It had not been, indeed it could not be denied, that to this system, badly as it was organized, England was materially indebted for that extensive developement of her natural resources which she had made, and especially for her maratime importance. That her literary and scientific institutions owed their permanence and eminence mainly to it, which had diffused also streams of beneficial influence through every part of her vast dominions. In the case of England, throwing the broad shield of her protection around this system, two results were witnessed, the satisfaction of her own and the world's wants in relation to manufactures. But it was not intended nor desired to imitate her in this respect by carrying the principle of protection so far. The public aid solicited for the American manufacturer was moderate, just sufficient to enable him to supply the domestic demand for his fabrics. The measure, even then, was most obviously one of expedience and wisdom, and doubtless always would be; but there were indications to render it certain that it would soon become one of necessity. There was a strong prospect of our being deprived of our accustomed commercial intercourse, in consequence of the arbitrary and illegal proceedings of the belligerent nations of Europe, and that we should be obstructed by military power from an exercise of our right to carry the productions of our own soil to the proper market for them. The circumstances that then surrounded the country rendered it imperiously incumbent upon her to look to herself, and in herself, and from her inestimably valuable raw materials make for herself such articles as were requisite for her pros perity in peace, and protection in war. In short, to take such measures as to forever obviate the necessity of resorting to the workshops of the old world for them. Mr. Clay referred to our immense natural resources, scattered in rich and varied profusion over the land, as furnishing an argument in favor of the policy he was advocating. In contending for our manufacturing interests, it by no means followed, as had been intimated, that he deemed them of paramount importance to the nation. He did not hesitate to admit that on the culture of the soil her happiness and wealth chiefly depended; that here lay the mine from which her treasury must be replenished by the hand of agriculture, if she would have an overflowing one, and expressed his decided belief that commerce was, and ought to be more indebted to it than to manufactures. He did not desire the department of the plough and sickle to be encroached upon by that of the spindle and shuttle; yet he contended that it was proper that we should supply ourselves with clothing made by our own industry, and no longer be dependent for our very coats upon a country that was then an envious rival, and might soon be an enemy. A judicious American farmer in the household way,' said he, 'manufactures whatever is requisite for his family. He squanders but little in the gewgaws of Europe. He presents in epitome what the nation ought to be in extenso. Their manufactures should bear the same proportion, and effect the same object in relation to the whole community, which the part of the household employed in domestic manufacturing bears to the whole family.' The view taken by Mr. Clay was so enlightened, sound and practical, as to commend the bill to their most favorable consideration, and induce them to adopt it as amended. The salutary effects that flowed from it soon became apparent. The public purveyors immediately succeeded in making arrangements for the specified articles with American capitalists, on most advantageous terms, so that when the storm burst upon us, as it did soon after, though not perfectly prepared for its encounter, we were not as defenceless as we should have been, had our dependence been placed exclusively on foreign nations. The impetus given to domestic manufactures was astonishing, resulting in their increase during the following year over those of the year previous, to the amount of more than fifty millions of dollars. Of this increase, Mr. Madison, in his message to congress the following session, makes most favorable mention, by declaring that he felt particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of the country presented many grateful proofs of the extension of useful manufac tures; the combined product of professional occupation and household industry. He expressed his conviction that the change which had introduced these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained by foreign commerce, might, in a national view, be justly regarded as of itself more than a recompense for those privations and losses resulting from foreign injustice, which first suggested the propriety of fostering them. Here then, from that system, while yet in the germ, was gathered an antepast of that immense fruition, which it was destined to yield, when its stately trunk had towered in symmetry and majesty toward heaven, imparting prosperity and security to millions of freemen, dwelling beneath its branches. But let it not be forgotten that it is to the persevering and unremit ting exertions of Henry Clay that we are indebted for the planting and the growth of that goodly tree. He had scarcely ceased from his efficient labors in procuring the adoption of the bill before mentioned, when another opportunity presented itself for the exercise of that expansive patriotism for which his every public act is distinguished, and one which he embraced with his characteristic eagerness and promptitude. There was strong prospect that the United States would be dismembered of a portion of her territory-the large and fertile district included between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers, being the present states of Mississippi and Alabama, and the territory of West Florida, or the greater part of it. To prevent this, Mr. Clay came boldly forth, triumphing over all opposition, and clearly vindicated her right to it. The United States became possessed of it in 1 when it was ceded to her by France, with every thing appertaining just as she had received it from Spain, who formally acquiesced in the cession in 1804. The United States, from conciliatory motives partly, and partly in consequence of events which they could not control, suffered it to remain in the possession of Spain, who temporarily exercised authority over it. But her authority was now being subverted, a large portion of the inhabitants of the province refusing to submit to it. Reports also were rife that agents despatched by the king of England, were actively engaged in endeav→ oring to induce the people to come under British government. In this emergency, president Madison, thinking that longer delay in taking possession of it would expose the country to ulterior events which might affect the rights and welfare of the Union, contravening, perhaps, the views of both parties, endangering the tranquillity and security of the adjoining territories, and afford fresh facilities to violations of our revenue and commercial laws, issued his proclamation, directing that immediate possession should be taken of the said territory. Mr. Claiborne, governor of Orleans territory, was instructed to take immediately the requisite steps for annexing it to that over which he presided, and to see that the laws of the United States were rigidly enforced, to which he yielded prompt obedience. At this conjuncture the cry that came up from the party opposing his administration was loud and long. They attempted to prove that this measure was not only