constitutional right of 
 yours to take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold 
 them there as property. But no such right is specifically 
 written in the Constitution, That instrument is literally silent 
 about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such 
 a right has any existence in the Constitution, even by impli- 
 cation. 
 
 Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy 
 the government, unless you be allowed to construe and force 
 the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between 
 you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. 
 
 This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say 
 the Supreme Court has decided the disputed constitutional 
 
 155- 
 
i6 
 
 question in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving the 
 lawyer's distinction between dictum and decision, the court has 
 decided the question for you in a sort of way. The court has 
 substantially said, it is your constitutional right to take slaves 
 into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as prop- 
 erty. When I say the decision was made in a sort of way, 
 I mean it was made in a divided court, by a bare majority of 
 the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another in the 
 reasons for making it ; that it is so made as that its avowed 
 supporters disagree with one another about its meaning, and 
 that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — 
 the statement in the opinion that "the right of property in a 
 slave is distinctly and expressly afifirmed in the Constitution." 
 
 An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right 
 of property in a slave is not " distinctly and expressly affirmed " 
 in it. Bear in mind, the judges do not pledge their judicial 
 opinion that such right is impliedly affirmed in the Constitu- 
 tion ; but they pledge their veracity that it is " distinctly and 
 expressly" affirmed there — "distinctly," that is, not mingled 
 with anything else — "expressly," that is, in words meaning 
 just that, without the aid of any inference, and susceptible of 
 no other meaning. 
 
 If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such 
 right is affirmed in the instrument by implication, it would be 
 open to others to show that neither the word " slave " nor 
 "slavery" is to be found in the Constitution, nor the word 
 "property" even, in any connection with language alluding to 
 the things slave, or slavery ; and that wherever in that instru- 
 ment the slave is alluded to, he is called a " person " ; and 
 wherever his master's legal right in relation to him is alluded 
 to, it is spoken of as " service or labor which may be due " — 
 as a debt payable in service or labor. Also it would be open 
 to show, by contemporaneous history, that this mode of allud- 
 ing to slaves and slavery, instead of speaking of them, was em- 
 ployed on purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea 
 that there could be property in man. 
 
 To show all this is easy and certain. 
 
 When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to 
 their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will with- 
 draw the mistaken statement, and reconsider the conclusion 
 based upon it ? 
 
 And then it is to be remembered that " our fathers who 
 156 
 
17 
 
 framed the government under which we live " — the men who 
 made the Constitution — decided this same constitutional ques- 
 tion in our favor long ago : decided it without division among 
 themselves when making the decision ; without division among 
 themselves about the meaning of it after it was made, and, so 
 far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon any mistaken 
 statement of facts. 
 
 Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves 
 justified to break up this government unless such a court 
 decision as yours is shall be at once submitted to as a conclu- 
 sive and final rule of political action ? But you will not abide 
 the election of a Republican president ! In that supposed 
 event, you say, you will destroy the Union ; and then, you say, 
 the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us ! That 
 is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters 
 through his teeth, '• Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and 
 then you will be a murderer ! " 
 
 To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — 
 was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was 
 no more my own than my vote is my own ; and the threat of 
 death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction 
 to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished 
 in principle. 
 
 A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desir- 
 able that all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace 
 and in harmony one with another. Let us Republicans do our 
 part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let us do 
 nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the 
 Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly 
 consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate 
 view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging tjy all they say and 
 do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, 
 let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. 
 
 Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally 
 surrendered to them ? We know they will not. In all their 
 present complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely men- 
 tioned. Invasions and insurrections are the rage now. Will 
 it satisfy them if, in the future, we have nothing to do with 
 invasions and insurrections ? We know it will not. We so 
 know^, because we know we never had anything to do with in- 
 vasions and insurrections ; and yet this total abstaining does 
 not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation. 
 
 157 
 
i8 
 
 The question recurs, What will satisfy them ? Simply this : 
 we must not only let them alone, but we must somehow con- 
 vince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by expe- 
 rience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince 
 them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no 
 success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly 
 protested our purpose to let them alone ; but this has had no 
 tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince 
 them is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in 
 any attempt to disturb them. 
 
 These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, 
 what will convince them ? This, and this only : cease to call 
 slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this 
 must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. 
 Silence will not be tolerated — we must place ourselves avow- 
 edly with them. Senator Douglas's new sedition law must be 
 enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery 
 is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in 
 private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with 
 greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free-State constitu- 
 tions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all 
 taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe 
 that all their troubles proceed from us. 
 
 I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in 
 this way. Most of them would probably say to us, " Let us 
 alone ; do nothing to us, and say what you please about 
 slavery." But we do let them alone, — have never disturbed 
 them, — so that, after all, it is what we say which dissatisfies 
 them. They will continue to accuse us of doing, until we cease 
 saying. 
 
 I am also aware they have not as yet in terms demanded 
 the overthrow of our free- State constitutions. Yet those con- 
 stitutions declare the wrong of slavery with more solemn em- 
 phasis than do all other sayings against it ; and when all these 
 other sayings shall have been silenced, the overthrow of these 
 constitutions will be demanded, and nothing be left to resist 
 the demand. It is nothing to the contrary that they do not 
 demand the whole of this just now. Demanding what they do, 
 and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop nowhere 
 short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, that slavery 
 is morally right and socially elevating, they cannot cease to 
 demand a full national recognition of il as a legal right and a 
 social blessing. 
 
 158 
 
19 
 
 Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground save our 
 conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, 
 acts, laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, 
 and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we can- 
 not justly object to its nationality — its universality; if it is 
 wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension — its en- 
 largement. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought 
 slavery right ; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they 
 thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our thinking it 
 wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con- 
 troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame 
 for desiring its full recognition as being right ; but thinking 
 it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them ? Can we cast our 
 votes with their view, and against our own ? In view of our 
 moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do this .'' 
 
 Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it 
 alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity 
 arising from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, 
 while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the 
 national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free 
 States ? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by 
 our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none 
 of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so indus- 
 triously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping 
 for some middle ground between the right and the wrong : vain 
 as the search for a man who should be neither a living man 
 nor a dead man ; such as a policy of " don't care " on a ques- 
 tion about which all true men do care ; such as Union appeals 
 beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing 
 the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous, 
 to repentance ; such as invocations to Washington, imploring 
 men to unsay what Washington said and undo what Washing- 
 ton did. 
 
 Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusa- 
 tions against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruc- 
 tion to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us 
 have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the 
 end dare to do our duty as we understand it. 
 
 159 
 
20 
 
 Lincoln's address at tlie Cooper Institute, New York, on the evening of February 27, 
 i860, was, perhaps, the most important single speech which he made before his presidency 
 and the most systematic and powerful statement which he ever made of the case against 
 slavery and its defenders. The occasion itself was noteworthy. Lincoln's debate with 
 Douglas in 1858 had given him a national reputation, and the anti-s!aver>' men of the East 
 were curious and anxious to see and hear him. Nicolay and Hay, in their Life of Lincoln, 
 devote an entire chapter (vol. ii., chap, xii.) to this great speech and the circumstances of its 
 deliver\'. " Since the days of Clay and Webster," said the Tribune the next morning, "no 
 man has spoken to a larger assemblage of the intellect and mental culture of our city." 
 William CuUen Bryant presided, and the leading Republicans of New York sat unon the 
 platform. " The representative men of New York," wrote the biographers, " were naturally 
 eager to see and hear one who, by whatever force of eloquence or argument, had attracted so 
 large a share of the public attention. We may also fairly infer that, on his part, Lincoln was 
 no less curious to test the effect of his words on an audience more learned and critical than 
 those collected in the open-air meetings of his Western campaigns. This mutual interest 
 was an evident advantage to both : it secured a close attention from the house and insured 
 deliberation and emphasis by the speaker, enabling him to develop his argument with perfect 
 precision and unity, reaching, perhaps, the happiest general effect ever attained in any one 
 of his long addresses. ... If any part of the audience came with the expectation of hearing 
 the rhetorical fireworks of a Western stump-speaker of the ' half-horse, half-alligator ' variety, 
 they met novelt>' of an unlooked-for kind. In Lincoln's entire address he neither introduced 
 an anecdote nor essayed a witticism ; and the first half of it does not contain even an illus- 
 trative figure or a poetical fancy. It was the quiet, searching exposition of the historian and 
 the terse, compact reasoning of the statesman about an abstract principle of legislation, in 
 language well-nigh as restrained and colorless as he would have employed in arguing a case 
 before a court. Yet such was the apt choice of words, the easy precision of sentences, the 
 simple strength of propositions, the fairness of every point lie assumed, and the force of every 
 conclusion he drew, that liis listeners followed him with the interest and delight a child feels 
 in its easy mastery of a plain sum in arithmetic." 
 
 The next morning the four leading New York newspapers printed the address in full. 
 "Mr. Lincoln is one of nature's orators," said the Tribune, "using his rare powers solely 
 to elucidate and convince, though their inevitable effect is to delight and electrify as well. 
 We present herewitli a very full and accurate report of tliis speech ; yet the tones, the 
 gestures, the kindling eye, and the mirth-provoking look defy the reporter's skill. The vast 
 assemblage frequently rang with cheers and shouts of applause, which were prolonged and 
 intensified at the close. No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to 
 a New York audience." A pamphlet reprint was at once announced by the Tribune, and 
 later a more careful edition was prepared and circulated. 
 
 From New ^'ork Lincoln went to speak at several places in New England, everj^where 
 making a deep impression ; and this Eastern visit did much to bring him into prominence as 
 a candidate for the presidency. See Herndon's Life of Lincoln for an account of the great 
 care which he gave to the preparation of the Cooper Institute speech, and its important influ- 
 ence on his own fortunes. 
 
 Lincoln's Complete Works, comprising his speeches, letters, state papers, and miscella- 
 neous writings, edited by Nicolay and Hay, are published in two volumes. There have 
 already been published in the series of Old South Leaflets Lincoln's Inaugurals (No. 11) 
 and the First Lincoln and Douglas Debate (No. 85). 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
 160 
 
(01ti J)OUtl) %taf\tt0. 
 
 '^TS^ No. loS. 
 
 The Invention 
 
 of the 
 
 Steamboat. 
 
 Afi Historical Account of the Application of Steam for the Propelling 
 of Boats : a letter frojn Chancellor Livingston to the editors of 
 the ^'^ American Medical and Philosophical Register^''' published 
 in that journal in faniiary, 1812 (vol. ii. p. 256). 
 
 It is much to be wished that a regular account of the intro- 
 duction of useful arts had been transmitted by the historical 
 writers of every age and country, not merely that justice might 
 be done to the genius and enterprise of the inventors, and the 
 nation by whom they were fostered, but that the statesman and 
 philosopher might mark the influence of each upon the wealth, 
 morals, and characters of mankind. Every one sees and 
 acknowledges the changes that have been wrought by the im- 
 provements in agriculture and navigation, but seldom reflects 
 on the extent to which apparently small discoveries have in- 
 fluenced not only the prosperity of the nation to which the in- 
 vention owes its birth, but those with which it is rerhotely con- 
 nected. When Arkwright invented his cotton-mills, the man 
 would have been laughed at that ventured to predict that not 
 only Great Britain would be many millions gainer annually by 
 it, but that in consequence of it the waste lands of the Caro- 
 iinas and Georgia would attain an incalculable value, and their 
 planters vie in wealth with the nabobs of the East. A new 
 art has sprung up among us, which promises to be attended 
 with such important consequences that I doubt not, sirs, you 
 will with pleasure make your useful work record its introduc- 
 tion ; that when in future years it becomes common, the names 
 
 161 
 
of the inventors may not be lost to posterity, and that its 
 effects upon the wealth and manners of society may be more 
 accurately marked. I refer (as you have doubtless con- 
 jectured) to the invention of steamboats, which owe their 
 introduction solely to the genius and enterprise of our fellow- 
 citizens ; the utility of which is already so far acknowledged 
 that, although only four years have elapsed since the first boat 
 was built by Mr. Livingston and Mr, Fulton, ten vessels are 
 now in operation on their construction, and several more con- 
 tracted for. 
 
 When Messrs, Watt and Bolton had gi\»en a great degree of 
 perfection to the steam-engine, it was conceived that this great 
 and manageable power might be usefully applied to the pur- 
 poses of navigation; the first attempt, however, to effect this, 
 as far as I have yet learned, was made in America in the year 
 1783. Mr, John Fitch (having first obtained from most of the 
 States in the Union a law vesting in him for a long term the 
 exclusive use of steamboats) built one upon the Delaware. 
 He made use of Watt and Bolton's engine, and his propelling 
 power was paddles. This vessel navigated the river from 
 Philadelphia to Bordentown for a few weeks, but was found so 
 imperfect, and liable to so many accidents, that it was laid 
 aside, after the projector had expended a large sum of money 
 for himself and his associates. 
 
 Rumsey, another American, who was deservedly ranked 
 among our most ingenious mechanics, followed Fitch ; but, not 
 being able to find men at home who were willing, after Fitch's 
 failure, to embark in so hazardous an enterprise, he went to 
 England, where, aided by the capital of Mr. Daniel Parker and 
 other moneyed men, he built a boat upon the Thames, which, 
 after many and very expensive trials, was found defective, 
 and never went into operation. Rumsey's propelling power 
 was water pumped by the engine into the vessel and expelled 
 from the stern. 
 
 The next attempt was made by Chancellor Livingston, to 
 whom, as to Fitch, the State of New York gave an exclusive 
 right for twenty years, upon condition that he built and kept 
 in operation a boat of twenty tons burthen, that should go at 
 the rate of four miles an hour. He expended a considerable 
 sum of money in the experiment, and built a boat of about 
 thirty tons burthen, which went three miles an hour. As this 
 did not fulfil the conditions of his contract with the State, he 
 162 
 
relinquished the project for the moment, resolving, whenever 
 his public avocations would give him leisure, to pursue it. 
 His action upon the water was by a horizontal wheel placed in 
 a well in the bottom of the boat, which communicated with the 
 water at its centre ; and when whirled rapidly round propelled 
 the water by the centrifugal force through an aperture in the 
 stern. In this way he hoped to escape the encumbrance of 
 external wheels or paddles, and the irregularities that the 
 action of the waves might occasion. Not being able with the 
 small engine he used, which was an eighteen-inch cylinder, 
 with a three-feet stroke, to obtain, as I have said, a greater 
 velocity than three miles an hour, and fearing that the loss of 
 power in this way was greater than could be compensated by 
 the advantage he proposed from his plan, he relinquished it ; 
 but, as I am informed, still thinks that when boats are designed 
 for very rough water it may be eligible to adopt it in preference 
 to external wheels. 
 
 Not long after, John Stevens, Esq., of Hoboken, engaged in 
 the same pursuit, tried elliptical paddles, smoke-jack wheels, 
 and a variety of other ingenious contrivances, — sometimes of 
 his own invention, and again in conjunction with Mr. Kinsley, 
 late one of our most distinguished mechanicians. None of 
 these having been attended with the desired effect, Mr. 
 Stevens has, since the introduction of Messrs. Livingston and 
 Fulton's boat, adopted their principles, and built two boats 
 that are propelled by wheels, to which he has added a boiler 
 of his invention, that promises to be a useful improvement on 
 engines designed for boats. Whilst these unsuccessful at- 
 tempts were making in America, the mechanics of Europe were 
 not wholly inattentive to the object. Lord Stanhope, who de- 
 servedly ranks very high among them, expended a considerable 
 sum of money in building a steamboat, which, like all that 
 preceded it, totally failed. His operating power upon the 
 water was something in the form of a duck's foot. A gentle- 
 man in France (whose name I have forgotten), when Mr. 
 Livingston and Mr. Fulton were building their experimental 
 boat on the Seine, complained in the French papers that the 
 Americans had forestalled his invention ; that he had invented 
 a boat that would go seven miles an hour, and explained his 
 principles. Mr. Fulton replied to him, and showed him that 
 attempts had been previously made in America, and assuring 
 
 him that his plan was quite different. Mr. would not 
 
 163 
 
answer. He had expended a great deal of money and failed ; 
 he made use of a horizontal cylinder and chain-paddles. 
 
 After the experiments made by Mr. Livingston and Mr. 
 Fulton at Paris, a boat was built in Scotland that moved in 
 some measure like a small boat that was exhibited for some 
 time at New York by Mr. Fitch. The cylinder was laid hori- 
 zontally, and her action upon the water was similar to his ; but, 
 as her speed upon the water was a little better than two miles 
 an hour, I presume she has gone into disuse. 
 
 You will not, sir, find this record of the errors of projectors 
 uninteresting, since they serve the double purpose of deterring 
 others from wasting time and money upon them, and of setting 
 in its true light the enterprise of those who, regardless of so 
 many failures, had the boldness to undertake and the happi- 
 ness to succeed in the enterprise. 
 
 Robert R. Livingston, Esq., when minister in France, met 
 with Mr. Fulton, and they formed that friendship and connec- 
 tion with each other to which a similarity of pursuits generally 
 gives birth. He communicated to Mr. Fulton the importance 
 of steamboats to their common country, informed him of what 
 had been attempted in America and of his resolution to resume 
 the pursuit on his return, and advised him to turn his attention 
 to the subject. It was agreed between them to embark in the 
 enterprise, and immediately to make such experiments as would 
 enable them to determine how far, in spite of former failures, 
 the object was attainable. The principal direction of these 
 experiments was left to Mr. Fulton, who united, in a very con- 
 siderable degree, practical to a theoretical knowledge of me- 
 chanics. After trying a variety of experiments on a small 
 scale, on models of his own^ invention, it was understood that 
 he had developed the true principles upon which steamboats 
 should be built, and for the want of knowing which all previ- 
 ous experiments had failed. But, as these gentlemen both 
 knew that many things which were apparently perfect when 
 tried on a small scale failed when reduced to practice upon 
 a large one, they determined to go to the expense of building 
 an operating boat upon the Seine. This was done in the year 
 1803, at their joint expense, under the direction of Mr. Fulton, 
 and so fully evinced the justice of his principles that it was 
 immediately determined to enrich their country by the valuable 
 discovery as soon as they should meet there, and in the mean 
 time to order an engine to be made in England. On the ar- 
 164 
 
rival at New York of Mr. Fulton, which was not until 1806, 
 they immediately engaged in building a boat of what was then 
 considered very considerable dimensions. This boat began to 
 navigate the Hudson River in September, 1807 ; its progress 
 through the water was at the rate of five miles an hour. In 
 the course of the ensuing winter it was enlarged to a boat of 
 one hundred and forty feet keel, and sixteen and a half feet 
 beam. The legislature of the State were so fully convinced of 
 the great utility of the invention, and the interest the State had 
 in its encouragement, that they made a new contract with Mr. 
 Livingston and Mr. Fulton, by which they extended the term 
 of their exclusive right five years for every additional boat they 
 should build, provided that the whole term should not exceed 
 thirty years, in consequence of which they have added two 
 boats to the North River boat (besides those that have been 
 built by others under their license), the Car of Neptune, which 
 is a beautiful vessel of about three hundred tons burthen, and 
 the Paragon, of three hundred and fifty tons, a drawing of 
 which is sent you herewith, together with a description of her 
 interior arrangements. 
 
 It will appear, sir, from the above history of steamboats, 
 that the first development of the principles and combinations 
 upon which their success was founded was discovered by Mr. 
 Fulton in the year 1803, and grew out of a variety of experi- 
 ments made by him and Mr. Livingston for that purpose, at 
 Paris, about that period ; and that the first steamboat that was 
 ever in this or any other country put into useful operation (if 
 we except the imperfect trial of Fitch) was built upon those 
 principles by Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton, at New York, in 
 1807. From these periods the invention of the art may be 
 dated. I will not trouble you with an explanation of these 
 principles ; they are now so clearly developed in his patents, 
 and rendered so obvious by being publicly reduced to practice, 
 that any experienced mechanic may, by a recourse to them, 
 build a steamboat. What has hitherto been a stumbling-block 
 to the ablest mechanicians of the old and new world is now 
 become so obvious and familiar to all that they look back with 
 astonishment upon their own failures, and lament the time they 
 have been deprived of this useful invention. Had it not been 
 for a fortunate occurrence of circumstances, it is highly prob- 
 able that another century would have elapsed before it had 
 been introduced. Past failures operated as a discouragement 
 
 165 
 
to new trials ; the great expense that attended experiments 
 upon the only scale on which it could succeed would have de- 
 terred any but men of property from engaging in the enter- 
 prise ; and how few of these are there in any country that 
 choose to risk much in projects, and upon such especially as 
 have repeatedly proved unfortunate ? Add to this that with- 
 out special encouragement from the government, and a perfect 
 security of their rights, in case of the success of so expensive 
 and hazardous an enterprise, it could not have been expected 
 that any individuals would have embarked their time, their 
 fame, and their fortunes in it. In the present instance, hap- 
 pily for our country, mechanical talents and property united 
 with the enthusiasm of projectors in the enterprise, and the 
 enlightened policy of this State afforded it a liberal patronage. 
 Under these circumstances a new art has happily, and honor- 
 ably for this country, been brought into existence. Speed, 
 convenience, and ease have been introduced into our system of 
 travelling, which the world has never before experienced, and 
 the projectors, stimulated by the public patronage and the 
 pride of success, have spared no expense that can contribute 
 to the ease and safety of travellers. Their boats are furnished 
 with every accommodation that can be found in the best hotels. 
 Every new boat is an improvement upon the one that preceded, 
 until they have obtained a degree of perfection which leaves 
 us nothing to wish but that the public, duly impressed with the 
 advantage they have received from their labors, may cheer- 
 fully bestow on them the honor and profit to which the bold- 
 ness of their enterprise and the liberal manner in which it has 
 been executed so justly entitle them. 
 
 A Friend to Science. 
 
 ROBERT FULTON TO AARON OGDEN (1814) ON THE INVENTION 
 OF THE STEAMBOAT. 
 
 Sir, — Studiously occupied on a new invention which pre- 
 sents a prospect of great national utility, and relying on the 
 dignified integrity of a legislature distinguished for the patron- 
 age and patriotism it gives to useful improvements, I have not 
 attended at Albany to guard from your address and industry 
 the rights granted to Livingston and Fulton, and which I hope 
 every upright and liberal mind will acknowledge they have 
 faithfully and honorably earned. 
 166 
 
But by letters received from Albany I am informed that in 
 your address to the committee, among other things attempting 
 to prove that I am not the inventor of steamboats, you exhib- 
 ited Charnock's work on naval architecture to show that I have 
 quoted him in my patent ; and thereby you endeavored to make 
 an impression that I had patented the experiments on the 
 resistance of bodies moving through water as my own. If, sir, 
 you have done so before the honorable committee, and they 
 and the audience know it, then you have done it knowing it to 
 be false ; for you made a like attempt before a committee at 
 Trenton in February last, at which time I presented to you 
 and the committee the drawing from my patent and quotations 
 from said work, at the bottom of which I gave the author 
 credit for the information I received in the following words : 
 " This table of the resistance of bodies moved through water 
 is taken from experiments made in England by a society for 
 the encouragement of naval architecture between the years 
 1793 and 1798." This fact you knew at Trenton, and there 
 acknowledged that I had not attempted to patent the experi- 
 ments of others, but only used them as a means for demon- 
 strating principles. Hence, if at Albany you have impressed 
 the committee with a belief that I could be so base as to pirate 
 the labors of others, and present them to my liberal country- 
 men as my own, you have done an unjust and ungenerous 
 deed, which would make the cheek of rigid honor blush, I 
 say, if you have done so, — for I place it on the conjunction 
 if, — you have departed from that noble candor, that respect 
 for truth, which marks the moral man and man of honor ; and 
 you have attempted to destroy my character for honesty by 
 depicting me as guilty of perjury, for in obtaining my patent I 
 swore that I believed myself the original discoverer and in- 
 ventor of the thing patented. To a man who loves his coun- 
 try, and whose greatest pleasure is to merit the esteem of his 
 countrymen, this is too serious a charge to remain without 
 refutation. 
 
