1. British Policy Here and There. Commerce with 633. C. Congressional Summary, 99, 204, 320, 429. Critical Notices, 111, 217, 442, 657. Campbell, life of, 405. D. Dedication of Goethe's Faust, Translation, 470. E. Everstone, by the Author of Anderport Records, 47, 152. Education, 87. G. General Winfield Scott; his services in the organization of the Army; his conduct of the war in Mexico; embarkation and landing of the troops at Vera Cruz; movement of the troops through the enemy's country; the rights of private property respected; cruelties and disorders suppressed; severity and justice of the military tribunals instituted by the Commanding General, 276. H. Hints toward Conciliation. 1. That it be accepted as an established principle, that the power of protecting, ameliorating, or abolishing institutions of caste in a State is inherent in the people of that State alone; 2. That the absence or presence of castes in any sovereignty or territory, asking admission to the Union, shall not be a bar to its admission; 3. That our knowledge of the mode in which the people of any sovereignty, or territory, intend to employ the powers to be guaranteed to them by the Constitution on Memoirs of the House of Orleans, Rise and influ ence of the House of Orleans; aristocratic society in France previous to the great Revolution; Court of Louis the Fourteenth; Madame de Tencin, the mother of D'Alembert; her origin, life, and character; Madame de Genlis, 258. Memoranda, Ethical, Critical, and Political, 468. Memoir of the Public Life of Edward Everett, 484. Morell's Argument against Phrenology, (T. Colden Memoir of John Caldwell Calhoun, 164. Cooper,) 190. Mr. George Payne Rainsford James; his poems on America; his patriotism and ardor, 402. Miscellany, 107, 433, 546. best government is that which governs least;" Parad. V.," The people have declared their will;" Parad. VI., " Doctrine of instructions," Parad. VII.," Men are born free and equal," 2. Political Miscellany. Suppression of the African Coast Squadron, advocated in England; impolicy of that measure; importance of the squadron in preventing the increase of slavery in South America; importance to the growing commerce of Africa, 324. Political Preface, 551. Pacific Railroad; the Senate Committee's Report in favor of Whitney's plan, 539. Political Economists. Henry C. Carey; his views, and discovery of the true principles of political economy, 376. Plain Words for the North, 555. R. Review of Allston's "Lectures on Art and Poems," 17. Review of the "Memoirs of Thomas Jefferson. Reply to Correspondents, 113. Review of the Village Notary, and Memoirs of a S. Sonnets to Fill Blanks, 366, 401, 493. Sydney Smith's Sketches of Moral Philosophy. (T. C. C.) Philosophy of wit and humor, 388. T. The Spanish American Republics. Causes of their failure; Central America; the two parties, Serviles and Liberals; the old Spanish Aristocracy; Monarchists, 337. The Danish Question, (the test question in Euroropean Politics,) 331. The Tariff of '46. Review of the Letters of the Hon. Abbott Lawrence, 300. The Genius of Sleep, a Statue by Canova; a To the Political Reader. Article on the Danish Twenty Sonnets of a Season, 564. The Great Ship Canal Question; England and Costa Rica versus the United States and Nicaragua, 441. The Poets and Poetry of the Irish. St. Sedulins; St. Binen; St. Columbeille; Malmura of Othian; The Story of the Sons of Usna; M'Liag, Poet to O'Brian, 77, 141. The Nameless, 181. The Dead Child, 189. Thomas Jefferson, 33, 182. Annexation of Territories; Policy of Jefferson, 290. The trial of Aaron Burr; conduct of Jefferson; his hatred and persecution of Burr, 367. His Presidential career, last years of his life, 471. U. Uses and Abuses of Lynch Law. Art. II. Murrel, the Land Pirate of the Southwest; his conspiracy; system of enlisting members; all classes of society embraced; Murrel Gang in Washington Co., Texas, 1849, (note); Murrel taken with the stolen negroes; his trial, and partial failure of the prosecution; attempt to Lynch him frustrated; steals Henning's negroes; Stewart accompanies Murrel on his journey; pretends to join the clan; his critical situation; visits the conspirator's Island; Murrel's return home; his arrest; attempts to assassinate Stewart by the clan; Murrel's escape and recapture; attempts to destroy Stewart's evidence; the trial; Stewart springs a mine upon the intended witnesses; Murrel's conviction; Blake takes command of the clan; time for the revolt of the slaves changed, 494. Unity of the Human Race, 567. W. What Constitutes Real Freedom of Trade? (H. C. C.) Doctrines of Adam Smith examined; shown to be identical with those of the Protec tionists; misuse of Adam Smith as an authority by the so called "free-traders," 127. Chapter II. Examination and Refutation of the modern English theories of Free Trade; principle from which a true theory of Public Economy may be deduced; agriculture the foundation of national wealth, 228. Chapter III. trine of Adam Smith; mutual aid rendered to each other