enormous rise proved insufficient; and there would have been another increase accomplished, had not the menaces of civil war at the south brought the restrictionists to their senses, and forced from their selfishness and tardy justice a compromise. Thus, we see that, throughout, the cry of the protected classes has been, like that of the daughter of the horse-leech, "Give! give." Their cravings have been more insatiable than those of the drunkard, with whom each additional drop provokes the thirst for more, and who, we may add, can only be made to stop by downright ruin or by total abstinence.

It were easy to show, that a similar experience pertains to the protective legislation of other nations; that they who expect to reap the benefit of restrictive laws are never satisfied, and that the amount of protection is never adequate. "When is it," said a man one day to the great millionaire of New York, Mr. Astor, "when is it that a rich man has enough ?"—"When he shall get a little more," was the pithy reply. And thus, the beneficiaries of the tariff are only contented when they shall have pushed their system one step farther-and so on for ever. Nor would it be difficult, had we the space or inclination, to show the immutable principles of politico-economical and social science in which the necessity of perpetual increase is founded. How absurd, then, for the loggerheads to talk of forcing free trade from other nations, by a miserable system of restrictions!

No! our policy lies in another direction. After the toil and agony of many years, the tariff is about to come to an end. Already we have sweated and groaned too long under the inflictions of its falsehood and injustice. The sacred instincts of the people have been violated; their prosperity impaired; the influences of their institutions thwarted, and peaceful relations and friendly feelings disturbed, by its violent and discordant interposition. It is time that we take a nobler stand. Fidelity to our general prin. ciples, as well as to our interests, demands that we should set a worthier example. It is not for us, not for the free and generous hearts of an exalted and happy republic, to follow with slavish obedience the hollow-hearted policies of the older world. Great God! has not their tyranny produced misery enough? Are not the tears, and groans, and wretchedness of the debased population of Europe, sufficient to satisfy the fiendish lusts of the Moloch of special legislation? Must this fair land, too, become its prey? Must the beautiful existence and prospects of this people likewise be sacrificed to its deadly ambition? Must the blight of individual poverty and social distress come over us, as it has over all of our forerunners, to corrupt, prostrate, and destroy?

THE MISSISSIPPI BOND QUESTION.*

"THE Mississippi Bonds must be paid"—were the opening words of the first article in the first number of this Review for the present year. "The Mississippi Bonds must be paid"-we repeat, after bestowing upon the subject the most attentive revision of our former conclusions, for which the materials have been laid before us in the two pamphlets cited at the foot of this page. Be the cost of entertaining and expressing the opinion what it may — in the resentment of friends, and in the loss of our subscribers, in that section, the number of whom withdrawing their subscriptions since the publication of that article, we shall not even take the trouble of summing up—we reiterate a third time the declaration of our conviction, that "the Mississippi Bonds must be paid."

The speech of Mr. Thompson in the House of Representatives contains a vigorous and eloquent defence of his State against some aspersions which had been cast upon her recent course and doctrines in regard to "Repudiation" in which her gallant and able representative found not only no just ground for censure, but, on the contrary, every reason for the highest admiration and applause. He deserves well at the hands of his constituents. Even those who may differ from him in his view of the subject, will concede to him the praise of a proper pride and zeal, in the advocacy of the honor of those to whom his first duty on that floor was due. "Our country!" was Decatur's famous sentiment-" may she always be right!-but our country, right or wrong!"

The Report of the select committee to which the subject was referred in the Mississippi Legislature, drawn by its chairman, James E. Matthews, Esq., goes over the same ground in rather more elaborate detail, and contains the replies of the Goy. M'Nutt, Gov. Runnels, late President of the Union Bank, and the commissioners of that bank, who negotiated the sale of the State bonds to Mr. Biddle, to the interrogatories propounded to them by the committee. The report takes a similar ground with the speech of Mr. Thompson-regarding the position of Mississippi in relation to this question, rather as a just subject

* Speech of Hon. Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, on the Treasury Note Bill. Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1842. Washington: Printed at the Globe Office, 1842.

Report of the Select Committee on the Union Bank Bonds, to the Mississippi Legislature. Presented February, 1842. Printed by order of the House. Jackson: Price & Fall, State Printers, 1842.

of pride and pleasure, than of mortification or regret. We wish that we could bring our judgment to coincide with either.

