dom, or with infamy, nothing can be more detestable and fatal.' I speak with just confidence when I say that no federalist can be found who desires with more sincerity the return of peace than the republican government by which the war was declared. But it desires such a peace as the companion and instructor of Scipio has praised—a peace consistent with our rights and honor, and not the deadly tranquillity which may be purchased by disgrace, or taken in barter for the dearest and most essential claims of our trade and sovereignty. I appeal to you boldly: Are you prepared to purchase a mere cessation of arms by unqualified submission to the pretensions of England? Are you prepared to sanction them by treaty and to entail them upon your posterity, with the inglorious and timid hope of escaping the wrath of those whom your fathers discomfited and vanquished? Are you prepared, for the sake of a present profit, which the circumstances of Europe must render paltry and precarious, to cripple the strong wing of American commerce for years to come, to take from our flag its national effect and character, and to subject our vessels on the high seas, and the brave men who navigate them, to the municipal jurisdiction of Great Britain? I know very well that there are some amongst us (I hope they are but few) who are prepared for all this and more; who pule over every scratch occasioned by the war as if it were an overwhelming calamity, and are only sorry that it is not worse; who would skulk out of a contest for the best interests of their country to save a shilling or gain a cent; who, having inherited the wealth of their ancestors without their spirit, would receive laws from London with as much facility as woollens from Yorkshire, or hardware from Sheffield. But I write to the great body of the people, who are sound and virtuous, and worthy of the legacy which the heroes of the revolution have bequeathed them. For them, I undertake to answer, that the only peace which they can be made to endure, is that which may twine itself round the honor of the people, and with its healthy and abundant foliage give shade and shelter to the prosperity of the empire. We are at war, and the single question is, whether you will fly like cowards from the sacred ground which the government has been compelled to take, or whether you will prove by your actions that you are descended from the loins of men who reared the edifice of American liberty, in the midst of such a storm as you have never felt.

**

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

"As the war was forced upon us by a long series of unexampled aggressions, it would be absolute madness to doubt that peace will receive a cordial welcome, if she returns without ignominy in her train, aud with security in her hand. The destinies of America are commercial, and her true policy is peace; but the substance of peace had, long before we were roused to a tardy resistance, been denied to us by the ministry of England; and the shadow which had been left to mock our hopes and to delude our imaginations, resembled too much the frowning spectre of war to deceive any body. Every sea had witnessed, and continued to witness, the systematic persecution of our trade and the unrelenting oppression of our people. The ocean had ceased to be the safe highway of the neutral world; and our citizens traversed it with all the fears of a benighted traveller, who trembles along a road beset with banditti, or infested by the beasts of the forest. The government, thus urged and goaded, drew the sword with a visible reluctance; and, true to the pacific policy which kept it so long in the scabbard, it will sheathe it again when Great Britain shall consult her own interest, by consenting to forbear in future the wrongs of the past."

Soon after the declaration of war Mr. Pinkney was chosen to the command of a volunteer corps which had been raised in Baltimore for the defence of that place; and in 1814 he marched with his company to Bladensburg, where he was severely wounded in the engagement between a small body of Americans and the British, which took place on the twenty-fourth of August of that year. On the conclusion of peace he resigned his command, and devoted himself entirely to the practice of his profession, having previously retired from the office of Attorney General of the United States.

In 1815 he was associated with Mr. Dallas* in the celebrated case of the Nereide, before the

Alexander J. Dallas was born in the island of Jamaica, on the 21st of June, 1759. His father was Robert C. Dallas, a native of Scotland, and a physician of some eminence. Young Dallas studied law. In 1780, he married a lady of

