honor and renown to his country, and adorn the pages of its history."

Mr. Poindexter did much toward the establishment of a sound and expeditious system of jurisprudence in Mississippi, and it was the vivid picture he presented, in his message of 1821, of the evils attending a combination of the common-law and chancery courts, that induced the Legislature at that session to establish a separate chancery jurisdiction in the State.

"The establishment," said he, "of a rule of conduct and system of judicature that will bind society together, and which, with adequate penalties for every infraction of the public tranquillity, will furnish a certain and speedy redress of private wrongs, that will protect the weak from oppression and the virtuous from the snares and encroachments of the vicious, call for the best energies of the human mind, and should engage the attention of philanthropists and statesmen in every quarter of the civilized world."

Such were the utterances of one whose character I have thus feebly attempted to depict—a character of which the pen of a Thucydides, a Channing, or an Irving might tremble and grow dry in the effort of portrayal a man whose biography is written in the laws and jurisprudence of his country, and whose epitaph is inscribed upon the proud monument of Mississippi.

SPEECH ON THE SEMINOLE WAR, 1819.

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the resolutions censuring General Jackson for his conduct of the war, Mr. Poindexter addressed the Chair as follows:

"I rise, Mr. Chairman, under the influence of peculiar sensibility, to offer my sentiments on the subject before the committee. We are called upon to disrobe a veteran soldier of the well-earned laurels which encircle his brow, to tarnish his fame by severe reproaches, and hand down his name to posterity as the violator of the sacred instrument which constitutes the charter of our liberties, and of the benevolent dictates of humanity by which this nation has ever been characterized and distinguished. Were the sacrifice of this highly meritorious citizen the only evil

with which the proposed resolutions are fraught, I should derive some consolation from the reflection that there is a redeeming spirit in the intelligence and patriotism of the great body of the people, capable of shielding him against the deleterious consequences meditated by the proposition on your table. But there is another and a more serious aspect in which the adoption of these resolutions must be viewed: the direct and infallible tendency which they involve, of enfeebling the arm of this Government in our pending negotiation with Spain; of putting ourselves in the wrong and the Spanish monarch in the right, on the interesting and delicate points which have so long agitated and endangered the peace of the two countries. I wish not to be understood as attributing to honorable gentlemen who advocate the measure such motives; they are, doubtless, actuated alone by a sense of duty. I speak of the effects which our proceedings are calculated to produce, without intending to cast the slightest imputation on those who entertain different opinions.

"Sir, do we not know with what satisfaction the minister of Spain looks on the efforts which are made on this floor to inculpate the Executive of the United States, for having committed against his immaculate master an act of hostility, in the entrance into Florida, and the temporary occupation of St. Marks and Pensacola? With what avidity and pleasure he perused the able and eloquent arguments, delivered in the popular branch of the Government, in support of the mighty allegations which he has already exhibited of the hostile and unwarrantable conduct of the commander of our army during the late campaign against the Seminole Indians? And, sir, whatever may be the purity of intention, which I shall not presume to question, on the part of gentlemen who censure the course pursued by the commanding general, this debate will afford a valuable fund on which Spain will not fail to draw, on all future occasions, to show that the pacific relations which she has endeavored to maintain have been violated without any adequate cause by the United States. Shall we put it in her power to make this declaration to the civilized world, and establish the fact by a reference to the journal of the House of Representatives? I hope and believe we shall not.

"Sir, the nature of our free institutions imperiously requires that, on all questions touching controversies with foreign powers, every department of this Government should act in concert, and present to the opposite party one undivided, impenetrable front. The observance of this accords with every dictate of patriotism, and is the basis on which alone we can preserve a proper respect for our rights among the great family of nations. Internal divisions are often fatal to the liberties of the people; they never fail to inflict a deep wound upon the national character, the lustre and purity of which it is our primary duty to preserve unsullied to the latest posterity.

