finally, the President is reduced to the condition of the chief officer of this House, and the heads of department become the first clerks of its committees.

The President being demolished, the party proceeds with new vigor, and greater forces, to attack the senate, which, deprived of the support of the executive, is speedily overthrown. The House says to the senate, "unless you conform to our will, we lay our hands on the purse strings, and stop the wheels of government. Should a contest ensue, we are sure to be uppermost; for we are the immediate representatives of the people. We adore the people; nay, we are the people themselves. Therefore beware of a contest in which you have every thing to lose, and we are certain of gaining."

The senate, enfeebled and dismayed, yields by degrees to these powerful arguments, and this House remains victorious, with all power in its hands. It proceeds to appoint a committee of exterior relations, a committee of interior relations, a committee of justice, a committee of finance, and so on, and a new French Convention arises to view, where principles are set at naught, caprice is law, and the whim of the moment disposes of all public and private rights. Then follow confiscations and banishments, and a long train of tyrannical excesses ever attendant on popular bodies, in whose hands the whole powers of government have been concentrated, from the Assemblies of people at Athens, and the Comitia at Rome, down to the Rump Parliament of England, and the French Convention. Then will the member who shall possess the most art, the greatest eloquence, and the most daring spirit of enterprize, speedily form a party, by means of which, he will enslave the House, and rule the country. Should there be several of equal, or nearly equal strength, they will first divide the power among themselves; but their union will be fallacious and short. They will be employed in attempting to circumvent or undermine each other; divisions will soon arise, and

mortal quarrels will ensue; till at length the rest will sink beneath the overbearing genius of one, and he will establish his dominion uncontrolled. This is the liberty which gentlemen, should their schemes succeed, will sooner or later bestow on the country; the liberty of a few bold, able, ambitious men, to do what they please, and of the rest of the community to obey them. This, Mr. Chairman, may be very pleasant liberty, for those who are to be possessed of power; but for me and the rest of the community it has no charms, and I shall, therefore, omit no opportunity of resisting its first and most distant approaches.

Should any one object, that this state of things must be extremely distant, I beg him to recollect how short a space intervened, between the throne of Louis the Sixteenth and the scaffold on which he bled; between the absolute power of Neckar, and the despotism of Marat; between the splendid fortune of so many distinguished families, and the dungeon or the guillotine. Governments like ours, Mr. Chairman, may be compared to the planetary system, whose preservation depends entirely on the exact preservation of its balance. The exact balance between the centrifugal force and the power of gravitation, retains the planets in their orbits; but should some angel of destruction push them out of those orbits, though in ever so small a degree, the balance is lost; one power gains what is taken from the other, and these immense bodies, whose beautiful and regular play furnishes the greatest wonder of creation, fly out and are lost in boundless space, or rush to the sun with increasing and incalculable velocity, and there are mingled in one mighty ruin. Should the gentleman from Pennsylvania succeed in his present attempt, he becomes the angel of destruction to our beautiful constitution. He destroys the happy balance of its powers; and the approximation of the different departments, though slow and gradual at first, would become more rapid as it advanced, and speedily produce that concentration of power in this

House, which seems to be the object of all that gentleman's labors and cares.

It is this view of the subject, Mr. Chairman, that stimulates me to oppose this amendment, with the utmost perseverance and zeal: not that I apprehend great mischief from this particular measure, could it be viewed singly and by itself; but that I regard it as a part of a system, wholly incompatible with the existence of this government, or the happiness of this country. I regard the gentleman from Pennsylvania and his friends, in the light of an enemy, who has commenced a siege against the fortress of the constitution. He proceeds at first by cautious steps, and endeavors to make a lodgment by surprise, in some strong and advantageous outwork, from whence he may direct a more efficacious attack against the citadel itself. On this advanced ground, in this outwork, I hold it wise to resist him; convinced that success here would be the prelude to a bolder and more dangerous assault, and that all the guns which he can now carry, will immediately be turned upon our remaining fortifications.

I must now be allowed, Mr. Chairman, to say a few words as to the expediency of this measure, as to the utility of foreign ministers. To one side of the House, to me and those with whom I usually act, it is sufficient to say, that the President has thought fit to appoint foreign ministers; for we are convinced, that the right of judging on this subject, has been given exclusively to him and the senate, by the people of this country, and that when he and the senate have thought fit to exercise this right, by appointing a minister to this or that place, or of this or that grade, nothing is left for this House, but to provide an adequate salary. But other gentlemen hold a different opinion, and contend, that we may not only inquire how much the salary ought to be, but also whether the appointment itself be necessary. To gentlemen who sincerely hold this opinion, I address my remaining observations.

The gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Gallatin,)

has asserted, that ministers have nothing to do with the interests of commerce, except to make commercial treaties; while the care of seeing those treaties duly executed, and the commercial rights of individuals properly protected, belongs to consuls. Hence he infers, that foreign ministers are useless; because, we have no need to form more commercial connexions, and ought to have no political connexions, with foreign nations. In order to prove that we ought to make no more commercial treaties, he contends, that we have received much more harm than good from those already made. This is the whole amount of this part of the gentleman's argument, which includes two thirds of his long and ingenious speech; and it is wholly built on the assertion, that "commercial interests are managed by consuls, while ministers have nothing to do with commerce, except the making of treaties for its regulation." This assertion has been already refuted, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, though he has made it the groundwork of his whole reasoning, has not attempted to prove it. For this he had very good reasons; for he well knows it to be wholly unfounded; and therefore he has contented himself with asserting it, and taking it for granted. I say, he well knows it to be unfounded, because, that gentleman is well read in the law of nations, the writers on which, as well as its maxims and doctrines, we often see him adduce with much dexterity and learning, when they suit his purpose. Now, Mr. Chairman, I may, I think, venture to affirm, that there is no student in any college, who has read the indexes of some elementary books on the law of nations, but knows, that it is the peculiar business of ministers, not only to make commercial treaties, but to watch over their execution, and to take care that the commercial rights of their country, under the law of nations, as well as under treaties, are preserved inviolate. This is a business with which consuls never interfere, and to which they are wholly inadequate; not only from the na

ture and powers of their appointment, but also from their local circumstances and situation. All this the gentleman from Pennsylvania well knows; and yet he has asserted, that every thing respecting the interests of our commerce in foreign countries, except the formation of commercial treaties, can be and is transacted by consuls, without the interference of ministers. This assertion is the loose block on which, for want of a better foundation, he has rested the whole edifice of his reasonings; and this block I mean to knock away. A very slight stroke will be sufficient for the purpose.

In what manner, Mr. Chairman, is the observance of a treaty of commerce, with any country, to be enforced? In what manner are infractions of such a treaty, or of the laws of nations, to be prevented or redressed? Is it not by applications to the government of that country; by representations, by remonstrances, by negociations? The gentleman from Pennsylvania will not answer in the negative. I know he will not. By whom then and where are these applications to be made, these representations, these remonstrances, to be presented, these negociations to be carried on? Must it be at the seat of government, by agents residing there; or at the sea-ports of the countries where the consuls reside? If the former, these agents will be ministers. You may call them by a different name, but the thing will be the same; for a public agent of one country, charged with the management of its affairs, and residing at the seat of the government of another, is the very definition of a foreign minister, by whatever name you may think fit to call him. As these transactions are, from their very nature, to be with the government itself, let us see whether they could possibly be managed by consuls

In the first place, consuls, by the established law and usage of nations, have no public, official character, and cannot be admitted to any intercourse whatever, with the governments of the countries where they reside. We may, if we please, exclaim against this usage, and

.VOL. II.

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