try; who is afraid to raise the cry and sound the alarm when the Union and the Constitution are in imminent peril. He is a traitor who, for hope of reward, for party aggrandizement, or executive favor, sells his own integrity, and betrays the honor and true interests of the country.

"The question whether the 'immortal fourteen,' as they have been so often sneeringly denominated, are indeed cowards and traitors-whether they are right or wrong, they, I think, will be willing to submit to the decision of coming times and after generations. From the decision of good and wise men and true patriots, even now, I shall take no appeal. If the gentlemen with whom I have the honor to be associated in this impeachment made by the commander-in-chief of the naval and military forces, and by his retainers and partisans, the Trays, Blanches, and Sweethearts, who have dutifully joined in the cry, ask for another day and a new hearing; if they appeal from the decision of a few men, mad with the din of war, drunk with a surfeit of blood, and thirsting for more, I can only advise them. to call for witnesses as to the origin, propriety, and necessity of this war, such statesmen as Van Buren, Calhoun, Benton, and many others, once good enough Democrats, but now in danger of being turned over to the Federal side. By this charge of treason I have been often amused, but never disturbed or annoyed. The President, in his message of December 8th, that same most remarkable of all political fictions, says: 'It is a subject of congratulation that there has been no period in our past history when all the elements of national prosperity have been so fully developed. Since your last session, no afflicting dispensation has visited our country! The successor of Washington —but with what immense difference of dignity!-accuses those who represent this war as unjust and unnecessary, of giving aid and comfort' to the enemy. I am not accountable to the President for my opinions or my votes. My voice is free, and so shall be my vote. I do not submit to his dictation. I was sent here to exercise my independent judgment, not to be the mere instrument of registering the executive will. I do, however, acknowledge my accountability to my constituents. Since this accusation was made by the President, the people, by their verdict, have decided whether they think me a traitor or a true In an election held on the 28th of that same month of

man.

December, the President's cry of aid and comfort,' echoed by the party press, yet ringing in their ears, the people of my district have re-elected me by more than two thousand votes over my miscalled Democratic competitor. From this decision I can have no desire to take an appeal. It is worthy of remark, that all the others of the calumniated fourteen, who were candidates, have been re-elected.

be

"We have been warned that opposition to this war would make us unpopular. An honest, independent freeman will ask, Is the measure right? not, Will it be popular? He may willing to court popular favor, but he will never become her slave. Popularity, he knows, may be gained with little merit, and lost by as little fault. In the morning it may put forth the fresh green leaves of perfume, in the evening they may wither and die. Popularity is a frail staff.

"A friend of the President in this House, a gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Bedinger], has said, 'He trusted it would be a war of conquest; he was not one of those who would have a mild war, who were afraid of striking heavy blows. He would show no mercy till the war was ended. If he could have his own way, one blow should follow another without mercy.' And, in the bitterness of his wrath, he did not spare these fourteen, who, he said, 'were destined to be famous in story;' and, so help him Heaven! so far as his own fame and future reputation were concerned, he would infinitely rather be the poorest volunteer whose bones moldered on the banks of the Rio Bravo, with no stone to mark his grave, no requiem but the wild bird's shriek and the howling winds, than the mightiest Whig orator who thundered forth his denunciations of the war.'

"Now I am no orator, as the gentleman is; and about the manner of living, of dying, and of burial, there may be a difference of taste; but, rather than be pierced or stabbed (perhaps in the back) by a Mexican sword or spear, or hacked by an Indian tomahawk on that savage shore,

"At once dispatch'd,

Cut off even in the blossom of my sin,

Unhousel'd, unanointed, unanneal'd,'

I should prefer, after having enjoyed all life's blessings and performed all life's duties, to wrap the drapery of my couch about me, and, without braggart boasting or unmanly fears, await my

last solemn hour. I would that my friends should drop a few natural though unavailing tears, and then that they should carry out my bier to some sequestered spot, where overarching trees might drop their autumnal leaves; and there, if the hand of affection should ever raise a stone, let it have only this inscription: A LOVER OF PEACE, OF LIBERTY, OF HIS COUNTRY—HE VOTED AGAINST THE MEXICAN WAR."

Referring to the subject of slavery, and to the prospects of its extension through the medium of the war, he said:

"For once let the South know that some Northern men have Northern principles; that, though they love their favor and approbation much, they love more the favor and approbation of their own neighbors and constituents, and still more the approbation of their own consciences. On this great question of the extension of slavery, with all its fearful consequences, let it nev er be said of any one representative of the free states that he sold his vote, and, like the base Judean,' for a few pieces of dirty silver, threw away a pearl worth more than all prospects of political advancement-worth more than all prospects of earthly enjoyment."