breath, with which the overcharged heart seeks relief, the crowded assembly broke up and departed.

New England men walked down Pennsylvania avenue that day, after the speech, with a firmer step and bolder air-'pride in their port, defiance in their eye.' They devoured the way in their stride. They looked every one in the face they met, fearing no contradiction. They swarmed in the streets, having become miraculously multitudinous. They clustered in parties and fought the scene over one hundred times that night. Their elation was the greater, by reaction. Not one of them but felt he had gained a personal victory.

In the evening, General Jackson held a presidential levee at the White House. It was known, in advance, that Mr. Webster would attend it, and hardly had the hospitable doors of the mansion been thrown open, when the crowd that had filled the senate-chamber in the morning rushed in

and occupied the rooms, leaving a vast and increasing crowd at the entrance. On all previous occasions, the general himself had been the observed of all observers. His receptions were always gladly attended by large numbers; and to these he himself was always the chief object of attraction, on account of his great military and personal reputation, official position, gallant bearing, and

courteous manners.

But on this occasion, the room in which he received his company was deserted, as soon as courtesy to the president permitted. Mr. Webster was in the East Room, and thither the whole mass hurried. He stood almost in the center of the room, pressed upon by surging crowds, eager to pay him deference. Hayne, too, was there, and, with others, went up and complimented Mr. Webster on his brilliant effort. In a subsequent meeting between the two rival debaters, Webster challenged Hayne to drink a glass of wine with him, saying, as he did so,

"General Hayne, I drink to your health, and I hope that you may live a thousand years."

if

"I shall not live more than one hundred, you make another such speech," Hayne replied.

To this day, Webster's speech is regarded as the masterpiece of modern eloquence,-unsurpassed by even the mightlest efforts of Pitt, Fox, or Burke,-a matchless intellectual achievement and complete forensic triumph. It was to this great and triumphant effort, that Mr. Webster's subsequent matchless fame as a statesman was due; and, that he was equal to comprehending the true principles of international, as well as those of internal, justice and policy, is abundantly proved by his diplomacy with Great Britain, to which the highest credit is awarded by Eliot, the accomplished historian, in his concise and admirable review of public affairs during this period. An insurrection (says Mr. Eliot) having broken out in Canada, it was immediately supported by American parties, the insurgents being in favor of reform or independence. One of these American parties, in company with some Canadian refugees, after pillaging the New York arsenals, seized upon Navy Island, a British possession in the Niagara river. Mr. Marcy was governor of New York at this time. The steamer Caroline, engaged in bringing over men, arms, and stores to the island, was destroyed, though at the time on the American shore, by a Britsh detachment. The deed was instantly avowed by the minister of Great Britain at Washington as an act of self-defense on the British side. One of the chief characters in these exciting movements was William M'Kenzie. In November, 1840, one Alexander M'Leod,

sheriff of Niagara, in Canada, and as such a participator in the destruction of the Caroline, was arrested in New York on the charge of murder, an American having lost his life when the steamer was destroyed. The British government demanded his release, in doing which they were sustained by the United States administration, on the ground that M'Leod was but an agent or soldier of Great Britain. But the authorities of New York held fast to their prisoner, and brought him to trial. Had harm come to him, his government stood pledged to declare war; but he was acquitted for want of proof. The release of M'Leod did not, however, settle the affair of the Caroline; this still remained. There were, or there had been, other difficulties also,-namely, upon the Maine frontier, where the boundary-line had never yet been run. Collisions took place, between the Maine militia and the British troops, and others had been but just prevented. On Mr. Webster's accession to the state department, our government proposed, through Mr. Webster, to the British cabinet, to take up the northeastern boundary question. The offer was accepted by the British, who sent, as special envoy, Lord Ashburton, to whom was committed the boundary and other controverted questions. The consultations between Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton led to a treaty which settled the boundary, put down the claim to visit our vessels, and provided for the mutual surrender of fugitives from justice. For the affair of the Caroline, an apology was made by Great Britain.

The fame of Mr. Webster, as an orator, a statesman, and an expounder of public law, thus became world-wide and unrivaled.

Joseph Smith, the Mohammed of the West,-founder of the sect called Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints,-was born in Sharon, Vermont, December 23, 1805, and met a violent death at Carthage, Illinois, in his thirty-ninth year. In 1815, he removed with his father to Palmyra, New York, and here they sustained an unenviable reputation, for idleness, intemperance, dishonesty, and other immoralities. Joseph was especially obnoxious in these respects; and, having never received any education, he could scarcely so much as read and write when he had attained to manhood, and whatever he put forth to the world, under his own name, was written or composed by another hand.

