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cie-such as a summary and severe bankrupt law, and the creation of a regular demand for and circulation of specie, as would be effected by confining the Federal Government, for instance, to the use of that medium alone-then indeed it would have met our full approval, as a safe remedy for a large portion of the existing evil. But while the present state of things is in full vogue, the infatuation of the use of paper in full sway of the public mind, and while every attempt to moderate and steady its inherent tendency to excess by the use and circulation of specie is denounced and opposed, we cannot but look with unmixed reprobation and regret, upon these laws, which resembic in no other feature than in name that "freedom of trade in banking" which we have always advocated. And it is only an instance of the proverbial facility with which the devil can quote scripture, to see the advocates of paper-money (a contrivance essentially anti-democratic, and opposed as such by all the old apostles of American democracy) take the phrases and arguments in favor of freedom, out of the mouths of the democratic school of opinion, to apply them, by an artifice of the most insidious ingenuiiy, to the purpose of multiplying and aggravating the very evils that school has so long been laboring to reform. However, we repeat, that a consolation is to be found-though a painful one, and not to be contemplated without trembling-in the reflection that, by thus allowing free scope to the evil to develope and exhaust itself, it will the sooner work out, by the experience of suffering, that complete cure of the existing infatuation of the public mind on this subject, from which alone a thorough and permanent reform is ever to be expected.

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In the midst of the melée of the strife of parties at the seat of government, the arrival of a beautiful young female, a direct and lineal descendant of the famous old navigator whose name she bears, in common with this continent-an exile from country and home, to which she has bid an eternal farewell, on account of the political opinions which an Austrian despotism could not tolerate even in a womancasting herself with a frank and noble confidence on the magnanimity of the great nation to which she has always felt herself bound by a peculiar tie, which may well be presumed to have insensibly given its direction to the formation of her character and opinions—such an arrival is too remarkable an occurrence, and too agreeable a relief to the embittered excitement of politics, to be suffered to pass without at least a brief and slight notice in these pages.

The circumstances which have led this interesting young stranger to our shoresif it is not a misapplication of the word to designate her as a stranger, though the soft accents of her native Tuscan are as yet the only language familiar to her lipsmay be thus briefly stated.

After spending, like most of the young Italian ladies of rank, fourteen years of her youth in a convent for her education (the convent of Le Signore della Quiete, in the environs of Florence) she was introduced into the midst of the brilliant society of the capital and court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, at the age of seventeen. She was placed by her parents in the service of the Grand Duchess, as a “demoiselle de compagnie," or maid of honor. There she was of course surrounded with all the seductive influences of European aristocratic life, in the midst of the splendors and luxuries of the Pitti Palace. Her mind had, however, already-by its own self-derived impulses, as it would seem, for it was certainly entirely at variance with all he natural bias of such an education and such a position- taken a decided direction in the movement of liberal ideas which is the leading characteristic of the age, and which in no country has exercised a stronger influence upon the imagination of ardent youth than in Italy. Possessed of rare natural talents, highly accomplished by reading and cultivation, with remarkable force of character, vivacity of imagination,

and energy of will, it will not be a subject of surprise, that, during the agitations that were fermenting in the north of Italy immediately after the French Revolution, she was one of the few females whose social position and personal qualities gained them admission to the secret societies which were conspiring to rid Italy of the dominion of a foreign despotism, and to unite the whole of that beautiful and unhappy land under a single sovereignty, which might again restore it to a rank amidst the family of nations. But we are not aware of any others whose ardor carried them beyond the private machinations of conspiracy, to the actual field of battle and blood.

