happy island, so neither ought this barrier to diminish our sympathies, or induce us to abate one jot or tittle of our active exertions to remove distresses so appalling. He was glad that, in depicting these distresses, the report had alluded also to these obligations. Never let it be said in the future, by the historian who shall narrate the history of these times, that America was indifferent to the present sufferings of Ireland. We owed her a deep debt of gratitude. Who could rightly appreciate how much of our prosperity was attributable to the number of her sons who have crossed the Atlantic with their wives, and children, and household gods; have held up an example, imitated by other nations; have built our cities, cultivated our waste domain, and become happily blended and incorporated into the great American family. Why, in point of capital (taking that word in its broadest sense); in point of commerce, interior and foreign; in point of the facilities for employing that commerce to the best advantage; in point of agriculture, and the subjugation of the soil to the rule of the husbandman-of peopling the deserted wastes of nature with crowds of cultivated lifein point, finally, of the increased population, wealth, and resources of these United States, we are indebted to no other cause to the same extent as to that of emigration, encouraged at every period by the enlightened policy of our government, and so large a portion of which had proceeded from Ireland. He was an American citizen-not by adoption; he was born among the constituency who had sent him to this city to represent their wishes and interests. He could not forget that he never passed through the great thoroughfare of his native city without his eye resting upon the monuments which public gratitude had erected to commemorate the service, and to perpetuate to distant times the virtues of an Emmet and a Montgomery.

"These were claims, inappreciable, he knew, to some minds, but they were nevertheless claims, and strong ones, upon us. If it were possible there were any present uninfluenced by considerations like these, he would appeal to their humanity, since he could not awaken their gratitude. Had they read the accounts of suffering brought over by the last steamer? Great God! think of thousands and thousands of starving men, will ing, ay, anxious (how anxious he hoped we might never know)

to labor for their bread, yet without the employment which could yield it to them-without the means of escaping from the misery that surrounded them, and with the melancholy consciousness that it must sooner or later engulf them! Think of whole families perishing of hunger! Think of manhood withered-struck down in its prime! Did they love their own offspring? The heart of the poorest peasant, in the meanest clay cabin in Ireland, beat as warmly toward his. Think, oh! think of the mothers who, with eyes unwet,' glare o'er their perishing children.

"If we can do any thing to relieve these horrors, we can not, without guilt, pass by upon the other side. The same Being who, in his mysterious allotments, had apportioned misery and destitution to them, and happiness and plenty to us, had accompanied it, on our part, with the consciousness of what is our duty."

At the close of the first session of the twenty-ninth Congress, upon his return home, Mr. Maclay was invited, on behalf of the first and second regiment of Volunteers of the State of New York, to present a sword to Lieutenant C. F. Morris, who had distinguished himself at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. The place selected for the presentation was Castle. Garden. Much to the disappointment of all concerned, Lieutenant Morris did not appear at the time appointed, having been unable to reach the city of New York, in consequence of the detention of the steamer on Lake Champlain. Thomas Morris, the father, received the sword on behalf of his son. A numerous audience assembled on the occasion, and much enthusiasm was evinced. A sketch of Mr. Maclay's remarks, which appears in an account of the proceedings, enables us to judge of the manner in which he discharged the task assigned to him.

He paid a merited and very graceful compliment to the first and second regiments of New York Volunteers, alluding to the promptitude with which they had responded to the call of their country, and declared, that while the gift would be the more valuable and the more esteemed by Lieutenant Morris on that account, it also illustrated the general truth, that those who know how to discharge a public duty themselves, could best appreciate and were the most ready to acknowledge its

proper performance in others. He then entered upon a justification of the war with Mexico, giving a summary of the causes which had led to it, and stated that, within thirty days after Congress had passed the law authorizing the President to accept the services of fifty thousand volunteers, two hundred thousand had offered themselves; and that, if positive prohibitions had not been issued, half a million of citizen soldiers, at the time he was speaking, would have stood forth ready to meet the enemy.

"It would have been singular," he said, turning to Mr. Morris, "if your son had been either absent from, or undistinguished among that gallant throng.. The name he bears, and the blood that courses through his veins, were guarantees of his devotion to his country in any struggle that might have occurred. In the darkest period of our revolutionary struggle, 'even when the thickest of war's tempest lowered,' your venerated father saw through the gloom of the then present the light that irradiated the future. Never despairing for one moment of the ultimate success of the cause in which he was engaged, by the generous sacrifice of his means and his credit he raised the resources which relieved our suffering and half-clad army, fighting, amid universal despondency, the battle of freedom.

