not war upon you-she will leave you. And where are you? markets, your manufactures, your commerce, your agricul ture, your rents, your investments, your domestic relations? Have you measured the extent of the evil to yourselves and your children? Above all, have you calculated the conse quences to mankind of the final failure of the only successful attempt ever made on earth to establish on a permanent basis the fair fabric of republican institutions? Why did you send up your lamentations over the fall of Hungarian freedom, or the destruction of the republic of Rome? And yet, what was all this compared with the final extinction of the republie of Washington? Look at the portraits of your ancestors. and answer the question.

LXXI. THE MARRIAGE BROKEN OFF.

THOMAS H. BENTON.

WHEN his committee was formed, and himself safely installed at the head of it, conqueror and pacificator, the Senator appeared to be the happiest of mankind. We all remember that figure. It seemed to ache with pleasure. It was too great for continence. It burst forth. In the fuluess of his joy, and the overflowing of his heart, he entered upon that series of congratulations which seemed to me to be rather premature, and in disregard of the sage maxim, which admonishes the traveller never to hal-loo till he is out of the woods. I thought so then. I was forcibly reminded of it on Saturday last, when I saw that Senator, after a vain effort to compose his friends, and even reminding them of what they were threatened" with this day - inuendo, this poor speech of mine-gather up his beaver and quit the chamber, in a

way that seemed to say, "the Lord have mercy on you all, for I have done with you!" But the Senator was happy that night-supremely so. All his plans had succeeded— committee of thirteen appointed-he himself its chairmanall power put into their hands-their own hands untied, and the hands of the Senate tied-and the parties just ready to be bound together, forever. It was an ecstatic moment for the Senator, something like that of the heroic Pirithous when he surveyed the preparations for the nuptial feast-saw the

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company all present, the lapithæ on couches, the centaurs on their haunches-heard the Lo hymen peginning to resound, and saw the beauteous Hippodami, about as beauteous I suppose as California, come glittering like a star," and take her stand on his left hand. It was a happy moment for Pirithous, and in the fulness of his feelings he might have given vent to his joy, congratulations to all the company present, to all the lapithe and to all the centaurs, to all mankind, and to all horsekind, on the auspicious event. But, oh the deceitfulness of human felicity! In an instant the scene was changed the feast a fight-the wedding festival a mortal combat-the table itself supplying the implements of

war!

"At first a medley flight

Of bowls and jars supply the fight:

Once implements of feasts, but now of fate."

You know how it ended The fight broke up the feast. The wedding was postponed. And so may it be with this attempted conjunction of California with the many ill-suited spouses which the committee of thirteen have provided for her.

LXXII-AMERICA'S INFLUENCE ABROAD.

J. M'DOWELL.

BUT the range and horrors of such a catastrophe do not terminate with ourselves-they extend also to other lands than our own, whose hopes, interests and freedom are deeply complicated with ours. Indeed, our whole position as a people, the unparalleled physical and moral capabilities into which we have been wrought up for our own welfare and for auspicious action upon the welfare of others, is, itself. hardly less than a miracle in human story and in the whole course of that story has never, in any other case, been realized so providentially or responsibly before. From the Empire of Nebuchadnezzar to that of Napoleon, how immense the distance, how stupendous the revolutions that have intervened, how intense the fiery contests which have burned over continents and ages, changing their theatre and their instruments. and leaving upon the whole surface of the globe

scarce a spot unstained by their desolating and bloody track; and yet no national offspring has sprung from there all so fitted as our own United America, to redeem for the world the agonies they have cost it.

Cast off, then, your national bonds, rearrange the separated States into any new combinations that you please, vio lently or peaceably, and your vast strength of influence and of power, foreign and domestic, is gone; your lofty mission of deliverance and liberty to the nations is gone; the example, which fell, like the shadow of St. Peter, with healing and hope upon the despairing and the diseased, is gone; that naster spirit which was bringing the whole world into communion with itself, rousing and regenerating its millions, and bearing all things onward for good by the resistless energy and might of its own beneficent and profound progressionthat spirit, too, will be gone.

State after State will sink under conflicts with each other, and all will be swayed by the law of the sword, until some American Maximin, or American Alexander, conquering all, shall again consolidate all, and stamp his foot upon the bold and the free heart, which throbs at this hour with so strong a sense of human liberty, and so rich a hope of renovating the governments and people of the world.

