them of the Hand which has brought them back to | That seemeth with soft links to draw, and softer spells to Other nations have the home of their ancestors. bind find? strings, also sprung into being. Civilization and Chris- My heart, whose inmost thoughts in thee, a general echo To me a different, yet sweeter, and tenderer cadence brings. Blade, blossom, leaf, and bud, and flower, hill, valley, wood, and stream, The long-expected day—the day to which there is no morrow-has at length come. There are unnatural sights in the sky. Old men leaning on their staves, wipe their dim eyes and wonder. The bee, the bird, the butterfly, the lamb, the fawn at play— Strange shapes flit from cloud to cloud, and sepul- The mother, and her fair young child, all sanctify thy lay. chral voices whisper along the hills. Frightened Yes, thou art Nature's Poetess! 'tis there the secret lies, birds sweep through the air; and animals regard-The world out in the open air, is loveliest in thine eyes— less of their food, stand amazed, and look up. The All fairy things that in it dwell, are fairer made by thee. blue heavens wither-the sun grows pale-the moon disappears-the stars fall from their towers like drunken men. The long week-the last daythe last hour is ended: the last sand has dropped, and ushered in the SATURDAY NIGHT OF TIME. Clinton, N. Y., May, 1841. The sky, the clouds, the whispering breeze, have wak'd thy musing dream. LINES, A. D. G. TO AMELIA; OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. BY MRS. ELIZABETH J. EAMES. "I would give the world to melt one heart, As thou hast melted mine." I know thee not, mine eye hath ne'er beheld thy form, or face, "Tis only through thy Lyre's endeavor, that I thine image trace; Methinks thine own "Melodia," in truth should sit for thee, I know not-yet to me thou art, (altho' a thing of air) Often, and blandly o'er me steals the witchery of thy lay; To all the sunny nooks, and haunts, where in my childhood All pleasant, and all happy things; each pure joy-fount of And while I read I feel that truth, blends with pure poesy.— nature's face. Meanwhile, I owe thee much, and could the stranger-min strel, move Some angel-face, amid the skies, her gratefulness to prove— given to thee, Forever flinging o'er thy dreams, sunlight, and melody. Time would not throw my verse away, nor soon his charge Eames's Place, June 1841. MR. JEFFERSON: HIS INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. A writer in the last April number of the Messenger, under the signature of "A Native of Virginia," cites two passages from Tucker's Life of Jefferson, respecting that statesman's construction of the Federal Constitution as plainly contradictory, and one of which he considers to be grossly unjust to Mr. Jefferson. As the biographer's attention has been repeatedly called to these passages, both publicly and privately, he feels himself constrained no longer to withhold the explanation sought, and to state in more precise language, his understanding of this important part of Mr. Jefferson's constitutional doctrines. That the two passages, according to their obvious import, are repugnant and irreconcilable, the biographer readily admits. When they were first brought to his notice, near four years ago, by a gentleman from North-Carolina, he said then what he now repeats, that, after having pronounced Mr. Jefferson's construction of the Constitution to be "strict or liberal according as he conceived the national good would be best promoted by it," he could not consistently say, that "Mr. Jefferson always favored a strict construction," without limiting the from being incompatible, as some seem to suppose, terms to some particular parts of that instrument. that, in many cases, the existence of the one neHe cannot therefore, in fairness, avail himself of cessarily implies the existence of the other. Thus, the ingenious attempt of the Editor of the Mes-where the powers of the General Government and senger to reconcile the two passages, by laying a of the State Governments discharge the same stress on the word "favored;" but must frankly ad- functions, and consequently, are more or less in mit this to be one of those cases of inadvertence, conflict, those whose political principles incline which it is not easy to avoid in a work of great length. Happy would he be, if he could believe this were the only instance. them to construe the powers of the Federal Government with strictness will, on that very account, construe the powers of the State Governments with In extenuation of his fault, the biographer must liberality. We see, for instance, that many of the add that the limitation which he failed to express, professed advocates for strict construction, who he distinctly had in his mind. He was speaking deny to the General Government the power to esof a question of power between the Federal Gov-tablish a National Bank, under a liberal construeernment and the State Governments-that of con- tion of the power to coin money and determine the structing roads-and it was in reference to this value thereof, or that of regulating commerce, feel class of questions, that he meant his remark to ap- no scruple in allowing the States to establish State ply. Believing as Mr. Jefferson did, that the Banks, and thus by these institutions indirectly grant of power to the General Government was as emit bills of credit, which they are forbidden by liberal as was consistent with civil liberty and pub- the Constitution to do directly. Nor have we seen lic