"When peace returned with her olive, and the government under which we have lived, and grown, and prospered was or ganized, in just appreciation of his services and ability, General Washington tendered to him the honorable post of Secretary of the Treasury, which, with characteristic modesty, he declined. What was happily said of another is equally applicable to him. The character of most public men, like objects seen through a mist, is magnified by the distance. He was like a lofty towerseen afar off in a clear evening sky, which rises in grandeur and sublimity with every step of approach. Your son has approved himself not unworthy of such parentage. In the battle of the 8th of May he laid by his sword, and, taking the musket of a wounded man, joined in the fire of those who were contending with the enemy. In the battle of the 9th, although wounded, he supported himself upon the arm of a surgeon; he responded to his brave commander, who had seized a Mexican standard, and called to his men to follow him in the charge upon the battery, through which the desperate charge of Captain May's dra

goons had already broken. For this commendable service, for his zeal and fidelity as a soldier, for the thrill of pleasure he has sent to the bosom of his family and friends, for the honor he has conferred upon his native city, this testimonial, which I am now about to present to you, has been selected as emblematic of his merits.

"Allow me, then, in the name and behalf of the first and second regiments of Volunteers of this state, to present you, or him, this sword. May the Dispenser of every good grant him a long life to wear it-his past conduct warrants it will be honored."

The eulogium pronounced upon this gallant young officer was justly merited. His subsequent conduct added increased interest to his name. Our acknowledgments are due, in this connection, to Colonel Ward B. Burnett, of the first regiment of the New York State Volunteers, for the information which he has furnished us. Lieutenant Morris was small in stature, but his weak frame was animated by a lion heart, and there can be little doubt that, had his life been spared, the promise of his youth would have been fulfilled in a maturity of honor. He had exhibited an early bias toward a military profession, and while a boy, pursuing his studies at the Grammar School of Columbia College, he received a cadet's appointment, and was transferred to the Military Academy of West Point, from which place he graduated in 1841. He was breveted as sec ond lieutenant in the second regiment of United States Infantry, and, during the same year, embarked for Tampa Bay, in Florida, to join his regiment. Soon after his arrival he was commissioned as second lieutenant. After much active duty in scouring the marshes and everglades of Florida, he was put in command of a small post at Fort King, one of the most unhealthy localities in the state, and in which his constitution be came so impaired that he was ordered to St. Augustine, and subsequently received a furlough of three months. Before the expiration of this term he joined his regiment at Corpus Christi, and, marching with the army under General Taylor to Fort Brown, on the Rio Grande, he was in the battles of the 8th and 9th of May-Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. It was during the engagement last named that he received the wound alluded to by Mr. Maclay in his address, a musket ball striking him above the hip. Disregarding his wound, he pressed against the

enemy until the order was given to halt. Such was his ardor, that the following morning, instead of remaining with the wounded, he joined in the march toward Fort Brown, hobbling a distance of four miles, and with the musket ball still in his body. After the capture of Matamoras he returned to the United States, and was engaged in the recruiting service at Whitehall and Schenectady. In the month of May, 1847, having been made first lieutenant, we find him at Vera Cruz, commanding a company of recruits, and engaged in frequent skirmishes with the guerillas. He joined his regiment at Puebla : it formed a part of General Worth's division, and with it he marched to Tacubaya. At the battle of El Molino del Rey he received two wounds in the foot and ankle; amputation became necessary, and his leg was taken off below the knee-an operation which he bore with the unflinching fortitude and courage which marked his whole career. For some time hopes were entertained of his recovery; but, after thirty-six hours of acute suffering, endured without a murmur, he expired.

Simple in his habits, punctual in his engagements, faithful to his word, and learned in the scientific part of his profession, he was esteemed by all as the model of a good soldier. In General Worth's official report of the sanguinary battle of El Molino del Rey, he is mentioned as one of those most distinguished for their gallantry. His early death was mourned by many, but by none more than by Mr. Maclay himself, who informed the writer that, although but slightly acquainted with Mr. Morris the elder, he addressed a letter of condolence to him on that melancholy event.

Being invited to attend a public dinner given by the citizens of Philadelphia to Colonel Ward B. Burnett, Mr. Maclay again recurred to this subject in an eloquent letter, from which we quote the following extract:

"No ordinary estimate will therefore, I am sure, be placed by Colonel Burnett upon the honor you have conferred upon him. His name awakens in my mind the recollection, not only of the brave spirits of his own state, who have survived the perils of many a well-fought field, but also of those who have sealed with their blood their devotion to their country. The last time I enjoyed the opportunity of conversing with him was upon an occasion when the officers and men of the first and