ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
TO W ATS" DA :
Qamrtuin fllovninn. September 1. 1855.
Selects
HE A VEN.
" By night T saw an angel in a dream.
And tims I questioned it concerning heaven."
L'.>>k down blest soul from thy realms of light,
And t'-I! mo how did-t wing thy flight,
To the world of soul, from the world of clay,
\i d s y v j i.stifc'i tiiee from earth away ?
Was it a voice which said " Depart!"
While Death's cold hand was on thy heart?
Or didst thou go less suddenly,
To life and immortality ?
What brings met thee on the road.
When thou didst wing thy way to God ?
Did angels pure—did seraphs meek.
Lead thee to heaven, that thou didst seek ?
Did they deck thy bodiless form with a cloud ?
Or with mist which encircles the moon as a shroud?
I or with the rainbow's fire,
To dazzle the stars with thy bright attire?
■ Did they greet thee with love ? sweet spirit, say !
Or open in silence, the gates of day ?
Did they lull thee to rest, or wake thee to song,
When thou wert borne on their wings along?
While caged in thy clayey form below,
of heavenly glory what couldst thou know ?
Hat now thou art gone, angelic soul,
To the realms long sought—the wished-for goal,
1 prey thee, speak softly in mine ear.
Oh, where is thy home in that radiant sphere ?
Is it beneath the glorious throne,
V, iii-re God sits night and day alone ?
RAnil there, and tiiee, d >e-> it behove
To -ing His praise, and chant His love
■ Or 'mong.-t the stars, say. dost thou sL.oe,
A ■ one ot them, or more divine ?
'Mai the - .n's radiance dost Lhou dwell?
Or does a moonbeam suit thee wt 11
T trav, 1 oast, or to tr ,vel we t,
As it st beseems a sv'rlf > lest ?
T pierce the ocean—gaze beneath,
or skim the snowy in ■ intaiu's breath ?
Or watcher oi the earth art tiion ;
A holy one. upon whose brow
sits calm resolve aud firm intent,
To do Hi- will—His instrument—
one of those ministering spirits who
< in .-earch all nature through and through?
' I am. I am !" the angel said,
" And wt 1 thou hast my mission read.
1! i. mortal, question me no more ;
W h it though my fervent spirit soar.
And thou wouldst fain Inquire of me
< >f all my spirit's ecstuey.
And where my heavenly home I keep ;
Or in what realms of bliss I .-teop
AD -pirit's wing; enough li kn sv
That heavenly vice whii h bid m< i;\ w ;
Wbi'-h called me from flit earth away,
1 the same voice 1 n ov ! cy.
Wh< n first the ' 1c- > d call I be .:■<!
1 hit a- st rat ilcb-ht. u '
Returning home, and now i by
T.irough earth, thrum h air. or thr t the ky ;
And when is heard tele tiai so uni,
The people of the skies look round,
D itii haste and speed t<> do His will ;
Nor rest on tardy wing until
All is ftillillcd ; and it is this
Obedience which with us is bliss ;
It makes the heaven where we do dwell.
Nor is it phirc or magic spell,
Which is our happiness. Oh, no!
All places whercso'er we go.
Are full <ii God ; nay, everywhere
We feel His presence and liis care ;
And this is it which makes us ilc<t.
For this is heaven, and this is rest!"'
stltdcb Sfecttjr.
[From the National Magazine for August.]
j PETER CARTWRIGHT, THE BACKWOODS PREACHER.
Me once gave a sketch of Petf.r Cart-
I right iii these pages. It would be unpurdona
ic lo omit the adventures of such u character
mil this class of "jottings j" we must then call
itii again into your presence, " courteous read- j
■. even if we should repeat .some of his stories ,
Iready told.
He appears broken with years and labors, i
ml you perceive some paralytic tremblings in i
-attitude and voice ; but there is nevcrthe-
a general aspect of strenuous vigor about j
He look - a if he might yet wrestle with !
ar< and come off conqueror, as we learn he '
'■' ;, !!y has heretofore. He is war-worn and :
' iiilier-lieaten. His complexion is bilious,the j
fb-guun nts of his face wrinkled and tough,his !
1 - -iimll and twinkling, and defended by a ;
pair ol spectacles with greeu side glasses, !
