XXXVIII.-VICISSITUDES OF 1849.

HORACE GREELEY.

THIS fatal year, '49-will it never have done with its desolations? Pestilence has stalked, and still stalks, with desolating tread over the broad earth, defacing its green sod to make room for innumerable graves--graves not alone of the weak and the wretched, but also of the mighty, the glorious, the gentle, the lovely, the widely and keen.y deplored. And that darker scourge, despotism, the dominion of brute force and blind selfishness-the lordship of the few for their own luxury and aggrandizement over the many whom they scorn, and sweat, and starve-when before has a year been so fruitful as now, of triumphs to the realm of night? Sicily betrayed and ruined-Lombardy's chains riveted—Sardinia crushed-Rome, generous, brave, ill-fated Rome, too!-she lies beneath the feet of her perfidious, perjured foes, and in her fall has dragged down the republicans of France, adjudged guilty of the crime of daring to resist the assassination of a sister republic. But this is not all, nor half. Germany, through her vast extent, has passed over to the camp of absolutism-her people still think, but dare not speak, for the bayonet is at their throats, and democracy is once more treason, since its regal enemies have recovered from their terror, and found their military tools as brainless and as heartless as ever. At last Hungary mounts the funeral pyre of freedom and the sacrifice is complete, for Venice must trail her flag directly on the tidings of Gorgey's victory. She has stood out nobly, for a noble, a priceless cause-so has Hungary struggled nobly and nobly fallen. For the present, all is over, save that a few desperate, heroic patriots will yet sell their lives in fruitless casual conflicts with the minions of despotism. Nothing now remains but that the wolves should divide and devour their prey.

XXXIX.-ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY.

DANIEL S. DICKINSON.

It would be well for these antagonisms who fear that all newly acquired territory may be preoccupied and monopolized, either by free labor on the one hand, or by slave labor on the

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other, as the case may be, unless their favorite ideas are indulged, to remember that there are other dangers, either real or imaginary, to which it may be exposed if left to the free government of its own people. Our institutions invite the children of every clime to sit down under the wide-spreading branches of the tree of liberty, and we have no prohibitory, or even protective impost duties upon social manners and customs, political opinions or religious rites. It may be that the rugged Russian, allured by the gentle breezes of Mexico, may fall down from his hyperborean regions with his serfdom aud his military rule, or the Turk choose to regale himself there with his pipes and mocha, his Georgian Houris-sensual delights and Mohammedan divinity; or, what is equally probable, as our Pacific possessions place us in direct communication with Asia, that the plains may be desecrated by the trundling of the car of Juggernaut, or the subjects of the celestial Emperor-the brother of the sun and moon-may hurry thither, and ruin all agricultural interests by converting it into an extensive field of hyson.

But let those who entertain them, dismiss all idle and selfish fears, regard others as wise, and as virtuous, and as capable of their own government as themselves, and all will be well. The spirit of freedom will enlarge her own boundaries and people the area, in obedience to laws stronger than the laws of Congress. The rich heritage we enjoy was won by the common blood and treasure of the North and South, the East and the West, and was defended and vindicated by the same, in the second war of independence; and in the present war with a reckless and semi-barbarous foe, the brave sons of every section of the Union have fought and fallen side by side; the parched sands of Mexico have drunk together the best blood of New York and South Carolina. These recollections should renew and strengthen the ties which unite the members of the confederacy, and cause them to spurn all attempts at provoking sectional jealousies and irritations, calculated to disturb the harmony and shake the stability of the Union. In the language of Mr. Jefferson, they who indulge" this treason against human hope will signalize their epoch in future history as the counterpart of the model of their predecessore.”