Supreme Court of the United States,* in which he delivered one of his most powerful arguments. The same year he was chosen to the lower House of Congress, to represent the city of Baltimore, and a short time subsequent to taking his seat, he offered, in an elaborate and eloquent speech, the bill to carry into effect the convention between the United States and Great Britain of July 1815. In March of the following year, he was again called into the diplomatic service of his country, by Mr. Monroe. He was now appointed on the double mission, as minister plenipotentiary to Russia, and special envoy to the court of Naples. This appointment he accepted with great satisfaction. He desired to retire for a time from the intense and unremitting labors of his profession, that he might refresh himself and return to it with increased vigor. In a conversation about this time he said:-"There are those among my friends who wonder that I will go abroad, however honorable the service. They know not how I toil at the bar; they know not all my anxious days and sleepless nights; I must breathe awhile; the bow for ever bent will break:" "Besides," he added, "I want to see Italy: the orators of Britain I have heard, but I want to visit that classic land, the study of whose poetry and eloquence is the charm of my life; I shall set my foot on its shores with feelings that I cannot describe, and return with new enthusiasm, I hope new advantages, to the habits of public speaking."

Mr. Pinkney sailed from the United States on board the Washington, ship of the line, and arrived at Naples on the twenty-sixth of July, 1816. Here he proceeded upon the business with which he was charged; which was to demand from the government of Naples indemnification for the losses which American merchants had experienced by the seizure and confiscation of their property in 1809, during the reign of Murat. After various conferences with the Neapolitan minister of Foreign Affairs, which ended in the refusal of the government of Naples to admit the justice of the demand, Mr. Pinkney repaired to St. Petersburgh. He remained at the Russian court two years, and at his own request, returned to America in 1818. His mode of life, the

Devonshire, England; and after a short residence in London with Captain George Anson Byron, (who had shortly before married his sister, and who was the youngest son of Admiral Byron, and the uncle of the celebrated poet Lord Byron,) he embarked for Jamaica to recover his patrimonial inheritance in that Island. In this pursuit he was unsuccessful, and left Jamaica for the United States, and arrived at New York in June 1788. Determining to remain in this country, he removed to Philadelphia, and took the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on the 17th of June, 1783. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in July, 1785, and to that of the Circuit Court of the United States in April, 1790.

In the political divisions of the country he attached himself to the Republican party, and was appointed in 1791 Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by Governor Mifflin. In this station he continued until the year 1801, having been successively re-appointed by Governor Mifflin and Governor M'Kean. In 1801 he was appointed by President Jefferson the Attorney of the United States for the district of Pennsylvania. During the same year he was commissioned as Recorder of Philadelphia by the State government.

Besides the different official situations which he held, he accompanied the Governor of Pennsylvania as Aid-du-camp, and Paymaster General of the forces, in the expedition to suppress the western insurrection of 1794. On this occasion he conducted with singular diligence aud activity, and his services were highly useful to the public cause.

In the early part of his professional career, having much leisure, he occupied himself with various literary undertakings, and prepared for the press the first volume of his valuable series of law reports. In 1795 he completed with universal approbation an edition of the laws of Pennsylvania, with notes, in three volumes folio. In October, 1814, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Madison, and acted as Secretary of War from the 22d of April, 1815, until the army was re-organized upon the peace establishment. His administration of the Treasury department gained him great credit. While laboriously engaged in the trial of a cause at Trenton, New Jersey, he was attacked by a complaint to which he had for a long time been subject, and had barely time to reach his family in Philadelphia, when he died on the 16th of January, 1817.

Mr. Dallas possessed a mind highly gifted by nature, and richly cultivated with a great variety of useful and elegant knowledge. An early and frequent habit of writing had given him an uncommon facility in composition. His style, both in speaking and writing, was chaste and perspicuous: seldom embellished with rhetorical ornament, but always marked by good taste. The various public stations he had filled, his habits of diligent study, and intercourse with the most intelligent persons, had enabled him to acquire an extensive knowledge of mankind and of literature; which he imparted in his colloquial intercourse with peculiar facility and grace. His manners were highly polished, and his amiable disposition endeared him to a large circle of friends, and rendered him an ornament to the elegant society in which he moved. As an advocate he was distinguished for his patient industry-his accurate learning and his diffusive and minute investigation of the subjects he undertook to discuss. When called to a seat in the national cabinet, besides his accustomed diligence, activity, and method in business, he displayed an energy of character not generally looked for, and showed that he possessed the bold and comprehensive views of a patriotic and enlightened statesman.-Wheaton.

