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osition so absurd and dangerous could receive but few votes in a Convention constituted of such intelligent and patriotic men as were then assembled in Baltimore, and accordingly, out of 252 votes, only 36 persons were found radical enough to follow Mr. Yancey's lead. The Trojan horse brought into the Democratic citadel was driven beyond its ramparts before the armed warriors which it inclosed could be disgorged from its sides for the perpetration of the mischief contemplated. We shall after a while see this same cunningly-constructed equine machine make its ominous appearance in the cities of Charleston and Baltimore under the care of the self-same political groom, and shall see it unhappily accorded there a very different reception indeed.

While this attempt was making to transform the Democratic party into a secession faction, another effort was in progress, in an opposite quarter, to convert the same party into a mere Free-soil organization. I shall cite here the short and precise description of the latter movement, of which the Democratic nominating Convention in Baltimore was likewise the chosen theatre, from the pages of Mr. Greeley's Conflict. "Two delegations from New York presenting themselves to this Convention— that of the Free-soilers, Radicals, or Barnburners, whose leader was Samuel Young, and that of the Conservatives, or Hunkers, whose chief was Daniel S. Dickinson-the Convention attempted to split the difference by admitting both, and giving each half the vote to which the state was entitled. This the Barnburners rejected, leaving the Convention, and refusing to be bound by its conclusions. The greater body of them heartily joined in the

Free-soil movements, which culminated in a National Convention at Buffalo, whereby Martin Van Buren was nominated for President, with Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President."

The last of the series of resolutions adopted at this same Buffalo Convention shortly afterward raised, in a very sharp and distinct manner, the issue between the Radicals or Sectionalists of the North and the Radicals or Sectionalists of the South, which was to remain a standing and unsettled issue for a series of years, and was to grow, in the imaginations of some, into an "irrepressible conflict," but which, in point of fact, was never either a necessary, safe, or expedient issue, and has since. wrought incalculable mischiefs to the whole land, the vestiges of which a century will scarcely be able to efface.

In the month of December, 1848, a resolution was introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Gott, of New York, the object of which was to prohibit the trade in slaves in the District of Columbia. This resolution, in itself, was perhaps not justly subject to objection or censure, but its discussion, in connection with the circumstance that certain slaves in the ownership of members of Congress from the South were about that time illegally abstracted from their possessors, begot very fierce and acrimonious discussion, and induced a number of the Southern senators and representatives then in Washington to hold a meeting for consultation purposes, which meeting appointed a committee to draft a suitable address to the people of the South. This address was drawn up by Mr. Calhoun, was exceedingly calm and decorous in its tone, indulged in no menacing language whatever, and took the

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ground emphatically in behalf of the South, that all which the slaveholding section demanded was to be let alone; asking no special protection for slaves at the hands of Congress, and only desiring that the well-known guaran-` ties of the Constitution should be faithfully executed. Certain public writers have bitterly denounced this proceeding, charging even that it was a rank disunion movement, when it was, in truth, precisely the reverse; and yet it is a most noticeable fact that these same writers have taken care never to apply the language of reproach to John Quincy Adams, William Slade, Joshua R. Giddings, and others, who, as early as 1843, in an able and eloquent address to the people of the free states, did not hesitate to declare, in connection with the measure of Texan annexation then under contemplation, that "annexation effected by any act or proceeding of the Federal government, or any of its departments, would be identical with the dissolution of the Union," and adding, "it would be a violation of our national compact, its objects and designs, and the great elementary principles which entered into its formation, of a character so deep and fundamental, and would be an attempt to eternize an institution and a power of a nature so unjust in themselves, so injurious to the interests and abhorrent to the feelings of the people of the free states, as, in our opinion, not only inevitably to result in a dissolution of the Union, but fully to justify it; and we not only assert that the people of the free states ought not to submit to it, but we say with confidence they would not submit to it."

I seize with pleasure the opportunity presented of expressing frankly some opinions which I have long enter

tained in reference to John Quincy Adams. I was not so fortunate as to be upon the list of his personal and confidential friends. I had been introduced to him in the lobby of the House of Representatives on one occasion, without holding any conversation with him, a circumstance which I shall now forever regret; but I had for some years felt for his character and abilities a profound respect. On the New Year's day immediately preceding his decease I had gone to his hospitable mansion, with a large number of his fellow-citizens besides, to pay the customary respects to Mrs. Adams and himself. The appearance of both these venerable personages on that occasion painfully indicated the pressure of increasing years, and both of them went through the tiresome scene of receiving the miscellaneous greetings of the thousands who had come to do them deserved homage with an evident sense of weariness and exhaustion. It had chanced that, as early as the year 1824, when I had scarcely attained to manhood, I had met Mrs. Adams at the Bedford Springs, in the State of Pennsylvania, whither she had gone for the restoration of her health, which was then supposed to be more or less impaired. The condition of my own health at the time had brought me to this place also; and as the fashionable season had not then commenced, and there were but few visitants at the Springs, I was one of seven or eight persons, including Mrs. Adams, her fair niece, Miss Hellen, and her son John, who for several weeks had seats at the same private table. A more high-bred, intelligent, and affable lady I do not remember at any time to have encountered. The next time I saw Mrs. Adams was at a levee

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given by the French minister in Washington, just two days before the inauguration of her husband as President of the United States. Mr. Adams was then President elect by the recent action of the House of Representatives. He himself was not at the levee, but, as was certainly to have been expected, his accomplished better half was the great centre of attraction-all the political friends of the incoming President especially being disposed to evince the satisfaction which they felt at the recent promotion of their favorite by the rendition of fitting homage to Mrs. Adams, and many others being attracted to her presence by her own engaging qualities. More than twenty years then glided by before I beheld this esteemed lady again, on the New Year's occasion already referred to. Nor did I then make known to her that we had ever before met, as I could scarcely suppose that she would bear in remembrance thus long the humble and undistinguished youth with whom she had so accidentally formed a passing acquaintance at the renowned Pennsylvania watering-place.

To return to Mr. Adams. I saw him on the day before his death, or perhaps two or three days antecedent, in the hall of the House of Representatives, on Sunday, attending divine service there, and was very much struck with his pale and feeble appearance, as I know many others besides to have been. A day or two after his sudden decease, a gentleman who has since filled several highly respectable official positions, Caleb Lyon, of Lyonsdale, called on me at my residence on the Georgetown Heights, and handed me for perusal a light and vivacious, but highly humorous and piquant poetic effusion, which he