sess; and if there be a casus omissus in the Constitution, I want to know where we are to supply the defect. You may keep Missouri out of the Union by violence, but here the issue is joined, and she comes forward in the persons of her electors, instead of representative, and she was thus presented in a shape as unquestionable as that of New-York or Pennsylvania, or the proudest and oldest State in the Union. Will you deny them admission? Will you thrust her electors, and hers only, from this hall? I made no objection to the vote of New Hampshire; I had as good a right to object to the vote of New Hampshire, as the gentleman from New Hampshire had to object to the vote of Missouri. The electors of Missouri were as much the hominus probi et legales as those of New Hampshire. This was no skirmish, as the gentleman from Virginia had called it. This was the battle where Greek meets Greek. us buckle on our armor, let us put aside all this flummery, these metaphysical distinctions, these unprofitable drawings of distinctions without differences; let us say now, as we have on another occasion (the election of Jefferson and Burr in 1801), 'we will assert, maintain, and vindicate our rights, or put to every hazard, what you pretend to hold in such high estimation.""

Let

These arguments, which clearly prove the false and absurd and dangerous position assumed by the House on the Missouri question, were of none avail. And yet a simple truism—a mere nullity in fact, in the shape of a compromise resolution, had the effect of magic in healing all the differences that had arisen between the respective parties. Another sad example of the blindness and obstinacy of men, when passion assumes sway of their cooler judgment.

Mr. Randolph participated in the debate on other subjects during this session of Congress.

"Yesterday," says, he in a letter dated January 5th, 1821, "we had a triumph over the 'veteran Swiss of State' and the S. of W. on the appropriation to cover Indian arrearages. He (Cn) is politically dead. L-s, towards the close of the debate, 'put in' and imputed want of economy to the Committee of Ways and Means when I was a member. This gave me an opportunity to contrast the military expenditure of 1803-4-5 of 800,000-800,000, and 700,000, respectively with the modern practice. In 1804 we took possession of New Orleans (an event utterly unlooked for) without incurring one farthing of additional expense. Mr. L -s looked very foolish, and uglier than usual. Mr. M. of S. C. (the successor of Mr. C-n's man Friday) made several attempts, I was told, to get the floor, in his patron's defence, but his timidity prevented success. You will see a most villainous report of yesterday's proceed

ings, in the court paper. The r-1 pretends he can't hear me. There was not a man in the House that did not hear me. It is a usual massacre. Pray ask Ritchie not to publish it. I will correct it for his paper, and send it on, that the people of Virginia at least may be undeceived. I am made to talk nonsense, such as 'kissing of hands' for 'imposition of hands.' There is a studied and designed suppression of what passed."

Besides Mr. Randolph, Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, and Spencer Roane, Chief Justice of Virginia, were the most conspicuous State-rights men in that time of amalgamation and confusion of all parties. They were ever consistent and uniform in their adherence to the principles of the strict construction school, and always urgent for those measures of economy and that course of "wise and masterly inactivity," which must ever characterize a party based on such principles. Of the former of those gentlemen Mr. Randolph was the mess-mate while in Congress, and on terms of unreserved daily intercourse; with Judge Roane he did not pretend to stand on a footing of intimacy; but he respected his virtues, his talents, his long services, and had begun to look to him as a fit person to be selected by "all the honest men" as a candidate for the presidency.

any

"With the exception of my old friend, Mr. Macon," says he to Dr. Brockenbrough," you are the only person with whom I hold intercourse, except of that heartless sort which prevails in what is called the world. Your letters, therefore, are as much missed by me as would be an only member of one's family who should disappear at breakfast and leave one to a solitary and cheerless meal. So much of your penultimate as relates to Mr. M I shall take the liberty to communicate to one of the N. C. delegation. I am truly concerned at your anticipations respecting Mr. Roane's health. I earnestly hope that your presage may prove fallacious, although, when I reflect on your skill and intimate knowledge of the man, I feel very apprehensive of its truth.

"I began Fabricius, but was obliged to drop it. He sets out with a string of truisms conveyed in the style of a schoolboy's theme. Mercy upon us! What has become of the intellect and taste of our country? Your secret is as safe with me as in your own breast; but rely upon it, if either of the personages you mention should present any thing fit to be offered to the H. of D. it will be ascribed to some other hand, and, if it smack of the old school, to the pen of Mr. Roane. I differ from you about 'his being a Virginian; not that I doubt the fact. But take my word for it, he is becoming every day more and more known out of the State, and occupies a large space

in the public eye. I think he can be elected easily against any one yet talked of."

"I read Mr. Roane's letter," says he on another occasion, "with the attention that it deserves. Every thing from his pen on the subject of our laws and institutions excites a profound interest. I was highly gratified at the manner in which it was spoken of in my hearing by one of the best and ablest men in our House. It is indeed high time that the hucksters and money-changers should be cast out of the Temple of justice. The tone of this communication belongs to another age; but for the date, who could suppose it to have been written in this our day of almost universal political corruption? I did not road the report on the lottery case. The print of the Enquirer is too much for my eyes; and, besides, I want no argument to satisfy me that the powers which Congress may exercise, where they possess exclusive jurisdiction, may not be extended to places where they possess solely a limited and concurrent jurisdiction. The very statement of the question settles it, and every additional word is but an incumbrance of help."

