The Boston Sentinel said, every man would presume that he was not bound to obey the embargo-that if "the petitions did not produce a relaxation or remove the embargo, the people ought immediately to assume a higher tone."

The Boston Repertory said, if the law was not repealed, it would soon be "set at defiance;" that it behoved the people of Massachusetts "to speak, for strike they must, if speaking did not answer."

The Boston Gazette exclaimed: "It is better to suffer the amputation of a limb than to lose the whole body. We must prepare for the operation.... Wherefore thus is New England asleep; wherefore does she submit to the oppression of enemies in the South? Have we no Moses who is inspired by the God of our fathers and will lead us out of Egypt?"

A hand-bill at Newburyport stated: "You have reposed confidence in a coward” (Jefferson). ..... Nerve your arms with vengeance against the despot who would wrest the inestimable germ of your independence from you, and you shall be conquerors! Give ear no longer to the siren voice of democracy and Jeffersonian liberty. It is a cursed delusion, adopted by traitors, and recommended by sycophants."

Resolutions adopted at Augusta, Maine, declared that henceforth "silence would be crime, and resistance would become a virtue of the first magnitude."

A Boston meeting, in a memorial to the Legislature, requested its "interposition to procure for them relief from the grievances they now suffered .... relief against the unconstitutional measures of the General Government," and declaring that its power "was adequate to this object was evident from the organization of the Confederacy."

A meeting in Bath requested the Legislature to take such "immediate steps for the relief of the people, either by themselves alone, or in concert with other commercial States, as the extraordinary circumstances of their situation might require."

A meeting at Topsfield resolved that a war with Great Britain would be unjust and to be deplored; but if a war was the only alternative, it should be against France, and not with Great

Britain; and that our people "might find many sources of profitable employment without interfering in any degree with those principles of maritime law which Great Britain deemed essential to her existence, and which, in an eventful moment like the present, she would never yield;... that neither the honor nor the permanent interests of the United States required that they should drive Great Britain, if it were in their power, to the surrender of those claims so essential to her in the mighty conflict in which she was at present engaged-a conflict interesting to humanity, to morals, to religion, and the last struggle of liberty."

An immense number of similar extracts might be made from the Federal papers of that day. The Common Council of Albany, a majority of whom were Federalists, in 1805 passed a resolution that the Declaration of Independence should not be read on the Fourth of July as a part of the public performance, as it might perpetuate hostile feelings against the British. This was a display of genuine Federal feeling.

A report by Mr. Gore, in the Massachusetts Legislature, which was adopted by the unanimous vote of the anti-Democrats, declared the law enforcing the embargo "unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional, and not binding."

The Democratic feeling was as strong the other way, as was emphatically shown at Richmond, Virginia, on the day the votes were cast for Mr. Madison as President. A public dinner was given to the electors, and the leading Democrats of the State were invited, and a series of toasts proposed by a committee. Among these was one referring to the attitude of the Federalists in New England, in these words:

LET THE MAJORITY GOVERN-IT IS TREASON TO SECEde.

This was the Democratic sentiment, then contrasted with that of the Federalists.

Such were the respective positions of the Democratic and anti-Democratic parties. Mr. Jefferson resorted to every possible means to enforce the law. He had forces stationed at Oswegatchie and Plattsburg, under Wilkinson, to aid in the execution of the

laws and to suppress insurrection. The New England Executives were mostly on the other side, and gave encouragement to those evading the law, by their silence and inaction. But Governor Tompkins, of New York, prevented the spread of such refractory manifestations on the west side of Lake Champlain.

The Democrats naturally and rightfully preferred to endure the onerous consequences of a cessation of foreign commerce for a season, until our enemies, by its ruinous effect upon them, should yield and respect our rights; while the Federalists were for prompt and ready submission to our foes, or plunging headlong into a war which would equally destroy our commerce and deeply injure all interests, cause the loss of thousands of lives, grind us down with taxes, and pile up a high national debt, for another generation to pay, with no certainty concerning the result.

