HON. JOSEPH REED INGERSOLL is a son of Jared Ingersoll, who was a member of the convention which framed the Constitution, and who, for many years, was a distinguished lawyer of the Philadelphia bar, District Attorney, and for a considerable time, Attorney General of Pennsylvania. The son graduated at Princeton, where he took the first honors at the head of a numerous class, of which several of our eminent public men were members.

After graduating, Mr. Ingersoll pursued his studies, and was admitted to the bar in his native city, where he entered upon an active practice. He did not, however, as is too commonly the case with successful lawyers, devote himself wholly to his practice, but frequently engaged in literary exercises on subjects connected with his profession. An early effort of his was a translation from the Latin of the treatise of Roccus on ships and freight, etc., of which the distinguished scholar and jurist, M. Duponceau, thus speaks in his learned translation of Bynckershoeck's Treatise on the Law of War:

"An excellent English translation of this well-known work," (de Navibus et Nanto, item de Assecurationibus,) "the original of which is very scarce, has been lately published with valuable notes, by Joseph R. Ingersoll, Esq. This translation is executed with great judgment and accuracy, and may, in our opinion, well supply the place of the original."

In the midst of an extensive connection at the bar, Mr. Ingersoll continued to mingle literary with professional labors, by delivering discourses at the invitation of universities in every part of the country. The last of these occasions was last summer, Aug. 5th, 1847, when he addressed the literary societies of the University of Georgia, at Athens in that State. These discourses have been published by the various institutions for whom they were prepared. Mr. Ingersoll has also delivered, at various times, many addresses of a political character, which have likewise been

published. Many of the public institutions and munificent charities of his native city have gone into operation with an opening address from him. Among these are the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, the House of Refuge, the Wills' Hospital, Athenian Institute, and Mercantile Library. The degree of LL.D. has been twice conferred upon him by La Fayette College, Pennsylvania, and afterwards by Bowdoin College, in Maine.

Among his many public employments, aside from his professional and political life, he has been for a considerable time a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, a delegate to the Diocesan Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania, and recently a delegate to the General Convention at New York. He is also a a director of several of the charitable associations of Philadelphia, president of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Pennsylvania Colonization Society.

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The history of Mr. Ingersoll's political life is no less brief than honorable. ing been for a short time a member of Congress in 1836-7, and then having declined a re-election, he was again urged, and finally induced to accept a nomination in the autumn of 1841-2. The election resulted in his choice, by a large majority, for the residue of the Twenty-seventh Congress, and he has since been continually re-elected by increasing majorities.

He was an active supporter of the tariff of 1842, and made, in July of that year, an elaborate speech in its favor. He was also among the few at first, who sustained uniformly the tariff policy, and the proprie ty and necessity of giving it immediate effect by protective legislation, even without necessarily connecting it with a continued distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. In this, they encountered the veto and opposition of Mr. Tyler.

Mr. Ingersoll was the author of the majority report of the Committee of Ways and Means, of the same Congress, against

the assumption of State debts, and a proposed issue of two hundred millions of U. S. government stock for distribution among the States.

In the 28th Congress, he was the author of an elaborate report from the minority of the Committee of Ways and Means, against a repeal of the tariff of 1842, and the proposed substitute (which was not carried till a subsequent Congress) of a system of reduced ad valorem duties.

He was also the author of a report from & portion of a select committee on the Massachusetts resolutions proposing an amendment of the Constitution, abolishing the three-fifths clause of representation.

Against the annexation of Texas he spoke at length, and was probably the first to take the ground that such annexation, while Texas was at war as an independent nation with Mexico, was ipso facto war with Mexico.

The Sub-Treasury law, finally carried by a strict party vote in the succeeding, 29th, Congress, was earnestly opposed by him in a published speech. On the Oregon question, his speech against the 54 40 doctrine, and in favor of an amicable adjustment of the threatening controversy, is doubtless yet fresh in the memory of many readers of this sketch. He also spoke at large against the proposed tariff of '46. Most of these speeches have been published in a pamphlet form.

While steadfastly opposed to the origin of the Mexican War, Mr. Ingersoll has been as steadfastly disposed to sustain the honor of the country and our armies in the field. He has therefore cordially supported the applications of the government for necessary supplies. He voted with nearly the whole Whig party for the bill of the 11th of May, 1846, notwithstanding its absurd preamble. Intelligence had been received of the extremely critical position of Gen. Taylor's small force. The bill proposed to give the President power to call for a large body of volunteers, and appropriated ten millions of dollars. These were indispensable. A preamble, by well settled parliamentary law, is no part of a bill. It may be interposed for the mere purpose of preventing support, except from a particular quarter. It is at the st a mere suggestion of the motives of raughtsman of the bill. On the par

| ticular occasion, the peril of a gallant little army aroused the patriotic feelings of every true American, and the great body of the Whig members were fortunately not to be driven from their purpose by mere party strategy.