' nw °th compact and full of force, his head j
and round, his forehead deeply indented,
b.il Ins hair—there is no description of that ;
"h- as if he had poked it into the bag of
' Kilkenny eats, and had not had time to
" u "> it since its extrication. And yet do not
there is any fierceness about his caput.
.' u-rilv ; a face more finely characterized
.V' k r °o<l nature and gallant generosity is not
' * >een. Should wc attempt an intellectn
' l'!' 1 trait of Peter Cartwright, we should sum
'•"tii say that he is characterized by good
and good humor. We know not "that we
* r ' K'tter describe him. lie strikes right ot
_ '.Djf-ot before him, and never fails to hit it ;
alms that characteristic of the highest
kC "Pi Drovity, sententiousness. Wc never
tha- W f s st'P t ' '"General Conference mor-
•De minutes at once. His humor is al
, -poutuneons—always ready. I r som<
;' ' cu ts sharply, but is usually gcuial aud
, L "' rou ri h'-ving rather than * exasperating
Dumor is a rare excellence, but it
. • u !,IS ' v *hiablc chiefly for its rare-
Wn ,' i"trins.eally valuable. It should
far,.*' severc ty grinned at, with elongated
gi.. a '"l.. eV( ' n ecclesiastical bodies ; it often
' x '"iarating sunlight among lower
'il l ? dweorj, Twd sometime dispels
-"tloF , es '" fil,ite ly more tlian thestrong
''r t ' ic loudest rhetoric to remove ol
ed sto husiuess. Still, a man of combin
ferV,y. M ,' USC a "d K°°d huinor is liable to suf
tttfp ls P ar agement. Our poor human na
self-eomplimenting propensi
< of a npcrior man with a qualify-
iug " but," the import of which is, that though
he excels us in some things, we can sec in him
defects wc have not ourselves. He- has im
agination, " but," he has not much sense ; he
has humor, " but,' he has not much logic.—
Much of this kind of twaddle is sheer fudge,
and something worse. Peter Cartwright is uot
mere a man of humor, but of genuine sagacity ;
woe be to him that attempts to circumvent him
in debate. If some of his short sayings were
divested of their humor, and spoken by a grave
mau, they would pass for unique utterances of
wisdom ; as they are, they pass for pertinent
jokes—happy hits. Peter Cartwright is a
" Doctor of Divinity." Good old George Pick
ering, when asked once if the Methodists had
| any Doctors of Divinity, replied, "No, sir, we
don't need them ; our divinity litis nut yet be
come sick."
Those healthful days seem, however, to have
passed, if we may judge from the ample provi
sions made lor theological medication among
u.-5 now-a-days. Some college in the West
deemed Peter Cartwright too know ing in the I
Materia Medica, or too skilful with the scalpel, !
! to die untitled, and, therefore, dubbed him I). |
I I). \\ e know not that he pretends to encv
j clopedic erudition, or is more skilful than some j
! other doctors we are acquainted with in the j
1 learned languages-—a knowledge of which is :
; usually pre . supposed in giving that title ; the j
1 only learned quotation we ever heard from him
i was in respect to a matter of business, which i
seemed to be beyond the reach of his brethren ; j
if was, said he, "in swampus non-comatibus." i
The learned doctors around liiin smiled verv!
eognizautly, as they usually do at college coin- j
m< neements. when a Latin phrase is quoted \
whi:;ii, tnougn uuiuintciiigibie to the vulgar!
throng, is ;:.v, is remarkably striking to ■
them.
His fellow-soldier in the West, James B. !
Finley gives the following further account of j
hm. <>i wineli we gave an extract once, but !
now give it fail}
" Inline: \vu ue gathering at the Metho-1
dist cgmp-ground near Springfield, oa the see
<*W Sunday of 8 r, rlwf. A pbwerfh!'
magic had attracted tills great mass of peo- '
!■■■ ' fr< n th ir homes in many comities a hun
dred milo round. The new presiding eider, a
lab- ar.vid from Kentucky, an orator of wide
spread, wonderful renown, it was known, would
thunder on that day. The prestige of his fame
had lightened before him, and hence the uni
versal eagerness to listen to one concerning
whom rumor's truuipet-tougue discoursed so
loudly.
