WE have the high authority of history, sacred and profane, for declaring that agriculture is a dignified and time-honored calling-ordained and favored of heaven, and sanctioned by experience; and we are invited to its pursuit by the rewards of the past and the present, and the rich promises of the future. While the fierce spirit of war, with its embattled legions, has, in its proud triumphs, "whelmed nations in blood, and wrapped cities in fire," and filled the land with lamentation and mourning, it has not brought peace or happiness to a single hearth-dried the tears of the widows, or hushed the cries of the orphans it has made-bound up or soothed one crushed or broken spiritnor heightened the joys of domestic or social life in a single bosom. But how many dark recesses of the earth has agriculture illumined with its blessings! How many firesides has it lighted up with radiant gladness! How many hearts has it made buoyant with domestic hope! How often, like the good Samaritan, has it alleviated want and misery, while the priest and Levite of power have passed by on the other side! How many family altars, and gathering places of affection, has it erected! How many desolate homes has it cheered by its consolations! How have its peaceful and gentle influences filled the land with plenteousness and riches, and made it vocal with praise and thanksgiving!

It has pleased the benevolent Author of our existence to set in boundless profusion before us the necessary elements for a high state of cultivation and enjoyment. Blessings cluster around us like fruits of the land of promise, and science unfolds her treasures and invites us to partake, literally without money and without price. The propensities of our nature, as well as the philosophy of our being, serve to remind us that man was formed for care and labor-for the acquisition and enjoyment of property-for society and government-to wrestle with the elements around him; and, that by an active exercise of his powers and faculties alone, can he answer the ends of his creation, or exhibit his exalted attributes. His daily wants, in all conditions of life, prompt him to exertion, and the spirit of acquisition, so deeply implanted in the human breast-that ruling passion strong in death," so universally diffused through the whole family of man-is the parent of that laudable enterprise which has caused the wilderness to bud and blossom like the rose, planted domestic enjoyments in the lair of

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the beast of prey, and transformed the earth from an uncultivated wild into one vast storehouse of subsistence and enjoyment. What can be more acceptable to the patriot or the philanthropist, than to behold the great mass of mankind raised above the degrading influences of tyranny and indolence, to the rational enjoyment of the bounties of their Creator? To see, in the productions of man's magic powers, the cultivated country, the fragrant meadow, the waving harvest, the smiling garden, and the tasteful dwelling, and himself chastened by the precepts of religion, and elevated by the refinements of science, partaking of the fruits of his own industry, with the proud consciousness that he eats not the bread of idleness or fraud; that his gains are not met with the tears of misfortune, nor wrung from his fellow by the devices of avarice or extortion; his joys heightened, his sorrows alleviated, and his heart rectified by the cheering voice and heaven-born influences of woman. Well may he sit down under his own vine and fig-tree without fear of molestation, and his nightly repose be more quiet than that of the stately monarch of the East upon his down of cygnets, or the voluptuous Sybarite upon his bed of roses.

DANIEL S. DICKINSON.*

102. AN APPEAL FOR UNION.

SIR, I do not limit my appeal to Southern senators, I address myself to senators from whatever quarter of the Union; I appeal to them as American senators, and I adjure them by their recollections of the past-by their hopes of the futureas they value the free institutions which the mercy of Providence permits us to enjoy-by all these considerations, I entreat them to unite with us in excluding from the national councils this demon of discord. The acquisition of territory which it is proposed to accomplish by this bill, must bring upon us, with accumulated force, a question which even now menaces the permanence of our Union. I know the firmness of your determination to exert your constitutional powers, to prevent the extension of our domestic institutions. I know the various considerations which unite to constitute that determination, and to give to it its unyielding irrevocable character. I do not mean to discuss this question with you, still less to speak in the

* U. S. Senator from New York.

JOHN M. BERRIEN.

-ANDREW P. BUTLER.

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language of menace. That is alike forbidden by my respect for myself, for you, and for the dignity and the interests of my constituents; but I entreat you to listen to truth, dispassionately, calmly announced to you.