LXXIII. THE EXTENT OF THE UNION.

J. W. HOUSTON.

I HAVE adverted, Mr. Chairman, to the rapid growth and expansion of our country. What has it been, sir? Contemplate its feeble, gloomy, and doubtful condition, when only a few years ago it was struggling for a national existence, thirteen poor and sparsely settled colonies occupying a narrow strip of country along the eastern seaboard; and now turn, sir, and behold yon morning sun, which, rising from the broad bosom of the Atlantic, rolls over thirty prosperous and populous States over many a rich and gorgeous city, majestic river, cloud-capped mountain, and many a wide and green and glorious plain, until he sinks at last along the margin of the western ocean to his golden bed-spanning in his flight a present empire of more than three thousand miles in extent.

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and stretching, in a transverse direction, from the line of the lakes on the north to almost the line of the tropics on the south. Where, sir, will you find either in ancient or modern times, a kingdom or a power of equal magnificence and equal extent, when you take into consideration the wealth and variety of its productions, the diversity of its climate and resources, the fertility of its soil, and all that can make a nation truly great and truly powerful? It is estimated by the historian of the Decline and Fall, that the Roman Empire, in the palmiest days of her Antonines, when her imperiai eagles spread in peaceful triumph from the Pillars of Hercules to the banks of the Euphrates, and when she claimed to be the sole mistress of the known and habitable world, only embraced a territorial area of about one million six hundred thousand square miles-less than one half the present territory of the United States, which is now computed to contain three millions three hundred thousand square miles. Sir, when I contemplate this vast domain, this picture of more than imperial grandeur, and consider what this great Republic now is, and what it is destined to be, if this glorious Union is preserved, and then reflect that I am a citizen, not of the State of Delaware alone, not of New York, not of Massachusetts, not of Mississippi, not of Georgia merely, but of this whole country, in all its broad and glorious extent, I feel that I can realize a greater boast than the Roman of old, and am proud to know that "I, too, am an American citizen."

LXXIV.-CLAY AND WEBSTER.

MEREDITH P. GENTRY.

WHEN the sectional controversy growing out of the acquisition of territory from Mexico began to assume a portentous and alarming aspect, Mr. Clay had withdrawn himself from the public cares, to spend the evening of his illustrious life in retirement. But the roar of civil discord and the muttering thunders of disunion penetrated the quiet shades of Ashland, and roused him from his repose as the sound of the trumpet rouses the war-horse. Ashland lost its charms. Retirement and quiet and repose could no longer solace the veteran statesman His country was in danger-the Union was

menaced-the fair fabric of freedom, erected by sages and patriots, was threatened with demolition. He accepted a commission from Kentucky to reappear upon the theatre of public affairs, and hastened to the capitol. Again he rises in the Senate chamber, the scene of so many former triumphs. That clarion voice, which so often before "enchained the listening Senate," again rings through its chambers and resounds through the country, striking terror to the hearts of conspirators, and imparting confidence, courage, and hope, to desponding patriots everywhere. How eloquently and persuasively he pleads for harmony and conciliation, and that spirit of mutual concession and compromise in which the Union was formed, and which alone can preserve it. With what power does he portray the advantages of the Union and the inappreciable evils that will follow its dissolution. How terrible his denunciations of those who conspire against it! Disunion stands rebuked and abashed in his presence, and cowers under his patriotic indignation.

Towering in intellectual proportions above other men, as Atlas towers above the mole-hills at its base, Mr. Webster rises to follow in the debate. He is a Northern man. He is a Senator from Massachusetts, and the favorite and most honored citizen of that State. What course will he take? What will he say? Will he forfeit his position in Massachusetts and in the Northern States generally? Dare he brave the thunders of indignation which would burst upon him? He speaks and speaks as no man never before spoke -not for the North or the South, the East or the West, but for the country, the whole country, and nothing but the country-for the Union, and the liberty and happiness which it secures. Reckless of consequences to himself, he gave to his country, what was not meant for a state or a section-his powerful intellect and matchless oratory, and all the influence which these high gifts enabled him to wield.

WEBSTER and CLAY-I refer to them with the most exulting pride. I am proud of them as American patriots, orators and statesmen. How gloriously they have borne themselves! If they were both to die to-day, they have achieved enough for fame. History would eternize their patriotic deeds, and remote ages would hail them great and glorious.