by the various departments of industry, 353. Chapter IV. The Earth the great machine of production, 456. Washington Irving and his Writings, 602. Doc THE AMERICAN WHIG REVIEW, No. XXXI. FOR JULY, 1850. INTRODUCTORY TO VOL. VI. THE first page of a new volume-the sixth of the present series, gives occasion for a few remarks upon the course which we feel it our duty to pursue, as conductors of the Whig Review. Our efforts will be directed toward the re-establishment of those party lines which have been in some degree obscured by sectional agitations. The grand doctrines of beneficent protection to every species of labor, and to internal as well as to external commerce, are beginning to be argued from new points of view, upon grounds more practical, and from a more home-felt necessity of reform. For nearly an entire year, discussion has been paralyzed, and political action suspended, by the slave controversy. The policy of our political adversaries has not been wholly unsuccessful; the policy, namely, of dividing and weakening our ranks by hurling sectional jealousies amongst us. Had it not been for the solidity and VOL. VI. NO. I. NEW SERIES. strength of our principles and the vastness of those Interests of Labor which they sustain, the terrible agitations which have prevailed during the past year, would, doubtless, have torn the party into many hostile factions. Prudence, calmness, and intelligence, have averted so calamitous an issue, and while those whom we oppose find themselves without a single principle of organization, we have only to remember the great truth, that governments exist for Beneficent and Protective ends, as well as for Offence and Suppression, and with this thought, we become at once united and firm For the course which we have felt it necessary to pursue, in admitting articles and biographies representing both extremes of opinion, in regard to Slavery and its extension, we must beg leave to refer our readers to the first page of our last number, where it is distinctly explained. 1 POLITICAL PARADOXES. PARADOX I. Ad Valorem. now draw attention, is the peculiarly radical one of putting no faith in what is familiarly termed "human nature," or the disposition of men, and more especially of men in business. To put no faith in human nature is to put no faith in the laws of nature. The more extensive and mature one's observation of men, the more certain circumstances and temptations. It is a matter of common observation, however, that the virtue of mo t men, though it may average well under ordinary pressure, will yet give way under a heavy and steady force of temptation. They will give way after a time, yielding, as they imagine, to an irresistible necessity-but, in reality, to a strong attack upon their virtue. So much we may assume, perhaps, without contradiction, or seeming too dogmatic. By the present system of tariffs, the importer of a foreign article is made the assessor of the value of his own goods. The lower the price named by the importer, or by the agent of the foreigner employed to sell his goods in this country, the less tariff he will have to pay. A fabric worth three dollars, if valued by the importer at that price, will pay perhaps 90 cents of tariff to the gov-ly we predict their conduct under given ernment. If, on the other hand, the importer names two dollars as its price, the tariff will be only 60 cents. Now it is a question of moral casuistry whether a merchant, on being forced to tell at what price he values his wares, ought, in all cases, to name the highest. Let casuists settle the question as they will for the right or wrong of the matter, we know very well, and every man of business is aware, that human nature has just enough of the beggarly element in it as to take full advantage of such an arrangement. If I swear that my goods cost me on the average two dollars, when in fact they cost three dollars, I can save myself thereby six or eight thousand dollars a year from government. Now as your foreign free-trader holds all tariffs to be unjust and contrary to nature, he readily shuts his eyes upon the dubious morality of a false valuation, by which the effect of the "iniquitous tariff system" is eluded. It is not our intention here to present a few partial statements taken from custom-house returns, to show, what we are well assured is the fact, that the present system of valuations defrauds the government of a good part of its revenue. Such statements would only encumber the present inquiry; which is not of the facts, but of the common sense reasonings to be used in practical legislation upon this system of tariffs. The political paradox to which we would It Among all the virtues, that of strict allegiance to that indefinable power called a government, appearing usually in the form of a Secretary of the Treasury, is perhaps the rarest and the most to be admired. is a paramount and unquestionable duty to pay taxes to the government when they are lawfully demanded. It is a grand exercise of patriotism to do this when one