of man which leads those who govern to oppress the gov erned, if not prevented, will, with equal force and certainty, lead the latter to resist oppression, when possessed of the means of doing so peaceably and successfully. But absolute governments, of all forms, exclude all other means of resistance to their authority than that of force, and, of course, leave no other alternative to the governed but to acquiesce in oppression, however great it may be, or to resort to force to put down the government. But the dread of such a resort must necessarily lead the government to prepare to meet force in order to protect itself; and hence, of necessity, force becomes the conservative principle of all such governments.

"On the contrary, the government of the concurrent majority, where the organism is perfect, excludes the possibility of oppression, by giving to each interest, or portion, or order, where there are established classes, the means of protecting itself, by its negative, against all measures calculated to advance the peculiar interests of others at its expense. Its effect, then, is to cause the different interests, portions, or orders, as the case may be, to desist from attempting to adopt any measure calculated to promote the prosperity of one or more, by sacrificing that of others; and thus to force them to unite in such measures only as would promote the prosperity of all, as the only means to prevent the suspension of the action of the government, and thereby to avoid anarchy, the greatest of all evils. It is by means of such authorized and effectual resistance that oppression is prevented, and the necessity of resorting to force superseded, in governments of the concurrent majority; and hence compromise, instead of force, becomes their conservative principle.

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"It would perhaps be more strictly correct to trace the conservative principle of constitutional governments to the necessity which compels the different interests, or por tions, or orders to compromise, as the only way to promote their respective prosperity and to avoid anarchy, rather than to the compromise itself. No necessity can be more urgent and imperious than that of avoiding anarchy. It is the same as that which makes government indispensable to preserve society, and is not less imperative than that which compels obedience to superior force. Traced to this source, the voice of a people-uttered under the necessity of avoiding the greatest of calamities, through the organs of a government so constructed as to suppress the expression of all partial and selfish interests, and to give a full and faithful utterance to the sense of the whole community in reference to its common welfare -may, without impiety, be called the voice of God. To call any other so would be impious.

"In stating that force is the conservative principle of absolute, and compromise of constitutional governments, I have assumed both to be perfect in their kind; but not without bearing in mind that few or none, in fact, have ever been so absolute as not to be under some restraint, and none so perfectly organized as to represent fully and perfectly the voice of the whole community. Such being the case, all must, in practice, depart more or less from the principles by which they are respectively upheld and preserved, and depend more or less for support on force, or compromise, as the absolute or the constitutional form predominates in their respective organizations.'

CHAPTER IV.

Happy Cessation of Excitement after the Adoption of the Missouri Compromise.-Era of good Feeling during the Remainder of Mr. Monroe's Administration.-Presidential Contest of 1824.-Mr. Adams's Election by the House of Representatives to the Presidency.—Inaugural Speech of Mr. Adams.-Interesting Scene in the White House on the Occasion of President Monroe's taking Leave of his Friends to return to his private Home in Virginia. -Intense Excitement growing out of Mr. Adams's Election, but without any Intermixture of sectional Feeling.-Violent and illiberal Opposition to his Administration.-Defeat of Mr. Adams for Re-election in 1828, and Elevation of General Andrew Jackson in his Stead.-Rise of Nullification in South Carolina in 1832.-General Jackson's Proclamation against South Carolina.-Mr. Clay's successful Scheme of Pacification, known as the Compromise Tariff Bill.-Origin of Abolition Societies in 1835.-Minute historical Account of these Societies given in Mr. Greeley's "American Conflict." -Mr. Webster's striking Remarks upon these Societies in his 7th of March Speech.-Author declines any special Notice of the Presentation of Abolition Petitions, and the excited Discussions growing out of the same. Notice of the Acquisition of Texas with the general Consent of the American People.-Breaking out of the Mexican War, and Presentation of the Wilmot Proviso in the Midst thereof.-Author's Election to the United States Senate, with Jefferson Davis as his official Colleague. Serious political Disagreements between them. Sketch of President Davis's Character, with some Notice of his History.-Session of the United States Senate commencing in December, 1847. Mr. Dickinson's Non-intervention Resolution, and Mr. Calhoun's extreme Opposition. to it.—Curious colloquial Scene in the Senate.-General Cass's Nicholson Letter.-Complimentary Notice of General Cass.

IN taking a retrospect of the past, it is alike surprising and gratifying to observe how soon after the adoption of

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the Missouri Compromise it was that the public mind became every where once more tranquil.

The majestic ship of state, which Longfellow has so beautifully depictured, was seen careering again over the surface of the now untroubled deep, whose waves had no longer power to disturb the regularity of its movements, or impede the celerity of its course. Those of us who remember the three years of happy quietude which our country enjoyed under the upright and truly conservative administration of Mr. Fillmore, are best able to understand how magically efficacious are sometimes found to be the healing balsams furnished by a judicious and liberal pharmacopoeia, when these shall be applied in season to wounds inflicted by unfriendly hands upon the most vital parts of the body politic. I shall ever hold it to have been a most fortunate circumstance for our country's welfare that a few of those experienced and gifted statesmen who had been prominently instrumental in saving the republic from menaced overthrow in 1819 lingered still upon the public stage after full thirty years had rolled away, and that they were found alike ready and willing to lend their inspiring presence, as well as their priceless monitions, to a rash and froward generation, who at one moment seemed bent upon making sudden shipwreck of those moral treasures which, once lost, are in general found to be completely past recovery. But let us proceed with our rapid historic review.

During the remainder of Mr. Monroe's administration party excitement was almost unknown, and indeed at the close of it there was only one party designation known in all the broad republic. It was during the continuance

of this political calm that four presidential candidates were seen to present themselves to popular consideration, all of whom professed to be of the same creed, and claimed the same political associations-Mr. Crawford, Mr. Clay, General Jackson, and Mr. John Quincy Adams, about the shoulders of the last of whom was the presidential mantle destined to be ultimately cast.

On the 4th day of March, 1825, the writer of these pages, then a mere novice in the great world of national politics, had the honor of seeing John Quincy Adams for the first time, and of listening to that inaugural speech of his which was fated to call forth so much of sharp and biting criticism, and of ungenerous objurgation. I was, an hour or two afterward, one of the numerous visitants who thronged the presidential mansion in order to take leave of Mr. Monroe and to greet the incoming of his successor, and well do I remember the bland and cheerful aspect of the venerable man who, then in a state of green old age, was gracefully casting off the harness of official labor and responsibility, as well as the solemn and care-marked visage of his successor, who, under embarrassing and unprecedented circumstances, and with the prospect opening upon him of a long course of virulent and relentless assailment from a thousand heretofore friendly quarters, was about to take upon himself duties the performance of which I am sure no truly sagacious man has ever yet eagerly coveted, who at the same time expected to perform them with a true and vigorous fidelity. Though Mr. Adams very soon found a fierce and energetic party organized for his overthrow, and though the most strenuous efforts were used by his zealous oppo