Your determination to deny this right to the South, is not more fixed and unwavering than theirs to assert it. You do not believe that Southern men will silently acquiesce in-will tamely submit to the denial to them, of that which in their deliberate judgment is the common right of all the people of the United States. If we have a right to acquire territory-if that acquisition be made by the common effort of all the states-by the blood and treasure of all-if all have a common right to share, what all have united to acquire, then the exclusion of the South must result in one of two things. They must give an unexampled manifestation of their devotion to the bond of our Federal Union, by submitting to this exclusion, or sadly, though resolutely determine, at whatever hazard, and even against you their brothers in that sacred bond, to assert and maintain their rights. You know them well enough to know, which of these alternatives they will adopt. I do most earnestly hope that we may never be brought to so fearful a crisis. The danger menaces us even now; but the patriotism and intelligence of the American people will, I trust, avert it will teach us, and will teach you, that our safety, that your safety, that the common safety of all alike, forbid the acquisition of territory, if we would continue to enjoy the precious legacy which has been transmitted to us a rich, almost boundless domain, capable of ministering to all our wants, of gratifying all our desires, and a glorious constitution, which a world in arms would vainly assail while we rally round it in our united strength.

JOHN M. BERRIEN.*

103. THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.

SIR, we often find that it is peculiar to the minds of some persons who do not practise virtue very much, to be constant in their recommendations of it to others; it is the tribute which hypocrisy pays to virtue. Sir, there are some on this floor who say that they are above the constitution. I do not know how far they are above it, or how much better they are than those who

*U. S. Senator from Georgia.

made it. Those who make so many professions of conscience, generally have the shortest performances under them. There are those who are continually looking into other people's concerns, and making comparisons and parallels for no practical purpose. We yesterday heard a parallel drawn by the senator from Connecticut, between the states of New York and Virginia, with a view of illustrating the unfavorable effects of Southern institutions. I thought such a comparison was very unnecessary, and that any one might have said to that senator, that if Virginia had occasion to be proud of any thing, it was of her institutions-not only as they had exhibited their influence in her own borders, but wherever her sons had gone. Sir, if her fields are washed into gullies, let it be remembered that the crops which have grown upon them have raised statesmen and heroes. She may not boast of crowded villages and densely settled farms, but wherever they have been settled, they have been settled to good purpose; and though they do not possess the particular kind of prosperity which may have marked some of the Northern states, whenever she was disposed to exhibit her wealth, like Cornelia when asked to show her jewels, she could point to her children.

Sir, I wish to make no comparisons, but, if they are made, gentlemen will find that there have been more men of talent and virtue in this senate from the state of Virginia, than from any other state in the Union.

ANDREW P. BUTLER.*

104. THE SUSPENSION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH AUSTRIA.

MR. PRESIDENT, I am opposed to this proposition, for, supposing it to be founded upon true principles, its application is partial, unequal, and in that sense, is unjust. This objection has already been made, and a proposition, I believe, is now pending to add Russia to the list of the courts with which our diplomatic relations are to be suspended. Assuredly there. would be as much reason for thus punishing Russia as Austria; for the offence is the same, or even worse. What shall we say to France, too, if we are to assume this general supervision of the conduct of foreign governments? Is there nothing in the

* U. S. Senator from South Carolina.

course of the French government in Italy to shock our republican sensibilities? Have they not interfered against the rights of man and popular liberty, according to our conception of the terms? We ought, then, in order to be just, to suspend our diplomatic relations with all of these courts-Austria, Russia, and France. I am not sure, sir, that the list would stop here, if I chose to pursue this examination further. But it is unnecessary for my purpose to continue the investigation; I have said enough to show the inequality of the proposition as it now stands. But I have a third objection to this resolution, which is founded on the fact that it casts reproach on our history and past conduct towards foreign governments-a reproach which, in my opinion, has not been deserved by the sages and patriots who have gone before us, or, indeed, by any of those who have hitherto been responsible for the course of our government. If, as this resolution assumes, it is our duty to observe the conduct of foreign governments towards their own subjects, and to punish them in this mode for acts of oppression towards their citizens, or for violations of the rights of man, according to our conception of their nature; then, sir, in times past we have grievously failed in the discharge of our obligations. From the institution of our government up to this period, how often ought we not to have exercised this power in the discharge of such duties! With how many governments should we not have suspended such relations at the time of the partition of Poland! With how many during the aggressive wars of Napoleon! Which of the European nations would have escaped after the treaty of Vienna, and during the existence of the Holy Alliance? Why, sir, we could not have recalled ministers fast enough about that period to have signalized our abhorrence of the daily violation of the rights of man, in the arbitrary disruption of territories long united together, and the forced connection of people to governments to which they were averse. I should waste the time of the senate, if I were to attempt the enumeration of the cases in which we have failed to act as this resolution assumes we ought to have done. How often should we have suspended relations with France, with England! Indeed, what government is there in the civilized world with whom we should not have suspended our relations at some period of our history, according to the principles now laid down? Perhaps we might have preserved diplomatic relations with the republic of San Marino, by way of showing that it was possible to maintain such a connection with somebody, according to the principles of action which we had laid down upon such subjects.