" Morning broke in the azure east, bright
and beautiful as a dream of heaven ; but the
cx-prodi_ry had not made his advent. Eleven
o'clock cu.ic—: ,e regular hour of the detona
tion of tin- h :.vy guu of orthodoxy—and still
there was no news of the clerical lion. A com
mon circuit pre elmr took his place; and sensi
ble ot tit. popular disappointment, increased it
by inouf.iin _ a miserable failure. The vexed
and restle-s crowd began to disperse, when an
event happ: in d to excite afresh their curiosity
and concentrate them again denser than ever.
A messenger rushed to the pulpit in hot haste,
and presented a note, which was immediately
read out to prevent the people from scattering.
Hit- following is a literal copy of that singular
epistle;
DEAR BRF.THRF.X : The devil lias founder
id my horse, which will detain me from reach
ing your tabernacle till evening. I might have
performed the journey on foot; but I could
not leave poor Paul, especially as he has ne
ver left Peter. Horses have no souls to save,
and, therefore, it is all the more the duty of
Christians to take careof their bodies. Watch
and pray, and don't let thedevil get iinioinj- von
on the sly before candle-light, when 1 shall be
at my post. Y our brother,
I * i". rkr C vrtwhi i ; iit ."
" At length the day closed. The purple cur
tain of night fell over the earth from the dark
ening sky. God's golden lire flashed out in
heaven, and men below kindled their watch
fires. Ihe encampment, a village of snowy
tents, was illuminated with a brilliancy that
caused every leaf to shine and sparkle as if all
the trees were burnished with phosphorescent
flame. It was like a theatre. It was a thea
tre in the open air, on the green sward, be
neath the starry blue, incomparably more pic- ■
turcsqne and gorgeous than any stage sccnerv, !
prepared within walls of brick or marble, where I
the elite of cities throng to feast their eyes on i
beauty and their ears on music.
" Presently a form arose in the pulpit, and
commenced giving out a hymn, preliminary to
the main exercises, and every eye became rivet-j
ed to the person of the stranger. Indeed, as
some one said of Burke, a single flash of the
gazer's vision was enough to reveal the extra
ordinary man, although in the present case, it
must, for the sake of truth, be acknowledged
that the first impression was ambiguous, if not
enigmatical and disagreeable. His figure was
tall, burly, massive, and seemed even more gi
gantic than the reality from the crowning foli
age of luxuriant, coal-black hair, wreathed into
long, curling ringlets. Add a head that look
ed as large as a half-bushel ; beetling brows,
rough and craggy as fragmentary granite, ir
rudiatt-d at the base by eyes of dark lire ;
small and twinkling like diamonds in a sea—
they were diamonds of the soul, shining in a
measureless sea of huinor—a swarthy com
plexion, as if embrowned by a southern sun ;
rich, rosy lips, alway slightly parted, as wear
ing a perpetual siniic : and you have a life
like' portrait of the far-lamed back wood.- prea
cher.
"Though I heard it all, from the text to the
amen, I am forced to despair of anv attempt to
couvey an accurate idea of cither the substance
or manner of the sermon which fuiiowed. There
are dilYeront sorts oi sermon*—the argumeu
tary, the dogmatic, the post alary, the persua
.-.ive, the punitive, the combative, "in orthodox
uiov,. and knocks," the logical, a.iu the poetic;
but this specimen belonged to none of these
categories. It was swi generis, and of a new
species.
" He began with a loud and beautifully mo
dulated tone, in a voice that rolled on the se
rene nigh Lair like successive peals of thunder.
Method) t ministers ore celebrated for sonorous
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH.
voices ; but his was matchless in sweetness as
well as power. For the first ten minutes his
remarks, being preparatory, were common-place
and uninteresting ; but then, all of a sudden,
his face reddened, his eye brightened, his ges
tures grew animated as'the wafturesof a torch,
and his whole countenance changed into an ex
pression of inimitable humor ; and now his
wild, waggish, peculiar eloquence poured forth
like a mountain torrent. Glancing arrows,
with shalts of ridicule, bonmots, puns, and side
splitting anecdotes sparkled, flashed, and flew
like hail till the vast auditory was convulsed
| with laughter. For a while the more ascetic
I strove to resist the current of their own spon
i taneous emotions. These, however, soon dis
j covered that they had undertaken an impossi
ble achievement in thinking to withstand his
| facitie. His every sentence was like a warm
linger, tickling the ribs of the hearer. His
j verv looks incited to mirth far more than other
| people's jokes, so that the effort to maintain
i one's equilibrium only increased the disposition
to burst into loud explosions, as every school
boy has verified in similar cases. At length
the encampment was in a roar, the sternest fea
tures relaxed into smiles, and the coldest eyes
: melted into tears of irrepressible merriment.—
This continued thirty minutes, while the orator
j painted the folly of" the sinner, which was his
j theme. I looked on and laughed with the rest,
but finally began to fear the result as to the
speaker.