impolitic and uncalled for, but extremely unjust toward Spain, intended to involve us in a war with England, who, as her ally, would take umbrage on account of it, and that it was also unconstitutional. The federalists, through the press, and in legislative assemblies, represented the country as already surrounded in circumstances of great peril in consequence of this procedure. A warm debate ensued in congress on a bill reported by a committee to whom the proclamation was referred, which declared that the laws then in force in the territory of Orleans, extended and had full force to the river Perdido. Mr. Pope, one of the committee, in a speech made at the time, explained the grounds which induced them to make the report, and was followed by Mr. Horsey, a senator from Delaware, in opposition. He pronounced the title of the United States in valid, thought it inexpedient to take possession of the territory by force, and questioned the right of the president to issue his proclamation to that effect. He declared that document both war and legislation, inasmuch as it authorized occupancy by military force, and invested a governor with all the authorities and functions in regard to the province in question, that he legitimately possessed in presiding over his own. His sympathies seemed to be strongly enlisted in behalf of the king of Spain, whose prospective loss he deplored in language of deep commiseration. His speech was in many respects able, but it had been much more appropriately de livered in Madrid at the foot of the Spanish monarch's throne, and in the presence of his court, than at Washington, beneath the agis of liberty, and surrounded by patriotic and intelligent freemen. Mr. Clay regarded with feelings of deep regret as well as surprise, this anti-republican effort, this unnatural attempt by a son of Freedom to support the unfounded pretensions of a foreign prince to a portion of her own blood-bought soil,- that soil from which he drew his sustenance, and on which were reared those institutions that constitute it an appropriate asylum for the down-trodden of every other nation beneath the canopy of heaven. Although laboring under a severe indisposition, he could not, while he possessed the power of utterance, sit tamely still and listen to such sentiments promulgated in the very temple of liberty. He rose to reply in that graceful, dignified manner, so peculiar to himself. As he drew up his tall form into that commanding attitude which he was accustomed to assume as preliminary to a mighty parliamentary effort, it could be easily discovered in his countenance, what was the nature of his feelings, and how deep the fountain of eloquence had been stirred within him, whose effusions, directed with unerring precision, were soon to bear his auditory away on their resistless tide, to the goal on which his keen eye was fixed. This speech of Mr. Clay may justly be regarded as one of the most finished specimens of argumentative eloquence, profound investigation, purity of diction, and logical reasoning, that the records of any legislative body can furnish. It evinced by its demonstrative and inferential character, the most thorough and patient examination of the subject, in all its minute details, and indicated most clearly his main design to be, not a brilliant and striking display, calculated to please and captivate the fancy, but to array before the senate a formidable front of facts, to hem in the whole house with a wall of adamantine argument, which could be neither scaled nor sapped; and he was completely successful. He commenced by a brief exordium of the most caustic irony, which fell like molten lead upon the heads of his opponents. He expressed his admiration at the more than Aristidean justice which prompted certain gentlemen, in a question of territorial title between the United States and a foreign nation, to espouse the cause of the foreign, presuming that Spain in any future negotiations, would be magnanimous enough not to avail herself of these voluntary concessions in her favor in the senate of the United States. He said he would leave the honorable gentleman from Delaware to bewail the fallen fortunes of the king of Spain, without stopping to inquire whether their loss was occasioned by treachery or not, or whether it could be traced to any agency of the American government. He confessed that he had little sympathy for princes, but that it was reserved for the people, the great mass of mankind, and did not hesitate to declare that the people of Spain had it most unreservedly This and most sincerely. He went into a minute and circumstantial history of the territory in dispute, and proved by a chain of reasoning the most clear and satisfactory, that its title was in the United States. In doing this he adopted that mode which the nature of the subject suggested, by a critical examination of all the title papers, transfers, and all other documents in any way relating or appertaining to it. He examined the patent granted by Louis the XIV to Crozat in 1712, which patent covered the province in question, and declared that it was at that time designated by the name of the Province of Louisiana, and was bounded on the west by old and new Mexico, and on the east by Carolina. document he regarded as settling the question beyond all doubt. that the country under consideration was embraced within the limits of Louisiana. He proved that it originally belonged to France, who claimed it by virtue of certain discoveries made by La Solle and others during the seventeenth century; that she ceded it to Spain in 1762, who retroceded it to France in 1800, by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, and that it belonged to the United States by purchase from her as a portion of Louisiana in 1803. After the most thorough investigation, considering all the ambiguous expressions unintentionally incorporated with the treaties relating to the territory, and applying to them the most impartial and rigid rules of construction, he presented the title of the United States to it as most indefeasible, and as standing on a basis which all the sophistry, and ingenuity, and ill-directed sympathy of the opposition could not shake. He then proceeded to inquire if the proclamation directing the occupation of property thus acquired by solemn treaty was an unauthorized measure of war and legislation. In this, his vindication of the course pursued by Mr. Madison was most triumphant. He proved by citing acts of congress passed in 1803-4, that the president was fully empowered to authorize the occupation of the territory. He maintained that these laws furnished a legislative construction of the treaty correspondent with that given by the executive, and they vest in this branch of the government indisputably a power to take possession of the country whenever it might be proper in his discretion; so far, therefore, from having violated the constitution in the action he had taken and caused to be taken, he had hardly carried out its provisions, one of which expressly enjoined it upon him to see that the laws of the United States were faithfully and impartially executed, in every district of country over which she could rightfully exercise jurisdiction. After settling the questions of title and constitutional action of the president, he proceeded to notice some of the arguments of the opposition against taking forcible possession, which attempted to show that war would result. We are told,' said he, ' of the vengeance of resuscitated Spain. If Spain, under any modification of her government, choose to make war |