safety, and that its tendency was to enlarge its many examples of a more liberal construction than own powers, he, in all questions between the rights has been given to the clause, which prohibits States and powers of the General and State Governments, from passing laws that impair the obligation of inclined to a strict construction of the former. contracts, by men calling themselves strict construcWith this qualification of the last passage, it is tionists. These terms, therefore, which are so of not inconsistent with the first; and it remains to be ten used in an absolute sense, are altogether relaseen whether that first passage, which says he was tive; and it will generally be found that he who, in occasionally liberal, as well as strict, in construing relation to the power distributed between these two the Constitution, does him injustice. On this ques- parts of our divided sovereignty, estimates the portion, without referring to Mr. Jefferson's official tion granted to one part with strictness, is sure to esacts to discover his rule of interpretation, we for-timate the part granted to the other, with liberality. tunately have the direct evidence of his own ex- But some who regard strictness of construction press declaration. In his letter to Mr. Sparks of as an end-as something good in itself, and not as Feb. 4, 1824, (Jeff. Correspondence, vol. iv. page a means of good-not able to reconcile some of 391,) and which is quoted in the Biography, as the Mr. Jefferson's official acts, such as his ratification foundation for the obnoxious remark; he says, in of the Louisiana purchase, with such strictness of speaking of colonizing people of color, an object construction, endeavor to defend his political paalways near his heart, "I am aware that this sub-rity, according to their own arbitrary standard, by ject involves some constitutional scruples. But a the plea of necessity. They urge that while he liberal construction, justified by the object, may go far, and an amendment of the Constitution, the whole length necessary." This passage is conclusive to show that he thought we were justified in giving a more or less liberal construction of the Constitution, according to the utility of the object; for he thought, no doubt, that the same consideration of the national good which sanctioned a strict construction in one class of questions, equally sanctioned a liberal construction in another. would not allow himself, in any case, to give a free exposition of the Constitution, he might, in cases of extreme urgency, disregard it altogether. To this it may be answered, that the question of striet or liberal construction is of little moment, if the Constitution may be violated on the ground of moral necessity; of which the agent is to be the judge : that one of the main advantages of a written Constitution and of the oaths to support it, is, to exclude this, the tyrant's plea; that the alleged neIn this course Mr. Jefferson was not singular. cessity of the Louisiana purchase amounted only He acted in conformity with the common sense of to strong inducements, about which the minds of mankind, which in the interpretation of every law men were then much divided; and that what Mr. and rule of actions, is obliged, from the imperfec- Wilson Nicholas and others confessedly did withtion of language and the impossibility of foreseeing out purposely violating their oaths, Mr. Jefferson every case that may arise under the law, sometimes might be supposed to have done, without violating to narrow, and sometimes enlarge the meaning of its his: And lastly, that if the necessity had been of words, so as best to fulfil the purposes of its framers. such a palpable and resistless character as to exIn the use of these terms, strictness," and cuse the overleaping all Constitutional restraints in "liberality" of construction, there seems to be that case, the same plea could not be urged in desome confusion of thought. The two are so far fence of several other acts and opinions of Mr. 66 Jefferson. It could not defend him for assenting to the repeal of the Judiciary Law, enacted in the last moments of his predecessor's term, by which Congress, which was prohibited by the Constitution from lessening the salaries of the judges, lest it should impair their independence, was allowed to take them away altogether. No such necessity could be alleged in favor of the Cumberland Road, by which, a power otherwise unconstitutional, he thought might be lawfully exerted by Congress, with the assent of three States. Nor would the plea avail to justify his plan suggested to Mr. Eppes of allowing the General Government to carry on the banking business in each State, whenever it could obtain the assent of such State, separately and individually. When round the heart love's tendrils close entwine, When all around is gaiety and ease, But when bright hope has set in black despair, When the true friend of ail on earth most dear, GEO: W. TURNER, CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: These and other instances of liberal construction, as well as the acquisition of Louisiana, were justified by Mr. Jefferson on precisely the same ground as he justified other cases of strict construction, giving to the Constitution that interpretation which, in his eyes, would best promote the public good, and fulfil the purposes of that instrument. He knew that both strictness and liberality of construction were equally deviations from the obvious and ordinary acceptations of language, and