land shall, as Switzerland was, in truth, be 'the immolated victim, where nothing but the skin remains unconsumed by the sacrifice; New-England, as Switzerland had, shall have 'nothing left but her rocks, her ruins, and her demagogues.'

"The mind, Sir, capable of conceiving a project of mischief so gigantic, must have been early schooled, and deeply imbued with all the great principles of moral evil.

"What, then, Sir, shall we say of a spirit, regarding this event as a 'consummation devoutly to be wished?a spirit without one attribute, or one hope, of the pure in heart; a spirit which begins and ends every thing, not with prayer, but with imprecation; a spirit which blots from the great canon of petition, 'Give us this day our daily bread;' that, foregoing bodily nutriment, he may attain to a higher relish for that unmingled food, prepared and served up to a soul 'hungering and thirsting after wickedness; a spirit which, at every rising sun, exclaims, 'Hodie! hodie! Carthago delendu!" 'To-day, to-day! let NewEngland be destroyed!'

"Sir, Divine Providence takes care of his own universe. Moral monsters cannot propagate. Impotent of every thing but malevolence of purpose, they can no otherwise multiply miseries, than by blaspheming all that is pure, and prosperous, and happy. Could demon propagate demon, the universe might become a Pandemonium; but I rejoice that the Father of Lies can never become the father of liars. One 'adversary of God and man' is enough for one universe. Too much! Oh! how much too much for one nation.".!

1 Mr. Randolph could not withstand the unparalleled severity of this retort. He immediately left the Hall, and his voice was never raised there afterwards. Mr. Burges was excited to this reply, by the conduct of Mr. Randolph; who had been pouring a storm of malediction and calumny upon New-England, and the former could endure it no longer. The weapons which Mr. Randolph had wielded with such effect against others, were now returned upon his own head, with tenfold power.

N

CHAPTER V I I I.

Mr. McDuffie.--Mr. Burges replies to a Speech made by him on the Tariff.

ANOTHER gentleman, Mr. McDuffie, participated in the debate on the Tariff, and manifested a violence of feeling against New-England, not exceeded even by that of Mr. Randolph. Mr. McDuffie has been distinguished for hostility to the protective policy; and on the Resolution then under discussion, he made an argument against it, embracing the prominent objections to that measure. Mr. McDuffie has splendid talents, strong passions, and vehement enthusiasm. He is a veteran legislator, takes an important part in the deliberations of the House of Representatives, and is justly ranked among the most able politictians, in the Southern section of the country. In relation, however, to many national interests, his sentiments are too narrow and local; and his legislation, therefore, is not always adapted to secure the prosperity of the whole confederacy. Hence, he has frequently opposed the most salutary measures, seemingly because they originated in New-England, and would enhance her prosperity.1 During this session, and particularly in this debate, he exhibited more than his usual violence. Mr. Burges, in the course of his speech on the same Resolution, referred to the taunts and calumnies of Mr. McDuffie, and to the doctrines advanced by him in debate.

"Mr. Chairman," said Mr. Burges, "he who has been at sea, knows that the inhabitants of that region, sport only in foul weather. In the sunshine and the calm, when the world of water is level and unmoving, every tenant of the ocean is still, and in repose. At such a time, if any cloud gives promise of something more than gentle airs, and the winds and the waters

During the last session of Congress, Mr. McDuffie gave evidence of a patriotism, which, in these times, it is delightful to commemorate.

begin to hold controversy; then, suddenly, the whole population of the mighty realm is at once awake and in motion. Not merely the nimble dolphin gives his bright eye, and dazzling side to the sunshine; but the black, uncouth porpoise, breaks above the water, and flounces, and spouts, and goes down again. The foul cormorant, stretching his long, lean wings, soars and sinks, piping shrill notes to the restless waves. The haglet and cut-water spring into flight, and dashing over the white crest of the lofty billows, screarn their half-counter to the deep bass of the mighty ocean.

"The moral may be illustrated, by a comparison with the natural world. The passions, and the winds, the melancholy and the clouds of each, are alike dark, or tumultuary. What has produced this mighty movement of the last few days in this House? Are the unhomogeneous elements of its majority getting into controversy? Have the Northern promised to the Southern element, that they would provide a political measure, so promising to the West and the North, but so ruinous to the entire East, that all New-England must, in mass, rise up against it? Has it come to pass, that New-England has sacrificed herself, rather than disappoint the hopes, the vain and never to be realized hopes, of the North and the West? Did the South honestly vote for each, and all those specific provisions of the measure, so ruinous to New-England, and now so odious to themselves? Did they expect, when they had led themselves into temptation, that New-England would deliver them from evil? They did; they are disappointed.

