20 My brethren! we stand on the borders of an awful gulf, which is swallowing up all things human; and is there, amidst this universal wreck, nothing stable, nothing abiding, nothing immortal, on which poor, frail, dying man can fasten? 21 Ask the hero, ask the statesman, whose wisdom you have 22 been accustomed to revere, and he will tell you. He will tell you, did I say? He has already told you, from his death-bed; and his illumined spirit, still whispers from 23 the heavens, with well known eloquence, the solemn admonition : "Mortals hastening to the tomb, and once the companions of my pilgrimage, take warning and avoid my errors; cultivate the virtues I have recommended; choose the Saviour I have chosen; live disinterestedly; live for immortality; and would you rescue any thing from final dissolution, lay it up in God." President Nott.

Sentence 2d.-A semi-interrogative: the parts connected compactly : though— yet, the correlative words.

Sentence 3d.-A single compact, third form. "When a short time since was, then." Sentence 11th.-A single compact, second form, correlative words, indeed-but, in the first part; in the second, simple indefinite interrogative: the whole a semi-interrogative: the parts connected closely. Sentence 16th.-A double compact exclamatory with the first proposition, comprising two members, only expressed. Sentence 17th.-A fragmentary simple declarative exclamatory. Sentence 18th.-A broken close declaratíve exclamatory. Sentence 21st.-A compound declarative single compact, third form: correlative words, if-then

SEC. XL. THE POWER OF VERSE TO PERPETUATE.

"T is not a pyramid of marble stone,
Though high as our ambition;

1 "T is not a tomb cut out in brass, which can
Give life to the ashes of a man;

But verses only: they shall fresh appear
Whilst there are men to read or hear.

When time shall make the lasting brass decay,
And eat the pyramid away;

2 Turning that monument wherein men trust
Their names, to what it keeps, poor dust;
Then shall the epitaph remain, and be
New graven in eternity.

Cowley.

SEC. XLI. THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.

1 Two men went up in the temple to pray: the one, a pharisee, and the other, a publican. The pharisee stood 2 and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are: extortioners; unjust; adulterers; or 3 even as this publican. I fast twice in the week: I give

tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing 4 afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast: saying, God be merciful to me a sinner!

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified 5 rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself, shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

2

SEC. XLII. THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY INCONSISTENT WITH OUR PRINCIPLES AND INSTITUTIONS.

Sir, let gentlemen put it home to themselves, that after Providence has crowned our exertions, in the cause of general freedom, with success, and led us on to indepen1 dence, through a myriad of dangers, and in defiance of obstacles crowding thick upon each other, we should not so soon forget the principles upon which we fled to arms, and lose all sense of that interposition of Heaven, by which alone we could have been saved from the grasp of arbitrary power. We may talk of liberty in our public councils, and fancy that we feel reverence for her dictates; we may declaim with all the vehemence of animated rhetoric, against oppression, and flatter ourselves that we detest the ugly monster; but so long as we continue to cherish the poisonous weed of partial slavery among us, the world will doubt our sincerity. In the name of heaven, with what face can we call ourselves the friends of equal freedom, and the inherent rights of our species, when we wantonly 3 pass laws inimical to each: when we reject every opportunity of destroying, by silent, imperceptible degrees, the horrid fabric of individual bondage, reared by the mercenary hands of those from whom the sacred flame of lib erty received no devotion?

4

Sir, it is pitiable, to reflect, to what wild inconsistencies, to what opposite extremes we are hurried, by the frailty of our nature. Long have I been convinced, that no generous sentiment of which the human heart is capable, no elevated passion of the soul that dignifies mankind, can 5 obtain a uniform and perfect dominion: to-day we may be aroused as one man, by a wonderful and unaccountable sympathy, against the lawless invader of the rights of his fellow-creatures; to-morrow we may be guilty of the same oppression which we reprobated and resisted in another. Is it, Mr. Speaker, because the complexion of these devoted. victims is not quite so delicate as ours; is it because their

untutored minds, (humbled and debased by the hereditary 6 yoke,) appear less active and capacious than our own? or, is it because we have been so habituated to their situation as to become callous to the horrors of it, that we are determined, whether politic or not, to keep them, till time shall be no more, on a level with the brutes? For " no7 thing," says Montesquieu, " so much assimilates a man to a brute, as living among freemen, himself a slave." Call not Maryland a land of liberty; do not pretend, that she has chosen this country as an asylum, that she has erected her 8 temple and consecrated her shrine, when here, also, her unhallowed enemy holds his hellish pandemonium, and our rulers offer sacrifices at his polluted altar; the lily and the bramble may grow in social proximity, but liberty and slavery delight in separation. Pinkney.