How," I exclaimed, mentally, " will he
ever be able to extricate his audience from that
deep whirlpool of humor ? If he ends thus,
when the merry mood subsides, and calm re
flection supervenes, will not the revulsion of
feeling be deadly to his fame ? Will not every
hearer realize that he has been trifled with in
matters of sacred and eternal interests ?
At all events, there is no prospect of a revi
val to-night ; for though the orator were a I
magician, he could uot change his subject
now, and stem the torrent of head-long laugh
ter." j
" But the shaft of my inference fell short of
me mark : and even then he commenced to ,
change, not all at once but gradually, as the i
wind of a thunder-cloud. His features lost
their rom.cal tinge of pleasantry ; his voice j
grew first earnest, and then solemn, and soon
wailed out in the tones of deepest pathos ; his j
eyes were shorn of their mild light, and yielded I
streams oi tears, as the fountain of the hill (
yielded water. The effect was indescribable, j
and the rebound of feeling beyond all coucep- i
tion. lie descanted on the horrors of hell till
every shuddering face was turned downward, '
as d expecting to see the solid globe rent asun
der, and the fathomless fiery gulf yawn from ;
beneath. Brave men moaned, and fair, fash
ionable women, covered with silken drapery
and bedight with gents, shrieked as if a knife '
were working among their heart-strings.
" Again he changed the theme ; sketched
the joys of a righteous death—its faith, its
hope, its winged raptures, and angels at
tending the spirit to its starry home—with
such force, great and evident belief, that all
eyes were turned toward heaven, and the en
tire congregation started to their feet, as if
to hail the vision of angels at which the'fin
ger of the preacher seemed to be pointed, ele
vated as it was on high to the full length of
his arm.
" He then made a call for mourners into the
altar, and live hundred, many of them till that
night infidels, rushed forward and prostrated
themselves on their knees. The meeting was
continued for two weeks, and more than a thou
sand converts were added to the church. From
that time his success was unparalleled, and the
fact is chiefly due to his inimitable wit and mas
terly eloquence that Methodism is now the pre
vailing religion in Illinois.
" lie was distinguished by one very uncleri
cal peculiarity—combutiveness. Ills battles,
although always apparently in the defensive,
were as numerous as the celebrated Bowie.—
The only difference was this, thai Bowie fought
with deadly weapons, while the itinerant used
but his enormous fist, which was as effective, '
however, in the speedy settlement of belligerent !
issues as any knife or pistol ever forged out of
steel. Let the reader judge from the following !
anecdote :
" At the camp-meeting held at Alton, in the !
autumn of 18ho, the worshippers were aunoyed
by a sot ol desperadoes from St. Louis, under
the control of Mike Fink, a notorious bully.the !
triumphant hero of countless lights, in none of j
which he had ever met an equal, or even set-!
ond. The coarse, drunken ruffians carried it :
with a high hand, outraged the men and insul-!
ted the women, so as to threateu the uissolu- '
tion of all pious exercises ; and yet such was ,
the terror the name of their leader, Fink, in- i
spired, that no one could be found brave enough
to face his prowess.
"At last, one day, when Cart wright ascend
ed the pulpit to hold forth, the desperadoes, on
the outskirts of the encampment, raised a yell
so deafening as to drown utterly every other '
sound. The preacher's dark eyes shot lightning. :
lie deposited his Bible, drew off his coat, and
remarked aloud :
" Wait for a few minutes, inv brethren, while
I go and make the devil pray."
" He then proceeded with a smile on his lips
to the focus of the tumult, and addressed the
chief bully—
"Mr. Fink, 1 have come to make yon pray."
" The desperado rubbed back the tangled
festoons of his blood-red hair, arched his
huge brows with a comical expression, and re
plied—
• By golly, I'd like to see you do it, old snor
ter."
'• Very well," said Cartwright; " will these,
g utiemen, your courteous friends, agree not to
-how foid play ?"