In the attempted rising of August, 1832, and in the engagement with the Austrians on the banks of the Rimini, in which it will be remembered by our readers that young Louis Bonaparte took part, she conducted herself with great gallantry, and received a severe sabre stroke on the back of her head, from an Austrian dragoon (to whom, however, though nameless, the justice ought to be done to state that he did not know her to be a woman;) and in her fall to the ground, her right arm was broken by the weight of her horse falling upon it. Though suspected, her disguised participation in this affair could not be proved, and after her recovery from "her wounds she spent two years at her father's house in Florence, though under a vigilant surveillance. This resulted in the interception of a letter to her, as secretary of one of the sections of the Society of "La Jeune Italie," which made it apparent that she could disclose its entire organization in Tuscany. She was accordingly required either to betray her associates, or to quit Florence within twenty-four hours. Her choice between these two alternatives does not need to be stated. She found a present asylum under the protection of the Queen of the French; and it is under the auspices of the French flag, and the highest guarantees of the genuineness of her title to American sympathy and friendship, in all points of view, of character, conduct, family, and position, that she is now here, in the country to which she has always looked as her natural home of refuge and protection. Her letter to Congress, already before the public, presents her case to that body and to the country with an elegance and eloquence to which we can add nothing further, to support her simple and dignified appeal to the generous magnanimity of the great nation "christened," to use her own language, by the ancestor who has bequeathed to her, as to it, his imperishable name. Our limits permit us to quote only its concluding paragraphs:

America Vespucci will make no demand on the American Government. Those who make demands are presumed to have rights to be established or justice to claim. She has neither. She knows that the Americans have been magnanimous towards all who have rendered services to the nation; that they have been generous towards all who have done a noble act for their country; and that they have, moreover, granted protection and even assistance to emigrants from other nations. There is but one Vespucius who has given his name to a quarter of the globe. Will the Americans do nothing for the descendant of Americus? She desires a country, she seeks a land that will receive her as a friend. She has a name; that is all her inheritance, all her fortune. May this hospitable nation grant her a corner of that land in which it is so rich, and may the title of citizen be bestowed upon the poor emigrant!

"If Americus Vespucins were now alive the Americans would rush in crowds to offer him honors and rewards. In the nineteenth century will this civilized nation forget that in the veins of his descendant flows the same blood? America Vespucci collected all her little fortune in order to reach this country; now, she desires only to make known her position to the Congress of this great nation, feeling confident that the Americans will never abandon her. She will not ask, having no other claim than that of bearing the name of America, but she will receive a gift from the nation by which she hopes not to be regarded as a stran ger. That will not humiliate her. Such an act of generosity will console her feelings, honor her name, flatter her family, and even her country. The gifts of a nation always honor those who receive them. When the world shall know that the American nation has done an act of generosity in favor of the descendant of Vespucius, will not the approbation of all man kind be a glorious recompense? And true gratitude will remain in the heart of AMERICA VESPUCCI."

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It had long been rumoured that there existed among the papers of Mr. Madison, a complete and accurate report of the Debates in the Convention which framed the Constitution, and the verification of the fact since his death, may be justly regarded as one of the most interesting events in the history of our national literature. The feeling every day deepening and strengthening throughout the land, that to the political advantages secured to them by that happy instrument the people of this country are mainly indebted for the utterly unexampled national prosperity which has been the portion of the United States, and that with its inviolable maintenance that onward destiny is inseparably linked; as well as the conviction every day becoming clearer with the great mass of our people, that the only guarantee for the continuance of these manifold blessings, is to be found in a strict construction of its provisions in regulating all public action, and in bringing every political measure to the rigid test of its restrictions, have united to give a value almost sacred to every authentic document calculated to throw light upon the history of the Constitution, and on the opinions and motives which actuated its framers in perfecting what, with all its faults, must be pronounced the noblest, and most perfect political code the world has ever seen.

The paucity and meagre character of the materials which we possess bearing on the history of the Constitution, will give additional value to the richness of these newly discovered treasures.

* Debates in the Congress of the Confederation, as taken in the years 1782,-’3, and 1787, by James Madison, then a member, with letters and extracts of letters from him during the periods of his service in that Congress. MSS. 510 pages.

Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, by James Madison, a member. M3S. 1,246 pages. (Both purchased by Congress, and about to be published by their direction.)