In the present 30th Congress, Mr. Ingersoll is understood to be devoting assiduous attention to the duties of the Committee on the Judiciary, of which he is the chairman. Numerous important bills have been prepared by him, some of which have been passed, and many are awaiting the tardy movements of the House. One of these contemplates a permanent system for the judicial tribunals of the United States, which would enable them to discharge their important duties without liability to an accumulation of business, which amounts to a denial of justice. Another bill and report has in view the revision and classification of the laws of the United States. Others provide for the abolition of custom house oaths; against public executions of criminals; for a reform in the arrangement of admiralty proceedings; for taking the next census, etc.

Mr. Ingersoll refused to concur in the amendment to a vote of thanks to Gen. Taylor, which was to the effect that his military services had been rendered in a war brought about unconstitutionally by the President. Besides the operation of such an amendment in tying up and defeating the vote of thanks to which it was inappropriately appended, he deemed the assertion it contained inconsistent with his uniform position that the war was a necessary consequence of the legislative act of the annexation of Texas.

We cannot more appropriately conclude this brief sketch of one whose voice has been so uniformly heard advocating, in the national councils, the great measures of the Whig party, than by giving a few extracts from his public speeches.

In the debate upon the tariff of 1842, much was said of the so-called "Compromise Act," which it was supposed to disregard, and of the implied contract on the part of the North to abide by that act permanently. Mr. Ingersoll insisted that it was in no respect binding beyond the period of its own express limitation, and that being introduced for the benefit and relief of the South, it was calculated to injure

Mr. Ingersoll argued in the course of his speech:

What was the true cause of the expedient arrangement, of which we are trying to combat the never-ending eudurance? One might feel some hesitation in making the inquiry and giving the reply, were not the way already opened, and the example set by the representatives of the South. That was the region of excitement, and it required relief. We are told of the disturbed and distracted condition which had been reached. It was, says the gentleman from Georgia, a crisis of a fearful character. So it was. The bonds of society were rent asunder. Civil war impended. Not only the political Union, the bright inheritance left to the care of a posterity unmindful of the richness of the blessing, was in danger, but the best attachments of social life and affectionate relationship were forgotten. While all was tranquil in the North except the anxious throbbings of patriotic bosoms at the dread of anticipated legislation, the elements of discord were elsewhere in fervid motion, and brother was prepared to take up arms against brother. In one southern city, it is said, two parties met in threatening and frowning defiance, each headed by men of worth, well known then by their former, as they are now by their later services. One blow struck, and the sun might have gone down on fraternal discord, a reluctant and retiring witness to the shedding of human blood. But his morning beams would have shone again upon a happy union; the firmament would not, in the course of nature, have been the darker for the absence of a single star."

"Such is the social communion of Whigs and Democrats. They harmonize in everything but political sentiment. No so the third party, which stands aloof, in voluntary seclusion, if not in proud distrust. It maintains a position like that which in architecture is said to enhance the magnificence of a Grecian temple, when placed, as it ought to be, on elevated ground, and gaining, by distance, an unobstructed prospect, at once grandeur and distinctness for the view, it stands unmated and alone.

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"Iu casting my eye around this diversified assembly, I am led to compare its human proportions and intellectual varieties with the natural phenomena described by travellers as exhibited by the vast chain of mountains near the Pacific Ocean in South America, which rise in successive plateaux, like so many huge natural terraces, far above the clouds. Trees of the largest size and the most luxuriant foliage grow and flourish upon some of those proud eminences of the Andes, and form, as it were, the basis of still loftier regions piled upon them. These are emblematic of the Whig party, always fresh in vigor, rich in patriotism, and rooted in the immovable basis of the Constitution. Among them one appears crowned with years and honors, green in the maturity and venerable in the dignity of age. Higher up the mountain trees become more numerous, but less firmly attached to the soil; not deeply planted, or standing in stern defiance of the fury of the elements, but moved and These are agitated by the passing breeze. emblems of a dominant majority, which yields conservative principle to its rivals, and professes and acts upon a different rule. Still higher up, above the level of perpetual snow, where no other animated being is found, far above the habitation, and almost beyond the curious gaze of the most enterprising traveller, dwells that mightiest of winged animals, the condor, poised in mid-air between the moon and earth, fixing its eye upon that cold planet of the night, which astronomers assures us has no atmosphere, or none common to the rest of the system-flapping in interminable seclusion its ponderous and solitary wing."