He

According to his own account of himself, his mind was at a very early age exercised religiously, and, on the evening of September 21st, when he was but eighteen years old, the angel Moroni-a glorious being from Heaven-appeared before him, as a messenger from the Lord, instructing him in the secret purposes of the Most High, and announcing the divine will to be that he, Smith, should become a spiritual leader and commander to the nations of the earth. I was also told that there was a bundle of golden or metallic plates deposited in a hill in Manchester, New York (to which place Smith had removed in 1819), which plates contained some lost biblical records, and with which were two transparent stones, set in the rim of a bow of silver, which were anciently known as the Urim and Thummim; by looking through these stones, he could see the strange characters on the plates translated into plain English. These plates were about eight inches long by seven wide, and a little thinner than ordinary tin, and were bound together by three rings running through the whole. Altogether they were about six inches thick, and were neatly engraved on each side with hieroglyphics in a language called the Reformed Egyptian, not then known on the earth. From these plates, Smith, sitting behind a blanket hung across the room to keep the sacred records

from profane eyes, read off, through the transparent stones, the "Book of Mor mon," or Golden Bible, to Oliver Cowdery, who wrote it down as Smith read it. It was printed in 1830, in a volume of several hundred pages. Appended to it was a statement signed by Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, who had become professed believers in Smith's supernatural pretensions, and are called by the Mormons, the "three witnesses." In after years, however, these witnesses quarreled with Smith, renounced Mormonism, and avowed the falsity of their testimony.

It is charged by the opponents of Smith, that the book in question was not the production of Smith, in any wise, but of the Rev. Solomon Spalding, who wrote it as a sort of romance, and that it was seen and stolen by Sidney Rigdon, afterwards Smith's right-hand man. Spalding had become involved in his pecuniary affairs, and wrote this work, intending to have it printed and published, and with the proceeds to pay his debts. The book was entitled "Manuscript Found." It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America, endeavoring to show that the American Indians are the descendants of the Jews or the lost tribes. It gave a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they arrived in America under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterward had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct nations, one of which he denominated Nephites and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in which great multitudes were slain. They buried their dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds, so common in this country. Their arts, sciences, and civilization were brought into view, in order to account for all the curious antiquities, found in various parts of North and South America. Abundant testimony was adduced from the wife, brother, and business partner of Spalding, to whom portions of the work had been read while it was in course of preparation, proving that the

the same matter, combined with portions of the true Scripture. Mr. Spalding's business partner, Mr. Miller, testified on oath as follows:

'I have recently examined the Book of Mormon, and find in it the writings of Solomon Spalding, from beginning to end, but mixed up with Scripture and other religious matter, which I did not meet in the 'Manuscript Found.' Many of the passages in the Mormon book are verbatim from Spalding, and others in part. The names of Nephi, Lehi, Moroni, and in fact all the principal names, are brought fresh to my recollection by the gold bible.'

Mr. Spalding wrote his manuscript in 1812; he afterwards removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1816. His manuscript remained in the printing-office a long time, and in this office Rigdon was a workman. There is the best evidence, therefore, that the so-called Mormon bible had for its basis the matter contained in Mr. Spalding's work. Rigdon, however, had at first no open connection with Smith, and was converted by a special mission sent into his neighborhood in 1830. From the time of Rigdon's conversion, the progress of Mormonism was wonderfully rapid, he being a man of more than common cunning and capacity. It may be of interest here to state, that a transcript on paper, of one of the golden plates, having been submitted to Prof. Charles Anthon, of New York, for his inspection, that eminent scholar gave, as his statement, that the paper was in fact a kind of singular scroll, consisting of all kinds of crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets, Greek, and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes; Roman letters, inverted or placed sideways, were arranged and placed in perpendicular columns; and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican calen

such a way as not to betray the source.

The Mormon theology teaches that there is one God, the Eternal Father, his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost; that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgressions; that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, these ordinances being faith in the Lord Jesus, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, laying on of hands by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the Lord's Supper; that man must be called of God by inspiration, and

Joseph Smith

by laying on of hands from those who are duly commissioned to preach the gospel and administer the ordinances thereof; that the same organization that existed in the primitive church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, etc., should be maintained now; that the powers and gifts of faith, discerning of spirits, prophecy, revelations, visions, healing, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, still exist; that the word of God is recorded in the Bible, and in the Book of Mormon, and in all other good books; that there are now being revealed, and will continue to be revealed, many more great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God and Messiah's second coming; that there is to be a literal gathering of Israel, and the restoration of the ten tribes; that Zion will be estab