you may have a very different isothermal | line as you approach the Pacific Ocean. But I do not care so much about that; my objection is a radical one to the institution everywhere. I do believe, if there is any place on the globe which we inhabit where a white man cannot work, he has no business there. If that place is fit only for black men to work, let black men alone work there. 1 do not know any better law for man's good than that old one which was announced to man after the first transgression, that by the sweat of his brow he should earn his bread. I don't know what business men have in the world unless it is to work. If he is only to sleep and eat, he is reduced to the level of the hog only gentleman I know!

the

I

When you ask me, then, not to prohibit slavery in these territories, with my view of the institution itself, and of our power, must assert the power to exclude slavery forever. In your States where you have made slavery property, you may protect it as you please, and I will aid you in giving it that security which the Constitution affords; but, with God's help, not one inch beyond shall this institution go. I may be mistaken in all this; but of one thing I am satisfied of the honest conviction of my own judgment and no supposed interruption of the ties which bind the various sections of the Confederacy shall induce me to shrink from these convictions, whenever I am called upon to carry them out into law.

ON CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

I AM not one of those who deem it absolutely necessary that every graduate of a College should fill a place in one of the learned professions nor can I subscribe to the doctrine that, if destined to commercial, manufacturing or agricultural pursuits, or even to meaner employments his classical education is wholly lost upon him, and the time employed in its acquisition utterly thrown away. I hope it will not be deemed harsh if I say that this doctrine is the suggestion of a sordid and earthly spirit, which looks to pecuniary accumulation as the chief end of man. I have no sympathies in my nature for such a spirit. I have no sympathies for that man's losses, who in losing wealth has gained knowledge. I have no fear that he will, of consequence, be left to starvation or want, because he may have devoted three or four years more than his very prudent friends would have advised to the cultivation of his mind. In our blessed country such a thing as pauperism is scarcely known except under the visitations of Providence. It is the very

land of abundance, where the good things of life are strown with a bountiful hand, in every man's path. Let the man of liberal education, no matter how directed - whether by choice, by circumstance, or by necessity

nor will

go back from the academic halls, to the ordinary business pursuits of life. He will not degrade his calling, nor will his calling, however humble, degrade him it be very essential at the end of his career, that he possesses a few thousands more or less, quite as likely to be more as less, than he might have done had he followed a more sordid economy. Is is precisely in the more humble occupations of life, that I wish to see men of education multiplied. This would accord with the genius of our institutions and the constitution of our society. I wish to see the various branches of human industry thrown open to all classes. At present some of them are too exclusive. There can hardly be a worse spirit of aristocracy than that which closes these places against the cultivated, and appropriates them exclusively to the vulgar. I repeat it

let men of education be multiplied, and leave them at liberty to seek the means of subsistence, which is not the whole of life, in just such occupations as may suit

their taste or their convenience; and if this object can be but accomplished in the humbler employments I would have them go there. Then might great things be expected with confidence, to come occasionally from these humbler spheres of life. We might look with confidence for the rising of great lights from them not mere exhalations as from low, damp grounds, but bright luminaries lifting themselves far above the horizon, in whose beams the world should be warmed and illuminated.

It is not true that devotion to business I care not what it may be with a spirit subordinate to the claims of man's higher destinies, disqualifies for mental exertions. All experience is against the conclusion. Many a man, who has become greatly eminent for intellectual excellence, has been thus laboriously employed to the end of his life. Solon was a merchant, and became a great poet, a great orator and a great law giver. Gesner, the German, was a poet, a painter, an engraver and a bookseller. Richardson was a printer, and wrote Pamela, which first gave him fame, after he was fifty years of age. George Lillo was a jeweller in London. De Foe was alternately a horse-factor, and a maker of bricks. Robert Burns was a farm laborer. Shakespeare was a provincial actor. It matters not, that men have been thus distinguished, without the essential aids of classical learning. I answer, that they would have been more distinguished with them; and that many a man of genius, conscious at once of his power and his helplessness, has sunk, heart-broken, into an obscure grave, just for the want of the essential aids of classical learning. Some have, indeed, been successful, eminently successful, in spite of this difficulty it was the triumph of genius. But no man, who wants this species of culture, can turn his thoughts to the higher pursuits of literature, or science without deep embarrassment. We know how much it has been felt. Shakespeare quoted and wrote Latin, without probably, understanding a syllable of it. Cato the Censor set himself to learn Greek in his old age. Alfred began to translate Latin when he was about forty years old. And Henry Pitot, the French mathematician learned this language at fifty. Such instances will always be occurring, and they will be greatly multiplied in proportion as the study

