politics, you are called upon to trust to the mere are welcome to our arms. With chiefs of banphysical strength of the fetter which holds him ditti, negro, or mulatto, we can treat and can in bondage. You have deprived him of all trade. Name, however, but England, and all moral restraint; you have tempted him to eat our antipathies are up in arms against her. of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, just enough Against whom? Against those whose blood to perfect him in wickedness; you have opened runs in our veins: in common with whom we his eyes to his nakedness; you have armed his claim Shakspeare, and Newton, and Chatham, nature against the hand that has fed, that has for our countrymen: whose form of governclothed him, that has cherished him in sickness; ment is the freest on earth, our own only exthat hand, which before he became a pupil of cepted: from whom every valuable principle your school, he had been accustomed to press of our own institutions has been borrowedwith respectful affection. You have done all representation, jury trial, voting the supplies, this and then show him the gibbet and the writ of habeas corpus, our whole civil and wheel, as incentives to a sullen, repugnant obe- criminal jurisprudence against our fellow Prodience. God forbid, sir, that the Southern States testants, identified in blood, in language, in reshould ever see an enemy on their shores, with ligion, with ourselves. In what school did the these infernal principles of French fraternity in worthies of our land, the Washingtons, Henrys, the van. While talking of taking Canada, some Hancocks, Franklins, Rutledges of America, of us are shuddering for our own safety at home. learn those principles of civil liberty which I speak from facts, when I say, that the night- were so nobly asserted by their wisdom and bell never tolls for fire in Richmond, that the valor? American resistance to British usurpamother does not hug her infant more closely to tion has not been more warmly cherished by her bosom. I have been a witness of some of these great men and their compatriots; not the alarms in the capital of Virginia. more by Washington, Hancock, and Henry, than by Chatham and his illustrious associates in the British Parliament. It ought to be remembered, too, that the heart of the English people was It was a selfish and corrupt ministry, and their servile tools, to whom we were not more opposed than they were. I trust that none such may ever exist among us; for tools will never be wanting to subserve the purposes, however ruinous or wicked, of kings and ministers of state. How have we shown our sympathy with the patriots of Spain, or with the American provinces? By seizing on one of them, her claim to which we had formerly respected, as soon as the parent country was embroiled at home. Is it thus we yield them assistance against the arch-fiend who is grasping at the sceptre of the civilized world? The object of France is as much Spanish-American as old Spain herself. Much as I hate a standing army, I could almost find it in my heart to vote one, could it be sent to the assistance of the Spanish patriots. Mr. Randolph then proceeded to notice the unjust and illiberal imputation of British attachments, against certain characters in this country, sometimes insinuated in that House, but openly avowed out of it. Against whom are these charges brought? Against men who, in the war of the revolution, were in the councils of the nation, or fighting the battles of your country. And by whom are they made? By runaways, chiefly from the British dominions, since the breaking out of the French troubles. It is insufferable. It cannot be borne. It must and ought, with severity to be put down in this House; and out of it to meet the lie direct. We have no fellow-feeling for the suffering and oppressed Spaniards! Yet even them we do not reprobate. Strange! that we should have no objection to any other people or government, civilized or savage, in the whole world! The great autocrat of all the Russias, receives the homage of our high consideration. The Dey of Algiers and his divan of pirates, are a very civil, good sort of people, with whom we find no difficulty in maintaining the relations of peace and amity. "Turks, Jews, and Infidels," Melimelli or the Little Turtle: barbarians and savages of every clime and color, with us. I acknowledge the influence of a Shakspeare and a Milton upon my imagination, of a Locke upon my understanding, of a Sidney upon my political principles, of a Chatham upon qualities which, would to God, I possessed in common with that illustrious man! of a Tillotson, a Sherlock and a Porteus upon my religion. This is a British influence which I can never shake off. I allow much to the just and honest prejudices growing out of the Revolution. But by whom have they been suppressed, when they ran counter to the interests of my country? By Washington. By whom, would you listen to them, are they most keenly felt? By felons escaped from the jails of Paris, Newgate and Kilmainham, since the breaking out of the French revolution; who, in this abused and insulted country, have set up for political teachers, and whose disciples give no other proof of their progress in republicanism, except a blind devotion to the most ruthless military despotism that the world ever saw. These are the patriots who scruple not to brand with the epithet of tory, the men, (looking towards the seat of Col. Stewart,) by whose blood your liberties have been cemented. These are they, who hold in such