United States is mainly a written code, carefully digested, and regularly enacted by Congress. Where it is manifestly defective on applying it in practice, no doubt the unwritten martial law may be resorted to. But no authority can be exercised under the name of martial law, except such as has for its object, or keeps prominently in view, the principal, and indeed only design with which martial law is established, or tolerated-namely, the security and preservation of the camp and the army. This authority has the actual commander in the field, or in camp, acting under the orders of his superior officer, if he have any. The President is commander-in-chief of the army, and a commander in the field, or in camp, acts under his general orders; but if he were actually himself in the field, or in camp, he could exercise no military authority over or about the camp, which could not equally be exercised by any other commander. An orderly-sergeant, if the eldest officer present, and in command, would have the same authority; and he could not have more if he were a field-marshal. As commander-in-chief of the army, the President's authority is purely military, whether personally in the field or out of it, and it is as much restricted by the military law, as that of any other commander. Just so much authority then-just so much government-as any actual commander, in possession of a post or place in an enemy's country, may lawfully exercise, the President, as commander-in-chief, may exercise, or cause to be exercised under his orders. And beyond this he cannot go, except by leaving the Constitution behind him.

The limited nature of this military authority, or government, we have indicated already. It is the government of a camp, and has for its object the regulation and security of the camp. Its proper subjects are soldiers, or the inmates of a camp. It may extend its jurisdiction, as in a city, according as the necessity of the case shall demand; that is to say, the camp may be enlarged so as to embrace all whom it may be necessary to bring within military supervision and control, in order to the proper government and security of the camp. But it is evident that a "military government," in the President's view, is something very different from this. Witness his orders and the disgraceful proceedings under them in regard to New Mexico and Can

fornia. All the functions of civil government were assumed in those provincescomplete civil jurisdiction—and exercised as far as the new functionaries had the ability to establish their power. We have lately heard of sanguinary executions in one of them, upon judicial convictions, for sedition or high treason! Indeed the avowed purpose was to consider and treat these provinces as conquered countries, where entire submission to the conquering power, as the sovereign, was exacted. And, undoubtedly, in such a case, it is not only the right, but the duty, of the new sovereign, to establish his government, and make it adequate to the protection and control of his new subjects, so long as his authori ty shall last. This is what the President is pleased to denominate a "military government." It is only military, as it is in military hands. It is a civil government, with as ample powers, if it see fit to exercise them, as any government in the world. But everybody must know, who knows even the alphabet of the Constitution, that Congress, and Congress alone, has authority to set up such a government as this in any territory, province, or town, belonging to the United States; and a conquered territory, province or town, if really taken possession of to hold as an acquest of war, belongs to the United States, if to anybody. Certainly it does not belong to the President, as he seems to suppose, any more than it does to any actual commander under whom the conquest is made. It belongs to the sovereign-and the President has not yet been acknowledged sovereign in this country. He makes himself such, however, as far as he can-a military sovereign, superseding the civil power-when he assumes the sole right of government over countries, or places, subdued by the American arms. In our judg ment, it is conclusive on the President, and the whole military power, if Congress has made no express provision for taking formal possession of places that might be conquered by our arms, and for governing them, as the rightful sovereign, that Congress does not intend that the war shall be made a war of conquest at all. And hence, in such a case, the extent of his duty and power, in prosecuting the war offensively, supposing an offensive war allowable at all on his mere motion, is to conquer the armies of the enemy in the field, capture his fortified places and strongholds, with as much

public spoil as can be found in them, and entering his chief cities, and his capital, perhaps, convert them into convenient quarters, and camping grounds, for the conquering army, and of course, laying them, for the time, under martial law. Here his power of "military government" would begin and end. But the President has little relish for such moderate notions as these. He began the war for conquest, and never having dared to ask Congress to give a direct sanction to any such project, he has found, or thought himself obliged to do everything, so far as this object was concerned, in his own way, and by his own usurped authority.

It is manifest that, in establishing a commercial code, and a tariff, for the seaports of Mexico, captured and occupied by our military forces, the President has acted, not as a mere military commander, but as a political sovereign. He chooses to regard these seaports, not merely as places under military occupation by our troops, where they have their garrison and camp for the time, with all needful authority in the commander, under the military law, for the government and preservation of his army and camp, and for internal and external police, but as places held by him, the President, as both conqueror and sovereign, and subject to his exclusive and undisputed political authority in all things, or so far as he may see fit to exercise it. Under this authority, and treating the sea-ports as his own, for all purposes of sovereign control and gevernment, he proceeds to the exercise of civil and sovereign power in one of its most important functions, by establishing regulations for the trade of all nations with those ports, enacting a tariff of duties to be paid on all merchandise and produce entered there, and thus raising a revenue for the supply of his exchequer. They are no longer Mexican ports, blockaded by our Navy, and shut up from the trade of the world; but they are American, or independent ports, under the sovereignty of the President, and open to the trade of the world. Mexico is to be supplied through them, by a grand system of illicit commerce and smuggling, encouraged and promoted by the new sovereign of the independent ports, who is thus to secure the benefits of large importations, and an ample revenue. And that these are independent ports, and not ports of the United States, any more than they are

