exact position at the time, as General Jackson's. In one respect, General Jackson had walked in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, and his immediate predecessor too; for he advocated the system of internal improvements to the fullest extent, and never faltered in his career till he found another great man running the same race with him, and then he tacked about and took another course. But, without dwelling on this part of the subject, I will put the question to the Democrats of the West whether, in going beyond the great national highways (the Ohio and Mississippi), they are not endeavoring to revive the very system of internal improvements which General Jackson destroyed by his veto? I say destroyed; but I fear, from the connection I now see between the Tariff party and the Internal Improvement party, that the system was only sleeping, and that new life and vigor are now about to be infused into it. I have great reason to fear this when I hear a gentleman invoking the name of General Jackson to sustain this Juggernaut system of unjust taxation, and that other great system of unjust expenditure. Gentlemen who support this system may draw distinctions, if they please, between themselves and the Whig party, but

"Optics sharp it takes, I ween,

To see what is not to be seen."

Those measures, which the Whigs proclaimed to be in accordance with their cardinal principles, and which were defeated by the veto of General Jackson, are now about to be revived by the Democratic party; and well might my friend (Mr. Rhett) say that the Whigs cheered them on in the work. When I see gentlemen from the West come in and tell us that every river -no matter where may be its source-no matter through what territory it flows-is a proper object of internal improvement; and when I see that, by making a log-rolling bill, in which every part of the Union is to have its share, so as to carry it through the House, the old, exploded system of internal improvement is to be revived, I confess I have lost all hope of seeing an end put to the odious system of unjust taxation and extravagant expenditures. I beseech gentlemen to pause, and not to suffer themselves to be seduced by any local appropriations into a violation of the Constitution.'

"Mr. M'Clelland desired to ask on what principle the gentleman based his vote for an appropriation for the Ohio and Mississippi, and denied appropriations to the lakes, which the Western people said were essential for their defense? What distinction did the gentleman draw between appropriations for light-houses on the lakes and appropriations for harbors?

"Mr. Holmes. In my opinion, Congress has a right to remove obstructions in the lakes, for the reason that the jurisdiction is in the United States; but Congress can not improve the harbors, because the jurisdiction is in the states. For the same reason, Congress can improve the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; for the United States possessing proprietary and territorial jurisdiction over them, the states can not improve them if Congress does not. But Congress can not improve the Illinois River, for it does not possess jurisdiction over it; the jurisdiction of that river is in the states through which it flows, and they have the power to improve it.""

Acting upon these convictions, the veto of the President on the River and Harbor Bill of the first session of the last Congress was hailed by Mr. Holmes with undisguised satisfaction. He spoke of the "blasting influence" which the passage of such a bill into a law would have had, after the "glorious deeds" which that Congress had consummated. It was truly refreshing, he thought, to have an executive who, in spite of all the clamors with which not only his opponents, but a large portion of those who came into the national Legislature upon principles necessarily involving enmity to internal improvements and extravagance, would assail him for throwing himself upon principle, and doing a deed which showed him to have nerve, and fit to be at the head of this confederated empire, able and willing to throw back the waves of extravagance which tended to destroy the energies and liberties of the people.

The record contains the following passages:

"Is the party with which I act," said Mr. Holmes, "the Democratic party par excellence? Is it a party of principle? And if it is a party of principle, with what face can they rise on this floor, and reprobate the veto which supported that very principle on which the Baltimore Convention acted?

"A voice. Did you take part in the proceedings of that Convention?'

"Mr. Holmes. 'I was not in the Baltimore Convention. We of South Carolina held that the formal declaration of our creed was unnecessary, and the reason is obvious: it is founded on the eternal principles of free trade, the peace of the country, and democracy for the benefit of the whole-not a part, the North and West. I stated distinctly, that if the Democratic party intend to stand together, they must not divide off in this manner whenever there comes a local question of harbors and rivers, and improvements at each man's door. What is this government? It is a confederacy to do what the states individually can not do; and had the idea been entertained that they were to do what any state could do, the South never would have entered into the confederacy, which, under this system, would create a central action, like the sun in mid-heaven, drawing the whole moisture from the South, and throwing it upon the North and West. We came into this confederation to do equal justice to all, particular favors to none. But this system, if carried out, will give to the North and West additional expenditures to those already drawn from the South, and which we, by producing the largest amount of export, which is the basis of import, furnish the ability to pay. We have given peace to the country by doing justice on the Oregon Question ; or, if not peace, a glorious struggle between monopoly and liberty. Let it come. Sir, we have burst the Bastile of restriction, and unfettered the energies of the people; and let us now stop, by that veto and the sustaining thereof, this extravagance of expenditure, that we may return to our constituents with the consolation that we have done what our fathers intended when they made this government, and designed it to be one of universal blessings, not of particular curses.'"

