talents that Mr. Dromgoole exhibited in discussing these high constitutional questions, that some of the oldest members in the House, especially John Roane and Randolph Harrison, urged the gifted young member to take the lead in bringing back Virginia to the principles of Taylor's Resolutions and Madison's Report, and willingly, with their whole party, enlisted themselves under his able guidance for the purpose. The result is of record, a brilliant triumph of Republican principles, and a full committal of Virginia against the American system.

During his service in the Senate, he served on and at the head of several of the most important committees, and frequently distin guished himself as a debater of signal power-in particular, in opposing the bill to take the sense of the people on the subject of calling a Convention, which he denounced as virtually denying the suffi ciency of the Representative system to embody the public will. His speech on this occasion was called a master-piece of constitu tional and popular argument, and, in particular, was so much admired by John Randolph, whose fastidiousness as a critic is well known, that he pronounced it the ablest speech that had been delivered during the winter, either at Richmond or Washington. The bill, however, passed; and notwithstanding his opposition to it, Mr. D. was elected one of the members of the Convention from his Senatorial district; and again, after the new Constitution had gone into operation, which General Dromgoole had materially assisted by his speeches and exertions, he was elected a Senator under it without opposition, and in a different arrangement of the districts. In the new Senate his course was highly distinguished. When the nullification of South Carolina, and the proclamation of President Jackson, brought before the General Assembly the question of Federal Relations, Mr. Dromgoole dissented from both; and on the removal of deposites, he took a conspicuous part in the animated debate which that measure produced. It was on this occasion that the instructions were passed which caused Mr. Rives to retire from the Senate. Mr. Dromgoole defended the removal of the deposites, and opposed the instructions in an elaborate speech, which was much admired.

In 1835 he was elected to Congress, succeeding by a handsome majority over his successful competitor at the previous election. In 1837 he was re-elected without opposition. Of the position he has attained in the House, I have already mentioned sufficient instances. It is indeed generally believed that if General Dromgoole does not achieve the foremost place of the body-and a position of high political usefulness-it will be the fault only of himself.

But here is another Virginian, on the opposite side of the Chair, and as near to it as he can get, without getting into it. A proximity which may induce him, for aught I know, when it becomes vacant

to try and jump into it. I speak of Mr. JAMES GARLAND, whom every body knows as the leading Conservative in the House.

His dress, you will observe, is very plain, and he wears his hair something in the manner of the Methodist clergymen of the old school, brushed back from his forehead, but his black frock coat, stout walking stick, and heavy comfortable boots, would rather give you the idea that he was that fine character, the Virginia coun. try gentleman, half farmer, half lawyer, whose honest heart is in his face, and whom you have an irresistible inclination to take by the hand. In person, Mr. G. is tall and erect, strongly and rather heav ily built, and his general appearance is prepossessing. His fea tures are bold and prominent, and strongly characteristic both of benevolence and of decision. I like to hear him speak, and, as he speaks frequently, I am often gratified in that way. There is an earnestness in his manner which gives an assurance of sincerity. He speaks to the judgment, and seeks to convey conviction to the minds of those whom he addresses. Towards political opponents he is courteous and liberal, and instead of assailing them with denunciation, he seeks to convince them that they are wrong. He is not one of the tomahawk and scalping-knife Conservatives-for there are some such-particularly Mr. Clark of New York, who in political controversy is as savage and as wild as if he were a lineal descendant of one of the Mohawks in whose country he lives, and to whom he, in fact, bears a strong and peculiar resemblance. We should not be surprised if the member from Chenango should turn out to be two-thirds Indian, and to have blood in his veins that erst assisted at many a massacre.

Mr. Garland does not consider his political adversaries as foes, and he wages upon them no relentless and exterminating warfare. He has had occasion, in pursuance of what he no doubt deemed to be his duty, to differ, in some points, from the Administration, but he has never hesitated to award to the President ample credit for integrity, sincerity, and patriotism; and I am quite certain that he is disinterested and honest in his course. Major Garland is essentially a self-made man. He was born on the sixth day of June, 1793, in Albemarle county, State of Virginia, and up to early manhood he was employed on his father's farm in Amherst county, in the same State; having only received, in the ordinary schools of the country, the elementary branches of an English education, and read a few Latin authors. His father having a large family, and his circumstances being too moderate to afford him a collegiate education, in his nineteenth year he turned his face to the world to seek his fortune by his own industry and energy, without a cent in his pocket. He repaired to the county of Nelson, where he now resides, and entered into the service of a relative, then and still Clerk of the County Court, for no other compensation than board, and

there he studied law with such assiduity, in addition to his services as assistant clerk, that in the fall of 1812, he obtained license to practice law. Shortly after he commenced the practice of his profession, in the year 1813, he was drafted into the military service of the United States, during the war, and performed a tour of six months sevice in a company of volunteer artillery. He was a great favorite with the officers and members of his company, on account of the fidelity with which he discharged his duty, and was appointed to fill every vacancy that occurred, until he was appointed Captain, and subsequently Major. He was regarded as an excellent officer. In the fall of 1813, he resumed his practice, and from the energy and industry with which he pursued it, soon became eminent, and acquired an extensive and lucrative practice. Indeed he became so prominent in his profession, that he ranked among the most distinguished lawyers in the State. In the Supreme Courts of Chancery and several times in the County Courts he argued many very important cases, with considerable success and with great approbation, coming in contact with some of its ablest men.