 That a patent may be taken according to law, it must be so 
 explained that a person skilled in an art which most resembles 
 it could, from the specification, drawings, or models, make the 
 machine. Therefore I drew from those tables such conclu- 
 sions as. in my opinion, would show to other persons how the 
 calculations should be made to ascertain as near as possible 
 the resistance of any given boat while running from one to six 
 
 167 
 
8 
 
 or more miles an hour, and from her resistance also show 
 what should be the power of the steam-engine to drive her the 
 required velocity, then show what should be the size of the 
 wheel-boards, which take the purchase on the water, and their 
 speed compared to the speed of the boat, all of which were 
 necessary to be ascertained, selected, and combined before any 
 one could originate a useful steamboat ; and it was for want of 
 such selection and just combination of first principles, founded 
 on the laws of nature, that every attempt at constructing useful 
 stezmho?Lts prez'wus to mine failed. But, now that they are dis- 
 covered and carried into practice on the great scale, you and 
 Mr. Dodd can copy them, and have copied them exact. This 
 is proved by the affidavits of many experienced and respectable 
 engineers, and will be acknowledged by every one who has the 
 least information on mechanical combinations ; yet neither you 
 nor Mr. Dodd, possessed as you are of Charnock's book, now 
 know the principles which originated and govern the construc- 
 tion of steamboats, nor can you find them in that book or any 
 other. 
 
 But, as you have looked much into books, models, and 
 abortive experiments to prove steamboats an old invention, 
 can you show any publication, model, or work that distinctly 
 points out what the power of the engine must be to drive the 
 boat the required velocity } or any work that distinc^y shows 
 the best mode for taking the purchase on the water, whether 
 by oars, paddles, shulls, endless chains, ducks' feet, valves, or 
 wheels ? or what should be the size of the paddle-boards and 
 their velocity ?^ No, sir, you cannot. These indispensable first 
 principles are nowhere to be found except in my patent. They 
 are the discovery, the invention, which caused success. Pre- 
 vious to my experiments all was doubt and conjecture. No one 
 could tell the requisite power of the engine, no one had de- 
 termined the best mode for taking the purchase on the water 
 or the powers and velocities of the component parts. If they 
 had, why did you not avail yourself of them, and construct a 
 useful steamboat ten years ago ? If those proportions and 
 powers, which are now demonstrated by actual practice in my 
 boats on the great scale, and where every intelligent black- 
 smith and carpenter can go and measure them, copy them, and 
 make a successful steamboat, were formerly known, how is it 
 that Mr. Stevens, Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Rumsey, Mr. Fitch, 
 Lord Stanhope, and Oliver Evans could not find them in 
 i68 
 
twenty years' labor and at the expense of $100,000? Why 
 were not steamboats made ten years ago ? for Charnock's book 
 has been published fifteen years. And here let me present to 
 you a curious fact : the experiments in that book were in great 
 part conducted by Lord Stanhope, who himself since failed in 
 his experiments on steamboats ; and, if you have not yet so far 
 affected my character for truth that my countrymen will cease 
 to believe me, I will state another fact : he (Lord Stanhope) in 
 October, 1806, told me in London that I could not construct a 
 successful steamboat on the principles and combinations I pro- 
 posed and which I now practise with complete success. Con- 
 sequently, that book does not show how to construct a steam- 
 boat any more than the multiplication table shows how to 
 calculate an eclipse ; yet the multiplication table is useful to 
 those who know how to apply it to that purpose. But, now 
 that I have succeeded, contrary to all public belief, though, as 
 you say, without the merit of invention, you collect a basket of 
 scraps, conjectures, and abortive essays, out of which, by a 
 kind of magical sophistry, you attempt to place before a dis- 
 cerning committee a successful steamboat of some twenty years 
 old. Suppose you were to collect a basket of old ballads and 
 bad verse without ideas, but rhyming and containing the 
 twenty-four letters of the alphabet, could you not from those 
 parts used by Pope prove that he did not conceive or invent 
 the Dunciad or Essay on Man and Criticism ? Or, could you 
 or Mr. Dodd have got his manuscript and put the strokes on 
 his t's, might you not insist that you had made an important 
 improvement, then print and sell the poems as your own ? for 
 such is exactly the kind of improvements you and Mr. Dodd 
 have m&de on steamboats. But there is not so much to be 
 made by such improvements on poetry as by moving parallel 
 links from one part of a steam-engine to another : hence ava- 
 rice suffers poets, particularly bad ones, to be tranquil, nor 
 does it interfere with unsuccessful mechanicians. It is only 
 the successful artists — they who really benefit their country — 
 that are fit subjects for plunder. Cupidity never encroached 
 on Fitch or Rumsey or on Lord Stanhope. They were not so 
 fortunate as to succeed and exhibit profits. It even left tran- 
 quillity to me in 1807 and 1808. In those years the perma- 
 nent success was not fully established nor the profits visible, 
 but in 1809 they were. Then envy and avarice combined to 
 destroy the inventor. Yet with these facts, known to every 
 
 169 
 
lO 
 
 candid man in this State, you say steamboats are an old inven- 
 tion ; and you have purchased from Fitch's heirs all their right 
 to his invention. But his heirs, however, had no right ; for his 
 patent had expired five years before you purchased, and his 
 invention, if good for anything, is public property. But, now 
 that you have purchased Fitch's invention, as you say, for a 
 valuable consideration, but, as it is believed at Trenton, for a 
 mere nominal sum, that you might possess a phantom to 
 frighten me or to perform in your exhibitions to the public, 
 why have you not built your boat like his, with paddles behind 
 and chain communications? It must be that you had not so 
 much confidence in his invention as in mine ; and for the good 
 reason that he failed, but I had succeeded. And now, sir, per- 
 mit me to make a remark on your logic. You say Fitch is an 
 inventor, that his invention merits protection ; yet you do not 
 use any one part of it. There is no part of his invention in 
 your boat Sea Horse. Mr. Daniel D. Dodd is also an in- 
 ventor, as you say, of one link in your ^reat chain of argument; 
 and yet Fulton, who investigated and combined just principles, 
 constructed and- gave to the world steamboats at the time the 
 world had not one steamboat and the project was deemed 
 visionary, — this Fulton, according to your logic, is an im- 
 postor and no inventor. Why, sir, there is something so 
 flimsy and totally ignorant of mechanical combination and 
 inventor's rights in all these, your assertions, that it is an 
 insult on common sense to state them to any man who has the 
 least penetration. 
 
 Having said so much, I have sent to Albany a copy of that 
 part of my patent which contains extracts from Charnock's 
 tables. It is attested by the clerk of the court to be* a true 
 copy. I have also sent a true copy of Fitch's patent, to show 
 how much unlike it is to my boats and the one you have copied 
 from me ; and I have sent the certificates of two experienced 
 English engineers, who are now engaged in Talman &: Ward's 
 manufactory in the Bowery, who state that the links claimed 
 by Mr. Dodd as his invention and an important improvement 
 have been to all Bolton & Watt's engines for fourteen years. 
 When I put these links in my patent, I did not patent them 
 exclusively for all kinds of machinery ; nor did I patent the 
 steam-engine or Charnock's tables. I made use of all these 
 parts to express my ideas of a whole combination new in 
 mechanics, producing a new and desired effect, giving them 
 170 
 
1 1 
 
 their powers and proportions indispensable to their present 
 success in constructing steamboats ; and these principles — 
 those powers and parts which I combined for steamboats, and 
 which never before had been brought together in any steam- 
 boat — I patented for that purpose and no other, as every 
 artist who invents a new and useful machine must compose it 
 of known parts of other machines. So in patent medicines, — 
 Lee's bilious pills : he did not invent their elements, but com- 
 bined certain ingredients in certain proportions to make a use- 
 ful medicine, in which the just proportions are absolutely 
 necessary and part of the invention, as in mechanics the dis- 
 covery of the proportion of the parts which produce the 
 desired effect make part of the invention. 
 
 As you have been heard before the committee and a crowded 
 house in pleading your own cause in your own way, carefully 
 using only such arguments as you hoped would destroy me, I 
 have thus sought the indulgence of a generous public to hear 
 my statement of facts, none of which you can disprove. And 
 now, sir, I leave your merits and mine to the honest and noble 
 feelings of the penetrating gentlemen of this truly great and 
 honorable State. They cannot be mistaken in your view. It 
 is to seize on the property of mind — the fruit of ten years of 
 my ardent studies and labor — and apply it to your own use, 
 thereby destroying forever all confidence in contracts with this 
 State and placing the property of inventors in a position so 
 insecure as to destroy every mental exertion. 
 
 Fulton's letters on the first voyage of the clermont. 
 
 To the Editor of the American Citizen : — 
 
 Sir. — I arrived this afternoon at four 'o'clock in the steam- 
 boat from Albany. As the success of my experiment gives me 
 great hopes that such boats may be rendered of great impor- 
 tance to my country, to prevent erroneous opinions and give 
 some satisfaction to my friends of useful improvements, you 
 will have the goodness to publish the following statement of 
 facts : — 
 
 I left New York on Monday at one o'clock, and arrived at 
 Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Livingston, at one o'clock on 
 Tuesday : time, twenty-four hours : distance, one hundred and 
 
 171 
 
12 
 
 ten miles. On Wednesday I departed from the Chancellor's 
 
 at nine in the morning, and arrived at Albany at five in the 
 
 afternoon : distance, forty miles ; time, eight hours. The sum 
 
 is one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two hours, equal to 
 
 near five miles an hour. 
 
 On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, 
 
 and arrived at the Chancellor's at six in the evening. I started 
 
 from thence at seven, and arrived at New York at four in the 
 
 afternoon : time, thirty hours ; space run through, one hundred 
 
 and fifty miles, equal to five miles an hour. Throughout my 
 
 whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead. 
 
 No advantage could be derived from my sails. The whole has 
 
 therefore been performed by the power of the steam-engine. 
 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, ^ ^ 
 
 Robert Fulton. 
 
 To Joel Barlow : — 
 
 My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has turned out 
 rather more favorably than I had calculated. The distance 
 from New York to Albany is one hundred and fifty miles. I 
 ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down in thirty. I had a light 
 breeze against me the whole way, both going and coming; and 
 the voyage has been performed wholly by the power of the 
 steam-engine. I overtook many sloops and schooners beating 
 to windward, and parted with them as if they had been at 
 anchor. 
 
 The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. 
 The morning I left New York, there were not perhaps thirty 
 persons in the city who believed that the boat would ever move 
 one mile an hour or be of the least utility ; and, while we were 
 putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, 
 I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way in 
 which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers 
 and projectors. 
 
 Having employed much time, money, and zeal in accom- 
 plishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure to 
 see it answer my expectations. It will give a cheap and quick 
 conveyance to the merchandise on the Mississippi, Missouri, 
 and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treas- 
 ures to the enterprise of our countrymen ; and, although the 
 prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to 
 me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the 
 172 
 
13 
 
 immense advantage my country will derive from the inven- 
 tion, etc. 
 
 THE FIRST VOVAGE OF THE CLERMONT. 
 Reviiniscences of H.. Free/and, in a letter to J. F. Reigart, l8j6. 
 
 It was in the early autumn of the year 1807 that a knot of vil- 
 lagers was gathered on a high bluff just opposite Poughkeepsie. on 
 the west bank of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a 
 strange, dark looking craft, which was slowly making its way up the 
 river. Some imagined it to be a sea monster, while others did not 
 hesitate to express their belief that it was a sign of the approaching 
 judgment. What seemed strange in the vessel was the substitution 
 of lofty and straight black smoke-pipes rising from the deck, instead 
 of the gracefully tapered masts that commonly stood on the vessels 
 navigating the stream, and, in place of the spars and rigging, the 
 curious play of the working-beam and pistons and the slow turning 
 and splashing of the huge and naked paddle-wheels met the aston- 
 ished gaze. The dense clouds of smoke, as they rose wave upon 
 wave, added still more to the wonderment of the rustics. 
 
 This strange looking craft was the Clermont on her trial trip to 
 Albany, and of the little knot of villagers mentioned above, the 
 writer, then a boy in his eighth year, with his parents, formed a 
 part; and I well remember the scene, one so well fitted to impress 
 a lasting picture upon the mind of a child accustomed to watch the 
 vessels that passed up and down the river. 
 
 The forms of four persons were distinctly visible on the deck as 
 she passed the bluff,— one of whom, doubtless, was Robert Fulton, 
 who had on board with him all the cherished hopes of years, the 
 most precious cargo the wonderful boat could carry. 
 
 On her return trip the curiosity she excited was scarcely less in- 
 tense; the whole country talked of nothing but the sea monster 
 belching forth fire and smoke. The fishermen became terrified and 
 rowed homewards, and they saw nothing but destruction devastating 
 their fishing grounds, while the wreaths of black vapor and the 
 rushing noise of the paddle-wheels, foaming with the stirred up 
 waters, produced great excitement among the boatmen, until it was 
 more intelligent than before ; for the character of that curious boat, 
 and the nature of the enterprise which she was pioneering, had been 
 ascertained. From that time, Robert Fulton, Esq., became known 
 and respected as the author and builder of the Jirst steam packet^ 
 from which we plainly see the rapid improvement in commerce and 
 civilization. Who can doubt that F"ulton's first packet boat has 
 been the model steamer? Except in finer finish and greater size, 
 
 173 
 
14 
 
 there is no difference between it and the splendid steamships now 
 crossing the Atlantic. Who can doubt that Fulton saw the meeting 
 of all nations upon his boats, gathering together in unity and har- 
 mony, that the " freedom of the seas would be the happiness of the 
 earth "' ? Who can doubt that Fulton saw the world circumnavi- 
 gated by steam, and that his invention was carrying the messages 
 of freedom to every land, that no man could tell all its benefits, or 
 describe all its wonders? What a wonderful achievement! What 
 a splendid triumph ! 
 
 The truth undoubtedly is that Fulton was not " the inventor of 
 the steamboat," and that the reputation acquired by his successful 
 introduction of steam navigation is largely accidental, and is princi- 
 pally due to the possession, in company with Livingston, of a 
 monopoly which drove from this most promising field those original 
 and skilful engineers, Evans and the Stevenses. No one of the 
 essential devices successfully used by Fulton in the Clermont, 
 his first North River steamboat, was new ; and no one of them 
 differed, to any great extent, from devices successfully adopted by 
 earlier experimenters. Fulton's success was a commercial success 
 purely. . John Stevens had, in 1804, built a successful screw steam- 
 vessel; and his paddle-steamer of 1S07, the Phoenix, was very 
 possibly a better piece of engineering than the Clermont. John 
 Fitch had, still earlier, used both screw and paddle. In England, 
 Miller and Symington and Lord Dundas had antedated even Fulton's 
 earliest experiments on the Seine. Indeed, it seems not at all un- 
 likely that Papin, a century earlier (in 1707), had he been given a 
 monopoly of steam navigation on the Weser or the Fulda, and had 
 he been joyfully hailed by the Hanoverians as a public benefactor, 
 as was Fulton in the United States, instead of being proscribed and 
 assaulted by the mob who destroyed his earlier Clermont, might 
 have been equally successful ; or it may be that the French in- 
 ventor, Jouffroy, who experimented on the rivers of France twenty- 
 five years before Fulton, might, with similar encouragement, have 
 gained an equal success. 
 
 Yet, although Fulton was not in any true sense " the inventor of 
 the steamboat," his services in the work of introducing that miracle 
 of our modern time cannot be overestimated ; and, aside from his 
 claim as the first to grasp success among the many who were then 
 bravely struggling to place steam navigation on a permanent and 
 safe basis, he is undeniably entitled to all the praise that has ever 
 been accorded him on such different ground. 
 
 It is to Robert Fulton that we owe the fact that to-day the rivers 
 of our own country, and those of the world as well, are traversed by 
 steamers of all sizes and all kinds, and by boats suited to every kind 
 
 174 
 
15 
 
 of traffic ; that the ocean floats, in every clime and in all its harbors, 
 fleets of great steamers, transporting passengers and merchandise 
 from the United States to Europe, from Liverpool to Hong-Kong, 
 from London to Melbourne, traversing the " doldrums " as steadily 
 and safely and as rapidly as the regions of the trades or either tem- 
 perate zone. Steam navigation without Fulton would undoubtedly 
 have become an established fact; but no one can say how long the 
 world, without that great engineer and statesman, would have been 
 compelled to wait, or how much the progress of the world might 
 have been retarded by his failure, had it occurred. The name of 
 Fulton well deserves to be coupled with those of Newcomen and 
 Watt, the inventors of the steam-engine ; with those of George and 
 Robert Stephenson, the builders of the railway; and with those of 
 Morse and Bell, who have given us the telegraph and the tele- 
 phone. — Robert H . Thurston. 
 
 " Robert Fulton has often, if not generally, been assumed to have been 
 the inventor of the steamboat, as Watt is generally supposed to be the 
 inventor of the steam-engine, which constitutes its motive apparatus. But 
 this notion is quite incorrect. The invention of the steam-engine and that 
 of the steamboat alike are the results of the inventive genius not of any 
 one man nor of any dozen men. Fulton simply took the products of the 
 genius of other mechanics, and set them at work in combination, and then 
 applied the already known steamboat, in his more satisfactorily propor- 
 tioned form, to a variety of useful purposes, and with final success. It is 
 this which constitutes Fulton's claim upon the gratitude and the remem- 
 brance of the nations ; and it is quite enough." 
 
 The early chapters of Admiral George H. Preble's " History of Steam 
 Navigation " give a very complete account of the various efforts to con- 
 struct and work steamboats before the time of Fulton. The account by 
 Robert R. Livingston, in the January, 1S12, number of the Atiierkati Medi- 
 cal and Philosophical Register of New York, reprinted in the present leaflet, 
 is of great historical value, as Livingston's own efforts in this direction, 
 both in association with P'ulton and earlier, were of such signal impor- 
 tance. It should be noted that in the April, 181 2, number of the Reg- 
 ister, Colonel John Stevens of Iloboken, the most active of Fulton's 
 rivals, published a rejoinder to Livingston, criticising his letter for " numer- 
 ous incorrect and defective statements " concerning himself, and showing 
 that he had formed plans for the application of steam power to naviga- 
 tion as early as 1789, and was at work on construction as early, at least, as 
 1791. " Stevens," says Thurston, " was the greatest professional engineer 
 and naval architect living at the Ijeginning of the present century. He 
 e.xhibited a better knowledge of engineering than any man of his time, and 
 entertained and urged more advanced opinions and more statesmanlike 
 views in relation to the economical importance of the improvement of the 
 steam-engine, both on land and water, than seem to have been attributable 
 to any other leading engineer of that time, not excepting Robert P'ulton." 
 
 Livingston pays proper tribute to John Fitch for the first attempt in 
 
 175 
 
i6 
 
 America to apply steam to navigation in 17S3. The career of this man 
 of marvellous inventive genius was a pathetic one. Only the lack of 
 " property," to which Livingston rightly ascribes so large a part of the suc- 
 cess of the Clermont experiment, prevented John Fitch from achieving 
 the triumph and the fame now associated with the name of Fulton. "The 
 day will come," he wrote in his autobiography, " when some more powerful 
 man will get fame and riches from my invention; but nobody will believe 
 that poor John Fitch can do anything worthy of attention." He con- 
 structed steamboats with paddles, and also successfully applied the screw- 
 propeller. "This," he wrote to David Rittenhouse in 1792, speaking of 
 the steam-engine, " whether I bring it to perfection or not, will be the mode 
 of crossing the Atlantic, in time, for packets and armed vessels." There 
 is a Life of Fitch by Thompson Westcott, containing many selections 
 from his autobiography. The Life in Sparks's "American Biography "is 
 by Whittlesey, who also wrote an impressive paper, " Justice to the Mem- 
 ory of John Fitch," for the IVesteni Literary Jinirnal and Alonthly Review 
 for February, 1S45, leprinted in pamphlet form. There is much interest- 
 ing matter concerning Fitch, largely communicated by Daniel Langstreth, 
 the younger, in Watson's " Annals of Philadelphia." See also Fitch's own 
 pamphlet, "The Original Steamboat Supported," a reply (178S) to the 
 claims of J. Rumsey. 
 
 The earliest important Life of Fulton is that by his friend Cadwallader 
 D. Golden, published in 1S17. The Life by Reigart (1856), for the most 
 part a plagiarism from Golden, is a fulsome work, which derives its value 
 from some original letters included (one from H. Freeland, reprinted in 
 the present leaflet, describing the appearance of the Glermont in her 
 first trip up the Hudson) and the reproduction of many of Fulton's 
 sketches and pictures, including his colored illustrations to Barlow's " Co- 
 lumbiad." The Life in Sparks's series is by James Renwick. There is 
 an admirable brief biography by Robert H. Thurston, in the " Makers of 
 America " series ; and a capital book for the young people is the " Life 
 of Robert Fulton, and History of Steam Navigation," by Thomas W. 
 Knox. Preble's " History of Steam Navigation " contains original ac 
 counts of the first voyage of the Glermont not found in the other books. 
 There is controversy as to the actual date of the first voyage ; but it 
 seems to have been August 11, 1807. Fulton became involved in litiga- 
 tion concerning his patents and various rights ; and it was in connection 
 with this that he wrote the letter addressed to Aaron Ogden, printed in 
 the present leaflet, which is the most interesting statement of his claim as 
 inventor of the steamboat. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
 176 
 
#iD ^out\) Heafiet^ 
 
 No. log. 
 
 The Ground of 
 
 the Free 
 School System. 
 
 By HORACE MANN. 
 
 From his Tenth Annual Report as Secretary of the Massa- 
 chusetts State Board of Education, 1846. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers amid all their privations and dangers 
 conceived the magnificent idea, not only of a universal, but of 
 a free education for the whole people. To find the time and 
 the means to reduce this grand conception to practice, they 
 stinted themselves, amid all their poverty, to a still scantier 
 pittance ; amid all their toils, they imposed upon themselves 
 still more burdensome labors ; and, amid all their perils, they 
 braved still greater dangers. Two divine ideas filled their 
 great hearts, — their duty to God and to posterity. For the 
 one they built the church, for the other they opened the school. 
 Religion and knowledge, — two attributes of the same glorious 
 and eternal truth, and that truth the only one on which immor- 
 tal or mortal happiness can be securely founded ! 
 
 It is impossible for us adequately to conceive the boldness of 
 the measure which aimed at universal education through the 
 establishment of free schools. As a fact, it had no precedent 
 in the world's history ; and, as a theory, it could have been 
 refuted and silenced by a more formidable array of argument 
 and experience than was ever marshalled against any other in- 
 stitution of human origin. But time has ratified its soundness. 
 Two centuries of successful operation now proclaim it to be as 
 wise as it was courageous, and as beneficent as it was disinter- 
 ested. Every community in the civilized world awards it the 
 meed of praise ; and states at home and nations abroad, in the 
 
 177 
 
order of their intelligence, are copying the bright example. 
 What we call the enlightened nations of Christendom are ap- 
 proaching, by slow degrees, to the moral elevation which our 
 ancestors reached at a single bound. . . . 
 
 The alleged ground upon which the founders of our free- 
 school system proceeded when adopting it did not embrace 
 the whole argument by which it may be defended and sus- 
 tained. Their insight was better than their reason. They 
 assumed a ground, indeed, satisfactory and convincing to Prot- 
 estants ; but at that time only a small portion of Christendom 
 was Protestant, and even now only a minority of it is so. 
 The very ground on which our free schools were founded, 
 therefore, if it were the only one, would have been a reason 
 with more than half of Christendom for their immediate abo- 
 lition. 
 
 In later times, and since the achievement of American inde- 
 pendence, the universal and ever-repeated argument in favor of 
 free schools has been that the general intelligence which they 
 are capable of diffusing, and which can be imparted by no 
 other human instrumentality, is indispensable to the continu- 
 ance of a republican government. This argument, it is obvi- 
 ous, assumes, as a postulatiini^ the superiority of a republican 
 over all other forms of government ; and, as a people, we re- 
 ligiously believe in the soundness both of the assumption and 
 of the argument founded upon it. But, if this be all, then a 
 sincere monarchist, or a defender of arbitrary power, or a be- 
 liever in the divine right of kings, would oppose free schools 
 for the identical reasons we offer in their behalf. . . . 
 
 Again, the expediency of free schools is sometimes advo- 
 cated on grounds of political economy. An educated people is 
 always a more industrious and productive people. Intelligence 
 is a primary ingredient in the wealth of nations. . . . The moral- 
 ist, too, takes up the argument of the economist. He demon- 
 strates that vice and crime are not only prodigals and spend- 
 thrifts of their own, but defrauders and plunderers of the means 
 of others, that they would seize upon all the gains of honest 
 industry and exhaust the bounties of Heaven itself without sa- 
 tiating their rapacity ; and that often in the history of the world 
 whole generations might have been trained to industry and virtue 
 by the wealth which one enemy to his race has destroyed. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding these views have been presented a 
 thousand times with irrefutable logic, and with a divine elo- 
 178 
 
 I 
 
3 
 
 quence of truth which it would seem that nothing but combined 
 stolidity and depravity could resist, there is not at the present 
 time, [1846] with the exception of the States of New England 
 and a few small communities elsewhere, a country or a state in 
 Christendom which maintains a system of free schools for the 
 education of its children. . . . 
 
