barbarous policy, I am persuaded none will deny. I at the same time admit, that many grains of allowance are due to us. Those, who usually legislate for us, are generally disciples of Mr. Justice Blackstone; whose opinions on municipal law, from their youth, they were taught to consider as infallible. He, it is well known, is the encomiast of whatever prevails in England. And why should he not? He was of the favored few who fed liberally on the bounty of his country, which has a wonderful tendency to reconcile one to the existing state of things. Now, for myself, however arrogant it may seem, I must be permitted to say, that the time has long past by, when I implicitly adopted opinions on the authority of a name. Experience has taught me the necessity of judging for myself; as I have often found very serious heresies sheltered by the fame of their authors; and the truth has been irresistibly forced upon me, that a great man inverts the general law of optics, by looming most advantageously at a distance. On the policy of England, as to imprisonment for debt, Blackstone indulges in his usual complimentary style. But the courtier is bad authority on the abuses of government. Let us ascertain the policy he thus commends, and judge for ourselves. There, the debtors are confined without any limitation as to time. Both sexes, not unfrequently, promiscuously huddled together, presenting a scene of whatever is loathsome and abominable to the eye of a beholder-twenty thousand of whom are supposed to fall, annually, a sacrifice to this barbarous practice. But, notwithstanding this waste of human life, the jails continue to fill to overflowing, when, from necessity, an act of general jail delivery is passed by parliament, by which the wretched survivors, squalid with filth, and corrupted by communion, are again thrown on the lap of society-fit and ruthless instruments of vengeance, in the hands of retributive justice, to chastise that society from which they have endured such multiplied wrongs. I appeal, from the authority of the judge, to their own poet, who gives you a vivid portrait of these abodes

of wretchedness, in which he himself had been a sufferer:

"Unpitied and unheard, where misery mourns,
Where sickness pines, where thirst and hunger burn,
And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice:
While, in the land of liberty, the land
Whose every street and public meeting glow
With open freedom, little tyrants rag'd,

Snatch'd the lean morsel from the starving mouth,
Tore from cold wintry limbs the tatter'd weed;
Even robb'd them of the last of comforts, sleep;
The free-born Briton to the dungeon chain'd;
Or. as the lust of cruelty prevail'd,

At pleasure marked him with inglorious stripes,
And crush'd out lives, by secret, barb'rous ways,
That, for their country, would have toil'd or bled."

These are the fruits of that system which you have everywhere, with slight modifications, servilely copied in the United States, and which I now solicit you to abandon.

There is nothing in my nature, and, I may be permitted to add, in my situation, which would induce me to indulge in an adventurous scheme of legislation. But the age in which we live, demands that we fearlessly approach every evil, and boldly probe it to its source. Antiquity, of itself, is no longer sufficient to protect its errors. Our fathers thus reasoned, when they gave birth to our freedom and our free institutions.

The maxims of Europe should no longer be authority to us. In the career of political improvement, she is a sightless distance in the rear. Of the thousand instances to which reference might be had, in confirmation of this truth, take that of religious freedom.

It is held there as a sacred maxim, which it would be deemed impious to question, that a union between the state and the favored sect, is indispensable to the existence of the government and religion. In the most favored spot, a wretched toleration is all that is indulged; while, in another portion, we are informed

their adorable king, whether with or without the direction of his holy allies we are not advised, is now seriously deliberating on the restoration of the Inquisition. Let us turn from a scene at which the heart sickens, to our own favored land, to do honor to the counsels of our fathers, while we are enjoying their beneficent results. Jefferson, a name forever dear to freedom, was the author, not only of the declaration of independence, but of unreserved equality to all religious sects. Animated by a holy zeal for the happiness of his species, and guided by the popularity of his own superior genius; to him the high privilege was given of exploring the hitherto untrodden path of political science. In the eyes of this great apostle of liberty, the hoary errors of Europe dwindled into contempt, and a dissolution between the church and state was the result of his efforts. Have the fears of the timid opponents of that measure been realized? No. The world has beheld, for the first time, the realization of that promise, whose charity announces the divinity of its origin. The partition wall between the Jew and the Gentile has, in very truth, been broken down. Instead of an insolent and hypocritical hierarchy, eating out the substance of the land, and looking down with contempt on the remainder of mankind, the messengers of the gospel here go out with the meekness and in the spirit of their Great Prototype, depending, and not in vain, on the voluntary aid of their followers, inculcating, with sincerity and zeal, the sublime truths of their religion, and practising what they preach. Here religion no longer seeks to erect its altars upon the ignorance of mankind, or propagate its doctrines by fire or the sword. Reason has been substituted for superstition-charity for persecution. Members of dif ferent creeds sit down together and participate at the same table of the awful mysteries of their religion; and everywhere we hear inculcated, from the metropolis to the wilderness, throughout all our borders, peace on earth, and good will to man. This is the fruit of the counsels of our fathers.

Go on, then, and complete the work they have so nobly begun. Let us erase from our code this barbarous relic, and whatever else is mischievous.

To us, in part, a great trust has been confidedthe welfare of our country, and of generations yet to come. Nay, the world itself looks to us as to a great example, whence to draw the oracles of political truth. Fill, then, the measure which has been assigned you. Never tire till there is nothing to be done; and when you shall have reared a monument of beneficent legislation, if it be in the order of Providence that we, too, in our turn, shall be involved in the darkness of slavery and superstition, let us hope that our labors, though obscured for a season in the general gloom, may survive the eclipse, and become the guide of some future deliverer of his country.

SPEECH OF HENRY CLAY.

ON

A BILL AUTHORIZING THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO CAUSE CERTAIN SURVEYS AND ESTIMATES TO BE MADE ON THE SUBJECT OF ROADS AND CANALS;

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 16, 1824.

MR. CHAIRMAN,

I CANNOT enter on the discussion of the subject before us, without first asking leave to express my thanks for the kindness of the committee, in so far accommodating me as to agree, unanimously, to adjourn its sitting to the present time, in order to afford me the opportunity of exhibiting my views; which, however, I fear I shall do very unacceptably. As a requital for this kindness, I will endeavor, as far as is practicable, to abbreviate what I have to present to your consideration. Yet, on a question of this extent and moment, there are so many topics which demand a deliberate examination, that, from the nature of the case, it will be impossible, I am afraid, to reduce the argument to any thing that the committee will consider a reasonable compass.

It is known to all who hear me, that there has now existed for several years a difference of opinion between the executive and legislative branches of this government, as to the nature and extent of certain powers conferred upon it by the constitution. Two successive Presidents have returned to Congress bills which had previously passed both Houses of that body, with a communication of the opinion, that Congress, under the constitution, possessed no power to enact such laws. High respect, personal and official, must be felt by all, as it is due, to those distinguished of