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and popular. I have seen a man stained with every sin, except those which required courage; into whose head I do not think a pure thought has entered for forty years; in whose heart an honorable feeling would droop for very loneliness;—in evil he was ripe and rotten; hoary and depraved in deed, in word, in his present life and in all his past; evil when by himself, and viler among men; corrupting to the young;—to domestic fidelity, a recreant; to common honor, a traitor; to honesty, an outlaw; to religion, a hypocrite ;-base in all that is worthy of man, and accomplished in whatever is disgraceful; and yet this wretch could go where he would; enter good men's dwellings, and purloin their votes. Men would curse him, yet obey him; hate him, and assist him; warn their sons against him, and lead them to the polls for him. A public sentiment which produces ignominious knaves, cannot breed honest men.

We have not yet emerged from a period in which debts were insecure; the debtor legally protected against the rights of the creditor; taxes laid, not by the requirements of justice, but for political effect; and lowered to a dishonest inefficiency; and when thus diminished, not collected; the citizens resisting their own officers; officers resigning at the bidding of the electors; the laws of property paralyzed; bankrupt laws built up; and stay-laws unconstitutionally enacted, upon which the courts look with aversion, yet fear to deny them, lest the wildness of popular opinion should roll back disdainfully upon the bench, to despoil its dignity, and prostrate its power. General suffering has made us tolerant of general dishonesty; and the gloom of our commercial disaster threatens to become the pall of our morals.

XXXIII-WORLD-WIDE FAME OF WASHINGTON.

ASHER ROBBINS.

Ir is the peculiar good fortune of this country to have given birth to a citizen, whose name everywhere produces a sentiment of regard for his country itself. In other countries whenever and wherever this is spoken of to be praised, and with the highest praise, it is called the country of Washington. I believe there is no people, civilized or savage, in any place, however remote, where the name of Washington has not been

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heard, and where it is not respected with the fondest admiration. We are told that the Arab of the desert talks of Washington in his tent, and that his name is familiar to the wandering Scythian. He seems, indeed, to be the delight of human kind, as their beau ideal of human nature. No American, in any part of the world, but has found the regard for himself increased by his connection with Washington, as his fellow-countryman; and who has not felt a pride, and had occasion to exult, in the fortunate connection?

Half a century and more has now passed away since he came upon the stage, and his fame first broke upon the world; for it broke like the blaze of day from the rising sunalinost as sudden, and seemingly as universal. The eventful period since that era, has teemed with great men, who have crossed the scene and passed off. Some of them have arrested great attention-very great. Still Washington retains his preeminent place in the minds of men-still his peerless name is cherished by them in the same freshness of delight as in the morn of its glory. History will keep her record of his fame; but history is not necessary to perpetuate it. regions where history is not read, where letters are unknown, it lives, and will go down from age to age, in all future time, in their traditionary lore. Who would exchange this fame, the common inheritance of our country, for the fame of any individual, which any country of any time can boast ?—I would not; with my sentiments, I could not.

In

XXXIV.-ON THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE ARMY FROM MEXICO.

EDWARD A. HANNEGAN.

WE are engaged in war with an obstinate enemy, and during its continuance I feel bound by the highest sense of duty to contribute, by every means in my power, to the suc cess of my country's arms, and the humiliation and overthrow of the enemy. I stop not to ask the approval of casuists when my heart bids me to know only my own country in the contest; and I fervently trust that God may forever crown her eagle banner with victory, whenever and wherever her sons may unfurl it in battle, beneath the broad vault of

Heaven. Never may its glorious folds, dimmed and discolored with the blood of its soldiers, trail in the dust. I should deplore an unjust or an aggressive war as much as any man; I would leave no proper means untried for an accommodation; to secure peace I would yield everything but honor; but while war lasted I would strain every sinew, exert every nerve of the nation to impress the enemy and the world with the terror of our arms. Sir, the hunters-up of conscience cases may approve it or not: I am well assured that this course it is my duty to adopt and pursue. I would not, while the

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gloomy cloud of war hangs over the land, say to the enemy, Go on! you are right—we are wrong! The God of justice is on your side, and His avenging hand will yet deliver to your toils our soldiers bound hand and foot, so that you may flesh your swords in their bosoms!" Sir, I would not say to our own brave soldiers, "March slowly-trail your arms— you are engaged in an unjust and unholy war!" No. I would not paralyze their strong arms and valiant hearts in the hour of battle! I would not rob them of the hope of Heaven! I would not shriek into the ear of the dying soldier that for him no bright-eyed angels waited above the smoke of the battle-that he must never hope for Paradise! No! but I would say to our soldiers, "Advance your standard! Wave it high in air! Let its flashing folds make music; when the battle is over, let the blaze of victory surround it, or let your lifeless bodies be piled in pyramids on the gory field! Onward in this spirit, or dream no more of the proud wife's kiss, or the mother's blessing and her prayer!" For, I must confess, I do not comprehend the forecast which proposes the withdrawal of our armies, or the prudence which declares in advance that we must attach no Mexican territory to the Union.