Mr. Holmes has been the true and steady friend of the West Point Academy-most its friend when friendship most was needed. And on one occasion, when that institution was so vigorously attacked by certain Western Democrats as to jeopard its existence, he was complimented as having saved it by his speech. Not less tried, and, at one time, scarcely less needed, has been his friendship for the navy. And when, two years ago, Mr. Bancroft, then Secretary of the Navy, desired to dismiss one third of its officers, and otherwise to cripple that cherished arm of our national defense, Mr. Holmes called upon

the President, and remonstrated with him. The project was finally abandoned. He took ground, also, against any reduction of the army, and opposed the appointment of Colonel Benton as lieutenant-general of the armies of the United States. In a speech which he made at the end of the last session, he declared that the bill creating that new office was designed to disgrace General Taylor, who had, by his unexampled successes, and in spite of the administration, preserved it from disgrace. He declared that if any administration in England or on the Continent had been sustained under all their difficulties by such gallant battles as had lately occurred on our Southern frontier and in Mexico, the gratitude of the nation would have been commensurate with the extent of the kingdom. His course was influenced by no personal opposition to any of the officers, or any regard to the question whether they were in the Whig or Democratic ranks; but he insisted that if such a blow as it was proposed to inflict should be perpetrated, it would be a blow at the spirit, the honor, and the virtue of the whole army. It was no more nor less, he thought, than a proposition to place civil politics and party politics in the van of all the honor and all the bravery which adorned our army.

"In Europe," he said, "men are educated for the military profession; and it has been the policy of our fathers to have their armies led by men properly trained to the military art, as well as in civil accomplishments; and yet now, because General Taylor, who has never thought of the presidency, or of running the race to obtain it, but whose whole life has been spent in camps and in the field, who has won victory after victory, and added more to the national glory than any other man now living, happens unfortunately to be cursed with the name of 'Whig,' he must be superseded, and publicly dishonored and disgraced.

"There are times when good men feel that party is nothing, and that country is all. But, if what we read in Greek and Roman story is true, it seems as if the time is fast coming in this republic when public virtue will be a crime, and to have promoted the glory of the government will but insure a man's disgrace, and prepare the way for his ruin."

At the very moment when politicians were willing to disparage the services which General Taylor had rendered to his coun

try, Mr. Holmes held the sagacity and wisdom of that illustrious man in so high appreciation, as to be one of the first to shadow forth for him the political elevation which has since been anticipated, and hoped for, in so many quarters.

He was one of the early advocates of the annexation of Texas, and, if we recollect right, was the first to speak of that measure in the House as "the settled policy" of the government under Mr. Tyler's administration. [See title, ROBERT C. WINTHROP.] He believes the Mexican war to be unnecessary. He abhors the Wilmot proviso; so much so, that he declares he would rather see the Union dissolved than the spirit of that resolution carried into effect. The principles upon which he would terminate the struggle are found in a series of resolutions which he introduced at an early day in the present session :

"Whereas this confederacy was formed for the establishment of a perfect union, and promoting the general welfare, it becomes those who are intrusted with regulating the government so to direct its movements as to perfect that union and advance that welfare; and whereas the prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps national existence, are involved in the invasive war we are now prosecuting against our sister republic of Mexico, this important consideration should lead us to the adoption of such measures as may result in doing justice to Mexico, and promoting the lasting welfare of the United States; therefore, be it

"Resolved, That it is inexpedient for the United States government so to use its conquests as to extinguish the national existence of Mexico, but that it should so avail itself of the victories it has achieved as to establish, by treaty stipulations, a lasting peace with Mexico upon the basis of an entire free trade between the two republics, such as exists between the several states of this Union,

"Resolved, That we agree to recede all the territory we have taken from Mexico beyond the Rio Grande, upon the condition that our citizens have free ingress and egress into and from New Mexico and Upper California, the privilege of holding lands, exercising their religion, and of carrying on trade as fully as any of the Mexican citizens of those provinces.

"Resolved, That a further condition be the right of entry and departure of our shipping, both national and domestic, into and from the Mexican ports, as unrestricted as in the ports of