Mr. Garland's political career has been short. He was first elected a member of the Legislature of his native State, in 1829, and continued in it until 1831. He was a member of the first Legislature under the new Constitution, where he was distinguished for his industry, attention and devotion to the public interest. In that session his ardent devotion to, and labor in support of the internal improvements of the State, aided much in giving that impulse to it which is now rapidly extending with such promise of a happy success. In 1831 he declined a re-election, to the general regret of all the people of the county.

In 1835, amidst the panic session, growing out of the removal of the deposites, when the administration of General Jackson seemed tottering to its fall, he became a candidate for Congress, in the Albemarle District, in opposition to a very popular gentleman, and took a decided stand in favor of that Administration. He was successful by a handsome majority, a success achieved under the most unpromising and untoward circumstances, and against the strongest influence of family, wealth and talents. In 1837 he was re-elected without opposition, having given general satisfaction to his constitents by the fidelity and ability with which he discharged his duties. He entered Congress a decided advocate of the State Bank System. Mr. Garland has of late acquired much notoriety-we can hardly say distinction as one of the leading Conservatives in the House of Representatives. That is a party towards which the Democratic Review will scarcely be suspected of leaning with any peculiar degree of favor, whether with a view to yielding to their opinions the slightest concession of the great principles involved in the leading measure of the Administration which they oppose, or to

softening their hostility by any unworthy attempts at personal propitiation. Genuine Democracy can have very little respect for the motives and influences which appear to have actuated the vast majority of that party in its secession from the Democratic party, and it would be worse than labor lost to attempt to bring them back. It will be much easier-and every day's experience is so proving it—to gain over to the principles and policy of the Administration thrice their number, from the sound and liberal portion of the Whig party itself. Let them go in peace. Let every man be free to obey the natural inclination of his opinions in the selection of his political course and party associations. The Democratic party is itself, and has always been, the object of too incessant and furious a persecution of abuse, from a Press of which three-fourths has always been under the control of their opponents, to incline a man of candid opinions to follow such an example, in the maintenance of its cause and the advocacy of its principles. Let the Conservatives, then,-all of them that shall still choose to follow the guidance of their principal leaders-go in peace; and, embittered as are usually the relations between former associates on such a separation, let us not deny them the same courtesy we claim for ourselves, of a liberal presumption of sincerity of opinions and honesty of motives. Every sincere Democrat must be glad of the secession, and will regard it as a much needed purification of the Democratic party itself,-but this not with reference to the personal characters of the men, but to the essential character and tendency of their principles. I certainly know more than one individual among their number, for whom no collisions of political opinion and action could ever diminish that sincere personal respect and regard, which I should be very slow to extend to many of the most zealous and loud of the supporters of our own doctrines and measures.

Mr. Garland in particular has peculiar claims to an indulgent consideration of his position, and to a liberal construction of his motives. His democracy except on the single yet vital question of the separation of Bank and State, cannot, I believe, and never has been impeached. Though his conduct on the divorce question, and his associates for the last two years have sundered him widely from the great democratic party, yet it should be remembered that he acts on this very question under a potency of instructions not less strong than those which compelled Mr. Buchanan to vote under a protest, against the Sub-treasury bill. He was first run by the friends of General Jackson as a friend of the State Bank System and in opposition to General Gordon's scheme of a Sub-treasury, which had been insidiously introduced the previous session of Congress, when the former plan was in the full tide of an apparently successful experiment under the auspices of the Administration.

He was successful over his competitor, and thus came to Congress, as it were, pledged against a plan which a prodigious change of. circumstances soon after rendered the cardinal policy of his own party. Mr. Garland's great party error was that he did not meet the crisis. He did not rightly understand it. The disgraceful explosion of the whole Banking System did not alter his confidence in it, and instead of calmly profiting with his party by the experience of the crisis, and seeking with them to repair it by a firm and resolute return to the true and simple principles of the Constitution, he turned aside in the vain hope of reconstructing the shattered edifice at his feet. The heat of party contest, or the soreness of exasperated. feeling may have led him into more decided opposition to his old party than he at first intended, but I do not think him, like most others of the new sect, totally lost to democracy. I am very certain, that he can neither be led or driven either into Whiggery, or National Bankism, and I am not without my hopes of soon seeing him return in good faith to the bosom of the great party with which he has been identified so long. He feels ill at ease in his new sphere, and as the unholy alliance between Conservatism and Whiggery becomes more and more apparent, James M. Garland,— or I am greatly mistaken,-will abjure it. He has as little sympathy with the evils of the Banking System, or wish to perpetuate its faults as the most unwavering democrat, and I for one, do not despair of a candid and honorable return by him to action with his friends.

I have been making very free with Major Garland's name and the pages of the Democratic Review, but I know your political candor and consideration of opponents, and as to the rest my speculations may go for what they are worth.

As my pen seems to run upon Virginians, I cannot omit a gentleman, whose seniority at all events is entitled to precedence, and turn with my friendly reader to the old gentleman in the seat on the right of the centre aisle, and near the inner circle. Time has scattered memorials of experience and of care on his temples, but his complexion is still fresh, and his eye still lights up with the fire of youth. He is a favorite with all parties in the House, and, I believe, the oldest man, and the oldest member in Congress. It is Mr. JOHN TALIAFERRO, pronounced Tollever. He is near seventy years of age, and has been a member of the House, at different times, since the memorable year of 1801, when he was brought into Congress upon the overwhelming tide of Jeffersonian democracy, from a district that had been thoroughly and exclusively Federal. His competitor was the late Colonel John Tayloe, of Mount Airy, a Hamilton and Pickering federalist, and the contest was, according to tradition, one of principle, and very severe. Before that early period, Mr. Taliaferro was a leading member of the Virginia Assembly. For many years, he was the champion of Democratic