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humanity and gratitude, to all the protection that can be extended to him, in his peculiar circumstances. He ought, certainly, to be protected from the infliction of a punishment which stands condemned by the almost universal sentiment of his fellow-citizens; a punishment which is proscribed in the best prison-government, proscribed in the school-house, and proscribed in the best government on earth- that of parental domestic affection. Yes, Sir, expelled from the social circle, from the school-house, the prison-house, and the Army, it finds defenders and champions nowhere but in the Navy!

Look to your history, that part of it which the world knows by heart, and you will find on its brightest page the glorious achievements of the American sailor. Whatever his country has done to disgrace him, and break his spirit, he has never disgraced her; he has always been ready to serve her; he always has served her faithfully and effectually. He has often been weighed in the balance, and never found wanting. The only fault ever found with him is, that he sometimes fights ahead of his orders. The world has no match for him, man for man; and he asks no odds, and he cares for no odds, when the cause of humanity, or the glory of his country, calls him to fight. Who, in the darkest days of our Revolution, carried your flag into the very chops of the British Channel, bearded the lion in his den, and woke the echoes of old Albion's hills by the thunders of his cannon, and the shouts of his triumph? It was the American sailor. And the names of John Paul Jones, and the Bon Homme Richard, will go down the annals of time forever. Who struck the first blow that humbled the Barbary flag,-which, for a hundred years, had been the terror of Christendom,- drove it from the Mediterranean, and put an end to the infamous tribute it had been accustomed to extort? It was the American sailor. And the name of Decatur and his gallant companions will be as lasting as monumental brass. In your war of 1812, when your arms on shore were covered by disaster, - when Winchester had been defeated, when the Army of the North-west had surrendered, and when the gloom of despondency hung like a cloud over the land, who first relit the fires of national glory, and made the welkin ring with the shouts of victory? It was the American sailor. And the names of Hull and the Constitution will be remembered, as long as we have left anything worth remembering. That was no small event. The wand of Mexican prowess was broken on the Rio Grande. The wand of British invincibility was broken when the flag of the Guerrière came down. That one event was worth more to the Republic than all the money which has ever been expended for the Navy. Since that day, the Navy has had no stain upon its escutcheon, but has been cherished as your pride and glory. And the American sailor has established a reputation throughout the world, in peace and in war, in storm and in battle, for heroism and prowess unsurpassed. He shrinks from no danger, he dreads no foe, and yields to no superior. No shoals are too dangerous, no seas too boisterous, no climate too rigorous, for him. The burning sun of the tropics cannot make him

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effeminate, nor can the eternal winter of the polar seas paralyze his energies. Foster, cherish, develop these characteristics, by a generous and paternal government. Excite his emulation, and stimulate his ambition, by rewards. But, above all, save him, save him from the brutalizing lash, and inspire him with love and confidence for your service! and then there is no achievement so arduous, no conflict so desperate, in which his actions will not shed glory upon his country. And, when the final struggle comes, as soon it will come, for the empire of the seas, you may rest with entire confidence in the persuasion that victory will be yours.