of the learned languages shall be neglected.

But I repeat that devotion to business does not necessarily disqualify for mental exertions any more than mental cultivation necessarily disqualifies for business. And if this is true of employment in the more humble branches of human industry, it is especially true of employment in the more elevated and dignified occupations of life. How often has the world been instructed and delighted by the ingenious and spontaneous effort of men, who, for this purpose, have stolen their leisure from the bustle of the camp, or the perplexities of political or professional employments? Cæsar wrote his Commentaries on his battle fields. Cicero was constantly overwhelmed with political and professional business, and was nevertheless a voluminous writer;,,Cui fuerit ne otium quidem unquam otiosum.“ Frederick of Prussia spent the greater portion of his life in camp, and his writings fill twenty-five volumes. Sully too was a soldier and an author. Milton devoted more time to politics than to poetry. Bacon, and Clarendon, and Selden and Hale, found time for the composition of the most valuable works.

The present Lord Chancellor of England devotes much of his time to literary composition. And we all know what has been accomplished in this way, by the present venerable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

I believe it will not be going too far to say, that the chief contributors in every department of learning, have been those who have been actively and laboriously engaged in business occupations. And for the most part they have made their learned contributions, not because they had been especially educated to do so, but because they discovered, as if by accident, in the course of their career, that they had the capacity and the power. It is material to observe, that the discoveries which authors have made of talent in themselves, for the particular department in which they have become distinguished, seems, indeed, in most cases to have been accidental - just as many of the most important discoveries in science have been accidental just as the pendulum was discovered by Galileo from the movements of a lamp suspended in the Cathedral of Pisa just as gravitation and the secret mechanism of the heavens were sug

gested to Newton by the falling of an apple from a tree. The genius of a man is of tentimes not developed till late in life. The spirit of a man often slumbers through long years of tumult and noise, only to be waked up at last by the small voice of a whisper. Nature must have her own way, she will not be forced. And I apprehend it would be found a hopeless business, if the attempt were made to sustain the interests of literature and science by a decimation of college students for such a purpose to select this individual and that, and that, out of every class, and separate and consecrate them to this important work. It is to be feared, that like the priests of another communion than ours at least as that communion is seen in other countries they would only feed the flock to fatten on it themselves. There would be no imparted strength, no energy, no edification. Every thing would be cold and spiritless, and subjects of the deepest interest to humanity, would be wrapped up in dulness, or in mystery. No I would extend classical learning as far and as wide as possible. And while I would not expect a prodigy in every pupil, I should expect without fear of disappointment, that the interests of literature and science would be safe, by being committed to a body of men: out of numbers, individuals must arise, from time to time, who Atlas-like would sustain these worlds upon their shoulders. And for the rest, nothing is to be apprehended. They will not be the greater lights in the firmament, but they will be the lesser. Besides the mass is never distinguished in any class of men, and cannot be in the nature of things. It is sufficient that nobody would be injured, while the chances of great results, beneficial to the world, would be multiplied.

