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a reference to the history of all free states, ancient and modern, distinguished for their power and patriotism, and conclusively show, not only that there was not one which had not some contrivance, under some form, by which the concurring assent of the different portions of the community was made necessary in the action of government, but also that the virtue, patriotism, and strength of the state were in direct proportion to the perfection of the means of securing such assent. From "Speech on the Force Bill," 1833.

REPLY TO THE CHARGE OF ESCHINES.

DEMOSTHENES.

HAD Æschines confined his charge to the subject of the prosecution, I too would have proceeded at once to my justification of the decree. But since he has wasted no fewer words in the discussion of other matters, in most of them calumniating me, I deem it both necessary and just, men of Athens, to begin by shortly adverting to these points, that none of you may be induced by extraneous arguments to shut your ears against my defence to the indictment.

To all his scandalous abuse of my private life, observe my plain and honest answer. If you know me to be such as he alleged-for I have lived nowhere else but among you-let not my voice be heard, however transcendent my statesmanship! Rise up this instant and condemn me! But if, in your opinion and judgment, I am far better and of better descent than my adversary; if (to speak without offence) I am not inferior, I or mine, to any respectable citizen; then give no credit to him for his other statements-it is plain they were all equally fictions-but to me let the same good-will, which you have uniformly exhibited upon many former trials, be manifested now. With all your malice, Æschines, it was very simple to suppose that I should turn from the discussion of measures and policy to notice your scandal. I will do no such thing: I am not so crazed. Your lies and calumnies about my political life I will examine forthwith; for that loose ribaldry I shall have a word hereafter, if the jury desire to hear it.

From "Oration on the Crown."

THE COMMONWEALTH AND ITS AMBASSADORS.

DEMOSTHENES.

Now let me contrast what the Athenian commonwealth has gained by the peace, and what the Athenian ambassadors; and see if the commonwealth and these men themselves have fared alike. To the com

monwealth the result has been, that she has relinquished all her possessions and all her allies, and has sworn to Philip, that should any one else interfere ever to preserve them, you will prevent it, and will regard the person who wishes to restore them to you as an adversary and a foe, the person who has deprived you of them as an ally and a friend. These are the terms which Eschines the defendant supported, and his coadjutor Philocrates proposed; and when I prevailed on the first day and had persuaded you to confirm the resolution of your allies, and to summon Philip's ambassadors, the defendant drove it off to the following day, and persuaded you to adopt the decree of Philocrates, in which these clauses, and many others yet more shameful, are contained. To the state then such consequences have resulted from the peace-consequences more disgraceful could not easily be found: but what to the ambassadors who caused them? I pass by all the other matters which you have seen-houses-timber-grain; but in the territory of our ruined allies they have estates and farms of large extent, bringing in to Philocrates an income of a talent, to Eschines here thirty minas. Is it not shocking and dreadful, O Athenians, that the misfortunes of your allies have become a source of revenue to your ambassadors; that the same peace has to the country which sent them proved to be destruction of allies, cession of dominions, disgrace instead of honor, while to the ambassadors, who wrought these mischiefs to the country, it has produced revenues, resources, estates, riches, in exchange for extreme indigence? To prove the truth of my statements, call me the Olynthian witnesses. From "Oration on the Embassy."

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

WILLIAM GASTON.

SIR,-I am opposed, out and out, to any interference of the state with the opinions of its citizens, and more especially with their opinions on religious subjects. Law is the proper judge of action, and reward or punishment its proper sanction. Reason is the proper umpire of opinion, and argument and discussion its only fit advocates. To denounce opinions by law is as silly, and unfortunately much more tyrannical, as it would be to punish crime by logic. Law calls out the force of the community to compel obedience to its mandates. To operate on opinion by law, is to enslave the intellect and oppress the soul-to reverse the order of nature, and make reason subservient to force. But of all the attempts to arrogate unjust dominion, none is so pernicious as the efforts of tyrannical men to rule over the human conscience. Religion is exclusively an affair between man and his God. If there be any subject upon which the interference of human power is more forbidden than

on all others, it is on religion. Born of Faith-nurtured by Hope— invigorated by Charity-looking for its rewards in a world beyond the grave-it is of Heaven, heavenly. The evidence upon which it is founded, and the sanctions by which it is upheld, are addressed solely to the understanding and the purified affections. Even He, from whom cometh every pure and perfect gift, and to whom religion is directed as its author, its end, and its exceedingly great reward, imposes no coercion on His.children. They believe, or doubt, or reject, according to the impressions which the testimony of revealed truth makes upon their minds. He causes His sun to shine alike on the believer and the unbeliever, and His dews to fertilize equally the soil of the orthodox and the heretic. No earthly gains or temporal privations are to influence their judgment here, and it is reserved until the last day for the just Judge of all the earth to declare who have criminally refused to examine or to credit the evidences which were laid before them. But civil rulers thrust themselves in, and become God's avengers. Under a pretended zeal for the honor of His house, and the propagation of His Revelation,—

Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod;

Rejudge His justice-are the God of God;

define faith by edicts, statutes, and constitutions; deal out largesses to accelerate conviction, and refute unbelief and heresy by the unanswerable logic of pains and penalties. Let not religion be abused for this impious tyranny-religion has nothing to do with it. Nothing can be conceived more abhorrent from the spirit of true religion than the hypocritical pretensions of kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, to uphold her holy cause by their unholy violence.

