Mr. Ingersoll argued in the course of his speech:

“What was the true cause of the expedient arrangement, of which we are trying to combat the never-ending eudurance? One might feel some hesitation in making the inquiry and giving the reply, were not the way already opened, and the example set by the representatives of the South. That was the region of excitement, and it required relief. We are told of the disturbed and distracted condition

which had been reached. It was, says the gentleman from Georgia, a crisis of a fearful character. So it was. The bonds of society were

rent asunder. Civil war impended. Not only the political Union, the bright inheritance left to the care of a posterity unmindful of the richness of the blessing, was in danger, but the best

attachments of social life and affectionate relationship were forgotten. While all was tranquil in the North except the anxious throbbings of patriotic bosoms at the dread of anticipated legislation, the elements of discord were elsewhere in fervid motion, and brother was prepared to take up arms against brother. In one southern city, it is said, two parties met in threatening and frowning defiance, each headed by men of worth, well known then by their former, as they are now by their later services. One blow struck, and the sun might have gone down on fraternal discord, a reluctant and retiring witness to the shedding of human blood. But his morning beams would have shone again upon a happy union; the firmament would not,

in the course of nature, have been the darker for the absence of a single star."

In the session of 1845-6, a discussion took place on the naturalization laws, growing out of certain resolutions of the Legislature of Massachusetts, which would protect the ballot-box and the elective franchise from abuses and frauds. It had been contended that Congress could not act upon these resolutions, the subject being exclusively within the control of State legislation. In the course of the discussion the origin of the Native American party was frequently alluded to. In allusion to its position and that of the other

"Such is the social communion of Whigs They harmonize in everyand Democrats. thing but political sentiment. No so the third sion, if not in proud distrust. It maintains a party, which stands aloof, in voluntary secluposition like that which in architecture is said to enhance the magnificence of a Grecian temple, when placed, as it ought to be, on elevated ground, and gaining, by distance, an unobstructed prospect, at once grandeur and disalone. tinctness for the view, it stands unmated and

"Iu casting my eye around this diversified assembly, I am led to compare its human proportions and intellectual varieties with the natural phenomena described by travellers as exhibited by the vast chain of mountains near the Pacific Ocean in South America, which rise in successive plateaux, like so many huge natural terraces, far above the clouds. Trees of the largest size and the most luxuriant foliage grow and flourish upon some of those proud eminences of the Andes, and form, as it were, the basis of still loftier regions piled upon them. These are emblematic of the Whig party, always fresh in vigor, rich in patriotism, and rooted in the immovable basis of the Constitution. Among them one appears maturity and venerable in the dignity of age. crowned with years and honors, green in the Higher up the mountain trees become more numerous, but less firmly attached to the soil; not deeply planted, or standing in stern defiance of the fury of the elements, but moved and These are emblems of a dominant majority, which yields agitated by the passing breeze. conservative principle to its rivals, and professes and acts upon a different rule. Still higher up, above the level of perpetual snow, where no other animated being is found, far above gaze of the most enterprising traveller, dwells the habitation, and almost beyond the curious that mightiest of winged animals, the condor, poised in mid-air between the moon and earth, fixing its eye upon that cold planet of the night, which astronomers assures us has no atmosphere, or none common to the rest of the system-flapping in interminable seclusion its ponderous and solitary wing."

In the debate on the Oregon question, the following extracts from a speech delivered by him, will serve to show the course of argument pursued by Mr. Ingersoll:—

"That treaty has been well designated in occupation. I should be sorry to relinquish former times, just as it is now, a treaty of joint for it that character. Give up that, and your antagonist stands on vantage ground. If his

numerous posts-some of them strong and extensive are not harmless by consent, as establishments contemplated by the treaty, they are settlements of defiance and opposition, which may have derived strength from time and independent existence. They may create new elements of trouble, which the provisions of joint occupancy are calculated effectually to prevent. Mr. Gallatin uniformly thus denominated it; so does Mr. Buchanan. It was offered, protocolled, accepted, acted on, and has always been treated as such. Its language admits of no other interpretation. Good faith would forbid a departure now from its long-understood nature and name, even if policy suggested (as it clearly does not) a change. Notice of the termination of this agreement is urged--uncompromising one-sided notice--with no consultation of the convenience of the other party, with no deference for the ordinary rules of courtesy, merely because the treaty provides for it as a dernier resort, in the possible failure of other means, as furnishing in any event a reserved right, to a certain extent, in either party, if other opportunities should be foreclosed. Between individuals, what is the course of conduct on occasions of strict analogy? The law gives a right to distrain when rent is in arrear: does a landlord, therefore, seize at once the household goods of a thriving tenant? Does the lender of a sum of money, for an indefinite period, to a friend, send the sheriff to arrest him within four and twenty hours of the time of loan? These are rights perfect rights; but they would not be exercised in a community that is fit to live in. Notice is of the same character. No principle of law is better established than this: Summum jus summa injuria.'

