was not justified by their acts, neither would it be. Gentlemen seemed to think that power and patriotism were identical, and because they had all of the one, they must of course, monopolize the other. But if it was glory to maintain the national rights, and vindicate the national flag, that was a glory shared equally by both sides of the House. man of the Committee of Commerce, a station which in importance is second to but one in the House. On this committee he has rendered the country essential service, as all will bear witness who regard the importance of our external and internal commerce. Amongst other labors and services in this station, the most useful and interesting was unquestionably the preparation of the report of that com "The gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Dromgoole.) has alluded to the objects of the war, and the spirit in which he would wage the contest. While he would pursue the Mexicans in a spirit of vengeance, his patriotismmittee on the memorial of the Chicago revels in the prospect of large indemnities of Convention and the veto message of Presiland and money. National honor is also to be dent Polk, which was presented to the measured by leagues; and all our wrongs, House on the 23d June, 1848. In all its real or imaginary, will be healed by the addi- parts it is a production of great vigor and tion of fresh provinces and enlarged dominion. masterly comprehension. We can only Mr. Hunt would pursue the contest in a different spirit. He wished to see it prosecuted quote a few passages relating to the imwith decisive force and efficiency till we could portance of bestowing a fostering care on secure an honorable peace; but when the time all works calculated to increase and enshall arrive to dictate the terms of peace to large our internal commerce. It may be Mexico, he hoped to witness a display of jus- assumed, as a matter of course, that Mr. tice and generous magnanimity. If we could Hunt's opinions were antagonistic to those conquer our own rapacity, and restrain the lust of the President, and of those latter-day of territorial acquisition, we should achieve a saints in politics who profess to see great moral victory more glorious than the trophies of war. In imposing the conditions of amity, danger to the government in the improvehe hoped we might exhibit a spirit of modera- ment of our rivers and harbors: tion and forbearance becoming a great republic conscious of its power. By our rectitude and generosity in the hour of victory, we might yet do something to restore the drooping honor of the country. When that hour should come, we must not disguise it from ourselves that appearances were against us. "While we are strong and powerful, Mexico is feeble and distracted; and we are already in possession of a vast territory which was recently wrested from her by our own people. But a war is upon us; and while it continues, it must be prosecuted with vigor, and men of all parties must co-operate, by united counsels and common efforts, to bring the struggle to a speedy and honorable termination." On the Oregon question, the annexation of Texas, and the subject of a tariff for the protection of domestic industry, Mr. Hunt's opinions were often and fully expressed. It is not too much to say, that they were always liberal, comprehensive and just. They will bear an attentive perusal when the partisan asperities of the day, and the passions elicited by the occasion, shall have been forgotten, but it is impossible to give separate passages from these speeches which would do justice to the speaker or the subject. At the organization of the Congress of 1847, Judge Hunt was appointed chair "Whilst our commerce with foreign nations," says the report," yields to the government the revenues necessary to its support, and brings the fruits and fabrics of every clime in return for our surplus productions, the commerce among the States, stimulated by freedom of intercourse, has been still more rapid in its progress, and has reached a higher point of value. Independent of the interchange of commodities between the States, for domestic consumption, which far exceeds in amount our entire foreign trade, the main bulk of our foreign commerce is derived from and forms an ingredient in the internal trade of the country. Our exports must be first conveyed from the producer, by the navigable waters of the interior, to the sea-board; our imports are conveyed inland, by the same channels, to the remotest points of consumption. Every increase of foreign commerce necessarily swells our internal trade; and the elements of each are so blended and intermixed together as to form, in reality, one great common interest, identified with the national prosperity, and presenting equal claims to the encouragement and protection of government. If any discrimination were admissible, the internal trade may be said to be of paranecessity to the people, larger in value, and, in mount importance, since it is of the first point of fact, includes the transit of a large share of the commodities composing our commerce with other countries. Viewed as objects of national concern, no line of distinction can be drawn between these great interests. It requires a perverse ingenuity to separate them, and define where either begins