thought of sending an ambassador, or consul, or commercial agent to the sovereign and independent nation of South Carolina? Simply because South Carolina is not a nation, is not an independent, is not a sovereignty.

"Nations contract more intimate relations with each other, by treaties, sometimes for purposes of coinmerce, and at others, for defence. No foreign nation has ever proposed to form any treaty with any State in this Union. This has happened, not because the Constitution, forbids such States, to make such treaties; but because all foreign communities know, that no one of these States is, or can be, under our Constitution, such an independent and sovereign community, as can be admitted as a nation, into the great family of nations, and form treaties of alliance, amity, or commerce.

"Nations conduct commercial intercourse on the high seas and elsewhere, by national ships, designated by national names, covered by a national flag, authenticated by registers, clearances, rolls of equipage; and navigated by mariners such as the laws of nations may require, or by regulations, such as treaties among them have established. It is this national character of ships, and the national manner of their navigation, which conducts the ships of all civilized nations over the ocean, through every sea, and into all ports. Send out a ship, without these characteristics of nationality; without a name, a clearance, or a flag; and how would she be viewed by foreign nations? As a pirate. Has any State in this Union, ever sent out a ship, under its own authority? Why not? Because no such State is sovereign, no such State is a nation; and no foreign nation would receive into its ports, or regard on the high seas, any such ship so sent out by any such State, any otherwise than as a pirate. Foreign nations know us by our flag, our ships, our commerce, our consuls, public ministers, and treaties; and by all these, they know us as citizens of the United States; as the people of a nation, and not merely as the inhabitants of any one State of this Union. No matter how large, how wealthy, how populous any State may be; the inhabitants of it, are in the account, and in the eyes of all nations, citizens of the United States, Americans; a title as much more imposing than that which any one State could bestow on her citizens, as the entire argent field of our national flag, furrowed with so many stripes, and adorned by a whole constellation, is more glorious and gladdening in the eyes of mariners, than the ensign of a single State, though ornamented by the palmetto leaf, and enlightened by a solitary star.

"If any State in this Union, encouraged by the hostile example of South Carolina, should raise an army, fit out a navy, grant letters of marque, and declare war against-no matter what foreign people; would they be regarded as a nation, and treated as such, by the nations of the earth? Would their war be a lawful war, their ships national ships; or would it be piratical, and their ships be adjudged to be mere corsairs; and all found on board, as pirates, the enemies, not of a single nation only, but of all mankind? This would not be done, because, by our Constitution, no State can declare war, raise armies or navies, or grant letters of marque and reprisal; but because no State is a nation, a sovereign community, admitted into the family of nations, and capable of sending and receiving ambassadors, forming treaties, declaring war, and making peace. Such an act would be, it is true, a violation of the Constitution; and in relation to the American People, the United States, open rebellion; but, in relation to other nations, it would be neither more nor less than piracy.

"There can be but one sovereignty, one supreme power, touching the same things, in the same territory. If each State be the supreme power, in all things in its own territory, then the United States is no sovereignty, and has no supreme power, any where, in any thing. If the United States be the supreme power within the whole territory thereof, touching all things, granted to them by the people under the Constitution, then is the United States a sovereignty, and the people thereof a nation; but of the several States, the holding all the power not thus granted, over the life, liberty, and property, of all the people within their several territories; yet not one of them is a sovereignty, not one of them is a nation.

"The theory of Nullification depends on the fact that the United States is not a sovereignty, a nation; but that each one of the several States is a sovereignty, a nation; and because all sovereignties are equal, no tribunal can decide between them, when they have been wronged by an unconstitutional law; and each, therefore, must, and can decide for itself, by nullifying such law. If the United States, on the contrary, be a nation, it must be endowed with sovereign power, in the legislative, judicial, and executive departments of that power, in all things granted by the Constitution; and because the States are not sovereignties, not nations, their claim, as sovereigns, as nations, to adjudicate and nullify Congressional laws because unconstitutional, is at an end; and all such questions must arise, not between sovereignties, as the nullifiers contend they do arise, but between the United States and the citizens of the United States; and do, therefore, fall within the -jurisdiction of the judicial power granted by the people under the Constitution to the Supreme Court, or such other courts as may be established by Congress."

It was supposed by many, that Mr. Burges had endeavored to irritate the feelings of the South, on the question of Slavery. But he has always, as has been before remarked, labored to conciliate those feelings, by disclosing what he believed to be the prevailing sentiments and principles of the North, concerning slavery. "I have told them," says he, "that the votaries of universal emancipation are few in number, not more numerous in the North than in the South. They are considered as aiming at things impossible, if not pernicious; and from the great mass of public opinion, they receive as much countenance or encouragement in the South as they do in the North. The great and highly respectable body of The Friends, I have told them, who had done so much in Europe and America, for suppressing the slave trade, would, so soon as it might be done, with justice to masters, and with benefit to slaves, give freedom to the whole human race. Those men devoted to the great principles of Christianity, 'Peace on earth, and good will to man,' would never tarnish their good purposes, by effecting them by any evil means; nor ever dissolve the relation between master and slave, unless they could do it by the mutual consent of both. They have been further told by me, in open debate, that the great body of Northern people were, from constitutional principles, and from political feelings, utterly opposed to all interference between the master and the slave. They believed that the laws of their country have forbidden to them the right, and they felt, that their own interests did not give to them the inclination, to interfere in the great race of emulation, among the several States, for wealth, power, and political influence. The people of the North have felt that slavery was a burthen upon their fellow-citizens of the South, which impeded them in their course : and that no principle of charity commanded, but every principle of worldly wisdom forbade them, to touch this burthen, with so much as one of their fingers, until those who carried it, became fairly weary with the load, and called on them sincerely for aid in laying it down."

Of African Colonization he has likewise spoken in the freest and most decided terms of approbation. But he has not joined the Society for that purpose; because he believed he might be more useful to the great object, without doing so; and because he will not give occasion to Southern men to say that he has united and pledged himself to an association hostile to their interests. It has often been said by him, on the floor of Congress, "that Colonization was the great and perhaps only means by which our country could ever be relieved from the burden of slavery; that in no other way could America, and the Christian world, discharge the onerous debt, owed by them to Africa. For at an early period, that quarter of the globe sent out, and spread over the world, the light of letters, science, and civilization. The return made for these blessings has been, beyond all measure, unjust and cruel. The nations of the earth have not only established, on her soil, the most unrelenting tyranny; but they have dragged her unoffending children into every quarter of the world; and from generation to generation, chained them down, father and son, to a load of perpetual slavery. Colonization, by founding a state in Western Africa, may establish there, equal laws, free institutions, and republican government. Migration, at first small, but gradually increasing, will fill up their numbers; and in a few generations, the whole coast will be covered with well-informed, well-regulated, and powerful communities. Perseverance, prudence, Christian charity, and the aid of Divine Providence, will finally finish this great scheme of philanthropy; and not only relieve the United States from what may otherwise rend them asunder; but send back to Africa her own children, free, and enabled to enrich and enlighten their mother country, with letters, science, cultivation, and Christianity."

1 Besides the discourses and speeches noticed in the preceding pages, Mr. Burges has delivered many others; indeed, so numerous are they, that it would have been impracticable to have detailed the whole. Perhaps he is never more successful, than when he addresses his fellow-citizens of Rhode-Island, preparatory to their elections. On such occasions, where it would seem almost impossible to tread on classic ground, he frequently introduces allusions so beautiful, that the hearer supposes the idea could not be conveyed without their assistance. Few men in our country, we imagine, are more happy in unpremeditated remarks, and few can command in a popular meeting, attention so profound.