here, in the Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit, because it happened to spring up beyond the little limits of my own state, or neighbourhood: when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any cause, the homage due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, a sincere devotion to liberty and the country; or if I see an uncommon endowment of heaven; if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue in any son of the South-and if moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by state jealousy, I get up here to abate the tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth! Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections-let me indulge in refreshing remembrance of the past-let me remind you that in early times no states cherished greater harmony, both of principle and of feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God, that harmony might again return. Shoulder to shoulder they went through the revolution-hand in hand they stood round the administration of Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, if it exists, alienation and distrust, are the growth, unnatural to such soils, of false principles since sown. They are weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered.

Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts-she needs none. There she is-behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history-the world knows it by heart. The past, at least is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill— and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, fallen in the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every state from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie for ever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it-if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it-if folly and madness-if uneasiness, under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed to separate it from that Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever vigour it may still retain, over the friends who gather round it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin.

Rai. Then wherefore?-and upon thy lofty brow Why burns the troubled flush?

Pro.

Perchance 'tis shame.

Yes! it may well be shame!-for I have striven
With nature's feebleness, and been o'erpower'd.
-Howe'er it be, 'tis not for thee to gaze,

Noting it thus. I have prepared

The means for thy escape.

Rai.

What! thou! the austere,

The inflexible Procida! hast thou done this,

Deeming me guilty still?

Pro.

It is even so.

Upbraid me not.

There have been nobler deeds

By Roman fathers done,—but I am weak.

Therefore, again I say, arise! and haste,

For the night wanes. Thy fugitive course must be
To realms beyond the deep; so let us part

In silence, and for ever.

Rai.

Let him fly

Who holds no deep asylum in his breast,
Wherein to shelter from the scoffs of men!
-I can sleep calmly here.

Pro.

Art thou in love

With death and infamy, that so thy choice
Is made, lost boy! when freedom courts thy grasp?
Rai. Father! to set th' irrevocable seal
Upon that shame wherewith ye have branded me,
There needs but flight. What should I bear from this,
My native land?-A blighted name, to rise

And part me, with its dark remembrances,
For ever from the sunshine!-O'er my soul
Bright shadowings of a nobler destiny

Float in dim beauty through the gloom; but here,
On earth, my hopes are closed.

Pro.

Thy hopes are closed!

And what were they to mine?-Thou wilt not fly!

Why, let all traitors flock to thee, and learn
How proudly guilt can talk!-Let fathers rear
Their offspring henceforth, as the free wild birds
Foster their young; when these can mount alone,
Dissolving nature's bonds-why should it not
Be so with us?

What high prerogatives belong to death.
He hath a deep, though voiceless eloquence,
To which I leave my cause. "His solemn veil
Doth with mysterious beauty clothe our virtues,
And in its vast, oblivious folds, for ever

Give shelter to our faults." When I am gone,
The mists of passion which have dimm'd my name
Will melt like day-dreams; and my memory then
Will be-not what it should have been-for I
Must pass without my fame-but yet, unstained
As a clear morning dew-drop. Oh! the grave
Hath rights inviolate as a sanctuary's,

And they should be my own!

66

Pro.
Now, by just Heaven,
I will not thus be tortured!-Were my heart
But of thy guilt or innocence assured,
I could be calm again. But, in this wild
Suspense, this conflict and vicissitude
Of opposite feelings and convictions-What!
Hath it been mine to temper and to bend
All spirits to my purpose; have I raised
With a severe and passionless energy,
From the dread mingling of their elements,

Storms which have rock'd the earth?-And shall I now
Thus fluctuate, as a feeble reed, the scorn

boy!

And plaything of the winds ?"-Look on me,
Guilt never dared to meet these eyes, and keep
Its heart's dark secret close. Oh, pitying Heaven!
Speak to my soul with some dread oracle,

And tell me which is truth.

Rai.

I will not plead.