In the same letter he says:

"If I possessed a talent that I once thought I had, I would try to give you a picture of Washington. The state of things is the strangest imaginable; but I am like a speechless person who has the clearest conception of what he would say, but whose organs refuse to perform their office. There is one striking fact that one can't help seeing at the first glance-that there is no faith among men; the state of political confidence may be compared to that of the commercial world within the last two or three years. Our State politics, like those of the General Government, are a conundrum to me, and I leave the unriddling of them to the ingenious writers who construct and solve enigmas and charades for the magazines.

"I have been trying to read Southey's Life of Wesley for some days. Upon the whole, I find it a heavy work, although there are some very striking passages, and it abounds in curious information. From 279 to 285 inclusive of volume the second is very fine. Yesterday I was to have dined with Frank Key, but was not well enough to go. He called here the day before, and we had much talk together. He perseveres in pressing on towards the goal, and his whole life is spent in endeavoring to do good for his unhappy fellow-men. The result is, that he enjoys a tranquillity of mind, a sunshine of the soul, that all the Alexanders of the earth can neither confer nor take away. This is a state to which I can never attain. I have made up my mind to suffer like a man condemned to the wheel or the stake. Strange as you may think it, I could submit without a murmur to pass the rest of my life on some high lonely tower, where I might outwatch the bear with thrice great Hermes,' and exchange the enjoy

ments of society for an exemption from the plagues of life. These press me down to the very earth; and to rid myself of them, I would gladly purchase an annuity and crawl into some hole, where I might commune with myself and be still."

"THURSDAY, March 1, 1821.

"I am in luck this morning. Johnny has brought me a letter from you instead of returning from the Post-office empty handed as usual. It gives me great satisfaction to find that the good people of my district are not dissatisfied with my course this winter.

"Last night there was, as I am informed by the gentlemen of our club, a most disgraceful scene in the H. of R. on the Bankrupt bill, which, by virtue of the previous question, will be forced through the House without being committed, or even once read! except by its title-a bill of 65 sections!

"The bankrupt land speculators and broken merchants are, like the sons of Zeruiah, too strong for us.' So you see our coronation will be graced by a general jail delivery.

"Mrs. Brockenbrough's rheumatism, which is an opprobrium of medicine, gives me real concern. I sympathize with her in the literal sense of the term.

"My pains are aggravated by having neither society nor books to relieve my ennui.

"You mention whatever comes into your head'-To be sure you ought. It is the charm of a letter.

"The gentlemen you mention are right in their 'attentions' to Miss -I consider the society of such a woman as the best possible school for a young man, and solace for an old one.

I have not read Col. Taylor's book, but I heartily agree with Mr. Jefferson that the Judiciary gravitates towards consolidation.' I consider this district to be the TOUσTw and the Supreme Court to be the lever of the political Archimedes. I do not know whether you can make out my Greek character.

"I give you joy that this is the last epistle that you will be plagued with from me from this place."

CHAPTER XVI.

"BE NOT SOLITARY; BE NOT IDLE."

HIS WILL-SLAVES.

MR. RANDOLPH's solitary residence at Roanoke had become more and more intolerable to him. "The boys" were off at school. Dr. Dudley, at his solicitation, had moved to Richmond, and he was like

the "Ancient Mariner" on the wide sea-" alone-alone-all-all alone !"

"You do not overrate the solitariness," says he, " of the life I lead here. It is dreary beyond conception, except by the actual sufferer. I can only acquiesce in it, as the lot in which I have been cast by the good providence of God, and endeavor to bear it, and the daily increasing infirmities, which threaten total helplessness, as well as I may. Many long weeks have passed since you heard from me'-and why should I write? To say that I have made another notch in my tally? or to enter upon the monstrous list of grievances, mental and bodily, which egotism itself could scarcely bear to relate, and none other to listen to. You say truly: there is no substitute' for what you name,' that can fill the heart.' The better conviction has long ago rushed upon my own, and arrested its functions. Not that it is without its paroxysms, which, I thank heaven, itself alone is conscious of. Perhaps I am wrong to indulge in this vein; but I must write thus or not at all. No punishment, except remorse, can exceed the misery I feel. My heart swells to bursting, at past recollections; and as the present is without enjoyment, so is the future without hope; so far at least, as respects this world.

"Here I am yearning after the society of some one who is not merely indifferent to me, and condemned, day after day, to a solitude like Robinson Crusoe's. But each day brings my captivity and exile nearer to their end."

To Dr. Brockenbrough, June 12th, he says:-"This letter is written as children whistle in the dark, to keep themselves from being afraid. I dare not look upon that blank and waste of the heart' within. Dreary, desolate, dismal--there is no word in our language, or any other, that can express the misery of my life. I drag on like a tired captive at the end of a slave-chain in an African Coffle. I go because I must. But this is worse than the sick man's tale."

From this solitude he sent forth lessons that should be graven on the heart of every young man. His own sad experience adds weight to his precepts. Out of the deep anguish of his heart poured forth the words of wisdom. His admonitions give a sure guide to the bewildered mind, and cheering hope to the depressed spirit. No young man can give heed to them and follow them, without finding to his joy that he has hit upon the true and only path of success in human life—he will find that activity, cheerful activity, in some useful calling in daily intercourse with his fellow man, is the business, the solace, and the charm of existence.

"The true cure for maladies like yours," says he to Dr. Dudley,