poise and scatter the multitudinous waters of the world, if divided into drops; but united in rivers and seas, it foams in waves, it roars in cataracts, and the barriers of the ocean are beaten down, the mountains cloven asunder, by the resistless deluge. A breath of air is melody in the flute, refreshment in the breeze of summer evening; and you may stop it with your finger, or repel it with a veil of gauze; but, pressed into the blustering battalions of the winds, it is a gale, a storm, a hurricane: it rends from the mountain oak its limbs; sweeps away the labors of the year; and, seizing the ruffian billows by the top,' mingles the depths of ocean with the stars of heaven. My countrymen, send up a prayer for 'LIBERTY, GLORY, AND UNION.'" A PART II. SPEECH ON THE JUDICIARY. MR. MERCER of Virginia, introduced a resolution in relation to the Judiciary of the United States, in the House of Representatives, in December, 1825; which was subsequently modified as follows: "Resolved, That the Bill, be re-committed to the Committee, that brought it in, with an instruction so to amend it, as to discharge the Judges of the Supreme Court from attendance on the Circuit Court of the United States; and further to provide an uniform efficient system for the administration of justice in the inferior Courts of the United States." Mr. Burges, addressed the House in the following SPEECH. MR. SPEAKER-Unused to occasions like the present, and without any practice, other than forensic, I find myself, unadvisedly, engaged in deliberative debate, where nothing is worthy of attention, unless most valuable in material, and in detail most finished. If I could now fairly retreat, it would be impossible for me to proceed. Abandoning myself, therefore, to your candor, Sir, and that of the House, I will look to the question for that support which a great question never fails to afford. This great question is the entire Judiciary of the United States. It was placed before Congress by the President; has been by this House referred to the appropriate committee; and they have detailed to us the great judicial diseases of the country, and proposed, by this Bill, a remedy for them. It, therefore, concerns the adminis tration of national justice, and our attention is moreover loudly called to it by a great and respectable portion of the American People. The resolution moved by the honorable gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Mercer,) proposes a recommittment of the whole subject; to the intent that, the Judiciary, built at several times, and in distinct parcels, may be re-edified into one great whole, and accommodated to the present and future wants of the nation. The system of the Bill is a Supreme Court, holding one term only, each year, sitting at Washington only; and beginning that term on the first Monday of February, as now is done; a Circuit Court, according to the present Circuits, and four new ones, to be formed from the Circuit and the Districts comprehending the nine States in the Valley of the Mississippi. These ten Circuits are to embrace all the Districts in the United States, excepting those of West New-York, West Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, alone. In every District but these three, District Judges alone shall be compelled to sustain District jurisdiction only, hold District rank, and receive District salary; in these three, with the same pay, and same rank, they shall be obliged to perform Circuit duties, and sustain Circuit jurisdiction. In each of the other Districts, formed into ten Circuits, justice shall be administered by a Circuit Judge, sustaining the jurisdiction, holding the rank, and receiving the salary, of a Circuit Judge and a Supreme Judge, at the same time; and these, united together, shall form a Supreme Court of ten Judges. These, Sir, are the peculiar provisions of the Bill. The resolution is intended to embrace another system. Each District shall remain as now. All the Districts of the United States shall be formed into ten Circuits. The whole United States shall be arranged into three great Supreme Court Departments; an Eastern, a Central, and a Western. In each District, as now, shall be a District Court, holden as at present, by the same Judge, with the same jurisdiction, rank, and salary. In each Circuit shall be a Circuit Court, holden at the same times and places as at present, and a Circuit Judge shall be appointed for each Circuit, with only Circuit Court salary, rank, and jurisdiction. In each of the Supreme Court Departments, shall be holden a term of the Supreme Court once in each year. At Washington, Philadelphia, or Richmond, on the first Monday of January; at Columbus, Lexington, or a city in Tennessee, once in each year, on the first Monday in June; and at |