 I believe that this amazing dereliction from duty, especially 
 in our own country, originates more in the false notions which 
 men entertain respecting the nature of their right to property than 
 in any thing else. In the district school meeting, in the town 
 meeting, in legislative halls, everywhere, the advocates for a 
 more generous education could carry their respective audiences 
 with them in behalf of increased privileges for our children, 
 were it not instinctively foreseen that increased privileges must 
 be followed by increased taxation. Against this obstacle, argu- 
 ment falls dead. The rich man who has no children declares 
 that the exaction of a contribution from him to educate the 
 children of his neighbor is an invasion of his rights of property. 
 The man who has reared and educated a family of children 
 denounces it as a double tax when he is called upon to assist 
 in educating the children of others also ; or, if he has reared 
 his own children without educating them, he thinks it pecul- 
 iarly oppressive to be obliged to do for others what he re- 
 frained from doing even for himself. Another, having children, 
 but disdaining to educate them with the common mass, with- 
 draws them from the public school, puts them under what he 
 calls "selecter influences," and then thinks it a grievance to be 
 obliged to support a school which he contemns. Or, if these 
 different parties so far yield to the force of traditionary senti- 
 ment and usage, and to the public opinion around them, as to 
 consent to do something for the cause, they soon reach the limit 
 of expense at which their admitted obligation or their alleged 
 charity terminates. 
 
 It seems not irrelevant, therefore, in this connection, and for 
 the purpose of strengthening the foundation on which our free- 
 school system reposes, to inquire into the nature of a man's 
 right to the property he possesses, and to satisfy ourselves re- 
 specting the question whether any man has such an indefeasi- 
 ble title to his estates or such an absolute ownership of them 
 as renders it unjust in the government to assess upon him his 
 share of the expenses of educating the children of the commu- 
 nity up to such a point as the nature of the institutions under 
 which he lives, and the well-being of society, require. 
 
 179 
 
I believe in the existence of a great, immortal, immutable 
 principle of natural law, or natural ethics, — a principle ante- 
 cedent to all human institutions, and incapable of being abro- 
 gated by any ordinance of man, — a principle of divine origin, 
 clearly legible in the ways of Providence as those ways are 
 manifested in the order of nature and in the history of the race, 
 which proves the absolute right to an education of every human 
 being that comes into the world, and which, of course, proves 
 the correlative duty of every government to see that the means 
 of that education are provided for all. 
 
 In regard to the application of this principle of natural law, 
 — that is, in regard to the extent of the education to be pro- 
 vided for all at the public expense, — some differences of opinion 
 may fairly exist under different political organizations ; but, 
 under our republican government, it seems clear that the mini- 
 mum of this education can never be less than such as is suffi- 
 cient to qualify each citizen for the civil and social duties he 
 will be called to discharge, — such an education as teaches the 
 individual the great laws of bodily health, as qualifies for the 
 fulfilment of parental duties, as is indispensable for the civil 
 functions of a witness or a juror, as is necessary for the voter 
 in municipal and in national affairs, and, finally, as is requisite 
 for the faithful and conscientious discharge of all those duties 
 which devolve upon the inheritor of a portion of the sovereignty 
 of this great republic. ... So far is it from being a wrong or a 
 hardship to demand of the possessors of property their respec- 
 tive shares for the prosecution of this divinely ordained work, 
 that they themselves are guilty of the most far-reaching in- 
 justice when they seek to resist or to evade the contribution. 
 The complainers are the wrong-doers. The cry, " Stop thief! " 
 comes from the thief himself. 
 
 To any one who looks beyond the mere surface of things, it 
 is obvious that the primary and natural elements or ingredients 
 of all property consist in the riches of the soil, in the treasures 
 of the sea, in the light and warmth of the sun, in the fertilizing 
 clouds and streams and dews, in the winds, and in the chemi- 
 cal and vegetative agencies of Nature. In the majority of cases, 
 all that we call property, all that makes up the valuation or 
 inventory of a nation's capital, was prepared at the creation, 
 and was laid up of old in the capacious storehouses of Nature, 
 For every unit that a man earns by his own toil or skill, he 
 receives hundreds and thousands, without cost and without 
 180 
 
5 
 
 recompense, from the all-bountiful Giver. A proud mortal, 
 standing in the midst of his luxuriant wheat-fields or cotton- 
 plantations, may arrogantly call them his own ; yet what bar- 
 ren wastes would they be, did not Heaven send down upon 
 them its dews and its rains, its warmth and its light, and sus- 
 tain, for their growth and ripening, the grateful vicissitude of 
 the seasons ! It is said that from eighty to ninety per cent, of 
 the very substance of some of the great staples of agriculture 
 are not taken from the earth, but are absorbed from the air ; so 
 that these productions may more properly be called fruits of 
 the atmosphere than of the soil. Who prepares this elemental 
 wealth ? Who scatters it, like a sower, through all the regions 
 of the atmosphere, and sends the richly freighted winds, as His 
 messengers, to bear to each leaf in the forest, and to each blade 
 in the cultivated field, the nourishment which their infinitely 
 varied needs demand ? Aided by machinery, a single manufact- 
 urer performs the labor of hundreds of men. Yet what could 
 he accomplish without the weight of the waters which God 
 causes ceaselessly to flow, or without those gigantic forces 
 which he has given to steam ? And how would the commerce 
 of the world be carried on, were it not for those great laws of 
 Nature — of electricity, of condensation, and of rarefaction — 
 that give birth to the winds, which, in conformity to the will of 
 Heaven and not in obedience to any power of man, forever 
 traverse the earth, and offer themselves as an unchartered me- 
 dium for interchanging the products of all the zones ? These 
 few references show how vast a proportion of all the wealth 
 which men presumptuously call their own, because they claim 
 to have earned it, is poured into their lap, unasked and un- 
 thanked for, by the Being so infinitely gracious in his physical 
 as well as in his moral bestowments. 
 
 But for whose subsistence and benefit were these exhaustless 
 treasuries of wealth created .'' Surely not for any one man, 
 nor for any one generation, but for the subsistence and benefit 
 of the whole race from the beginning to the end of time. 
 They were not created for Adam alone, nor for Noah alone, 
 nor for the first discoverers or colonists who may have found 
 or have peopled any part of the earth's ample domain. No. 
 They were created for the race collectively, but to be possessed 
 and enjoyed in succession as the generations, one after another, 
 should come into existence, — equal rights, with a successive 
 enjoyment of them. If we consider the earth and the fulness 
 
 i8i 
 
thereof as one great habitation or domain, then each generation, 
 subject to certain modifications for the encouragement of indus- 
 try and frugality, — which modifications it is not necessary here 
 to specify, — has only a life-lease in them. There are certain 
 reasonable regulations, indeed, in regard to the outgoing and 
 the incoming tenants, — regulations which allow to the out- 
 going generations a brief control over their property after they 
 are called upon to leave it, and which also allow the incoming 
 generations to anticipate a little their full right of possession. 
 But, subject to these regulations, nature ordains a perpetual 
 entail and transfer from one generation to another of all prop- 
 erty in the great, substantive, enduring elements of wealth, — 
 in the soil, in metals and minerals, in precious stones, and in 
 more precious coal and iron and granite, in the waters and 
 winds and sun ; and no one man, nor any one generation of 
 men, has any such title to or ownership in these ingredients 
 and substantials of all wealth that his right is evaded when a 
 portion of them is taken for the benefit of posterity. 
 
 This great principle of natural law may be illustrated by a 
 reference to some of the unstable elements, in regard to which 
 each individual's right of property is strongly qualified in rela- 
 tion to his contemporaries, even while he has the acknowledged 
 right of possession. Take the streams of water or the wind, 
 for an example. A stream, as it descends from its sources to its 
 mouth, is successively the property of all those through whose 
 land it passes. My neighbor who lives above me owned it 
 yesterday, while it was passing through his lands: I own it 
 to-day, while it is descending through mine ; and the contigu- 
 ous proprietor below will own it to-morrow, while it is flowing 
 through his, as it passes onward to the next. But the rights 
 of these successive owners are not absolute and unqualified. 
 They are limited by the rights of those who are entitled to the 
 subsequent possession and use. While a stream is passing 
 through my lands, I may not corrupt it, so that it shall be 
 offensive or valueless to the adjoining proprietor below. I may 
 not stop it in its downward course, nor divert it into any other 
 direction, so that it shall leave this channel dry. I may law- 
 fully use it for various purposes — for agriculture, as in irrigat- 
 ing lands or watering cattle ; for manufactures, as in turning 
 wheels, etc.; — but, in all my uses of it, I must pay regard to 
 the rights of my neighbors lower down. So no two proprietors, 
 nor any half-dozen proprietors, by conspiring together, can de- 
 182 
 
prive an owner, who lives below them all, of the ultimate right 
 which he has to the use of the stream in its descending course. 
 We see here, therefore, that a man has certain qualified rights 
 — rights of which he cannot lawfully be divested without his 
 own consent — in a stream of water before it reaches the 
 limits of his own estate, at which latter point he may some- 
 what more emphatically call it his own. And, in this sense, 
 a man who lives at the outlet of a river, on the margin of the 
 ocean, has certain incipient rights in those fountain-sources that 
 well up from the earth at the distance of thousands of miles. . . . 
 
 In one respect, the winds illustrate our relative rights and 
 duties even better than the streams. In the latter case the 
 rights are not only successive, but always in the same order 
 of priority, those of the owner above necessarily preceding 
 those of the owner below. ... In the case of the winds, however, 
 which blow from every quarter of the heavens, I may have the 
 prior right to-day ; but, with a change in their direction, my 
 neighbor may have it to-morrow. If, therefore, to-day, when 
 the wind is going from me to him, I should usurp the right to 
 use it to his detriment, to-morrow, when it is coming from him 
 to me, he may inflict retributive usurpation upon me. 
 
 The light of the sun, too, is subject to the same benign and 
 equitable regulations. As the waves of this ethereal element 
 pass by me, I have a right to bask in their genial warmth or to 
 employ their quickening powers ; but I have no right, even on 
 my own land, to build up a wall mountain-high that shall eclipse 
 the sun to my neighbor's eyes. 
 
 Now all these great principles of natural law which define 
 and limit the rights of neighbors and contemporaries are incor- 
 porated into and constitute a part of the civil law of every 
 civilized people ; and they are obvious and simple illustrations 
 of the great proprietary laws by which individuals and genera- 
 tions hold their rights in the solid substance of the globe, in 
 the elements that move over its surface, and in the chemical 
 and vital powers with which it is so marvellously endued. As 
 successive owners on a river's bank have equal rights to the 
 waters that flow through their respective domains, subject only 
 to the modification that the proprietors nearer the stream's 
 source must have precedence in the enjoyment of their rights 
 over those lower down, so the rights of all the generations of 
 mankind to the earth itself, to the streams that fertilize it, to 
 the winds that purify it, to the vital principles that animate it, 
 
 183 
 
8 
 
 and to the reviving light, are common rights, though subject to 
 similar modifications in regard to the preceding and succeeding 
 generations of men. . . . 
 
 Is not the inference irresistible, then, that no man, by what- 
 ever means he may have come into possession of his property, 
 has any natural right, any more than he has a moral one, to 
 hold it, or to dispose of it, irrespective of the needs and claims 
 of those who, in the august processions of the generations, are 
 to be his successors on the stage of existence ? Holding his 
 rights subject to their rights, he is bound not to impair the 
 value of their inheritance either by commission or by omission. 
 
 Generation after generation proceeds from the creative 
 energy of God. Each one stops for a brief period upon, the 
 earth, resting, as it were, onlj^ for a night, like migratory birds 
 upon their passage, and then leaving it forever to others whose 
 existence is as transitory as its own ; and the migratory flocks 
 of water-fowl which sweep across our latitudes in their passage 
 to another clime have as good a right to make a perpetual 
 appropriation to their own use of the lands over which they 
 fly as any one generation has to arrogate perpetual dominion 
 and sovereignty, for its own purposes, over that portion of the 
 earth which it is its fortune to occupy during the brief period 
 of its temporal existence. 
 
 Another consideration bearing upon this arrogant doctrine 
 of absolute ownership or sovereignty has hardly less force 
 than the one just expounded. We have seen how insignificant 
 a portion of any man's possessions he can claim in any proper 
 and just sense to have earned, and that, in regard to all the 
 residue, he is only taking his turn in the use of a bounty be- 
 stowed in common, by the Giver of all, upon his ancestors, 
 upon himself, and upon his posterity, — a line of indefinite 
 length, in which he is but a point. But this is not the only 
 deduction to be made from his assumed rights. Th^ present 
 ■wealth of the world has an additional element in it. Much of 
 all that is capable of being earned by man has been earned by 
 our predecessors, and has come down to us in a solid and en- 
 during form. We have not, erected all the houses in which 
 we live, nor constructed all the roads on which we travel, 
 nor built all the ships in which we carry on our commerce 
 with the world. We have not reclaimed from the wilderness 
 all the fields whose harvests we now reap ; and, if we had no 
 precious metals or stones or pearls but such as we ourselves 
 184 
 
had dug from the mines or brought up from the bottom of the 
 ocean, our coffers and our caskets would be empty indeed. 
 But, even if this were not so, whence came all the arts and sci- 
 ences, the discoveries and the inventions, without which, and 
 without a common right to which, the valuation of the prop- 
 erty of a whole nation would scarcely equal the inventory of 
 a single man, — without which, indeed, we should now be in a 
 state of barbarism ? Whence came a knowledge of agriculture, 
 without which we should have so little to reap ? or a knowl- 
 edge of astronomy, without which we could not traverse the 
 oceans ? or a knowledge of chemistry and mechanical philoso- 
 phy, without which the arts and trades could not exist ? Most 
 of all this was found out by those who have gone before us ; 
 and some of it has come down to us from a remote antiquity. 
 Surely, all these boons and blessings belong as much to poster- 
 ity as to ourselves. They have not descended to us to be ar- 
 rested and consumed here or to be sequestrated from the ages 
 to come. Cato and Archimedes, and Kepler and Newton, and 
 Franklin and Arkwright and Fulton, and all the bright host 
 of benefactors to science and art, did not make or bequeath 
 their discoveries or inventions to benefit any one generation, 
 but to increase the common enjoyments of mankind to the end 
 of time. So of all the great lawgivers and moralists who have 
 improved the civil institutions of the state, who have made it 
 dangerous to be wicked, or, far better than this, have made it 
 hateful to be so. Resources developed and property acquired 
 after all these ages of preparation, after all these facilities and 
 securities, accrue, not to the benefit of the possessor only, but to 
 that of the next and of all succeeding generations. 
 
 Surely, these considerations limit still more extensively that 
 absoluteness of ownership which is so often claimed by the 
 possessors of wealth. 
 
 But sometimes the rich farmer, the opulent manufacturer, or 
 the capitalist, when sorely pressed with his natural and moral 
 obligation to contribute a portion of his means for the educa- 
 tion of the young, replies, — either in form or in spirit, — " My 
 lands, my machinery, my gold, and my silver are mine : may 
 I not do what I will with my own ? " There is one supposa- 
 ble case, and only one, where this argument would have plausi- 
 bility. If it were made by an isolated, solitary being, — a 
 being having no relations to a community around him, having 
 no ancestors to whom he had been indebted for ninety-nine 
 
 i8s 
 
lO 
 
 parts in every hundred of all he possesses, and expecting to 
 leave no posterity after him, — it might not be easy to answer 
 it. If there were but one family in this Western hemisphere 
 and only one in the Eastern hemisphere, and these two families 
 bore no civil and social relations to each other, and were to be 
 the first and last of the whole race, it might be difficult, except 
 on very high and almost transcendental grounds, for either one 
 of them to show good cause why the other should contribute 
 to help educate children not his own. And perhaps the force 
 of the appeal for such an object would be still further dimin- 
 ished if the nearest neighbor of a single family upon our planet 
 were as far from the earth as Uranus or Sirius. In self-defence 
 or in selfishness one might say to the other : " What are your 
 fortunes to me ? You can neither benefit nor molest me. Let 
 each of us keep to his own side of the planetary spaces." But 
 is this the relation which any man amongst us sustains to his 
 fellows .'' In the midst of a populous community to which he 
 is bound by innumerable ties, having had his own fortune and 
 condition almost predetermined and foreordained by his prede- 
 cessors, and being about to exert upon his successors as com- 
 manding an influence as has been exerted upon himself, the 
 objector can no longer shrink into his individuality, and dis- 
 claim connection and relationship with the world at large. He 
 cannot deny that there are thousands around him on whom he 
 acts, and who are continually reacting upon him. The earth 
 is much too small or the race is far too numerous to allow us 
 to be hermits, and therefore we cannot adopt either the phi- 
 losophy or the morals of hermits. All have derived benefits 
 from their ancestors ; and all are bound, as by an oath, to trans- 
 mit those benefits, even in an improved condition, to posterity. 
 We may as well attempt to escape from our own personal iden- 
 tity as to shake off the threefold relation which we bear to 
 others, — the relation of an associate with our contemporaries, 
 of a beneficiary of our ancestors, of a guardian to those who, 
 in the sublime order of Providence, are to succeed us. Out of 
 these relations, manifest duties are evolved. The society of 
 which we necessarily constitute a part must be preserved ; and, 
 in order to preserve it, we must not look merely to what one 
 individual or one family needs, but to what the whole commu- 
 nity needs, not merely to what one generation needs, but to 
 the wants of a succession of generations. To draw conclusions 
 without considering these facts is to leave out the most impor- 
 tant part of the premises. 
 i86 
 
II 
 
 A powerfully corroborating fact remains untouched. Though 
 the earth and the beneficent capabilities with which it is endued 
 belong in common to the race, yet we find that previous and 
 present possessors have laid their hands upon the whole of it, — 
 have left no part of it unclaimed and unappropriated. They 
 have circumnavigated the globe ; they have drawn lines across 
 every habitable portion of it, and have partitioned amongst 
 themselves not only its whole area or superficial contents, but 
 have claimed it down to the centre and up to the concave, — 
 a great inverted pyramid for each proprietor, — so that not an 
 unclaimed rood is left, either in the caverns below or in the 
 aerial spaces above, where a new adventurer upon existence can 
 take unresisted possession. They have entered into a solemn 
 compact with each other for the mutual defence of their respec- 
 tive allotments. They have created legislators and judges and 
 executive officers, who denounce and inflict penalties even to 
 the taking of life ; and they have organized armed bands to 
 repel aggression upon their claims. Indeed, so grasping and 
 rapacious have mankind been in this particular, that tJiey have 
 taken more than they could use, more than they could perambu- 
 late and survey, more than they could see from the top of the 
 masthead or from the highest peak of the mountain. There 
 was some limit to their physical power of taking possession, 
 but none to the exorbitancy of their desires. Like robbers, who 
 divide their spoils before they know whether they shall find a 
 victim, men have claimed a continent while still doubtful of its 
 existence, and spread out their title from ocean to ocean before 
 their most adventurous pioneers had ever seen a shore of the 
 realms they coveted. The whole planet, then, having been ap- 
 propriated, — there being no waste or open lands from which 
 the new generations may be supplied as they come into exist- 
 ence, — have not those generations the strongest conceivable 
 claim upon the present occupants for that which is indispensable 
 to their well-being ? They have more than a pre-emptive, they 
 have a possessory right to some portion of the issues and profits 
 of that general domain, all of which has been thus taken up 
 and appropriated. A denial of this right by the present pos- 
 sessors is a breach of trust, a fraudulent misuse of power 
 given and of confidence implied. On mere principles of politi- 
 cal economy, it is folly ; on the broader principles of duty and 
 morality, it is embezzlement. 
 
 It is not at all in contravention of this view of the subject 
 
 187 
 
12 
 
 that the adult portion of society does take, and must take, upon 
 itself the control and management of all existing property 
 until the rising generation has arrived at the age of majority. 
 Nay, one of the objects of their so doing is to preserve the 
 rights of the generation which is still in its minority. Society, 
 to this extent, is only a trustee managing an estate for the 
 benefit of a part owner or of one who has a reversionary inter- 
 est in it. This civil regulation, therefore, made necessary even 
 for the benefit of both present and future possessors, is only in 
 furtherance of the great law under consideration. 
 
 Coincident, too, with this great law, but in no manner super- 
 seding or invalidating it, is that wonderful provision which the 
 Creator has made for the care of offspring in the affection of 
 their parents. Heaven did not rely merely upon our percep- 
 tions of duty toward our children and our fidelity in its per- 
 formance. A powerful, all-mastering instinct of love was 
 therefore implanted in the parental and especially in the ma- 
 ternal breast, to anticipate the idea of duty and to make duty 
 delightful. Yet the great doctrine founded upon the will of 
 God as made known to us in the natural order and relation of 
 things would still remain the same, though all this beautiful 
 portion of our moral being, whence parental affection springs, 
 were a void and a nonenity. Emphatically would the obli- 
 gations of society remain the same for all those children who 
 have been bereaved of parents, or who, worse than bereave- 
 ment, have only monster parents of intemperance or cupidity, 
 or of any other of those forms of vice that seem to suspend or 
 to obliterate the law of love in the parental breast. For these 
 society is doubly bound to be a parent, and to exercise all that 
 rational care and providence which a wise father would exer- 
 cise for his own children. 
 
 If the previous argument began with sound premises, and 
 has been logically conducted, then it has established this posi- 
 tion, — that a vast portion of the present wealth of the world 
 either consists in, or has been immediately derived from, those 
 great natural substances and powers of the earth which were 
 bestowed by the Creator alike on all mankind ; or from the 
 discoveries, inventions, labors, and improvements of our ances- 
 tors, which were alike designed for the common benefit of all 
 their descendants. The question now arises. At what time is 
 this wealth to be transferred from a preceding to a succeeding 
 generation ? At what point are the latter to take possession of 
 
13 
 
 it or to derive benefit from it ? or at what time are the former 
 to surrender it in their behalf? Is each existing generation, 
 and each individual of an existing generation, to hold fast to 
 his possessions until death relaxes his grasp? or is something 
 of the right to be acknowledged, and something of the benefit 
 to be yielded, beforehand ? It seems too obvious for argument 
 that the latter is the only alternative. If the incoming genera- 
 tion have no rights until the outgoing generation have actu- 
 ally retired, then is every individual that enters the world liable 
 to perish on the day he is born. According to the very consti- 
 tution of things, each individual must obtain sustenance and 
 succor as soon as his eyes open in quest of light or his lungs 
 gasp for the first breath of air. His wants cannot be delayed 
 until he himself can supply them. If the demands of his 
 nature are ever to be answered, they must be answered years 
 before he can make any personal provision for them, either by 
 the performance of any labor or by any exploits of skill. The 
 infant must be fed before he can earn his bread, he must be 
 clothed before he can prepare garments, he must be protected 
 from the elements before he can erect a dwelling ; and it is 
 just as clear that he must be instructed before he can engage 
 or reward a tutor. A course contrary to this would be the 
 destruction of the young, that we might rob them of their 
 rightful inheritance. Carried to its extreme, it would be the 
 act of Herod, seeking in a general massacre the life of one 
 who was supposed to endanger his power. Here, then, the 
 claims of the succeeding generation, not only upon the affec- 
 tion and the care, but upon \\\^ property^ of the preceding one, 
 attach. God having given to the second generation as full and 
 complete a right to the incomes and profits of the world as he 
 has given to the first, and to the third generation as full and 
 complete a right as he has given to the second, and so on while 
 the world stands, it necessarily follows that children must 
 come into a partial and qualified possession of these rights by 
 the paramount law of nature, as soon as they are born. No 
 human enactment can abolish or countervail this paramount 
 and supreme law ; and all those positive and often arbitrary 
 enactments of the civil code, by which, for the encouragement 
 of industry and frugality, the possessor of property is permitted 
 to control it for a limited period after his decease, must be con- 
 strued and executed in subservience to this sovereign and 
 irrepealable ordinance of nature. 
 
14 
 
 Nor is this transfer always, or even generally, to be made in 
 kind, but according to the needs of the recipient. The recog- 
 nition of this principle is universal. A guardian or trustee 
 may possess lands while the ward or owner under the trust 
 may need money, or the former may have money while the 
 latter need raiment or shelter. The form of the estate must be 
 changed, if need be, and adapted to the wants of the receiver. 
 
 The claim of a child, then, to a portion of pre-existent prop- 
 erty, begins with the first breath he draws. The new-born in- 
 fant must have sustenance and shelter and care. If the natu- 
 ral parents are removed or parental ability fails, in a word, if 
 parents either cannot or will not supply the infant's wants, — 
 then society at large — the government having assumed to it- 
 self the ultimate control of all property — is bound to step in 
 and fill the parent's place. To deny this to any child w^ould 
 be equivalent to a sentence of death, a capital execution of 
 the innocent, — at which every soul shudders. It would be a 
 more cruel form of infanticide than any which is practised in 
 China or in Africa. 
 
