sufficiently vast to satisfy the most grasping ambition, and abounding in resources beyond all others, which only require to be fully developed to make us the greatest and most prosperous people on earth." "Peace," said he, "is indeed our policy. Peace is the first of our wants." Why, Sir, if the honorable gentleman will turn to the speech of this political friend and brother democrat of his, he will find it as copious in its eulogies on the blessings of peace, as any of the more recent speeches in the Senate, which he has ridiculed under the title of sermons. I honor Mr. Calhoun for such expressions. Let him carry into the negotiations upon the Oregon question, the same spirit which he manifested in relation to the Treaty of Washington, let him "seek peace and ensue it," in his management of our foreign affairs, and he will have earned a title to the regard of all good men and true patriots. I rejoice to believe that he will do so. On the subject of Oregon, indeed, he is already committed to a pacific policy. The honorable gentleman is quite mistaken in his idea of Mr. Calhoun's argument against the bill for the armed occupation of Oregon last winter. There was nothing what ever in that argument to give the impression that Mr. Calhoun was in favor of giving this notice now or at any early day. On the contrary, the whole strain and stress of the argument was in favor of abstaining altogether from any action upon the subject. "There is often," said Mr. Calhoun, "in the affairs of government, more efficiency and wisdom in non-action than in action. All we want, to effect our object in this case, is a wise and masterly inactivity." "Our population," said he, "will soon-far sooner than anticipated-reach the Rocky Mountains, and be ready to pour into the Oregon Territory, when it will come into our possession without resistance or struggle; or, if there should be resistance, it would be feeble and ineffectual. We would then be as much stronger there, comparatively, than Great Britain, as she is now stronger than we are; and it would then be as idle in her to attempt to assert or maintain her exclusive claim to the Territory against us, as it would now be in us to attempt it against her. Let us be wise, and abide our time, and it will accomplish all that we desire, with far more certainty, and with infinitely less sacrifice, than we can without it."

I have no idea, Mr. Chairman, that it will be in our power, under present circumstances, to avail ourselves of this good advice of Mr. Calhoun, or that he will find himself able, in his new capacity, to leave this question to the operation of time. The ill-advised and most unseasonable debates on this subject, which have taken place in both branches of Congress during the last two years, have not only created an impatience, in some quarters of the country, which will brook no further delay; but have so roused the attention of the British Government to our policy, as to forbid the idea, that they would acquiesce in any further postponement of the question. A new minister from England has, indeed, arrived, who is well understood to be specially charged with the negotiation of it. And it is now to be decided, so far as this House is concerned, in what spirit that negotiation shall be conducted. Shall it be entered on, by this government, in that spirit of menace and defiance which has characterized the whole speech of the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania; or in that spirit of courtesy and magnanimity which becomes a civilized and Christian, as well as a brave and powerful nation?

Sir, I have already declared my opinion that the required notice for the termination of the joint occupation of Oregon ought not to be given at this moment, in view of our own domestic condition. But a hundred-fold more ill-advised does such a proceeding strike me, in view of our immediate relations to the British Government. In my judgment, it would be an act of rudeness, of indecency, of offence, as unworthy as it would be wanton. What possible pretence of expediency or necessity is there for such a course? Here is an ambassador on the ground, ready at any instant to go into negotiations with us on the subject. But for the deplorable catastrophe which has recently deprived the President of two members of his cabinet, those negotiations would have already been entered on. And is this a moment, when we have seen no disadvantage and no disgrace in this joint occupation during a term of thirty years, when all Presidents and all parties have acquiesced in its continuance throughout that long period, — is this a moment for insisting on its being brought to a close? Is this a respectful or even a respect