Mexican ports, is plain enough from the fact that cargoes entering them from the United States are as much subject to duty as cargoes from England or France. The trade to them from New Orleans, or New York, is a foreign trade and not a coasting trade, and pays duties accordingly. If they were ports of the United States, this would of course be a coasting-trade; and, on the other hand, if they were Mexican ports, citizens of the United States, as subjects of one of the bellige rent powers, could not trade with them at all, without being liable to the severest penalties-unless, indeed, by the special permission of the government; not, certainly, by the permission of the President. What a spectacle is here presented to the country? the United States assuming the sovereignty over the ports of the public enemy, occupied by American troops, and there actually levying duties on the trade of American citizens, which he invites thither, as well as the trade of all other countries, and putting the collections into his own independent treasury! This, too, being in fact a trade, and so expressly intended, with Mexico, carried on through these ports, and between them and the interior, by illicit means-a trade, whether direct or indirect, in which American citizens are utterly forbidden to engage, while the two countries are at war, without special permission from the competent authorities of their government!

The President of

And the President deliberately proposes, by these means, to attain an independent revenue, for the expenses of the

war.

The plan was expected to be very productive, and to yield some millions. The collections made under military supervision, whatever they are, go directly to the military chest. They are to be accounted for by the collectors, says an official rescript, "not to the treasury, but to the Secretaries of the war, and the navy, respectively." So far as these collections may go, the President is to maintain a war independently of the government. He is not to depend on money drawn from the treasury of the United States, and which could only be done "in pursuance of appropriations made by law," but he is to go to his own treasury, supplied by an independent revenue, derived from a regular system of taxation, or imposts, levied and collected under his personal and sovereign authority, in places beyond the jurisdiction of the United States! Is it possible for arro

gance and despotism to go further than this?

And then the country is told that this is nothing but levying "military contributions" on the enemy. If this were so -and it is hardly better than an insult to an intelligent people to set up such a pretence-yet if this were so, how comes it that the administration is now found avowing an intention of levying contributions on the enemy, after its repeated proclamation, and declarations to that enemy, that private property should be respected, and nothing demanded or taken without making just and full compensation? Protection and full security to the persons and property of the peaceable inhabitants of conquered towns and provinces, has come to be the recognized doctrine and declared practice of modern civilized nations, not to be departed from, except in very special cases, which certainly do not exist in this war. Are the United States to suffer the disgrace of being the first, in recent times, to set an example to the contrary? As for contributions levied on a conquered country, they are never allowed by the modern usage and law of nations, but as a mild substitute for pillage, or the confiscation of property. Contributions are demanded and received by way of relief and redemption from these severer measures, and of course are never resorted to, but when otherwise such harsh proceedings as pillage or confiscation would be justified, either by way of special punishment, or on account of some urgent, temporary necessity. But what is there in common between "military contributions" and this notable plan of the President's for raising an independent and permanent revenue, by commercial taxation, for the support and prosecution of the war? Taxation is a measure of government, and an act of sovereignty. It is something very different from pillage, or a forced contribution, received as a relief from pillage. This act when permitted at all, is an act of war, by military command, to meet some particular necessity or exigency of war, and is temporary in its purpose and action. It has its direct operation on a present enemy, and is commonly exhausted in a single act. But how absurd and how pitiful, to talk of the proceeding we are now considering, as one of "military contribution." This is a system of commercial regulation and taxation, as regular, and nearly as elaborate, as that which controls com

merce, and supplies revenue, in the whole United States-a system prevailing, or designed to prevail and govern in all the principal sea-ports, through which a great country, of eight or ten millions of people, receives its foreign supplies, and which are held as places conquered in war and subject to the political sovereignty of the conqueror a system of taxation and revenue, designed to be at least as permanent as the war, falling on whomsoever it concerns, importer or consumer, citizen or stranger, friend or enemy, and such a system as none but a regular government, in the exercise of full sovereignty, could enact and execute. And the government which does this, and exercises this sovereignty, is—the President of the United States!

But we must bring this article to a close. Our object has been to awaken the attention of the country, if possible, to the manner in which the original written Constitution is becoming rapidly obscured and subverted, by the assumption of new and extraordinary powers, either quietly submitted to, or only very feebly rebuked, and so that, in effect, an essentially new Constitution is practically taking the place of the original instrument, which, though partly unwritten, is likely to become just as potent and authoritative, and just as binding on the people, as if these new features had been given to it, by regular amendments adopted according to the prescribed and approved mode of making amendments. make this matter as plain and as comprehensible as possible, and show in one view, how bravely we are going on in this business, and what kind of a Constitution is growing up to our hand, we shall conclude this article by drawing out in order, and in the form of regular amendments to the text of the original instrument, the provisions proper to cover those new powers which, as we have shown, have lately been assumed, or usurped and exercised by the government at Washington. As written amendments, they might stand somewhat in this form:

To

I. Congress shall have power to incorporate the United States with any other people or country, on such terms and conditions as may be agreed on.

II. The President shall have authority to employ the army of the United States, in the defence of any foreign country, threatened with invasion, at his discretion. III. The President shall have authority

to make war on any foreign nation by invading its possessions; provided only that this be done under pretext of some claim of title to those possessions.