XL.-ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY

J. W. MILLER.

IN consulting the history of nations, it will be found there is an epoch in the existence of each, when a temptation presents itself, which resisted or yielded to, marks the future character of the nation for good or for evil. That temptation is now presented to this republic-it is Mexico. It is a broad and a rich land—a land of silver and gold-a land without a government to protect it, and without a people capable of defending it, and it lies before us an easy tempting prey. There is none to stay our hand, or to resist the gratification of our ambition. The mystery of her origin, the story of her former conquest, play upon our fancy and excite our heroic passions. Already has the tempter carried us to the pinnacle of the temple and points out the rich treasures of the city beneath We now stand upon the high mountain-at our feet lie twenty states, with their cities and towns, their temples of religion, and palaces of state. The tempter whispers in our ear, all these shall be yours if you will fall down and worship the god conquest. History stands ready with her pen of steel to record our determination. Shall we bow down to the evil spirit, and fall as other nations have fallen, or shall we maintain our virtue and rise to god-like courage and say, "Get thee behind me, Satan." The temptation is mighty-the power to resist only divine. I know of no nation, in ancient or modern times that would resist so easy, yet so rich, an acquisition to its dominions. To say nothing of the heathen world, not one of the powers of modern Europe would withstand the temptation. England would not, as she has shown by her conquests in the East. France would not, as she is now proving by her attempts upon Algeria. As to Russia, Prussia, Austria, let the partition of Poland answer. There, too, is old Spain, once the proudest and mightiest of them all, she has also had her temptation. It was this same Mexico which now fascinates us. Allured by its mines of silver and gold, which now entice us-excited by the spirit of propagandism, which now inspires us, she too yielded to the tempter, and for a while she went on from conquering to conquer, until in her turn, she was made to lick the dust beneath the chariot wheels of that false deity she had worshipped, when that chariot rolled in triumph over the fair fields

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of Arragon and Castile. No, sir, I can find no example of this high standard of national virtue and forbearance. If we resist this temptation, we shall set an example to the world. Ours the wisdom, ours the virtue, ours the glory, of forbearing to seize upon the territory of a weak and defenceles neighbor, when we had the opportunity and the excuse of doing SO. We have already, in our short history, set one great example to the nations of the earth. We have laid the foundation of a mighty empire, deep and strong, upon a principle new and startling to the old world. We have established self-government, and bound in strong and happy union, twenty millions of freemen, who acknowledge no government, but that of their own choice. Let us now establish another principle of national action, equally new and startling. Let us declare that while we admit the oppressed of every land, to a free participation of the blessings of our self-government, no cause of war, no excuse, no temptation will induce us to conquer a nation by war, for the purpose of subjugating its territory and people to our dominion.

XLI-THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS.

J. MAXCY.

THE interposition of Divine Providence was eminently conspicuous, in the first general Congress; what men, what patriots, what independent, heroic spirits! chosen by the unbrassed voice of the people; chosen as all public servants ougnt to be, without favor and without fear; what an august assembly of sages! Rome in the height of her glory, fades before it. There never was in any age, or nation, a body of men who for general information, for the judicious use of the results of civil and political history, for eloquence and virtue; for true dignity, elevation and grandeur of soul, that could stand a comparison with the first American Congress! See what the people will do when left to themselves; to their unbiassed good sense, and to their true interests! The ferocious Gau! would have dropped his sword at the hall-door, and have fled thunderstruck as from an assembly of gods! Whom do behold? a Hancock, a Jefferson, an Adams, a Henry, a Lee a Rutledge!-Glory to their immortal spirits! On you

depend the destinies of your country; the fate of three mil lions of men; and of the countless millions of their posterity! Shall these be slaves, or will you make a noble stand for liberty, against a power whose triumphs are already co-extensive with the earth; whose legions trample on thrones and sceptres; whose thunders bellow on every ocean? How tremendous the occasion! How vast the responsibility! The President and all the members of this august assembly take their seats. Every countenance tells the mighty struggle within. Every tongue is silent. It is a pause in nature, that solemn, awful stillness, which precedes the earthquake and tornado! At length Demosthenes arises; he is only adequate to the great occasion, the Virginian Demosthenes, the mighty Henry! What dignity! What majesty! Every eye fastens upon him. Firm, erect, undaunted, he rolls on the mighty torrent of his eloquence. What a picture does he draw of the horrors of servitude, and the charms of freedom! At once he gives the full rein to all his gigantic powers, and pours his own heroic spirit into the minds of his auditors; they become as one man; actuated by one soul-and the universal shout is Liberty or Death!" This single speech of this illustrious man gave an impulse, which probably decided the fate of America. His eloquence seized and moved the assembled sages; as the descending hail-storm, bursting in thunder, rending the forest, and shaking the mountains. God bestows on natious no greater gift, than great and good men, endowed with the high and commanding powers of eloquence. Such a man as Patrick Henry, may on some great occasion, when the happiness or misery of millions depends on a single decision, render more important service to a nation, than all the generations of a century.

XLII-LIBERTY AND DESPOTISM.

DE WITT CLINTON.

IN revolutionary times great talents and great virtues, as well as great vices and great follies spring into being. The energies of our nature are put into requisition, and during tre whirlwind and the tempest, innumerable evils will be perpetrated. But all the transient mischiefs of revolution are miia