*The cause was argued by Mr. Emmet and Mr. Hoffman for the claimant, and by Mr. Dallas and Mr. Pinkney for the captors.

character of his pursuits while in Russia, as well as an estimate of his talents and attainments can be well understood from the subjoined extract of a letter from a gentleman who was much in his society while in St. Petersburgh :—“I arrived in St. Petersburgh in the month of June, 1817. I carried a letter of introduction to Mr. Pinkney from our friend, Mr. Justice Story. Mr. P. received me at once with the greatest kindness and hospitality. He told me almost the first time I saw him, that he should not make a single dinner for me, or receive me with ceremony; but if I would consider myself a member of his family, and take a seat at his table constantly, when not otherwise engaged, he should be gratified. As I soon found he was in earnest, I accepted his offer almost to its full extent. I passed about two months in the city, lodging at the same hotel with him, and domesticated with his family. I saw him every day, and at almost every meal; and the recollections I have of the pleasure enjoyed in his society, are amongst those I shall longest retain.

"Of his past life, he did not speak much. I inferred, however, that he had always been a hard student, and considered himself a laborious and thorough scholar in those branches of human knowledge to which he had more particularly devoted himself. I remember that he once said to me, that he considered the late Mr. Chief Justice Parsons and himself the only men in America who had thoroughly studied and understood Coke Littleton. He appeared to estimate the legal acquirements of our professional men as of little extent, generally speaking, and to think he gave himself but little credit in thinking that he had learned more law than any other man in the country.

"He kept himself very much in private, living so, (as he said,) from motives of economy. He was in lodgings at the Hotel de l'Europe, and saw no company ceremoniously-that is, he gave no dinners, &c. He had made it known to the diplomatic circle there when he first arrived, that he should live in that style, and therefore could not reciprocate their civilities. They, however, visited him a good deal, and he accepted their invitations frequently. I understood from various quarters, and inferred from what I saw, that he stood very particularly well with the Emperor, his family, and principal ministers. His personal habits were very peculiar. His neatness, and attention to the fashionable costume of the day, were carried to an extreme, which exposed him while at home, to the charge of foppery and affectation. But it should be remembered how large a portion of his life he had spent abroad, and in the highest circles of European society. Though he undoubtedly piqued himself upon being a finished and elegant gentleman, yet his manners and habits of dress were, as it always seemed to me, acquired in Europe; and so far from being remarkable there, they were in exact accordance with the common and established usages of men of his rank and station. All who have been at any of the European courts know that their statesmen and ministers consider it a necessary part of their character to pay great attention to the elegancies and refinements of life,—and after a day passed in the laborious discharge of their duties, will spend their evenings in society, and contribute quite their share of pleasant trifling. It is their maniere d'etre.

"During the summer that I passed with Mr. Pinkney, his personal habits were very regular. He breakfasted late, and heartily. Then he retired to his study, and we saw him no more until dinner at six o'clock. The evening he passed with his family, or in visiting. He took very little exercise, eat and drank freely, and I thought suffered occasionally from the usual effects of a plethoric habit, with much indulgence as to food, and no attention to exercise. Undoubtedly his extreme attention to personal cleanliness contributed much to preserve his health. His family saw little company at home or abroad; he appeared to be extremely fond of them, and satisfied with passing his evenings in their society.