IV. The Militia of the States, called into service as volunteers, may be employed by the President in prosecuting wars of invasion and foreign conquest.

V. The President shall have authority to govern, in complete sovereignty, any territory, province or place, taken and occupied by the military forces of the United States, and in such manner as he may see fit.

VI. In any port or place, taken and oc

SPIRIT mild of mystic slumber,
Now with wizard spell lay by,
Galling cares and loads that cumber,
Soothing sense and sealing eye.
Come in blue and starry mantle,

Wave thy downy-feathered wing,
Wave with touch all soft and gentle,
Dewy o'er each living thing-
Brains with thought in hot toil throbbing,

Lids by light long filled and pained, Hearts o'ercome for joy or sobbing,

Nerves in ease or toil o'erstrained.

Come with lull of brooklets flowing,
Lonely break of distant seas,
Rain-drops, win, or late herds lowing,
Lisping leaves or humming bees.
Come with scent of piny highlands,
Or palm grove of spicy zone;
Come with breath of summer islands,
Whence the evening winds have blown.

Come with raven hair rich braiden,

From the moonshine's watery beams-Hush my couch, sky-hovering maiden Sing me all thy happiest dreams. Dreams through cloudy gateways fading, To a high and beauteous climeDazzling vistas faint foreshading, Scenes beyond the scenes of time. For in thy sweet hand are given

All the treasures of the nightKeys that ope the doors of heaven

On the wearied, earth-worn sight. Come, Eve's bed with bright flowers wreathing,

While thick dusk the East-land fills, Stay till sweet Morn's breath o'erbreathing

Wake to life the warbling hills.

From the Orient, tireless rover,

Dark behind the shadowed sun,
Thou long realms hast wandered over,
And their daily works are done.
Caravans in deserts tenting,
Men in cot or bustling town,
Prayerless, or the past repenting,

Vexed or calm have laid them down.

Thou hast walked the princely palace, Feast, and dance, and bridal-train; Sweetened Sorrow's bitter chalice; Smoothed the bed for limbs of pain;

Stilled the feet in silken chamber;

Won fair children from their play, Birds that wing, or beasts that clamber Air or steep as free as they.

Thou hast roamed o'er savage ridges, Where great streams their wells inurn; Listening, paced earth's utmost edges,

Where no fires on hearth-stones burn.

Blessings thine reach all God's creatures,

High or humble, wild or tame; Shiftless Fortune changes features,

Thou, sweet friend, art still the same.

Dove of Peace, pure virtue serving, Bride unwooed to sinless heart, Ne'er may bosom undeserving

Buy with wealth, or win by art.

MARY.

SWEET, simple tenderness of tone,
That dearest English name doth hold,
Bringing rich peaceful feelings flown

And fair young fancies fresh from old,
Like flocks to the heart's evening fold.

Now low and lulling steals the sound,
Like summer brooklet's busy trill,
Or waters warbling under ground
When fields in slumbering noon are
still,

And peace sweet nature's heart doth fill.

Now soft the gush as falling snow,

Or shower where rainy April shines, Or small birds' chaunt, which faint winds blow

At sundown through a ridge of pines,
And earth with heaven in one combines.

A type of loving earnestness,

Of gentle soul and faithful eyes,
And beauty born to win and bless,
Within that pensive music lies,
That tells the heart its synpthies.

A pledge of sinlessness and youth—
An earthly form that whispers heaven,
In artless looks and virgin truth,

In all the grace to woman given-
To draw us whence our sin hath dri-

ven.

A glimpse of one the heart would strain
To its fond self till self it grew-
A face so full to sooth all pain,

To look each greeting or adieu,
And sun life's home its sojourn through.

These symbols dear are in thy name—
Thyself the substance all and more,
Which seeing who our choice could

blame?

That name and self in heart we store, A prize to love and ponder o'er.

TO A GROUP OF CHILDREN. SMALL men and women blossoming,

Types of a golden age,

Of Heaven's first children in their spring, And Eden's heritage.

Ye seem new flown from some bright sphere,

On earth a while to play;

I hark your airy tones, and fear,
Sudden ye soar away.

Yet human shapes, so fair, so young,
Sweet Grace untrained of art,
God's language fills each warbling tongue,
His smile each face and heart.

And smiles on all your bright hearts shed,
And love they every one.
There doubt no cold distrust hath bred,

Nor dimmed Hope's morning sun.

Ye've learned not yet 'tis all unwise,

Your whole sweet selves to show;
Untaught that prudence is disguise,
Ye tell all truth ye know.

Pure ones, your feelings all unfeigned,
Your souls untouched by time,
Ye keep first innocence unstained,
First simple faith sublime.

Such once the holy Saviour blessed,
For such in heaven he knew;
And they are greatest, wisest, best,

Who most resemble you.

I fain would take you to my heart,
With full and strong caress,
So life's dry springs one gush might start,
Of former blessedness.

Ah go, sweet forms, like sunbeams bright,

Ye've crossed my pathway o'er! My heart shall treasure long that light Mine eyes will meet no more.