201. ON GOVERNMENT EXTRAVAGANCE, 1838.-John J. Crittenden. THE bill under consideration is intended to authorize the Treasury Department to issue ten millions of Treasury Notes, to be applied to the discharge of the expenses of Government. Habits of extravagance, it seems, are hard to change. They constitute a disease; ay, Sir, a very dangerous one. That of the present Administration came to a crisis about eight months ago, and it cost the patient ten millions of Treasury Notes to get round the corner. And now it is as bad as ever! Another crisis has come, and the doctors ask for ten millions more. The disease is desperate. Money or death! They say, if the bill is rejected, Government must "stop." What must stop? The laws? The judicial tribunals? The Legislative bodies? The institutions of the country? No, no, Sir! all these will remain, and go on. What stops, then? Its own extravagance, that must stop, and "there's the rub!" Besides, Sir, I must really be permitted to say, that, if to keep this Administration on its feet is to cost ten millions of extraordinary supply, every six or eight months, why, Mr. President, the sooner its fate is recorded in the bills of mortality, the better. Let me know how this money is to be applied. I never will vote a dollar on the mere cry of " exigency!". "crisis!" I will be behind no man in meeting the real necessities of my country, but I will not blindly, or heedlessly, vote away the money of the People, or involve them in debt. If the Government wants money, let it borrow it. If extravagance or necessity shall bring a national debt upon us, let it come openly, and not steal upon us in the disguise of Treasury Notes. "O! but it is no debt," say gentlemen; "it is only issuing a few notes, to meet a crisis." Well, Sir, whether it be a national debt, I will not say. This I know, it will be followed, whatever it is, with the serious and substantial consequence, that the people of the United States will have to pay it, every cent of it, and with interest. Sir, I desire to see this experimenting Administration forced to make some experiments in economy. It is almost the only sort of experiment to which it seems averse. Its cry is still for money, money, money! But, for one, I say to it, "Take physic, Pomp!" Lay aside your extravagance. Too much money has been your bane. And I do not feel myself required, by any duty, to grant you more, at present. If I did, it would not be in the form proposed by the bill.

PART FOURTH.

FORENSIC AND JUDICIAL.

1. THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, 1794. — John Philpot Curran.

WHAT, then, remains? The liberty of the Press, only, that sacred palladium, which no influence, no power, no minister, no Government, which nothing but the depravity or folly or corruption of a jury, can ever destroy. And what calamities are the People saved from, by having public communication left open to them? I will tell you, Gentlemen, what they are saved from, and what the Government is saved from; I will tell you, also, to what both are exposed, by shutting up that communication. In one case, sedition speaks aloud, and walks abroad; the demagogue goes forth, the public eye is upon him, — he frets his busy hour upon the stage; but soon either weariness, or bribe, or punishment, or disappointment, bears him down, or drives him off, and he appears no more. In the other case, how does the work of sedition go forward? Night after night, the muffled rebel steals forth in the dark, and casts another and another brand upon the pile, to which, when the hour of fatal maturity shall arrive, he will apply the torch.

In that awful moment of a Nation's travail, of the last gasp of tyranny, and the first breath of freedom, how pregnant is the example! The Press extinguished, the People enslaved, and the Prince undone! As the advocate of society, therefore, of peace, of domestic liberty, and the lasting union of the two countries, I conjure you to guard the liberty of the Press, that great sentinel of the State, that grand detector of public imposture! Guard it, because, when it sinks, there sinks with it, in one common grave, the liberty of the subject, and the security of the Crown!

2. DESCRIPTION OF MR. ROWAN, 1794.-John Philpot Currán.

GENTLEMEN, if you still have any doubt as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, give me leave to suggest to you what circumstances you ought to consider, in order to found your verdict. You should consider the character of the person accused; and in this your task is easy. I will venture to say there is not a man in this Nation more known than the gentleman who is the subject of this prosecution; not only by the part he has taken in public concerns, and which he has taken in common with many, but still more so by that extraordinary sympathy for human affliction, which, I am sorry to think, he shares

with so small a number. There is not a day that you hear the cries of your starving manufacturers in your streets, that you do not also see the advocate of their sufferings, that you do not see his honest and manly figure, with uncovered head, soliciting for their relief, — searching the frozen heart of charity for every string that can be touched by compassion, and urging the force of every argument and every motive, save that which his modesty suppresses, the authority of his own generous example.