XXXV.-RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE.

THOMAS CORWIN.

SIR, I have heard much and read somewhat of this gentleman Terminus. Alexander of whom I have spoken was a devotee of this divinity, We have seen the end of him and Las empire. It was said to be an attribute of this god, tia.

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he must always advance, and never recede. So both Republican and Imperial Rome believed. It was, as they said, their destiny and for a while it did seem to be even so. Roman Terminus did advance. Under the eagles of Rome he was carried from his home on the Tiber to the furthest East, on the one hand, and the far West, amongst the then barbarous tribes of western Europe, on the other. But at length the time came when retributive justice had become "a destiny." The despised Gaul calls out to the contemned Goths, and Attila, with his Huns, answers back the battleshout to both. The "blue-eyed nations of the North," in succession, are united, pour their countless hosts of warriors upon Rome and Rome's always-advancing god, Terminus. And now the battle-axe of the barbarian strikes down the conquering eagle of Rome. Terminus at last recedes, slowly at first, but finally he is driven to Rome, and from Rome to Byzantium. Whoever would know the further fate of this Roman deity, may find ample gratification of his curiosity in the luminous pages of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall.” Such will find that Rome thought as you now think, that it was her destiny to conquer provinces and nations, and, no doubt, she sometimes said as you say, "I will conquer a peace.' And where is she now, the Mistress of the World? The spider weaves his web in her palaces, the owl sings his watchsong in her towers. Teutonic power now lords it over the servile remnant, the miserable memento of old and once omnipotent Rome. Sad, very sad, are the lessons which time has written for us. Through and in them all I see nothing but the inflexible execution of that. old law, which ordains as eternal, that cardinal rule, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor anything which is his." Since I have lately heard so much about the dismemberment of Mexico, I have looked back to see how, in the course of events which some call " Providence," it has fared with other nations who engaged in this work of dismemberment. I see that in the latter half of the eighteenth century, three powerful nations-Russia, Austria, and Prussia-united in the dismemberment of Poland. They said, too, as you say, "It is our destiny." They "wanted room." Doubtless each of them thought, with his share of Poland, his power was too strong ever to fear invasion or even insult. One had his California, another his New Mexico, and a third his Vera Cruz. they remain untouched and incapable of harm? Alas! no;

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far, very far from it. Retributive justice must fulfil its destiny too. A very few years pass off, and we hear of a new man, a Corsican lieutenant, the self-named "armed soldier of democracy"-Napoleon. He ravages Austria,

covers her land with blood, drives the Northern Cæsar from his capital, and sleeps in his palace. Austria may now re member how her power trampled upon Poland. Did she not pay dear, very dear for her California?

But has Prussia no atonement to make? You see this same Napoleon, the blind instrument of Providence, at work there. The thunders of his cannon at Jena proclaim the work of retribution for Poland's wrongs; and the successors of the great Frederick, the drill-sergeant of Europe, are seen flying across the sandy plain that surrounds their capital, right glad if they may escape captivity or death. But how fares it with the Autocrat of Russia? Is he secure in his share of the spoils of Poland? No. Suddenly we see, sir, six hundred thousand armed men marching to Moscow. Does his Vera Cruz protect him now? Far from it. Blood, slaughter, devastation spread abroad over the land, and finally, the conflagration of the old commercial metropolis of Russia closes the retribution; she must pay for her share in the dismemberment of her weak and impotent neighbor. A mind more prone to look for the judgments of Heaven, in the doings of men, than mine, cannot fail in this to see the providence of God. When Moscow burned, it seemed as if the earth was lighted up that the nations might behold the scene. As that mighty sea of fire gathered and heaved, and rolled upwards, and yet higher, till its flames licked the stars, and fired the whole heavens, it did seem as though the God of the nations was writing, in characters of flame, on the front of his throne, that doom that shall fall upon the strong nation who tramples in scorn upon the weak. And what fortune awaits him, the appointed executor of this work, when it was all done? He, too, conceived the notion that his destiny pointed onward to universal dominion. France was too smallEurope, he thought, should bow down before him. But as soon as this idea took possession of his soul, he, too, becomes powerless. His Terminus must recede too. Right there, while he witnessed the humiliation, and doubtless meditated the subjugation of Russia, he who holds the winds in his fists, gathered the snows of the North, and blew them upon his six hundred thousand men-they fled-they froze-they

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