may easily avoid it. Very few persons look upon it as a crime to smuggle a few articles in their trunks from France to America. genuine and well-founded faith in "the laws of human nature," will, perhaps, induce the moralist to look well into the matter before he comes down with too harsh a censure upon sins of this degree of veniality. That they are wrong we make no question-but that they are crimes of as deep a dye as murder or stealing, we have our doubts. A That governments, in general, exercise a strong faith in the "laws of human nature," every revenue cutter and custom-house officer is a perpetual witness. The people themselves and the people's representatives in Congress, have but little confidence in human honesty, else they would not go to the expense of revenue cutters and custom-houses. They would content themselves with imposing a certain tariff, and leaving it to the conscience of the importers to pay it fully and promptly. Nothing, therefore, could be more absurd or inconsistent than for government to declare its want of confidence by one act, and its fullness of confidence by another; to send an armed vessel to secure the payment of a tax, and then to ask the owner to fix the amount of that tax himself. A custom house oath is a form of law, and brings the swearer in danger of the law. It is by no means a rare, solemn, and religious oath, but a common, vulgar, and absurd one. For all purposes of law, it were as good to demand a plain asseveration, yea or nay-and the violation of that should be a lie, punishable by certain penalties. A custom house oath, falsely sworn, is, we venture to say, no more than an interested lie, of exactly the same calibre and criminality with the shopman's, who lies you into the belief that he paid more for his stuffs than he asks you for them with this difference only, that the small shopkeeping liar is not amenable to the law, whereas the great shopkeeping liar is so amenable. In a newspaper of the day we have seen a great deal of virtuous indignation expressed at the charge made against foreign importers, that they allow false valuations to be made of their goods at the custom house, to escape the payment of the full duty. This delicate minded defender of injured virtue might as wisely have expended his indignation upon the government of the United States, for embodying its suspicions of importers in the shape of revenue cutters and custom house officers. A revenue cutter is certainly a disgrace to human virtue, but it is none the less esteemed to be, like the watchman's cudgel, a necessary instrument for the execution of the laws. The entire police force of government, both by sea and land, municipal and national, standing or occasional, exists in open declaration of war against every punishable kind of fraud and violence. Prevention is one half the duty of the law. Our Democratic friends will not deny that we too hold it a principle that temptations ought never to be held out to men in business; hence, our opposition to every species of monopoly. But with this ad valorem arrangement, by which the importers are made to fix the amount of duty they may see fit to pay, there is not only a temptation held out to individuals to defraud the government, but it is simply impossible for them to do business upon any but a fraudulent system; a necessity of such force and of such an imposing character as few can resist. There are rogues in every business. No sooner was the ad valorem system adopted, roguish importers began to undervalue their goods They immediately found it possible to sell them just as much cheaper as they had been more dishonest than their neighbors. If their dishonest undervaluation was 20 per cent., their profits were so much larger as their honesty was less; either by larger sales or higher proceeds. The honest importers, meanwhile, who had had the courage to reveal the true values of their goods, were losing to the exact amount of their honesty. The law had so arranged it that their losses should be strictly proportioned to their piety. The more conscience the less profit. It became a very nice piece of casuistry to discover whether a government which made laws for the protection of dishonesty ought to be regarded as a moral agent and whether oaths made to escape ruin, might not be, like Sunday tasks-"works of necessity and mercy. One of the most remarkable and unaccountable peculiarities of "human nature," and in which most practical men have an unlimited faith, is, that whatever is customary ceases after a while to appear criminal. Were it a religious custom in America to commit suicide at meetings for worship, (as it is in India,) it would not appear criminal. The hanging of Quakers was once customary and certainly not regarded as a crime; whereas, to hang a Quaker at this day, would be esteemed a more criminal act than any other; persons of the old Quaker sect, being commonly esteemed the most useful and virtuous members of society. Were it an established custom to punish criminals by perpetual |