keen remembrance the outrages of the British armies, from which many of them are deserters. Ask these self-styled patriots where they were during the American war, (for they are, for the most part, old enough to have borne arms,) and you strike them dumb; their lips are closed in eternal silence. If it were al- ing fortunes of civilization, had, no doubt, his lowable to entertain partialities, every consid- advocates, his tools, his minions, his parasites in eration of blood, language, religion and interest, the very countries that he overrun; sons of that would incline us towards England: and yet, soil, whereon his horse had trod; where grass shall they be alone extended to France and her could never after grow. If perfectly fresh, inruler, whom we are bound to believe a chasten- stead of being as I am, my memory clouded, ing God suffers as the scourge of a guilty world! my intellect stupefied, my strength and spirits On all other nations he tramples; he holds exhausted, I could not give utterance to that them in contempt; England alone he hates; strong detestation which I feel towards (above he would, but he cannot despise her; fear can- all other works of the creation) such characters not despise; and shall we disparage our ances- as Gengis, Tamerlane, Kouli-Khan or Bonaparte. tors? Shall we bastardize ourselves by placing My instincts involuntarily revolt at their bare them even below the brigands of St. Domingo? idea. Malefactors of the human race, who have -with whom Mr. Adams negotiated a sort of ground down man to a mere machine of their treaty, for which he ought to have been, and impious and bloody ambition! Yet under all would have been impeached, if the people had the accumulated wrongs, and insults, and robbernot previously passed sentence of disqualifica-ies of the last of these chieftains, are we not, in tion for their service upon him. This antipathy to all that is English, must be French. point of fact, about to become a party to his views, a partner in his wars? to count the cost of the enterprise before it is set on foot, not when it may be too late; when the best blood of the country shall be spilt, and nought but empty coffers left to pay the cost. Are the bounty lands to be given in Canada? It might lessen my repugnance to that part of the system, to granting these lands, not to these miserable wretches who sell themselves to slavery for a few dollars, and a glass of gin, but in fact, to the clerks in our offices, some of whom, with an income of fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars, live at the rate of four or five thousand, and yet grow rich; who, perhaps at this moment, are making out blank assignments for these land rights. But the outrages and injuries of England- But before this miserable force of ten thoubred up in the principles of the revolution, I sand men is raised to take Canada, I beg gencan never palliate, much less defend them. Itlemen to look at the state of defence at home; well remember flying with my mother and her new-born child from Arnold and Philips-and we were driven by Tarleton and other British Pandours from pillar to post, while her husband was fighting the battles of his country. The impression is indelible on my memory: and yet, (like my worthy old neighbor, who added seven buckshot to every cartridge at the battle of Guilford, and drew a fine sight at his man,) I must be content to be called a tory by a patriot of the last importation. Let us not get rid of one evil, (supposing it possible,) at the expense of a greater: "mutatis mutandis," suppose France in possession of the British naval power -and to her the trident must pass, should England be unable to wield it-what would be your condition? What would be the situation of your seaports, and their seafaring inhabitants? Ask Hamburg, Lubec! Ask Savannah! What! sir, when their privateers are pent up in our harbors by the British bull-dogs, when they receive at our hands every rite of hospitality, from which their enemy is excluded; when they capture in our own waters, interdicted to British armed ships, American vessels; when such is their deportment towards you, under such circumstances; what could you expect if they were the uncontrolled lords of the ocean? Had those privateers at Savannah borne British commissions; or had your shipments of cotton, tobacco, ashes and what not, to London and Liverpool, been confiscated, and the proceeds poured into the English exchequer-my life upon it, you would never have listened to any miserable wire-drawn distinctions between "orders and decrees affecting our neutral rights," and "municipal decrees," confiscating in mass your whole property: you would have had instant war! The whole land would have blazed out in war. And shall republicans become the instruments of him who has effaced the title of Attila to the "scourge of God!" Yet, even Attila, in the fall I beseech the House, before they run their heads against this post, Quebec, to count the cost. My word for it, Virginia planters will not be taxed to support such a war-a war which must aggravate their present distresses; in which they have not the remotest interest. Where is the Montgomery, or even the Arnold, or the Burr, who is to march to the Point Levi? I call upon those professing to be republicans, to make good the promises held out by their republican predecessors, when they came into power; promises which, for years afterwards, they honestly, faithfully fulfilled. We have vaunted of paying off the national debt; of retrenching useless establishments; and yet have now become as infatuated with standing armies, loans, taxes, navies and war, as ever were the Essex Junto. What republicanism is this? Mr. Randolph apologized for his very desultory manner of speaking. He regretted that his bodily indisposition had obliged him to talk perhaps sometimes wildly; yet he trusted some method would be found in his madness. AN EXTRACT.