Moderation.

THE cause of emancipation has now reached an interesting erisis. The sentiment of justice to the African race has at length become a political element too important to be overlooked or disregarded by either of the great political parties. The expediency of practical emancipation is directly discussed in one slave state and thousands are prepared for it in other states where the institution has seemed impregnable. Its advocates fail to convince the people that it is a humane, or a necessary, or even a harmless anomaly in our constitution. Nevertheless popular action is checked by alarms concerning the threatened dangers of emancipation, civil wars, and dissolution of the Union. We live in an age when the specific influences of Christianity are widely diffused, and we shrink from prosecuting even the most benevolent designs if they seem to involve the calamities of war. If we analyze the national passion of patriotism, we shall find it to consist chiefly in veneration for the constitution, and devotion to the union of the states.

The seeming indifference of the people concerning the guilt and danger of slavery has been so irksome to the impetuous that many who have been esteemed wise and patriotic citizens, have come to treat of disunion, as if it were preferable to further forbearance, or were in some way involved in the success of abolition. I trust that such sentiments will be discarded. Whatever hopes may be indulged by those who permit themselves to speculate concerning secession or nullification, we have enjoyed more abounding national prosperity, more perfect political and social equality, and more precious civil and religious liberty, by, through, and with our present constitution, than were ever before secured by any people. We can not know what portion of these blessings would be lost by dissolving the present fabric and constructing another or others in its place. Heaven forbid that we should even contemplate the experiment!

Prudence in regard to the cause of emancipation forbids the indulgence of a thought of disunion. If it be so confessedly dif ficult to awaken the national conscience, while the patriotism of abolitionists can not be justly questioned, it would be ruinous to

suffer so noble an enterprise to be at all connected with designs which, however they may be excused or palliated, must nevertheless be seditious and treasonable.

I grant that the annexation of Texas, through the failure of concert among the opponents of slavery, vastly increases the difficulty of emancipation. But still I trust that if that great enterprise be conducted with discretion, it will advance faster than the population and political influence of the new territory. The slaveholders have enlarged the domain of our country. Let this untoward event only excite us the more. Let us rouse ourselves to the necessary effort, and enlarge indeed the “area of freedom."

Men differ much in temperament and susceptibility, and are so variously situated, that they receive from the same causes very unequal impressions. It is not in human nature that all who desire the abolition of slavery should be inflamed with equal zeal; and different degrees of fervor produce different opinions concerning the measure proper to be adopted. Great caution is necessary, therefore, to preserve mutual confidence and harmony. No cause, however just, can flourish without these. Christian Europe lost the Holy Sepulchre, which had cost so many sacrifices, less by the bravery of the Saracens, than by the mutual controversies of the Crusaders. The protestant reformation was arrested two hundred years ago, by the distraction of the reformers, and not a furlong's breadth has since been gained from the papal hierarchy.

I am far from denying that any class of abolitionists has done much good for their common cause, but I think the whole result has been much diminished by the angry conflicts between them, often on mere metaphysical questions. I sincerely hope that these conflicts may now cease. Emancipation is now a political enterprise, to be effected through the consent and action of the American people. They will lend no countenance or favor to any other than lawful and constitutional means. Nor is the range of our efforts narrowly circumscribed by the constitution.

In many of the free states there is a large mass of citizens disfranchised on the ground of color. They must be invested with the right of suffrage. Give them this right, and their influence will be immediately felt in the national councils, and it

is needless to say will be cast in favor of those who uphold the cause of human liberty. We must resist unceasingly the admission of slave states, and urge and demand the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. We have secured the right of petition, but the federal government continues to be swerved by the influences of slavery as before. This tendency can and must be counteracted; and when one independent Congress shall have been elected, the internal slave-trade will be subjected to inquiry. Amendments to the constitution may be initiated, and the obstacles in the way of emancipation will no longer appear insurmountable.

But, gentlemen, I fear I may appear to dogmatize when I intended only to invoke concession. If I seem to do so too earnestly, it is because I feel so deeply interested in the cause to which your efforts are devoted, and because I believe with Burke, that "we ought to act in political affairs with all the moderation which does not absolutely enervate that vigor, and quench that fervency of spirit, without which the best wishes for the public good must evaporate in empty speculation."-Letter to Hon. S. P. Chase and Others of Ohio, May, 1845.

COMMERCE.

Public Faith.

No reason for rejecting these claims* remains, except that they have not been paid heretofore. But mere lapse of time pays no debts, and discharges no obligations. There has been no release, no waiver, no neglect, no delay, by the creditors. They have been here twenty-five times in fifty years; that is to say, they have appeared in their successive generations, before every Congress since their claims against the United States accrued. Against such claims and such creditors there is no prescription.

It is said, indeed, that the nation is unable to pay these claims now. I put a single question in reply: When will the nation be more affluent than now?

The senator [Mr. HUNTER] Says, again, that, if the debts are just, we should pay the whole, and not a moiety; and that if the claims are unjust, then the bill proposes a gratuity—that in the one case the appropriation is too small, and in the other too great. This is the plea of him who, I think it was in Ephesus, despoiled the statue of Jupiter of its golden robe, saying, "Gold was too warm in summer, and too cold in winter, for the shoulders of the god."

Sir, commerce is one of the great occupations of this nation. It is the fountain of its revenues, as it is the chief agent of its advancement in civilization and enlargement of empire. It is exclusively the care of the federal authorities. It is for the protection of commerce that they pass laws, make treaties, build

* For French Spoliations.

But justice

fortifications, and maintain navies upon all the seas. and good faith are surer defences than treaties, fortifications, or naval armaments. Justice and good faith constitute true national honor, which feels a stain more keenly than a wound. The nation that lives in wealth and in the enjoyment of power, and yet under unpaid obligations, dwells in dishonor and in danger. The nation that would be truly great, or even merely safe, must practise an austere and self-denying morality.

The faith of canonized ancestors, whose fame now belongs to mankind, is pledged to the payment of these debts. "Let the merchants send hither well-authenticated evidences of their claims, and proper measures shall be taken for their relief.” This was the promise of Washington. The evidence is here. Let us redeem the sacred and venerable engagement. Through his sagacity and virtue, we have inherited with it ample and abundant resources, and to them we ourselves have added the newlydiscovered wealth of southern plains, and the hidden treasures of the western coast. With the opening of the half century, we are entering upon new and profitable intercourse with the ancient oriental states and races, while we are grappling more closely to us the new states on our own continent. Let us signalize an epoch so important in commerce and politics, by justly discharging ourselves for ever from the yet remaining obligations of the first and most sacred of all our national engagements. While we are growing over all lands, let us be rigorously just to other nations, just to the several states, and just to every class and to every citizen; in short, just in all our administration, and just toward all mankind. So shall prosperity crown all our enterprises-nor shall any disturbance within nor danger from abroad come nigh unto us, nor alarm us for the safety of fireside, or fane, or capitol.-Speech on French Spoliation Bill in U. S. Senate, Jinuary, 21, 1851.

American Enterprise.

COME, then, senators, and suppose that you stand with me in the galleries of St. Stephen's chapel, on a day so long gone by as the 22d of March, 1775. A mighty debate has been going on here in this august legislature of the British empire. Insur