6

"What is the purport of the present bill? It extends Iowa jurisdiction over the whole territory which is in dispute, and it reserves to the subjects of Great Britain the rights and privileges secured by the third article of the treaty of 1818 and that of 1827, only until said treaty stipulation shall cease, by virtue of the notice provided for in the second article,' and no longer. It thus assumes Oregon for our own; enforces at once, by threat of arms, and after a brief period of a few short months, in rigorous exercise, at the point of the bayo net, the laws of the Republic over every inch of land and every living soul; proposes grants, with unsparing spirit, by hundreds of fair acres, as temptations to settlers; assumes absolute control over trade and intercourse with all the Indian tribes; organizes and equips a military force; and lays down a mail route from St. Joseph's, Missouri, to the mouth of the Columbia river. It extirpates from the face of the Oregon earth the British race and name, and it plants the standard of liberty and the Union, in proud and uncompromising supremacy, on every rocky eminence.

"Our question is not whether Great Britain ought to acquiesce in this high-handed course, but whether, in the fair estimate of probabilities, she will. Remember, you have already offered her one-half, and she has refused it with disdain. Do you seriously believe that she will content herself with none? Will her desires, which even six belts of latitude cannot satisfy, be satiated with less than the measure of a grave? The leaves of the sybil acquired new value in the eye of the possessor, as they were reduced in number. You have by your own act persuaded England to believe that she ought to indulge some hopes-that she has more than the shadow of a shade. You have repeatedly, in times past and present, proposed to give her barely less than she was willing to receive. By what scale of reason or philosophy is her expected satisfaction in the future to be measured? She asked you for bread; you offered to share with her your loaf, and she has cast it in an angry spirit away. She again asks you for bread; you give her a stone, and you believe she will receive it, if not with gratitude, at least without a frown! It is gravely argued on this floor that your notice shall be given, and that, at the expiration of the term assigned by it, forcible possession shall be taken of every inch of the disputed ground; and yet there will be no war! A powerful nation, armed to the teeth, her banners fanned for ages by conquest's crimson wing, not distinguished for the patience of her temper or her tender love for these United States, will stand tamely by and patiently behold her cherished settlements assailed and scattered; her time-honored charters violated and trampled in the dust; her subjects dragged before foreign magistrates and condemned by foreign laws; their property confiscated, their persons imprisoned, their lives perhaps sacrificed! If, in the wide-reaching and sagacious policy of that deep-seated throne, there be one circumstance to which it clings with more tenacity than all the rest, it is the tender, ardent zeal, the maternal affection, with which it watches over, protects, and cherishes the children of the realm in every corner and quarter of the globe. This never-ceasing care is the incentive to patriotism and the reward of loyalty. Time cannot enfeeble it, or distance diminish its freshness or its fervor, or circumstances rob it of a particle of its reciprocal attractiveness and charms. It warms the liege bosom in the frozen regions of Labrador, and it gives new vigor to the sinews under the burning sun of either India, as well as in the giant metropolis of the insular domain. 'I am a Roman citizen!' was a cry, the neglect of which brought on the ruin of a powerful Sicilian prætor, and drove him into perpetual exile. I am a Roman citizen!' was an exclamation which ascended with the loftiest flights of the eloquence of Cicero. A similar appeal from the liegemen of England is not inaudible, if

uttered at the extremity of the diameter of the earth: it would thrill and vibrate in every pulse and nerve of the vast body politic; it would be heard and responded to, from the shores of the Pacific, at the heart and centre of the empire; and all that accumulated wealth which is the wonder of the world, and all those burnished arms which have never failed to glitter whenever the pride of the nation has bidden their approach, for disaster, for victory, or for defeat, in the fens of Walcheren, or on the field of Waterloo, or on the banks of the Mississippi, or the frozen hills of India, would be put in requisition for the rescue. The colonial policy of England, her vital prosperity, her existence as a nation, are involved in the issue, and it would be madness to suppose that these essential purposes would now, for the first time, be overlooked or forgotten. You are leading off blindfold a torch-dance in the midst of combustibles, and trusting to the accident that they will not take fire, when you act and argue as is proposed.'