* shows this; but great logicians and great scholars are, for that very reason, unfit to be rulers. Would Hannibal have crossed the Alps, when there were no roads-with elephants-in the face of the warlike and hardy mountaineers, and have carried terror to the very gates of Rome, if his youth had been spent in poring over books? Would he have been able to maintain himself on the resources of his own genius for sixteen years in Italy, in spite of faction and treachery in the Senate of Carthage, if he had been deep in conic sections and fluxof botany and mineralogy, and chemistry? "Are you not ashamed," said a philosopher to one who was born to rule; are you not ashamed to play so well upon the flute?" Sir, it was well put. There is much which becomes a secondary man to know-much that it is necessary for him to know, that a first-rate man ought to be ashamed to know. No head was ever clear and sound that was stuffed with book learning. You might as well attempt to fatten and strengthen a man by stuffing him with every variety and the greatest quantity of food. After all, the chief must draw upon his subalterns, for much that he does not know and cannot perform himself. 66 The talent for government lies in these two things-sagacity to perceive, and decision to act. Genuine statesmen were never made such by mere training; "nascuntur non fiunt:" education will form good business men. The maxim, "nascitur non fit," is as true of statesmen as it is of poets. Let a house be on fire, you will soon see in that confusion who has the talent to command. Let a ship be in danger at sea, and ordinary subordination be destroyed, and you will immediately make the same discovery. The ascendency of mind and of character rises and rises as naturally and as inevi-ions, and the differential calculus, to say nothing tably where there is fair play for it, as material bodies find their level by gravitation. Thus, a great logician, like a certain animal, oscillating between the hay on different sides of him, wants some power from without, before he can decide from which bundle to make trial. Who believes that Washington could write a good book or report as Jefferson, or make an able speech as Hamilton? Who is there that believes that Cromwell would have made as good a judge as Lord Hale? No, sir; these learned and accomplished men find their proper place under those who are fitted to command, and to command them among the rest. Such a man as Washington will say to Jefferson, do you become my Secretary of State; to Hamilton, do you take charge of my purse, or that of the nation, which is the same thing; and to Knox, do you be my master of horse. All history * From Mr. Randolph's speech on Retrenchment, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the first day of February, 1828. WILLIAM B. GILES. WILLIAM B. GILES was born in Amelia County, Virginia, on the twelfth of August, 1762. Of his early years little is known. He acquired his classical education under the guidance of Samuel Stanhope Smith, LL. D., an eminent divine, and for several years the President of Princeton College, and studied law with the celebrated George Wythe of Williamsburg, in his native State. After practising at Petersburg a few years, and finding the profession unsuited to his inclinations, he abandoned it and entered the arena of politics, in which he soon became distinguished. In August, 1790, he was elected to the House of Representatives of the United States for an unexpired term, and continued in that body by re-election until the second day of October, 1798, when he resigned and returned to Virginia. During the discussion of the bill relating to the establishment of the United States Bank, in December, 1790, Mr. Giles first gave evidence of his extraordinary abilities as a debater. He opposed the measure, as unnecessary and unconstitutional, in an able and eloquent speech. With Madison and Gallatin, and in conformity with the opinions of a majority of his constituents who were of the democratic party, he resisted the passage of the laws necessary for carrying into effect the treaty of 1794, between Great Britain and the United States. His speech on this subject, which is considered as one of his ablest efforts, will be found in the selections in this volume. A short time subsequent to his retirement from Congress, in 1798, he was chosen to represent his native county in the House of Delegates of Virginia, and continued in that office until 1800, when he was again elected to the lower House of Congress. At this time he had become one of the most conspicuous members of the democratic party, and in all the measures originated during the sessions of 1800, 1801, 1802, he took an active part. In 1803 he declined a re-election to Congress, and was succeeded by Mr. Eppes. The Executive Council of Virginia, delegated him to the Senate of the United States, in August, 1804. Here he remained until after the close of the second war with Great Britain, in the latter portion of that period, the acknowledged leader of his party in the Senate, and throughout the whole of his career repeatedly distinguishing himself in the debates which