In the debate on the Oregon question, the following extracts from a speech delivered by him, will serve to show the course of argument pursued by Mr. Ingersoll:

numerous posts-some of them strong and extensive-are not harmless by consent, as establishments contemplated by the treaty, they are settlements of defiance and opposition, which may have derived strength from time and independent existence. They may create new elements of trouble, which the provisions of joint occupancy are calculated effectually to prevent. Mr. Gallatin uniformly thus denominated it; so does Mr. Buchanan. It was offered, protocolled, accepted, acted on, and has always been treated as such. Its language admits of no other interpretation. Good faith would forbid a departure now from its long-understood nature and name, even if policy suggested (as it clearly does not) a change. Notice of the termination of this agreement is urged-uncompromising one-sided notice--with no consultation of the convenience of the other party, with no deference for the ordinary rules of courtesy, merely because the treaty provides for it as a dernier resort, in the possible failure of other means, as furnishing in any event a reserved right, to a certain extent, in either party, if other opportunities should be foreclosed. Between individuals, what is the course of conduct on occasions of strict analogy? The law gives a right to distrain when rent is in arrear: does a landlord, therefore, seize at once the household goods of a thriving tenant? Does the lender of a sum of money, for an indefinite period, to a friend, send the sheriff to arrest him within four and twenty hours of the time of loan? These are rights perfect rights; but they would not be exercised in a community that is fit to live in. Notice is of the same character. No principle of law is better established than this: Summum jus summa injuria.'”

"What is the purport of the present bill? It extends Iowa jurisdiction over the whole territory which is in dispute, and it reserves to the subjects of Great Britain the rights and privileges secured by the third article of the treaty of 1818 and that of 1827, only until said treaty stipulation shall cease, by virtue of the notice provided for in the second article,' and no longer. It thus assumes Oregon for our own; enforces at once, by threat of arms, and after a brief period of a few short months, in rigorous exercise, at the point of the bayonet, the laws of the Republic over every inch of land and every living soul; proposes grants, with unsparing spirit, by hundreds of fair acres, as temptations to settlers; assumes absolute control over trade and intercourse with all the Indian tribes; organizes and equips a military force; and lays down a mail route from St. Joseph's, Missouri, to the mouth of the Columbia river. It extirpates from the face of the Oregon earth the British race and name, and it is the standard of liberty and the Union, in and uncompromising supremacy, on ky eminence.

"Our question is not whether Great Britain ought to acquiesce in this high-handed course, but whether, in the fair estimate of probabili ties, she will. Remember, you have already offered her one-half, and she has refused it with disdain. Do you seriously believe that she will content herself with none? Will her desires, which even six belts of latitude cannot satisfy, be satiated with less than the measure of a grave? The leaves of the sybil acquired new value in the eye of the possessor, as they were reduced in number. You have by your own act persuaded England to believe that she ought to indulge some hopes-that she has more than the shadow of a shade. You have repeatedly, in times past and present, proposed to give her barely less than she was willing to receive. By what scale of reason or philosophy is her expected satisfaction in the future to be measured? She asked you for bread; you offered to share with her your loaf, and she has cast it in an angry spirit away. She again asks you for bread; you give her a stone, and you believe she will receive it, if not with gratitude, at least without a frown! It is gravely argued on this floor that your notice shall be given, and that, at the expiration of the term assigned by it, forcible possession shall be taken of every inch of the disputed ground; and yet there will be no war! A powerful nation, armed to the teeth, her banners fanned for ages by conquest's crimson wing, not distinguished for the patience of her temper or her tender love for these United States, will stand tamely by and patiently behold her cherished settlements assailed and scattered; her time-honored charters violated and trampled in the dust; her subjects dragged before foreign magistrates and condemned by foreign laws; their property confiscated, their persons imprisoned, their lives perhaps sacrificed! If, in the wide-reaching and sagacious policy of that deep-seated throne, there be one circumstance to which it clings with more tenacity than all the rest, it is the tender, ardent zeal, the maternal affection, with which it watches over, protects, and cherishes the children of the realm in every corner and quarter of the globe. This never-ceasing care is the incentive to patriotism and the reward of loyalty. Time cannot enfeeble it, or d tance diminish its freshness or its fervor, or cir cumstances rob it of a particle of its reciprocal attractiveness and charms. It warms the liege bosom in the frozen regions of Labrador, and it gives new vigor to the sinews under the burning sun of either India, as well as in the giant metropolis of the insular domain. I am a Roman citizen!' was a cry, the neglect of which brought on the ruin of a powerful Sie lian prætor, and drove him into perpetual exile. I am a Roman citizen!' was an exclamation which ascended with the loftiest flights of the eloquence of Cicero. A similar appeal from the liegemen of England is not inaudible, if

