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PREFACE.

AUTHOR. Walk in!

JUDGE H. Good evening, sir. I am glad to find you, as asual, surrounded by home-comforts — books, manuscripts, and papers appear to be your evening companions.

AUTHOR. I am happy to welcome you, Judge H. Pray, be seated.

JUDGE H. Thank you, sir. What books were you so attentively examining when I entered?

AUTHOR. I was comparing three important documents the Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. The Magna Charta secured Personal Liberty, the Declaration proclaimed it, and the Constitution guaranteed it; and yet, notwithstanding the experience and progress of more than six hundred years, they have been totally disregarded of late in our own country, which boasts so much of personal rights and personal liberty.

JUDGE H. That is true, sir. The Constitution is the chart by which every Administration ought to be guided, but I regret to say both for the reputation and stability of our Government-it has, of late, been a "dead letter."

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AUTHOR. Do you think, Judge, the people are aware to what extent their rights have been lately trampled upon, and their liberties disregarded?

JUDGE H. I have the utmost confidence in the judgment

and patriotism of the people. They are not blind, nor are they listless; yet, I think, they sometimes act without considering. They are carried away by their enthusiasm in the support of measures, the consequences of which they do not see until it is too late to redress the wrong committed. This, however, cannot exactly be said to be the fault of the people. They are deluded by leaders, without merit or claim, who have accidentally been wafted into position-mere adventurers, who have nothing to lose, and who are as ignorant of the science of government as they are careless of preserving what little reputation they possess in a word. by men who have

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"Skulls that cannot teach, and will not learn."

The people do not even yet know the crimes that have been committed in the name of Liberty.

AUTHOR. Liberty, in the better days of our Republic, was the birthright of the American citizen. What guarantee has he that he will be protected in this fireside right in the future, if we may judge the future by the past? When the Constitution is despoiled of the altar of Liberty, in what temple can Freedom worship?

JUDGE H. With us Liberty has no protective guarantees. A Seward may again ring his "little bell," and secretly hurry the citizen from the family circle to the loathsome casemate by the strong arm of arbitrary power, and what redress has he? What becomes of the old English maxim, Every man's house is his castle?"

AUTHOR. Did you ever mark the contrast in the sentiments uttered by William H. Seward, Secretary of State. and William Pitt, Prime Minister of England?

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