NAYLOR ON AMERICAN LABORERS. GHE Gentleman, Sir, has misconceived the spirit and tendency of Northern institutions. He is ignorant of Northern character. He has forgotten the history of his country. Preach insurrection to the Northern laborers! Who are the Northern laborers! The history of your country is their history. The renown of your country is their renown. The brightness of their doings is emblazoned on its every page. Blot from your annals the words and the doings of Northern laborers, and the history of your country presents but a universal blank. Sir, who was he that disarmed the Thunderer; wrested from his grasp the bolts of Jove; calmed the troubled ocean; became the central sun of the philosophical system of his age, shedding his brightness and effulgence on the whole civilized world; whom the great and mighty of the earth delighted to honor; who participated in the achievement of your independence, prominently assisted in moulding your free institutions, and the beneficial effects of whose wisdom will be felt to the last moment of "recorded time"? Who, Sir, I ask, was he? A Northern laborer,-a Yankee tallow-chandler's son,-a printer's runaway boy. And who, let me ask the honorable Gentleman, who was he that, in the days of our Revolution, led forth a Northern army,-yes, an army of Northern laborers, -and aided the chivalry of South Carolina in their defence against British aggression, drove the spoilers from their firesides, and redeemed her fair fields from foreign invaders? Who was he? A Northern laborer, a Rhode Island blacksmith,—the gallant General Greene,-who left his hammer and his forge, and went forth conquering and to conquer in the battle for our independence! And will you preach insurrection to men like these? Sir, our country is full of the achievements of Northern laborers! Where is Concord, and Lexington, and Princeton, and Trenton, and Saratoga, and Bunker Hill, but in the North? And what, Sir, has shed an imperishable renown on the never-dying names of those hallowed spots, but the blood and the struggles, the high daring, and patriotism, and sublime courage, of Northern laborers? The whole North is an everlasting monument of the freedom, virtue, intelligence, and indomitable independence of Northern laborers! Go, Sir, go preach insurrection to men like these! HAMILTON ON THE CONSTITUTION. FTER all our doubts, our suspicions and speculations, on the subject of Government, we must return, at last, to this importa.t truth,-that, when we have formed a Constitution upon free principles, when we have given a proper balance to the different branches of Administration, and fixed Representation upon pure and equal principles, we may, with safety, furnish it with all the powers necessary to answer, in the most ample manner, the purposes of Government. The great desiderata are a free Representation, and mutual checks. When these are obtained, all our apprehensions of the extent of powers are unjust and imaginary. What, then, is the structure of this Constitution? One branch of the Legislature is to be elected by the People-by the same People who choose your State Representatives. Its members are to hold their office two years, and then return to their constituents. Here, Sir, the People govern. Here they act by their immediate Representatives. You have also a Senate, constituted by your State Legislatures, -by men in whom you place the highest confidence,-and forming another Representative branch. Then, again, you have an Executive Magistrate, created by a form of election which merits universal admiration. In the form of this Government, and in the mode of Legislation, you find all the checks which the greatest politicians and the best writers have ever conceived. What more can reasonable men desire? Is there any one branch in which the whole Legislative and Executive powers are lodged? No! The Legislative authority is lodged in three distinct branches, properly balanced; the Executive authority is divided between two branches; and the Judicial is still reserved for an independent body, who hold their office during good behavior. This organization is so complex, so skilfully contrived, that it is next to impossible that an impolitic or wicked measure should pass the great scrutiny with success. Now, what do Gentlemen mean, by coming forward and declaiming against this Government? Why do they say we ought to limit its powers, to disable it, and to destroy its capacity of blessing the People? Has philosophy suggested, has experience taught, that such a Government ought not to be trusted with everything necessary for the good of society? Sir, when you have divided and nicely balanced the departments of Government; when you have strongly connected the virtue of your rulers with their interests; when, in short, you have rendered your system as perfect as human forms can be, you must place confidence; you must give power. O Book VII. Fiction. UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. ELIZA'S ESCAPE-ACROSS THE RIVER TO FREEDOM-THE BAFFLED TRADER-FIGHTING @ ATE in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in the town of P———, in Kentucky. One was a vulgar swaggerer, a slave-dealer, named Haley; the other a refined gentleman, the owner of the house, named Shelby. They were discussing the sale of one of the latter's slaves, one Tom, to the dealer, and Haley, demurring at the price asked, urged that a bright little negro boy, named Harry, be "thrown in to boot." Mr. Shelby hesitated, but being in business straits was at last compelled to yield, and the bargain was made. "Wal, now, the thing's done!" said the trader, getting up. "Its' done!" said Mr. Shelby, in a musing tone; and, fetching a long breath, he repeated, "It's done." mother of Harry, had been an unsuspected witness. Her husband, George Harris, had already run away from his master to escape ill-treatment, and was now a fugitive, on his way to Canada. She quickly determined to follow him with the child. Late at night, a winter's night, she set out on her perilous journey. All night, and the next day, she struggled on, and then, an hour before sunset, she reached the Ohio river, weary and foot-sore, but still strong in heart. The river was swollen and turbulent; great cakes of floating ice were swinging heavily to and fro in the turbid waters, filling up the whole river, and extending almost to the Kentucky shore. Eliza stood, for a moment, contemplating this unfavorable aspect of things, which she saw at once must prevent the usual ferry-boat from running, and then turned into a small public house on the Of this unholy bargain Eliza, the young bank, to make a few inquiries. |