 But to preserve the animal life of a child only, and there to 
 stop, would be, not the bestowment of a blessing or the per- 
 formance of a duty, but the infliction of a fearful curse. A 
 child has interests far higher than those of mere physical exist- 
 ence. Better that the wants of the natural life should be dis- 
 regarded than that the higher interests of the character should 
 be neglected. If a child has any claim to bread to keep him 
 from perishing, he has a far higher claim to knowledge to pre- 
 serve him from error and its fearful retinue of calamities. If a 
 child has any claim to shelter to protect him from the destroy- 
 ing elements, he has a far higher claim to be rescued from the 
 infamy and perdition of vice and crime. 
 
 All moralists agree, nay, all moralists maintain, that a man 
 is as responsible for his omissions as for his commissions ; that 
 he is as guilty of the wrong which he could have prevented, 
 but did not, as for that which his own hand has perpetrated. 
 They, then, who knowingly withhold sustenance from a new- 
 born child, and he dies, are guilty of infanticide. And, by the 
 same reasoning, they who refuse to enlighten the intellect of 
 the rising generation are guilty of degrading the human race. 
 They who refuse to train up children in the way they should 
 go are training up incendiaries and madmen to destroy prop- 
 erty and life, and to invade and pollute the sanctuaries of soci- 
 190 
 
15 
 
 ety. In a word, if the mind is as real and substantive a part 
 of human existence as the body, then mental attributes, during 
 the periods of infancy and childhood, demand provision at least 
 as imperatively as bodily appetites. The time when these re- 
 spective obligations attach corresponds with the periods when 
 the nurture, whether physical or mental, is needed. As the 
 right of sustenance is of equal date with birth, so the right of 
 intellectual and moral training begins at least as early as when 
 children are ordinarily sent to school. At that time, then, by 
 the irrepealable law of Nature, every child succeeds to so much 
 more of the property of the community as is necessary for his 
 education. He is to receive this, not in the form of lands, or 
 of gold and silver, but in the form of knowledge and a training 
 to good habits. This is one of the steps in the transfer of 
 property from a present to a succeeding generation. Human 
 sagacity may be at fault in fixing the amount of property to 
 be transferred or the time when the transfer should be made 
 to a dollar or to an hour ; but certainly, in a republican gov- 
 ernment, the obligation of the predecessors, and the right of 
 the successors, extend to and embrace the means of such an 
 amount of education as will prepare each individual to perform 
 all the duties which devolve upon him as a man and a citizen. 
 It may go farther than this point : certainly, it cannot fall short 
 of it. 
 
 Under our political organization the places and the proc- 
 esses where this transfer is to be provided for, and its amount 
 determined, are the district-school meeting, the town-meeting, 
 legislative halls, and conventions for establishing or revising 
 the fundamental laws of the State. If it be not done there, so- 
 ciety is false to its high trusts ; and any community, whether 
 national or state, that ventures to organize a government, or to 
 administer a government already organized, without making 
 provision for the free education of all its children, dares the 
 certain vengeance of Heaven ; and in the squalid forms of 
 poverty and destitution, in the scourges of violence and mis- 
 rule, in the heart-destroying corruptions of licentiousness and 
 debauchery, and in political profligacy and legalized perfidy, 
 in ail the blended and mutually aggravated crimes of civiliza- 
 tion and barbarism, will be sure to feel the terrible retribu- 
 tions of its delinquency. 
 
 I bring my argument on this point, then, to a close ; and I 
 present a test of its validity, which, as it seems to me, defies 
 denial or evasion. 
 
 191 
 
i6 
 
 In obedience to the laws of God and to the laws of all civi- 
 lized communities, society is bound to protect the natural life 
 of children ; and this natural life cannot be protected without 
 the appropriation and use of a portion of the property which 
 society possesses. We prohibit infanticide under penalty of 
 death. We practise a refinement in this particular. The life 
 of an infant is inviolable, even before he is born ; and he who 
 feloniously takes it, even before birth, is as subject to the ex- 
 treme penalty of the law as though he had struck down man- 
 hood in its vigor, or taken away a mother by violence from 
 the sanctuary of home where she blesses her offspring. But 
 why preserve the natural life of a child, why preserve unborn 
 embryos of life, if we do not intend to watch over and to pro- 
 tect them, and to expand their subsequent existence into use- 
 fulness and happiness ? As individuals, or as an organized 
 community, we have no natural right, we can derive no au- 
 thority or countenance from reason, we can cite no attribute 
 or purpose of the divine nature, for giving birth to any human 
 being, and then inflicting upon that being the curse of igno- 
 rance, of poverty, and of vice, with all their attendant calami- 
 ties. We are brought, then, to this startling but inevitable 
 alternative, — the natural life of an infant should be extin- 
 guished as soon as it is born, or the means should be provided 
 to save that life from being a curse to its possessor ; and, there- 
 fore, every State is morally bound to enact a code of laws 
 legalizing and enforcing infanticide or a code of laws estab- 
 lishing free schools. 
 
 The three following propositions, then, describe the broad 
 and ever-during foundation on which the common-school sys- 
 tem of Massachusetts reposes : — 
 
 The successive geherations of men, taken collectively, con- 
 stitute one great commonwealth. 
 
 The property of this commonwealth is pledged for the e.du- 
 cation of all its youth, up to such a point as will save them 
 from poverty and vice, and prepare them for the adequate 
 performance of their social and civil duties. 
 
 The successive holders of this property are trustees, bound 
 to the faithful execution of their trust by the most sacred obli- 
 gations ; and embezzlement and pillage from children and 
 descendants have not less of criminality, and have more of 
 meanness, than the same offences when perpetrated against 
 contemporaries. 
 192 
 
17 
 
 Recognizing these eternal principles of natural ethics, the 
 Constitution of Massachusetts, the fundamental law of the 
 State, after declaring (among other things) in the preamble 
 to the first section of the fifth chapter that " the encourage- 
 ment of arts and sciences and all good literature tends to the 
 honor of God, the advantage of the Christian religion, and 
 the great benefit of this and the other United States of Amer- 
 ica," proceeds, in the second section of the same chapter, to set 
 forth the duties of all future legislators and magistrates in the 
 following noble and impressive language : — 
 
 " Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused gener- 
 ally among the body of the people, being necessary for the 
 preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend 
 on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in 
 the various parts of the country and among the different orders 
 of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magis- 
 trates in all future periods of this Commonwealth to cherish 
 the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries 
 of them, especially the university of Cambridge, public schools 
 and grammar schools in the towns ; to encourage private so- 
 cieties and public institutions, rewards, and immunities for the 
 promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trade, man- 
 ufactures, and a natural history of the country ; to counte- 
 nance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general 
 benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, 
 honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good 
 humor, and all social affections and generous sentiments 
 among the people." See also Rev. Stat., ch. 23, sect. 7. 
 
 Massachusetts is parental in her government. More and 
 more, as year after year rolls by, she seeks to substitute pre- 
 vention for remedy, and rewards for penalties. She strives to 
 make industry the antidote to poverty, and to counterwork the 
 progress of vice and crime by the diffusion of knowledge and 
 the culture of virtuous principles. She seeks not only to miti- 
 gate those great physical and mental calamities of which man- 
 kind are the sad inheritors, but also to avert those infinitely 
 greater moral calamities which form the disastrous heritage of 
 depraved passions. Hence it has long been her policy to endow 
 or to aid asylums for the cure of disease. She succors and 
 maintains all the poor within her borders, whatever may have 
 been the land of their nativity. She founds and supports hos- 
 pitals for restoring reason to the insane ; and even for those 
 
 193 
 
iS 
 
 violators of the law whom she is obliged to sequestrate from 
 society she provides daily instruction and the ministrations of 
 the gospel at the public charge. To those who. in the order 
 of Xatvne and Providence, have been bereft of the noble facul- 
 ties of hearing and of s^teech. she teaches a new language, and 
 opens their imprisoned minds and hearts to conversation with 
 men and to communion with God; and it hardly transcends the 
 literal truth to say that she gives sight to the blind. For the 
 remnants of those aboriginal tribes, who for so many ages 
 roamed over this land without cultivating its soil or elevating 
 themselves in the scale of being, her annual bounty provides 
 good schools ; and. when the equal, natural, and constitutional 
 rights of the outcast children of Africa were thought to be in- 
 vaded, she armed her courts of judicature with power to pun- 
 ish the aggressors. The public highway is not more open and 
 free for every man in the community than is the public school- 
 house for every child ; and each parent feels that a free edu- 
 cation is as secure a part of the birthright of his offspring as 
 Heaven's bounties of light and air. The State not only com- 
 mands that the means of education shall be provided for all. 
 but she denounces penalties against all individuals, and all 
 towns and cities, however populous or powerful they may be. 
 that shall presume to stand between her bounty and its recipi- 
 ents. In her righteous code the interception of knowledge is 
 a crime : and. if parents are unable to supply their children 
 with books, she becomes a parent, and supplies them. . . . 
 
 Public sentiment exceeds and excels the law. Annually vast 
 sums are given for eleemosynarj- and charitable purposes. — to 
 promote the cause of temperance, to send the gospel to the 
 heathen, and to diffuse the doctrines of peace, which are the 
 doctrines of the Prince of Peace. 
 
 For public, free education alone, including the direct outlay 
 of money and the interest on capital invested. Massachusetts 
 expends annually more than a million of dollars. To support 
 religious institutions for the worship of God and the salvation 
 of men she annually expends more than another million, and 
 what she gives away in the various forms of charity far ex- 
 ceeds a third sum of equal magnitude. She explores the world 
 for new objects of beneficence : and. so deep and common is 
 the feeling which expects and prompts all this that she is grad- 
 ually changing and ennobling the definition of a cardinal word 
 in tiie language of morals, — doing what no king or court with 
 194 
 
19 
 
 all their authority, nor royal academy with all its sages and 
 literary men, can do : she is changing the meaning of cha7-ity 
 into duty. 
 
 For the support of the poor, nine-tenths of whose cost origi- 
 nate with foreigners or come from one prolific vice, whose last 
 convulsive energies she is now struggling to subdue, she annu- 
 ally pays more than three hundred thousand dollars ; for the 
 support and improvement of public highways, she pays a much 
 larger sum ; and, within the last dozen or fourteen years, she 
 has invested a capital in railroads, withi;i and without the State, 
 of nearly or quite sixty millions of dollars. 
 
 Whence comes her means to give with each returning year 
 more than a million of dollars to public education, more than 
 another million to religion, and more than a third to amelio- 
 rate and succor the afflicted and the ignorant at home, and to 
 bless, in distant lands, those who sit in the region and shadow 
 of death ? How does she support her poor, maintain her public 
 ways, and contribute such vast sums for purposes of internal 
 improvement, besides maintaining her immense commercial 
 transactions with every zone in the world ? 
 
 Has she a vast domain ? Her whole territory would not 
 make a court-yard of respectable dimensions to stand in front 
 of many of the states and territories belonging to the Union. 
 Does she draw revenues from conquered provinces or subju- 
 gated realms ? She conquers nothing, she subdues nothing, 
 save the great elemental forces of Nature, which God gives 
 freely, whenever and wherever they are asked for in the lan- 
 guage of genius and science, and in regard to which no profu- 
 sion or prodigality to one can diminish the bounty always ready 
 for others. 
 
 Does she live by the toil of a race of serfs and vassals whom 
 she holds in personal and hereditary bondage? — by one com- 
 prehensive and sovereign act of violence seizing upon both 
 body and soul at once, and superseding the thousand acts of 
 plunder which make up the life of a common robber ? Every 
 man who treads her sacred soil is free ; all are free alike ; and 
 within her borders, for any purpose connected with human 
 slavery, iron will not be welded into a fetter. 
 
 Has she rich mines of the precious metals ? In all her cof- 
 fers there is not a drachm of silver or of gold which has not 
 been obtained by the sweat of her brow or the vigor of her 
 brain. 
 
 I9S 
 
20 
 
 Has she magazines of mineral wealth imbedded in the 
 earth ? or are her soil and climate so spontaneously exuberant 
 that she reaps luxuriant harvests from uncultivated fields ? 
 Alas ! the orator has barbed his satire by declaring her only 
 natural productions to be granite and ice. 
 
 Whence, then, I again ask, comes her wealth ? I do not 
 meap the gorgeous wealth which is displayed in the voluptuous 
 and too often enervating residences of the affluent, but that 
 golden mean of property- — ^ such as^Agur asked for in his per- 
 fect prayer — which carries blessings in its train to thousands 
 of householders, which spreads solid comfort and competence 
 through the dwellings of the land, which furnishes the means 
 of instruction, of social pleasures and refinement to the citizens 
 at large, which saves from the cruel sufferings and the more 
 cruel temptations of penury. The families scattered over her 
 hills and along her valleys have not merely a shelter from the 
 inclemencies of the seasons, but the sanctuary of a home. Not 
 only food, but books, are spread upon their tables. Her com- 
 monest houses have the means of hospitality. They have appli- 
 ances for sickness, and resources laid up against accident and 
 the infirmities of age. Whether in her rural districts or her 
 populous towns, a wandering, native-born beggar is a prodigy : 
 and the twelve millions of dollars deposited in her savings in- 
 stitutions do not more loudly proclaim the frugality and provi- 
 dence of the past than they foretell the competence and enjoy- 
 ments of the future. 
 
 One copious, exhaustless fountain supplies all this abun- 
 dance. It is education, — the intellectual, moral, and religious 
 education of the people. Having no other mines to work, 
 Massachusetts has mined into the human intellect ; and, from 
 its limitless resources, she has won more sustaining and endur- 
 ing prosperity and happiness than if she had been founded on 
 a stratification of silver and gold, reaching deeper down than 
 geology has yet penetrated. From her high religious convic- 
 tions she has learned that great lesson,— /c? set a value upon 
 time. Regarding the faculties as the gift of God, she has felt 
 bound both to use and to improve them. Mingling skill and 
 intelligence with the daily occupations of life, she has made 
 labor honorable ; and, as a necessary consequence, idleness is 
 disgraceful. Knowledge has been the ambition of her sons, 
 and she has reverenced and venerated the purity and chastity 
 of her matrons and her daughters. At the hearthstone, at the 
 
21 
 
 family table, and at the family altar, — on all those occasions 
 where the structure of the youthful character is builded up, — 
 these sentiments of love for knowledge, and of reverence for 
 maidenly virtue, have been builded in ; and there they stand, so 
 wrought and mingled with the fibres of being that none but 
 God can tell which is Nature and M'hich is education, which 
 we owe primarily to the grace of Heaven and which to the 
 co-operating wisdom of the institutions of men. . . . He who 
 studies the present or the historic character of Massachusetts 
 will see (and he who studies it most profoundly will see 
 most clearly) that whatever of abundance, of intelligence^ 
 or of integrity, whatever of character at home or of renown 
 abroad, she may possess, all has been evolved from the en- 
 lightened and, at least, partially Christianized mind, not of a 
 few, but of the great masses, of her people. They are not the 
 result of outward riches or art brought around it or laminated 
 over it, but of an awakened inward force, working energetically 
 outwards, and fashioning the most intractable circumstances to 
 the dominion of its own desires and resolves ; and this force 
 has been awakened and its unspent energies replenished, more 
 than from all things else, by her common schools. 
 
 When we witness the mighty achievements of art, — the loco- 
 motive, taking up its burden of a hundred tons, and transport- 
 ing it for hundreds of miles between the rising and the setting 
 sun ; the steamboat, cleaving its rapid way, triumphant over 
 wind and tide ; the power-loom, yielding products of greater 
 richness and abundance in a single day than all the inhabitants 
 of Tyre could have manufactured in years ; the printing-press, 
 which could have replaced the Alexandrian Library within a 
 week after it was burnt; the lightning, not only domesticated 
 in the laboratories of the useful arts, but employed as a messen- 
 ger between distant cities ; and galleries of beautiful paintings, 
 quickened into life by the sunbeams, — when we see all these 
 marvels of power and of celerity, we are prone to conclude that 
 it is to them we are indebted for the increase of our wealth and 
 for the progress of our society. But were there any statistics 
 to show the aggregate value of all the thrifty and gainful habits 
 of the people at large, the greater productiveness of the edu- 
 cated than of the brutified laborer, the increased power of the 
 intelligent hand, and the broad survey and deep intuition of 
 the intelligent eye ; could we see a ledger account of the profits 
 which come from forethought, order, and system as they preside 
 
 197 
 
22 
 
 over all our farms, in all our workshops, and emphatically in all 
 the labors of our households, — we should then know how rap- 
 idly their gathered units swell into millions upon millions. The 
 skill that strikes the nail's head instead of the fingers' ends, 
 the care that mends a fence and saves a cornfield, that drives a 
 horseshoe nail and secures both rider and horse, that extin- 
 guishes a light and saves a house, the prudence that cuts the 
 coat according to the cloth, that lays by something for a rainy 
 day and that postpones marriage until reasonably sure of a 
 livelihood, the forethought that sees the end from the begin- 
 ning, and reaches it by the direct route of an hour instead of 
 the circuitous gropings of a day, the exact remembrance im- 
 pressed upon childhood to do the errand as it was bidden, and, 
 more than all, the economy of virtue over vice, of restrained 
 over pampered desires, — these things are not set down in the 
 works on political economy ; but they have far more to do with 
 the wealth of nations than any laws which aim to regulate the 
 balance of trade, or any speculations on capital and labor, or 
 any of the great achievements of art. That vast variety of 
 ways in which an intelligent people surpass a stupid one, and 
 an exemplary people an immoral one, has infinitely more to do 
 with the well-being of a nation than soil or climate, or even 
 than government itself, excepting so far as government may 
 prove to be the patron of intelligence and virtue. 
 
 From her earliest colonial history the policy of Massachu- 
 setts has been to develop the minds of all her people, and to 
 imbue them with the principles of duty. To do this work most 
 effectually, she has begun it with the young. If she would 
 continue to mount higher and higher toward the summit of 
 prosperity, she must continue the means by which her present 
 elevation has been gained. In doing this, she will not only 
 exercise the noblest prerogative of government, but will co- 
 operate with the Almighty in one of his sublimest works. 
 
 Horace Mann's greatest services to education must be sought in 
 the field of institutions, organization, administration, legislation, and 
 public opinion. He was a great constructive pedagogist, a wise 
 educational statesman, an eloquent tribune of the common school. 
 He called upon the people of all classes, as with the voice of a 
 herald, to raise their estimate, of public instruction, and to provide 
 better facilities by which it could be furnished. He devised or 
 
23 
 
 adopted new educational agencies, and persuaded the people to use 
 them. He organized public opinion, and influenced the action of 
 legislatures. He gave men higher ideas of the work and character 
 of the teacher at the same time that he taught the teacher to mag- 
 nify his office. He heightened the popular estimate of the instru- 
 ments that are conducive and necessary to the existence of good 
 schools. He elevated men's ideas of the value of ethical training, 
 and made valuable suggestions looking to its prosecution. But his 
 great theme was the relation of intellectual and moral knowledge to 
 human well-being, individual and social. Here his faith never 
 faltered, his ardor never cooled. In no othgr name did he trust for 
 the safety of society. A confirmed rationalist, he looked with 
 supreme confidence to the healing power of popular intelligence and 
 virtue. In his successive reports and addresses he set forth his 
 faith, and the grounds of it, with wonderful force of statement and 
 fertility of illustration. To him the old theme was ever new and 
 ever fascinating. He poured into the body politic a large measure 
 of his own lofty faith, his great unselfishness, his burning enthusi- 
 asm. He believed in the democratizing movement of modern times, 
 and preached the perfectibility of man. It was in this way that, as 
 Mr. Parker said, he took up the common schools of Massachusetts 
 in his arms and blessed them. No doubt he committed the mistake 
 that rationalists are always prone to commit, — that of overesti- 
 mating the power of intelligence as a means to virtue. Still, it is 
 perfectly obvious that a generous measure of such confidence is a 
 prerequisite to the efficiency and even to the existence of pubhc 
 schools, and that it forms the very foundation of democratic govern- 
 ment. — Hinsdale. 
 
 Horace Mann was the great leader in the Common School Revival in 
 New England in the middle of the present century. The Massachusetts 
 State Board of Education was created in 1837, through the efforts of 
 lames G. Carter and others; and Mann became its first secretary, 
 holding the position until 1848. His influence upon educational thought 
 and sentiment, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout the country, was 
 unparalleled. To him more, perhaps, than to any other, our common-school 
 system is indel)ted for its remarkable development during the last half of 
 the century. His twelve annual reports, each devoted to distinct subjects, 
 are classics in our educational literature. The tenth report, that of 1S46, 
 is given in the present leaflet, almost in its entirety. A brief outline of the 
 twelve reports may be found in Hinsdale's little volume upon Mann, 
 chap, vii; also in Dr. William T. Harris's address at the Mann Cen- 
 tennial, printed in the Report of the C'ommissioner of Education, 1S95-96, 
 vol. i. All of these reports are printed in full in the Life and Works 
 of Horace Mann, 5 vols.; and here also (vol. ii.) may be found the 
 seven lectures delivered by Mann in successive years before the various 
 county conventions of the State. The tliird and fifUi of these lectures, 
 "The Necessity of Education in a Republican Government" and "An 
 
 199 
 
24 
 
 Historical View of Education, showing its Dignity and its Degradation," 
 are especially commended to the student as re-enforcing the considerations 
 urged in the report reprinted in the present leaflet. 
 
 A thorough life of Horace Mann, by Mrs. Mann, occupies the first of 
 the five volumes of the Life and Works; and there is an admirable brief 
 biography by Prof. B. A. Hinsdale in the " Great Educators " series, which 
 contains, in an appendix, an excellent bibliography. The survey of the 
 period, in this little volume, is most discriminating ; and Dr. Hinsdale per- 
 forms a distinct service in directing attention so intelligently and justly to 
 Mann's forerunners, and especially to James G. Carter, " the one man 
 who did more to cast up a highway for Horace Mann than any other." 
 " To him," says Henry Barnard, " more than to any other one person be- 
 longs the credit of having first attracted the attention of the leading minds 
 of Massachusetts to the necessity of immediate and thorough improve- 
 ment in the system of free or public schools." George B. Emerson rightly 
 bestowed upon him the title of "Father of Normal Schools"; and Dr. 
 Hinsdale pronounces his Letters on the Free Schools of New Etigland 
 " incomparably the best existing mirror of education in New England in 
 the first quarter of this century." This, and his Essays upon Popular Edti- 
 eattoii, the closing essay of which outlines the modern Normal School, 
 should be read by the student who would understand the situation into 
 which Horace Mann entered, and by the general student of the history 
 of education in America in the nineteenth century. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
No. no. 
 
 The Romance 
 of New Eng- 
 land History. 
 
 By RUFUS C ho ate. 
 
 The Importance oe Illustrating New England History by a 
 Series of Romances like the Waverley Novels. An Ad- 
 dress delivered at Salem, 1833. 
 
 The history of the United States, from the planting of the 
 several colonies out of which they have sprung to the end of 
 the War of the Revolution, is now as amply written, as acces- 
 sible, and as authentic, as any other portion of the history of the 
 world, and incomparably more so than an equal portion of the 
 history of the origin and first ages of any other nation that 
 ever existed. But there is one thing more which every lover 
 of his country and every lover of literature would wish done 
 for our early history. He would wish to see such a genius as 
 Walter Scott (t'xoriatur aliguis), or, rather, a thousand such 
 as he, undertake in earnest to illustrate that early history by 
 a series of romantic compositions " in prose or rhyme," like 
 the Waverley Novels, the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," and the 
 '' Lady of the Lake," the scenes of which should be laid in 
 North America somewhere in the time before the Revolution, 
 and the incidents and characters of which should be selected 
 from the records and traditions of that, our heroic age. He 
 would wish at length to hear such a genius mingling the tones 
 of a ravishing national minstrelsy with the grave narrative, 
 instructive reflections, and chastened feelings of Marshall, Pit- 
 kin, Holmes, and Ramsay. He would wish to see him giving 
 to the natural scenery of the New World and to the celebrated 
 personages and grand incidents of its earlier annals the same 
 kind and degree of interest which Scott has given to the High- 
 
lands, to the Reformation, the Crusades, to Richard, the Lion- 
 hearted, and to Louis XL He would wish to see him clear 
 away the obscurity which two centuries have been collecting 
 over it, and unroll a vast, comprehensive, and vivid pano- 
 rama of our old New England lifetimes, from its sublimest 
 moments to its minutest manners. He would wish to see him 
 begin with the landing of the Pilgrims, and pass down to the 
 War of Independence, from one epoch and one generation to an- 
 other, like Old Mortality among the graves of the unforgotten 
 faithful, wiping the dust from the urns of our fathers, gathering 
 up whatever of illustrious achievement, of heroic suffering, of 
 unwavering faith, their history commemorates, and weaving it 
 all into an immortal and noble national literature, — pouring 
 over the whole time, its incidents, its actors, its customs, its 
 opinions, its moods of feeling, the brilliant illustration, the un- 
 fading glories, which the fictions of genius alone can give to 
 the realities of life. 
 