The following resolution exhibits the conclusion to which the committee arrives. What may have been the action of the Legislature upon it, has not, at the date of the present page, reached us.

"Resolved, therefore, by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, That for the reasons set forth in the foregoing Report, this Legislature denies that the State of Mississippi is under any legal or moral obligation to redeem the five millions of Bonds, sold by the Commissioners of the Mississippi Union Bank to Nicholas Biddle, on the 18th day of August, 1838. But while this Legislature does most solemnly repudiate said Bonds, and declare the sale thereof as illegal, fraudulent, and unconstitutional, yet, that the holders of those Bonds may have every possible legal and equitable remedy for collecting the amount paid on said Bonds, they are hereby invited to pursue the remedy afforded by our laws and constitution against the Mississippi Union Bank, and against all and every person, who, by his, her, or their connexion with said institution, have rendered him, her, or themselves liable, either in law or equity, for the debts of said Bank.”

Whether the State of Mississippi shall ever see fit to repudiate this repudiation or not, we trust that, at any rate, none of these unfortunate creditors who have been led into their present position, by their reliance upon the faith of the State pledged on the face of the Bonds they were in an evil hour induced to purchase, will be tempted to a further ruin, by any judicial pursuit of the "Mississippi Union Bank," or any of the persons connected with that respectable institution—the former being notoriously as bankrupt in its resources as any of the latter in character.

That our readers may judge for themselves of the opposite. points of view in which the course of the State is regarded by at least a portion of its own citizens, and the general public opinion of other sections of the Union, we select the following extracts from these two documents. The following is the conclusion of the report of the committee :

"The Committee, in coming to the foregoing conclusion, are aware that they differ from many worthy men in opinion. But they cannot believe but that, if this subject be examined, free from all party influences, and determined by an application of the principles of law and morals to the facts, any other conclusions can be arrived at than those which they have adopted. Entertaining, as we believe, mistaken views as to the true principles of this government, as well as of the facts in this case, men have taken the liberty of slandering the State, both at home and abroad, on account of the stand she has taken. It was so at that memorable era when our fathers leagued together, and pledged 'their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,' to resist an unconstitutional invasion of their rights as British subjects. They, also, were slandered. Every opprobrious epithet was heaped upon them that the ingenuity or malice of their enemies could invent. Many of their fellow-citizens, under mistaken views of the principles upon which they acted, denounced them as disorganizers, agrarians, and rebels,

and joined their enemies to force them into submission to an unconstitutional law. The result of the memorable and eventful contest that ensued is now known. The decision of the civilized world has been had as to the correctness of the principles and conduct of that much-abused, and slandered, but noble race of men. Through scenes of toil and blood, they maintained the position they assumed, and have transmitted to their posterity their principles, together with the rich inheritance of Liberty, secured by a well-regulated and constitutional government. Their names are stamped on the pages of immortality, and their memory is embalmed in the hearts and affections of a grateful people; and distant generations will pronounce with exultation the names of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hancock, Franklin, and a host of worthies who struggled together through that gloomy period in our history. The people of Mississippi have taken a similar stand. They are not controlled by selfish or mercenary motives. The low and grovelling consideration of dollars and cents has nothing to do with the merits of this question. Their honest obligations they will fulfil, should they have to divest themselves of the comforts and necessaries of life to do so. Higher and holier motives than mere pecuniary considerations actuate them. They have determined that they never will submit to an invasion of their constitution by either foreign or domestic foes. The rights secured to them under that sacred instrument they will maintain at all hazards: And relying on the correctness of their principles and the justness of their cause, they will, with confidence and cheerfulness, submit to the verdict of posterity."

And the following is the conclusion of the speech of Mr. Thompson, on the floor of the House of Representatives:—

"Sir, said Mr. T., I have looked forward to a glorious destiny for this country. I have imagined, in contemplating the future history of these twenty-six States, to be increased in number as we drive back the savage, and subject the earth to the ploughshare, that we have been a people peculiarly favored, to convince and illustrate to the world that man is capable of self-government; but unless these States adhere to cardinal first principles, I feel that we never will carry out and realize the great results anticipated by the philanthropist and patriot. To secure life, liberty, and property to every individual in the community, constitutions are formed by the people themselves, limiting the power of their agents to the particular trusts confided to them. In all other governments, ancient or modern, the legislative authority, I care not under what form it existed, had unlimited control over the rights of the mass. We have made one great step in the march of the destiny which awaits mankind, by adopting written constitutions as the muniments of the people's rights.