Young gentlemen are not sent to college, to be directly fitted for the practical pursuits of life; that is to say, not to be instructed in the mysteries of law, or physic, or divinity, or politics, or commerce; nor to be initiated in the art of husbandry, or in any of the mechanic trades. In short, they are not sent to college to learn how to wield a hammer; or hold a plough; or build a ship; or govern a state; or compose a homily; or reduce a dislocation; or sum up a cause. But they are sent to college, simply to acquire the rudiments of classical learning in all its variety, as the best means Herrig, American. Literatur. II.

of preparing them to enter into the learned professions, or, either directly or eventually, into the walks of literature and science. In the nature of things, only a comparatively small number, will become greatly distinguished for learning or talent but the chances of multiplying these will be in direct proportion to the whole number originally put into the proper course of training and discipline. None will be injured. All will be benefited. And, in the mean time, the first impulse will be given to some minds and the more the further the system is extended who will eventually tower into the higher regions of learning. The world may not know at what precise points the brightest beacon lights will appear, but they will look for them, with most confidence, on those eminences where they know the proper materials have been collected, and to which they know the torch has been sent.

Having taken occasion to insist on the utility of classical learning, let me also say, that no man more cordially approves than I do, the various methods which are resorted to in our day of extending the choice blessings of practical learning in our country. I am not an enemy of what may be called the utilitarian system, any farther than it seeks to interfere with other systems, which I hold to be quite as useful and important. I am deeply impressed not only with the importance but the necessity, of carrying the lights of useful knowledge down into society to the lowest spheres of life, because upon it depends our moral and political prosperity. Although we have in our happy country, no peasantry no class of persons answering to the peasantry of the European countries just because there can be no serfs and slaves where there are no masters; and although we have no laws of primogeniture and entails to create artificial distinctions in society, and make the poor and the many toil for the rich and the few, yet even here, where the distribution of property and of all temporal good is more general and equal than in any other portion of the globe, there is, and always must be, a numerous class of persons who must labour for their support with their own hands. It is one of the most beautiful and ingenious devices of the present day to provide for the education, beyond the limits of the common school system, of a portion of this class of

12

THE Whigs, as their name imports, are, or ought to be, the party of Freedom. They seek, or should seek, on all occasions, to carry out fully and practically the principles of our institutions. The principles which our fathers declared, and sealed with their blood, their Whig children should seek to manifest in their acts. The Whigs, therefore, reverence the Declaration of Independence, as embodying the vital truths of freedom, especially that great truth,,,that all men are born equal." They reverence the Constitution of the United States, and seek to guard it against infractions; believing that under the Constitution, Freedom can be best preserved. They reverence the Union of the States; believing that the peace, happiness and welfare of all depend upon this blessed bond. They reverence the public faith, and require that it should be punctiliously kept in all laws, charters and obligations. They reverence the principles of morality, of truth, of justice, of right. They seek to advance their country, rather than individuals; and to promote the welfare of the people, rather than of their leaders. A member of such an association, founded on the highest moral sentiments, recognizing conscience and benevolence as its animating ideas, cannot be said,,to give to party what was meant for mankind;" for all the interests of the party must be coincident and commensurate with the manifold interests of humanity.

Such is, as I trust, or certainly should be, the Whig party of Massachusetts. It refuses to identify itself exclusively with those measures of transient policy, which may,

connects itself with everlasting principles, which can never fade or decay. In doing this, it does not neglect other things; as the tariff, or internal improvements. But it treats these as subordinate. Far less does it show indifference to the Constitution or the Union; for it seeks to render these the guardians and representatives of the lofty principles to which we are attached.

The Whigs have been called the conservatives. In a just sense, they should be conservatives; not of forms only, but of substance; not of the letter only, but of the living spirit. The Whigs should be the conservators of the spirit of our ancestors; conservators of the great animating ideas of our institutions. They should profess that truest and highest conservatism, which watches, guards and preserves the great principles of Truth, Right, Freedom and Humanity. Such a conservatism is not narrow and exclusive; but broad and expansive. It is not trivial and bigoted; but manly and generous.