The imperfect Journal of the Convention, which, by order of the body, was transferred to the keeping of its President, General Washington, and was filed among his papers in the Department of State, was published, by order of Congress, in 1819; and even in this case we are indebted to the provident industry of Madison, for the corrections and additions which were necessary to make even this official record of their proceedings intelligible. So accurately had this illustrious man-as if forewarned by his destiny of the value which future times would attach to their labors-kept his private minutes of the proceedings in the Convention, that he was able, on the application of President Monroe, to complete in all its parts the journal left unfinished more than thirty years before, by the Secretary appointed to record it; and which thus constitutes not less a memorial of these important labors, than an interesting tribute to a representative fidelity and care, that we may safely call without a parallel. The Debates in the States of Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, on the adoption of the Constitution, are all that have reached us. They have been collected in a slovenly publication issued at Washington, but contain contemporary materials of a sufficient value to warrant their preservation in a form at once durable and respectable. These, with the minutes of Yates, who left the Convention long before it adjourned, and the very interesting statements of Luther Martin, and of Governor Edmund Randolph, to the Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, constitute all the materials we possess for the history of that memorable assemblage, from which the broad and stately fabric of our present system has dated its commencement. The interest, therefore, which must attach to a FULL REPORT OF THE ENTIRE DEBATES, by a hand of whose faithful accuracy we have above mentioned a striking test, may be easily imagined; and every lover of his country will be ready to admit that one of the fathers of that Constitution which has safely conducted it through so many dangers to so high a destiny, did not over-estimate its importance in the opinion of his grateful country, when he left it such a manuscript, as at once the most precious legacy he could offer, and the best fruit of his long and illustrious life.

We do not propose more in the present paper than to give an account of the manuscripts and their history, reserving for future notice the observations that their contents may suggest, when they shall be in possession of the public.

The first distinct information of the character and extent of the work was communicated to the country in a letter from Mrs. Madison to President Jackson, and by him transmitted to Congress, as a matter in every respect deserving their attention. It appeared from this letter that the departed statesman had, long previous to his death, carefully written out his notes of the Debates in the Convention for

the press, and had left directions in his will for their publication, charging several legacies on the profits which he reasonably expected the work would produce. The proposals, however, which his heirs received from the publishing houses to which the copy-right was offered, fell so far short of these expectations, that Mrs. Madison, with a just perception of what was under the circumstances due from the country, at once submitted a statement of the circumstances to the President, who communicated them to Congress in a special message on the eighth of December, 1836. The result was the appointment of a Committee, who recommended the purchase and publication of the manuscripts as a National Work, and thirty thousand dollars were subsequently appropriated to Mrs. Madison for the former object. The novel and interesting features of the case, -the venerated relict of one of the founders of the Republic coming before the country with a manuscript precious in its relation to its. national destiny as the Sybil's books which the fables of mythology have loved to associate with the infant glories of the Roman State, —were such that the proposition was not to be met with a cold appreciation of merits, or with nice questions of Congressional power; and this feeling, combined with the consciousness that the amount did not nearly equal that which every Congress was in the habit of appropriating with lavish hand for publications unknown to all literature save that of the contingent fund, and not the less costly or paramount in their claims on the national purse, that they are as regularly denominated "trash" and "rubbish" by hundreds of grumbling economists, as the everlasting appropriation comes up for yearly action, silenced the constitutional scruples of the school who believe with us, that Congress has not the right to spend money by constructive legislation, because it may have the power. Indeed all the legislative proceedings in relation to this matter, rather resembled the tribute of a grateful country through its highest representative body, to the family of a citizen so illustrious alike by his character, his employments and his services to the State, than the purchase of a work, merely useful or interesting, for a given value. It was this feeling also which induced Congress to pass a subsequent act, giving to Mrs. Madison the honorary privilege of a copy-right in foreign countries, with the single proviso that the manuscripts in possession of Congress should not be used for the purpose, doubtless to avoid the impropriety of a work being published abroad, before its appearance in the country where it was the national property, and to which its subject exclusively appertained, a merely nominal restriction, since one of the copies printed here would afford every requisite facility should its republication be desired.

The work thus purchased was transferred by Congress to the care of the Joint Committee of the Library, and that body, it is understood, after inviting propositions from numerous publishers,

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