"In course they will. They're rale grit,
and would n't do nothiu' but the clear thing,
so they won't," rejoiued Fink, indignantly.
" Are you ready ?" asked the preacher.
" Heady as a race-boss with a light rider,"
answered Fink, squaring his ponderous person
for the combat.
"The bully spoke too soon ; for scarcely
bad the words left his lips wbeu C'artwright
made a prodigious bound tow ard* bis autago
" RESARDLESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER."
nist, and accompanied it with a quick, shoot
ing punch of his herculean fist, which fell,
crashing the other's coin, aud hurried him to
the earth like lead. Then, even his intoxica
ted comrades, filled with involuntary admira
tion at the feat, gave a cheer. But Fink was
up in a moment, aud rushed upon his enemy,
exclaiming :
"That warn't done fair, so it warn't."
" He aimed a ferocious stroke, which the
preacher parried with his left hand, and, grasp
ing his throat with the right, crushed liiin down
as if he had been an infant. Fink struggled
squirmed, and writhed in the dust, but all to
no purpose ; for the strong, muscular fingers
held his windpipe as in the jaws of au iron vice.
When he began to turn purple in the face, and
ceased to resist, Mr. Cartwright slackened his
hold and inquired—
" Will you pray now ?"
" I doesn't know a word how,"easped Fink
" Repeat after me."
"Well, if I must, I must," answered Fink
"because you're the devil himself.
" The preacher then said over the Lord's
prayer, line by line, and the conquered bull?
responded in the same way, when the victor
permitted him to rise.
" At the consummation the rowdies roared
three boisterous clmers, and Fink shook Cart
wright by the hand, declaring—
" By golly, you're some beans in a bar-fight.
Id rather set-to with an old he-bar in dog-dnys. j
You can pass this 'ore crowd of nose-smashers, I
blast your picfur' !"
Afterward Fink's party behaved with ex- !
treme decorum and the preacher resumed the '
Bible and puipit.
An odd^ scene that, certainly j and " not verv i
apostolic," say you, sober reader. We join you j
in the remark but it is characteristic, as'we
said in another case.
We give it as a fact from old friend Fin-' 1
ley li I act that illustrates not only the charac-!
ter of the inan, but of the country and its-early i
times. " Circumstances alter cases," is a popu-!
lur proverb in the West, as well as elsewhere ; I
and even good men are heard, occasionally, to
affirm out there, that Lynch law is better "than
no law.
Mr. Bungay, in his volume of " Off-hand
Takings of Noticeable Men of our Age," says
that he heard Peter, at Boston, during the
last General Conference of the Methodist Epis
top.ii Church, ami thus describes the occasion :
" The great western preacher has arrived,
and is now searching the well-thumbed Bible
for his text. Quite a number of distinguished
divines are present. The preacher looks like
a backwoodsman, whose face had been bronzed
at the plough. His black hair, straggling se
ven ways for Sunday, is slightly tinged with
the frost of age. A strip of black silk is twis
ted around his neck, and a shirt collar, scrupu
lously clean, is turned down over it. He is of
ordinary size, dresses plainly, and looks like a
man perfectly free from affectation. In a fal
tering voice he reads a hymn. The choir wed
the words to sweet and solemn music—a fer
vent prayer goes up on the wings of faith—un
o'her hymn is read and sung—the 12th verse
of the 11th chapter of Matthew is selected for
his text. Now the old pioneer preacher, who j
has waded swamps, forded rivers, threaded for-!