Sentence 6th.-A double interrogative with two members in the first part. Sentence 7th." So much, &c.-as then living, &c.-while or when himself is a slave."

Sentence 8th.-A compound declarative loose perfect. In the first part, a double compact, with the first proposition only expressed: having two members. The second part is a single compact, second form: correlative words, indeed-but.

SEC. XLII. THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

The breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast;
And the woods, against a stormy sky,

Their giant branches tossed;

1 And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er;

When a band of exiles moored their bark,
On the wild New-England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted came;

Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
And the trumpet that sings of fame;

2 Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear;

They shook the depths of the desert's gloom,

With their hymns of lofty cheer.

3 Amidst the storm they sang;

And the stars heard, and the sea!

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free!

4 The ocean-eagle soared

From his nest by the white wave's foam;

And the rocking pine of the forest roared :—
This was their we'come home!

Hemans.

SEC. XLIV. INFLUENCE OF WAR ON OUR PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS.

It is the inevitable consequence of war in free countries, 1 that the power which wields the force, will rise above the power that expresses the will of the people. The state governments will also receive a severe shock: those stately 2 pillars which support the magnificent dome of our national government, will totter under the increased weight of the superincumbent pressure. Nor will the waste of morals, the spirit of cupidity, the thirst of blood, and the general 3 profligacy of manners, which will follow the introduction of this measure, be viewed by the great body of our citizens, without the most fearful anxiety, and the most heartfelt deprecation. And if there are any persons in this country, (and I should regret if there are any such in this house,) who think that a public debt is a public blessing, and that heavy taxation is expedient in order to produce industry; who believe that large standing armies are essential to maintain the energy, and that extensive patronage is indispensable to support the dignity of government; who sup4 pose that frequent wars are necessary to animate the human character, and to call into action the dormant energies of our nature; who have been expelled from authority and power by the indignant voice of an offended country; and who repine and suffer at the great and unexampled prosperity which this country is rapidly attaining under other and better auspices;-such men, whoever they are, and wherever they be, will rally round the proposition now before us, and will extol it to the heavens, as a model of the most profound policy, and as the offspring of the most exalted energy. De Witt Clinton.

SEC. XLV. AN APPEAL TO THE BAD PASSIONS REPREHENSIBLE.

Mr. President, the opposition to this discriminating 1 amendment to the constitution, is condensed into a single stratagem; namely, an effort to excite the passion of jealousy in various forms. Endeavors have been made to excite geographical jealousies; a jealousy of the smaller 2 against the larger states; a jealousy in the people against the idea of amending the constitution; and even a jealousy

against individual members of this house. Sir, is this pas sion a good medium through which to discern truth; or is 3 it a mirror calculated to reflect error? will it enlighten; or deceive? is it planted in good; or in evil: in virtuous or 4 in vicious principles ? Wherefore, then, do gentlemen endeavor to blow it up? Is it because they distrust the 5 strength of their arguments, that they resort to this furious and erring passion? is it because they know, that "Trifles light as air,

Are to the jealous, confirmation strong

As proofs of Holy Writ"?

So far as these efforts have been directed towards a geographical demarcation of the interests of this Union into 6 North and South, in order to excite a jealousy of one division against another, and so far as they have been used to create suspicions of individuals, they have been either so feeble, inapplicable, or frivolous, as to bear but lightly upon the question, and to merit but little attention. But the attempt to array states against states, because they differ in size, and to prejudice the people against the idea of amend7 ing their constitution, bear a more formidable aspect and ought to be repelled, because they are founded on principles the most mischievous and inimical to the constitution; and could they be successful, are replete with great mischiefs. John Taylor.

SEC. XLVI. THE WRONGS OF AMERICA.

After the most valuable right of legislation was infringed; when the powers, assumed by your parliament, in which we are not represented, and, from our local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented, rendered our property precarious; after being denied that mode of trial, to which we have been long indebted for the safety of our persons, and the preservation of our liberties; after being, in many instances, divested of those laws which were transmitted to us by our common ancestors, and subjected to an arbitrary code, compiled under the auspices of Roman tyrants; after those charters, which encouraged our predecessors to brave death and danger in every shape, on unknown seas, in deserts unexplored, amidst barbarous and inhospitable nations, were annulled; when, without the form of trial, without a public accusation, whole colonies were condemned, their trade destroyed, their inhabitants impoverished; when soldiers were encouraged to imbrue their hands in the blood of Americans