our prosperity with a vexation they could not concealit was a standing refutation of their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Rutledges; and of the thousand other names which adorn the pages of your revolutionary history, will not abandon that union to support which, so many of them fought, and bled, and died. I adjure you as you honor their memory as you love the cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives as you prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its Convention-bid its members to re-assemble and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity, and honor-tell them that compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all-declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you—that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your country!-Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace-you may interrupt the course of its prosperityyou may cloud its reputation for stability-but its tranquil-' ity will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stainj upon its national character will be transferred, and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder.

Fellow-citizens of the United States! The threat of unhallowed disunion-the names of those, once respected, by whom it is uttered-the array of military force to support it-denote the approach of a crisis in our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments may de.

pend. The conjunction demanded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation not only of my intentions but of my principles of action; and as the claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of the Union and even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in re lation to the origin and form of our government, and the construction I give to the instrument by which it was created, seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my 'duties which has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws to preserve the Union by all constitutional means -to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.

Fellow-citizens! The momentous case is before you. On your undivided support of your government depends the decision of the great question it involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessings it secures to us as one People shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be such as to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, and the cour age with which it will bring to their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children.

May the Great Ruler of Nations grant that the signal blessings with which he has favored ours, may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost; and may His wise Providence bring those who have produced this crisis, to see the folly before they feel the misery of civil strife: and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate His designs, he has chosen as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH,

ON THE PANAMA MISSION.

BY MARTIN VAN BUREN.

BUT I cannot consent to trespass longer upon the time of the Senate in pushing the discussion of this point further, although various considerations, operating against the measure, press upon my mind. If it were proposed to form a connection with any European power, such as now designed with the Spanish American States, it is hoped and believed, that the measure would not meet with one approv ing voice-shall I say-on this floor? No, not in the country. But it has been supposed that the United States ought to pursue a different policy with respect to the states in this hemisphere. It is true, Mr. Monroe, in his message, makes a distinction of this character, although he by no means carries it to the extent proposed. If he did, all that the distinction could derive from that circumstance, would be, the weight of his opinion, always considerable, but never deci sive. The question still recurs, is the distinction founded in principle and policy? If it be, it must arise from one of two reasons: either the character of the governments of the Spanish American states, or their local situation; or, perhaps, from both. The United States have hailed the emancipation of those states with satisfaction; they have our best wishes for the perpetuity of their freedom. So far as we could go to aid them in the establishment of their independence, without endangering the peace, or embarrassing the relation of our country, we have gone. More than that,

ought not to be asked. Nor has it. Sensible of the embarrassments which their invitation might produce, they declined to proffer it until advised that we desired to receive it. Next to being right, it is important to governments, as well as individuals, to be consistent. Has the character of these governments been the principle upon which we have hitherto acted in relation to those states? It has not. Mexico and Brazil were the last to shake off their dependence on foreign authority. They were among the first whose independence we acknowledged. Mexico was, at the period of its acknowledgement, under the dominion of the Emperor Iturbide, and Brazil of its Emperor, Don Pedro. As a special compliment to the Emperor of Mexico, we sent, or rather intended to send, to his Court, one of the most distinguished men of the nation, (Gen. Jackson.) At the court of the Emperor Don Pedro, we have our Minister; whilst in the republic of Peru-the power with which the first of the treaties, in virtue of which the Congress of Panama is to be held, was concluded—we have not yet been represented. Do our principles admit that we should adopt the measures proposed with such reference, and upon such grounds? What are those principles? That man is capable of self-government; that the people of every country should be left to the free selection of such form of government as they think best adapted to their situation, and to change it as their interests, in their own judgments, may seem to require. Wherein consists our objection to the Holy Alliance? Because they confederate to maintain governments similar to their own, by force of arms, instead of the force of reason, and the will of the governed. If we, too, confederate to sustain, by the same means, governments similar to our own, wherein consists the difference, except the superiority of our cause? What is their avowed motive? Self-preservation and the peace of Europe. What would be ours? Self-preservation and the peace of America. I wish to be understood. I detest, as much as any man, the principles of the Holy Alliance. I

yield to no man in my anxious wishes for the success of the Spanish American States. I will go as far as I think any American citizen ought to go, to secure to them the blessings of free government. I commend the solicitude which has been manifested by our government upon this subject, and have, of course, no desire to discourage it. But I am against all alliances, against all armed confederacies, or confederacies of any sort. I care not how specious, or how disguised; come in what shape thew may, I oppose them. The states in question have the power and the means, if united and true to their principles, to resist any force that Europe can send against them. It is only by being recreant to the principles upon which their revolution is founded; by suffering foreign influence to distract and divide them; that their independence can be endangered. But, happen what may, our course should be left to our choice, whenever occasion for acting shall occur. If, in the course of events, designs shall be manifested, or steps taken in this hemisphere by any foreign power, which so far affect our interest or our honor, as to make it necessary that we should arm in their defence, it will be done there is no room to doubt it.

The decision of that question may safely be left to those who come after us. That love of country, and of freedom, which now animates our public councils, is not confined to us, or likely to become extinct. We require neither alliance nor agreement to compel us to perforin whatever our duty enjoins. Our national character is our best, and should be our only pledge. Meanwhile, let us bestow upon our neighbors, the young republics of the South, the moral aid of a good example. To make that example more salutary, let it exhibit our moderation in success, our firmness in adversity, our devotion to our country and its institutions, and above all, that sine qua non to the existence of our republican government-our fidelity to a written Constitution.