ests, travelled with Indians, fought with bears '
and wolves, preached in the woods, and slept
in the field or the prairie at night, is standing |
before us. Look at him, ye gentlemen with i
white neckcloths and black coats, who ride in
carriages over smooth roads to supply churches
with cushioned pews and soft benches to kneel
on. How would you like to labor for nothing
among wild beasts, and hoard yourselves, in a
climate where the ague shakes the settlers over
the grave two thirds of the year ! Would yon
exchange your fat livings, and fine palaces,aud
unread libraries, for black bread and dry veni
son, a log hut and the society of bears and
blue racers? God bless the brave, wise and
good men to whom we are so much indebted
for the blessings we enjoy. He says lie would
make an apology if lie thought it would enable
him to preach better, for he is afflicted with a
severe cold. " Some folks," said he, " say lam
fifty years behind the age. God knows," he
continued, " I am willing to be a thousand be
hind such an age. Religion is always of age,
and can talk or run without stilts or silver
slippers." He concluded an able aud inten st
ing discourse, which elicited undivided atten
tion, with the following fact; " During a splen
did revival of religion at the West, a young
preacher, manufactured in one of the theolo
gical shops out li<Tc, came to lend a helping
hand. 1 knew lie could not handle Methodist's
tools without cu't"i r his fingers, but he was
very oUkious. Wi, \v liad a gale—a jtontc
eostul gale—aud s.IINTTS fell without looking
for a soft place, and Christians fought the de
vil on their knees. Well, this little man would
tell those who were groaning under conviction
to be composed. I stood this as long as 1
could, and finally sent him to speak with a
great, stout, athletic man, who was bellowing
like a bull in a net, while I tried to undo the
mischief he had done to others. He told this
powerful man to lie composed, but I told him
to pray like thunder just at that instant the
grace of God shown in upoif his soul, and he
was mj delirious with delight, he seized the lit
tle man in his bonds, and holding hint up,
bounded like it buck through the congregation."
It is impossible for the pen to do justice to this
fact. The speaker moved us all to tears and
smiles at the same moment, while he said what j
lew men would venture to say."
While he was preaching, years rgo, General i
Jackson entered the church, when a pastor !
seated in the pulpit gave his " la-other Cart
wright" a nudge, and wispered that the old he- I
ro had just come in—as much as to advise, '
" Now be particular in what you say." But!
Peter, to the great astonishment of every one, i
louder than ever, exclaimed—" Who cares for |
General Jackson ? He'll go to hell assooua-s |
anybody, if he doesn't repent!"
When the sermon—a home-made one—was
ended, a friend asked the general what he
thonght of that rongh old fellow, and received
for answer, "Sir. give me twenty thousand of
such men, aud I'll whip the world, including
the ueril !"
It is quite possible, brother reader, that your
and our notions might not quite agree with the
general's, yet, neither of us can fail to see iti
this eccentric, but veteran evangelist, the inan
of his times and his circumstances. And you,
dear sir, starched, and brushed and perfumed,
who now recline in the stuffed arm-chair of
your garnished study, wondering why the world
should take any interest in such a specimen of
humanity—what kind of a specimen would you
have been ? what would you have done in the
rough battles through which this weather-worn
but jolly-hearted old man has borne the stand
ard uf the cross—borne it with a brawn? but
ever faithful arm? God bless the old man, with
all his oddities ; uud may he yet fight his way
iuto heaven.
Peter Cartwright joined the "old Western
Conference" in 1805, though he began to travel
a year earlier, we believe. He was a voting
man—only about eighteen years old—when he
entered the itinerant field, and lie has been in
its foremost struggles ever since. The "old
Western Conference" was in that day the only
one beyond the A lleghenies. It extended from
Detroit to Natchez, and each of its districts
comprised a territory about equal to two of the
present conferences beyond the mountains—
Those were the days of great moral battles in
that vast field ; and the men who fought them j
were made great, some of them gigantically so, j
by their circumstances. Among them were !
Young. Walker, Shinn, M'Kendree, Burke, j
Lakin, Blackmail, Quinn, and similar might? j
men. Cartwright began his regular travel's |
with Lakin on .Salt River Circuit—(save the i
name !) Most of ins fellow-heroes have gone I
to their rest ; but they gained the field, and j
fortified their cause all over it. They, in fact,
laid the moral foundations of our ultra-montane
States. The few remnants of the old corps
should be cherished and honored bv their!
Church.
COL. P.LNTOX'S HISTORY.!
THE XOUTII .1XI) THE SOUTH-CO MPAJIA- [
UIVE I'ROSPEIifTY—SOUTHER X DISC OX i
TE.\ I—ITS TRUE CA USE.
,
AXSO ISJs—MJ:. VAN bcken, rKKsa-isr.