From "Speech in the N. C. Convention to amend the State Constitution."

FALSE PHILANTHROPY.

HAYNE.

THERE is a spirit which, like the father of evil, is constantly "walking to and fro about the earth, seeking whom it may devour:" it is the spirit of false philanthropy. The persons whom it possesses do not indeed throw themselves into the flames, but they are employed in lighting up the torches of discord throughout the community. Their first principle of action is to leave their own affairs, and neglect their own duties, to regulate the affairs and duties of others. Theirs is the task to feed the hungry and clothe the naked of other lands, while they thrust the naked, famished, and shivering beggar from their own doors; to instruct the heathen, while their own children want the

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bread of life. When this spirit infuses itself into the bosom of a statesman (if one so possessed can be called a statesman), it converts him at once into a visionary enthusiast. Then it is that he indulges in golden dreams of national greatness and prosperity. He discovers that "liberty is power," and, not content with vast schemes of improvement at home, which it would bankrupt the treasury of the world to execute, he flies to foreign lands, to fulfil obligations to "the human race," by inculcating the principles of "political and religious liberty," and promoting the "general welfare" of the whole human race. It is this spirit which has filled the land with thousands of wild and visionary projects, which can have no effect but to waste the energies and dissipate the resources of the country. It is the spirit of which the aspiring politician dexterously avails himself, when, by inscribing on his banner the magical words, Liberty and Philanthropy, he draws to his support that class of persons who are ready to bow down at the very name of their idols.

From "Speech on Foote's Resolution," 1830.

SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE REVOLUTION.

HAYNE,

WHAT, Sir, was the conduct of the south during the Revolution? Sir, I honor New England for her conduct in that glorious struggle. But great as is the praise which belongs to her, I think, at least equal honor is due to the south. They espoused the quarrel of their brethren, with a generous zeal, which did not suffer them to stop to calculate their interest in the dispute. Favorites of the mother country, possessed of neither ships nor seamen to create a commerical rivalship, they might have found in their situation a guarantee that their trade would be for ever fostered and protected by Great Britain. But trampling on all considerations either of interest or of safety, they rushed into the conflict, and fighting for principle, perilled all, in the sacred cause of freedom. Never was there exhibited in the history of the world higher examples of noble daring, dreadful suffering, and heroic endurance, than by the whigs of Carolina, during the Revolution. The whole state, from the mountains to the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy. The fruits of industry perished on the spot where they were produced, or were consumed by the foe. The "plains of Carolina" drank up the most precious blood of her citizens! Black and smoking ruins marked the places which had been the habitations of her children! Driven from their homes, into the gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of liberty survived, and South Carolina (sustained by the example of her Sumters and her Marions) proved, by her conduct, that though her soil might be overrun, the spirit of her people was invincible.

From "Speech on Foote's Resolution," 1830.

LAWS CONCERNING THE SLAVE TRADE.

JAMES M. WAYNE,

VESSELS of war cruising on the coast of Africa, under our Act of 1819, have been directed to search our own vessels, to arrest the violators of the law, to bring in the ships for condemnation and the men for punishment. At this time the government is not unmindful of this treaty obligation, for our next squadron for the coast of Africa will consist, I believe, of four steamers and as many sloops-of-war, and four steam-ships will probably cruise off Cuba, to intercept slavers that may escape the ships on the African coast. Mr. Calhoun voted for the ratification of the treaty, and expressed his clear conviction that the policy of closing the markets of the world was both right and expedient in every point of view, that we were deeply committed against the traffic, both by legislation and treaty. The influence and the efforts of the civilized world were directed against it, and that, too, under our lead at the commencement."

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Still later, in 1855, the House of Representatives, by a vote nearly unanimous, decided that it was not expedient to repeal the laws for the suppression of the slave trade.

The leading points in the legislative history of the laws under discussion have been referred to, to show upon what solid foundations of authority and consent, on the part of the executive and legislative departments of the government, the laws for the suppression of the slave trade rest. No doubt has been entertained by the long succession of jurists and statesmen who have been concerned in their discussion and enactment, of the constitutional power of Congress to pass them. There is no question of public morality which has been more clearly and solemnly maintained than that on which this legislation reposes. It would be a retrograde movement of more than a century to consent to abate one line of the condemnation of this trade, or to relax any effort for its extirpation. Many of the clauses of these laws have come before the judiciary department of the United States for interpretation; property has been sentenced to confiscation, and men have been tried and some condemned for the violation of them. Not a question has been decided in the Circuit or in the Supreme Court which in any manner impugns their validity as constitutional enactments. From "Charge to the Grand Jury in Savannah," 1859.

FRIENDSHIP WITH ENGLAND.

RUFUS KING.

THE bill before the Senate, is in nothing unfriendly towards England; -it is merely a commercial regulation, to which we are even invited;

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