"Refuge at last is taken in the alleged discovery of the Columbia river by Captain Gray. Admitting, for the sake of the argument, all that is claimed in point of fact for this nautical exploit, its priority, nationality, and design, the great cbstacle remains-what is its extent? The answer is familiarly given. A discovery of the mouth of a river, we are constantly and confidently told, extends the right which that circumstance confers to the territory drained by its waters. A principle like this might possibly suit some of the rivers, as they are called, of the fine estuary which receives the waters of the Susquehanna. They are broad inlets, half a dozen miles in length, and are merely borrowed from the bay. Possibly you might have found an inclination towards such a principle in some Dutch legend or Italian romance, where a greater prolongation is given by nature to the lazy Scheld or wandering Po. But to ascribe to a momentary looker-on of the inhospitable debouche of the Mississippi, or even the capacious gulf which distinguishes the entrance of the Amazon, such extensive results would be near akin to positive absurdity. It would only fall short of that papal bull which 'de nostra mera libertate,' drew a line from pole to pole in favor of their most Catholic Majesties. Where would such indefinite extension end? From the main river you would ascend all its tributary streams, thence gaze with gloating appetite upon every mountain rill; and if, through the bases of the Stony Mountains, some dark cavern sheds a modest drop from its obscure and benighted bed on the eastern side of the girdle of the Great West, which finds its way to Oregon, this will embrace, by the same vague hypothesis, the land of the Missouri, the Mississippi, and all the rivers of the continent. Lawyer after lawyer has built his argument upon this bold assumption."

"If,' says the Secretary of State to the country and the world, 'the discovery of the mouth of a river, followed up within reasonable time by the first exploration both of its main channels and its branches, and appropriated by the first settlements on its banks, do not constitute a title to the territory drained by its waters in the nations performing these acts, then the principles consecrated by the practice of civilized nations ever since the discovery of the New World must have lost their force. These principles were necessary to preserve the peace of the world.'

"I will not repeat the facts already stated, or ask for an interpretation of 'reasonable time,' first exploration,' and 'first settlements,' or submit to you the dilemma of draining by Frazer's river about the same time, in seeking to support what are called principles consecrated ever since the discovery of the New World. If there exist for particular objects, and between particular powers, occasional treaties with new clauses in them, these are voluntary acts, the influence of which begins and ends with the high contracting parties who made them. If there be such a principle-a SACRED principle, necessary for the peace of nations, time-honored by the lapse of three hundred and fifty-four years, according to the minute computation of the Secretary, why has it escaped an authentic place in the records of a science which had no existence until after the discovery of the New World, towards the close of the fifteenth century? Grotius, the father of the law of nations, wrote and died in the seventeenth centur.. Puffendorf was born in the year 1631. Barbeyrac lived and died in the eighteenth century, and Vattel's first edition was published within less than ninety years from the present day, and the last in the year 1844. His work is deservedly held in the highest esteem. It exhibits, however, no trace of the doctrine assumed by you. On the contrary, such a pretension, by which a nation would engross, as I maintain, a wilderness, or, as Vattel says, a much greater extent of territory than it is able to people or cultivate, would be an absolute infringement of the natural rights of men, and repugnant to the views of Nature. Remember how extensive are the fields over which your aspiring claims would run. The bull's hide which was made to cover the circumference of Carthage would be a pigmy illustration. A difficult and dangerous entrance, almost imperceptible to the eye, and almost inaccessible to the boldest keel, gives, it is said, initiate rights to a 'region,' 'territory,' an entire region-in other words, to a country and a world. Will not such extravagant attempts expose us to just complaints for an overweening ambition, and tend to give support to charges which have been already brought against us?"

owing to the strenuous efforts he made to insure the appointment of Rollin, and the consequent suspicion of the moderate party. His popularity has, from this conduct, considerably declined, as he is believed to fear the influence of that turbulent demagogue, or to have too much sympathy with his principles.

