the vandal spirit of innovation and overthrow; for after the memory of our fathers shall have been rendered contemptible, who will appreciate and sustain their institutions? The memory of our fathers, should be the watchword of liberty throughout the land; for, imperfect as they were, the world before had not seen their like, nor will it soon, we fear, behold their like again. Such models of moral excellence, such apostles of civil and religious liberty, such shades of the illustrious dead looking down upon their descendants with approbation or reproof, according as they follow or depart from the good way, constitute a *censorship inferior only to the eye of God; and to ridicule them, is national suicide.

3. The doctrines of our fathers have been represented as gloomy, superstitious, severe, irrational, and of a licentious tendency. But when other systems shall have produced a piety as devoted, a morality as pure, a patriotism as disinterested, and a state of society as happy, as have prevailed where their doctrines have been most prevalent, it may be in season to seek an answer to this objection.

4. The persecutions instituted by our fathers, have been the occasion of ceaseless tobloquy upon their fair fame. And truly, it was a fault of no ordinary magnitude, that sometimes they did persecute. But let him whose ancestors were not ten times more guilty, cast the first stone, and the ashes of our fathers will no more be disturbed. Theirs was the fault of the age, and it will be easy to show, that no class of men had, at that time, approximated so nearly to just apprehensions of religious liberty; and that it is to them that the world is now indebted, for the more just and definite views which now prevail.

5. The superstition and bigotry of our fathers, are themes on which some of their descendants, themselves far enough from superstition, if not from bigotry, have delighted to dwell. But when we look abroad, and behold the condition of the world, compared with the condition of New England, we may justly exclaim, "Would to God that the ancestors of all the nations had been not only almost, but altogether such bigots as our fathers were."

CII.

- LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
FROM MRS. HEMANS.

1. THE breaking waves dash'd high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky,
Their giant branches toss'd;

2. And the heavy night hung dark,
The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles +moor'd their bark
On the wild New England shore.

3. Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted came ;

Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame.

4. Not as the flying come,

In silence, and in fear;

They shook the depths of the desert's gloom

With their hymns of lofty cheer.

5. Amid the storm they sang,

And the stars heard, and the sea;

And the sounding taisles of the dim woods rang

To the anthem of the free.

6. The ocean eagle soar'd

From his nest by the white wave's foam,
And the rocking pines of the forest roar'd;
This was their welcome home.

7. There were men with hoary hair,
Amid that pilgrim band,

Why had they come to wither there,
Away from their childhood's land?

8. There was woman's fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow, tserenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.

9. What sought they thus afar?

Bright jewels of the mine?

The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?

They sought a faith's pure shrine!

10. Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod!

They have left unstain'd what there they found!
Freedom to worship God!

1. I HAD the honor to be a member of the fourteenth Congress. It was an honor then. What it is now, I shall not say. It is what the twenty-second Congress have been pleased to make it. I have neither time, nor strength, nor ability, to speak of the legislators of that day, as they deserve; nor is this a fit occasion. Yet the coldest or most careless nature, can not recur to such associates, without some touch of generous feeling, which, in quicker spirits, would kindle into high and almost holy tenthusiasm.

2. Pre-eminent, among them, was a gentleman of South Carolina,* now no more, the purest, the calmest, the most philosophical of our country's modern statesmen one, no less remarkable for gentleness of manners and kindness of heart, than for that passionless, unclouded intellect, which rendered him deserving of the praise, if ever man deserved it, of merely standing by, and letting reason argue for him: the true patriot, incapable of all selfish ambition, who shunned office and distinction, yet served his country faithfully, because he loved her: he, I mean, who consecrated, by his example, the noble precept, so entirely his own, that the first station in a republic was neither to be sought after nor declined; a sentiment so just and so happily expressed, that it continues to be repeated, because it can not be improved.

3. There was, also, a gentleman from Maryland†, whose ashes now slumber in your *cemetery. It is not long since I stood by his tomb, and recalled him, as he was then, in all the pride and power of his genius. Among the first of his countrymen and cotemporaries, as a jurist and statesman, first as an orator, he was, if not truly eloquent, the prince of

+rhetoricians. Nor did the soundness of his +logic suffer any thing, by a comparison with the richness and classical purity of the language, in which he copiously poured forth those figurative illustrations of his argument, which enforced while they adorned it. But let others pronounce his eulogy. I must not. I feel as if his mighty spirit still haunted the scenes of its triumphs, and when I dared to wrong them, indignantly rebuked me.

There were

4. These names have become historical. others, of whom it is more difficult to speak, because yet within the reach of praise or envy. For one who was, or aspired to be, a politician, it would be prudent, perhaps wise, to avoid all mention of these men. Their acts, their words, their thoughts, their very looks, have become subjects of party controversy. But he whose ambition is of a higher or lower order, has no such need of reserve. Talent is of no party exclusively; nor is justice.

5. Among them, but not of them, in the fearful and solitary sublimity of genius, stood a gentleman from Virginia*—whom it were superfluous to designate; whose speeches were universally read; whose satire was universally feared. Upon whose accents, did this habitually listless and unlistening House, hang so frequently, with rapt attention? Whose fame was identified with that body for so long a period? Who was a more +dextrous debater? a riper scholar? better versed in the politics of our own country? or deeper read in the history of others? Above all, who was more thoroughly timbued with the idiom of the English language? more completely master of its strength, and beauty, and delicacy? or more capable of breathing thoughts of flame, in words of magic and tones of silver?

6. There was, also, a son of South Carolina,† still in the service of the republic, then, undoubtedly, the most influential member of this house. With a genius eminently *metaphysical, he applied to politics his habits of tanalysis, *abstraction, and *condensation, and thus gave to the *problems of government, something of that grandeur, which the higher mathematics have borrowed from astronomy. The

wings of his mind were rapid, but capricious, and there were times, when the light which flashed from them as they passed, glanced like a mirror in the sun, only to dazzle the beholder. +Engrossed with his subject, careless of his words, his loftiest flights of eloquence were sometimes followed by *colloquial or provincial barbarisms. But, though often incorrect, he was always fascinating. Language, with him, was merely the scaffolding of thought, employed to raise a dome, which, like Angelo's, he suspended in the heavens.

7. It is equally impossible to forget or to omit, a gentleman from Kentucky,* whom party has since made the fruitful topic of unmeasured panegyric and detraction. Of *sanguine temperament, and impetuous character, his declamation was impassioned, his retorts acrimonious. Deficient in refinement, rather than in strength, his style was less elegant and correct, than animated and impressive. But it swept away your feelings with it, like a mountain torrent, and the force of the stream left you little leisure to remark upon its clearness. His estimate of human nature was, probably, not very high. Unhappily, it is, perhaps, more likely to have been lowered, than raised, by his subsequent experience. Yet then and ever since, except when that imprudence so natural to genius, prevailed over his better judgment, he adopted a lofty tone of sentiment, whether he spoke of measures or of men, of friend or adversary. On many occasions, he was noble and captivating. One, I can never forget. It was the fine burst of indignant eloquence, with which he replied to the taunting question, "What have we gained by the war?"

8. Nor may I pass over in silence a representative from New Hampshire,† who has almost obliterated all memory of that distinction, by the superior fame he has attained as a senator from Massachusetts. Though then but in the bud of his political life, and hardly conscious, perhaps, of his own extraordinary powers, he gave promise of the greatness he has since achieved. The same vigor of thought; the same force of expression; the short sentences; the calm, cold, collected manner; the air of solemn dignity; the deep, *sepul