I will not call th' Omnipotent to attest

My innocence. No, father, in thy heart
I know my birthright shall be soon restored;
Therefore I look to death, and bid thee speed
The great absolver.

Pro. We will not part in wrath !-the sternest hearts, Within their proud and guarded fatnesses,

Hide something still, round which their tendrils cling
With a close grasp, unknown to those who dress
Their love in smiles. And such wert thou to me!
The all which taught me that my soul was cast
In nature's mould. And I must now hold on
My desolate course alone !-Why, be it thus!
He that doth guide a nation's star, should dwell
High o'er the clouds in regal solitude,

Sufficient to himself.

Rai.

Yet, on that summit,

When with her bright wings glory shadows thee,
Forget not him who coldly sleeps beneath,

Yet might have soared as high!

Pro.

Thou❜lt be remembered long.
O' th' heart is ne'er forgotten.
Rai.

No, fear thou not!
The canker-worm

"Oh! not thus

Let me deem

I would not thus be thought of."
Pro.
Again that thou art base!-for thy bright looks,
Thy glorious mien of fearlessness and truth,
Then would not haunt me as th' avenging powers
Followed the parricide. Farewell, farewell!
I have no tears. Oh! thus thy mother looked,
When, with a sad, yet half-triumphant smile,
All radiant with deep meaning, from her death-bed
She gave thee to my arms.

Rai.

Now death has lost

His sting, since thou believ'st me innocent.

Pro. Thou innocent!—Am I thy murderer then? Away! I tell thee thou hast made my name

A scorn to men!-No! I will not forgive thee;

A traitor!-What! the blood of Procida

Filling a traitor's veins !-Let the earth drink it;
Thou wouldst receive our foes!—but they shall meet
From thy perfidious lips a welcome, cold

As death can make it.

Rai. Yet hear me !

Pro.

No! thou'rt skill'd to make

E'en shame look fair. Why should I linger thus ?

[Going-he turns back for a moment.

If there be aught-if aught-for which thou need'st
Forgiveness-not of me, but that dread power
From whom no heart is veil'd-delay thou not
Thy prayer :-Time hurries on.

Rai.

Pro. 'Tis well.
Rai.

I am prepared.

[Exit Procida.

Men talk of torture !-Can they wreak

Upon the sensitive and shrinking frame,

Half the mind bears, and lives?—My spirit feels
Bewilder'd; on its powers this twilight gloom
Hangs like a weight of earth. It should be morn;
Why, then, perchance, a beam of Heaven's bright sun
Hath pierced, ere now, the grating of my dungeon,
Telling of hope and mercy!

David.

THEN, by the mass, sir, I would do no such thing! ne'er a Sir Lucius O'Trigger in the kingdom should make me fight, when I wa'n't so minded. will the old lady say, when she hears o't?

Oons! what

Acres. But my honour, David, my honour! I must be very careful of my honour.

Dav. Ay, by the mass! and I would be very careful of it, and I think in return my honour couldn't do less than to be very careful of me.

Acr. Odds blades! David, no gentleman will ever risk the loss of his honour!

Dav. I say, then, it would but be civil in honour never to risk the loss of a gentleman. Lookye, master, this honour seems to me to be a marvellous false friend; ay, truly, a very courtier-like servant. Put the case, I was a gentleman (which, I thank my stars, no one can say of me ;) well-my honour makes me quarrel with another gentleman of my acquaintance. So, we fight. (Pleasant enough that.) Boh! I kill him; (the more's my luck.) Now, pray, who gets the profit of it? Why, my honour. But put the case, that he kills me! by the mass! I go to the worms, and my honour whips over to my enemy.

Acr. No, David, in that case! odds, crowns and laurels ! your honour follows you to the grave!

Dav. Now, that's just the place where I could make a shift to do without it.

Acr. Zounds! David, you are a coward! It doesn't become my valour to listen to you. What, shall I disgrace my ancestors? think of that, David; think what it would be to disgrace my ancestors!