or terminates. Indeed, it may be affirmed that the safe and convenient navigation of our lakes and rivers is indispensable to the prosperity of the foreign as well as the inland trade of the country. "The committee have adverted to the com mercial position of the Atlantic and the inland States, mainly for the purpose of showing, in one general view, how directly every part of the confederacy is identified and concerned in the great navigating interests of the country. "It will be perceived that the protection of navigation, whether along the sea-board or in the interior, on all the great channels of trade, is a subject not of mere local or sectional concern, but of high national interest, affecting the whole Union and all its parts. Each of the thirty States composing the Union is connected with the navigable waters, either of the sea, the lakes or the rivers. Each is concerned in the safe and easy navigation of all the channels over which the national commerce is borne. Every State in the interior may claim an interest in the safety and sufficiency of the harbors on the coast, through which their productions must pass in quest of a foreign market. The States on the sea-board are no less interested in the navigation of the western waters, through which the States are enabled to carry on a constant interchange of commodities at home, and to send forward the agricultural products which form the main bulk of our foreign trade. What portion of the confederacy can claim to be indifferent to the facility and security of commercial intercourse among the States? What section so isolated in position as to be unconcerned in the navigable waters which carry forth our vast and varied productions? The growth and expansion of our inland commerce is the surest indication, as it is one of the chief sources, of our unexampled prosperity and progress. are so completely annihilated as to render their revival a work of impossibility. Among other things the President virtually assumed the ground that the obligations of the government concerning the regulation of commerce and navigation are impaired and lessened by the expansion of our national limits, which is thus noticed in the report: "If we concede the force of this reasoning, we must also admit that it has been fortified by the addition of ten degrees to our possessions on the Pacific coast since the date of the message. But the committee are hardly prepared to admit the doctrine that the powers or obligations of government, concerning the regulation of commerce and navigation, are in any degree impaired by the expansion of our national limits. On the contrary, it is conceived that the vast extent of our navigable waters, and the relative augmentation of our commerce, impose commensurate duties upon Congress. The responsibility of government is rather increased than lessened by the growing importance and magnitude of the subject. If appropriations in furtherance of navigation are to be abandoned or diminished by reason of our geographical extension, it follows that every new accession of territory brings weakness instead of strength, and the protection of what we have is inconsistent with further acquisitions. Unless the capacity of the government is equal to its territorial expause, it results that the nation is too large for the Constitution; and the agency of the federal power must fail to accomplish the great ends of its creation. The argument of the President on this point is hardly consistent with the known fact that every addition of territory heretofore acquired, has been sought mainly, or at least ostensibly, with a view to commercial advantages. Louisiana was purchased, at a cost of fifteen millions, to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi. Florida was obtained, at a great cost, because its possession was deemed necessary to the protection of our commerce on the Gulf. We have waged a bloody war, and finally stipulated by treaty to pay many millions of purchase money, to secure the ports of California on the Pacific. Complete and adequate protection can be given only through the agency of a general system, national in its character, comprehending the whole Union and its entire navigation. It must be broad and pervading, embracing every section and reaching every channel of national coinmerce. By the adoption of a national plan, resting upon sound and enlightened principles, every portion of the Union will derive its equitable share of the common benefit, and no part will have reason to complain of injustice or inequality. Such a system will insure that free commercial intercourse be- "Is it constitutional and wise to exhaust milltween the States which was a leading objections in the removal of political restraints, if of the federal Constitution. The report contains a masterly review of President Polk's famous veto message. The positions assumed by the President "After paying such enormous sums to ob tain the command of these great highways of commerce, is it rational to contend that Congress has no power to make them available by removing the impediments which obstruct their navigation? the government be really incompetent to touch those natural obstacles which are far more fatal to freedom and security of trade? Is the government supreme in its power to acquire, and yet impotent to improve; all-powerful to 1 purchase or annex ports and rivers, and devoid of faculty to clear them out and make them accessible to shipping? The Executive recently offered Mexico five millions of dollars for a right of way across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Without discussing the expediency of offering so large a sum for the privilege of opening a commercial communication through a foreign country, whilst we refuse a single million to improve the commercial channels within our limits, it may be well to inquire if the President seriously intended to pay five millions for a right of way which the govern ment has no constitutional capacity to execute? Perhaps it would be difficult to present a more complete illustration of the fallacy of this branch of the President's argument. The committee are unable to resist the conclusion that while government is expending the public resources in exploring the Dead Sea, and acquiring distant ports and possessions, it would be equally judicious to give some protection to our navigating interests at home. If we possess an extended coast, we have a vast and lucrative commerce; if our harbors are numerous, we have a multitude of ships, which bring tribute to the national coffer; if we have many broad rivers, penetrating the interior of a vast continent, they convey the rich and varied products of many millions of people, and serve as the arteries of that trade, foreign and domestic, from which the government derives its sustenance and support. A country possessing such unrivalled resources and advantages, boasting a commerce so magnificent, and a chain of navigable waters almost boundless in extent, can afford to clear its rivers from snags and furnish safe harbors for shipping. Whatever additional expenditures may be demanded, by the necessities of an expanding commerce, will be more than compensated by the consequent increase of revenue." Mr. Hunt originated the only measure as yet adopted for establishing the semblance of a government in California. The bill extending the revenue laws to that country, and establishing ports of entry there, was introduced by him, and to his vigorous efforts its success may in no small degree be attributed. In February last, and before the close of his congressional term, Mr. Hunt was elected Comptroller of the State of New York, by a vote almost unanimous, and immediately after the adjournment of Congress he removed to Albany and entered upon the duties of the office. Having the management of the finances of the State, and a voice in the Canal Board, the office is one of the first importance in the State. That he will discharge the duties of the station creditably to himself and advantageously to the State, will not be doubted by any one who is acquainted with his capacity for the management of important interests, and his aptitude for the ready discharge of complex and laborious duties. The offices he has held have come to him unsought; they were free-will offerings from those who repose confidence in his sound judgment, capacity and integrity. In private life few men have more devoted friends. Urbane to all, charitable to all who differ from him in opinion, possessing a generous disposition, a heart flowing with kindness, and a temper rarely disturbed by any event, he seldom loses a friend or finds a personal enemy. THE DEATH OF SHELLEY-A VISION. "Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and endurance, THE wind was freshening on Genoa's bay, Along the level line of sea and sky Shelley's Prometheus. 코 1 The nearer calm a single sail beguiled, A breath-a breeze-the tempest strikes the sail; A precious boat!-God speed it safe and right! He lay reclined in noonday dreams no more, The wizard storm had conjured truer dreams- No sign of craven fear did he reveal; He only felt the joy that heroes feel When all their thoughts with draughts of glory reel. The boat dipt low; his foot was on the helm ; The gentle eye that turned from man away, And as aloft the boat a moment hung, Then down the plunging wave was forward flung, Cried he, "And fearest thou, and fearest thou ?" Mrs. Shelley's account leaves the impression that a sailor-boy, Charles Vivian by name, was with the poet and Mr. Williams at the time of the disaster. Around him slept a circling space of wave; He saw them waving like a silken tent- A sudden life began to thrill his veins; He looked above-a glory floating down- As tearful eyes may see the light they shun, In that still pause of trembling, blissful sight, He gazed upon those mercy-beaming eyes, Till recognition chased away surprise, And he had faith from heaven and strength to rise To rise and kneel upon the glassy tide, While down the Vision floated to his side, And stooped to hear what less he said than sighed : "Oh Truth, Love, Gentleness!-I wooed and won Your essences, nor knew that ye are ONE; A spirit-touch was laid upon his soul; His mortal form fell off and downward stole. The spirit and Vision took their upward flight, The gentle one, whose head alone was wrong- H. W. P. * A writer in a foreign review argues from some incidents, and from general reasons, that Shelley was a literal monomaniac on the point of Christianity. On this assumption the Vision is founded. |