ITS USE IN THE Discipline of chILDREN. that the same considerations which authorized one, Law, I take it, is essential to the welfare,-nay, equally authorized the other. This rule of inter- even to the existence of society. Law, Blackstone pretation conforms to the common sense and com- defines "a rule of action prescribed by the Sumon practice of all mankind, except technical law-preme Power in the State, commanding what is yers; and any other rule, from the impossibility of right and prohibiting what is wrong.' And he foreseeing, in the infinite combinations of human | adds, that to law-there must be a penalty or sancconcerns, every case that may arise, and the impos- tion annexed. Without this it is a mere caput sibility of providing for them in language that all mortuum, brutum fulmen ;—for, it is vain to commen would understand alike, even if they were mand or prohibit, unless you have in your hands foreseen, must sometimes convert the wisest con- the means of enforcing your authority. stitutional provisions into absurdities, and what were meant as wholesome restraints into fetters that sooner or later would be too galling to be borne. In conclusion, the biographer returns his thanks for the very kind and courteous remarks with which these strictures were qualified, and which were not the less felt because they were not sooner acknowledged. July, 10, 1841. THOUGHTS OF DEATH. T. Corporal punishment acts chiefly on the body. Now children as they are less capable than adults of being governed by reason, must be the more governed by bodily punishment. When the child becomes a youth, perhaps confinement and reproof will answer, and when the youth comes to manhood you may rely on argument alone. It is objected, that whipping is degrading. But great men, heroes, conquerors and philosophers have been whipped. It is an ancient and approved practice. Milton, one of the proudest spirits that ever lived, was whipped at school. The mother On hearing a young lady observe: "The thoughts of Death of Bonaparte, when asked if she ever found it has always terrors for me." In youth's bright hour, when the pure soul is warm, Unto the eye,— When not one hope has ever yet deceived, necessary to whip the young Napoleon, replied, "yes, I often switched him soundly." Lord Byron was subject to the like discipline both at home and at school. As the mind is superior to the body, so the punishment of mind is more degrading, than the punishment of the body. Besides, flagellation is compendious and economical of time. It is refreshing-composes the wandering thoughts, brightens the wits, quickens the animal spirits and braces the nerves. It is a sort pursue the olden, less pleasing, but safe track. How beautiful the discipline of a well-regulated school! "a little moral empire!" as it has been called,—an intellectual Orrery. But deprive discip line of punishment, and it will fall to decay, Should it be the destiny of this Republic, like others that have preceded it, to suffer a downfall, the future traveller, when he shall wander solitary and pensive amid the prostrate marbles of the capi of Animal Magnetism, a galvanic battery,—a thun- of virtue, indeed a person of exquisite feelings, derstorm to purify the moral atmosphere. Medi- but deficient in plain common sense, and incapable cinally it acts as stimulant, sudorific, tonic and of a practical view of things as they are in this flogistic. world; and carried away by a romantic idea, ful! The spectacle of flagellation is imposing; it of hope and promise, but destined to perpetual operates in terrorem,--from the first outbreak of disappointments. We may regret that these deterror through the whole series of lamentations, lightful Utopian theories cannot be realized; but until it dies away in the faint sob, the fitful, stoc- when we leave the beaten road of experience, for cato suspiration. Nor, after all, is it so bad. It the flowery paths of experiment, we are soon comwas painful, it is true; but it is soon over. Per-pelled to retrace our devious steps, and are fain to haps the culprit is now conscious that it was deserved. At any rate, it is now over; the balance is struck and settled. His feelings are elastic; the affair soon blows over-and "sweet is pleasure after pain, and it may be he will now find some sugar in the cane. His tears are dried up; and his face emerges cool and serene, like the blue sky after a storm, bright wreathed in smiles; it is not so bad;— boys have been whipped before and girls too;-" fortes, fuere ante Agamemnona ;"-there is nothing tol, may have to attribute the desolation of this new under the sun. And others will be whipped hereafter; the affair will soon blow over and be forgotten; a raree show will come to town; a house will be burnt down, there will be a mob or a murder, or something or other to divert attention. Time revolves; soon the whippee too perhaps will be a parent, and will find it necessary to employ punishment in the discipline of his children, and turn whipper. So it is all fair and equal in the long run. Punishment is necessary; and it is quite impossible to punish, without hurting. A quaker once was stopped by a highwayman, who clapped a pistol to his head and demanded his money. The quaker drew out his purse from his pocket and tossed it into a creek running hard by. The robber not being able to find it, the quaker dismounted to show him where it lay. The quaker pointed to a place where the water looked pretty deep; the robber stooped to pick it up; the quaker