 For our lawyers, politicians, and for most purposes of mere 
 utility, business, and intellect, our history now perhaps unfolds 
 a sufficiently "ample page." But I confess I should love to 
 see it assume a form in which it should speak directly to the 
 heart and affections and imagination of the whole people. I 
 should love to see by the side of these formidable records of 
 dates and catalogues of British governors and provincial acts 
 of Assembly, — these registers of the settlement of towns and 
 the planting of churches and convocation of synods and 
 drawing up of platforms, — by the side of these austere and 
 simply severe narratives of Indian wars, English usurpations, 
 French intrigues. Colonial risings, and American indepen- 
 dence, — I should love to see by the side of these great and 
 good books about a thousand neat duodecimos of the size of 
 " Ivanhoe," " Kenilworth," and " Marmion," all full of pictures 
 of our natural beauty and grandeur, the still richer pictures of 
 Our society and manners, the lights and shadows of our life, 
 full of touching incidents, generous sentiments, just thoughts, 
 beaming images, such as are scattered over everything which 
 Scott has written, as thick as stars on the brow of night, and 
 give to everything he has written that imperishable, strange 
 charm, which will be on it and embalm it forever. . . . 
 
 I venture to maintain, first, that such works as these would 
 possess a very high historical value. They would be valuable 
 for the light they would shed upon the first one hundred and 
 
fifty years of our Colonial existence. They would be valuable 
 as helps to history, as contributions to history, as real and 
 authoritative documents of history. They would be valuable 
 for the same reason that the other more formal and graver 
 records of our history are so, if not quite in the same degree. 
 
 To make this out, it may be necessary to pause a moment 
 and analyze these celebrated writings, and inquire what they 
 contain and how they are made up. It is so easy to read 
 Scott's Novels that we are apt to forget with how much labor 
 he prepared himself to tvrite them. We are imposed on, 
 startled perhaps, by the words novel and poem. We forget 
 that any one of them is not merely a brilliant and delightful 
 romance, but a deep, well-considered, and instructive essay on 
 the manners, customs, and political condition of England or 
 Scotland at the particular period to which it refers. Such is 
 the remark of a foreign critic of consummate taste and learn- 
 ing, and it is certainly just. Let us reverently attempt to 
 unfold the process — to indicate the course of research and 
 reflection — by which they are perfected, and thus to detect 
 the secret not so much of their extraordinary power and popu- 
 larity as of their historical value. 
 
 He selects, then, I suppose (I write of him as living ; for, 
 though dead, he still speaks to the whole reading population 
 of the world), first, the country in which he will lay the scenes 
 of his action, — Scotland, perhaps, or merry England, or the 
 beautiful France. He marks off the portions of that country 
 within which the leading incidents shall be transacted, as a 
 conjurer draws the charmed circle with his wand on the floor 
 of the Cave of Magic. Then he studies the topography of the 
 region, — its scenery, its giant mountains, its lakes, glens, 
 forests, falls of water — as minutely as Malte Brun or Hum- 
 boldt; but choosing out with a poet's eye and retaining with 
 a poet's recollection the grand, picturesque, and graceful 
 points of the whole transcendent landscape. Then he goes on 
 to collect and treasure up the artificial, civil, historical features 
 of the country. He explores its antiquities, becomes minutely 
 familiar with every city and castle and cathedral which still 
 stands and with the grander ruins of all which have fallen, — ■ 
 familiar with every relic and trace of man and art, down even 
 to the broken cistern which the Catholic charity of a former 
 age had hewn out by the wayside for the pilgrim to drink in. 
 He gathers up all the traditions and legendary history of the 
 
place, every story of "hopeless love or glory won," with the 
 time, the spot, the circumstances, as particularly and as fondly 
 as if he had lived there a thousand years. He selects the age 
 to which his narrative shall refer, perhaps that of Richard, or 
 Elizabeth, or Charles the Second, or of the rebellion of 1745 ; 
 and forthwith engages in a deep and discursive study of its 
 authentic history and biography, its domestic and foreign poli- 
 tics, the state of parties, the character and singularities of 
 the reigning king and his court and of the prominent per- 
 sonages of the day, its religious condition, the wars, revolts, 
 revolutions, and great popular movements, all the predomi- 
 nant objects of interest and excitement, and all which made 
 up the public and out-ofdoor life and history of that par- 
 ticular generation. He goes deeper still : the state of society, 
 the manners, customs, and employments of the people, their 
 dress, their arms and armor, their amusements, their entire 
 indoor art-d domestic life, the rank and accomplishments of 
 the sexes respectively, their relations to each other, the extent 
 of their popular and higher education, their opinions, super- 
 stitions, morals, jurisprudence, and police, — all these he 
 investigates as earnestly as if he were nothing but an anti- 
 quarian, but with the liberal, enlightened, and tolerant curi- 
 osity of a scholar, philosopher, philanthropist, who holds that 
 man is not only the most proper, but most delightful study 
 of man. Thus thoroughly furnished, he chooses an affect- 
 ing incident, real or imaginary, for his groundwork, and 
 rears upon it a composition which the mere novel -reader 
 will admire for its absorbing narrative and catastrophe ; the 
 critic for its elegant style, dazzling poetry, and elaborate art ; 
 the student of human nature for its keen and shrewd views of 
 man, " for each change of many-colored life he draws " ; the 
 student of history for its penetrating development and its 
 splendid, exact, and comprehensive illustration of the spirit of 
 one of the marked ages of the world. And this is a Waverley 
 Novel ! 
 
 Perhaps I am now prepared to restate and maintain the 
 general position which I have taken, — that a series of North 
 American or New England Waverley Novels would be emi- 
 nently valuable auxiliaries to the authoritative written history 
 of New England and of North America. 
 
 In the first place, they would embody, and thus would fix 
 deep in the general mind and memory of the whole people, a 
 
 204 
 
5 
 
 vast amount of positive information quite as authentic and 
 valuable and curious as that which makes up the matter of 
 professed history, but which the mere historian does not and 
 cannot furnish. They would thus be not substitutes for his- 
 tory, but supplements to it. Let us dwell uppn this considera- 
 tion for a moment. It is wonderful, when you think closely on 
 it, how little of all which we should love to know and ought to 
 know about a former period and generation a really standard 
 history tells us. From the very nature of that kind of compo- 
 sition it must be so. Its appropriate and exclusive topics 
 are a few prominent, engrossing, and showy incidents, — wars, 
 conquests, revolutions, changes of dynasties, battles, and 
 sieges, — the exterior and palpable manifestations of the 
 workings of the stormy and occasional passions of men 
 moving in large masses on the high places of the world. 
 These topics it treats instructively and eloquently. But what 
 an inadequate conception does such a book give you of the 
 time, the country, and the people to which it relates ! What 
 a meagre, cold, and unengaging outline does it trace, and 
 how utterly deficient in minute, precise, and circumstantial 
 and satisfactory information ! How little does it tell you of 
 the condition and character of the great body of the people, — 
 their occupations, their arts and customs, their joys and 
 sorrows ! how little of the origin, state, and progress of 
 opinions and of the spirit of the age ! How misty, indistinct, 
 and tantalizing are the glimpses you gain of that old, fair, 
 wonderful creation which you long to explore ! It is like a 
 vast landscape painting in which nothing is represented but 
 the cloven summit and grand sweep of the mountain, a portion 
 of the sounding shore of the illimitable sea, the dim, distant 
 course of a valley, traversed by the father of rivers two thou- 
 saiid miles in length, and which has no place for the enclosed 
 corn-field, the flocks upon a thousand hills, the cheerful coun- 
 try-seat, the village spires, the churchyard, the vintage, the 
 harvest-home, the dances of peasants, and the "cotter's Satur- 
 day night." 
 
 Now the use, one use, of such romances as Scott's is to 
 supply these deficiencies of history. Their leading object, 
 perhaps, may be to tell an interesting story with some em- 
 bellishments of poetry and eloquence and fine writing and 
 mighty dialogue. But the plan on which they are composed 
 requires that they should interweave into their main design a 
 
 205 
 
near, distinct, and accurate, but magnified and ornamental 
 view of the times, people, and country to which that story goes 
 back. They are, as it were, telescope, microscope and kaleid- 
 oscope all in one, if the laws of optics permit such an illustra- 
 tion. They give«you the natural scenery of that country in a 
 succession of landscapes fresh and splendid as any in the 
 "whole compass of literature, yet as topographically accurate 
 as you will find in any geography or book of travels. They 
 cause a crowded but exact and express image of the age and 
 society of which they treat to pass before you as you see 
 Moscow or Jerusalem or Mexico in a showman's box. They 
 introduce genuine specimens, — real living men and women 
 of every class and calling in society, as it was then constituted, 
 and make them talk and act in character. You see their 
 dress, their armor, and their weapons of war. You sit at 
 their tables, you sleep under their roof-tree, you fish, hunt, 
 and fowl with them. You follow them to their employments 
 in field, forest, and workshop, you travel their roads, cross 
 their rivers, worship with them at church, pledge them at the 
 feast, and hear their war-cry in battle, and the coronach which 
 announces and laments their fall. Time and space are thus 
 annihilated by the power of genius. Instead of reading 
 about a past age, you live in it. Instead of looking through 
 a glass darkly at vast bodies in the distance, — at the 
 separate, solitary glories of a sky beyond your reach, — 
 wings as of the morning are given you : you ascend to that 
 sky, and gaze on their unveiled present glories. It is as if 
 you were placed in the streets of a city buried eighteen hun- 
 dred years ago by the lava of a volcano, and saw it suddenly 
 and completely disinterred, and its whole, various population 
 raised in a moment to life in the same attitudes, clothed upon 
 with the same bodies, wearing the same dresses, engaged in 
 the same occupations, and warmed by the same passions, in 
 which they perished ! If would carry me too far to illustrate 
 these thoughts by minute references to all Scott's poetry and 
 romances, or to attempt to assort the particulars and sum up 
 the aggregate of the real historical information for which we 
 are indebted to that poetry and those romances. Go back, 
 however, at random, to the age of Richard of the Lion Heart, 
 the close of the twelfth century, the era of chivalry, the Cru- 
 sades, and almost of Magna Charta. Read of it first in the 
 acute and elegant Hume and the laborious Lingard ; and then 
 206 
 
open the splendid romance of " Ivanhoe," and see not which 
 most interests you, but which relates most vividly, most mi- 
 nutely, and most completely, the authentic history of the Eng- 
 land of that troubled yet glorious day. The character and 
 peculiarities of the chivalrous Richard ; his physical strength ; 
 his old English good-nature and companionable and convivial 
 qualities and practices ; his romantic love of adventure and 
 peril and of the rapture of battle {ccrtaininis gaiidia), relieved 
 and softened by his taste for troubadour music and song ; the 
 cold, jealous, timid temper of his brother John, at once an 
 ambitious usurper and an unprincipled voluptuary ; the intrigu- 
 ing politics of his court ; his agency in procuring Richard's 
 long imprisonment in Germany, and his sudden start of terror 
 on hearing of his escape and return to England to claim his 
 throne ; the separation of the English people of that era into 
 two great distinct and strongly marked races, the Saxon and 
 the Norman ; the characteristic traits and employments of each ; 
 the relations they sustained to each other ; their mutual fear, 
 hatred, and suspicion ; the merry lives of Robin Hood and his 
 archers in the forest ; the pride and licentiousness of the bold 
 Norman barons, and the barbaric magnificence of their castles, 
 equipage, and personal decoration ; the contrasted poverty 
 and dignified sorrow of the fallen Saxon chiefs ; the institutions 
 and rites of a still gorgeous but waning chivalry ; the skilful 
 organization, subtle policy, and imposing exterior of the order 
 of the Templars ; the pride, pomp, and circumstance of the 
 gilded and sounding era of the Crusades, — these topics, this 
 information, not the well-feigned fortunes of Isaac, Rebecca, 
 Athelstane, \\'ilfred, give to the surpassing poetry and paint- 
 ing of this unequalled romance a permanent and recognized 
 historical value, and entitle it to a place upon the same shelf 
 with the more exclusive and pretending teachers of English 
 history. 
 
 Let me remind you that Scott is not the only writer of 
 romance who has made his fiction the vehicle of authentic and 
 useful information concerning the past, and thus earned the 
 praise of a great historian. Let me remind you of another 
 instance, — the most splendid in literature. The Iliad and 
 Odyssey of Homer, — what are they but great Waverley 
 Novels ? And yet what were our knowledge of the first four 
 hundred years of Grecian history without them ? Herodotus, 
 the father of history, devotes about twenty-five duodecimo 
 
 207 
 
lines to the subject of the Trojan Wanderer ; and, without 
 meaning any disrespect to so revered a name, so truly valuable 
 a writer, I must say that this part of his narrative is just about 
 as interesting and instructive as an account in a Castine news- 
 paper that in a late, dark night a schooner from Eastport got 
 upon Mt. Desert Rock, partly bilged, but that no lives were 
 lost, and there was no insurance. Unroll, now, by the side of 
 this the magnificent cartoons on which Homer has painted the 
 heroic age of the bright clime of battle and of song ! Abstract- 
 ing your attention for a moment from the beauty and grandeur 
 and consummate art of these compositions, just study them for 
 the information they embody. We all know that critics have 
 deduced the rules of epic poetry from these inspired models, 
 and Horace tells us that they are better teachers of morality 
 than the Stoic doctors, Chrysippus and Crates. But what else 
 may you learn from them ? The ancient geography of Greece ; 
 the number, names, Jocalities, and real or legendary history of 
 its tribes ; the condition of its arts, trades, agriculture, naviga- 
 tion, and civil policy ; its military and maritime resources ; its 
 manners and customs ; its religious opinions and observances 
 and mythology and festivals, — this is the information for 
 which we are indebted to an old, wandering, blind harper, — 
 just such another as he who sang the " Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel " to the ladies of Newark Castle. . . . 
 
 It is time now to turn to our early history, and consider 
 more directly in what way and to what extent our Iliad and 
 Odyssey, and " Ivanhoe " and " Kenilworth," when they come 
 to be written, will help to illustrate and to complete and to give 
 attraction to that history. Select, then, for this purpose, 
 almost at random, any memorable event or strongly marked 
 period in our annals. King Philip's War is as good an illustra- 
 tion as at this moment occurs to me. What do our historians 
 tell us of that war ? and of New England during that war ? 
 You will answer substantially this : It was a war excited by 
 Philip — a bold, crafty, and perfidious Indian chief dwelling 
 at Bristol in Rhode Island — for the purpose of extirpating 
 or expelling the English colonists of Massachusetts, Plymouth, 
 Connecticut, and New Haven. It began in 1675 by an attack 
 on the people of Swanzey, as they were returning on Sunday 
 from meeting. It ended in August, 1676, at Mount Hope, by 
 the death of Philip and the annihilation of his tribe. In the 
 course of these two years he had succeeded in drawing into 
 208 
 
his designs perhaps fifteen or twenty communities of Indians, 
 and had at one time and another perhaps eight or ten thousand 
 men in arms. 
 
 The scenes of the war shifted successively from Narragansett 
 Bay to the northern line of Massachusetts in the valley of the 
 Connecticut River. But there was safety nowhere. There 
 was scarcely a family of which a husband, a son, a brother, 
 had not fallen. The land was filled with mourning. Six hun- 
 dred dwelling-houses were burned with fire. Six hundred 
 armed young men and middle-aged fell in battle, as many 
 others, including women and children, were carried away into 
 that captivity so full of horrors to a New England imagination. 
 The culture of the earth was interrupted. The prayers, labors, 
 and sufferings of half a century were nearly forever frustrated. 
 
 Such is about the whole of what history records, or, rather, 
 of what the great body of our well-educated readers know of 
 the New England of 1675, and of the severest and most inter- 
 esting crisis through which, in any epoch, the colony was 
 called to pass. Now, I say, commit this subject. King Philip's 
 War, to Walter Scott, the poet, or the novelist, and you 
 would see it wrought up and expanded into a series of pictures 
 of the New England of that era, so full, so vivid, so true, so 
 instructive, so moving, that they would grave themselves upon 
 the memory and dwell in the hearts of our whole people for- 
 ever. How he would do this, precisely what kinds of novels 
 and poems he would write, ... it would be presumptuous in 
 me to venture fully to explain. Some imperfect and modest 
 conjectures upon this point, however, I hope you will excuse. 
 
 In the first place, he would collect and display a great many 
 particulars of positive information concerning these old times, 
 either not contained at all in our popular histories or not in a 
 form to fix the attention of the general reader. He would 
 spread out before you the external aspects and scenery of that 
 New England, and contrast them with those which our eyes 
 are permitted to see, but which our fathers died without be- 
 holding. And what a contrast ! The grand natural outline 
 and features of the country were indeed the same then as now, 
 and are so yesterday, to-day, and always. The same waves 
 dashed high upon the same "stern and rock-bound coast" ; the 
 same rivers poured their sweet and cheerful tides into the 
 same broad bay; the same ascending succession of geological 
 formations — the narrow sandy belt of seashore and marsh and 
 
 2C9 
 
10 
 
 river intervals, the wider level of upland, ~ the green or rocky 
 hill, the mountain bearing its gray summit to the skies — met 
 the eye then as now ; the same east wind chilled the lingering 
 spring ; the same fleecy clouds, bland south-west wind, yellow 
 and crimson leaf, and insidious disease waited upon the com- 
 ing in of autumn. But how was it in that day with those more 
 characteristic, changeful, and interesting aspects which man 
 gives to a country ? These ripened fruits of two hundred years 
 of labor and liberty; these populous towns; this refined and 
 affluent society ; these gardens, orchards, and corn-fields ; 
 these manufactories and merchant-ships, — where were they 
 then ? The whole Colonial population of New England, in- 
 cluding Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven, 
 Maine, New Hampshire, at the breaking out of that war has 
 been variously estimated at from 40,000 to 120,000. I sup- 
 pose that 80, OL may be a fair average of these estimates, — 
 a little less than the present population of the single county of 
 Essex. They were planted along the coast from the mouth of 
 the Kennebec to New Haven, upon a strip of country of a 
 medium width, inwards from the sea, of forty or fifty miles, 
 a great deal of which, however, was still wholly unreclaimed 
 to cultivation, and much of it still occupied by its original and 
 native owners. This belt of seacoast — for it was no more 
 than that — was the New England of 1675. Within this belt, 
 and up the interval land of some of the rivers - — the Merrimac, 
 the Charles, the Connecticut — which passed down through it 
 to the sea, a few settlements had been thrown forward ; but, as 
 a general fact, the whole vast interior to the line of New York, 
 Vermont, and lower Canada, including in Massachusetts a 
 part of the counties of Essex, Middlesex, Worcester, Old 
 Hampshire, Berkshire, was a primeval wilderness, beneath 
 whose ancient shadow a score of Indian tribes maintained 
 their fires of war and council, and observed the rites of that 
 bloody and horrible Paganism which formed their only religion. 
 On this narrow border were stretched along the low wooden 
 houses, with their wooden chimneys ; the patches of Indian 
 corn, crossed and enclosed by the standing forest; the smooth- 
 shaven meadow and salt marsh ; the rocky pasture of horses, 
 sheep, and neat cattle ; the fish-flakes, lumber-yards, the fish- 
 ing boats and coasting shallops ; West India and Wine Islands 
 merchant-ships; the meeting-houses, wind -mills, and small 
 stockade forts, which made up the human, artificial, and 
 
II 
 
 visible exterior of the New England of that era. Altogether, 
 the whole scene, in its natural and in its cultivated elements, 
 was in exact keeping with the condition and character and 
 prospects of that generation of our ancestors. It was the 
 dwelling-place of the Pilgrims and of the children of the Pil- 
 grims. There lay — covered over, as it were, partially shel- 
 tered, yet not wholly out of danger, like the sowing of a win- 
 ter grain — the germs of this day's exceeding glory, beauty, and 
 strength. There rose, plain, massive, and deep-set, the base- 
 ment stories of our religious, civil, and literary institutions, 
 beaten against and raged around by many a tempest and many 
 a flood, yet not falling ; for their foundation was a rock. Fifty 
 years of continual emigration from England and of general 
 peace and general health had swelled the handful of men who 
 came passengers in the "Mayflower" to Plymouth and in the 
 " Abigail " to Salem and in the " Arbella " to Boston into an 
 infant people. Independence of the mother country had hardly 
 yet entered the waking or sleeping dreams of any man ; but, as 
 against all the world besides, they had begun to utter the lan- 
 guage, put on the habits, and assume the port, of a nascent and 
 asserted sovereignty and national existence. Some portion of 
 the great work which they were sent hither to do they had already 
 done. They had constructed a republican, representative gov- 
 ernment. They had made provision for the mental and moral 
 culture of the rising nation. Something of the growth of a half- 
 century of industry — "immature buds, blossoms fallen from 
 the tree, and green fruit" — were beginning to gladden the nat- 
 ural and the moral prospect. Still, the general aspect of the 
 scenery of that day, even if surveyed from one of those eminences 
 which now rise in so much beauty around Boston, would have 
 seemed to the senses and imagination of a beholder wild, austere, 
 and uninviting. The dreams of some of the sanguine early 
 settlers were by this time finished. It had been discovered by 
 this time that our soil contained neither gold nor silver ; and 
 that, although we could purchase very good wine at Fayal or 
 Madeira, with the proceeds of the tish we sold at Bilboa, we 
 were not likely to quite rival Hungary, as Master Grave, the 
 engineer, in 1629, thought we should, in the domestic article. 
 The single damask rose grew wild by the walls, as Mr. Higgin- 
 son says it did in his time; but all felt by the year 1675 that 
 it was. on the whole, a somewhat ungenial heaven beneath 
 which their lot was cast, yielding nothing to luxury and noth- 
 
 211 
 
12 
 
 ing to idleness, but yet holding out to faith, to patience and 
 labor, freedom and public and private virtue, the promise of a 
 latter day far off of glory, honor, and enjoyment. Everything 
 around you spoke audibly to the senses and imagination of 
 toil and privation, of wearisome days and sleepless nights, 
 of serious aims, grave duties, and hope deferred without 
 making the heart sick. You looked upon the first and hard- 
 est conflicts of civilized man with unreclaimed nature and 
 uncivilized man. You saw all around you the blended antag- 
 onist manifestations and insignia of a divided empire. Indian 
 wigwams and the one thousand houses of Boston sent up their 
 smoke into the same sky. Indian canoes and the fishing and 
 coasting craft and merchantmen, loading for Spain and Africa 
 and the West Indies, floated upon the same waters. English 
 grain and grasses grew among the blackened stumps of the 
 newly fallen forest. Men went armed to their fields, to meet- 
 ing, and to bring home their brides from their father's house 
 where they had married them. It was like the contest of 
 winter and spring described by Thomson, or like that of the 
 good and evil principle of the Oriental superstitions ; and it 
 might at first seem doubtful which would triumph. But, when 
 you contemplated the prospect a little more closely, — when 
 you saw what costly and dear pledges the Pilgrims had already 
 given to posterity and the new world, when you saw the 
 fixtures which they had settled into and incorporated with 
 its soil, the brick college at Cambridge, and the meeting- 
 houses sending up their spires from every clearing, when you 
 surveyed the unostentatious but permanent and vast improve- 
 ments which fifty years had traced upon the face of that stern 
 and wild land and garnered up in its bosom, when you looked 
 steadfastly into the countenances of those men and read there 
 that expression of calm resolve, high hope, and fixed faith, 
 when you heard their prayers for that once pleasant England 
 as for a land they no longer desired to see, for the new world, 
 now not merely the scene of their duties, but the home of their 
 heart's adoption, — you would no longer doubt that, though 
 the next half-century should be, as it proved, a long, bloody 
 warfare, though the mother country should leave them, as she 
 did, to contend single-handed with Indians, French, and an 
 unpropitious soil and sky, though acts of navigation and boards 
 of trade should restrain their enterprise and rob it of its re- 
 wards, that their triumph was still certain, and a later genera- 
 
13 
 
 tion would partake of its fruits, and be encompassed about by 
 its glory. A thousand instructive particulars would be col- 
 lected by such an antiquarian as the author of " Old Mortality," 
 serving to illustrate the employments, customs, and character 
 of this portion of our ancestors, and embodied in such a form 
 as to become permanently a part of the current knowledge of 
 an educated people. The industry of New England in ,1675 
 had taken almost all the great leading directions in which it 
 afterwards exerted itself with splendid success. There were 
 then nearly five hundred fishing vessels, large and small, in the 
 four colonies. The export of fish to the north of Spain, to 
 Fayal and Madeira, and of lumber, pipe-staves, provisions, 
 naval stores, and neat cattle to the West Indies, and the im- 
 port of wines and West India goods employed from one to 
 two hundred vessels more, of a larger rate, built and owned in 
 New England. The principal import of British goods was to 
 Boston, whence they were shipped coastwise to Maine, Hart- 
 ford, and New Haven. Linen, woollen, and cotton cloth, 
 glass, and salt, to some extent, were manufactured in Massa- 
 chusetts. The flax was all raised here, the wool chiefly. The 
 cotton was imported. The equality of fortunes was remark- 
 able even for that age of simple habits and general industry 
 and morality. There were only fifteen or twenty merchants 
 worth five hundred pounds each, and there were no beggars. 
 The most showy mansion contained no more than twenty 
 rooms: but the meanest cottage had at least two stories, — a 
 remarkable improvement since 1629, when the house of the 
 Lady Moody, a person of great consideration in Salem, is said 
 to have been only nine feet high, with a wooden chimney in 
 the centre. Governor Winthrop says in his Journal that he 
 spent in the years he was governor five hundred pounds per 
 annum, of which two hundred pounds — not seven hundred 
 dollars — would have maintained him in a private condition. 
 There were no musicians by trade. A dancing-school was 
 attempted, but failed. But a fencing-school in Boston suc- 
 ceeded eminently. We all know that fencing, without foils 
 or tuition-fees, was the daily and nightly exercise of the youth 
 and manhood of the colonies for half the first century of their 
 existence. It is strikingly characteristic of our fathers of that 
 day of labor, temperate habits, and austere general morality, 
 that a svnod convened in 1679 to inquire what crying sin 
 of practice or opinion had brought down the judgment of 
 
 213 
 
H 
 
 God on the colonies ascribed it very mucli to the intemper- 
 ate and luxurious habits of what they deemed a backsliding 
 and downward age. Hubbard reckons among the moral 
 causes of that war the pride, intemperance, and worldly-mind- 
 edness of the people ; and another writer of that day de- 
 nounces with most lachrymose eloquence the increasing im- 
 portations of wine, threatening the Ararat of the Pilgrims with 
 a new kind of deluge. . . . 
 