able mode of meeting the overtures of the British Government for a settlement of the Oregon question? Will it give us an increased hope of effecting such a settlement amicably, honorably, satisfactorily, to tell the British minister, "Sir, we will allow a year for this business. At the end of that time, we shall cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war?" The honorable gentleman has alluded to the code of honor, and to the manner of settling diffi culties among gentlemen. There are those present, doubtless, who understand the nice points of that code. What would be thought by them, if, while negotiations of this sort were pending, one of the parties should undertake to limit the time within which there must be a settlement or a fight? Undoubtedly, Mr. Chairman, we have a right to give such a notice to Great Britain, but, in my judgment, the exercise of that right at this moment would not only tend to protract, embarrass, and ultimately deseat the negotiations which are now about to be opened, but would impair the honor of this nation in the estimation of the civilized world. We should be reproached and rebuked for it by the general sense of Europe. And is the American character abroad at so high a mark at this moment, that we can afford to trifle with it? True, Sir, many of the censures which have recently been cast on this Republic are unreasonable. Perhaps I might agree with the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania, that the attacks which have been made upon the character and honesty of his own Commonwealth, and which seem to have so sharpened the edge of his acrimony against England, are a good deal overcharged. At any rate, I feel as strongly as any one the injustice of involving the whole nation in the repudiation of two or three of the separate States; and the same discrimination between the acts of individual States and the acts of the United States may, I am aware, be pleaded in explanation of other circumstances which have brought reproach from some quarters upon our national good name. But the fact is not less true, nor less lamentable, that our character as a nation, in one way or another, justly or unjustly, has been not a little lowered, of late years, in the regard of foreign nations. Now, Sir, for whatever we do in relation to this question of Oregon, we can set up no divided responsibility. The Nation, as a Nation, must

do whatever is done; and the Nation, as a Nation, must be held answerable. Let us, then, forbear from pursuing any course, from taking any step, from expressing any purpose, which may give color to a new stain upon our national character. Let us desist from all action and all discussion of this subject until Mr. Pakenham has, at least, opened his budget, and until our own Government, too, is in a condition to pursue with vigor and effect whatever policy we may ultimately be compelled to adopt.

But the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania finds nothing to regret in the state of opinion abroad as to the American character; he even rejoices at the violent and vituperative tone of the British press in relation to his own State. And why? Because he thinks it may have a tendency to counteract the idolatrous disposition which exists in some parts of this country towards Great Britain! Mr. Chairman, I know of nothing more worthy of condemnation in the political history of the present day, than the systematic effort of the self-styled Democratic party of this country to stir up a prejudice against England upon every occasion, and to create an impression that every man who does not fall in with their principles and their policy is in some sort of British interest, or under some kind of British influence. There are some of the leaders of this party, with whom hatred to England would seem to be the only standard of American patriotism, and with whom it seems to be enough to determine their course upon all questions either of right or of expediency, to know what will be most offensive to the British power. War, war with England, is the ever-burning passion of their soul; and any one who pursues a policy or advocates a measure which may postpone or avert the consummation which they so devoutly desire, becomes the chosen object of their insinuations and reproaches. For myself, Sir, I hold in utter contempt all such insinuations. If it be a fit subject for reproach, to entertain the most anxious and ardent desire for the peace of this country, its peace with England, its peace with all the world, I submit myself willingly to the fullest measure of that reproach. War between the United States and Great Britain for Oregon! Sir, there is something in this idea too monstrous to be enter tained for a moment. The two greatest nations on the globe,

with more territorial possessions than they know what to do with already, and bound together by so many ties of kindred, and language, and commercial interest, going to war for a piece of barren earth! Why, it would put back the cause of civilization a whole century, and would be enough not merely to call down the rebuke of men, but the curse of God. I do not yield to the honorable gentleman in a just concern for the national honor. I am ready to maintain that honor, whenever it is really at stake, against Great Britain as readily as against any other nation. Indeed, if war is to come upon us, I am quite willing that it should be war with a first-rate power-with a foeman worthy of our steel.

"Oh! the blood more stirs,

To rouse a lion, than to start a hare."

If the young Queen of England were the veritable Victoria whom the ancient poets have sometimes described as descending from the right hand of Jupiter to crown the banner of predestined Triumph, I would still not shrink from the attempt to vindicate the rights of my country on every proper occasion. To her forces, however, as well as to ours, may come the "cita mors," as well as the "Victoria lata." We have nothing to fear from a protracted war with any nation, though our want of prepara. tion might give us the worst of it in the first encounter. We are all and always ready for war, when there is no other alternative for maintaining our country's honor. We are all and always ready for any war into which a Christian man, in a civilized land, and in this age of the world, can have the face to enter. But I thank God that there are very few such cases. War and honor are fast getting to have less and less to do with each other. The highest honor of any country is to preserve peace, even under provocations which might justify war. The deepest disgrace to any country is to plunge into war under circumstances which leave the honorable alternative of peace. I heartily hope and trust, Sir, that in deference to the sense of the civilized world, in deference to that spirit of Christianity which is now spreading its benign and healing influences over both hemispheres with such signal rapidity, we shall explore the whole field of diplo macy, and exhaust every art of negotiation, before we give loose