Let me say, then, that the Whigs of Massachusetts are I hope it is not my wish only that is father to the thought the party who seek the establishment of Truth, Freedom, Right and Humanity, under the Constitution of the United States, and by the Union of the States. They are Unionists, Constitutionalists, Friends of the Right.

And the question here arises, how shall this party, inspired by these principles, now act? The answer is easy. In accordance with their principles. It must utter them with distinctness, and act upon them with energy.

It will naturally express its opposition to the present administration for its treacher

The time, I believe, has gone by, when the question is asked, What has the North to do with Slavery? It might almost be answered, that, politically, it had little to do with anything else, so are all the acts of our government connected, directly or indirectly, with this institution. Slavery is every where. It constitutionally enters the halls of Congress, in the disproportionate representation of the slave States. It shows its disgusting front in the District of Columbia, in the shadow of the capitol, under the legislative jurisdiction of the nation; of the North as well as the South. It sends its miserable victims on the high seas, from the ports of Virginia to the ports of Louisiana, beneath the protecting flag of the republic. It follows into the free States, in pursuance of a provision of the Constitution, those fugitives, who, under the inspiration of freedom, seek our altars for safety; nay, more, with profane hands it seizes those who have never known the name of slave, colored freemen of the North, and dooms them to irremediable bondage. It insults and exiles from its jurisdiction the honored representatives of Massachusetts, who seek, as messengers of the Commonwealth, to secure for her colored citizens the peaceful safeguard of the laws of the Union. It not only uses the Constitution for its purposes, but abuses it also. It violates the Constitution at pleasure, to build up new slaveholding States. It seeks perpetually to widen its area, while professing to extend the area of freedom. It has brought upon the country war with Mexico, with its enormous expenditures, and more enormous guilt. By the spirit of union among its supporters, it controls the affairs of government; interferes with the cherished interests of the North, enforcing and then refusing protection to her manufactures; makes and unmakes presidents; usurps to itself the larger portion of all offices of honor and profit, both in the army and navy, and also in the civil department; and stamps upon our whole country, the character, before the world, of that monstrous anomaly and

mockery, a slaveholding republic, with the living truths of freedom on its lips, and the dark mark of slavery printed on its brow.

In her opposition to slavery, Massachusetts has already, to a certain extent, taken the ground that becomes her character as a free Commonwealth.

And shall this Commonwealth continue in any way to sustain an institution which its laws declare to be contrary to natural right, to justice, to humanity and sound policy? Shall the Whigs support what is contrary to the fundamental principles of the party? Here the consciences of good men respond to the judgment of the court. If it be wrong to hold a single slave, it must be wrong to hold many. If it be wrong for an individual to hold a slave, it must be wrong for a State. If it be wrong for a State, in its individual capacity, it must be wrong also, in association with other States. Massachusetts does not allow any of her citizens within her borders to hold slaves. Let her be consistent, and call for the abolition of slavery wherever she is, to any extent, responsible for it, wherever she is a party to it, wherever it may be reached by her influence; that is, everywhere beneath the constitution and laws of the Federal Government.

Certainly, to labor in this cause is far higher and nobler than to strive merely for a repeal of the Tariff, which was once mentioned as the tocsin to rally the Whigs. REPEAL OF SLAVERY UNDER THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, is a more Christian and more potent watchword, because it embodies a higher sentiment, and a more commanding duty.

The time has passed when this can be opposed on constitutional grounds. It will not be questioned by any competent authority, that Congress may, by express legislation, abolish slavery, 1st, in the District of Columbia; 2d, in the Territories, if there should be any; 3d, that it may abolish the slave trade on the high seas between the States; 4th, that it may refuse to admit any new State, with a constitution sanctioning slavery. Nor can it be questioned that the people of the United States may, in the manner pointed out by the Constitution, proceed to its amendment. It is, then, by constitutional legislation, and even by amendment of the Constitution, that slavery may be reached.