 There are two or three subjects, among a thousand others 
 of a different character, connected with the history of New 
 England in that era which deserve and would reward the 
 fullest illustration which learning and genius and philosophy 
 could bestow. They have been treated copiously and ably ; 
 but I am sure that whoso creates the romantic literature of 
 the country will be found to have placed them in new lights, 
 and to have made them for the first time familiar, intelligible, 
 and interesting to the mass of the reading community. 
 
 Let me Instance as one of these the old Puritan character. 
 In every view of it, it was an extraordinary mental and moral 
 phenomenon. The countless influences which have been act- 
 ing on man ever since his creation — the countless variety of 
 condition and circumstances of climate, of government, of 
 religion, and of social systems in which he has lived — never 
 produced such a specimen of character as this before, and 
 never will do so again. It was developed, disciplined, and 
 perfected for a particular day and a particular duty. When 
 that day was ended and that duty done, it was dissolved again 
 into its elements and disappeared among the common forms 
 of humanity apart from which it had acted and suffered, 
 above which it had towered, yet out of which it had been by 
 a long process elaborated. The human influences which com- 
 bined to form the Puritan character from the general mind of 
 England, which set this sect apart from all the rest of the 
 community, and stamped upon it a system of manners, a style 
 of dress and salutation and phraseology, a distinct, entire 
 scheme of opinions upon religion, government, morality, and 
 human life, marking it ofif from the crowds about it, as the 
 fabled waters of the classical fountain passed underneath the 
 sea, unmingled, unchanged in taste or color, — these things are 
 matters of popular history, and I need not enumerate or weigh 
 them. What was the final end for which the Puritans were 
 raised up, we, also, in some part all know. All things here in 
 
 214 
 
15 
 
 New England proclaim it. The works which thej^ did, these 
 testify of them and of the objects and reality of their mission, 
 and they are inscribed upon all the sides of our religious, po- 
 litical, and literary edifices, legibly and imperishably. 
 
 But while we appreciate what the Puritans have done, and 
 recognize the divine wisdom and purposes in raising them up 
 to do it, something is wanting yet to give to their character 
 and fortunes a warm, quick interest, a charm for the feelings 
 and imagination, an abiding-place in the heart and memory 
 and affections of all the generations of the people to whom 
 they bequeathed these representative governments and this 
 undefiled religion. It is time that literature and the arts 
 should at least co-operate with history. Themes more inspir- 
 ing or more instructive were never sung by old or modern 
 bards in hall or bower. The whole history of the Puritans 
 — of that portion which remained in England and plucked 
 Charles from his throne and buried crown and mitre beneath 
 the foundations of the Commonwealth, and of that other not 
 less noble portion which came out hither from England and 
 founded a freer, fairer, and more enduring Commonwealth, 
 all the leading traits of their religious, intellectual, and ac- 
 tive character, their theological doctrines, their superstitions, 
 their notions of the divine government and econom)^, and of 
 the place they filled in it, everything about them, every 
 thing which befell them — was out of the ordinary course of 
 life ; and he who would adequately record their fortunes, 
 display their peculiarities, and decide upon their pretensions 
 must, like the writer of the Pentateuch, put in requisition 
 alternately music, poetry, eloquence, and history, and speak 
 by turns to the senses, the fancy, and the reason of the world. 
 
 They were persecuted for embracing a purer Protestantism 
 than the Episcopacy of England in the age of Elizabeth. 
 Instead of ceasing to be Protestants, persecution made them 
 republicans also. They were nicknamed " Puritans " by their 
 enemies. Then afterward they became a distinct, solitary 
 caste. — among, but not of, the people of P^ngland. They 
 were tlattered, they were tempted, they were shut up in prison, 
 they were baptized with the fire of martyrdom. Solicitation, 
 violence, were alike unavailing, except to consoUdate their 
 energies, perfect their virtues, and mortify their human affec- 
 tions, — to raise their thoughts from the kingdoms and kings 
 of this world and the glory of them to the contemplation of 
 
 215 
 
i6 
 
 that surpassing glory which is to be revealed. Some of them 
 at length — not so much because these many years of persecu- 
 tion had wearied or disheartened them as because they saw in 
 it an intimation of the will of God — sought the freedom which 
 there they found not on the bleak seashore and beneath the 
 dark pine forest of New England. History, fiction, literature, 
 does not record an incident of such moral sublimity as this. 
 Others, like yEneas, have fled from the city of their fathers 
 after the victor has entered and fired it. But the country they 
 left was peaceful, cultivated, tasteful, merry England. The 
 asylum they sought was upon the very outside of the world. 
 Others have traversed seas as wide for fame or gold. Not so 
 the Puritans. 
 
 " Nor lure of conquest's meteor beam, 
 
 Nor dazzling mines of fancy's dream, 
 
 Nor wild adventure's love to roam 
 
 Brought from their fathers' ancient home 
 
 O'er the wide sea the Pilgrim host." 
 
 It was fit that the founders of our race should have been 
 such men, — that they should have so labored and so suffered, 
 that their tried and strenuous virtues should stand out in 
 such prominence and grandeur. It will be well for us when 
 their story shall have grown " familiar as a household word," 
 when it shall make even your children's bosoms glow and 
 their eyes glisten in the ballad and nursery-tale, and give 
 pathos and elevation to our whole higher national minstrelsy. 
 
 There is another subject connected with our early history 
 eminently adapted to the nature and purposes of romantic Ht- 
 erature, and worthy to be illustrated by such a literature ; 
 that is, the condition, prospects, and fate of the New England 
 tribes of Indians at the epoch of Philip's War. It has some- 
 times been remarked as a matter of reproach to a community 
 that it has suffered its benefactors to perish of want, and then 
 erected statues to their memory. The crime does not lie in 
 erecting the statue, but in having suffered the departed good 
 and great, whom it commemorates, to perish. It has been our 
 lot in the appointments of Providence to be, innocently or 
 criminally, instruments in sweeping from the earth one of the 
 primitive families of man. We build our houses upon their 
 graves. Our cattle feed upon the hills from which they cast 
 their last look upon the land, pleasant to them as it is now 
 pleasant to us, in which through an immemorial antiquity 
 216 
 
17 
 
 their generations had been dwelling. The least we can do for 
 them, for science and letters, is to preserve their history. This 
 we have done. We have explored their antiquities, studied 
 and written their language and deduced its grammar, recorded 
 their traditions, traced their wanderings, and embodied in one 
 form or another their customs, their employments, their super- 
 stitions, and their religious belief. But there is in this connec- 
 tion one thing which, perhaps, poetry and romance can alone 
 do, or can best do. It is to go back to the epoch of this war, 
 for example ; paint vividly and affectingly the condition of the 
 tribes which then wandered over, rather than occupied, the 
 boundless wilderness extending from the margin of seacoast 
 covered by the colonists to the line of New York and Canada. 
 The history of man, like the roll of the Prophet, is full, within 
 and without, of mourning, lamentation, and woe ; but I do not 
 know that in all that history there is a situation of such mourn- 
 ful interest as this. 
 
 The terrible truth had at length flashed upon the Indian 
 chief that the presence of civilization, even of humane, peace- 
 ful, and moral civilization, was incompatible with the existence 
 of Indians. He comprehended at length the tremendous 
 power which knowledge, arts, law, government, confer upon 
 social man. He looked in vain to the physical energies, the 
 desperate, random, uncombined, and desultory exertions, the 
 occasional individual virtues and abilities of barbarism, for an 
 equal power to resist it. He saw the advancing population of 
 the colonies. He saw shiploads of white men day after day 
 coming ashore from some land beyond the sea, of which he 
 could only know that it was over-peopled. Every day the 
 woodman's axe sounded nearer and nearer. Every day some 
 valuable fishing or hunting ground or corn-land or meadow 
 passed out of the Indian possession, and was locked up for- 
 ever in the mortmain grasp of an English title. What, then, 
 where, then, was the hope of the Indian ? Of the tribes far 
 off to the East — the once terrible Tarrateens — they had no 
 knowledge, but more dread than of the English themselves. 
 The difficulty of communication, the diversity of languages, 
 the want of a press, the unsocial habits and policy of all 
 nomadic races, made alliances with the Five Nations in New 
 York — with any considerable tribe out of New England — 
 impracticable. Civilization, too, was pushing its prow up 
 the Hudson even more adventurously than upon the Con- 
 
 217 
 
necticut and Charles, the INIerrimac, the Piscataqua and the 
 Kennebec. They were encompassed about as by the embrace 
 of a serpent, contracting its folds closer at every turn and 
 struggle of its victim, and leisurely choosing its own time to 
 crush him to death. Such were the condition and prospects 
 of the Indians of New England at the beginning of Philip's 
 War. 
 
 It is doubtful if that celebrated chief intended to provoke 
 such a war, or if he ever anticipated for it a successful issue. 
 But there is no doubt that after it had begun he threw his 
 whole great powers into the conduct of it ; that he formed 
 and moved a confederacy of almost all the aborigines of New 
 England to its support, that he exhausted every resource of 
 bravery and Indian soldiership and statesmanship, that he 
 died at last for a land and for a throne which he could not 
 save. Our fathers called him King Philip, in jest. I would 
 not wrong his warrior shade by comparing him with any five 
 in six of the kings of Europe of his day or ours ; and I sin- 
 cerely wish that the elaborate jests and puns put forth by 
 Hubbard and Mather upon occasion of his death were erased 
 from the records of New England. 
 
 In the course of this decisive struggle with the colonists 
 the Indians, some time when all human help seemed to fail, 
 turned in anger and despair to the gods of their gloomy and 
 peculiar worship. Beneath the shades of the forest, which had 
 stood from the creation, at the entrance of caverns at -mid- 
 night, in tempest and thunder, they shed the human blood 
 and uttered the incantations which their superstitions pre- 
 scribed, and called up the spirits of evil to blast these daring 
 strangers who neither feared nor honored nor recognized the 
 ancient divinities of the Indians. The spirits they had raised 
 abandoned them. Their offering was not accepted : their fires 
 of sacrifice were put out. The long, dreary sigh of the night- 
 wind in the tops of the pines alone answered their misguided 
 and erring prayers. Then they felt that their doom was 
 sealed, and the cry, piercing, bitter, and final, of a perishing 
 nation arose to heaven. 
 
 Let me solicit your attention to another view of this subject. 
 I have urged thus far that our future \\'averley Novels and 
 poetry would contain a good deal of positive information 
 which our histories do not contain, — gleanings, if you please, 
 of what the licensed reapers have, intentionally or uninten- 
 
 •2lS 
 
19 
 
 tionally, let fall from their hands ; and that this information 
 would be authentic and valuable. I now add that they would 
 have another use. They would make the information which 
 our histories do contain more accessible and more engaging to 
 the great body of readers, even if they made no addition to 
 its absolute quantity. They would melt down, as it were, and 
 stamp the heavy bullion into a convenient, universal circulating 
 medium. They would impress the facts, the lessons of history, 
 more deeply, and incorporate them more intimately into the 
 general mind and heart, and current and common knowledge 
 of the people. 
 
 All history, all records of the past, of the acts, opinions, 
 and characters of those who have preceded us in the great 
 procession of the generations, is full of instruction and 
 written for instruction. Especially may we say so of our own 
 history. But, of all which it teaches, its moral lessons are, 
 perhaps, the most valuable. It holds up to our emulation and 
 love great models of patriotism and virtue. It introduces us 
 into the presence of venerated ancestors, " of whom the world 
 was not worthy." It teaches us to appreciate and cherish this 
 good land, these free forms of government, this pure worship 
 of the conscience, these schools of popular learning, by remind- 
 ing us through how much tribulation — not our own, but others 
 — these best gifts of God to man have been secured to us. It 
 corrects the cold selfishness which would regard ourselves, our 
 day. and our generation as a separate and insulated portion of 
 man and time ; and, awakening our sympathies for those who 
 have gone before, it makes us mindful, also, of those who are 
 to follow, and thus binds us to our fathers and to our posterity 
 by a lengthening and golden cord. It helps us to realize the 
 serene and augusl presence and paramount claims of our 
 country, and swells the deep and full flood of American 
 feeling. 
 
 I say that he who writes the romance of history, as Scott 
 has written it, shall teach these lessons and exert and 
 diffuse these influences even better than he who confines him- 
 self to what I may call the reality of history. Much of 
 what history relates produces no impression upon the moral 
 sentiments or the imagination. It is truth, fact; but it is 
 just what you do not want to know, and are none the wiser 
 for knowing. Now he who writes the romance of history 
 takes his choice of all its ample but incongruous material. 
 
 219 
 
20 
 
 He accommodates the show of things to the desires and the 
 needs of the immortal, moral nature. To vary a figure of 
 Milton's, instead of crowding his net, as Time crowds his, 
 with all things precious and vile, — bright gems, seaweed mixed 
 with sand, bones of fishes, — he only dives for and brings up 
 coral and pearl and shells goldenvalved and rainbow-colored, 
 murmuring to the ear like an ^olian harp. . . . He tells the 
 truth, to be sure ; but he does not tell the whole truth, for 
 that would be sometimes misplaced and discordant. He tells 
 something more than the truth, too, remembering that, though 
 man is not of imagination all compact, he is yet, in part, a 
 creature of imagination, and can be reached and perfected by 
 a law of his nature in part only through the imagination. . . . The 
 Richard of Scott in his general character and principal fortunes, 
 in his chronology and geography, so to speak, is the Richard 
 of history. But the reason you know him better is this : the 
 particular situations in which you see him in " Ivanhoe " and 
 the Crusaders, the conversations he holds, his obstreperous 
 contest of drink and music with the holy clerk in the cell, that 
 more glorious contest with the traitors in the wood, with the 
 Normans in the castle, the scene in his tent in which he was 
 so nearly assassinated, and that in Saladin's tent where he 
 challenged him in all love and honor to do mortal battle for 
 the possession of Jerusalem, — these are all supplied by the 
 imagination of the writer to the imagination of the reader. 
 Probably they all happened just as they are set forth, but 
 you can't exactly prove it out of any book of history. They 
 are all probable : they are exactly consistent with what we do 
 know and can prove. But the record is lost by time and acci- 
 dent. They lie beyond the province of reason ; but faith and 
 imagination stretch beyond that province, and complete the 
 shadowy and imperfect revelation. . . . 
 
 I do not know that I can better illustrate this difference 
 between the romance and the reality of history, and in some 
 respects the superiority of the former for teaching and im- 
 pressing mere historical truth, than by going back to the ten 
 years which immediately preceded the battle of Lexington. 
 If idle wishes were not sinful as well as idle, that of all time 
 past is the period in which we might all wish to have lived. 
 Yet how meagre and unsatisfactory is the jjiere written his- 
 tory of that day ! Indeed, there is hardly anything there for 
 history. The tea was thrown overboard, to be sure, and the 
 
21 
 
 " Gaspee " burned ; town meetings were held, and committees 
 of correspondence chosen ; and touching appeals, of pathos and 
 argument and eloquence unequalled, addressed to the king and 
 people of England in behalf of their oppressed subjects and 
 brethren of America. And when History has told you this, 
 she is silent. You must go to Scott or evoke the still 
 mightier Shakspere or Homer if you would truly know 
 what that day was, what the people of that day were, — 
 if you would share in that strong and wide excitement, 
 see that feeling, not loud but deep, of anger and grief and 
 conscious worth and the sense of violated rights, in that 
 mingled and luxurious emotion of hope and apprehension 
 with which the heart of the whole country throbbed and la- 
 bored as the heart of a man. And how would Scott reveal 
 to you the spirit of that age ? He would place you in the 
 middle of a group of citizens of Boston going home from the 
 Old South, perhaps, or Faneuil Hall, where James Otis or 
 Josiah Quincy or Samuel Adams had been speaking, and 
 let you listen to their conversation. He would take you to 
 their meeting on Sunday when the congregation stood up in 
 prayer, and the venerable pastor adverted to the crisis and 
 asked for strength and guidance from above to meet it. He 
 would remark to you that varied expression which ran instan- 
 taneously over the general countenance of the assembly, and 
 show you in that varied expression — the varied fortunes of 
 America — the short sorrow, the long joy, the strife, the tri- 
 umph, the agony, and the glory. In that congregation you 
 might see in one seat the worn frame of a mother whose 
 husband followed the banners of Wolfe, and fell with him on 
 the Plains of Abraham, shuddering with apprehension lest 
 such a life and such a death await her only son, yet striving, 
 as became a matron of New England, for grace to make even 
 that sacrifice. You might see old men who dragged Sir William 
 Pepperell's cannon along the beach at Louisburg, now only 
 regretting that they had not half so much youthful vigor left 
 to fight their king as they then used up in fighting his enemies. 
 \'ou read in yonder eye of fire the energy and ardor of a 
 statesman like John Adams, seeing clear through that day's 
 business and beholding the bright spot beyond the gloom. 
 \'ou see the blood mount into that cheek of manly beauty, 
 betraying the youthful \\'arren's dream of fame. But, as the 
 pastor proceeded, and his feelings rose and his voice swelled 
 
 221 
 
22 
 
 to its full expression, as he touched on the rights of the 
 colonies and the injustice of the king, as his kindling imagina- 
 tion presented to him the scenes of coming and doubtful 
 conflict, and he prayed that he to whom the shields of the 
 earth belong would gird on his sword and go forth with our 
 hosts on the day of battle, and would open their eyes to 
 behold in every valley and in every plain, as the prophet 
 beheld by the same illumination chariots of fire and horses of 
 fire, you would see then all those minor shades of individual 
 peculiarity pass away from the face of the assembly and one 
 universal and sublime expression of religion and patriotism 
 diffuse itself over all countenances alike, as sunshine upon a 
 late disturbed sea. 
 
 Thus somewhat would Scott contrive to give you a percep- 
 tion of that indefinable yet real and operative existence, — 
 the spirit of a strongly agitated age, of the temper and deter- 
 mination of a people in a state of high excitement and fer- 
 mentation, not yet broken out into overt conduct, of that 
 interval, so full of strange interest, between the acting of a 
 dreadful thing and the first motion. . . . 
 
 In leaving this subject, I cannot help suggesting, at the 
 hazard of being thought whimsical, that a literature of such 
 writings as these, embodying the romance of the whole revo- 
 lutionary and ante-revolutionary history of the United States, 
 might do something to perpetuate the Union itself. . . . Poems 
 and romances which shall be read in every parlor, by every fire- 
 side, in every school-house, behind every counter, in every print- 
 ing-office, in every lawyer's office, at every weekly evening club, 
 in all the States of this Confederacy, must do something, along 
 with more palpable if not more powerful agents, toward mould- 
 ing and fixing that final, grand, complex result, — the national 
 character. A keen, well-instructed judge of such things 
 said if he might write the ballads of a people he cared little 
 who made its laws. Let me say if a hundred men of genius 
 would extract such a body of romantic literature from our early 
 history as Scott has extracted from the history of England 
 and Scotland, and as Homer extracted from that of Greece, 
 it perhaps would not be so alarming if demagogues should 
 preach, or governors practise, or executives tolerate nullifica- 
 tion. Such a literature would be a common property of all the 
 States, a treasure of common ancestral recollections, — more 
 noble and richer than our thousand million acres of public 
 
land ; and, unlike that land, it would be indivisible. It would 
 be as the opening of a great fountain for the healing of the na- 
 tions. Reminded of our fathers, we should remember that we 
 are brethren. The exclusiveness of State pride, the narrow 
 selfishness of a mere local policy, and the small jealousies of 
 vulgar minds would be merged in an expanded, comprehen- 
 sive, constitutional sentiment of old, family, fraternal regard. 
 It would reassemble, as it were, the people of America in 
 one vast congregation. It would rehearse in their hearing all 
 things which God had done for them in the old time ; it would 
 proclaim the law once more ; and then it would bid them join 
 in that grandest and most affecting solemnity, — a national 
 anthem of thanksgiving for the deliverance, of honor for the 
 dead, of proud prediction for the future. 
 
 The tribes of Israel and Judah came up three times a year to 
 the holy and beautiful city, and united in prayer and praise and 
 sacrifice, in listening to that thrilling poetry, in swelling that 
 matchless song, which celebrated the triumphs of their fathers 
 by the Red Sea, at the fords of Jordan, and on the high 
 places of the field of Barak's victory. But we have no feast 
 of the Passover or of the Tabernacles or of the Commemora- 
 tion. The States of Greece erected temples of the gods by a 
 common contribution, and worshipped in them. They con- 
 sulted the same oracle, they celebrated the same national 
 festival, mingled their deliberations in the same Amphictyonic 
 and subordinate assemblies, and sat together upon the same 
 benches to hear their glorious history read aloud in the prose 
 of Herodotus, the poetry of Homer and of Pindar. We have 
 built no national temples but the Capitol : we consult no com- 
 mon oracle but the Constitution. We can meet together to 
 celebrate no national festival. But the thousand tongues of 
 the press — clearer far than the silver trumpet of the jubilee, 
 louder than the voice of the herald at the games — may speak 
 and do speak to the whole people without calling them from 
 their homes or interrupting them in their employments. Happy 
 if they should speak and the people should hear those things 
 which pertain at least to their temporal and national salvation. 
 