To show the working of the federal govern- t
meat is the design of this \ iew—-how how i
tilings are done under it and their effects—that
the good may be approved and pursued, the
evil condemned and avoided, and the machine
of government be made to work equally for the
benefit of the whole Union, according to the
wise and beneficent intent of its founders. It
thus becomes necessary to show its working in
the two great Atlantic sections, originallv sole
parties to the Union—the North and the South
—complained of for many years on one part us
unequal and oppressive, and made so by a
course of federal legislation at variance with!
the objects of the confederation and contrary J
to the intent of the words of the constitution, i
The writer of this view sympathized with
that complaint--believed it "to be, to mncli
extent, well-founded—saw with concern the
corroding effect it had on the feelings of pa
triotic men of the South ; and often had to
lament that a sense of duty to his own con
stituents required him to give votes which his
judgment disapproved and his feelings condemn
ed. 'Litis complaint existed when lie came into
the Senate*; it had in fact commenced in the
iirst years of the federal government, at the
time of the assumption of the state debts, the
incorporation of the first national bank, and
the adoption of the funding system—all of
which drew capital from the South to North.
It continued to increase ; and, at the period to
which this chapter relates, it had reached the
stage of an organized sectional expression in a
voluntary convention of the southern states.—
It had often been expressed in Congress and in
tlie state legislatures, and habitually in the
discussion of the people ; but now it took the
more serious form of joint action, and exhibited
the spectacle of a part of the states assembling
seetionally to complain formally of the unequal,
and to them, injurious operation of the common
government, established by common consent
for the common good ; and now frustrating its
objects by departing from the purposes of its
creation. The convention was railed commercial
and properly, as the grievance complained of
was in its root commercial and a remedy was
proposed.
It met at Augusta, Georgia, and afterwards
at. Charleston, South Carolina, and the evil
complained of, and the remedy proposed, wen
strongly set forth in the proceedings of the
body, and in addresses to the people of the
southern and southwestern states. The changed
relative condition of the two sections of tin
country, bclbie and since the Union, was shown
in their general relative depression or prosperity
since that event ; and especially in the reversed
condition of their respective foreign import
trade. In the colonial condition the compari
son was wholly in favor of the South : under
the Union, wholly against it. Thus, in the
year lTtiO—only sixteen years before the
Declaration of Independence—the foreign
imports into Virginia were JB8.">0,000 sterling,
and into South Carolina Cob"), 000 ; while into
New York they were only .£1 K'o,ooo ; int >
Pennsylvania, €lOO,OOO nud into all the New
England colonies collectively, onlv £061.000.
I'll esc figures exhibit ail immense superiority
of commercial prosperity 011 the .side of the
South in its colonial state, sadly eonstrnsUug
with another set of figures exhibited by the
convention to show its relative condition within
a few years after the union. Thus, in the year
the imports into New York had risen to
sj:ijKlO,oo<>, being about seventy times its
colonial import at about an equal period before
the adoption of the eonstitutiou ; aud those of
South Carolina stood at $0,000,000 —which,
for all practical purposes, may be considered the
same that they were iu 17*50.
Such was the difference—the reversed condi
tions—of the two sections worked between
theui in the brief space of two generations—
within the actual lifetime of some who had
seen their colonial conditions. The proceedings
of the couventiou did uot stop there, but
brought down the comparison (under this com
mcreial aspect.) to near the period of its own
VOL. XVI. —XO.
sitting>—to tlwj actual pori(Kl of the highest
manifestation of southern discontent in 1832,
when it produced the enactment of the South
Uaroliua nullifying ordinance. At that tiino
nil the disproportions between the foreign
commerce of the two sections had inordinately
increased. The New Yoik im| urts (since
1821) had more than doubled ; the Virginia
had fallen off oae-iialf ; South Carolina two
thirds. The actual figures stood : New York,
fifty-sevcu millions—Virginia half a million-
South Carolia one iniilion and a quarter.
This was a disheartening view, and rendered
more grievous by the certainty of its continua
tion, the prospect of its aggregation, and the
conviction thut the South (in its great staples)
furnished the basis for these imports, of which
it received so small a share. To this loss of
its import trade, and its transfer to the North,
the convention attributed, as a primary cause,
the reversed conditions of the two sections—
j the great advance of one is wealth and iin-
I provements—the slow progress, and even com
parative decline of the other ; and, with some
allowance for the operation of natural or
inherent causes, referred the effect to a course
of federal legislation unwarranted by the grants
of the constitution and the objects of the Union,
which substraeted capital from one section and
| accumulated it in the other. Protective tariff',
: internal improvement, pensions, national debt|
I two national banks, the funding system aid
I the paper system, the multiplication of offices,
j profuse and extravagunt expenditures, the
i conversion of u limited iuto an almost unlirait
i ed government ; and the substitution of power
and splendor for what was intended to be a
| simple and economical administration of that
part of tliesr ufluiis which required a general
head.