arose on the important questions that came before that body. On the twenty-third of November, 1815, he resigned his seat in the Senate, giving his reasons for that step in the following letter to the Governor of Virginia. "A period has at length arrived when our beloved country, after successfully passing through the trials of a just and honorable war, against a powerful nation, is enjoying all the blessings of peace, with the fairest prospects, under the guidance of wise counsels and the divine protection, of their long continuance. This fortunate and happy condition of the country affords me a favorable opportunity of indulging myself in a desire, I have long felt, of retiring altogether to the scenes of domestic life. This consideration however would not, of itself, furnish a sufficient motive to induce me to carry this purpose into effect, during the present senatorial term; but another circumstance has taken place, which I conceive ought to have its influence upon any determination in this respect. In consequence of an absence from home, for a portion of each year, during a period of nearly five-and-twenty years, in which I have been engaged in serving the people in the representative character, my private concerns have become materially deranged; and in my judgment, a strong obligation is therefore imposed on me, to give my personal attention to their establishment. These considerations united, have determined me to withdraw from public service at this time." Mr. Giles remained in retirement until the year 1826, when he was again brought forth as a candidate by the people of the county of Amelia, and elected to the House of Delegates. In this assembly he delivered a powerful speech in opposition to the Tariff acts, in reply to Mr. Clay's celebrated speech in Congress of the session of 1823-1824. His correspondence with Mr. Clay, together with a report of his speech on this occasion, was published in 1827. A short time after the publication of that work, he was elevated to the gubernatorial chair of his native State, and held that position until a short time before his death, which took place on the fourth of December, 1830. No extended biography of him has been published. The laborious author of the Thirty Years View, in referring to his death, speaks of him as one of the most conspicuous in the early annals of Congress. "He had that kind of talent," he continues, "which is most effective in legislative bodies, and which is so different from set-speaking. He was a debater; and was considered by Mr. Randolph to be in our House of Representatives what Charles Fox was admitted to be in the British House of Commons: the most accomplished debater which his country had ever seen. But their acquired advantages were very different, and their schools of practice very opposite. Mr. Fox perfected himself in the House, speaking on every subject; Mr. Giles, out of the House, by talking to every body. Mr. Fox, a ripe scholar, addicted to literature, and imbued with all the learning of all the classics in all time; Mr. Giles neither read nor studied, but talked incessantly with able men, rather debating with them all the while; and drew from this source of information, and from the ready powers of his mind, the ample means of speaking on every subject with the fulness which the occasion required, the quickness which confounds an adversary, and the effect which a lick in time always produces. He had the kind of talent which was necessary to complete the circle of all sorts of ability which sustained the administration of Mr. Jefferson." He always exhibited a fondness for controversial discussion, and mingled zealously in the conflicts of party; while he won many admirers, he doubtless made some enemies; but in private society, he was kind, affectionate and estimable. BRITISH TREATY. Mr. Giles delivered the following speech, on the British Treaty, in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the eighteenth of April, 1796.* MR. CHAIRMAN: It is much to be regretted that all the information which could throw light upon the subject of discussion, should not be before the committee. A sense of responsibility arising from the peculiarly delicate nature of the question, has induced the House to take every step with more than a common degree of caution. Before we proceeded to deliberate upon the expediency or inexpediency of providing for carrying the treaty into effect, we made a request to the President for the papers which attended the negotiation. This request has | been refused; not because the call itself contained any thing unconstitutional; not because the contents of the papers called for are of such a nature as to render the disclosure thereof at this time improper-neither of these causes being intimated in the message—but because, principles were advocated by individual gentle men in the course of the argument inducing the call, which the President thought not warranted by the constitution. I do not propose to animadvert upon the conduct of the executive, in departing from the resolution itself, and in noticing the arguments of individual members; nor upon any other part of the proceedings of the executive relative to the call of the House and his refusal. I only mean to remark, that being perfectly convinced of the propriety of the call itself, of the utility of the information embraced by it; and not being satisfied, by the arguments of the President, of the propriety of witholding the papers called for, I should myself have been willing to have suspended all |