"As to his intellectual character, and his talents and attainments as a lawyer, a statesman, and an orator, I shall say nothing. I do not pretend to measure the extent of his mind, or to add any thing to the general voice which has placed him at the head of the great men of our country. As to his attainments and his tastes in minor matters-besides a competent share of classical learning, he had a general acquaintance with modern literature: but I do not believe that he was fond of light English literature; though he seemed to make it a point of keeping along with the age, and, therefore, read all the popular poems, reviews, and novels, and talked VOL. II.-7

about them very well. But his great forte, as to his literary accomplishments, was his thorough and exact acquaintance with the English language-with its best models of diction-with its significations, its grammar, and its pronunciation. Upon this he prided himself exceedingly, and well he might; for you know the singular art and skill with which he displayed his mastery over his own language-his power of using it with astonishing force, elegance and accuracy, in the simplest conversation upon common topics, in his legal arguments which were to instruct and influence the finest minds in the country, and in the debates of the Senate which were to affect permanently and vitally the destinies of the nation."

In 1820, after his return from Europe, having been elected by the Legislature of Maryland to the Senate of the United States, he took his seat in that body. On the fifteenth of February, of that year, he delivered his masterly speech on the Missouri Bill. In all the important measures that originated during his senatorial career, he took a prominent part; and at the same time, continued his professional labors with the severest application. It is said that his last illness was occasioned by an excessive effort in the preparation and delivery of an argument within a few days immediately preceding the attack.

In the spring of 1822, he was prostrated by a severe indisposition. He mentioned to a friend that he had sat up very late in the night on which he was taken ill, to read the Pirates, which was then just published, and made many remarks respecting it, drawing comparisons between the two heroines, and criticising the narrative and style with his usual confident and decided tone, and in a way which showed that his imagination had been a good deal excited by the perusal. From this period till his death, he was a considerable part of the time in a state of delirium. But in his lucid intervals, his mind reverted to his favorite studies and pursuits, on which, whenever the temporary suspension of his bodily sufferings enabled him, he conversed with great freedom and animation. He seems, however, to have anticipated that his illness must have a fatal termination, and to have awaited the event with patient fortitude. After a course of the most acute suffering, he breathed his last on the night of the twenty-fifth of February.*

SPEECH IN THE CASE OF THE NEREIDE.†

IF I were about to address this high tribunal | with a view to establish a reputation as an advocate, I should feel no ordinary degree of resentment against the gentleman whom I am

* In the preparation of this sketch, the editor has availed himself of the valuable work of Mr. Wheaton, published in

1826.

+ At the session of the United States Supreme Court in 1815, was brought to a hearing the celebrated case of the Nereide, the claim in which had been rejected in the district court of New York, and the goods condemned upon the ground that they were captured on board of an armed enemy's vessel which had resisted the exercise of the right of search. This cause had excited uncommon interest on account of the very great importance and novelty of the questions of public law involved in it, as well as the reputa

tion of the advocates by whom it was discussed.

The claimant, Mr. Pinto, was a native and resident mer

chant of Buenos Ayres, which had declared its independence of the parent country, although it had not yet been acknowledged as a sovereign State by the government of

this country. Being in London, in 1818, he had chartered the British armed vessel in question, to carry his goods, and other the property of his father and sister, to Buenos Ayres, and took passage on board the vessel which sailed under British convoy, and having been separated from the convoy

compelled to follow ;‡ if indeed it were possible to feel resentment against one who never fails to plant a strong and durable friendship in the hearts of all who know him. He has dealt with this great cause in a way so masterly, and has presented it before you with such a provoking fulness of illustration, that his unlucky colleague can scarcely set his foot upon a single spot of it without trespassing on some one of those arguments which, with an admirable profusion, I had almost said prodigality of learning, he has spread over the whole subject. Time, however, which changes all things, and man more than any thing, no longer permits me to speak upon the impulse of ambition. It has left me only that of duty; better, perhaps, than the feverish impulse which it has supplanted; sufficient, as I hope, to urge me upon this and every other occasion to maintain the cause of truth by such exertions as may become a servant of the law in a forum like this. I shall

ing squadron, was captured off the island of Madeira, after a short action, by the United States privateer Governor Tompkins.- Wheaton's Life of Pinkney.