The affairs of Poland were made by the altra democrats of Paris, a pretence for an attack on the Assembly, which for some time threatened the destruction of the Government. While the Assembly was engaged in discussing the affairs of Italy, an immense body of men in blouses, headed by Barbès, Blanqui, and others, approached the hall to demand in the name of the people, immediate interference in behalf of Poland. This demonstration was not unexpected by the Government, but from treachery in that body, as is suspected, the orders given to meet the exigency were not put in force. Bodies of the National Guard and Guard Mobile, placed to stop the procession, allowed it to pass unopposed, and hardly any opposition was offered outside the hall, which was speedily taken possession of by the mob, and the members of the Assembly compelled to retire. The scene was worthy of the old Jacobins. The hall was literally stormed; flags were waving, and cries of Vive la Pologne! Vive Louis Blanc! A bas les Aristocrats! were shouted and distinctly heard above the uproar. Barbès, and a crowd of others, rushed to the Tribune and attempted to make themselves heard. Up to this time all the members had retained their seats except Barbès, Louis Blanc, and a few others, who mixed freely with the crowd. Ledru Rollin attempted to speak, but without success. At length Barbes obtained a hearing, and moved the Assembly should declare that the people of Paris had deserved well of their country. Blanqui followed. After this scene had lasted about two hours, Barbès again spoke and demanded that a tax of one milliard, about two hundred millions of dollars, should be levied on the rich, and that whoever should order the rappel to be beaten for the National Guard, should be declared a traitor, which was carried by acclamation. He concluded his proposals for extricating the nation from embarrassment by exclaiming, "We must re-establish the guillotine!" Louis Blanc, placed on a table, was paraded round the room. Shortly afterwards, from the end of a pole, a paper was exhibited, with the words, "The Chamber is dissolved," which was echoed from all sides. A delegate of one of the clubs mounted the tribune, and declared the National Assembly dissolved, whereupon the President was driven from his chair, over which a red flag surmounted by a cap of liberty was raised, and the deputies were driven from their seats, which were speedily filled by the mob.

Fearing an attack from the National Guard,

the ruffians and their leaders, then left the chamber and proceeded to the Hotel de Ville, where several members of the clubs named as a Provisional Government, Louis Blanc, Barbès, Albert, Blanqui, Raspail, Huber, Sobrier, Proudhon, Pierre Leroux, and Cabet. About five o'clock, Gen. Courtais, Barbès, Blanqui and others were arrested, and the riot suppressed, but the guard remained under arms all night. Several of the clubs have since been entirely suppressed, and upwards of 200 arrests have been made. Leave has been asked of the chamber to permit the prosecution of Louis Blanc. No further disturbances have occurred, but the Assembly has since been protected during its sittings by an immense military force; 40,000 troops of the line have been recalled to Paris, and the command of the National Guard transferred to Col. Clement Thomas. Considerable quantities of warlike stores have been seized, and the Prefect of Police, M. Causidière, was so much implicated that he found it necessary to resign.

The grand national fête went off without disturbance. The 45 per cent. added by the Provisional Government to the direct taxes, produced 34,558,974 francs to the 10th May. A million of francs was voted on the 22d May for the national workshops, from which 115,000 (in Paris) are receiving pay, and performing little, if any, labor: the Assembly have declared their intention of breaking up these establishments. Should the present national expenditure continue for twelve months, it will leave a deficit of about 185 millions of dollars. The receipts for the first four months of 1848, as compared with the same period of 1847, show a diminution of 33,333,000 fr., of which 16,310,000 is for the first three months, and 17,023,000 for April alone. The import duties for the like period in 1848 produced 26,786,968 francs, against 43,720,267 in 1847. In April, 1847, they amounted to 10,750,672, and in the same month in 1848, only 3,764,590 fr. The Committee on the Constitution have adopted two resolutions, viz., that there shall be a single President and a single Chamber, elected by universal suffrage. The report of the Committee is not expected till the end of June. A serious difficulty between the Assembly and the Executive Committee arose, which caused Lamartine and Ledru Rollin to threaten to retire. The Committee claimed to have entire control of the measures for the protection of the Assembly, and to an exemption from attendance at its sittings. The difficulty, which appeared serious, was compromised by the exemption being allowed except at the call of 40 members for explanations or statements, and by leaving the protectionary arrangements with the Committee, with a controlling power in the President of the Assembly.