 Rufus C'hoate's Works are puljlished in two volumes, with a memoir by 
 S. G. Brown included in the first volume, in which, also, are collected the 
 lectures and addresses upon historical and literary themes, the political 
 
 223 
 
24 
 
 speeches ajjpearing in the second vohmie. The selection from Choate's 
 writings published in Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature 
 (vol. vi.) is intelligently made, the biographical sketch which accompanies 
 it being by Albert Stickney. There is an interesting chapter upon Choate 
 in E. P. Whipple's " Recollections." Since Choate wrote the eloquent 
 address reprinted almost entire in the present leaflet, the sense of the 
 opportunities and importance of historical fiction has deepened and widened 
 to a remarkable degree. There is hardly any field of history which the 
 novelist and romancer have not entered during the last haK of the century, 
 often with great illuminating power. Our own American history has by no 
 means fared the worst. Historical fiction has its large department in all 
 the large libraries, and by many of these admirable finding-lists and cata- 
 logues have been issued. It is sufiicient here to refer to the Chronological 
 Inde.x to Historical Hction, published by the Boston Public Library. His- 
 tory itself has been treated by many master hands in a more glov^ing, 
 graphic, and picturesque way, fulfilling the demands made by Macaulay in 
 his old essay on History, written in the early part of the century. . Green's 
 History of the English People is the most conspicuous illustration of this 
 eloquent and dramatic treatment of history ; but in America we also have 
 brilliant illustrations. No student of the history of a people may neglect 
 the study of that people's literature. Greece cannot be understood without 
 a knowledge of ^schylus, Sophocles, and Aristophanes. To know Eng- 
 land, we must know Shakespeare and Milton. The actual use of historical 
 subjects by the poets is most important. Many men see English history, 
 and Roman history as well, chiefly through the eyes of Shakespeare ; and 
 they might see it through worse eyes. The prominence of American his- 
 tory in American poetry during the nineteenth century is noteworthy. 
 One of the subjects set for the Old South Essays for 1900 is " Longfellow's 
 Use of American Subjects and his Services for American History." When 
 we have named " Hiawatha," the "Courtship of Miles Standish," " Evange- 
 line," and the " New England Tragedies," we have indicated a large portion 
 of the sum total of Longfellow's poetry; and scores of briefer poems 
 touching American history and life remain to be named. The meeting de- 
 voted to the memory of Longfellow just after his death in 1882, by the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, of which he was a member, was note- 
 worthy for the tributes to his distinct and great services for our history ; 
 see the Society's Proceedings, vol. xix. The poetry of America forms an 
 element as important in the poetry of Whittier and Lowell, and almost as 
 important in the works of our other American poets ; while it is to our 
 poets, from Emerson down, that we go for the noblest expressions of our 
 patriotism and the highest calls to a noble national life. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
 224 
 
No. III. 
 
 Kossuth's First 
 
 Speech in 
 
 Faneuil Hall. 
 
 Speech in Faneuil Hall, Thursday Evening, April 29, 
 
 1852. 
 
 Ladies and Gentkuien, — Do me the justice to believe that I 
 rise not with any pretension to eloquence within the Cradle of 
 American Liberty. If I were standing upon the ruins of Pry- 
 taneum, and had to speak whence Demosthenes spoke, my 
 tongue would refuse to obey, my words would die away upon 
 my lips, and I would listen to the winds fraught with the dread- 
 ful realization of his unheeded prophecies. Spirit of American 
 eloquence, frown not at my boldness that I dare abuse Shake- 
 speare's language in Faneuil Hall ! It is a strange fate, and not 
 my choice. My tongue is fraught with a down-trodden nation's 
 wrongs. The justice of my cause is my eloquence ; but mis- 
 fortune may approach the altar whence the flame arose which 
 roused your fathers from degradation to independence. I 
 claim my people's share in the benefit of the laws of nature 
 and of nature's God. I will nothing add to the historical 
 reputation of these walls ; but I dare hope not to sully them by 
 appealing to those maxims of truth the promulgation of which 
 made often tremble these walls from the thundering cheers of 
 freemen, roused by the clarion sound of inspired oratory, 
 
 " Cradle of American Liberty ! " it is a great name ; but there 
 is something in it which saddens my heart. You should not 
 say "American liberty." You should say " Liberty in Amer- 
 ica." Liberty should not be either American or European, — 
 it should be just " liberty." God is God. He is neither Amer- 
 
 225 
 
ica's God nor Europe's God. He is God. So shall liberty be. 
 "American liberty" has much the sound as if you would say 
 " American privilege." And there is the rub. Look to his- 
 tory, and, when your heart saddens at the fact that liberty 
 never yet was lasting in any corner of the world and in any 
 age, you will find the key of it in the gloomy truth that all who 
 yet were free regarded liberty as their privilege instead of re- 
 garding it as a principle. The nature of every privilege is 
 exclusiveness ; that of a principle is communicative. Liberty 
 is a principle ; its community is its security ; exclusiveness is 
 its doom. 
 
 What is aristocracy ? It is exclusive liberty ; it is privi- 
 lege ; and aristocracy is doomed, because it is contrary to the 
 destiny and welfare of man. Aristocracy should vanish, not 
 in the nations, but also from amongst the nations. So long as 
 that is not done, liberty will nowhere be lasting on earth. It is 
 equally fatal to individuals as to nations to believe themselves 
 beyond the reach of vicissitudes. To this proud reliance, and 
 the isolation resulting therefrom, more victims have fallen than 
 to oppression by immediate adversities. You have prodigiously 
 grown by your freedom of seventy-five years ; but what is 
 seventy-five years to take for a charter of immortality ? No, 
 no, my humble tongue tells the records of eternal truth. A 
 privilege never can be lasting. Liberty restricted to one 
 nation never can be sure. You may say, " We are the prophets 
 of God," but you shall not say, " God is only our God." The 
 Jews have said so, and the pride of Jerusalem lies in the dust. 
 Our Saviour taught all humanity to say, " Our Father in 
 heaven " ; and his Jerusalem is lasting to the end of days. 
 
 "There is a community in mankind's destiny." That was 
 the greeting which I read on the arch of welcome on the 
 Capitol Hill of Massachusetts. I pray to God the republic of 
 America would weigh the eternal truth of those words, and act 
 accordingly. Liberty in America would then be sure to the 
 end of time. But if you say " American liberty," and take that 
 grammar for your policy, I dare say the time will yet come 
 when humanity will have to mourn over a new proof of the 
 ancient truth, that without community national freedom is 
 never sure. You should change " American liberty " into 
 " Liberty," then liberty would be forever sure in America, and 
 that which found a cradle in Faneuil Hall never would find a 
 coffin through all coming days. I like not the word "cradle" 
 226 
 
connected with the word " liberty." It has a scent of mor- 
 taUty. But these are vain words, I know. Though in the life 
 of nations the spirits of future be marching in present events, 
 visible to every reflecting mind, still those who foretell them 
 are charged with arrogantly claiming the title of prophets, and 
 prophecies are never believed. However, the cradle of Ameri- 
 can liberty is not only famous from the reputation of having 
 been always the lists of the most powerful eloquence ; it is still 
 more conspicuous for having seen that eloquence attended by 
 practical success. To understand the mystery of this rare cir- 
 cumstance, a man must see the people of New England and 
 especially the people of Massachusetts. 
 
 In what I have seen of New England there are two things 
 the evidence of which strikes the observer at every step, — 
 prosperity and intelligence. I have seen thousands assembled, 
 following the noble impulses of generous hearts ; almost the 
 entire population of every city, of every town, of every village 
 where I passed, gathered around me, throwing the flowers of 
 consolation in my thorny way. I can say I have seen the 
 people here, and I have looked at it with a keen eye, sharpened 
 in the school of a toilsome life. Well, I have seen not a single 
 man bearing mark of that poverty upon himself which in 
 old Europe strikes the eye sadly at every step. I have 
 seen no ragged poor. I have seen not a single house 
 bearing the appearance of desolated poverty. The cheerful- 
 ness of a comfortable condition, the result of industry, 
 spreads over the land. One sees at a glance that the people 
 work assiduously, — not with the depressing thought just to get 
 from day to day, by hard toil, through the cares of a miserable 
 life, but they work with the cheerful consciousness of substan- 
 tial happiness. And the second thing which I could not fail 
 to remark is the stamp of intelligence impressed upon the very 
 eyes and outward appearance of the people at large. I and my 
 companions have seen that people in the factories, in the work- 
 shops, in their houses, and in the streets, and could not fail a 
 thousand times to think, — " How intelligent that people looks." 
 It is to such a- people that the orators of Faneuil Hall had to 
 speak, and therein is the mystery of their success. They were 
 not wiser than the public spirit of their audience, but they were 
 the eloquent interpreters of the people's enlightened instinct. 
 
 No man can force the harp of his own individuality into the 
 people's heart ; but every man may play upon the cords of his 
 
 227 
 
people's heart, who draws his inspiration from the people's in- 
 stinct. Well, I thank God for having seen the public spirit of 
 the people of Massachusetts bestowing its attention to the 
 cause I plead, and pronouncing its verdict. After the spon- 
 taneous manifestations of public opinion which I have met in 
 Massachusetts, there can be not the slightest doubt that his 
 Excellency, the high-minded Governor of Massachusetts, when 
 he wrote his memorable address to the Legislature, the joint 
 committee of the Legislative Assembly, after a careful and can- 
 did consideration of the subject, not only concurring in the 
 views of the executive government, but elucidating them in a 
 report, the irrefutable logic and elevated statesmanship of 
 which will forever endear the name of Hazewell to oppressed 
 nations, and the Senate of Massachusetts adopting the resolu- 
 tions proposed by the Legislative Committee, in respect to the 
 question of national intervention, — I say the spontaneous 
 manifestation of public opinion leaves not the slightest doubt 
 that all these executive and legislative proceedings not only 
 met the full approbation of the people of Massachusetts, but 
 were, in fact, nothing else but the solemn interpretation of that 
 public opinion of the people of Massachusetts. A spontaneous 
 outburst of popular sentiments tells often more in a single word 
 than all the skill of elaborate eloquence could. I have met 
 that word. " We worship not the man, but we worship the 
 principle," shouted out a man in Worcester, amidst the thun- 
 dering cheers of a countless multitude. It was a word like 
 those words of flame, spoken in Faneuil Hall, out of which 
 liberty in America was born. ^ That word is a revelation that 
 the spirit of eternal truth and of present exigencies moves 
 through the people's heart. That word is teeming with the 
 destinies of America. 
 
 Would to God that, in the leading quarters, small party con- 
 siderations should never prevent the due appreciation of the 
 people's instinctive sagacity ! It is with joyful consolation and 
 heartfelt gratitude I own that of that fear I am forever relieved 
 in respect to Massachusetts. Once more I have met the 
 revelation of the truth that the people of Massachusetts wor- 
 ship principles. I have met it on the front of your capitol, in 
 those words raised to the consolation of the oppressed world, 
 by the constitutional authorities of Massachusetts, to the high 
 heaven, upon an arch of triumph, — " Remember that there is 
 a community in mankind's destiny." 
 
5 
 
 I cannot express the emotion I felt when, standing on the 
 steps of your Capitol, these words above my head, the people 
 of Massachusetts tendered me its hand in the person of its 
 chief magistrate. The emotion which thrilled through my heart 
 was something like that Lazarus must have felt when the 
 Saviour spoke to him, " Rise " ; and, when I looked up with a 
 tender tear of heartfelt gratitude in my eyes, I saw the motto 
 of Massachusetts all along the capitol, — " We seek with the 
 sword the mild quietness of liberty." You have proved this 
 motto not to be an empty word. The heroic truth of it is 
 recorded in the annals of Faneuil Hall, it is recorded on 
 Bunker Hill, recorded in the Declaration of Independence. 
 Having read that motto, coupled with the acknowledgment of 
 the principle that there is a community in the destiny of all 
 humanity, I know what answer I have to take to those millions 
 who look with profound anxiety to America. 
 
 Gentlemen, the Mahometans say that the city of Bokhara 
 receives not light from without, but is lustrous with its own 
 light. I don't know much about Bokhara; but so much I 
 know, that Boston is the sun whence radiated the light of 
 resistance against oppression. And, from what it has been my 
 good fortune to experience in Boston, I have full reason to 
 believe that the sun which shone forth with such a bright lustre 
 in the days of oppression has not lost its lustre by freedom and 
 prosperity. Boston is the metropolis of Massachusetts, and 
 Massachusetts has given its vote. It has given it after having, 
 with the penetrating sagacity of its intelligence, looked atten- 
 tively into the subject, and fixed with calm consideration 
 its judgment thereabout. After having had so much to speak, 
 it was with infinite gratification I heard myself addressed in 
 Brookfield, Framingham, and several other places, with these 
 words : " We know your country's history ; we agree with your 
 principles ; we want no speech; just let us hear your voice, and 
 then go on ; we trust and wish you may have other things to 
 do than speak." Thus having neither to tell my country's tale, 
 because it is known, nor having to . argue about principles, 
 because they are agreed with, I am in the happy condition of 
 being able to restrain myself to a few desultory remarks about 
 the nature of the difficulties I have to contend with in other 
 quarters, that the people of Massachusetts may see upon what 
 ground those stand who are following a direction contrary to 
 the distinctly pronounced opinion of Massachusetts, in relation 
 to the cause I plead. 
 
 229 
 
Give me leave to mention that, having had an opportunity to 
 converse with leading men of the great political parties which 
 are on the eve of an animated contest for the Presidency, — 
 would it had been possible for me to have come to Amer- 
 ica either before that contest was engaged or after it will be 
 decided ! I came, unhappily, in a bad hour,— I availed my- 
 self of that opportunity to be informed about what are consid- 
 ered to be the principal issues in case the one or the other 
 party carries the prize ; and, indeed, having got the informa- 
 tion thereof, I could not forbear to exclaim, " But, my God, all 
 these questions together cannot outweigh the all-overruling 
 importance of foreign policy!" It is there, in the question 
 of foreign policy, that the heart of the next future throbs. 
 Security and danger, developing prosperity, and its check, 
 peace and war, tranquillity and embarrassment, — yes, life and 
 death will be weighed in the scale of foreign policy ! It is 
 evident things are come to the point where they have been in 
 ancient Rome, when old Cato never spoke privately or publicly, 
 about whatever topic, without closing his speech with these 
 words, " However, my opinion is that Carthage must be de- 
 stroyed," — thus advertising his countrymen that there was one 
 question outweighing in importance all other questions, from 
 which public attention should never for a moment be withdrawn. 
 Such, in my opinion, is the condition of the world now. Car- 
 thage and Rome had no place on earth together. Republican 
 America and all-overwhelming Russian absolutism cannot much 
 longer subsist together on earth. Russia active, — America 
 passive, — there is an immense danger in that fact. It is like 
 the avalanche in the Alps, which the noise of a bird's wing 
 may move and thrust down with irresistible force, growing every 
 moment. I cannot but believe it were highly time to do as old 
 Cato did, and finish every speech with these words, " However, 
 the law of nations should be maintained, and absolutism not 
 permitted to become omnipotent." I could not forbear to 
 make these remarks, and the answer I got was, " That is all 
 true and all right, and will be attended to when the election is 
 over ; but, after all, the party must come into power, and you 
 know there are so many considerations, — men want to be 
 managed, and even prejudices spared, and so forth." And it 
 is true, but it is sorrowful that it is true. That reminds me of 
 what, in Schiller's "Maria Stuart," Mortimer says to Lord 
 Leicester, the all-mighty favorite of Elizabeth, " O God, what 
 
little steps has such a great lord to go at this court ! " There 
 is the first obstacle I have to meet with. This consolation, at 
 least, I have, — that the chief- difficulty I have to contend with 
 is neither lasting, nor an argument against the justice of my 
 cause or against the righteousness of my principles. Just as 
 the calumnies by which I am assailed can but harm my own 
 self, but cannot impair the justice of my country's cause or 
 weaken the propriety of my principles, so that difficulty, being 
 just a difficulty and no argument, cannot change the public 
 opinion of the people, which always cares more about principles 
 than about wire-pullings. 
 
 The second difficulty I have to contend with is rather curious. 
 Many a man has told me that, if I had only not fallen into the 
 hands of the Abolitionists and Free-soilers, he would have sup- 
 ported me ; and, had I landed somewhere in the South instead 
 of New York, I would have met quite different things from that 
 quarter. But, being supported by the Free-soilers, of course 
 I must be opposed by the South. On the other side I received 
 a letter from which I beg leave to quote a few lines : "You are 
 silent on the subject of slavery. Surrounded as you have been 
 by slaveholders ever since you put your foot on English soil, if 
 not during your whole voyage from Constantinople, — and ever 
 since you have been in this country surrounded by them whose 
 threats, promises, and flattery make the stoutest hearts suc- 
 cumb, — your position has put me in mind of a scene described 
 by the apostle of # Jesus Christ when the devil took him up into 
 a high mountain," etc. Now, gentlemen, thus being charged 
 from one side with being in the hands of Abolitionists, and 
 from the other side with being in the hands of the slaveholders, 
 I indeed am at a loss what course to take, if these very contra- 
 dictory charges were not giving me the satisfaction to feel that 
 I stand just where it is my duty to stand, on a truly American 
 ground. 
 
 I must beg leave to say a few words in that respect, — the 
 more because I could not escape vehement attacks for not 
 committing myself, even in that respect, with whatever interior 
 party question. I claim the right for my people to regulate its 
 own domestic concerns. I claim this as a law of nations, com- 
 mon to all humanity ; and, because common to all, I claim to 
 see them protected by the United States, not only because they 
 have the power to defend what despots dare offend, but also 
 because it is the necessity of their position to be a power on 
 
 231 
 
earth, which they would not be if the law of nations can be 
 changed, and the general condition of the world altered, with- 
 out their vote. Now, that being my position and my cause, it 
 would be the most absurd inconsistency if I would offend that 
 principle which I claim and which I advocate. 
 
 And, O my God, have I not enough sorrows and cares to 
 bear on these poor shoulders ? Is it not astonishing that the 
 moral power of duties, and the iron will of my heart, sustain 
 yet this shattered frame ? that I am desired yet to take up ad- 
 ditional cares ? If the cause I plead be just, if it be worthy of 
 your sympathy, and at the same time consistent with the im- 
 partial considerations of your own moral and material interests, 
 — which a patriot never should disregard, not even out of 
 philanthropy, — then why not weigh that cause with the scale 
 of its own value, and not with a foreign one ? Have I not 
 difficulties enough to contend with, that I am desired to in- 
 crease them yet with my own hands ? f'ather Mathew goes on 
 preaching temperance, and he may be opposed or supported 
 on his own ground ; but whoever imagined opposition to him 
 because, at the same time, he takes not into his hands to 
 preach fortitude or charity .'' And, indeed, to oppose or to 
 abandon the cause I plead only because I mix not with the 
 agitation of an interior question is a greater injustice yet, be- 
 cause to discuss the question of foreign policy I have a right. 
 My nation is an object of that policy. We are interested in it. 
 But to mix with interior party movements I have no right, not 
 being a citizen of the United States. 
 
 The third difficulty which I meet, so far as I am told, is the 
 opposition of the commercial interest. I have the agreeable 
 duty to say that this opposition, or, rather, indifference, is only 
 partial. I have met several testimonials of the most generous 
 sympathy from gentlemen of commerce. But if, upon the 
 whole, it should be really true that there is more coolness, or 
 even opposition, in that quarter than in others, then I may say 
 that there is an entire misapprehension of the true commercial 
 interests in it. I could say that it would be strange to see 
 commerce, and chiefly the commerce of a republic, indifferent 
 to the spread of liberal institutions. That would be a sad 
 experience, teeming with incalculable misfortunes, reserved to 
 the nineteenth century. Until now history has recorded that 
 "commerce has been the most powerful locomotive of prin- 
 ciples and the most fruitful ally of civilization, intelligence, and 
 232 
 
of liberty." It was merchants whose names are shining with 
 immortal lustre from the most glorious pages of the golden 
 books of Venice, Genoa, etc. Commerce, republican commerce, 
 raised single cities to the position of mighty powers on earth, 
 and maintained them in that proud position for centuries ; and 
 surely it was neither indifference nor opposition to republican 
 principles by which they have thus ennobled the history of 
 commeixe and of humanity. I know full well that, since the 
 treasures of commerce took their way into the coffers of 
 despotism, in the shape of eternal loans, and capital began to 
 speculate upon the oppression of nations, a great change has 
 occurred in that respect. 
 
 But, thanks to God, the commerce of America is not engaged 
 in that direction, hated by millions, cursed by humanity. Her 
 commerce is still what it was in former times, — the beneficent 
 instrumentality of making mankind partake of all the fruits and 
 comforts of the earth and of human industry. Here it is no 
 paper speculation upon the changes of despotism ; and, there- 
 fore, if the commercial interests of republican America are 
 considered with that foresighted sagacity, without which there 
 is no future and no security in them, I feel entirely sure that 
 no particular interest can be more ambitious to see absolutism 
 checked and freedom and democratic institutions developed in 
 Europe than the commerce of republican America. It is no 
 question of more or less profit, it is a question of life and death 
 to it. Commerce is the heel of Achilles, the vulnerable point 
 of America. Thither will, thither must be aimed the first blow 
 of victorious absolutism. The instinct of self-preservation 
 would lead absolutism to strike that blow if its hatred and 
 indignation would not lead to it. Air is not more indispensable 
 to life than freedom and constitutional government in Europe 
 to the commerce of America. 
 
 Though many things which I have seen have, upon calm 
 reflection, induced me to raise an humble word of warning 
 against materialism, still I believe there was more patriotic 
 solicitude than reality in the fact that Washington and 
 John Adams, at the head of the war department, complained 
 of a predominating materialism (they styled it avarice) which 
 threatened the ruin of America. I believe that complaint 
 would, even to-day, not be more founded than it was in 
 the infant age of your republic. Still, if there be any mo- 
 tive for that complaint of your purest and best patriots, — 
 
 233 
 
10 
 
 if the commerce of America would know, indeed, no better 
 guiding star than only the momentary profit of a cargo just 
 floating over the Atlantic, — I would be even then at a loss how 
 else to account for the indifference of the commerce of Amer- 
 ica in the cause of European liberty than by assuming that it 
 is believed the present degraded condition of Europe may en- 
 dure, if only the popular agitations are deprived of material 
 means to disturb that which is satirically called tranquillity. 
 
 But such a supposition would, indeed, be the most obnox- 
 ious, the most dangerous fallacy. As the old philosopher, 
 being questioned how he could prove the existence of God, an- 
 swer^ed, "By opening the eyes," just so nothing is necessary 
 but to open the eyes in order that men of the most ordinary 
 common sense become aware of it, that the present condition 
 of Europe is too unnatural, too contrary to the vital interests 
 of the countless millions, to endure even for a short time. A 
 . crisis is inevitable. No individual influence can check it ; no 
 indifterence or opposition can prevent it. Even men like my- 
 self, concentrating the expectations and confidence of oppressed 
 millions in themselves, have only just enough power, if pro- 
 vided with the requisite means, to keep the current in a sound 
 direction, so that in its inevitable eruption it may not become 
 dangerous to social order, which is indispensable to the secu- 
 rity of person arid property, without which especially no com- 
 merce has any future at all. And that being the unsophisti- 
 cated condition of the world, and a crisis being inevitable, I 
 indeed cannot imagine how those who desire nothing but peace 
 and tranquillity can withhold their helping hands, that the 
 inevitable crisis should not only be kept in a sound direction, 
 but also carried down to a happy issue, capable to prevent the 
 world from boiling continually, like a volcano, and insuring a 
 lasting peace and a lasting tranquillity, never possible so long 
 as the great majority of nations are oppressed, but sure so 
 soon as the nations are content ; and content they can only 
 be when they are free. Indeed, if reasonable logic has not yet 
 forsaken the world, it is the men of peace, it is the men of 
 commerce, to the support of whom I have a right to look. 
 Others may support my cause out of generosity, — these must 
 support me out of considerate interest ; others may oppose 
 me out of egotism, — American commerce, in opposing me, 
 would commit suicide. 
 
 Gentlemen, of such narrow nature are the considerations 
 234 
 
II 
 
 which oppose ni}- cause. Of equally narrow, inconsistent 
 scope are all the rest, with the enumeration of which I will not 
 abuse your kind indulgence. Compare with them the broad 
 basis of lofty principles upon which the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts took its stand in bestowing the important benefit 
 of its support to my cause, and you cannot forbear to feel 
 proudly that the spirit of old Massachusetts is still alive, en- 
 titled to claim that right in the councils of the united republic 
 which it had in the glorious days when, amid dangers, wa\ering 
 resolutions, and partial despondency, Massachusetts took boldly 
 the lead to freedom and independence. 
 
 Those men of immortal memory, who within these very walls 
 lighted with the heavenly spark of their inspiration the torch 
 of freedom in America, avowed for their object the welfare of 
 mankind ; and, when you raised the monument of Bunker Hill, 
 it was the genius of freedom thrilling through the heart of 
 Massachusetts which made one of your distinguished orators 
 say that the days of your ancient glory will continue to rain in- 
 fluence on the destinies of mankind to the end of time. It is 
 upon this inspiration I rely, in the name of my down-trodden 
 country, — to-day the martyr of mankind, to-morrow the battle- 
 field of its destiny. Time draws nigh when either the influence 
 of Americans must be felt throughout the world or the position 
 abandoned to which you rose with gigantic vitality out of the 
 blood of your martyrs. I have seen the genius of those glori- 
 ous days spreading its fiery wings of inspiration over the peo- 
 ple of Massachusetts. I feel the spirit of olden times moving 
 through Faneuil Hall. Let me cut short my stammering 
 words. Let me leave your hearts alone with the inspiration of 
 history. Let me bear with me the heart-strengthening convic- 
 tion that I have seen Boston still a radiating sun, as it was of 
 yore, but risen so high on mankind's sky as to spread its warn- 
 ing rays of elevated patriotism far over the waves. American 
 patriotism of to-day is philanthropy for the world. 
 