Mr. Dallas.

solemn treaty, binding upon the claimant and upon you. In a word, I throw into that scale the rights of belligerent America, and, as embodied with them, the rights of these captors, by whose efforts and at whose cost the naval exertions of the government have been secondhas been made to wave in triumph where neither France nor Spain could venture to show a prow. You may call these rights by what name you please. You may call them iron rights: I care not; it is enough for me that they are rights. It is more than enough for me that they come before you encircled and adorned by the laurels which we have torn from the brow of the naval genius of England: that they come before you recommended, and endeared, and consecrated by a thousand recollections which it would be baseness and folly not to cherish, and that they are mingled in fancy and in fact, with all the elements of our future greatness.

be content, therefore, to travel after my learned friend over a part of the track which he has at once smoothed and illuminated, happy, rather than displeased, that he has facilitated and justified me in the celerity with which I mean to traverse it; more happy still if I shall be able as I pass along, to relieve the fatigue of your hon-ed, until our once despised and drooping flag ors, the benevolent companions of my journey, by imparting something of freshness and novelty to the prospect around us. To this course, I am also. reconciled by a pretty confident opinion, the result of general study as well as of particular meditation, that the discussion in which we are engaged has no claim to that air of intricacy which it has assumed; that, on the contrary, it turns upon a few very plain and familiar principles, which, if kept steadily in view, will guide us in safety through the worse than Cretan labyrinth of topics and authorities that seem to embarrass it, to such a conclusion as it may be fit for this court to sanction by its judgment.

I shall in the outset dismiss from the cause

whatever has been rather insinuated with a prudent delicacy, than openly and directly pressed by my able opponents, with reference to the personal situation of the claimant, and of those with whom he is united in blood and interest. I am willing to admit that a Christian judicature may dare to feel for a desolate foreigner who stands before it, not for life or death indeed, but for the fortunes of himself and his house. I am ready to concede, that when a friendly and a friendless stranger sues for the restoration of his all to human justice, she may sometimes wish to lay aside a portion of her sternness, to take him by the hand, and exchanging her character for that of mercy, to raise him up from an abyss of doubt and fear to a pinnacle of hope and joy. In such circumstances, a temperate and guarded sympathy may not unfrequently be virtue. But this is the last place upon earth in which it can be necessary to state, that, if it be yielded to as a motive of decision, it ceases to be virtue, and becomes something infinitely worse than weakness. What may be the real value of Mr. Pinto's claim to our sympathy, it is impossible for us to be certain that we know; but thus much we are sure we know, that whatever may be its value in fact, in the balance of the law it is lighter than a feather shaken from a linnet's wing, lighter than the down that floats upon the breeze of summer. I throw into the opposite scale the ponderous claim of war; a claim of high concernment, not to us only, but to the world; a claim connected with the maritime strength of this maritime State, with public honor and individual enterprise, with all those passions and motives which can be made subservient to national success and glory in the hour of national trial and danger. I throw into the same scale the venerable code of universal law, before which it is the duty of this court, high as it is in dignity, and great as are its titles to reverence, to bow down with submission. I throw into the same scale a

Mr. Pinkney contended that the property ought to be considered as good prize of war on the following grounds:

First. That the treaty of 1795, between the United States and Spain, contained a positive stipulation, adopting the maxim of what has sometimes been called the law of nations, that, "free ships make free goods;" and that although it did not expressly mention the converse proposition, that "enemy ships should make enemy goods," yet it did not negative that proposition: and as the two maxims had always been associated together in the practice of nations, the one was to be considered as implying the other.

Second. That by the Spanish prize code, neutral property, found on board enemies' vessels, was liable to capture and condemnation, and that this being the law of Spain, applied by her when belligerent to us and all other nations when neutral by the principle of reciprocity, the same rule was to be applied to the property of her subjects, which Mr. Pinto was to be taken to be, the Government of the United States not having at that time acknowledged the independence of the Spanish American colonies.

Third. That the claim of Mr. Pinto ought to be rejected on account of his unneutral conduct in hiring, and putting his goods on board of an armed enemy's vessel, which sailed under convoy, and actually resisted search.

After discussing the two first of the abovementioned grounds of argument, Mr. Pinkney proceeded: