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dies with which he had held intercourse, an impression of abilities and acquirements which will long do his country honor. He was soon after his arrival at home (as already mentioned) elected to Congress from the Charleston district, and took his seat almost immediately in the Extra Session, called by the new Administration, to deliberate on the measures necessary to remedy the wide and terrible financial disasters which a reckless and ignorant tampering with the currency for party purposes had brought about. In the debates that ensued, his principal speech was, for the wide and high views which it took of our financial condition, the solid yet comprehensive manner in which he treated the subject, the variety and nobleness of knowledge with which he illustrated it, and the force as well as splendor of his entire discourse, felt to be a truly masterly effort, fit to rank him among the very greatest speakers of the day. It placed him, too, openly in the Opposition, as of that seceding portion of the old Jackson party who, against the financial Jacobinism of the hard-money men, took the name of Conservatives-a mode of opinion to which we have already intimated the mind and feelings of Mr. Legare tended in general.

Brilliant, however, as was the figure which he made throughout that Congress on all questions in which he took part except, perhaps, that of the contested Mississippi election, where he certainly got upon the wrong side-he was thrown out at the next election, by the coalition which had in the meantime ensued in Carolina between the Calhoun and the Van Buren parties-enemies that had long exhausted upon each other all the mutual wrongs and vituperation by which party or personal dishonor can be inflicted; but destined henceforth to offer, in their sudden and affectionate union, a Christian spectacle such as the world had rarely seen-until, indeed, falling out afresh, they began to hate each other once more, as it is only given to priests or players to hate.

In this surrender, by his city and State -for the interest of Van Burenism, and at the bidding of Calhoun-of a man in faith, in abilities, and in public aims, so richly worth both leaders with all their factions, be there one man especially remembered for his perfidous surrender of his nearest and most faithful political and personal friend: we mean the military genius of the War office, who, forgetting that his chieftain had "never set a squad

ron in the field," but on Election dayswas a tactician only in caucuses, and a disciplinarian only of bad voters-devised for him that most successful of martial ideas, the Militia Standing Army-a force memorable in all military annals for this; that, without ever having taken the field, it gave a complete overthrow-to its own contrivers.

By this coalition with Nullification of those whose right arm he had been against it, restored to the uninterrupted pursuits of his profession, Mr. Legare determined to devote himself entirely to it; and he at once put on all its harness. He was immediately engaged in several of the great causes depending in the Courts of South Carolina. The first of any magnitude which he argued was in conjunction with his friend Mr. Pettigru, and was one, not only affecting in its incidents, but singularly calculated to call forth his legal strength and learning. It was the case of Pell and wife versus The Executors of Ball. The circumstances of the case were these: A Miss Channing, daughter of Mr. Walter Channing, (a merchant of Boston,) had married a Mr. Ball of South Carolina, and carried him a large fortune, without any settlement. Mr. Ball, by his last will and testament, bequeathed to his wife all of this fortune. Embarking, at Charleston, for a visit to the north, on board the ill-fated steamboat Pulaski, which blew up at sea, on the coast of North Carolina, in 1835, they both perished in that awful catastrophe. The question in the cause was, which survived the other: if Mrs. Ball, then the legacy vested in her, and was transmissible to her sisters; if her husband, then the legacy had lapsed, fell into the residue of the estate, and went to his family.

Mr. Legare was engaged on behalf of Mrs. Ball's sisters. On the one side, it was contended that the husband, being the stronger, must have survived; and the doctrines of the Civil Law on the subject of survivorship were relied on. Here, however, Legare was a master and showed that all these presumptions must yield to positive testimony. After the catastrophe, Mrs. Ball was seen flying wildly about the wreck, her voice heard above all others, calling for her husband. Availing himself of this single, but affecting fact-all that, in the wild terror of such a scene could be known-Legare converted it, by the tragic powers of his eloquence, into an irresistible proof that the tender husband, whose name the wife shrieked forth so distractedly, must have

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Mrs. Ball's sisters gained the suit, as also another point in the case which he argued that the legacy was general, and not specific.

He was also engaged in another of the great cases of the Charleston Circuit (CRUGER versus DANIEL)-respecting a plantation on Savannah River. Here his skill as a real-estate lawyer shone conspicuously, and here he was again successful. There was another case---(of ejectment, TALVANDE US. TALVANDE) a notice of which is worth preserving, from an incident in the course of the trial. The late Bishop England had written an affecting sketch of the life of Madame Talvande, the defendant, and given it to Mr. Legare. In the course of his argument to the Jury, Mr. Legare read this sketch with so much pathos that the good Bishop could not refrain from shedding copious tears. Familiar as he was with the facts, and though the composition was his own, the hearing Mr. Legare read it, moved profoundly him who had been unaffected in writing it. Madame Talvande gained her case.

The increasing celebrity which these and other ably conducted causes won him, and the strong growth of his professional success, did not withhold him from taking active part in the canvass which brought about the great party Revolution of 1840. To this he lent, in various parts of the country, the aid of his commanding eloquence, than which nothing could be fitter, either to direct the public reason by its weight, or to rouse the popular passions by its vehemence. His harangue at Richmond will be long remembered, on that theatre where Webster, about the same time, girded up his loins to win a Southern reputation, and where Clay has more than once tasked himself. Legare is remembered there as possibly a more extraordinary speaker than either, so far as could be judged from a single effort. To the same period belongs his magnificent speech in the city of New York, in which he drew the most masterly picture ever sketched of the arts

of demagogues, and of the disastrous passions with which they fill the multitude. For truth, for force, and the picture-like distinctness with which this long and admirable passage as worked up, it would be difficult to find in modern oratory any thing finer.

About the same time, to indulge the reverence in which he held him whom he had learned to esteem the first statesmen, as well as far the first orator of Antiquity, he flung into the New York Review an admirable article on " Demosthenes, the man, the orator, and the statesman." A second, on the "Athenian Democracy," formed its companion and complement. In a third, he gave, upon a yet more favorite subject, a still more elaborate paper-a survey of the "origin, history and influence of the Roman Law.

In the next year, the resignation of the original Harrison Cabinet led to the selection of Mr. Legare for the Attorney Generalship of the United States. Of the circumstances under which he received it, and the manner in which he discharged its duties, we can call up again distinguished testimony-that of one who personally knows the facts which he affirms -Mr. Preston. He says:

"When he was called to the office of At

torney General, there was an universal acquiescence in the propriety of the appointment. It was given to no intrigue, no solicitation, no party services, but conIt was precisely that office for which Mr. ferred upon a fit man for the public good.

LEGARE was most ambitious. He had

endeavored to qualify himself for it. He thought himself not unworthy of it, and he desired it as a means of effecting, to some extent, his great object in regard to ameliorations in the jurisprudence of the country-and as a means of placing him eventually on the bench of the Supreme Court, where he would be able still farther to develop and establish his plan of reform. His practice, as Attorney General, was attended with the most conspicuous success. Many of the judges expressed their great admiration of his efforts during the first term, and the whole bench awarded to him the palm of exalted merit. His official opinions, delivered on questions arising in the administration of government, were formed with laborious deliberation, clearly and ably argued, and have been sustained without exception. On the very important the Compromise Act, there was any law question-whether upon the expiration of for the farther collection of revenue, he differed from a great majority of the bar, and from most of the leading politicians in Congress, of both parties-it was supposed,

too, from a majority of the Cabinet-but his opinion has been ascertained to be correct."

The fame which this eminent man chiefly sought the fame for which he had ever sought the attainments that drew him a different reputation-was wisely that of his profession. A few notices, then, of the chief causes which he argued after he came to the AttorneyGeneralship, and we shall close this imperfect memorial of his merits and of our affection.

It was in September, 1841, that he took office. In the January following met the Supreme Court, before which he was now to appear in a character such as made it to him a new arena. The first case that he took up was that of Watkins vs. Holman's Heirs, reported in 16 Peters; a case that had been argued in the previous term, but which the Judges had ordered to be heard a second time. A gentleman who walked up to the capitol with him, on the morning when he spoke, tells us that Legare said to him: "It has been said that I am a mere literary man; but I will show them to-day whether I am a lawyer or not." The question was one to call for all his strength, and well did he sustain the expectations of his friends; for a greater argument was never made in the Supreme Court. The question involved the right to property of great value in the city of Mobile. Holman, at the time of his death, owned this property. His widow took out letters of administration in Massachusetts, and, acting under them, procured an act of the Legislature of Alabama to sell this real estate for the payment of his debts. The property had been accordingly sold, and streets and houses had been made and built on it. The heirs of Holman now brought an action of ejectment against the purchasers, on the ground that the act of the Legislature was unconstitutional and void, as being an interference with the judicial power -the legislative and judicial power being distinct in the Constitution of that State. Mr. Legare maintained the constitutionality of the act, and that this was a mere advancement of the remedy. The Court sustained this view of the case. At the same term, he argued another private case-Hobby vs. Kelsey; and was successful in it also. He argued eight cases on behalf of the United States, the two principal of which were, The United States vs. Miranda, and Wood vs. The United States. The first wes the case of

a Spanish land-grant, under which was claimed 368,640 acres on the waters of Hillsboro' and Tampa Bays in Florida. The grounds maintained on behalf of the United States were, that the grant was a forgery, but if that should not be made out, then, that it was void from uncertainty. In a jury trial in the Court of East Florida, the jury had found the grant genuine, and the Judge had also declared it valid; but not to the extent claimed. Here again he was successful, and upset the grant. Miranda, the grantee, had been a rower in the pilot launch of the bar of St. Augustine; and yet a man in his condition of life, it was pretended, had received this princely grant. Legare's knowledge of Spanish was of the greatest use to him in this case, and in all the Florida land cases. The other great government case of that term, Wood vs. the United States, had relation to the great frauds that had been committed on the revenue by false invoices. This was the first of these cases that came up to the Supreme Court, and settled the principles applicable to cases of this character.

The next year he argued a case involving the right of ferry between the cities of Louisville and Jeffersonville, and was successful. But his great argument that year was in the case of Jewell vs. Jewell -a case involving the question, What was the law of marriage in the United States? For historical research, and noble and elevated views of the interests of society, with reference to the matrimonial contract, it was unequaled. It is to be regretted that this argument has not been reported; for all who heard it admitted that it was one of his greatest efforts. As an instance of the care with which he prepared himself, a friend informs us that he sent to Vienna for Eichorn's Kirkenrechts, for the purposes of this argument.

Such was the character and life of Legare-a severe union of intellect and labor.

We have not space for more. His appointment as U. S. Attorney General, which gave universal satisfaction to all parties in the country, was destined to be his last high position in life. He died suddenly at Boston, June 20th, 1843—on a fitting occasion, the great celebration at Bunker's Hill-by the same disease, it is understood, which has just carried off Judge Story, but at a term of years how much less fortunate

"Snatched all too early from that august Fame

That on the serene heights of silvered age Waited with laureled hands!"

OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS.

THE Confidence of the American people in the fortunes of the Republic is so unquestioning and complete, that they seem habitually to surrender themselves to the course of events-wherever and to whatever they may lead-without the slightest apparent distrust, that it can lead to misfortune or evil.

At the present juncture, even, when war has been sounding in our ears, and whatever of military array that belongs to the Republic has been very ostentatiously and quite safely made to pass before our eyes in all its pomp and circumstance-as if to accustom us to the glitter, in order to prepare the way for the reality of military achievements--the country slumbers on, and knowing in the fact no calamity, anticipates a peace alike se

rene.

To senses more informed, nevertheless, or at any rate more alert, our foreign political horizon is by no means calculated to inspire such tranquil confidence, of unsuspecting indifference.

The growth and the resources of these United States are now so much developed, that what has heretofore been mainly the delusion of national self-complacency, has become a positive fact, and the eyes of Europe are upon us-and, with intent gaze, our policy, our politics, and our power, are scanned by the chief nations of the Old World—and in all speculations and combinations respecting the interests and the destinies of nations, the possibility and probability of future wars, the part which the United States will play in such circumstances, is carefully and curiously considered.

It is therefore of no secondary importance to the people, to establish for themselves such a character in the estimation of other people and governments, as to make us to each and all, valuable as friends, and formidable as enemies.

To this end, there can be no course more conducive than that which, to the same end, the sagacious Polonius lays down for his son-for individual and national greatness and character have identical foundations:

"To thine own self be true,

Thou canst not then be false to any man."

It is to be feared that such has not been

our course of late years, especially in reference to our external relations. The true vocation of this great Republic isnot aggrandizement, but national growth

not the aggregation of foreign states, but the development of those now composing this Union-not the dangerous fascination of arms and conquest, but the cultivation of the arts of peace. A glance at recent events, as well as at the existing condition of public affairs and public feeling in this country, proves how little this true vocation has been followed out. With territory more than we can occupy, cultivate, or defend, we have by most ambiguous means just possessed ourselves of Texas-as large, according to the boundaries which this Government actually and by arms asserts, as all New England-and are now ready to seize upon California-and in the midst of negotiation, if not invited by our Government, at least warmly welcomed by them, to occupy Oregon to its extremest limit. While holding out the olive, we are preparing the sword, and in the same breath in which he says to England that he desires to negotiate, our Chief Magistrate says to our own people that there is no room for negotiation, for that our right to the whole matter in dispute is undoubted, and will be maintained.

"Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento," is the fatal injunction which we seem emulous to follow, and for the sake of extended dominion, to sacrifice the glories, the refinements, the constitution, and the victories of peace-victories unstained with blood, and followed by no remorse.

Of this change, for such it is, in the characters and tendencies of the Republic, other nations are not unobservant. Nor can they remain indifferent to it, for the spread of our principles is of even more interest to them than the extension of our territory. A conquering Republic

whether conquering by arms, or by political affinities, cannot be looked upon by any dynastic governments with favor.

When, moreover, this thirst of territorial aggrandizement begets-what so surely is its consequence-a spirit of vain boasting and rodomontade-of defiance and contempt towards other countriesthe people of those countries soon come

Our Foreign Relations.

to share the dislike and distrust of such
contemptuous boasters felt by their ru-
lers.

Such, measurably, we apprehend, is the position in which these United States are placed in regard of the chief nations of Europe. Our ancient ally, France, and our ancient adversary, England, look alike with cold and averted eyes upon the recent annexation of Texas; and see, or seem to see, in this step, but the first in a settled career of aggrandizement. The friendship of nations is never very disinterested; and when interest combines with distance to weaken feelings of amity, the memories of other days, and the romance of common perils and sufferings have little effect to renew, or sustain them.

But while we have contrived to cool the kindly disposition of France towards us, we have, by the tone of our public discussion, in relation to Oregon, and by the swagger too commonly indulged about the ease and the expediency of immediately occupying the whole of it, at the very moment when we are negotiating respecting its limits, wounded very sensibly the pride of the English people. The Hotspur blood still runs in their veins-and though upon friendly enforcement they might be content to yield all Oregon-yet, when defied,

"They'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.” While it was a mere affair between the two governments, little importance was attached to the subject in England; but from the moment that the popular and the Presidential voice of this country asserted an undoubted right to the whole territory, and intimated a fixed purpose of taking possession, the popular feeling of England was aroused; and unless all recent indications deceive us, we stand relatively to each other-the people of the United States and the people of England-not the governments, or cabinets, but the people in the attitude of parties on the very point of fighting. A single word, hastily spoken a single gesture, incautiously made- might precipitate them into instant war; and for what? a country which the one does not value at a pepper-corn, and which, must of itself, and by the irresistible course of time and events, fall, without effort or wrong, into the possession of the other.

We fear the good sense and sound feeling of the country do not sufficiently appreciate the change which the causes

[Oct.,

we have glanced at, and others that might be enumerated, have wrought in the senphasize this word, because we desire it timents of the English people. We emand not of the government that we speak to be understood that it is of the people,

and we are quite sure that it will need the exercise of all the moderation, and all the firmness of the public men of both countries, to keep the peace between them.

and spirit-rivals as the two countries We are quite too much alike in temper are in so many ways-to brook menacfrom the other; and there is too much ing looks and menacing language, one readiness on both sides-on ours from over confidence and national recklesstemptuous presumption in their own ness, and on theirs from a somewhat constrength, and a lurking desire to wash out some memories of 1812-15-not to make the posture of our relations most critical, and most worthy, therefore, of fraught with such unmitigated evil, as a all proper efforts to avert a catastrophe war between England and the United States.

of this journal, supposes a war imminent, Yet who, among the numerous readers prehend; and therefore it is that we feel nay, possible? Very, very few, we apit doubly a duty to sound this note of warning. There is danger, near and imand fair dealing on both sides may yet minent danger-danger which frankness avert, but which can only be so averted. If we go carelessly on, confiding in our fortune, and trusting that, because we pending perils, we are to escape in like have escaped from other near and immanner from this—without effort or sacrifice on our part-the blow may be struck while we are yet dreaming of uninterrupted peace. And in what condition sure arms with England? In the spirit are we to receive such a blow, or to meaof the people, and in their fidelity, as well as in the resources of the country, if properly administered, we have assurance that, with time to discipline the one and evoke and apply the other, we need shrink from no conflict which the national honor or safety should command. meanwhile-what? But asked themselves that question, and are Have our rulers they in condition satisfactorily to answer in party meetings, considered this quesit? Have the spouters in Congress, and tion, and resolved it in a way to satisfy the country? These are inquiries which

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