“Every infraction of this constitution by those intrusted with power, necessarily violates some of the rights of life, liberty, or property; and whenever the people shall be brought tamely to submit to these infringements of right, I care not from what motive it may proceed - it may be from ignorance, or for the want of nerve to face down the frowns of the interested, or from want of vigilance to detect the unwarranted assumption of power,- that moment liberty receives a shock, life is rendered insecure, and the rights of property confounded. Obsta principiis, is a sound maxim in morals, but as useful and indispensable in constitutional governments. Let the people rebuke every assumption of power — let them show to the world that when their agents act without authority, it is the act of the agents, and not of themselves—an act without authority, and therefore is null and void. They owe it to themselves and the institutions they have

inherited, to preserve an eternal vigilance. They owe it to posterity to check and set aside every aggression, and to hand down their fundamental law untouched by unholy hands, unimpaired, in full force, as the ark of their political salvation. If their courage fail them, if they are frowned down and insolently told that dishonor awaits those who call in question the acts of their rulers, and thus they submit, they prove themselves degenerate sons of their ancestors, unworthy to be freemen, and will inevitably invoke the curses of an injured posterity. If, therefore, the agents of the State of Mississippi made and disposed of her bonds in defiance of her constitution and laws-if they contracted debt without her consent will not every honest community — will not every friend of liberty call upon her people to set them aside ? will not justice and expediency alike forbid the submission of her people to taxation for their payment?

"Mr. Chairman, I rejoice that my destiny has been cast in that State. It was not my position by birth, it was so from choice. When years had ripened me into manhood, and I found this extended and prosperous country spread out before me, the soil, the climate, the resources of that State, the energy, enterprise, honor, and integrity of her people, invited me to pitch my tent among them. And this day, I feel prouder of that people than I ever felt before. Difficult is the task in a free country to call the minds of the people from their various pursuits, and induce them to discuss and decide upon their constitutional rights. They are more disposed to submit to the acts of their agents than to rise up and call them in question. There is an aversion to the discussion of abstract questions, and few have been the instances in which our people have been aroused to a due appreciation of their constitutional rights. But from the late action of the State of Mississippi, I feel a renewed, a deeper confidence in the intelligence, the honor, the firmness, and patriotism of that people. Frowned upon at home by those who denied their power to inquire into their rights, denounced and misrepresented by their enemies from abroad, they have gone on in the even tenor of their ways, seeking truth and asserting right. And I am now prepared to say to the friends of liberty, of the rights of freemen, of constitutional government, everywhere, Stand firm be of good cheer. Here is a people who will extend to you sympathy, and succor, and effective aid. Doubt not their courage, their honor, or their willingness. Let the hour and the necessity come, and Mississippi would go forward and take as bold a stand in asserting the rights of mankind, in resisting oppression, in vindicating the integrity of constitutions, as any other State in the Union. Let the emergency come, when the Federal Constitution is endangered, or our rights of property invaded, and she will never sleep upon her arms. Let this nation be assailed, and its flag be insulted, and she would be foremost in the ranks of its defenders.

"She was a younger member of this confederacy; but when only a Territory, and her citizens few in number, they tarried not when their country called: but, headed by the lamented Hinds, they acted with such bravery and chivalrous daring at the battle of New Orleans, as to excite the astonishment of one army and the admiration of the other.' If the rights of the nation should be again invaded, she would be the first to make the heaviest sacrifices for the common cause. Mississippi is one of the largest exporting States of this Union, and if war comes, it will fall heaviest on her. Yet I do not believe there is within her borders a single individual who is not prepared to sacrifice her great agricultural and commercial interests, and rush forward to sustain the country.

"Mississippi has passed through some severe trials. While the credit system was considered a blessing, and others were sipping of its delicious and intoxicating poison, she slaked her thirst with eager haste, and drained the cup to its very