uttered at the extremity of the diameter of the earth: it would thrill and vibrate in every pulse and nerve of the vast body politic; it would be heard and responded to, from the shores of the Pacific, at the heart and centre of the empire; and all that accumulated wealth which is the wonder of the world, and all those burnished arms which have never failed to glitter whenever the pride of the nation has bidden their approach, for disaster, for victory, or for defeat, in the fens of Walcheren, or on the field of Waterloo, or on the banks of the Mississippi, or the frozen hills of India, would be put in requisition for the rescue. The colonial policy of England, her vital prosperity, her existence as a nation, are involved in the issue, and it would be madness to suppose that these essential purposes would now, for the first time, be overlooked or forgotten. You are leading off blindfold a torch-dance in the midst of combustibles, and trusting to the accident that they will not take fire, when you act and argue as is proposed."

"Refuge at last is taken in the alleged discovery of the Columbia river by Captain Gray. Admitting, for the sake of the argument, all that is claimed in point of fact for this nautical exploit, its priority, nationality, and design, the great obstacle remains-what is its extent? The answer is familiarly given. A discovery of the mouth of a river, we are constantly and confidently told, extends the right which that circumstance confers to the territory drained by its waters. A principle like this might possibly suit some of the rivers, as they are called, of the fine estuary which receives the waters of the Susquehanna. They are broad inlets, half a dozen miles in length, and are merely borrowed from the bay. Possibly you might have found an inclination towards such a principle in some Dutch legend or Italian romance, where a greater prolongation is given by nature to the lazy Scheld or wandering Po. But to ascribe to a momentary looker-on of the inhospitable debouche of the Mississippi, or even the capacious gulf which distinguishes the entrance of the Amazon, such extensive results would be near akin to positive absurdity. It would only fall short of that papal bull which 'de nos'ra mera libertate,' drew a line from pole to pole in favor of their most Catholic Majesties. Where would such indefinite extension end? From the main river you would ascend all its ributary streams, thence gaze with gloating ppetite upon every mountain rill; and if, hrough the bases of the Stony Mountains, some dark cavern sheds a modest drop from its obscure and benighted bed on the eastern side of the girdle of the Great West, which finds its way to Oregon, this will embrace, by the same ague hypothesis, the land of the Missouri, he Mississippi, and all the rivers of the contient. Lawyer after lawyer has built his argunent upon this bold assumption."

"If,' says the Secretary of State to the country and the world, 'the discovery of the mouth of a river, followed up within reasonable time by the first exploration both of its main channels and its branches, and appropriated by the first settlements on its banks, do not constitute a title to the territory drained by its waters in the nations performing these acts, then the principles consecrated by the practice of civilized nations ever since the discovery of the New World must have lost their force. These principles were necessary to preserve the peace of the world.'

"I will not repeat the facts already stated, or ask for an interpretation of reasonable time,'' first exploration,' and 'first settlements,' or submit to you the dilemma of draining by Frazer's river about the same time, in seeking to support what are called principles consecrated ever since the discovery of the New World. If there exist for particular objects, and between particular powers, occasional treaties with new clauses in them, these are voluntary acts, the influence of which begins and ends with the high contracting parties who made them. If there be such a principle-a SACRED principle, necessary for the peace of nations, time-honored by the lapse of three hundred and fifty-four years, according to the minute computation of the Secretary, why has it escaped an authentic place in the records of a science which had no existence until after the discovery of the New World, towards the close of the fifteenth century? Grotius, the father of the law of nations, wrote and died in the seventeenth centur. Puffendorf was born in the year 1631. Barbeyrac lived and died in the eighteenth century, and Vattel's first edition was published within less than ninety years from the present day, and the last in the year 1844. His work is deservedly held in the highest esteem. It exhibits, however, no trace of the doctrine assumed by you. On the contrary, such a pretension, by which a nation would engross, as I maintain, a wilderness, or, as Vattel says, a much greater extent of territory than it is able to people or cultivate, would an absolute infringement of the natural rights of men, and repugnant to the views of Nature. Remember how extensive are the fields over which your aspiring claims would run. The bull's hide which was made to cover the circumference of Carthage would be a pigmy illustration. A difficult and dangerous entrance, almost imperceptible to the eye, and almost inaccessible to the boldest keel, gives, it is said, initiate rights to a 'region,' 'territory,' an entire region-in other words, to a country and a world. Will not such extravagant attempts expose us to just complaints for an overweening ambition, and tend to give support to charges which have been already brought against us ?"

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