men by whose eloquence it had been sustained, young Tully, breathing the spirit of Roman liberty on the expiring embers, relumed and transmitted, from the banks of the Illissus to those of the Tyber, this glorious light of freedom. This mighty master of the forum, by his free discussions, both from the rostrum and in the senate-house, gave new vigor, and a longer duration of existence, to the liberty of his country. Who, more than Marcus Tullius Cicero, was loved and cherished by the friends of that country? who more feared and hated by traitors and tyrants? "Cataline, a patrician, noble and commanding in appearance, wicked in purpose, and profligate in habits; master of all elegant accomplishments, but degraded in mind by vices the most vulgar and loathsome; no man so skilled to allure and deprave youth; suppliant in deception, but audacious in betraying men of all conditions-this Cataline, this conspirator, was, by the force of free discussion, by the powerful and commanding eloquence of Tully, driven from his secret treasons against the Roman commonwealth, into open war and final ruin. "Freedom of speech, Roman eloquence, and Roman liberty, expired together, when, under the proscription of the second triumvirate, the hired bravo of Mark Antony placed in the lap of one of his profligate minions, the head and the hands of Tully, the statesman, the orator, the illustrious father of his country. After amusing herself, some hours, by plunging her bodkin through that tongue which had so long delighted the senate and the rostrum, and made Antony himself tremble in the midst of his legions, she ordered that head and those hands, the trophies of a savage despotism, to be set up in the forum. Her last good man, dejected Rome ador'd; Wept for her patriot slain, and curs'd the tyrant's sword.' "The languages of such ancient nations as most cherished free discussion, survived the political existence of those nations; and the most finished debates and speeches of their most distinguished orators and statesmen, preserved by the labors of the pen, have, brought through the dark ages, been delivered down to modern times; and this achieveinent was done by a preserv ing care, and a solicitude, not less pious and persevering than that of him, the illustrious refuge of the old world, who embarked, and brought over the flood, the survivors of the deluge, to re-people the earth, and renovate the human race. "English statesmen and orators, in the free discussions of the English Parliament, have been formed on those illustrious models of Greek and Roman policy and eloquence. Multiplied by the teeming labors of the press, the works of the master and the disciple have come to our hands; and the eloquence of Chatham, of Burke, of Fox, and of the younger Pitt, reaches us, not in the feeble and evanescent voice of tradition, but preserved and placed before the eye, on the more imperishable page. Neither these great originals, nor their improved transcripts, have been lost to our country. The American political school of free discussion, has enriched the nation with some distinguished scholars; and Dexter, and Morris, and Pinckney, will not soon be forgotten by our country, or by the literary world. "Sir, those models of ancient and modern policy and eloquence, formed in the great school of free discussion, both in earlier and later times, are in the hands of thousands of youth, who are now in all parts of our country forming themselves for the public service. This Hall is the bright goal of their generous, patriotic, and glorious ambition. Sir, they look hither, with a feeling not unlike that devotion felt by the pilgrim, as he looks towards some venerated shrine. Do not, I implore you, do not by your decision this day, abolish the rights of liberty consecrated in this place. Extinguish not those fires on her altar, which should here, be eternal. Suffer not the rude hand of this more than Vandal violence, to demolish 'from turret to foundation stone,' this last sanctuary of Freedom. "I call on the whole House-to you, the majority of this House, I now more especially appeal. You know me as no partizan of the distinguished individual, who now holds the ruling power of this nation. No vote of mine aided in placing him in the Executive chair. Could party stratagem ever be mingled by me with great questions of national interest and honor; if the instruments of operation, might in any case, be consecrated by the purposes which put them in motion, I would have labored to induce you to send the respondent away, unrebuked, from this hall; that you might thereby, have fixed on the character of this administration, a coloring of infamy more enduring, on the page of history, than that leprosy on the human form, which the stream of time through a thousand descents, could never wash out of the human blood. "Preserve then, I conjure you, preserve the Constitution; preserve the independence of the Legislature; the honor, the character, the fame, of the Executive. Preserve the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press. This is the first outrage on all-all that is dear-all that is glorious: say, for you only can say, it shall be the last." CHAPTER XI I. Mr. Burges submits Resolutions on the Tariff.-Speaks on Mr. Verplanck's Bill on the Tariff. -Extracts from his Speech. DURING the Session of 1833, when the Bill submitted by Mr. Verplanck upon the Tariff System was under consideration, Mr. Burges submitted a set of Resolutions upon the whole subject of the protective policy. In the preamble to these Resolutions, the complaints on the part of those opposed to the System were recited--to wit; that the power of laying duties on foreign imports, had been tyrannically and unequally exercised by the majority in Congress; that thereby the plantation States were oppressed, and compelled to pay more than their proportion of duties; that the same States had also been compelled to pay a large amount of duties upon the exportation of their staple products; and that the money so exacted, by the usurped powers of Congress, had been lavished in bounties to manufacturers in the North, and especially in New-England; in expenditures on works intended exclusively for the benefit of the labor and capital of those States; that the effect of such representations was, to lead the people of the plantation States into error concerning the disposition of the public money, in bounties and public works; and as it was now proposed to abandon the protective policy of 1787, to lay duties on imports solely for purposes of revenue and so as to equalize the burden of impost and taxation on all the States. Such an adjustment could not be made without a knowledge of the quantities and kind of foreign goods, consumed in each State, and required by the trade, habits, and wants of the people. This information was desirable for the National Legislature, and for all interests and all sections of the United States. The Resolution proposed the appointment of a Committee of one member from each State, to inquire, respecting; 1st-The amount of money paid by the people of each State, on foreign goods imported, on its domestic productions exported, on all tonnage of vessels owned therein; the number of seamen to each State, the amount of money paid to the Marine Hospital Fund; the amount of postage paid; - also on distilled spirits; the amount received by each State, for drawbacks and debentures; the number of vessels employed in the fisheries, bounties on manufactures, and of what kinds; the amount expended on public works; for transporting the mail, and for supporting the military establishments therein. 2d--The amount of exports from each State; designating articles of foreign and domestic production, the amount of duty payable thereon, the population of each State, and the average amount payable by each person-the amount and value of the productions, with the market price of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, bread-stuffs, provisions, salt, distilled spirits, silk, wool, fish, oil, lumber, manufactures, of what and each kind, the current prices of such articles in England and France, the cost and charges, and the amount of duties and bounties, on importation, or exportation, in those countries. This Committee, it was proposed, should be appointed by ballot; and that it should consist of one from each State; and be clothed with power to send for persons and papers, and to report in detail the above particulars in relation to all the States. From this abstract of the Resolution, it will be observed, that it reached the very foundation of the protective policy; and met the question upon the broad ground of facts and figures, and altogether discarded sophistry, speculation, and theory. It, however, was not acted upon by the House; because the Bill afterwards introduced by Mr. Clay, superseded further action. It is on file among the public documents; and there it will remain, illustrative of the practical wisdom and enlarged views of its author. At this Session, Mr. Burges delivered in Committee of the Whole House, another speech upon the Tariff Question. The |