'lliese were the points of complaint, and
which had led to the collection of an enormous
revenue—-chiefly levied on the products of one
section of the L rv.on, and mainly disbursed in
another. So far as northern advantages were
the result of fair legislation for the accomplish
ment ol the objects of the Union, all discontent
or complaint was disclaimed. Ail knew that
the Mipcr.or advantages of the North for navi
gation would give it the udvantage in foreign
commerce : but it was not expected that these
advantages would operate a monopoly on one
side and an extinction on the other ; nor was
that consequence allowed to be the effect of
these advantages alone, but were charged to a
course of lcgi-huiou not warranted by the
objects of the Union, or the terms of the con
stitution which created it. To this course of
legislation was attributed the accumulation of
capital in the North which had enabled that
section to monopolize the foreign commerce
which was lounded upon southern exjnjrts—to
cover one part with wealth while the other wu.s
impoverished— and to make the South tri
butaries to the North, and suppliant to it for
a small part of the fruits of their own labor.
U nliuppily. there was no foundation for this
view of the ease, and in this lies the r.ot of
the discontent of the South uud it s dissatisfac
tion with the Union, although it may break
oat upon another point. It is in this 'belief of
an incompatibility of interest, from the perver
ted working of the federal government, that
lies the root of southern discontent, and which
constitutes the danger to the Union, and which
statesmen should confront and grapple with ;
and not iu any danger to slave property,which
has continued to aggrandize in value during
the whole period of the cry of danger, oud is
now of greater price than ever was known be
fore, an 1 such us our ancestors would hate
deemed fabulous. The sagacious Mr. Madison
knew this—knew where the danger to tha Un
ion lay, when, in the 86th year of his age, and
the last of his life, and under the anguish of
painful misgivings he wrote, (what is more fill-'
iy set out in the | revious volume of this work,)
these portentous words :
' The visible susceptibility to the contagion of nullifica
tion in t'u southern states—the sympathy arising from
known cause :—ami the inculcstfil impression of u perina
r.ent incompatibility of interest between the Sorth anel the
.South—may put it in the power of popular leaders, aspir
ins to the highest stations, to unite the South on some criti
cal occasion in some einirse of action of which nullification
may be He fist step, secession the second, and a farewell
irparation the let t.'"
So viewed the evil, aud in his last days, tha
xreat .surviving founder of the Union, seeing as
he did in this inculcated impression of a per
manent incompatibility of interest between the
two sections, the fulcrum or point of support
on which disunion could rest its lever, and par
ricidal hands build its schemes. What has
been published it) the South, and adverted to
in tiiis view, goes to show that an incompati
bility of interest between tho two soctious,
though not inherent, has been produced by the
working of the government—not its fair and
legitimate, but its perverted aud unequal work
ing.
Tnis is tho evil which statesmen should see
and provide against. Separation is no remedy.
Exclusion ol nor. hern vessels from southern
ports is no remedy, but is disunion itself, uud
upon the very pn : ut which caused the Union
to be formed. R -gulation of commerce be
tween the states and with foreign nations was
the cause of the formation of the Union.—
Break that regulation, anil the Union is bro
ken, and the broken parts converted into an
tagonist nations, with causes enough of dissen
sion to cng-mdor perpetual waves and intlame
incessant animo.-it Vs. The remedy lies in the
right working of the constitution—:u the ces
sation of unequal legislation—in the reduction
of the inordinate expo uses of the government—
in it- return to the simple, limited and econo
mical machine it was intended to he ; and in
the revival oi' fraternal feelings and respcet for
each other .- rights and just complaints, which
would return of themselves when the real cause
of discontent was removed.
Tiic conventions of Augusta and ('harlcslon
proposed their remedy for the southern depres
sion aud the comparative decay of which they
complained : it was a fair atul patriotic rcuio
lv—that of becoming their own exporters,and
opentug a direct trade in their own staples be
tween southern and foreign ports. It was re
commended —attempted —failed. Superior ad
vantages for navigation in the North—greater
aptitude of its people for commerce—establish
ed cour e of bur-incf.?—accumulated capital -