Here we have patriotism, willing to obey the laws, and to endure temporary inconvenience to preserve, without loss or expense, our independence, and the right freely to navigate the ocean; and on the other, a party setting the laws at defiance, preferring to yield to the arrogant claims of Great Britain, to foregoing their convenience for a short time, and finally declaring that they prefer war, with all its horrors, losses, expenses, and resulting debts, to obeying necessary and wise laws. No one can doubt that the latter had two objects in view: first, to escape a necessary inconvenience demanded by public necessity, at whatever hazard and loss to others and the public; and second, to extort a change in the minds of the voters, to bring the anti-Democrats into power again. They failed in both, but continued their hostility to the embargo and democratic principles. Great Britain had confidence in their success, and continued her aggressions, which in the end resulted, as we shall show, in a second war of independence, wherein the anti-Democratic party was on the side of the enemy, and against our Government, as it was during the subsequent war with Mexico. Its patriotism always runs against our country in every controversy when the Democratic party is in power. This is a natural consequence of its principles and the object of its action. It seeks to rule the

people, instead of permitting them to act for themselves; and struggles for ascendency, instead of battling for the success of our country, when in conflict with outside anemies.

16.-ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN.

When Aaron Burr permitted the Federalists to try to strip Jefferson of the presidency, he fell in the estimation of all honest men not bewildered by political prejudice. When he sought to deprive Spain of a province, or the Union of Louisiana, whichever might have been his object, he fell lower in the estimation of every lover of his country; and when he killed Hamilton in a merciless duel, he fell to the lowest depth, to rise no more. Although pitied, when a wanderer in Europe, he found no arms, no house, or place open to receive him. He had talents, but of the managing order; and the capacity to reach the feelings of men, but not to induce mankind to love him. His farewell, as Vice-President, to the Senate, on taking his final leave, is said to have been one of remarkable power, bringing tears from every eye, but it did not occasion esteem, or even respect. Such is the usual fate of a fatal use of shining mental faculties. His successor was George Clinton, of whom we shall now speak. He was the youngest son of Colonel Charles Clinton, and was born in Ulster County, New York, in 1739. He received a respectable education for those times. He was an uncle of De Witt Clinton, afterward Governor of New York. He signalized his daring enterprise by sailing as a privateer during the French war. Soon after his return, he went as a lieutenant in an expedition against Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, in Canada West. On his return he selected the law as a profession, and was soon admitted, and became the head of the Whig or Democratic party, then in a minority in Ulster. In 1775 he was elected to the Continental Congress, voted for the Declaration of Independence, and was, in 1777, elected a brigadier-general. In the same year he was elected both Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. He accepted the office of Governor, was successively elected six times, holding the office eighteen years in succession. In his civil and military capacity he exhibited great energy, and rendered highly impor

tant services throughout the Revolutionary War. He was the first person known to have recommended the clearing out streams, and making canals, thus opening the way to Lake Champlain, and also to the West. He was again elected in the year 1801. In 1804 he was selected for the vice-presidency, by the Democratic party, to run with Jefferson, those nominating him wishing to present a man contrasting as strongly as possible with Burr. He was almost unanimously elected. He was renominated in 1808 by the Democrats, and elected with Mr. Madison, and held that office when he died, in 1812. Throughout his whole life he was noted for his strong common-sense and high personal integrity. From the commencement to the end of his official career, he acted with the Democratic party, and was ever identified with democratic principles. He was opposed to the Constitution of the United States when reported by the Convention, because he found that the new Government would, one by one, absorb the powers and authority of the States, and render them mere wards of the national authority, in which he was prophetic. He presided at the convention, assembled at Poughkeepsie, New York, to consider the question of its adoption. The Constitution would have failed before the Convention, but for the assurance that the amendments it proposed would be adopted, and thus prevent even the possibility of the Constitution being so construed in practice, as to carry out the views of the anti-Democratic party. The amendments recommended by New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts, were promptly made at an early day. But this did not prevent the enemies of democratic principles from seeking to bend the Constitution to make it mean what they desired. Mr. Clinton, and all Democrats, contended then, as now, for a strict construction of the provisions conferring power, and for preserving the States in the complete exercise of all powers which they had not delegated to the national Government. Except where the Constitution had taken from the States in unquestionable language, he claimed that they retained all the powers which they exercised during the Revolutionary War and during the existence of the Confederacy. He had exercised the functions of Governor of New York from 1777 until the adoption of