thereupon seized him by the nape of the neck, and thrusting his head under water, said, "Friend, I will neither kill thee nor hurt thee, but I'll hold thee very uneasy till thee departs this life." When I hear one arguing with uncommon ability against corporal punishment, I cannot help suspecting, that for much of his eloquence, logic and ingenuity, he may be indebted to the very discipline he now denounces. Order is Heaven's first law;-it regulates the hierarchies of angels; it is exhibited in the varied works of nature; it sustains the planets in their harmonious orbits. But there can be no order without law, and no law without punishment, and no punishment without pain. We cannot however but respect the tender sensibilities and the spirit of universal benevolence, of those who oppose the use of corporal punishment. They are sensitive plants, that shrink from the infliction of pain. Such philanthropy, however, is like that of Don Quixotte, a perfect pattern' great fabric of human liberty, to the decay of ODE TO THE ALPS. 1. Ye Alps! whose hoary summits rise, Or with the gleam of evening glow! Ye mountains! tower ye so serene; And blackness shrouds the scene! Wild is the revelry! and, tempest-driven, And pinnacles by lightning riven! Lights up each lonely mountain-way! II. Nor yet the elements alone Have o'er thee felt the conflict ride. The victor of Saguntum's plain. And as they scaled each snowy height, And dare each danger with delight! Oh! where from feeling's broken shrine, Where the eagles lonely brood; And, as he there triumphant stood, He lit the fire High in that savage solitude; A funeral pyre, Whose smoke-wreathed flame Gleamed ruin o'er the Roman name! III. But helm, and plume, and steed, are gone! Time dimly shows that distant scene Where once the warrior-blade was drawn, By him of Thrasymene. Yet 'mid thy rocks the rose doth bloom! And ye ye Alps! abide the same, Unchanging mid the changing doom! Still nature triumphs o'er the tomb! Ye saw a hero pass to deathless fame! And then a mightier on the pale horse came! O'er thy beetling cliffs he rode, And broke upon the sight, As if some passing meteor glowedWith fearful light! Round him wild the war-clouds roll High in air! His master-spirit sways the whole, While mid their bright and dazzling glare The storm lay deeply brooding there. It paused awhile-then burst amain,And, as it swept through gorge and dell, It strewed, as fierce the conflict fell, Marengo with its slain! Oh he! and he alone, IV. Was monarch formed for thee! For him so lofty and so proud- Ye mighty spirits! do ye linger there? Where as the moonbeam falls With hueless glare, Those mountain-summits seem Lit by that mystic, lonely gleam- 'Tis there ye wander at the midnight hour; That deep Eternity, to which ye now belong! MUSINGS. BY FRED. W. S. GRAYSON. HURON. Sweet Bird, that warblest many a tune, But, when time, change and woe have left, Its friends, its promise, and its truth; VOL. VII-73 THE DRUNKARD'S WIFE. BY ELIHU BURRITT,-THE LEARNED BLACKSMITH. There are new developments of human character, which, like the light of distant stars, are yet to visit the eye of man and operate upon human society. Ever since the image of the Godhead was first sketched in Eden, its great Author and angels have been painting upon it; men have tried their hands upon it; influences like the incessant breath of heaven, have left each its line upon the canvass; still the finishing stroke of the pencil will not be accomplished until the last, lingering survivor of "the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds" "is changed in the twinkling of an eye." The hemisphere of the present age is studded all over with such pearls" and patines of bright gold," as never shone before in the heavens of the human soul. In these latter days, the waves of time have washed up from depths that angels never fathomed, "gems of purer light serene" than were ever worn before in the crown of man. We are now but half way advanced in a new cycle of human history. The race is but just emerging from the long-reaching shadows of an iron age, and coming out into the starlight and sunlight of new influences. If, as we are assured, scores of new stars have taken rank with the heavenly hosts, during the last two centuries, stars brighter than they, have, in the same period, kindled up new lights in the moral firmament. Among these new stars, one, a little lower than that of Bethlehem, has just appeared above the horizon. It is the Star of of WOMAN'S INFLUENCE. Influential Woman is a being of scarcely two centuries: up to that period, and almost hitherto, her influences have fallen upon human character and society, like the feeble rays of a rising winter's sun upon polar fields of ice. But her sun is reaching upward. There is a glorious meridian to which she shall as surely come as to-morrow's rising sun shall reach his in our natural heavens. What man will be, when she shall shine upon him then and thence, we are unable to divine; but we can found an anticipation from the influences of her dawning rays. Her morning light has gilded the visions of human hope, and silvered over the night shadows of human sorrow. There has been no depth of human misery beyond the reach of her ameliorating influence, nor any height of human happiness which she has not raised still higher. Whoever has touched at either of these extremities, or at any of their intervening points, could attest that "neither height nor depth, nor principalities nor powers, nor things |