Or, if you see him not there, you may trace his steps to the private abodes of disease, and famine, and despair, -the messenger of Heaven, bringing with him food, and medicine, and consolation. Are these the materials of which you suppose anarchy and public rapine to be formed? Is this the man on whom to fasten the abominable charge of goading on a frantic populace to mutiny and bloodshed? Is this the man likely to apostatize from every principle that can bind him to the State, his birth, his property, his education, his character, and his children? Let me tell you, gentlemen of the jury, if you agree with his prosecutors, in thinking that there ought to be a sacrifice of such a man on such an occasion, and upon the credit of such evidence you are to convict him, never did you, never can you give a sentence, consigning any man to public punishment, with less danger to his person or to his fame; for where, to fling contumely or ingratitude at his head, could the hireling be found, whose private distresses he had not endeavored to alleviate, or whose public condition he had not labored to improve?

I will not relinquish the confidence that this day will be the period of my client's sufferings; and that, however mercilessly he has been hitherto pursued, your verdict will send him home to the arms of his family, and the wishes of his country. But if (which Heaven forbid!) it hath still been unfortunately determined, that, because he has not bent to power and authority,- because he would not bow down before the golden calf, and worship it,- he is to be bound and cast into the furnace, I do trust in God that there is a redeeming spirit in the Constitution, which will be seen to walk with the sufferer through the flames, and to preserve him unhurt by the conflagration!

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3. THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT.-John Philpot Curran, in the case of the King against Mr. Justice Johnson, Feb. 4th, 1805, before Chief Baron Lord Avonmore and the other Barons, in the Court of Exchequer.

I Now address you on a question the most vitally connected with the liberty and well-being of every man within the limits of the British empire; which being decided one way, he may be a freeman; which being decided the other, he must be a slave. I refer to the maintenance of that sacred security for the freedom of Englishmen, so justly called the second Magna Charta of British liberty,- the Habeas Corpus Act; the spirit and letter of which is, that the party arrested shall, without a moment's delay, be bailed, if the offence be bailable. What

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was the occasion of the law? The arbitrary transportation of the subject beyond the realm; the base and malignant war which the odious and despicable minions of power are forever ready to wage against all those who are honest and bold enough to despise, to expose, and to resist them.

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Such is the oscitancy of man, that he lies torpid for ages under these aggressions, until, at last, some signal abuse the violation of Lucrece, the death of Virginia, the oppression of William Tell-shakes him from his slumber. For years had those drunken gambols of power been played in England; for years had the waters of bitterness been rising to the brim; at last, a single drop caused them to overflow, the oppression of a single individual raised the people of England from their sleep. And what does that great statute do? It defines and asserts the right, it points out the abuse; and it endeavors to secure the right, and to guard against the abuse, by giving redress to the sufferer, and by punishing the offender. For years had it been the practice to transport obnoxious persons out of the realm into distant parts, under the pretext of punishment, or of safe custody. Well might they have been said, to be sent "to that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns ;" for of these wretched travellers how few ever did return!

But of that flagrant abuse this statute has laid the axe to the root. It prohibits the abuse; it declares such detention or removal illegal; it gives an action against all persons concerned in the offence, by contriving, writing, signing, countersigning, such warrant, or advising or assisting therein. Are bulwarks like these ever constructed to repel the incursions of a contemptible enemy? Was it a trivial and ordinary occasion which raised this storm of indignation in the Parliament of that day? Is the ocean ever lashed by the tempest, to waft a feather, or to drown a fly? By this act you have a solemn legislative declaration, "that it is incompatible with liberty to send any subject out of the realm, under pretence of any crime supposed or alleged to be committed in a foreign jurisdiction, except that crime be capital." Such were the bulwarks which our ancestors placed about the sacred temple of liberty, such the ramparts by which they sought to bar out the ever-toiling ocean of arbitrary power; and thought (generous credulity!) that they had barred it out from their posterity forever. Little did they foresee the future race of vermin that would work their way through those mounds, and let back the inundation!

4. CURRAN'S APPEAL TO LORD AVONMORE.- From the last-named speech.

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I AM not ignorant, my Lords, that the extraordinary construction of law against which I contend has received the sanction of another court, nor of the surprise and dismay with which it smote upon the general heart of the bar. I am aware that I may have the mortification of being told, in another country, of that unhappy decision; and I

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