FINAL TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY. 133 than such a comparison to wound my pride of personal character. The anger of its tone rescued the remark from intentional irony, which otherwise, probably, would have been its general acceptation. But, sir, if it be imagined, that by this mutual quotation and commendation; if it be supposed, that by casting the characters of the drama, assigning to each his part; to one the attack; to another the cry of onset: or, if it be thought, that by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory, any laurels are to be won here; if it be imagined, especially, that any or all of these things will shake any purpose of mine, I can tell the honorable member, once for all, that he is greatly mistaken, and that he is dealing with one of whose temper and character he has yet much to learn. Sir, I shall not allow myself, on this occasion, to be betrayed into any loss of temper; but if provoked, as I trust I shall never allow myself to be, into crimination and recrimination, the honorable member may, perhaps, find, that, in that contest, there will be blows to take as well as blows to give; that others can state comparisons as significant, at least, as his own, and that his impunity may, perhaps, demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he may possess. I commend him to a prudent husbandry of his resources. XCVI.-FINAL TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY. DEM. REVIEW. THE naked right of a people to change their government none but the sturdiest adherents of unrelenting despotism will deny. But in the practical determination of a change, parties will inevitably arise; they will arrange themselves under the operation of necessary influences and principles springing from the diversity of human nature. The interests fostered by established systems, through the natural instinct of selfishness, will speedily form themselves into conservative bands. Their dependants, through all the ramifications of society, will hasten to swell the same ranks; while the naturally timid, dubious as to the virtue of their fellow-men, averse to change, conjuring up dismal prospects of future anarchy and misrule, will enlist under the same banners. So there will be gathered the wealth and fashion which draws its existence from old customs and laws—the privilege which subsists on ancient error-and the talent which, accustomed to profound veneration, never travels beyond a beaten track. They will be met, on the other hand, by the untutored yet unsophisticated mass, and those bold, independent men of genius who intuitively seize the right, and labor with fearless self-denying energy for human progress. The contest will be intense, as the interests and principles involved are great. As it embraces the great doctrines of science, the first truths of government, the welfare of nations, and the destinies of a race, a long warfare will infringe on the civilities of life, will break the restraints of law, will estrange friends, will throw the sword into families, and give rein to the wildest excesses of passion. Yet it is not difficult to tell where victory will perch. The rights and happiness of the many will prevail. Democracy must finally reign. There is in man an eternal principle of progress which no power on earth may resist. Every custom, law, science, or religion, which obstructs its course, will fall as leaves before the wind. Already it has done much, but will do more. The despotism of force, the absolutism of religion, the feudalism of wealth, it has laid on the crimson field; while the principle, alive, unwounded, vigorous, is still battling against nobility and privilege with unrelaxing strength. It is contending for the extinction of tyranny, for the abolition of prerogative, for the reform of abuse, for the amelioration of government, for the destruction of monopoly, for the establishment of justice, for the elevation of the masses, for the progress of humanity, and for the dignity and worth of the individual man. In this great work it has a mighty and efficient aid-Christianity, self-purified and self-invigorated, is its natural ally-Christianity struck the first blow at the vitals of unjust power. The annunciations of its lofty Teacher embodied truths after which the nations in their dim twilight had long struggled in vain. These potent doctrines were the inherent dignity, the natural equality, the spiritual rights, the glorious hopes, of man. They addressed the individual apart from social rank or position. Piercing the thick obscurity which ages of darkness have gatheredremoving the obstructions of heaped-up falsehood and fraud -they speak to oppressed, down-trodden man. They speak to him in a voice of infinite power; they touch the chords of sensibility, and expand his soul to free, generous action; they AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION. 135 awaken hope; they administer consolation; they cherish the sense of personal worth; they strengthen faith in truth; they reveal the highest excellence; they demand unceasing progress; they worship the soul as of higher importance than all outward worlds. cess! The movement of man, then, must be onward. The virtue of earth, and the holiness of Heaven, are pledged to his support. May God hasten the day of his complete final sucThen will the downcast look up, then will the earth be glad, then will a broad shout of rejoicing break through the concave of heaven, and be echoed back from the thrones on high. XCVII.-AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION. J. C. ISACKS. Is not this power in the hands of Congress liable to abuse? I put it to the members of this House to answer me that question, from what we know of ourselves; from what we have seen and believe with respect to others; from the circumstances which surround us; from the motives which may actuate; the influence which may be exerted upon us; our proneness to temptation; our love of power; and a thousand other considerations, which the mind, honestly in search of truth, cannot help but find. Are we prepared to say that this power is not liable to abuse here? No, sir, we cannot, we know that it may be-that it can be abused; then send it away-part with it at once-give it up to its rightful owners-take off the broad reproach of suspicion which rests upon us―restore the Representatives of the People to what they were chosen for, and what the Constitution intended them to be legislators, and nothing but legislators. Let us resume the dignity of our stations and the importance of our characters. Gentlemen speak of the confidence which should be felt and maintained for Congress-the dignity of its members. I hope it will so decide this question, as to entitle it to a nation's confidence, and by preserving its purity, secure, unshaken, that confidence. As to the rest, God. preserve its members from the dignity of office brokers and President makers. We want no Warwicks, with their vassals, here-no king-makers, that would disgrace the name of Nevil! Gentlemen attempt to divert our attention from the defects in the Constitution, by expressing a reverence for its framers approaching to idolatry. Sir, to those who shared in the struggle for independence, and laid the deep foundations of our Government, I claim an equal participation in rendering the full tribute of regard which is due to mortal man. They gave us the charter of our liberty; they could not, Heaven did not give us a charter of exemption from the weakness and the wickedness of human nature. No, sir, in the days of our Fathers, the golden age of pristine purity-when, according to one gentleman on this floor, the political little finger" of our statesmen could almost work miracles; and, according to another, the palest star in that firmament outshone the whole galaxy of these degenerate times-even then our country produced an Arnold! And who was Arnold? Some obscure, degraded, scape-gallows felon ? No, sir, no; he was found in front of the foremost rank of patriots, with a wreath of glory on his brow, which the rough hand of time could not tear away-this man became a traitor! XCVIII.-MISSION TO PANAMA. DANIEL WEBSTER. We are told that the country is deluded and deceived by cabalistic words. Cabalistic words! If we express an emotion of pleasure at the results of this great action of the spirit of political liberty; if we rejoice at the birth of new Republican nations, and express our joy by the common terms of regard and sympathy; if we feel and signify high gratification that, throughout this whole continent, men are now likely to be blessed by free and popular institutions; and if in the uttering of these sentiments, we happen to speak of sister Republics, of the great American family of Nations, or of the political systems and forms of government of this hemisphere; then, indeed, it seems, we deal in senseless jargon, or impose upon the judgment and feeling of the community by cabalistic words! Sir, what is meant by this? Is it intended that the people of the United States ought to be totally indifferent to the fortunes of these new neighbors? Is no change, in the lights in which we are to view them, to be wrought, by MISSION TO PANAMA. 137 their having thrown off foreign dominion, established independence, and instituted on our very borders, Republican governments, essentially after our own example? If it be a weakness to feel a strong interest in the success of these great revolutions, I confess myself guilty of that weakness. If it be weak to feel that I am an American, to think that recent events have not only opened new modes of intercourse, but have created also new grounds of regard and sympathy between ourselves and our neighbors; if it be weak to feel that the South, in her present state, is somewhat more emphatically part of America than when she lay obscure, oppressed, and unknown, under the grinding bondage of a foreign power; if it be weak to rejoice, when, even in any corner of the earth, human beings are able to get up from beneath oppression, to erect themselves, and enjoy the proper happiness of their intelligent nature; if this be weak, it is a weakness from which I claim no exemption. A day of solemn retribution now visits the overproud monarchy of Spain. The prediction is fulfilled. The spirit of Montezuma and of the Incas might now well say, "Art thou, too, fallen, Iberia? Do we see The robber and the murderer weak as we ? In We cannot be so blind, we cannot so shut up our senses, and smother our faculties, as not to see that, in the progress and establishment of South American liberty, our own example has been among the most stimulating causes. That great light-a light which can never be hid—the light of our own glorious Revolution, has shone on the path of the South American Patriots, from the beginning of their course. their emergencies, they have looked to our experience. In their political institutions, they have followed our models. In their deliberations, they have invoked the presiding Spirit of our own Liberty. They have looked steadily, in every adversity, to the GREAT NORTHERN LIGHT. In the hour of bloody conflict, they have remembered the fields which have been consecrated by the blood of our fathers; and when they have fallen, they have wished only to be remembered with them, as men who had acted their parts bravely, for the cause of Liberty in the Western World. |