"Can it be necessary to call to the recollection of the committee the peculiar and delicate posture of our relations with Spain? A protracted and difficult negotiation, on the subject of boundary and spoliations, is still progressing between the Secretary of State and its accredited minister at this place; the result is yet extremely doubtful; it may, and I trust will, eventuate in a treaty satisfactory to the parties on all the points in contest; but if Spain should continue to reject the moderate and reasonable demands of this Government, the indisputable rights of this nation must and will be asserted and vindicated by a solemn appeal to arms. I ask if, in such a crisis, it is either wise or prudent to pronounce, in the face of the world, that we have been the aggressors, and that war in its most offensive and exceptionable sense has been already commenced by General Jackson, under the sanction of the President of the United States? I hazard nothing in affirming that such a departure from the established usages of nations is without a parallel in the political history of any country, ancient or modern. Under whatever circumstances danger may threaten us from abroad, it is from this House that the energies of the people are to be aroused and put in motion; it is our province to sound the alarm, and give the impulse which stimulates every portion of the Union to a simultaneous and manly exertion of its physical strength, to avenge the insulted honor and violated interests of our country. We are the legitimate organ of public sentiment, and it is incumbent on us to animate and cherish a spirit of resistance to foreign encroachments among our constituents, by

urging the justice of our cause, and the necessity of their vigorous co-operation in support of the constituted authorities, who are responsible to them for the faithful execution of the high and important duties with which they are entrusted. These are the means by which we shall perpetuate our republican form of government, and transmit its blessings to future generations.

"But we are required on the present occasion to forget the wrongs of which we have so long and so justly complained; to abandon for a while the lofty attitude of patriotism, and to tell the American people, in anticipation of a rupture with Spain, that it is a war of aggression on the part of their chief executive magistrate, commenced in Florida without proper authority; that the Spanish Government can consider it in no other light than premeditated, offensive war, made on them with a view of extending the territorial limits of the United States. The expression of these opinions, by this body, must cast a shade over the American name which no lapse of time can obliterate; and while we nerve the arm of the enemy, we shall approach the contest with an open denunciation against the President, who is charged with its prosecution to a speedy and favorable termination. He is denied the cheering consolation of union in the government over which he has been called to preside, at a period of national peril, when every man ought to be invited to rally around the standard of his country.

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'Sir, how is this most novel and extraordinary aberration from the legislative functions of the House attempted to be explained and justified? By gloomy pictures of a violated constitution, pathetic appeals to humanity in favor of a barbarous and unrelenting foe, and lamentations over the blighted honor and magnanimity of the nation. I, too, am a conservator of the Constitution; I venerate that stupendous fabric of human wisdom; I love my country, and will endeavor to rescue it from the odious imputations which have been so freely cast on it in the progress of this discussion. I admonish gentlemen, who manifest such ardent zeal to fortify the powers of this House against military usurpations, that they do not suffer that zeal to precipitate them into an error equally repugnant to a sound construction of the Constitution.

"The report of the Committee on Military Affairs, taken in connection with the amendment proposed by the honorable member from Georgia (Mr. Cobb), may be classed under two general divisions: 1st, Resolutions of censure on the conduct of General Jackson in Florida for a violation of the orders of the President, and of the Constitution, and for the unlawful execution of the incendiaries, Arbuthnot and Ambrister. 2d, Instructions to the committee to prepare and report two several bills, the object of which is to divest this nation of some of the most essential attributes of sovereignty. I shall pass over the latter branch of this subject without observation, believing, as I do, notwithstanding the high respect which I entertain for the mover, that it is not seriously the intention of honorable gentlemen by an act of legislation to abrogate the rights of this nation, founded on the universal law of nature and of nations. Selfdenial, though sometimes an amiable quality in an individual member of society, when applied to the whole community renders it obnoxious to insult and oppression, and is a voluntary degradation below the rank of other sovereignties, to which no American ought to submit. Neutral rights and the usages of war are already well established and understood by all civilized powers; and it is not to be presumed that the interpolations which are proposed would be reciprocal and become the basis of new principles of public law. We may prostrate our own dignity and paralyze the energies of our country, but shall find no nation so pusillanimous as to follow our disinterested example. Considering, therefore, these propositions as merely nominal, intended only to enlarge the group and give diversity to the picture, I shall leave them without further animadversion, and proceed to investigate the resolutions levelled at the fame, the honor, and the reputation of General Andrew Jackson; and, through him, at the President, under whose orders he acted, and by whom he has been sustained and vindicated.

"I hold it to be the indispensable duty of every tribunal, whether legislative or judicial, to examine with caution and circumspection into its jurisdiction and powers, on every question brought before it for adjudication; and this rule ought more particularly to be observed in cases involving personal rights and