 Gentlemen, I trust in God, I trust in the destinies of human- 
 ity, and intrust the hopes of oppressed Europe to the consistent 
 energy of Massachusetts. 
 
 235 
 
12 
 
 Kossuth's speech at concord, may i i, 1852. 
 
 I am afraid to speak here. I like to listen to the tale the spirits of 
 martyrs tell, and to words like yours, sir [Mr. Emerson],* full of 
 wisdom and philanthropy. The answer I can give will scarcely 
 possess the merit to satisfy the American people. One thing 1 may 
 assume, and one thing own. Should the Almighty give me pros- 
 perity, yet in my life it would not carry me away, not to be frank, 
 not only in adversity, but in duty, which is a good guard as well 
 against ambition in prosperity as in adversity. One thing I may 
 own, — that it is, indeed, true, everything good has yet been in the 
 minority. Still mankind went on, and is going on, to that destiny 
 the Almighty designed, when all good will not be confined to the 
 minority, but will prevail amongst all mankind. 
 
 1 hail thee, hallowed ground of Concord, thou sacred baptistry, 
 where the people of America first baptized itself to the name of a 
 " nation " with its own and its enemies' blood ! I hail thee. Concord, 
 thou John the Baptist of American Independence ! " When invaded 
 by oppression, resistance becomes the Christian and social duty of 
 each individual." Thus spoke the leaders of Massachusetts when 
 the spirit of national freedom first moved through this air which 
 I now breathe. It was here that word was bravely redeemed 
 by a people transformed into heroes by the charm of liberty. The 
 leaders swore " never to yield, but, with a proper sense of depend- 
 ence on God, to defend those rights which Heaven gave, and no one 
 ought to take."' It was here that oath first was made good. Be 
 thou blessed forever, hallowed ground of Concord ! and, ye spirits of 
 the departed, take up, upon good angelic wings, the prayers of the 
 poor wandering exile, who, on the hallowed ground of Concord, in- 
 vokes the young spirit of the New World to regenerate the Old ! 
 
 Gentlemen, remember what had to pass in the Old World that 
 Hungary's exiled chief thus might be standing on Concord's hallowed 
 ground, and that such prayers fall from his lips from such a place. 
 Oh, silence for a while the noble pride of your prosperity, and bow 
 with reverence before the finger of God ! He is the God of all hu- 
 manity. What he did for you he meant to do for humanity. Con- 
 cord became the preface of liberty in America, that America might 
 become the preface of liberty on earth. That is my faith. I have 
 drawn this faith from the philosophy of your history. 
 
 It is strange, indeed, how every incident of the present bears the 
 mark of deeper meaning around me. It is a meaning in the very fact 
 that it is you, sir, by whom the representative of Hungary's ill-fated 
 struggle is so generously welcomed, in the name of Concord, to the 
 shrine of martyrs illumined by victory. You are wont to dive into the 
 mysteries of truth, and disclose mysteries of right to the eyes of men. 
 
 * The address of welcome at Concord had been made by Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 236 
 
13 
 
 Your honored name is Emerson; and Emerson was the name of the 
 man who, a minister of the gospel, turned out with his people on 
 the 19th of April of eternal memory, when the alarm-bell first was 
 rung. The words of an Emerson administered counsel and the com- 
 fort of religion to the distressed then, and the words of an Emerson 
 now speak the comfort of philosophy to the cause of oppressed liberty. 
 I take hold of that augury, sir. Religion and philosophy, you 
 blessed twins, upon you I rely with my hopes to America. Religion, 
 the philosophy of the heart, will make the Americans generous ; and 
 philosophy, the religion of the mind, will make the Americans wise ; 
 and all that I claim is a generous wisdom and a wise generosity. 
 
 Gentlemen, it would be evidently a mistake to believe that the 
 Revolution of America was the accidental result of circumstances 
 which England could have prevented. No, gentlemen, England could 
 not have retained possession of this country, except only by trans- 
 forming herself into a republic, or, at least, into a democratic mon- 
 archy. That would have been the only means to prevent the separa- 
 tion. Those acts of the British Parliament, which virtually repealed 
 the charter of Massachusetts, those acts were, indeed, oppressive, 
 arbitrary, and tyrannical. They would have, in every other portion 
 of the world, justified a revolution ; but here, in your country, those 
 arbitrary acts of the government have been but an opportunity to 
 assert with arms that national independence which, also, without 
 that opportunity would have been asserted, — perhaps in a different 
 way, — but would have been asserted, certainly, because it was a 
 necessity, — not only a necessity with your own countr}', gentlemen, 
 but a logical necessity in the progress of mankind's history. The 
 arbitrary acts of the British government were a crime ; but not to 
 have understood that necessity, and not to have yielded to it by ami- 
 cable arrangement without sacrifices, that was a fault. 
 
 In my opinion, there is not a single fact in history which would 
 have been so distinctly marked to be providential, with reference to 
 all humanity, as the colonization, revolution, and republicanism of 
 the now United States of America. This immense continent being 
 discovered and brought within the scope of European civilization, 
 peopled with elements of that civilization, could not remain a mere 
 appendix to Europe. That is evident. But this America, being 
 connected as it is with Europe by a thousand social, moral, and 
 material ties, — • by the ties of blood, religion, language, science, civi- 
 lization, and commerce, — to me it is equally evident that to believe 
 that this so connected America can rest isolated in politics from 
 Europe, that would be just such a fault as that was that England did 
 not believe in time the necessity of America's independence. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, this is so much true, — that I would pledge life, 
 honor, and everything dear to man's heart and honorable to man's 
 memory that either America must take its becoming part in the 
 political regeneration of Europe or she herself must yield to the per- 
 
 237 
 
14 
 
 nicious influence of European politics. There was never jet a more 
 fatal mistake than it would be to believe that, by not caring about 
 the political condition of Europe, America may remain unaffected by 
 the condition of Europe. 1 could, perhaps, understand such an 
 opinion if you would or could be entirely and in every respect iso- 
 lated from Europe ; but, as you are not isolated, as you cannot be, 
 as you cannot even have the will to be isolated, because that 
 very will would be a paradox, a logical absurdity, impossible 
 to be carried out, being contrary to the eternal laws of God, which 
 he for nobody's sake will change, therefore to believe that you can 
 go on to be connected with Europe in a thousand respects and still 
 remain unaffected by its social and political condition would be, 
 indeed, a fatal aberration. You stretch your gigantic hands a 
 thousand-fold every day over the waves. Your relations with Europe 
 are not only commercial, as with Asia : they are also social, moral, 
 spiritual, intellectual. You take Europe every day by the hand : 
 how, then, could you believe that, if that hand of Europe, which you 
 grasp every day, remains dirty, you can escape from seeing your own 
 hands soiled ? The more clean your hands are, the more will the 
 filth of old Europe stick to them. There is no possible means to 
 escape from being soiled, than to help us Europeans to wash the 
 hands of our Old World. You have heard of the ostrich that, when 
 persecuted by an eneni)-, it is wont to hide its head, leaving its body 
 exposed. It believes that, by not regarding it, it will not be seen by 
 the enemy. That curious aberration is worthy of reflection. It is 
 typical. Yes, gentlemen, either America will regenerate the con- 
 dition of the Old World or it will be degenerated by the condition 
 of the Old World. 
 
 Sir, I implore you [Mr. Emerson] give me the aid of your philo- 
 sophical analysis, to impress the conviction upon the public mind of 
 your nation that the Revolution, to which Concord was the preface, is 
 full of a higher destiny, — of a destiny broad as the world, broad as 
 humanity itself. Let me entreat you to apply the analytic powers 
 of your penetrating intellect to disclose the character of the American 
 Revolution, as you disclose the character of self-reliance, of spiritual 
 laws, of intellect, of nature, or of politics. Lend the authority of 
 your judgment to the truth that the destiny of the American Revolu- 
 tion is not yet fulfilled ; that the task is not yet completed ; that to 
 stop half-way is worse than would have been not to stir. Repeat those 
 words of deep meaning which once you wrote about the monsters 
 that look backward, and about the walking with reverted eye, while 
 the voice of the Almighty says, "Up and onward forevermore," and 
 while the instinct of your people, which never fails to be right, an- 
 swered the call of destiny by taking for its motto the word " Ahead." 
 
 Indeed, gentlemen, the monuments you raised to the heroic mar- 
 tyrs who fertilized with their heart's blood the soil of liberty, — these 
 monuments are a fair tribute of well-deserved gratitude, gratifying to 
 
 238 
 
15 
 
 the spirits who are hovering around us, and honorable to you. Woe 
 to the people which neglected to honor its great and good men ! but 
 believe me, gentlemen, those blest spirits would look down with 
 saddened brows to this free and happy land if ever they were doomed 
 to see that the happy inheritors of their martyrdom had the preten- 
 sion to believe that the destiny to which that sacred martyr blood 
 was sacrificed is accomplished, and its price fully paid, in the already 
 achieved results, because the living generation dwells comfortably 
 and makes two dollars out of one. 
 
 No, gentlemen, the stars on the sky have a higher aim than that 
 to illumine the night-path of some lonely wanderer. The course 
 your nation is called to run is not yet half performed. Mind the 
 fable of Atalanta, — it was a golden apple thrown into her way which 
 made her fall short in her race. 
 
 Two things I have met here, in these free and mighty United 
 States, which I am at a loss how to make concord. The two things I 
 cannot concord are : first, that all your historians, all your statesmen, 
 all your distinguished orators, who wrote or spoke, characterize it as 
 an era in mankind's destiny designed to change the condition of the 
 world, upon which it will rain an ever-flowing influence. And, 
 secondly, in contradiction to this universally adopted consideration, I 
 have met in many quarters a propensity to believe that it is conservative 
 wisdom not to take any active part in the regulation of the condition 
 of the outward world. These two things do not concord. If that 
 be the destiny of America which you all believe to be, then, indeed, 
 that destiny can never be fulfilled by acting the part of passive spec- 
 tators and by this very passivity granting a charter to ambitious czars 
 to dispose of the condition of the world. I have met distinguished 
 men trusting so much to the operative power of your institutions and 
 of your example that they really believe they will make their way 
 throughout the world merely by their moral influence. But there is 
 one thing those gentlemen have disregarded in their philanthropic 
 reliance, and that is that the ray of sun never yet made its way, by 
 itself, through well-closed shutters and doors. Thej^ must be drawn 
 open, that the blessed rays of the sun may get in. I have never yet 
 heard of a despot who had yielded to the moral influence of liberty. 
 The ground of Concord itself is an evidence of it. The doors and 
 shutters of oppre.ssion must be opened by bayonets, that the blessed 
 ravs of your institutions may penetrate into the dark dwelling-house 
 of oppressed humanity; . . . 
 
 I am an exile of the Old World, fraught with the hopes and ex- 
 pectations of oppressed millions. I may be excused for looking 
 anxiously into the mysteries of your national existence if I could not 
 find out there a flower of consolation to my poor native land, well 
 deserving a better fate. But let me forsake that elevated position, 
 and step down lower to the standing-place of your own national in- 
 terests, of your own American policy. Even thus, 1 hope nobody 
 
 239 
 
i6 
 
 will contradict me, that in the life of a nation there are different 
 periods equally necessarj-, of ecjually vital importance, if that nation 
 desires to live. And it is but necessary to open their eyes, and to 
 look to the condition of your glorious land, to become aware that 
 now there is such a necessity for your future to be a power on earth, 
 as it was necessary in 1775 to make a revolution, and to become in- 
 dependent and free. And I must say it, even at the risk of offending 
 your national pride, that you are not yet a power on earth ; and you 
 will be no power on earth so long as you permit other powers to 
 dispose of the laws of nations, and of the common interests of all hu- 
 manity. And by not becoming a power on earth, when it is a neces- 
 sity to do so, you lose, you must lose the glorious position you hold, be- 
 cause, as you well may see, the other powers of the earth dispose of the 
 world's condition in a direction antagonistical to your interests, — in a 
 direction in which your principles lose ground on earth instead of 
 gaining ground, as you should. 
 
 There are men who believe the position of a power on earth will 
 come to you by itself; but oh, do not trust to this fallacy! A posi- 
 tion never comes by itself : it must be taken, and taken it never will 
 be by passivity. The martyrs who have hallowed by their blood the 
 ground of Concord trusted themselves, and occupied the place Divine 
 Providence assigned them. Sir, the words are yours which I quote. 
 You have told your people that they are now men, and must accept, 
 in the highest mind, the same destiny, — -that they are not minors and 
 invalids in a protected corner, but guides, redeemers, and benefac- 
 tors, advancing on chaos and on the dark. I pray God to give your 
 people the sentiment of the truth you have taught. Your people, 
 fond of its prosperity, loves peace. Well, who would not love peace ? 
 But allow me again, sir, to repeat, with all possible emphasis, the 
 great words you spoke : " Nothing can bring you peace but a triumph 
 of principles." 
 
 The people of America's instinct is with my prayers. It is with 
 me once more your words, sir : " What your heart thinks great is 
 great." The soul's emphasis is always right. To this I will trust ; 
 and, reminding you of the fact that in the soil of Concord the ashes 
 of your martyrs are mingled in concord vvith the ashes of your 
 enemies, and out of both liberty has grown, I say let this be an augury. 
 Let the future be regulated, not by long past disinclinations, but by 
 present necessities ; not by anticipations of olden times, but by sym- 
 pathies congenial to the present times ; and let the word '• Concord " 
 be an augury to that fraternity amongst nations which will make the 
 world free, and your nation the first and the greatest among the 
 free. 
 
 240 
 
17 
 
 Kossuth's speech at Plymouth, may 12, 1852, 
 
 ... I am not here, gentlemen, to retell the Pilgrim Fathers' tale. I 
 have to learn about it from your particulars, which historians neglect, 
 but the people's heart by pious tradition likes to conserve. Neither 
 am I here to tell how happy you are. That you feel. Pointed by 
 that sentiment which instinctively rises in the heart of happy good 
 men at the view of foreign misfortune, you invited me to this sacred 
 spot, desiring to pour in my sad heart the consoling inspiration flow- 
 ing from this place, and to strengthen me in the trust to God. I 
 thank you for it. It does good to my heart. The very air which I 
 here respire, though to me sad, because fresh with the sorrows of 
 Europe and with the woes of my native land, that very air is a balm 
 to the bleeding wounds of my soul. It relieves like as the tears re- 
 lieve the oppressed heart. But this spot is a book of history. A 
 book not written by man, but by the Almighty himself, — a leaf out 
 of the records of destiny sent to earth and illumined by the light of 
 heavenly intellect, that men and nations, reading in that book of life 
 the bountiful intentions of the Almighty God, may learn the duties 
 they are expected to fulfil, and cannot neglect to fulfil without 
 offending those intentions with which the Almighty Ruler of human 
 destinies has worked the wonders of which Plymouth Rock is the 
 cradle-place. I feel like Moses, when he stood on Mount Nebo, in 
 the mountains of Abarem, looking over the billows. I see afar the 
 Canaan of mankind's liberty. I would the people of your great re- 
 public would look to Plymouth Rock as to a new Sinai, where the 
 .\lmighty legislator revealed what he expects your nation to do and 
 not do unto her neighbors, by revealing to her free America's 
 destiny. 
 
 Who would have thought, gentlemen, that the modest vessel which 
 two hundred and thirty-two years ago landed the handful of Pilgrims 
 on Plymouth Rock was fraught with the palladium of liberty and 
 with the elements of a power destined to regenerate the world ? Op- 
 pression drove them from their ancient European home to the wilder- 
 ness of an unknown world. The " Mayflower " developed into a 
 wonderful tree of liberty. Where the wilderness stood, there now 
 a mighty Christian nation stands, unequalled in general intelligence 
 and in general prosperity, a glorious evidence of mankind's capacity 
 to self-government : and ye, happy sons of those Pilgrim Fathers, it 
 became your glorious destiny to send back an enchanted twig from 
 your tree of freedom to the Old World, thus requiting the oppression 
 which drove away your forefathers from it. Is the time come for it? 
 Yes, it is. That which is a benefit to the world is a condition of 
 vour own security. . . . 
 
 What is it I claim from you, people of America, — ye powerful 
 swarm from the beehive Europe, ye sons of the Pilgrims, — those 
 
 241 
 
1 8 
 
 Christian Deucalions who peopled this New World, and founded a 
 nation in seeking but the asylum of a new home ? What is it 1 claim 
 from you, people of America? Is it that you should send over 
 yonder Atlantic a fleet of new " Mayflowers," manned with thousands 
 of Miles Standishes? ... Is it that which I claim, in the name of man- 
 kind's great family, of which you are a mighty, full-grown son.'' No, 
 I claim not this. Do I claim from you to send over your sons to 
 Hungary's border mountains to make a living fence by their breasts, 
 catching up the blasting wind of Russia that it may not fall upon 
 the poor, leaf-torn shrub of Hungary ? No, I claim not this. Or do 
 I claim from you to beat back the bloody hand of the Austrian, 
 that he may not waste the tempest-torn shrub, and not drain the 
 life-sweat of its nursing soil ? No, I do not claim that. 
 
 What is it, then, I claim from America? That same violence 
 which shattered Hungary's bush has loosened, has bent, has nearly 
 broken the pole called law of nations, without which no right is safe 
 and no nation sure, — none, were it even ten times so mighty as 
 yours. I claim from America that it should fasten and make firm 
 that pole called '• law of nations," that we may with the nerve-strings 
 of our own stout hearts bind to it our nation's shattered shrub. That 
 is what I claim. And I ask you, in the name of the Almighty, is it 
 too pretentious, is it too much arrogance to claim so much ? 
 
 '• In the law of nations every nation is just so much interested as 
 every citizen in the laws of his country." That is a wise word. It 
 is the word of Mr. Webster, who, I am sure of it, in the high posi- 
 tion he holds, intrusted with your country's foreign policy, would 
 readily make good his own word if only his sovereign, the nation, be 
 decided to back it, and says to him, " Go on." . . . 
 
 To whom shall the oppressed turn for the protection of law and 
 of right if not to those who have the power to protect that law and 
 that right upon which their own power, their own existence, rests ? 
 Turn to God and trust to him, you say. Well, that we do. The 
 Lord is our chief trust; but. precisely because we trust to God, we 
 look around with confidence for the instrumentality of this protection. 
 And who shall be that instrumentality if not you, people of America, 
 for whom God has worked an evident wonder out, and upon this very 
 place where I stand ? 
 
 We may well praise the dignity of Carver and Bradford, the 
 bravery of .Standish, the devotion of Brewster, the enterprising spirit 
 of AUerton, the unexampled fortitude and resignation of their women, 
 the patience of their boys, the firmness, thoughtfulness, religious faith 
 and confident boldness of all the Pilgrims of the " Mayflower." We 
 may well praise that all, no praise is too high and none undeserved ; 
 but, after all, we must confess that the wonderful results of their pil- 
 grimage, — the nation which we see here, — that is not their merit, as 
 it could never have been the anticipation of their thoughts. No, that 
 is no human merit : that is an evident miracle, — the work of God. 
 242 
 
19 
 
 What have they been, those Pilgrims of those days? What was 
 their resolution, their aim, their design ? Let me answer in the elo- 
 quent words of Mr. Webster's last centennial address : "They have 
 been the personification of humble and peaceable religion flying from 
 causeless oppression, conscience attempting to escape from arbitrary 
 rule, braving a thousand dangers to find here — what ? A place of 
 refuge and of rest." And what is it they have founded here? A 
 mighty nation, of twenty -four millions, in the short period of two 
 hundred and thirty- two years. Well, that has never entered the 
 thoughts of the boldest of them. 
 
 The Revolution of 1775 ^^'i^ ri° miracle. It was a necessity, — 
 an indication of your people's having come to the lawful age of a 
 nation. Your assuming now the position of a power on earth, as I 
 hope you will, that will again be no miracle. It would be wisdom 
 but the wisdom of doing what is good to humanity and necessary to 
 vourselves. But, the United States of America, — a result of the Pil- 
 grim Fathers' landing on Plymouth's Rock, — that is no wisdom, no 
 necessity : it is an evident miracle, a work of God. And believe me, 
 gentlemen, the Almighty God never deviates from the common laws 
 of eternity for particular purposes. He never makes a miracle but 
 for the benefit of all the world. By that truth the destiny of America 
 is appointed out, and every destiny implies a duty to fulfil. Happy 
 the people which has the wisdom of its destiny and the resolution of 
 its duties resulting therefrom. But woe to the people which takes 
 not the place which Providence does appoint to it ! With the inten- 
 tions of Providence, and with the decrees of the Almighty, no man 
 can dare to play. Self-reliance is a manly virtue, and no nation has 
 a future which has not that virtue. But to believe that seventy-five 
 years of prodigious growth dispense of every danger and of every 
 care, that would be the surest way to provoke danger and to have 
 much to care. You will judge by this, gentlemen, if it was too 
 much boldness on my part to believe that it is your country's destin)- 
 to regenerate the world by maintaining the laws of nations, or too 
 much boldness to claim tliat whicli I believe is your destiny. . . . 
 
 The visit of Kossuth to the United States, to plead for our interest in 
 the cause of the independence of Hungary, in 1S51-52, and the popular 
 demonstration attending it, constitute perhaps the most impressive chap- 
 ter in the history of the sympathy of our people for other peoples strug- 
 gling for freedom. The advent of the American republic in history was 
 as the morning star to lovers of lil)erty and democracy in Europe and 
 throughout the world. It has l)een our greatest glory through the cen- 
 tury that the workers for freedom and political progress everywhere have 
 looked to us, and that our sympathy and help have gone out to them.. We 
 were the friends of Bolivar and the young South American republics; and 
 the history of the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine will be remembered 
 
 243 
 
20 
 
 (see Old South Leaflet, No. 56, on " The Monroe Doctrine "). The 
 speeches of Webster, Clay, and others in behalf of the Greeks, at the time 
 of their uprising against the Turks in 1824, should be read. Our sympathy 
 went out to Garibaldi and Mazzini, as again and again to the republicans 
 of France and of Germany, so many of whom, when fortunes were ad- 
 verse, have found their homes among us. Our sympathy for the op- 
 pressed people of Cuba led ultimately to armed interference in their 
 behalf. American influences have been second to no other in the politi- 
 cal new birth of Japan ; and the reformers in Servia and Bulgaria drew 
 their inspiration largely from Robert College. 
 
 Kossuth arrived in America in December, 1851. He came as the 
 guest of the nation. The President and Congress had officially declared 
 their sympathy; and the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, replying 
 shortly before to the Austrian minister's remonstrances against our ex- 
 pressions of interest in the Hungarian cause, had firmly declared that no 
 spectacle could ever enlist the sympathies of the American people more 
 deeply than that of a nation struggling to maintain or gain its indepen- 
 dence. Kossuth's reception in New York was something unparalleled in 
 its enthusiasm, and this enthusiasm continued everywhere until his de- 
 parture. His speech before the Corporation of New York, December 11, 
 was perhaps the ablest and most comprehensive which he delivered, ap- 
 pealing to the utterances of Washington and the fathers as justification 
 for the republic's active interest in the cause of freedom and self-govern- 
 ment in all the world. This speech, together \\ith the speeches in Phila- 
 delphia, Washington, etc., is printed in the appendix to Headley's Life of 
 Kossuth. From Washington, Kossuth went to the West and the South; 
 and in April, 1S52, he came to New England, speaking to enormous 
 crowds in Boston, New Haven, Springfield, Worcester, Lowell, and a 
 score of places. There is a special volume, " Kossuth in New England," 
 devoted to this visit, including the various addresses. Governor George 
 S. Boutwell welcomed Kossuth to the State of Massachusetts, President* 
 Henry Wilson to the Senate, and Speaker N. P. Banks to the House of 
 Representatives; and their speeches, as well as Kossuth's repUes, should 
 be read, as e.xpressing the sentiment of the time. Kossuth made three 
 speeches in Faneuil Hall, the first at a public meeting on the evening of 
 April 29, the second at a legislative banquet on the following evening, 
 the third on May 14. The first of these speeches is that here reprinted, 
 together with the speeches at Concord and (in part) Plymouth. See 
 Charles Sumner's speech, "Welcome to Kossuth" (Sumner's Works, iii. 
 3). This was Sumner's first speech in the Senate, Dec. 10, 1851. See 
 also Sumner's letter on "Sympathy with the Rights of Men Everywhere" 
 (Works, ii. 444). 
 
 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 011 802 427 8 
 
 THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
 244