"Hence the wailing, menaces, calumnies, and all the demonstrations of outrageous excitement, exhibited on this floor, by the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Randolph,) and from South Carolina, (Mr. McDuffie,) and from New-York, (Mr. Cambreling.)

"As it relates to New-England, I will make some reply. As it relates to the two parts of the majority of this House, which carried all the obnoxious provisions of this Bill, I will not hazard myself, 'within the wind of their controversy.' When cat and cat fly at each other, though the fur and skin may suffer, yet what prudent boy will risk either hands or eyes in parting the combatants; or in any attempt to interrupt the kitchen-yard melody of their courtship? When wolf and wolf are by the throat, the sheep may be secure. The sheep is connected with something more than our working-day interest. The sheep, Sir, the lamb, comes to all our Eastern, Northern and Western recollections, associated with the images of poetry, and the inspiration of religion.

"The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. McDuffie,) with truth says, 'New-England has been pathetic on sheep-slaughter.' He, who, for all his life, has regarded men as mere beasts, may be left to wonder, how men may come to connect any quadruped with any thing like sentiment or poetry. What! does this demented Ajax imagine, when he has been merely sheepkilling, that he has slain Nestor and Ithacus, Idomeneus and Diomede? What did the son of Telamon, when he discovered that he had been doing the work of a dog and not of a hero ? Sophocles will inform the learned gentleman. God forbid that I should say, and He seems to have forbidden, that the honorable gentleman should go and do likewise.'

"The dead calm which for forty days hung portentously over the Southern region of this House, has at last called up the slumbering hurricane. The tempest has been raging in this new warfare among the kindred elements of this Congress; but New-England has stood and endured all the storm of their mutual malediction.

"The several views which I intend to take of the measure now before this House, will give me occasion to consider the true nature of our great national Impost System; and, I trust, enable me as I proceed, to dissipate and scatter those clouds of calumnies, which, like flights of locusts driven along by this rude tempest, have, from the North, the extreme West, and the South, been blown upon the devoted coasts of New-England.

"I pray that the House will call to mind the course of this debate; the manner of remark on the whole Encouraging and Protecting System; the style of stricture indulged, not only, on any attempt made by me, in support of that system, but also,

the very remarkable manner, of reviewing in this debate, some of my collegiate productions; and above all, the reference made to that region of our country, which, I am prouder of having for my birth place, than was the son of Philip that he had passed the Granicus."

"When I addressed this House, during the debate on the Woollen Bill, the last session, the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. McDuffie,) rose after me; and in a bitter harangue on the whole American System, reproached me, for uttering a principle, which, as he then alleged, was an insult to the human understanding. I could not then reply. The debate was nearly closed: the hour was late: I left the gentleman to his easy and cheap triumph. I knew it was the triumph of a mind, miserably unlearned in all the great principles of our system of impost for revenue, encouragement and protection. He seems to have remembered, and I, therefore, may be excused for not forgetting, this little event. The gentleman did, on that ocсаsion, announce the heretical doctrine, that all impost, whether for revenue, encouragement, or protection, is a tax on consumption. This too is the great leading doctrine of his 'Report on the State of the Finances.' I was persuaded, the last winter, when the gentleman so loudly lavished his abuse upon me, that his hour of repentance would come. Aye, Sir, when that would come upon him, when with as deep devotion as ever St. Augustine, for any of his youthful aberrations, did penance, 'in sackcloth shirt, with scourge of thorn.' I then said, I have since said, and published the declaration, and I now do say, that all impost for protection is no tax on consumption; and that no domestic product, protected by impost, is thereby rendered dearer. I now do challenge him, I challenge any man in this House, in this nation, to name one domestic product, one article, protected by impost, and in possession of the domestic market, which is, by such impost for protection, rendered dearer to the amount of one mill. What is the article? I pause for that gentleman, or any other, to answer. No, Sir, there is no such article; not even a shoe tack, 'a hob nail.' Let the tongue of