Congress. The same seems true when applied to navigable rivers below ports of delivery or entry. A state can not, it would seem, erect any impediment to navigation below such ports, and as Congress has an exclusive jurisdiction over commerce according to the case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, (9 Wheaton, 198, 195,) no vessel sailing with a United lisence can be in any degree impeded by a law of a state legislature when going to or from such ports. Congress having exclusive control, the state has none and cannot authorize a dam or any impediment between the sea and such ports. This rule would promote harmony and is plainly the intent of the Constitution.

By the Constitution of the United States fugitive criminals and slaves must be given up by the governor of the state into which the criminal or slave escapes. Public opinion in the free states often shields slaves or covers their flight, but still ita lex scripta est, any governor on a proper demand is bound to obey the Constitution. The Constitution and acts of Congress must be carried into full effect. Christianity and the humanity of the south, we hope, may soon put a stop to heartrending scenes of the seizure of slaves seeking

freedom, which our Declaration of Independence call the inherent and inalienable right of every man.

SECTION SIXTEENTH.

RELIGION AND THE PRESS.

Congress has no power over the subjects of religion, the press and freedom of speech, and no law can be legally passed on the subject. This is one of the great guards of our liberties. These ' principles with the narrow limitation of treason and the constitutional immunity of the persons and property of American citizens, have placed them beyond the reach of oppression by the national government.

SECTION SEVENTEENTH.

INDIAN TRIBES.

The Indian tribes within the United States are under the paternal care of the government of the Union, and large sums have been expended for their improvement. Great efforts are making for their civilization and Christianization. With this view aboriginal tribes living within the states have been colonized to an extensive region west of the Mississippi, where the education of the stoic of the woods is going forward under the patronage of the government. The colonized tribes there enjoy their own laws and customs. The Cherokee language has become a written and printed

one, and agriculture and the mechanic arts are making some progress in several tribes. Christianity is slowly pouring its peaceful doctrines into the bloody minds of these savage men. Though the self-denying missionary is unwearied in his efforts to save the souls of these dark minded children of the wilderness, we fear that the Indian is a doomed race, and that as the deer pass away so will the wild hunter. For the native Indian is well described by the fine poet Campbell :

"As monumental bronze unchanged his look:
A soul that pity touched but never shook :
Trained, from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier,
The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook,
Impassive-fearing but the shame of fear-
A stoic of the woods-a man without a tear."

The Cherokees, Choctaws, Oneidas and other Indians have acquired some knowledge of selfgovernment, of religion and the arts of civilized life. Let us persevere in our labors for their good and leave the result with God.

We have now finished our view of the internal polity of the United States. It is a brief and general outline only, and our illustrations have been confined to a few leading subjects. This is all we intended. Our work is done.

We have been prompted to this effort to illustrate international and American law by a deep

conviction that our republic has an important part to perform in the Christianization and civilization of the world. The last act of our pilgrim fathers on leaving Holland, was prayer to God for his direction and support, and their first, on arriving at Plymouth, was a solemn covenant with each other to obey God, and govern the commonwealth of the wilderness according to his law. Self-government according to the laws of the Eternal was the principle, the corner stone of the new state. Upon that basis we have constructed our moral law of nations, with humble hope that it may contribute to the strength and beauty of the temple of American liberty and promote the happiness of mankind.

In our hope of advancing the best interests of our beloved republic, of diffusing our morality, intelligence and freedom over the earth by the aid of Christianity, of a free press, and of a commerce unshackeled and liberal, and of bringing up the code of public law to the spirit of this Christian age, we follow Washington and Franklin. Washington in his letter of August, 1786, to the Marquis de Lafayette, speaking of this subject, said: "as a citizen of the great republic of humanity, I indulge a fond, perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that, as the world is evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its melioration must still be progressive; that nations are becoming more humanized in their

policy; that the subjects of ambition and causes of hostility are daily diminishing; and, in fine, that the period is not very remote, when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will pretty generally succeed to the devastations and horrors of war." To that great republic of humanity we devote this work, a humble contribution to the cause of philanthropy.